Since Sherlock is usually surrounded by people who are not as observant and smart as him, it was refreshing for him to meet another very intelligent person and so it´s no surprise that he was immediatelly fascinated by Irene. And of course, Irene employed some of her womanly charms on him, which he as an inexperienced person couldn´t dismiss - it contributed some more to his feeling of curiousity and attraction considering her person.

Later, when Irene bested him and used his momentary lapse of concentration to inject him with ketamine, Sherlock actually started to respect her as a worthy opponent.

But I don´t think he had any romantic feelings towards her. You need to trust another person if you want to build a relationship with her - and Irene repeatedly prowed to be untrustworthy, she even ruthlessly betrayed Sherlock at the end. You cannot be bound to people who constantly exploit your weaknesses.

That´s probably why Sherlock repeatedly ignored Irene´s invitations to "dinner":



While with John, his real pillar of strenght and loyalty, he was all like:

Hi, Hannah!  I'm new here too, and I've been thinking and thinking about ASIB (is that how we say it here?), because I'm trying to pace myself through the episodes, and that's the most recent one that I've seen.  (And also the one that had the biggest impact on me). 

Short answer: yes .  I think it's something completely separate to what he feels for John.  I don't think it was love in the conventional sense (they hardly had any time together), but I think there was a connection with Irene that he has with nobody else, a meeting of minds, mutual admiration and respect - they are very alike, and at certain points they seem to understand each other when nobody else does, despite their very brief time together.

The short story starts off by saying that Sherlock didn't love Irene, but goes on: "All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind ...  He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer ... for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt on all his mental results.  Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his."

That sounds to me very much like a man seeing love as a weakness and persuading himself that he doesn't and won't feel it.  And that was after VERY brief encounters with Irene, and without her showing that she felt anything for him. 

"Sentiment is a chemical defect found in the losing side" and "I've always assumed that love was a dangerous disadvantage" are the corresponding lines in the TV episodes, but look at the emotion behind his delivery of those lines!   If he felt nothing for her, then I think he would have been much cooler saying those words.   I think he's talking about himself as well, as he almost lost "the game" due to letting his feelings for her rule his head.  I find it impossible to watch that scene and believe that he doesn't feel anything for her. 

I just have to point that I love how this scene ties into the earlier scene with Molly, where Sherlock completely misses her genuine feelings (even though everybody else picks up on them!) and inadvertently exposes her weakness.  With Irene, he deliberately checks her genuine feelings, and knowing them, deliberately exposes them, winning the game.

And I also like that one of Irene's strengths is knowing what men like, and she is able to "play" Sherlock (mainly by showing off her own intellectual ability whilst admiring his).   But it's when she mentions what kind of man she likes that she gives the game away - and Sherlock guesses the password.  

The whole episode seems to be full of parallels, mirroring, bookends.  It's so clever! 

I think Sherlock is pretty smitten right from the beginning, when he realises how clever Irene is and how well she sees through him (which is kind of flattering to him too, I think).  I believe he was covering up for Irene when he misidentified the body.  He colludes with her and shuts other people out (including John).  They maybe couldn't actually have a healthy relationship, but I think she is very special to him.

Wow thanks, I really appreciate this! But I still am hoping that they don't get together in Series 4 (It's too long away... D': ) because I think John should ditch Mary and the kid and marry Sherlock instead.... how sweet would that be... sorry! But yes, I can see how Irene and Sherlock match well - though it pains me to say so as I have a dislike for Irene

Last edited by HannahCumberbatch (July 3, 2014 8:31 am)

besleybean wrote:

I never wanted Irene in ther show at all, ....

 
Why not?

A bit OT: Strangely enough I never had any problems with Irene even though she  was in cahoots with Moriarty while I have really big problems with accepting Mary. Could it be that I cannot shake the feeling of being forced into liking Mary while with Irene I feel free to like or dislike her? 

SusiGo wrote:

A bit OT: Strangely enough I never had any problems with Irene even though she  was in cahoots with Moriarty while I have really big problems with accepting Mary. Could it be that I cannot shake the feeling of being forced into liking Mary while with Irene I feel free to like or dislike her? 

Funny, same here. And yes, I think the way in which they presented Irene gave us more freedom to make up our own minds about her, whereas with Mary I always thought that they wanted us to like her far too desperately. And I can see why, because if we like Mary very much in the first two episodes, then the impact in HLV will be far more devastating. 
Problem is, when I notice that the writers are trying to manipulate me into liking a character, then I automatically get very suspicious...
 

Last edited by SolarSystem (July 3, 2014 10:43 am)

Right besley, I see all that after I know what Mary is like.
Before when I saw the horns and stuff I thought it was funny and she was all "cheeky" to me - in a nice way. She let them go for a case together, being all niiiiice......
And the skip code I wondered a bit how she knew. And of course the "liar". But all these could've been just harmless things then.
I agree with Solar. if we like Mary very much in the first two episodes, then the impact in HLV will be far more devastating.
The difference: I can be quite naive and credent, so I wasn't suspicious at first. 

I didn't even really notice the horns when I watched it for the first time.
What I did notice was Mary promising Sherlock that she would talk John round; Mary telling John to reassure Sherlock that nothing will change for the boys after the weeding; Mary being extreeeeemely nice to Sherlock... and so on and so forth. All of this felt a bit too... obvious to me.
But of course someone else might perceive this in a completely different way.

I think that the difference between Irene and Mary lays in the fact that Irene never pretended she is something other that trouble. The reveal that she works together with Moriarty was a surprise but she never cast herself into the pose of innocent victim of circumstances.
On the other hand, there was always something subtly malicious about Mary, especially in her dealings with Sherlock. And unlike Irene, she tried to play the role of a normal sympathetic woman while she was anything but that.

Sherlock is the only character I've felt this way about.
Though I confess, I've gone off him a bit since the murder...though I know he did it for John.