loudest-subtext-in-television-d:

Two readings, I lean toward the second:

1.  John is trying to remind himself he’s not into Sherlock anymore — or he’s not supposed to be anyway.  He’s getting married.  Groping Sherlock isn’t a big deal, “I don’t mind.”  He keeps try to reassure himself  throughout TSoT: adopting really bloke-y behavior toward Sherlock, like calling him “mate” and slapping him on the back at his wedding in an exaggeratedly heterosexual way and saying, “I’m glad you pulled” Janine; laughing nervously about Mrs. Hudson walking in on Sherlock waltzing with him and saying, “I don’t know how those rumors got started.”

2.  John has been trying to tell Sherlock how he feels the whole episode, in case Sherlock feels the same. John knows he’s been letting Sherlock think he’s straight, but suddenly Sherlock is being incredibly nice and attentive and seems to care about John more than anything and seems be anxious about John marrying Mary.  I talk about it here:  John’s feelings for Sherlock: Episode by episode

A quick recap though:

- Sherlock does not seem to give a shit about the work anymore, contrary to his “married to his work” line he used to reject John’s advances in the first episode.  John has to convince him to go on a case instead of planning John’s wedding.  This would not be lost on John.

- John manages to get out the “best friend” thing and groups it deliberately with his love for Mary, which completely breaks Sherlock’s brain, so John knows Sherlock doesn’t realize how important he is to John.

- John then tries to tell Sherlock on the bench how he feels after Sherlock seems jealous of Sholto, carefully asking Sherlock why he’s suddenly interested in another human being. John again begins to group Sherlock with Mary in terms of people who have turned his life around — John does these plausible deniability openers since A Study in Pink — except Sherlock leaves and he reminds himself Sherlock is a dickhead.

- When John’s stag night starts he looks incredibly grim, even though we see he likes drinking and hanging out with Sherlock, implying he’s feeling conflicted and unhappy — and it’s hard to imagine some other reason for John’s mood.

- John’s mood picks up when he decides to just get them both drunk, while a bisexual anthem (“Galang” by MIA) plays in a club with bisexual flag lighting, where the color for same sex attraction becomes more prominent.

- On the stairs we get the international reputation conversation, which is subtext to the audience that John isn’t straight in this adaptation.  This is Gatiss alluding to The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, something he has let the fandom know over and over that he admires, has used as a template for Sherlock, and whose subtext he adores.  It could not get any clearer.  Literally my first watch of TSoT, as soon as John said, “No, I don’t have an international reputation,” my mouth fell open and I was like, wait, shit, is John about to try something?  Because I was NOT expecting something that blatant that quickly.

- Yes.  Sherlock just affirmed to John that he doesn’t care about his work very much, if he can’t even remember what it is.  When they get upstairs, John tries to make an opening for himself by putting Sherlock’s name on the Rizla paper: it gives him opportunities to tell Sherlock how he feels about him.  

Then John puts his hand on Sherlock’s knee and tells Sherlock very directly that he doesn’t mind.  It looks staged because it is, John purposely does it and acts like he didn’t mean to because he always does the plausible deniability opener.  ”Oh whoops I just touched you, how are you going to react” is VERY John Watson.  He’s letting Sherlock know he doesn’t mind touching him, because John knows he’s made sure that Sherlock thinks he’s straight.

Then John does the thing we always see him do since ASiP, where he’s waiting for a positive or negative signal.  He asks Sherlock if he’s supposed to be pretty — if Sherlock asks him the same question, John will have his opening to tell Sherlock he thinks he’s attractive — and… Sherlock expresses his lack of understanding of what attractiveness even means, basically.  John sighs and falls backward from him and says Sherlock isn’t getting the hang of this game.  (i.e. flirting, subtextually)  John is falling back on his Sherlock-isn’t-sexual doubt.

If Sherlock had given him a positive signal, John would have cheated right then and there, I think.  Evidence:

This is in keeping with all the Mayfly/Invisible Man mirroring where Mycroft says someone has been lying about being in two groups at once, while Sherlock’s sentiment theme plays and he remembers John being jealous of Irene.  John has been intentionally lying, and he knows Sherlock thinks he’s straight.  John’s trying to get an opening to start that conversation.

Other infidelity readings on John’s part:

- The next morning John, discussing the Mayfly Man, talks about how it’s totally reasonable that a married man would steal identities from the obituaries to cheat, even if he didn’t have sex with all of them.  Really weird thing for John to think, and of course he was wrong.  We’re given this to indicate John was thinking of cheating.  

- There’s also the mind palace bit where Sherlock asks the women, “Do you have a secret you’ve never told anyone?” and John interjects with, “What do you mean?”

- During his best man’s speech, John immediately stands after Sherlock says, “It’s always you, John Watson,” and says, “Tell me what to do.”  He waits for Sherlock’s word, and once he gets it, he literally kisses Mary goodbye and runs off with Sherlock.

- When attending to Private Bainbridge, he calls Sherlock, “Nurse.”  Sherlock responds, “I’m not your nurse.”  Mary is literally John’s nurse.  John says, “I’m making do.” Sherlock lets us know that this is something he’s never done before, and that John has a lot of experience with, and he admires how John does it like it’s not some big fraught deal.  John tells Sherlock to take off his scarf, takes his hand to show him what to do, and directs him to “press here hard” on an insanely attractive naked man.  

Not even subtle.

- Getting Sherlock drunk to begin with.  The incredibly horny laugh after telling Sherlock “you rub them up the wrong way.”  Etc.

All the stuff from reading #1 still makes sense even with reading #2.

So… John says he doesn’t mind because he’s trying to fuck Sherlock, and Sherlock won’t get it unless John makes clear he’s not straight.