I don´t think Sherlock must destroy himself - he must rebuild itself. He experienced something of a burn-out in RL, he must restore himself before he could be able to work again and to function around people who surround him... that is now more important than his work.
But the "Modern Day" John in Sherlock´s mind doesn´t understand that... it´s him who demands perfect Sherlock out of a fractured one... althrough it was his RL counterpart who made Sherlock into these fractures. 
Sherlock doesn not believe in the help of the modern day John anymore - he must contact the idealised, Victorian One, to help him out of trouble....

I don't know if it's just because I don't want to see this to be true, but I don't really think this is the case.
Then again, there are those words of Mycroft's(to paraphrase): please look after him, John.
I hoped this was because Mycroft knew he could rely on John to do this and after all, John is the only one Sherlock ever does listen to. Well, other than writing the list.
Ostensibly for me there has always been a number of John's:
1.The ex-soldier.
2. The doctor
3. The colleague
4. The flat mate
5. The friend
6. The husband.
7. ...well we may get to see John the father.

But I think in all of these states, we see someone who loves and cares about Sherlock and tries to support him in any way he can.
But he does have his own life and he cannot be at Sherlock's call 24/7.
But having said that. Do we think he's now given up the doctoring? 
If the Watsons stay together in their own home, somebody needs to be in paid employment...
But John could really do with some financial security, so that he is able to support Sherlock when he does need him.

This sequence puzzles me to no end.
Why is "middle John" so harsh here? Why was this "pompous prick" and the threat of violence "I´ll punch your lights out" neccessary?

Case-wise, Sherlock and John are already hurrying to save Mary. Sherlock was even so concerned about her he left Baker Street after a dose of cocaine, still badly out of it. As a human, he couldn´t act more sympathetically and with bigger care. And not to forget - he didn´t endanger Mary. Mary walked into danger on her own. Sherlock is in no way responsible for that and he is also not responsible for witholding the informations about Mary from John - he didn´t know that she is a spy at all.

So why the harshness, why the agressivity? What did he done to earn such wrath here?

Here are some musings on the scene from Tumblr users:

http://milarvela.tumblr.com/post/136481364978/lostlogs-milarvela-marybegone

They have a theory that this is the actual line John said to Sherlock during HLV, shortly before the scene at Leinster Gardens.... but is it really that? Would John say such think to a weak, escaped-from-hospital Sherlock before "Mary reveal"?

But if not, why it´s there? It isn´t connected to anything that happens in a MP case, it isn´t related to drugs Sherlock took, it doesn´t seem to me like it´s connected to Sherlock´s feelings of unworthiness... I am at the end of my wits with this one.

besleybean wrote:

I don't know about in HLV.
And I know it's modern John saying the line in TAB.
But I do think it's Sherlock imagining how modern John would react, in that Victorian setting...
Yes(and this is where it all gets to onion levels of complexity)-it's about the Victorian situation.
It's John thinking that Sherlock is enjoying one of his little games, when John is the anguished husband, only wanting to make his wife safe.

In middle ages, teachers who taught children of high-nobility had also one "normal" boy mixed among them.
When the teacher was angry at some of his noble pupils, he punished "normal boy" instead. He couldn´t touch those with anointed heads and so he released his rage by hitting the ordinary person, although that person had nothing to do with the situation at all.

So are you saying that in this tale, Sherlock serves as "a normal boy" for the Victorian (and modern) John?
The moment John is pissed off at something, he takes it out on Sherlock?
Hmmm....?

Last edited by nakahara (January 6, 2016 8:43 pm)

The harshness comes from Sherlock himself.  He is imagining how John would respond to him and Sherlock always blames himself.

nakahara wrote:

besleybean wrote:

I don't know about in HLV.
And I know it's modern John saying the line in TAB.
But I do think it's Sherlock imagining how modern John would react, in that Victorian setting...
Yes(and this is where it all gets to onion levels of complexity)-it's about the Victorian situation.
It's John thinking that Sherlock is enjoying one of his little games, when John is the anguished husband, only wanting to make his wife safe.

In middle ages, teachers who taught children of high-nobility had also one "normal" boy mixed among them.
When the teacher was angry at some of his noble pupils, he punished "normal boy" instead. He couldn´t touch those with anointed heads and so he released his rage by hitting the ordinary person, although that person had nothing to do with the situation at all.

So are you saying that in this tale, Sherlock serves as "a normal boy" for the Victorian (and modern) John?
The moment John is pissed off at something, he takes it out on Sherlock?
Hmmm....?

Actually, during HLV, yeah. That rings true. 

I'm thinking that some of John's voice in Sherlock's head is sort of an echo-- in TEH, what Sherlock was hearing were comments that John had already made on the show-- when we were seeing things from John's POV. So-- it can't all be Sherlock's perception of John's tendency to angry threats and rather hurtful comments; Sherlock had already had examples of things John would do or say before Tab. I think that's partly why his inner John is so harsh. 

It just occured to me that in TAb it´s the first time we actually see John in Sherlock´s mind-palace. And John´s presence there is the key element that enables Sherlock to snap out of his emotional quagmire successfully. What a difference from HLV, where John never appeared in MP!

Last edited by nakahara (January 9, 2016 11:20 pm)

I think you're right too, Nakahara, other than the laptop scene. It's a beautiful analogy really, that John is the one Sherlock reaches for to snap him out of it! It says a lot about how Sherlock views John. 

If Moriarty is the virus, John is the antivirus 

Maybe Sherlock only lives for John now. It's John or nothing...