He’s Always Like That. He’s Always Been Like That.

So, this is a pretty facile observation, but I haven’t seen it laid out anywhere else, so I’m going to put it down here.

In the retelling of John and Sherlock’s (or Holmes and Watson’s) first meeting in TAB, Stamford’s Victorian introduction is not significantly different from the one he gives in the modern timeline of the show. The two moments are shown within only moments of each other in the special, with the modern first meeting shown in the “Previously on Sherlock” callback before the Victorian MP stuff properly begins.

The interactions mirror each other so closely (except for instead of John giving Sherlock his heart, Sherlock gives John his dick??? I don’t know…) that the little differences that aren’t mandated by historical accuracy bear particular scrutiny. There’s one moment in particular that stuck out to me as I was rewatching it just now, and though it’s not as earth-shattering as some of the other meta that you truly ridiculous geniuses are coming up with, it’s a nice little reinforcement of what has kind of been established is the writers’ mission statement and the driving argument behind TJLC.

Modern Meeting:

Sherlock (To John): The name’s Sherlock Holmes, and the address is two-two-one-bee, Baker Street. (To Mike) Afternoon.

Mike (To John): Yeah. He’s always like that.

Victorian Meeting:

Holmes (To Watson): The name is Sherlock Holmes, and the address is two hundred and twenty one bee, Baker Street.

Stamford (To Watson): Yes. He’s always been like that.

The tiny little difference in the phrasing of this interaction, which I have watched in its modern iteration upwards of eleventy kabillion times, definitely twigged something as I was watching TAB the first time. It certainly doesn’t take much to connect the dots, though, once you put the two scenes together and consider their context.

We’re inside Sherlock’s Mind Palace, and he’s just been reading about his first meeting with John Watson on his phone (textually stated in ASiB to be a representation of the heart). We’re about to watch the gayest 90 minutes of television ever committed to film, and yet somehow the general population will still be able to believe that John and Sherlock are just bros, just as they have been able to for 130 years.

Heteronormative assumptions will stubbornly preclude any reading of Holmes and Watson as lovers for a whole big swath of the viewership, even when their actions are most easily explained by romantic feelings between them. When Johnlock finally becomes canon, it’s going to be a game-changer for the way these characters are read in all previous and all subsequent adaptations of their story. They will finally be out, and it will be impossible to shut them back in the closet again. Why is that?

Because the writers are playing the long game, and their entire argument is laid out by Stamford when he facilitates the first meeting between the most famous and culturally-pervasive queer couple in the world.

Sherlock Holmes is gay. He’s always like that. He’s always been like that.

And not only in the BBC version written by a gay dude and his friend the plot-twist guy. Always. He was gay in the original ACD stories, and he’s gay now, and he has been in love with John Watson in every permutation of their story ever set to page or screen.

Not revolutionary, by any stretch of this fandom’s considerable deductive skills, but maybe a nice little clip for the news shows to use when Mofftiss finally blow the doors off this big gay circus.