{"id":230582,"date":"2014-01-27T03:37:49","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T03:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/01\/27\/mrs-hudson-is-always-right-or-holy-shit-i\/"},"modified":"2014-01-27T03:37:49","modified_gmt":"2014-01-27T03:37:49","slug":"mrs-hudson-is-always-right-or-holy-shit-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/01\/27\/mrs-hudson-is-always-right-or-holy-shit-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mrs Hudson is always right, or: Holy Shit, I believe in canon Johnlock."},"content":{"rendered":"

loudest-subtext-in-television<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

certainetymolo<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I read all the meta on how Johnlock is the endgame, how nothing makes sense if it isn\u2019t and how there have been coded, subtextual references all along. And I\u2019ve wavering back and forth in my belief, every rewatching\/discussion of ASiP confirming it, and every interview snippet with TPTB weakening it.<\/p>\n

Then I rewatched TSoT. And I actually listened<\/em> to Mrs Hudson.<\/p>\n

Mrs Hudson has two big scenes in this episode: both conversations about the effect marriage has on friendship, one with Sherlock on the day of the wedding, one with John after the stag night (in real time, their order would have been reversed).<\/p>\n

\u00a0During her talk with Sherlock, she forces him to directly face his fears about how the marriage will change the relationship between him and John (which will be a major theme of the episode). She tells him about Margaret, her best friend and bridesmaid, who called Mrs Hudson\u2019s wedding day \u201cthe end of an era\u201d and then went on to leave early. Sherlock absolutely refuses to engage with her; he first denies that marriage changes anything, then he cruelly recalls her husband\u2019s eventual execution and finally orders her to get him biscuits (\u201cmake me a sammich\u201d, a classic macho tactic to shut women up and belittle them).<\/p>\n

As the next shot makes all too clear, her remarks have hit too close to home. He eyes John\u2019s empty chair sadly before he walks over to his tuxedo, his battle dress for the day.<\/p>\n

This scene is a classic case of foreshadowing. By the end of the episode, a baby will have come into the mix (a definite game changer), Sherlock will have left the wedding early and by the time of HLV Sherlock and John haven\u2019t seen each other in a month. John\u2019s chair will have been moved.<\/p>\n

The second conversation takes place in Mrs Hudson\u2019s kitchen, where she makes a very hung-over John one last fry-up. He reacts the same way Sherlock does, by denying that anything will change. Again she insists: \u201cWell, marriage changes everything, John.\u201d John doesn\u2019t react as violently as Sherlock, he asks her to explain, he is prepared to listen. He doesn\u2019t brush her (bad) experiences with marriage aside, he actively asks her about them.<\/p>\n

And she says: \u201cWell, if you\u2019ve found the right one \u2013 the person that you click with \u2013 it\u2019s the best thing in the world.\u201d And John says that he has.<\/p>\n

This, after we have been watching two whole seasons of John \u201cclicking\u201d with Sherlock. Seriously, keep that line in mind and rewatch \u201cA Study in Pink\u201d. Both John and Mrs Hudson quickly reaffirm that they are talking about Mary<\/em> here, but as other people have already pointed out, we don\u2019t get to see that happening with Mary. If we think \u201cJohn Watson\u201d, the first name that comes to mind is not<\/em> Mary Morstan. Even if you take any romantic meaning out of that statement, from their first meeting John Watson and Sherlock are the click to end all clicks. Well.<\/p>\n

But the scene is not over yet. John asks about her marriage, and she explains how, oh no, he cannot compare her marriage, because she never thought she\u2019d found the right one, \u201cIt was just a whirlwind thing for us\u201d. Flashback to TEH, \u201cI know it hasn\u2019t been long\u201d, and yet John asks her to marry him, because she\u2019s turned his life around.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Hudson\u2019s tale grows darker: there was so much she didn\u2019t know about her husband that came out bit by bit. He ran a drug cartel, he cheated on her and he got arrested for \u201cblowing someone\u2019s head off\u201d. Again, there\u2019s foreshadowing for HLV: John gets to know his wife\u2019s dark secret, and she shoots Sherlock in the chest. She\u2019s presented as not quite as bad as Mrs Hudson\u2019s husband (her assassin days are in the past, she doesn\u2019t quite kill Sherlock), but there is a very clear parallel. Now, some people have proposed that one way to solve the \u201cbaby-problem\u201d would be to make it not John\u2019s (so Mary can take it with her, it can live with its real father etc.), so who knows, maybe the cheating-parallel will be drawn as well in series 4. Or the cheating is simply analogous to the way Mary was lying about her identity and her past\u2026 Also, remember how it was Sherlock who ensured that Mrs Hudson\u2019s husband would be executed. (Mary Moran will totally be coming true in series 4, is what I\u2019m trying to say.)<\/p>\n

