making sense of His Last Vow’s final scene

[marta_bee]

This whole post is pretty much one giant spoiler for the tail end of “His Last Vow” and everything leading up to it. If you haven’t seen it and are avoiding spoilers, you should probably stop reading now.

Still with me? You’re sure you don’t want to stay spoiler-free? Good.

Setting aside certain not-dead-after-all (perhaps) consulting criminals,

Comments

thanks

[acciochocolate]

Coming from a family where almost all the menfolk have served in the military, this interpretation makes sense and so makes the scene read so much better.

Re: thanks

[marta_bee]

Thanks. I'm very glad I was able to add to your enjoyment of the scene. :-)

Re: thanks

[acciochocolate]

And I'm surprised that I didn't pick up on that right away, but then I was just so shocked by the whole eppie. I felt like I needed a shock blanket by the end of it all. Or something.

Re: thanks

[marta_bee]

They're on the corner table. Do help yourself.

(And I know that feeling entirely too well...)

[swissmarg]

This is a good perspective. I like the idea of John wanting to give Sherlock the impression of everything being secure and good at home, so that he can take that with him.

I also thought, though, that John probably didn't really think that Sherlock was never coming back. Sherlock is a drama queen. Of course he's making some huge 'we'll never see each other again' scene. Probably hoping to wring some heartfelt declaration out of John again, a la the train scene. John knows that Mycroft is sending Sherlock on this mission, and that Mycroft made sure that Sherlock came back from the last one. He even has a time frame: six months. That's nothing. So it really didn't bug me at all that the scene wasn't some huge teary goodbye with hugs and confessions.

[laurtew]

Exactly! You know Sherlock and Mycroft didn't tell John this was a one way mission. Sherlock was being dramatic, yes, but he was also joking around and telling John his name was a girl's name. Sherlock always comes back. Hell, he came back from the dead, so you know John is thinking in 6 months, Sherlock will be home again.

I think John was just freaking grateful that Sherlock isn't going to spend the rest of his life in jail. He knows what that would do to him. This looks so much better. A few secret missions for the government and Sherlock is home again.

As to declarations or even hugs, There are security guys and Mycroft right there. John might want to hug Sherlock, but he won't embarrass him in front of his brother with that weakness, so no, the hugging would have actually been out of character. He was likely thinking he'd save any hugs for when Sherlock gets back.

[marta_bee]

the hugging would have actually been out of character

I quite agree. Yes, the guards and Mycroft and even Mary have withdrawn a distance away, but they're clearly still within eyesight, and both John and Sherlock know that. in a way, the handshake communicates something much better anyway: equality and respect and mutual respect. It's not mere sentiment, but something more real.

But I think these are things you see much more clearly when you make yourself more aware of the context, which is a large part of what I was trying to do. As all the lovely comments in this thread have pointed out, I only scratched the surface with one element of that context in this particular scene. I rather suspect fully unpacking it (if such a thing would be wise or even possible) would carry us well into the hiatus.

[marta_bee]

I think that at an emotional level it did feel anticlimactic to me. This was my first series seen as it was aired, and after all they'd been through (and I'd been through, through them), on the surface that small talk and hand shake did strike me as not nearly enough. Among other things, it felt like once again Sherlock not being fully appreciated even by John

[alicambs]

It makes sense to me, but it also makes sense to me that John and Sherlock are very secure in their knowledge of how much they mean to each other. To be blunt, what more could they say?

[certainetymolo]

You make the very important point - one that bears repeating as we discuss John in this series - that John doesn't know what we and Sherlock know. We are so used to seeing things through John's eyes in this show that it's easy to forget: John hasn't seen Sherlock's mind palace, he hasn't seen his interactions with Mycroft, he doesn't know that Sherlock thinks this is the last conversation their ever going to have.

And yes, considering that from his POV this is him seeing someone off on a dangerous, but finite (six months) journey, not a suiside mission, his reaction becomes perfectly understandable.

[rhapsody11]

Fully agreed and also don't forget that whereas the it is hart to compare what happened at St Barts/Reichenbach fall: there was no chance to say goodbye for John, all happened so fast and the grief is different. But the look on John's face after Sherlock shot the guy: that says a lot and was quite telling, after that Watson had more time to come into terms what happened, he knew that Sherlock would either face prison time or something else so he already processed a lot. What more is to be left to say then?

Just my two eurocents.

[marta_bee]

Oh, I agree Rhaps. This moment does allow him to come full circle from St. Bart's, which means I think he's worked his way through most of what a person might say in this situation even if he was convinced Sherlock wasn't coming back, which I'm not sure he was. Realizing that reality made this scene much more satisfying for me.

[certainetymolo]

Also, to underscore your point that John used to be a soldier but has now retired to a civilian life, The Sign of Three deals with this explicitly:

SHERLOCK: So why don’t you see him any more?
JOHN: Who?
SHERLOCK: Your previous commander, Sholto.
JOHN: “Previous commander”.
SHERLOCK (briefly closing his eyes awkwardly): I meant “ex”.
JOHN: “Previous” suggests that I currently have a commander.
SHERLOCK: Which you don’t.
JOHN: Which I don’t.

--> Direct reference to your idea of Sherlock as a superior officer.

JOHN: I’m here on a legitimate enquiry.
REED: Press? Digging for some bloody Royal story or something?
JOHN (pointing at his ID card): No, sir, I’m Captain John Watson, Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers.
REED: Retired. You could be a used car salesman now, for all I know.

(Cited from the transcript of the brilliant Arianedevere)

[marta_bee]

Thanks so much for those quotes. I've only seen TSOT once and while sock, so I knew those quotes but hadn't quite put them together with this moment. I really like the way that supports this read of John's character.

[kres]

I think the current commander in this scenario is actually supposed to be Mary. It's quite a common joke among men.

[haldane]

I have lost the reference, but I did see a post on Tumblr that said the reason for the discussion about baby names (particularly the line "Sherlock is a girl's name") was that Sherlock wanted to see John's real smile one more time before he left.

I though that rather lovely.

[marta_bee]

I kind of wish I could read that post. (I'm not active on Tumblr for various reasons, though I do have an account.) In any event, I quite agree: that thought is simply lovely. I really quite like it. I remember a similar point being made about some of Sherlock's comments during that last phone call from the roof at St. Bart's, and I think you're right - seeing John's faith in him, or better yet seeing Jon smile, is a big part of what motivates Sherlock.