Further Reactions to the Empty Hearse

[pennswoods]

Below are my further thoughts on The Empty Hearse after a second viewing. (Original post on Tumblr here). This builds upon my initial reactions recorded here and is also influenced by heaps of meta I have encountered online over the past several days:

1. Mummy and Daddy Holmes are Ordinary


2. It’s No Wonder Sherlock was Drawn to Moriarty


3. Sherlock Is Truly Sad About the Change in His Relationship with John


4. Sherlock Told Anderson the Truth

• As John observes, Mummy and Daddy Holmes are ordinary. They play the lottery, as indicated by the story about losing the lottery ticket down the back of the sofa, are not from London, as evidenced by the day of hitting up some of the major tourist attractions in London (like ordinary tourists to London do). And they have ordinary tastes in entertainment, as evidenced by their desire to catch Les Mis, a long-running popular musical and not an opera or a ballet or a production of one of Shakespeare’s more obscure plays at The National. These don’t sound like particularly elitist folks living in a grand family estate with a chauffeur, maid, and a country home in France. The Holmes parents are not only ordinary in their intellect, but they are ordinary in their tastes and affectations. And I cannot wait to see what this does for the fanfic, which has often explored major class differences between Sherlock and John because I’m beginning to think these don’t exist. As I surmised on a past episode of Spoilercast, it looks like Mycroft and Sherlock resemble Frasier and Niles Crane in their decision to embrace elitist tastes and manners contrary to those of their parent(s). And that Sherlock is drawn to befriend someone as ordinary as John, who may perhaps remind him of his parents, is really rather sweet.

• It’s no wonder Sherlock was drawn to Moriarty. This was made painfully clear through the Mycroft and Sherlock Operation/Hat deduction scene. Here was someone clever (Moriarty) who didn’t think Sherlock was ordinary (or an idiot) or too annoying to tolerate (like most people). Sherlock’s voicing of Mycroft’s criticism of him ‘Don’t be smart, Sherlock’ hit home just how hard it must have been to be the little brother who could never keep up with or impress someone as brilliant as Mycroft. That both brothers embraced similar indifference to ordinary people suggests that Sherlock still looked up to Mycroft and must have tried in some way to be like him, to earn his approval and to at least be better than ordinary. But he had no one to admire or appreciate him in the way he looked up to Mycroft until an ordinary army doctor started telling him he was brilliant and extraordinary and then went and saved his life and proved he wasn’t quite so ordinary after all. And soon after Sherlock encountered another admirer who wanted to play a game to showcase his brilliance and who recognized that Sherlock wasn’t ordinary. What an attractive lure to this younger son, overshadowed by yet never managing to impress his brilliant older brother. Finally someone else extraordinary thinks he’s extraordinary too.

• Sherlock is truly sad about the change in his relationship with John. I carefully, carefully watched Sherlock’s face in his interactions with John and there was a telling moment where this broke through. I said before and believe even more strongly that Sherlock is using humor and manipulation to hide his true feelings. Sentiment, especially certain kinds, is still terrifyingly threatening to him, and he needs to control the situation to confront it. We see this in the look of consternation that crosses his face in the restaurant immediately before he decides to disguise himself as a waiter in order to ‘surprise’ John with his good news. However, his need to manipulate context to confront difficult sentiment is most evident in the train car, after he has defused the bomb but has not let John know. We have the following exchange:

John: I wanted you to not be dead.

Sherlock: Yeah, well. Be careful what you wish for. If I hadn’t come back, you wouldn’t be standing there and you’d still have a future…with Mary.

• Although Sherlock’s eyes are watering during this entire exchange, his voice breaks as he adds “with Mary” on the end. The camera then moves back to John who replies “I know” before returning to Sherlock who is actually crying. On first viewing, I read this as Sherlock reacting in sadness to the fact that John was about to die and have no future. But upon second viewing and knowing that Sherlock had defused the bomb at this point and was manipulating the situation, most likely to (as many others have pointed out) provide space for the deeply emotional talk that needed to take place between the two of them, I saw a different source for his sadness - regret at having been replaced in the life of the one person who thought he was extraordinary and who humored or enjoyed his oddities. Those were real tears and they were for himself. John has moved on. It’s not just the two of them against the rest of the world anymore, and it never will be again. In manipulating the situation to create space for Sherlock to earnestly apologize and for John to express his forgiveness, Sherlock also made space to covertly acknowledge his own sadness at this change in his relationship with John for just a moment.

• As for how he did it, I think he told Anderson the truth - or as much of the truth as he could reveal in light of Mycroft’s involvement. The reason why I think this is because throughout this episode, we see Sherlock making amends to or thanking the people he hurt or used in his disappearance. He moves back in to Baker Street and lets Mrs. Hudson dote on him again. He expresses concern for Mycroft’s loneliness through a game of deduction. He lets Lestrade hug him and express relief/remorse. He spends a whole day with Molly to thank her for all she did in making his escape possible, thanks her directly, wishes her happiness, and kisses her on the cheek. And then he shares his exclusive story with Anderson, one of the people who needed to be duped in order to set Moriarty’s ball in motion, who seems to have sacrificed his career (according to the Minisode) in throwing his support behind Sherlock and finding evidence of his survival. Although we also saw Sherlock play the trickster during this episode, it was only with John, but John was the only one who was hurt the most and struggled with welcoming Sherlock back, and as I said above, Sherlock resorted to humor and masquerade in these difficult emotional moments.