Watson in Sherlock's mind palace is his own creation in a way - he made him perceptive about those particular things (but it's Sherlock himself who "notices" them).   I don't think this conversation is really about catching a murderer at all, but about Sherlock's own feelings - it's almost a conversation with himself about his lack of a love life (rather than about John's love life).    It doesn't seem to be about his sexual orientation - both the people he notices that he's attracted to are women, but that's incidental.    It's more about his feelings, I think - his deliberate withdrawal from that side of life.   It seems that he pretends it's purely "for work", but it might be more about self-protection ("Redbeard").  

Good catch about the portrait and the phone noise - I wasn't sure what that noise was!   I think it's (obviously, I know!) also a reference to the original story, where Holmes kept a portrait.  And a phone replaced a watch in Sherlock's deduction in ASIP - I suppose it's the Victorian equivalent of something someone would carry about with them and keep close.  Anyway, obviously, Irene is in his mind when he thinks of people he might have considered becoming "romantically entangled" with. 

No, what I really meant is that "Watson" is a creation of Sherlock's.  Sherlock is essentially using John to question himself.   This Watson is perceptive, but of course it's Sherlock's perceptiveness about his own feelings - something it looks like he avoids thinking about it in "real life".  Sherlock avoided getting "romantically entangled" with Irene, but didn't manage to avoid falling for her - obviously she's the example that comes into his head when the subject of romance comes up in his mind palace.  (The other person mentioned in that context is Lady Carmichael/the pilot, which is interesting, because up until then it has only been Irene.   It looks as if Irene was the exception in that she broke through his barriers and he fell for her, but she's not the exception in terms of Sherlock finding people attractive - probably no surprise, but I don't think it has been made explicit before). 
 

Yes, but I think it's not really explicit that he's attracted to them.  I personally think that he's attracted to Janine, but that's left open to interpretation in the show. 

Liberty wrote:

Yes, but I think it's not really explicit that he's attracted to them.  I personally think that he's attracted to Janine, but that's left open to interpretation in the show. 

He was waiting to have sex with her until they were married. He never planned to marry her. So I would conclude he was not interested in intimacy with her at all. Could be the same with Irene. Feeling attracted to their personalities but not in a sexual way. I see no sexual attraction to either Irene nor Janine.

I do see sexual attraction between Sherlock and Irene, but as I've said before, that could be because Benedict plays it that way (he's made it quite clear how he sees the relationship).  However, I think the writing tends to support as well: Irene does use sex as well her intellect to entrance him, and she "knows what people like".  I don't think the writing is so clear on Janine, and the chemistry more as "friend" chemistry (although she does look absolutely delicious in the 221B scenes!   They do seem to be filming her to appear very attractive, although that could be partly John's perspective).    But I do think the greenhouse scene suggests that he deliberately avoids that kind of relationship to avoid being hurt (and not just because of the intellectual impairment that he claims) - which would explain why he didn't go any further with Janine than he felt he had to.  The barriers were up. 

Moth, I don't think that it's quite a rerun of the ASIB scene (quite different things going on there!), but yes, there's definitely a connection there.  In the greenhouse scene, he's kind of using Watson to explore himself - the image that Watson created (in the mind palace - the calculating machine, etc.) is the image that Sherlock has tried to create in real life - not just for the public but for himself, I believe. 

I think in that scene as well, Watson seems to be seeing through Sherlock's supposedly detached observations about admirably high arches and formidable opponents ("I could tell", "A very nice photograph", etc.).    It's not that he's lacking in urges or emotion at all, but that he has made a choice to forgo that aspect of life. 

This is a good point, tonnaree. The pic he is carrying in the pendant is the Victorian counterpart of Irene's phone, it is a modern pic of her. John knows Sherlock kept it. And John behaved protectively as well as jealous where Irene was concerned, so it seems obvious that this fact has been incorporated into the Victorian MP.
 

tonnaree wrote:

Another view of the Irene picture in TAB:   We are in Sherlock's MP so everything comes from his subconcious.  So, perhaps Sherlock fears that John believes he was in love with Irene and still pines for her.  And because of this avoids attempting to take his relationship with Sherlock any further.

Just another opinion.  Your millage may vary.

I love your Interpretation of why MP Sherlock keeps a picture of Irene. It the first one that makes sense to me.

Schmiezi wrote:

tonnaree wrote:

Another view of the Irene picture in TAB:   We are in Sherlock's MP so everything comes from his subconcious.  So, perhaps Sherlock fears that John believes he was in love with Irene and still pines for her.  And because of this avoids attempting to take his relationship with Sherlock any further.

Just another opinion.  Your millage may vary.

I love your Interpretation of why MP Sherlock keeps a picture of Irene. It the first one that makes sense to me.

 Yes I think this is correct.

Sherlock tells himself he is attracted to John ( The gun ) but afraid ( The ghost ) of getting his heart broken and loss (Redbeard ) .
Apologies , but I like the simplest explanations , especially for subtext.
It not only makes sense in the scene , but for the episode and the season .

Straight from the horse's mouth:

"If you’re not reading the subtext then hell mend you."
- Steven Moffat, SDCC 2015

Not that we did not know before. 
 

I am sure you will find it via Google.