Ok, this is her post:

THE NATURAL CONCLUSION OF THINGS


Now, I wasn’t exactly looking for a blatant confirmation of a romantic relationship between Sherlock and John, but it seemed logical for it to appear, particularly after The Lying Detective.

If you put a rifle on the wall in scene 1, it has to get fired before the end of the story. Announcing that John and Sherlock both need a romantic connection in The Lying Detective is one such rifle.

I wasn’t expecting it to be obvious, and it’s not, not entirely, but yeah, it’s there. 

This episode isn’t about Sherlock and John and a change in their relationship, to be clear. It’s about why Sherlock is what he is. But slid in there is the assumption that Sherlock and John are back together, the way they haven’t been since The Reichenbach Fall, but this time with eyes wide open. They’re together and talking this time, that’s where we left them with The Lying Detective. They are finally, finally talking to each other about their feelings in a way they never did before. This story doesn’t address those steps directly, it certainly addresses them obliquely.

First: Mycroft wants to talk about their sister alone because “It’s family.” John stays in the conversation because Sherlock wants him there for the same reason. Sherlock considers John family. John considers himself family as well; they are in agreement about it, and John doesn’t offer to go, or move to step away. On its own, that’s a lovely sentiment shared between them, but what it suggests is that John is not only his friend. That’s nice, but only the first part of why I think they’ve moved their relationship to a new place.

Second: Eurus hears Sherlock play one note on his violin and knows that he’s had sex. That’s news! Who’s Sherlock having sex with? Eurus assumes it’s a woman. That’s the same kind of mistake Sherlock made in  A Study in Pink. But who else would it be? It’s John

Third: when John finds another DVD left by Mary, he doesn’t watch it alone. Sherlock needs come over to watch it with him. Sherlock is fully engaged in John’s emotional life at this point, just as John is fully engaged in Sherlock’s, family and all.

Most of this story is game face time, so other than a shot of them co-parenting, and them physically putting their lives back together at the end, there isn’t time for them to show much more. Except that’s sort of the point: they are working as a unit through this whole story, a truly complete unit. They are at peace with each other, they trust each other, they know each other. There is not a flicker of doubt left about each other.

Nothing will ever come between them again.

Last edited by Vhanja (January 16, 2017 12:14 am)

I think that is the intention as well. But I liked that they still kept it ambigious enough to leave room for a different interpretation.

Yes, the domesticity is nice at the end.  And I felt they were quite close in TFP, very much a team. 

Vhanja wrote:

Lola Red wrote:

The debate continues... 

To me, there really isn't a debate anymore. The intentions was probably a friendship. The series leaves it ambigious enough for everyone to interpret their relationship as they want. Everyone get their cake and can eat it too - what's left to debate? 

I actually think so too.
We can argue both ways but the INTENT is clear: Moftiss have been showing us two stories at the same time.

Yeah, I think the hardcore TJLCs are not happy, while the casual shippers (like me) are.

There's also the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid moment at the end (years since I saw the film, but wasn't there some ambiguity about their relationship?  Or did I imagine that myself?! ).

Vhanja wrote:

Trust ivyblossom to write it so beautifully: 

https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/221bsweetheart/155919190818

Bless her, she described perfectly what I'm feeling.

This was also very well said.

Your Views May Vary

Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have always been very pro-fandom. I sense that many people are not feeling that right now, but I think this episode is more of a love letter to fandom than some may be inclined to think.

One of the most beautiful things about this series, for me as a fan writer, was the number of scenes that don’t exist on the screen but the story builds upon. It’s what I loved so much about series 2 in particular, and dissecting it has taught me so much about story construction. 

There’s all kinds of things going on under the surface that we can pull out and explore, but they aren’t just sideshows or what ifs. The story depends on you pulling them out and exploring them, it counts on it. There are weeks in A Scandal in Belgravia that the story relies upon, and we jumped right into them and give them life. All the dialogue that must have been spoken, or not. All the little intimacies that are clearly there, just below the surface. These things are foundational, and absent. We are expected to fill them in.

.This series is perhaps the most blatant on that front because of the way that we went from The Lying Detective to The Final Problem. John had said his final goodbyes to Sherlock. He was angry all over again about Sherlock’s 2 year absence. Even once they’d half-repaired things between them, it was still over. John was about to duck out 20 minutes early. He couldn’t bear to sit there with Sherlock. He was running from Sherlock emotionally, not running towards him. 

Then finally: one honest conversation. All the right questions asked. Both of them open and exposed, staring at each other. John might still have left. He might have still run from it, this terrible, wonderful, dangling possibility, but he doesn’t. John gives in, and cries. It’s a very vulnerable and emotional moment he is willing to share in Sherlock’s presence. Sherlock doesn’t run from it either, though in other times and places he probably would have. Sherlock goes to him. Sherlock takes John in his arms.

Then they have cake.

Fanfiction asks: what happened? What happened before cake? What happened after it? Well, we had another episode, so we held our breaths and wonder if the story will fill it in for you. This one didn’t, it jumped ahead in time. It showed us, not the immediate emotional follow up, but where that follow up landed afterwards. They showed the result of those scenes that aren’t there. Those scenes are important, relied upon, and absent.

You may feel disappointed by that, I can understand that. This show has never been willing to handhold you through very much, it expects you to run alongside this speeding train of an emotional through line. They have every reason to think we can do that: we’ve been doing it since S1.

Where they are in The Final Problem is a far cry from where they were an episode prior. Something fundamental has shifted between them. Something critical has changed. The status of Sherlock and John’s relationship in this episode, how incredibly in sync they are, how in tune they are with each other’s emotions, how they never once doubt one another, how concerned they are for each other, how included they are in each other’s emotional lives, each other’s families, how bare and naked they can be together without hesitating or flinching: that’s a statement, and it’s giving us an answer to the question of what happened between The Lying Detective and The Final Problem. This is how close they have grown.

Fiction is collaborative, always. As the audience we aren’t just watching, we’re imagining, we’re creating this story along with the writers and the actors and the production team. The audience filling in the gaps. A creator who is aware of that allows those gaps to exist so that they can be filled by the audience. They set them up and give it to us, and then depend on what we’ve created, like a rung in a ladder. They give us a start and an end point, and let us have the joy of working out the middle. And then they build on that middle, as if it’s part of the show. Because it is.

Last edited by tonnaree (January 16, 2017 12:51 am)

Oh, it's also been a great ep for Sherlolly shippers too.
So Moftiss delivered on all accounts, actually.

I've just meant to say that Moftiss wrote the ep in such a way that it makes all shippers and non-shippers happy.
They are all for ambiguity. It's the safest pick, anyway.

Last edited by ewige (January 16, 2017 1:22 am)

ewige wrote:

I've just meant to say that Moftiss wrote the ep in such a way that it makes all shippers and non-shippers happy.
They are all for ambiguity. It's the safest pick, anyway.

The problem with Moff to paraphrase is he wants to make everyone happy.