Of Dinner and Empty Houses - Sherlock S3, Part Three

[harmony_lover]

Once again, I've been pondering pieces of S3, and it's led me to even more questions and interesting conclusions. Here, in my last meta post, I was talking about John, Mary, Sherlock, and Irene, and the ways in which John's interactions with the two women revealed things about his friendship with Sherlock. Now, I've found a few more connections in

Comments

[willowmeg]

I love all the points you bring up in this! There's so much to think about. I hadn't thought to draw the connection between the proposed dinner with Janine, and Irene's repeated "dinner" invitations - but it's so obvious, when you point it out!

One of my favorite things about those scenes is John's facial expressions when Sherlock and Janine are kissing. Whenever I come across any gifs of these moments, I just want to sit and watch it on endless loop, and I go through so many different emotions with it every time - it's the perfect "flummoxed" face, it's shocked and pained and self-conscious and hilarious and ridiculous and confused, all at once. He turns away from it and can't even keep his eyes on *ground level*... it almost seems like it physically *hurts* him to see such a refutation of his assumptions about Sherlock. There are a hundred different ways that reaction expression could have been played; a simple "I'm shocked" face would have been perfectly acceptable...but Martin manages to communicate HUGE amounts of information in one series of expressions. It's just *incredible* acting!

[harmony_lover]

I completely agree! I think John's reaction in that scene is everything you've said - he clearly goes through this huge range of emotions, and it's such a testament to Martin's acting skill. As you say, a simple face probably would have been okay, and the scene would have worked - but Martin brings so much more to it, with all of those small expressions that hint at so much turmoil!

I'm so glad you liked all of the things I looked at in here. I hadn't originally intended to write this, but the connections just wouldn't leave me alone! :)