mathildalocks:just-sort-of-happened:We see John’s empty...

mathildalocks:

just-sort-of-happened:

We see John’s empty chair, out of focus.  It has a union jack pillow symbolic of the UK on it.  It is a chair with status in their home, it is the heart chair, it is red and rounded and the man Sherlock shares his life with sits there.  As Moriarty will say in TRF, ‘the man with the key is king’.  In ASiB, after John askes Mrs Hudson if Sherlock’s ever had a boyfriend, girlfriend, he decides that he doesn’t know and throws his keys up in the air.  He is the man with the keys.  John is king.  He is the King of Sherlock’s heart.  To really drive this home we have Sherlock’s phone (symbolic of his heart) first in focus in the foreground and secondly pointing at John’s chair and later at John, himself.

Then there is Moriarty trying to get to a precious chair and a crown.  This is a King’s red chair and a King’s crown, his septre, representing John’s erection is also there. 

Before breaking the glass, Moriarty writes, ‘Get Sherlock’, on it.  He, very meaningfully, adds a happy face to the, ‘o’, in, ‘Sherlock’.  This is the cypher Sherlock put on the wall of their flat after spending a night rejected, jealous, waiting for John to come home from Sarah’s.  Moriarty is going to, ‘get Sherlock’, and he’s going to destroy the happy face (symbol of his love for John) in the process.

But, how?  It’s not possible to break through this tempered glass and dethrone John.  Except with a diamond.  A round cut diamond just like the ones on the ring that he will propose to Mary with.  In the background, the bokeh is not circular but hexagonal.  On the show, I believe, that circles represent feelings and here because the diamond may not represent true feelings, the bokeh is not circular but a different shape.

Moriarty will take something precious, something that should be a symbol of love and stick it to the glass with something common and covered in saliva, something that he’s been chewing: a piece of gum.  Could the love represented by this diamond be real when it’s embedded in such a crass substance, something that might stick to the bottom of one’s shoe causing an incredible upset?  No.  The gum debases the ring’s beauty.  This contrast may be showing us that Mary’s role in John’s life is not real.  

Notice Moriarty’s extremely pronounced grimance/fake smile as he places the diamond in the gum.  To me, this signifies false niceness, falsehood, this is Moriarty inserting Mary into John’s life.  This is symbolic of her, with a friendly, smiling façade.

This is the only way that Moriarty can, ‘get Sherlock’, with this diamond.  In order to truly get between John and Sherlock he must put Mary in their way.  Notice that he literally, ‘waltzes’, up to break the glass.  This is more foreshadowing that the wedding is Moriarty’s plan to take John away from Sherlock.  The waltz occurs right before the glass breaks, in TSoT, the waltz occurs right before Sherlock realises he has lost John on the dance floor.

Once Mary has married John, he has successfully taken John off his chair at Baker St: it literally disappears from the flat after he marries her.  After that Moriarty can sit in it.  This is the total metaphor for Moriarty as romantic false lead, trying to usurp the place of the romantic lead.  It’s only after Sherlock has removed the chair (even though he returns it) that Moriarty comes back.  This symbolism is like a beacon to Moriarty.  It’s as if somewhere out there Moriarty just knows that his plan to dethrone John has fully worked.  In fact, by the end of HLV, as the chair returns, the plan is starting to fail: Sherlock is realising who was really, ‘the king’, of his heart and he must begin to fight for his love, not just for John’s survival.  

Back in TRF John will get a call on Sherlock’s phone (heart) and bring it to him.  They will both go and watch the video of Moriarty breaking the glass, again.  But, this time the POV is different: it includes an unconscious security guard.  In TGG, Sherlock dons the disguise of security guard to break into the gallery and talk to Ms Wenceslas.  This security guard could be representative of Sherlock, unconscious, not there.  While Sherlock is not watching, aka away being, ‘dead’, Moriarty will set up a situation where Mary can come between John and Sherlock.

After watching this scene together, John and Sherlock will then dress for court, putting the finishing touches on their suits together in their living room.  We will see them share a meaningful look while looking in the mirror.  This image of them inside this piece of glass with the happy face behind them represents their bond: their love on a piece of glass that will soon be broken by Moriarty.

Yes, this as well!! 

How could we forget to link this meta by talented just-sort-of-happened It is such a fantastic reading of so many frames. And I love the idea of John as Sherlock’s king. “This is the total metaphor for Moriarty as romantic false lead, trying to usurp the place of the romantic lead.  It’s only after Sherlock has removed the chair (even though he returns it) that Moriarty comes back.”

Do you think “ Are you the current king of England” line has something to do with this reading, just-sort-of-happened?

I love the fandom when different people at different times rediscover the same things.