Sometimes I Think About That, In TLD, Lestrade Put A Guard At Sherlock's Door. But Sherlock, When Being

Finally made a fanart of them….please interact with me if you ship them as hard as I do cuz I need more content of them 🥺 my brain is going crazy over them👉👈😔💔

HOW REESE WENT FROM LOVING CARTER TO LOVING FUSCO (AND YES, I CAN PROVE IT)

So here's something very important to start with: Reese and Fusco's development would NEVER have happened without Carter.

Reese would've killed himself if he hadn't met Carter. Before Finch even had the chance to meet him, he would've been gone if not for her. She was the one to truly change him.

As for Fusco, although it was Reese who started his path to change, it was Carter who made him finally want to be a better cop. Carter was the first (and for the early season, the only) one to truly show respect for him and treat him as a friend.

This is even shown by the Machine on the last episode. Of all people, they were the ones whose life changed the most because of her.

So when John runs away to Colorado, you think Fusco was the one to go after him just because he was the less one useful against Samaritan? NO. It was always meant to be him because he was the ONLY ONE to fully understand what Reese felt.

The three episodes following Carter's death (the Colorado Arc) mark the end of Fusco's main character arc - whitch had begun with Reese - but also, and most important of all, the beginning of Reese's new arc about havin to move on from Carter - witch begins because of Fusco. Same way Carter influenced them, they're influencing each other.

And what is the main thing this new arc evolves around? REESE'S RELATIONSHIP WITH FUSCO.

Up until this moment, their dynamic suffered little to no change at all, serving more as a comedic relief (like everything with Lionel but ok). But things suddently change drastricly, and now John's new identity leads him to be in Carter's place as a cop and Fusco's partner. They have to work together in both their jobs, spending more time with each other than with anyone else.

Slowly, Reese starts to treat Lionel like a true partner instead of just mocking him. He still tries to shut Fusco out (everything evolves around this between them) from the whole 'saving people' thing and from himself, but when it's clear that it won't work, he actually seems happy, and he begins to show his respect for Lionel more and more.

Hmm... trying to keep him away... learning to trust each other...

If this all sounds familiar, it's because that's exactly what happened with Reese and Carter in the first seasons. We're basically seeing Reese slow-burn all over again.

But all those positive changes between them I just listed still aren't enough to make John fully recover. Witch leads us to our most critical point:

S04E20 "Terra Incognita".

Reese wants to solve Carter's old case all by himself, still struggling with her death even after all that's happened. He ends up alone in the dark and cold, with nothing but a hallucination of her, forced to face the fact that he wasted the connection they had by shutting her out.

Carter tells him over and over again that he doesn't have to be alone, that even if she's gone, John still can have that connection and love with someone else.

Of course, she's referring to all the others from the team. But deep down, it all comes back to only one person - FUSCO.

We don't see who's in the car that appears at the end, but we know it's him because when Finch calls and mentions the case Reese was working on Fusco immediately recognizes it. Neither Finch nor Root go after him, so we can safely assume it's him.

Only Fusco goes to save him. Yeah, John might not be alone, and the others worry about him, but what this tells us is that in the end he only really has Lionel.

Fusco saves John from himself just like John saved Fusco at the beginning of the series.

And what happens right after Fusco shows up?? Carter dissapears and this is the last time we ever see her, which could very possibly symbolize that Reese has finally accepted her death and it's ready to move on.

And who shows up when Reese finally let's Carter? FUSCO.

DO YOU SEE THIS?? DO YOU SEE WHAT THEY'RE IMPLYING??!!

And if that's not enough, what happens right after this episode?

REESE STARTS BEING ALL NICE AND OPEN WITH HIM

This wouldn't be a big deal if he started this everyone, but it's only with Lionel. Not with Finch, not with Root - these relationships stay the same as every episode. C'mon, people, he even goes so far as joining the police bowling club after Fusco invites him.

He's trying to have a normal life - WITH FUSCO!!

And even when this stops once things start getting chaotic in season 5 and Reese tries to shut him out once again, the struggle he's going through is just SO blatant. He wants to protect Lionel more than anything, but he's visibly suffering because of it.

Just look at this scene:

The amount of consideration he has for Fusco in this!! He can't help but still want to be sincere with him, but at the same time he doesn't want to endanger him, and so he tries to be impersonal, pretending that this isn't just between the two of them.

I could extend my argument some more with other moments of the final season, but I wanted to focus solely on Reese's feelings on this one and I think what I've shown so far is more than enough to settle my point.

Resse loved Fusco the same way he loved Carter, so much he wanted to try and have with him what he never had with her.

This rant might be a bit messy or confusing, but I wouldn't be able to sleep if I didn't share this somewhere. The fact that all of this was in the series is just too much for me. To my fellow Rusco soldiers, our war is never over ~

Umm ok lazy cartlex art. I LOVE MCR!!!! Haii cartlex mcr combo ily. Ignore bad ok its cartlex be grateful because theres not a thing in the world 💔

HOUSE AND CHASE — s06e15

George is like an adult Charlie Brown with even less self esteem.

I KNOW THE FANDOM MAY BE DEAD BUT I JUST LOVE MY OLD MEN YAOI SM LIKE

Final Destination (2000) dir. James Wong

The last two seasons have one of, if not the worst version of John Watson I've ever seen. His personality, actions, his relationship with Sherlock - never thought it was possible to misinterpret something this much. I'm not even going to get started with all that Mary drama.

