BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / "I love you": a man's perspective - oh, just read it... :D

**Posted by Schmiezi** January 25, 2017 8:35 pm

Naavy wrote:
As I understand, everybody considers Sherlock-Molly relation as friendly, because in Sherlock's opinion Molly is not good enough (I mean not enough beautiful, intelligent, exciting...) for him? And the opposite possibility (he believes, he is not good enough for her) is the wrong one?...

There is no wrong posibiliy I think. IMO Molly would be a bad choice for Sherlock to start a relationship with because she is not John. ;-)

**Posted by besleybean** January 25, 2017 8:37 pm

I think he would be a good choice, but I accept he just does not see her that way.
I think it's up to him to choose who he wants, if anybody.

**Posted by SusiGo** June 14, 2018 9:01 pm

It has been discussed more than once that the description:

“Acquainted with the process of death but unsentimental about the necessity of disposal. Unmarried, distant from close relatives, practical about death, alone.”

applies to Molly as well as to John. But I only now realised that it applies to John even more than to Molly. We know that Molly’s father died and that they apparently had a loving relationship ("you look sad when you think he can't see you"). However, it is only John who is confirmedly distant from a close relative - Harry. This is mentioned more than once but we never learn anything similar about Molly. And before arguing that unmarried does not mean widowed - it does according to Merriam-Webster dictionary:

a : not now or previously married
b : being divorced or widowed

**Posted by besleybean** June 15, 2018 5:52 am

I've read that a few times already and am still not getting it...Molly?
I think it's meant to be taken that she's single and never been married.
Certainly in the UK, that is how most people would take it.

**Posted by SusiGo** June 15, 2018 7:30 am

I am saying that John could be regarded as unmarried since this term covers a widower as well. My point being that the description of the person the coffin is meant for applies to John even better than to Molly.

**Posted by Liberty** June 15, 2018 7:48 am

I'm not sure ... I accept that technically, "umarried" can mean widowed, but I've never heard it used that way. It think it would be used more in the context of "unmarried mothers" (if we were still in the 70s!) "an unmarried couple", etc.

I also think "alone" applies more to Molly than John, as John has Sherlock (and Rosie). But I suppose you could say that he is more alone because of his recent bereavement.

I'm not sure John is short enough - he's a little on the short side, but Sherlock thinks that the coffin is for a woman because it's so small.

Taking it a bit further as well, I don't see it being much of a problem for John to say "I love you". I suppose it might be difficult if he wasn't there in the room already, knowing what's going on, but if there had been a phone call instead, it wouldn't have been painful and exposing in the way it was for Molly. I think the task was meant to be difficult for Sherlock (and Molly) in a way that it wouldn't be if the person had been John. He is doing something very hurtful to somebody he cares about.

**Posted by besleybean** June 15, 2018 3:24 pm

And regardless of what we think, we know it was Molly...
Sherlock solved the puzzle and stopped the (Imaginary) clock by getting her to say the key phrase...
So I'm a tad puzzled about this discussion.
It wasn't like Eurus said ' ha, ha, you got it wrong...'
Plus the whole point with Molly is that it's true, which is why it was even more painful to say it.

**Posted by Vhanja** June 16, 2018 6:43 am

For whatever reason, this thread escaped me back in the day. Didn't see it until now.

Yeah, the description could fit John as well. And it was probably intentionally vague so that people would wonder who it was at first. But, yeah, it did turn out to be Molly.

I never thought the "I love you" was real either, as in Sherlock loving her romantically. But I do think he honestly cares about her a lot, maybe to the point of loving her as a friend. Which is, as I see it, why he smashed the coffin. Knowing how much he's hurt her before, and knowing tha the just hurt her and pushed her too far yet again, it made him angry, sad and frustrated. Sort of an accumulation.

So I do agree with the blog about one thing - if he hadn't cared about Molly, he wouldn't have reacted like that. I just don't think he loves her romantically. (If that was the case, we would have had a Sherlock/Molly-ending to the series, or at least hinted at in the ending montage. All we saw was her visiting again with a smile, which to me implies that they've had a talk and sorted it out).

**Posted by Liberty** June 16, 2018 6:50 am

I actually think John is pretty much ruled out at the beginning by Sherlock's deduction that it's a five foot four woman. Mrs Hudson comes closer to the overall description than John.

**Posted by besleybean** June 16, 2018 6:56 am

Good point.
We saw but did not observe!

**Posted by kgreen20** June 29, 2018 11:47 pm

=)