rj_anderson (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rj_anderson) wrote2012-01-16 07:45 pm
rj_anderson) wrote2012-01-16 07:45 pm
Entry tags:
Falling for REICHENBACH (or, The Birth of a New Fannish Obsession)
Cutting for spoilers:
So it seems that as usual I am Doing Fandom All Wrong. Because everybody is wailing about poor John and how devastated he is to think that Sherlock, his best friend and soulmate, is dead, and how heartbreakingly brilliant Martin Freeman's performance was (and it was, no question) in those scenes, and how wrenching was that last exchange between Sherlock and John before Sherlock jumped, and right now a million fics are being written about all the angst they both feel while parted and how glorious it will be when John finds out that Sherlock is alive after all, etc. Which is all perfectly understandable, but meanwhile, I am sitting here with all ten fingers stuffed in my mouth squeaking MOLLY MOLLY MOLLY MOLLY MOLLY.
Because that really is the message I took away from "Reichenbach" above all: Molly Hooper Is Made of Awesome and Everyone Should Love Her.
Ever since Molly first showed up and made that disastrous attempt at asking Sherlock out for coffee, I've wanted some kind of payoff for her repeated humiliation at his hands. Especially after that excruciating scene at Mrs Hudson's Christmas party in "Belgravia" -- yes, Sherlock did belatedly realize he'd gone too far, yes he did look contrite and apologize and even kiss her on the cheek, which YAY CHARACTER GROWTH, but it still left Molly in the position of being used to demonstrate Sherlock's characterization as opposed to getting any particular agency or character development of her own. So I was firmly on board the "Wouldn't it be brilliant if Molly turned out to be the real Moriarty because it would serve Sherlock right" train, and was prepared to be disappointed if "Reichenbach" didn't give it to me.
Well, it didn't. Instead it gave me something wholly unexpected and, to my mind, much better. Instead of Molly the Criminal Mastermind, it gave me Molly the Emotionally Perceptive who sees through Sherlock's facade to the grief and desperation underneath. It gave me Molly the Wise who, despite Sherlock's brusque dismissals, finds the words not only to pierce his soul, but the compassion to offer him something powerful and precious that no one else can give. And it gave me the glorious moment when Sherlock humbly confesses his need of Molly, and puts his life -- as well as John's and Mrs. Hudson's and Lestrade's, if only they knew -- in her hands.
"Reichenbach" took a character that originally appeared stereotypical and even ridiculous in her femininity, and showed how her sensitive, emotional nature could also be a tremendous strength. It didn't excuse Sherlock's callous attitude toward Molly by presenting her as a catalyst for his emotional development; instead it showed just how wrong he'd been to treat her that way, and that he needed to humble himself and change his ways. And I LOVED that.
Molly may appear meek and mousy in Sherlock's presence, but she is no doormat, we find: she might have broken up with Jim in a humiliated rage because he'd used her to get to Sherlock, and he might have been perfectly willing to let her because she'd served her purpose, but nevertheless she was the one who broke up with him; she didn't hang about waiting for him to break up with her. Which means that if Molly keeps giving chances to Sherlock, it's not because she's incapable of standing up to him. It's not because she believes she can get him to notice her romantically, either -- she appears to have given up hope of that after "Belgravia". It's because she believes that the work he's doing is important, and because like Lestrade she sees the potential for Sherlock to become a good man and not merely a great one.
And what this episode really brought home to me is that unlike almost anyone else in the show including John, Molly doesn't allow her awe at Sherlock's brilliance or her amusement/dismay at his colossal ego to keep her from challenging him when he's cruel. John has become far more a partner and enabler to Sherlock than he is the voice of Sherlock's conscience; he's grown complacent about Sherlock's egotism and indulgent of his excesses; he's more interested in protecting Sherlock from harm and misunderstanding than he is in protecting others from being hurt and misunderstood by him. (And this is TOTALLY UNDERSTANDABLE, I hasten to add, because they live together and are the very closest of best friends, and their relationship would be intolerable if John were constantly playing Sherlock's Jiminy Cricket.) But Molly represents all the ordinary, vulnerable people Sherlock tramples in his impatience -- and she keeps reminding him of that, directly and indirectly, every time they meet. By the time of their conversation in the lab, she's correcting his behaviour openly, if gently so -- and he obeys:
MOLLY: You should probably say 'thank you.'