It really infuriated me to see all the buildup get thrown out the window for shipping propaganda. Even more because, as bad as seasons 3 and 4 were, it was obvious they still knew how to keep the good writing. Hell, Sherlock and Lestrade's dynamic is a proof of that. I wouldn't say it was perfect, of course, but it was solid and well-established.

Re-watching the series again, it honestly looks as if Lestrade was Sherlock's actual friend (or soulmate, depending on how you want to see it), not John.

And as weird as it seems, this is very refreshing to me. It would be very interesting to have a series where the two main characters, despite always working together, have their best, strongest relationships with other people. (That's why I've always loved Sherstrade as a dynamic)

Loved your analysis. Great post, honestly.

One undeath, two very different reactions.

I hear people say that Sherlock should have told John about the snipers, or that John's reaction is justified because Sherlock didn't begin his narration with his duress as requested, or that John is justified by the insensitive nature of Sherlock's re-introduction.

But here's the thing.

Sherlock also pranked Lestrade: saying "those things will kill you" and stepping out of the dark dramatically, then not even getting Greg's name right in saying he'd "let things slide." Lestrade had and was given as little information as John was.

But whereas John reacts with anger and demands for an explanation, and holds on to that grudge for half the episode, Lestrade reacts with relief and joy and has no grudge whatsoever under the exact same reveal circumstances.

Lestrade assumes that Sherlock wouldn't have faked his death without a damn good reason, and he treats Sherlock accordingly.

John, on the other hand, assumes that Sherlock did not have a good enough reason. He demands a justification, and continues to react violently when he isn't satisfied with the attempts at explanation he's given. Even after he is given an explanation off-screen -- he couldn't have known enough to describe Sherlock's activities in the two years as "hide-and-seek" otherwise -- and even after ostensibly forgiving Sherlock enough to work with him again, John barely considers Sherlock's reason for "letting me grieve" sufficient.

And here's the other thing.

John wasn't told Sherlock was taking down Moriarty's network and wasn't included. He was lied to. He grieved.

Sherlock did so much worse to Lestrade. He left Greg holding the bag.

In a criminal investigation, suicide can be interpreted as a confession or as an acknowledgment of guilt. That's why Moriarty wanted Sherlock to do it. Sherlock was being investigated for having perpetrated the crimes he solved and then solving them to fraudulently take the credit.

As we see in ASIB, Lestrade is the one who convinced other detectives to use Sherlock, and he uses him the most often (to the point that in TBB, Sherlock is unpleasantly surprised Lestrade isn't there). So if Moriarty's allegations were true, either Lestrade is a terrible detective who did not notice he was being taken for a ride, or else he was an accomplice and also enjoying the fraudulent rewards. If Sherlock is a fraud, Lestrade is a fraud. By faking his death, Sherlock as good as confessed. If John told anyone about that stupid phone call, he straight up confessed.

Lestrade could have lost his badge. Lestrade could have gone to prison.

Secondly, the Chief Superintendent did not know that Lestrade and the other detectives were using Sherlock despite Sherlock's established fame. That means that Sherlock's assistance was either "eyes no hands" -- Lestrade presenting Sherlock's conclusions as his own work, probably more true prior to the blog since afterward it was impossible -- or else Lestrade and John were making it look like Sherlock was stumbling into police investigations while doing unrelated private detective work. (That puts Lestrade on the knife edge of perjury, which again, had now come to light and Sherlock wasn't there to help clean up the mess. At the very least, Lestrade failed to disclose information to the prosecutor and to the defense.)

What all that means, is that Lestrade got the Met into this Sherlock-is-a-fraud mess without running it by Legal, without giving the Met an opportunity to decline, or even letting them know Lestrade was taking the risk and increased liability.

Sherlock's confession to being a fraud would put every case he'd ever worked on under suspicion. They'd all have to be re-tried, and potentially re-tried with any evidence Sherlock was responsible for excluded. Lestrade, the Crown, and the Met would have had to defend every case they'd worked together in addition to proving that Moriarty actually was the villain and all this was fake.

And again -- Lestrade got the Crown and the Met into this mess without permission from his superiors. The other detectives could also have thrown Lestrade under the bus as the senior DI who urged them to use Sherlock's help. We don't know.

I cannot emphasize enough how fired Lestrade would have been in reality-land. (Since he was not, we may infer that he is canonically capable of talking his way out of literally anything.)

And Sherlock wasn't there to help for any of it. He confessed and fucked off for two years. Lestrade had to keep himself out of jail and from being fired and keep everyone they'd put away in prison alone (in the sense of their partnership).

Sherlock didn't ask before leaving Lestrade holding the bag. He didn't even do Lestrade the courtesy of the phone call John got. He just hauled off and did it.

Lestrade had infinitely more reason to be angry and suffered objectively more harm by the way Sherlock handled Moriarty.

Yet, Lestrade presumes that Sherlock wouldn't have done that to him if he could have avoided it. He is just happy Sherlock isn't actually dead.

John does not and is not.

I do not buy that John was sufficiently provoked to make his violence justified or in any way "to be expected." And if the show was trying to show us that John is Sherlock's soulmate, that was a piss-poor way to do it.

It is also worth noting, because fuck Season 3 & 4 John forever, that the first time we see Lestrade hug Sherlock is when he's back from the dead.

The first time we see John hug Sherlock? Is after Sherlock delivered a self-deprecating speech that was entirely complimentary to John.

Fuck you, John Watson.