We know John hasn’t actually forgiven Mary. Either:
John’s being honorable and going back to Mary for the baby
John read the flash drive, lied about it, and is plotting either by himself or with Mycroft (not Sherlock)
There are some weird looks that imply he read the flash drive:
1) When Mary asks if John read the flash drive, he deflects twice and doesn’t answer:
MARY: So, have you read it? JOHN: W-would you come here a moment? MARY: No. Tell me. Have you? JOHN: Just … come here.
Deflection, a classic lying tell. And a very “John” lying tell; he’s not good at straight-up lying, so he doesn’t lie. He doesn’t answer the question at all. When else does he deflect? When he says “I’m not gay” in answer to questions about his feelings for Sherlock.
2) John looks down and turns the flash drive over in his hand, looking at it, when Mary asks him about it:
He’s definitely thinking something over. I don’t think that he’s wondering if maybe he should’ve read the flash drive after all – thinking “This is my last chance to back out” – because that’s not really in John’s character, and he has had six months to decide. So this is another lying tell from John.
sherlock calling mycroft “blud” was the most embarrassing thing. if that had been a fanfic i would have closed out of it.
so many things happen in this show that if it were a fanfic i would be like “what the ever loving f”
‘If it was a fanfic I would have closed out of it’ is the perfect summary for my feelings on TEH
I find that “blud” line awkward as well, although I think that that was intentional. I assume that it was meant to balance John’s awkward “mate” later on, as well as the less succinct versions of this with Mrs. Hudson and with Molly. And, together, they were underscoring the whole issue of picking up where things left off…only not, because life really had gone on and no one was untouched by that passage of time. So they all were re-establishing what they were to each other, Sherlock to each of them, full of false steps and awkward moments.
But yeah, I still find the episode unsettling, even though insight from the series as a whole gives it some justification. I mean, what seemed on first viewing to be a wholly changed character shown by Sherlock, we now know reflects the changed POV of the whole series—something I find fascinating and wicked clever. And the issue of facades, confusing or at least fairly insignificant at first, has much greater resonance now we’ve seen HLV. The lack of fall solutions and their replacement by fanfic versions still makes me unfulfilled, but perhaps when I get over my resentment I’ll have a more visceral rather than simply literary appreciation of them. I continue to be a bit grudging in my acceptance of what seems to be kowtowing to BC’s vanity: letting him do his French waiter bit and of course hiring his parents, but those parents show more promise in HLV and that, too, changes how I see them in TEH. And then, yeah, the whole tube carriage scene was just AU when we failed to understand the POV change. This is, even more than TBB, an episode I really don’t rewatch.
I guess that’s what it comes down to for me, then: a whole lot of the OOC that would have had me closing a tab with a written fanfic is now to some degree justified by the series as a whole. Kind of like the fic you’ve noped out of a couple times before but that has now, completed, gotten such good reviews from fans you trust that the later chapters are much improved and the writer posts in a note that they’re now working with a beta and so you suck it up and persevere and while it’s not your favourite fic ever, it’s not terrible. But you’re not sure you can comment with any grace or conviction, so you just leave kudos to be polite and go looking for something more enthralling.