SHERLOCK (subdued): Thank you.
Yet the beautiful thing about Molly is that even though Sherlock has hurt her repeatedly in the past, she doesn't let that keep her from doing the right thing by him when the chips are down. And this is where Moriarty underestimated her the most of all, because that very compassion and dogged perseverance in her nature end up being Sherlock's salvation and the salvation of all his friends. She helps Sherlock fake his own death, thus getting John and Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade safely out of harm's way, and ends up being the only other person in the world (presumably, unless Mycroft was also involved) who knows the truth about what happened on the roof of St. Bart's. Molly Hooper, the woman who not only dumped James Moriarty but ended up being instrumental in defeating him and saving Sherlock's life. Let us savour that for the moment... or at least I know I will.
And there's one more thing.
SHERLOCK (to John, on the telephone): I want you to tell Lestrade, I want you to tell Mrs Hudson, and Molly...
He mentions Molly's name here for one very obvious plot-related reason; he doesn't want John suspecting that she knows anything about Sherlock's death, much less that she had a hand in faking it. But he also mentions Molly to John in the same breath as his other close and loyal friends, and he knows John won't see anything unusual in that -- because they both know, Sherlock now more than ever, that she is, truly, one of them. That's huge. She's not just a convenience, not just a useful tool. She's part of the Inner Circle.
The upshot of all this is that now I desperately want ALL THE FANFIC about Molly. Particularly, I want fic set post-Reichenbach with Sherlock and Molly as asexual BF's working together to hide Sherlock from the public eye until his name is cleared and it's safe for him to come back... But part of me, I have to admit, also ships them like burning. And considering that Molly is a character who didn't exist before this particular incarnation of the show and has no equivalent in the original canon, and that I'm 99.9% sold on the idea that Sherlock is both asexual and aromantic, that's a pretty impressive achievement.
So it seems that as usual I am Doing Fandom All Wrong. Because everybody is wailing about poor John and how devastated he is to think that Sherlock, his best friend and soulmate, is dead, and how heartbreakingly brilliant Martin Freeman's performance was (and it was, no question) in those scenes, and how wrenching was that last exchange between Sherlock and John before Sherlock jumped, and right now a million fics are being written about all the angst they both feel while parted and how glorious it will be when John finds out that Sherlock is alive after all, etc. Which is all perfectly understandable, but meanwhile, I am sitting here with all ten fingers stuffed in my mouth squeaking MOLLY MOLLY MOLLY MOLLY MOLLY.
Because that really is the message I took away from "Reichenbach" above all: Molly Hooper Is Made of Awesome and Everyone Should Love Her.
Ever since Molly first showed up and made that disastrous attempt at asking Sherlock out for coffee, I've wanted some kind of payoff for her repeated humiliation at his hands. Especially after that excruciating scene at Mrs Hudson's Christmas party in "Belgravia" -- yes, Sherlock did belatedly realize he'd gone too far, yes he did look contrite and apologize and even kiss her on the cheek, which YAY CHARACTER GROWTH, but it still left Molly in the position of being used to demonstrate Sherlock's characterization as opposed to getting any particular agency or character development of her own. So I was firmly on board the "Wouldn't it be brilliant if Molly turned out to be the real Moriarty because it would serve Sherlock right" train, and was prepared to be disappointed if "Reichenbach" didn't give it to me.
Well, it didn't. Instead it gave me something wholly unexpected and, to my mind, much better. Instead of Molly the Criminal Mastermind, it gave me Molly the Emotionally Perceptive who sees through Sherlock's facade to the grief and desperation underneath. It gave me Molly the Wise who, despite Sherlock's brusque dismissals, finds the words not only to pierce his soul, but the compassion to offer him something powerful and precious that no one else can give. And it gave me the glorious moment when Sherlock humbly confesses his need of Molly, and puts his life -- as well as John's and Mrs. Hudson's and Lestrade's, if only they knew -- in her hands.
