Das hat mich am Anfang auch gestört, aber ich bin gerade heute morgen über einen schönen Meta-Text gestolpert, der das ganz plausibel erklärt:
John thought he was about to die because of a situation Sherlock had put him in. It was an emotionally charged scene and, thanks both to the situation and the physical location, completely separated from the realities of every day life. It was a moment in time that could be carved out and treated, afterwards, almost as if it never happened. Sherlock was very aware of the possibilities that offered.
He needed John to forgive him and he could see, had seen from the moment John turned up at 221B (which, incidentally, is why I think he kicked his parents out so fast), that John wanted to forgive him. He also wanted a way to say all the things to John that would stick in his throat if he attempted to voice them in 221B or any other ‘normal’ place. Sherlock saw a chance to resolve everything and he took it.
Yes, it was manipulative but it wasn’t manipulation purely for Sherlock’s benefit. As John said, he doesn’t find it easy to talk about his feelings, doesn’t like confronting his own emotions head on (the army doesn’t exactly encourage emotional outbursts and to lead men successfully you have to set your own feelings aside) so Sherlock offered him a way to say what he truly felt.
There is also the fact that if John hadn’t really, truly, wanted to forgive Sherlock he wouldn’t have said it. Thinking you’re about to die really exposes your priorities and tends to make you truthful, in case you are about to be judged by a higher power (and I think it can safely be assumed, given the ‘please God let me live’, that John has at least a passing belief in a deity).
The other think Sherlock was very aware of was that once the moment had passed - once they’d said what they really meant and how they really felt - and he revealed to John that they weren’t about to die after all, that it would be too overwhelming for them both if the situation weren’t somehow closed off. He chose to do that by treating it all a joke, because he’s still not emotionally mature and humour, however puerile, has an easy appeal; taking the piss doesn’t require any emotional weightlifting at all, plus it happens to be something a lot of soldiers do to defuse emotionally charged situations in the field and thus would be something John was familiar with. This approach also offered John, should he have wanted it, the opportunity to take his words back altogether.
Yes, it looked cruel but I think the saying “being cruel to be kind” is apt here, especially since, from John’s reaction to it, it’s obvious he realised just what Sherlock had done and why. He started laughing not because he thought it was funny that Sherlock had lied to him but because he found it amusing that two grown men actually needed the threat of death and being surrounded by explosives to tell each other what they really thought. He was laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.
You only have to look at how they are with each other at the end of the episode - comfortable, laughing, John feeling able to call Sherlock out on loving being in the limelight, Sherlock admitting (albeit obliquely) that he isn’t quite sure who he is any more, John feeling comfortable telling Sherlock he’s asked for a miracle and Sherlock telling John he’d been there at the graveyard and heard John ask - to see that they needed their cathartic moment and that it worked. They can move forward now, together. It may not have been a conventional moment but since when have either of them been conventional where the other is concerned?
Mit dieser Erklärung finde ich das durchaus vertretbar, auch wenn es sich zunächst wie eine Verarsche von John durch Sherlock anfühlt.
Hm, ich weiß nicht. Ich halte mich eher mal an das, was Du geschrieben hattest: My take is that Honest!Sherlock turns into Smug!Sherlock the moment he finds the switch (just when the bomb counts down to 1:28). I want to believe that the despair and panic is real. Sherlock can't be that cruel, can he?
Ansonsten hat mir die Folge auch sehr gut gefallen. Schön viel Zwischenmenschliches, überraschend wenig Fall. Der hat mich nicht ganz so überzeugt oder wird ja wohl noch fortgeführt. Mal sehen, ob ich es noch schaffe, die 2. Folge von London zu gucken :)
John thought he was about to die because of a situation Sherlock had put him in. It was an emotionally charged scene and, thanks both to the situation and the physical location, completely separated from the realities of every day life. It was a moment in time that could be carved out and treated, afterwards, almost as if it never happened. Sherlock was very aware of the possibilities that offered.
He needed John to forgive him and he could see, had seen from the moment John turned up at 221B (which, incidentally, is why I think he kicked his parents out so fast), that John wanted to forgive him. He also wanted a way to say all the things to John that would stick in his throat if he attempted to voice them in 221B or any other ‘normal’ place. Sherlock saw a chance to resolve everything and he took it.
Yes, it was manipulative but it wasn’t manipulation purely for Sherlock’s benefit. As John said, he doesn’t find it easy to talk about his feelings, doesn’t like confronting his own emotions head on (the army doesn’t exactly encourage emotional outbursts and to lead men successfully you have to set your own feelings aside) so Sherlock offered him a way to say what he truly felt.
There is also the fact that if John hadn’t really, truly, wanted to forgive Sherlock he wouldn’t have said it. Thinking you’re about to die really exposes your priorities and tends to make you truthful, in case you are about to be judged by a higher power (and I think it can safely be assumed, given the ‘please God let me live’, that John has at least a passing belief in a deity).
The other think Sherlock was very aware of was that once the moment had passed - once they’d said what they really meant and how they really felt - and he revealed to John that they weren’t about to die after all, that it would be too overwhelming for them both if the situation weren’t somehow closed off. He chose to do that by treating it all a joke, because he’s still not emotionally mature and humour, however puerile, has an easy appeal; taking the piss doesn’t require any emotional weightlifting at all, plus it happens to be something a lot of soldiers do to defuse emotionally charged situations in the field and thus would be something John was familiar with. This approach also offered John, should he have wanted it, the opportunity to take his words back altogether.
Yes, it looked cruel but I think the saying “being cruel to be kind” is apt here, especially since, from John’s reaction to it, it’s obvious he realised just what Sherlock had done and why. He started laughing not because he thought it was funny that Sherlock had lied to him but because he found it amusing that two grown men actually needed the threat of death and being surrounded by explosives to tell each other what they really thought. He was laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.
You only have to look at how they are with each other at the end of the episode - comfortable, laughing, John feeling able to call Sherlock out on loving being in the limelight, Sherlock admitting (albeit obliquely) that he isn’t quite sure who he is any more, John feeling comfortable telling Sherlock he’s asked for a miracle and Sherlock telling John he’d been there at the graveyard and heard John ask - to see that they needed their cathartic moment and that it worked. They can move forward now, together. It may not have been a conventional moment but since when have either of them been conventional where the other is concerned?
Mit dieser Erklärung finde ich das durchaus vertretbar, auch wenn es sich zunächst wie eine Verarsche von John durch Sherlock anfühlt.
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Ansonsten hat mir die Folge auch sehr gut gefallen. Schön viel Zwischenmenschliches, überraschend wenig Fall. Der hat mich nicht ganz so überzeugt oder wird ja wohl noch fortgeführt. Mal sehen, ob ich es noch schaffe, die 2. Folge von London zu gucken :)
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