Another Question... Sherlock Has The Mind Of Philosopher Or A Scientist But Elects To Be A Detective.

Another question... Sherlock has the mind of philosopher or a scientist but elects to be a detective. What can we deduce about his heart? No, really. I can't really figure out what we are supposed to deduce about his heart. Do you know what we can deduce about his heart?

This scene threw me off for awhile too, and I think I know why. Usually when Mycroft asks someone a question like this, he already knows the answer and is trying to guide them to some conclusion. He’s got an uncanny ability to “read” people. But in ASiB, Mycroft actually gets it wrong – and with his own brother.

In season one, we always saw Mycroft with the upper hand. Not so in this episode.

MYCROFT: The damsel in distress. In the end, are you really so obvious? Because this was textbook: the promise of love, the pain of loss, the joy of redemption; then give him a puzzle …  and watch him dance.

SHERLOCK: Don’t be absurd!

MYCROFT: Absurd? How quickly did you decipher that email for her? Was it the full minute, or were you really eager to impress?

IRENE: I think it was less than five seconds.

MYCROFT: I drove you into her path. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.

He’s so angry, so disappointed, so utterly confused in the plane scene. Sherlock is just as confused – in much the same way he doesn’t know how to comprehend John’s jealousy, he can’t fathom here that Mycroft actually thinks Irene managed to beat him because he was in love with her. (Mycroft, John, the viewers…everyone was fooled when it came to Sherlock’s feelings for Irene.)

The funny thing about it is Mycroft had it right with this line: How quickly did you decipher that email for her? Was it the full minute, or were you really eager to impress? Sherlock was out to impress. But not Irene.

Right motive, wrong target. So close, Mike.

When Sherlock figures out Irene’s password, he treats her like…well, it’s harsh. So harsh, even Mycroft’s alarmed.

Add to that the fact that in the heat of deducing Irene’s password, Sherlock drops John’s name completely out of nowhere (he’s not present and is otherwise unmentioned in this scene).

Because I took your pulse. Elevated, pupils dilated. I imagine John Watson thinks love’s a mystery to me but the chemistry is incredibly simple, and very destructive.

We know this is evidence that the conversation Sherlock overheard at Battersea had a bigger impact on him then he’d care to admit, or perhaps even realizes. But Mycroft doesn’t know anything (presumably) about Irene’s little chat with John about sexual fluidity. From Mycroft’s POV, Sherlock is ranting about the signs of attraction and love and he just dropped in John’s name out of nowhere.

Well.

Mycroft often intimates that there’s more than friendship between Sherlock and John. Might we expect a happy announcement by the end of the week? Sherlock’s business seems to be booming since you two became…pals. It doesn’t seem to bother him – in fact, he usually looks amused by the idea. Surely he, if no one else on the show, has noticed that his brother never ever corrects anyone who assumes he is romantically involved with John.

I’m willing to bet that’s a huge reason Mycroft was so thrown off, and so frustrated, by the idea that Sherlock accidentally wrecked the Coventry mission because he suddenly, uncharacteristically, had a thing for Irene. Misjudging anyone would alarm Mycroft, but particularly his own brother.

After witnessing Sherlock’s cruel (and innuendo-laced) parting words to Irene – sorry about dinner – Mycroft is obviously going to rethink some things. He’s going to mentally reset to the start of this game and try to figure out where he went wrong, what really happened.

Sherlock did crack that code pretty damn fast like the show-off he is, and he did wreck the Coventry mission. He has been pretty effing moody over the last few months…well, more so than usual. Enough to put Mycroft on “danger night” alert. He’s been composing heartwrenching music and smoking more…

…although hang on, relapsing and abandoning the patches for cigs actually started well before Sherlock even met Irene (as evidenced in the TSoT “Hamish” flashback sequence). So if all this angst isn’t because of Irene, then who…..?

I imagine John Watson thinks love’s a mystery to me.

Ah. 

Mycroft’s pretty sure he’s got it right this time. (And he’s probably pleased about it, since he’s suspected this for awhile.) But he wants to feel it out, so he brings the files on Irene’s fate to John first. Look at Mycroft’s lines carefully here.

JOHN: This the file on Irene Adler?

MYCROFT: Closed forever. I am about to go and inform my brother – or, if you prefer, you are – that she somehow got herself into a witness protection scheme in America. New name, new identity. She will survive – and thrive – but he will never see her again.

Rather than request John deliver the news to Sherlock, Mycroft casually asks if he’d prefer doing it. 

JOHN: Why would he care? He despised her at the end. Won’t even mention her by name – just “The Woman”.

MYCROFT: Is that loathing, or a salute? One of a kind; the one woman who matters.

Again, a question. Do you really believe he despised her, John? He’s trying to suss John’s feelings out here (not an easy thing to do with this emotionally-constipated doctor). Does John still believe Sherlock had romantic feelings for Irene, and his anger is out of heartbreak? Or does John, like Mycroft, now realize how badly he misinterpreted Sherlock’s intellectual fascination with Irene as love from the start? (Spoiler alert: the latter is true, but John still believes the former.)

JOHN: He’s not like that. He doesn’t feel things that way … I don’t think.

Ha, there it is. I don’t think. John’s sussing Mycroft out a little bit too. Does Sherlock feel things that way? Is that possible?

MYCROFT: My brother has the brain of a scientist or a philosopher, yet he elects to be a detective. What might we deduce about his heart?

Once again, Mycroft flips this as a question back to John. Well, his mind is logical, but look at what he’s chosen to do with his life. What do you think that means? He studies John intently, waiting for his answer.

JOHN: I don’t know.

MYCROFT: Neither do I … but initially he wanted to be a pirate.

In my opinion, the reason this scene seems confusing is that we’re used to Mycroft asking questions he already knows the answer to. Particularly with John, we often see him guiding the conversation in an almost condescending way. So when I first saw this scene (and honestly, many times after), I kept trying to figure out what Mycroft was trying to get John to realize.

But Mycroft made all kinds of misjudgments in this episode. He’s pretty sure he’s worked out what was really going on with Sherlock over the last 6+ months. (Lovesick? Yep. Over Irene? Nope.) But no matter how much surveillance he has at 221B, he can’t put cameras inside these boys’ heads. (Oh, but if only he could…)

Look at Mycroft’s face in that last gif. In light of everything we learned in season three – Mycroft seeing Sherlock as a naive child, the Redbeard incident – and in light of everything Mycroft undoubtedly has an inkling is coming – Moriarty and the fall – the meaning behind this conversation is a little clearer.

When he asks John what might we deduce about his heart, it’s not because he has an answer in mind and he’s trying to guide John to it. It’s because he truly doesn’t know. But he suspects, and if what he suspects is true, then finding out how John Watson feels about it is pretty important.

Because the answer might be the making of his brother…or make him worse than ever.