"Reichenbach" took a character that originally appeared stereotypical and even ridiculous in her femininity, and showed how her sensitive, emotional nature could also be a tremendous strength. It didn't excuse Sherlock's callous attitude toward Molly by presenting her as a catalyst for his emotional development; instead it showed just how wrong he'd been to treat her that way, and that he needed to humble himself and change his ways. And I LOVED that.
Molly may appear meek and mousy in Sherlock's presence, but she is no doormat, we find: she might have broken up with Jim in a humiliated rage because he'd used her to get to Sherlock, and he might have been perfectly willing to let her because she'd served her purpose, but nevertheless she was the one who broke up with him; she didn't hang about waiting for him to break up with her. Which means that if Molly keeps giving chances to Sherlock, it's not because she's incapable of standing up to him. It's not because she believes she can get him to notice her romantically, either -- she appears to have given up hope of that after "Belgravia". It's because she believes that the work he's doing is important, and because like Lestrade she sees the potential for Sherlock to become a good man and not merely a great one.
And what this episode really brought home to me is that unlike almost anyone else in the show including John, Molly doesn't allow her awe at Sherlock's brilliance or her amusement/dismay at his colossal ego to keep her from challenging him when he's cruel. John has become far more a partner and enabler to Sherlock than he is the voice of Sherlock's conscience; he's grown complacent about Sherlock's egotism and indulgent of his excesses; he's more interested in protecting Sherlock from harm and misunderstanding than he is in protecting others from being hurt and misunderstood by him. (And this is TOTALLY UNDERSTANDABLE, I hasten to add, because they live together and are the very closest of best friends, and their relationship would be intolerable if John were constantly playing Sherlock's Jiminy Cricket.) But Molly represents all the ordinary, vulnerable people Sherlock tramples in his impatience -- and she keeps reminding him of that, directly and indirectly, every time they meet. By the time of their conversation in the lab, she's correcting his behaviour openly, if gently so -- and he obeys:
MOLLY: You should probably say 'thank you.'
SHERLOCK (subdued): Thank you.
Yet the beautiful thing about Molly is that even though Sherlock has hurt her repeatedly in the past, she doesn't let that keep her from doing the right thing by him when the chips are down. And this is where Moriarty underestimated her the most of all, because that very compassion and dogged perseverance in her nature end up being Sherlock's salvation and the salvation of all his friends. She helps Sherlock fake his own death, thus getting John and Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade safely out of harm's way, and ends up being the only other person in the world (presumably, unless Mycroft was also involved) who knows the truth about what happened on the roof of St. Bart's. Molly Hooper, the woman who not only dumped James Moriarty but ended up being instrumental in defeating him and saving Sherlock's life. Let us savour that for the moment... or at least I know I will.
And there's one more thing.
SHERLOCK (to John, on the telephone): I want you to tell Lestrade, I want you to tell Mrs Hudson, and Molly...
He mentions Molly's name here for one very obvious plot-related reason; he doesn't want John suspecting that she knows anything about Sherlock's death, much less that she had a hand in faking it. But he also mentions Molly to John in the same breath as his other close and loyal friends, and he knows John won't see anything unusual in that -- because they both know, Sherlock now more than ever, that she is, truly, one of them. That's huge. She's not just a convenience, not just a useful tool. She's part of the Inner Circle.
The upshot of all this is that now I desperately want ALL THE FANFIC about Molly. Particularly, I want fic set post-Reichenbach with Sherlock and Molly as asexual BF's working together to hide Sherlock from the public eye until his name is cleared and it's safe for him to come back... But part of me, I have to admit, also ships them like burning. And considering that Molly is a character who didn't exist before this particular incarnation of the show and has no equivalent in the original canon, and that I'm 99.9% sold on the idea that Sherlock is both asexual and aromantic, that's a pretty impressive achievement.