This conversation with John certainly gives us an exciting glimpse into Mrs Hudson\u2019s back story, but ultimately it doesn\u2019t tell us much about her we didn\u2019t know already. That she had a criminal husband who was executed in Florida years ago was established in S1E1, and while it\u2019s nice to see it fleshed out, that alone wouldn\u2019t justify giving it that much screen time. What this scene (and the one before with Sherlock) lays out for us is the essential trajectory of the relationship between John and Sherlock:<\/p>\n

They click. They\u2019re right for each other and the two them together could be the best thing in the world. John\u2019s marriage with an ex-assassin is something he got swept along in, but eventually her deceit and her criminal past will catch up with her and Sherlock will have proven his complete devotion to John. Now, Mrs Hudson hasn\u2019t found The One You Click With after her husband (instead, she seems to have picked up a duplicitous bigamist in Mr Chatterjee \u2013 or maybe that has been sorted out?), but for John, the answer should be loudly, resoundingly clear.<\/p>\n

And Mrs Hudson, Shipper On Deck since day one, will have been right all along.<\/p>\n

(And if I\u2019m wrong, and this isn\u2019t what\u2019s going on in these scenes, I can just say, damn, what a wasted opportunity. The breaches of Pratchett\u2019s Theory of Narrative Causality are so severe, they should be made to pay a fine.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a good read. \u00a0<\/p>\n

When I get to writing up TEH I have some things to say about the related idea that Mrs. Hudson is intentionally trying to push John and Sherlock together romantically with those conversations; she shipped them from the first time they stepped foot in 221B and kept making assumptions no matter how many girlfriends John brought over. \u00a0Her \u201clive and let live\u201d comment to John when he tells her Sherlock wasn\u2019t his boyfriend (when they still thought Sherlock was dead) gave me vibes of her feeling that she doesn\u2019t really get what sorts of sexual arrangements young queer people might get up to nowadays, but she knows what she saw between the two of them and she refuses to believe John wasn\u2019t in love with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Note Mrs. Hudson never actually says Sherlock is John\u2019s \u201cboyfriend\u201d or even implies anything sexual. \u00a0The things she implies don\u2019t need labels or sexual actions attached: she asks stuff like if they had a \u201cdomestic.\u201d \u00a0She reads John\u2019s blog where he keeps saying he\u2019s not gay and not in a relationship with Sherlock. \u00a0In The Blind Banker<\/em> she brings up a tray of food for Sarah, so she saw that. \u00a0In\u00a0A Scandal in Belgravia<\/em> she meets Jeanette, John\u2019s girlfriend at Christmas, and John even comes to her when Sherlock is composing asking whether he\u2019s ever had a boyfriend or a girlfriend. \u00a0Mrs. Hudson knows how Sherlock is, and she knows they weren\u2019t in an official relationship. \u00a0Mrs. Hudson isn\u2019t Irene Adler, she\u2019s not the show\u2019s sex expert, but she\u00a0was<\/em> an exotic dancer and we\u2019re not supposed to believe she\u2019s sexually oblivious or something. \u00a0Mrs. Hudson might suspect they have sex now and again \u2014 I imagine the thought has to have crossed her mind \u2014 or she might not, but it doesn\u2019t really matter: when she makes her comments, they just pertain to the feelings she perceives them to have for one another.<\/p>\n

It always kills me when Mrs. Hudson sobs, \u201cOh Sherlock,\u201d just before John hugs him during the best man speech. \u00a0You have to wonder what all is included in that. \u00a0Mrs. Hudson and Molly are both set up as parallels to John\u2019s marriage, and it\u2019s suggested throughout TSoT that Molly knows that Sherlock is in love with John. \u00a0It would make sense that Mrs. Hudson is like Molly in that way too, especially given that she\u2019s been saying it from day one.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

loudest-subtext-in-television: certainetymolo: I read all the meta on how Johnlock is the endgame, how nothing makes sense if it isn\u2019t and how there have been coded, subtextual references all along. And I\u2019ve wavering back and forth in my belief, every rewatching\/discussion of ASiP confirming it, and every interview snippet with TPTB weakening it. Then I … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Mrs Hudson is always right, or: Holy Shit, I believe in canon Johnlock.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[22985,129,5326,15,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}