helloitslbo:helloitslbo:I’ve wondered a lot why Sherlock...

helloitslbo:

helloitslbo:

I’ve wondered a lot why Sherlock chooses THIS MOMENT to lose
his cool. He is so even tempered throughout the entire episode – while his
reputation is tarnished, while he is suspected and arrested, even while he
plans his death – but it’s John potential doubt that makes him lose his edge.
Why? What has John ever done to lose Sherlock’s trust?

Then I remembered this:

Moriarty caused Sherlock to doubt. Moriarty successfully
played with Sherlock’s mind, just enough to make Sherlock doubt John, and think
that John was Moriarty. It was just a few seconds, but it happened. Sherlock
doubted John. And if a great mind like Sherlock’s can be tricked into doubt,
obviously so can John’s.

But the best part? John does not doubt. Not for a second.
Moriarty has beaten Sherlock, even if only for a second – but he never beats John.

Now is a good time to reblog this.

I agree for the most part, but there’s something that people regularly overlook when discussing this scene. It’s slightly contradicted in John’s blog, but I think it’s in the casebook that states that John was using Morse code to signal SOS to Sherlock, to let him know that he was in trouble. So when Sherlock says “John, what the hell - ”, it could be that he doubts for a split second before he starts registering John’s blinking. That could be. After all, he’s never known anyone that he COULD trust before, and John patently does not trust Sherlock’s intentions, as demonstrated by their argument earlier, and the way John questions Sherlock in the lab. Trust is simply not part of Sherlock’s life. No one trusts him or his motivations and he trusts no one and nothing in return.

Then again, he could just be surprised to see John there when he was expecting Moriarty, given that John was supposed to be having tea/trying to get laid at last with Sarah. It’s not necessarily an immediate assumption that John = Moriarty, at least not as I read this. It could be. I’m open to that interpretation. I’m just saying that, given that John was signalling the fact that he was in trouble to Sherlock, paired with his unusual delivery of speech, my assumption is more that whatever Sherlock thought in that first nanosecond or two, he figured it out fairly immediately.

By TRF, John no longer doubts Sherlock in the sense of knowing on the grander scale that Sherlock is not a Moriarty. Yet it’s still very easy for Sherlock to convince him that he doesn’t care at all about Mrs Hudson. Sherlock is a good actor, true, but it didn’t take a lot for John to doubt him on this. This is not in any way a criticism of John, by the way - Sherlock is a HORRIBLY good actor when it comes to stuff like this, and I think it would only make sense to question Sherlock’s motivations from time to time! John is meant to be the normal person in this (though he’s anything but ordinary/regular!). It wouldn’t make any sense if John didn’t think there was something wrong with not caring about Mrs Hudson. Sherlock hasn’t exactly made himself easy to trust or to credit with the benefit of the doubt!!

Just my five cents, though! I hope they learn to trust each other completely one day.