BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / The lady in pink

**Posted by maryagrawatson** June 15, 2014 7:14 pm

SusiGo wrote:
Well, he makes a fool of himself to get on with his investigations. But with Seb Wilkes it is different - he expressly presents John as his friend, John more or less denies this and then Seb tells John that everybody hated Sherlock. Must have touched a nerve. I suppose his days at uni have not been too happy.

Exactly. And he still cares about that. There is still very much a part of him that knows he's not 'normal' and wishes that he was. And there's still definitely a part of him that is still seeking the approval of at least one of his fellow uni classmates. Why would he care what Seb, whom he will likely not see again, thinks of him, but he doesn't care what Donovan and Anderson say about him?

Mary

**Posted by Sherlockismyfix** August 20, 2014 4:36 am

SusiGo wrote:
Well, he makes a fool of himself to get on with his investigations. But with Seb Wilkes it is different - he expressly presents John as his friend, John more or less denies this ...

John was quick to clarify his status as "colleague", I think because he was sensitive about the possible assumption that "friend" would be interpreted as "boyfriend".

Of course Sherlock's intention here was to show that he wasn't a complete loser because he had a friend, so I'm afraid they were working at cross purposes here.

We all recognize Sherlock's lack of social skills, but I think John can be quite dense sometimes himself when it comes to Sherlock's feelings.