Doesn't seem to be soothing for the buttons though.

Breathing's boring.

gently69 wrote:

Another one for a sweet night...
http://31.media.tumblr.com/30f588270eb907b6b5bd1b5ed433b203/tumblr_mznlvieCCi1r1eamko3_250.gif

 
*hypnotized*

Mattlocked wrote:

Right after rewatching HLV today I asked hubby: "What do you think, did John react to "cool" at the end?"
Hubby, confused: "Cool? What do you mean, 'too cool'?"
Me: "Well, we were discussing, after all what Sherlock did for John, at least a 'Thank you for everything' could have been nice, you know."
Hubby: "Ah, you girls, right? Well, tell your girls, this goodbye was perfectly okay. I mean, they were shaking hands!!?" ^^
Me: "Okay, so it's a "men thing". Cowboys and that."
Hubby: "Yes. You could say so." 

So, now I told you girls. 

 
Yes, that's exactly the point, I guess. We were witnessing the goodbye of two totally straight, casually platonic male friends.
Only the "Casablanca"/"Bodyguard" parallel undermines this a bit.

Good points. I don't believe she's Moriarty's sister, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks there must be something more behind her story. There were too many things we weren't shown.

Mattlocked wrote:

gently69 wrote:

tonnaree wrote:

One of the upsides in falling into this fandom has been seeking out and enjoying Ben's other works and seeing what incredible range he has.
 

This!!!
Think, wouldn't have made it into this fandom without Benedict, to be honest.

 
No, probably not. Maybe into the Andrew Scott fandom. 

The thing is, when I see pictures of Sherlock (especially S3, where he is outstanding beautiful IMO) and pictures of Ben "himself" or in any other role I sometimes find it hard to believe that it is actually the same person!

 
In some of the scenes in S3 where Sherlock laughs I caught myself thinking "he reminds me of Benedict Cumberbatch".

John always had major difficulties to talk about his feelings. Just think back to the sessions with his therapist where he said as good as nothing. Sherlock is generally a bit more outspoken but not when it comes to "sentiment". They both go through a development towards being more emotional, and it becomes obvious at some points in S3, but of course it's still far from being complete. Is it really that surprising that in the final scenes of HLV, which are all about emotions/their feelings for each other, they just don't know what to say?

Yes, but keep in mind that Irene isn't real in either of the two scenes. That version of her is just a figure in Sherlock's mind. He sees her as clever, and imagining to talk a case through with her is apparently a helpful way for him to sort his thoughts.

I think Irene's appearance was meant to illustrate how everything was going wrong in that scene. Sherlock couldn't find the solution to the Mayfly Man case. Mycroft was in his mind but only shouting at him and it wasn't helping. Then Irene shows up - she could have helped him like she did in SIB when they deduced the boomerang accident together in Sherlock's dream. But she says nothing and just makes advances that he really can't use in that moment. So he sends her away. The solution for him then is to go back to reality, to John who always keeps him right. Then he solves the case.

(And perhaps Irene was also there for the subtext just so that the possibility of Sherlock being interpreted as heterosexual didn't go completely overboard after all the other stuff they put in TSO3 ).

I have to say I feel a bit differently about this. I don't think Sherlock's motivation was only to make John happy. He wants Mary to stay because he likes her as a friend, possibly almost as much as he likes John.
Remember that before TEH Sherlock had been away for two years, and during that time he was lonely. When he returns he realises that he's not content with living alone in his flat anymore. He wants his friends back. Most of all he misses John. But the situation is difficult. Mary is the first person to support Sherlock. During the argument between Sherlock and John when they first meet again, she sides with Sherlock almost immediately. Her reaction seems a bit odd at first, considering all the grief she has surely seen her boyfriend go through, but after learning what kind of person Mary actually is it's understandable. Probably she has more in common with Sherlock than with John. She doesn't think Sherlock is abnormal because they're more or less like-minded people. She makes it possible for John and Sherlock to get back together. Sherlock sees that she's a liar but ignores it because she's important to him. Lying isn't very suspicious anyway. If he had seen "murderer" or so he might have said something, but who isn't a liar?
It's true that Mary almost killed Sherlock in HLV. And still he isn't very angry with her, probably because it's a thing he would have done himself. According to his deductions from his point of view it was logical. He even says the most logical solution would have been to actually kill him by shooting him in the head. But "sentiment got the better of you". In other words, Mary didn't kill him (or at least tried her best to keep him alive) because she likes him too much. She tried to do the best for all three of them - save Sherlock's life, make sure her husband won't become a suspect and still leave the building without getting caught. From the point of view of people like John (or us) the whole thing is madness, but I'm sure Sherloc