Rewatch: Sherlock - A Study in Pink (Part 1)

[hells_half_acre]

This rewatch will be posted in 3 parts over 3 days, because it clocks in at ~14,500 words.

For those of you who read my Supernatural Rewatches, you will be very familiar with the format. However...

Special Sherlock Disclaimer: I talk a lot about love, falling in love, being in love, etc. in this rewatch. If you choose to read this as romantic love,

Comments

[fannishliss]

Great Meta!!! Very fun to read over your detailed reaction

[fannishliss]

I love that in deducing John, Sherlock was both testing and wooing him. Perhaps the first time it EVER worked out for him. Has anyone that Sherlock respected ever been amazed like John is amazed? Sherlock sees an opportunity with John…. I wonder if he's ever had a flatmate before? He claims never to have had friends… but I think he sees a combination of spine and openness in John that wins him over in an instant. I love it

[hells_half_acre]

I get the impression that the frontline is a lot blurrier than it used to be… I wouldn't be surprised at a number of situations that might have resulted in John's wound… sniper, ambush, etc

It's true. Even in WW2, when my grandfather was on the "second line", he still nearly got taken out by a sniper. Of course, with John, his dreams are filled with very front-line looking stuff...though, that could be dreams and not so much memory.

I think that Sherlock deliberately calls John "average" to wind him up, because Sherlock gets a kick out of fighting with people.

While I do think that Sherlock sometimes belittles people just to get a reaction, I actually don't think he gets a kick out of fighting with people...though, it's kind of hard to explain why I think that.

Why does Sherlock fall for John so quickly? I think it's John's sterling qualities myself. :D I'll submit my own theory in the next two parts

[fannishliss]

re Mycroft arranging John -- I've probably read too many stories where John is chosen by Mummy or Mycroft as Sherlock's perfect mate..... adventurous, dangerous, loyal, highly intelligent, compassionate but firm in regards to addiction, fluid thinker, quirky sense of humor.... he fits Sherlock to a tee. ... I was just watching Baskerville and noticing the number of good-looking women that seem to work directly as Mycroft's support staff, and it seemed easy to imagine them vetting flatmates for Sherlock. I kind of think ex-military would be the first qualification, and a medical doctor with an alcoholic sister would quickly rise to the top of the list

[et_tu_lj]

I completely agree with your interpretation of the gun. It makes perfect sense for him to have a backup plan, and he's low enough here to be considering it, though not enough to have taken it yet. (Didn't know it was that difficult to have a handgun there though

[hells_half_acre]

Didn't know it was that difficult to have a handgun there though

Most of the police force don't even have guns in Britain. THAT's how hard it is to have a handgun there. (You can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_the_United_Kingdom)

I saw two possibilities, the first being that he wasn't actually saying he needed one, but was just reacting to some comment someone made, as a way of saying of course he lived alone. The other is an extension of Sherlock being bored. Very few things entertain him, and IF there were someone actually interesting, it would be a way to fill the time between cases.Hmm, interesting first possibility...I'd counter-argue that if he didn't actually need/want one, then he wouldn't have even entertained the notion of rooming with John, let alone start the testing process to see if John was suitable. Secondly, I'm not sure Sherlock is entertained by many people...actually, I'm not even sure if

[et_tu_lj]

I only assumed that he recognized Molly's infatuation because you can see him deliberately using it to get what he wants in...either the 2x02 or 2x03.

Probably why it jumped out to me then. I just watched 2x01 for the first time this week, and haven't seen 2x02 or 2x03 yet.

Along the same vein I haven't seen Moriarty's comment yet, but I could see it making him angry regardless of whether it had been true in the beginning. Because it's Moriarty, who hasn't earned the right to comment on it, and because they've come a long way since the beginning so I'd think it'd be more complicated than that by now. Idk, I'll have to come back and comment when I've caught up and can incorporate the new stuff in my head. :)

[hells_half_acre]

Oh wait...I meant 1x02 or 1x03. :P Sorry...so, you would have seen it. It's a really fleeting scene where Sherlock compliments Molly and gives her an adorable smile in order to get into the morgue. But, maybe I have to watch it again myself, because he could just be thinking that complimenting Molly works and he hasn't realized WHY yet.

Anyway, yeah...I could be wrong on this one! Interpretation: It's different for everybody! :P

[sgmajorshipper]

As always, your meta is flaw-free and simply amazing to read through.

I'll be honest, this part; -"If she left him, he would have kept it. People do. Sentiment." - This line is so much more important when you have seen S2. gave me pause and then I really thought about it and squee'd a little bit, because they HAD to have thought about that when they were writing Scandal, right?

[hells_half_acre]

Thank you!

And yes, I think they MUST have thought about it when writing Scandal. It's too perfect to be a coincidence. :)

Oh, God yes!

[ext_1835849]

I really love Sherlock. The Study in Pink epi is just so exciting to watch. And I love the whole dynamic between John and Sherlock. A sort of Ying Yan with a little Boondocks Saints mixed in. Really hot!! And their conversation with each other is so engaging. God bless Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat for creating a fine tv series.

Re: Oh, God yes!

[hells_half_acre]

Agreed completely! I'm really looking forward to S3.

[frozen_delight]

I simply love your Sherlock episode rewatches - they're brilliant. You always point out some things that I hadn't initially seen myself and make me want to watch the series all over again.

Your comments, observations, musings, digressions are just great. Such as:
But I love how you can see John shift from angry to amazed...this is a shift that Mycroft fails to produce in John later, much to his own undoing.
Perfectly true!

And I think you're right that the real mystery of the episode is not what John sees in Sherlock, that's obvious enough, but what Sherlock sees in John. Which you explain quite wonderfully:
I love how Sherlock WANTS to impress John. It's uncharacteristic of him, which means he really is interested in John. He wants John to be someone. Sherlock is willing to give John a chance, but he desperately needs John to react in a certain way to him WITHOUT resorting to pretending to be someone else (as he does to get what he wants out of witnessess/persons-of-interest.) Sherlock needs John to like HIM. Sherlock,

[hells_half_acre]

Thanks so much! I haven't done one of these in a long time, because I went a bit overboard with Scandal and wrote a small book about it - which then no one read because it was too long. So...yeah... I've been on the fence about whether I want to write about Hounds, though Hounds isn't nearly as dense as Scandal, and I'd kind of like to write about Reichenbach - but maybe after we see how Sherlock did it. ;)

And I'm glad you agree with me about the importance of what Sherlock sees in John... I feel that so often gets overlooked, as I said. :)