The moment the world stopped for John Watson
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John...
Please let me make one thing clear before I start, ad this goes for all future Sherlock posts.
This is a blog project about Martin Freeman, so naturally I put him and his talent into focus.
That doesn't mean I don't appreciate all the other actors and actresses of the show.
I absolutely do, and it was one of the best shows ever, and for me certainly the definite Sherlock and John of the 21st century.
The poll on Twitter X was touch and go, so I decided to write both articles on our beloved Dr.Watson.
I start with the ending of the Reichenbach Fall, because I can write such things easier when I am in depressing mood, which is the case today.
Chris Carson and I know that every day is a battle, and it turns out you are not always the winner of the daily fights.
But back to Baker Street.
There are certain moments in a fan life , when you know you witness something extremely special.
And the ending of the Reichenbach Fall is one of them.
And breaks me each and every time.
The moment John realises his mistake and rushes to Barts a nightmare starts, and that includes us the audience.
Of course I must honour Sherlock and his phone cal, and that includes the real tears, all you want is to run up to him and hold him.
When all else is failing, and everyone is convinced that you are lyer, then there is always John Watson.
The man who wants to help, and support you while the world around you is breaking into little pieces.
But with Sherlock things are not that easy, and so Mr. Holmes invented his own plan, and I am sure we could discuss it endlessly if that was a very clever thing or too much of a genius idea, not considering what the consequences could be.
The consequence was a completely broken man, and he never really healed, not even after Sherlock's return.
You don't have to be clairvoyant to expect that Sherlock's loss would kill John emotionally.
The moment he screams his name towards the roof, all you feel is frar for both men, and then it happens....
John's eyes when he sees Sherlock jump are a tragedy in itself.
but the moment he finally reaches Sherlock's " dead" body I am done!
The stumble, the muttering, and those empty eyes that show you what this man just lost, is more than I can bear.
Him sitting in his chair opposite this emptiness and just staring, knowing that for the second time in life, he had lost his meaning, and place in the world.
Btw I adore the fact,that in this scene we see once again John sitting barefoot.
We already witnessed this in the very first episode of the show, when John is sitting lonely and full of anxiety in his shabby little apartment.
And now another trauma hits hard, but this time there is no one to keep him off the cliff.
John Watson is falling and no one is there to help him.
We see another masterclass in acting through the whole episode but the ending is all dedicated to John and Martin Freeman shows he is worth every second.
In a very short time we see him grieving, at the therapist's office where he is unable to really open up about it all.
He is so filled with grief and desperation, but unable to express it, because the person he really wants to adress is gone.
After being home invalid, after trying to pick up the pieces of his life after Afghanistan, this is the thing that really broke him.
We will never see the happy, carefree John after the Fall.
And once again, we witness all this without hearing a single word!
Martin Freeman at his best.
It sounds a bit strange, because an actor without saying something is not what we like and expect most of the time, but the actor who touches our souls is most certainly able to express it all without words.
Mr. Freeman is an artist on the subject.
Every stage of grief, ever nuance of shock, ungraspable desperation, and paralysed realisation is written all over his face.
Every state of his emotional journey towards the acceptance of the fact, that he has lost more than he will ever be able to deal with in the aftermath of the Moriaty fiasco.
And everything finds its unbearable climax at the cemetery.
After Mrs. Hudson left, and for the very first and only time, I was grateful for her exit because there are moments when we simply cannot be around people without the feeling of suffocating.
John alone in front of Sherlock's grave is the most loneliest person on the planet.
You can feel all the isolation and the hopelessness, and yet for John it is important to speak to Sherlock one more time.
To clarify once and for all, that John Watson is loyal beyond life and death.
He still believes in Sherlock Holmes, and wants to reassure a cold stone, and the universe that he still doesn't think of the detective as a fraud,and never will be.
John in his griefing desperation is more open than he ever was with Ella.
But we also feel that it will not help him to cope, and we see confirmation a second later.
Not only can we see the sobbing in the shadow of the gravestone, which is so terrible to see, because all we want is to hug him, and tell him the truth right there.
But for the first time John Watson is asking for something, and he is adressing it to the man in his mind, not saying it to a cold black stone and we see how extremely difficult it is to speak, and ask for what he wants so desperately.
" One last miracle , Sherlock. For me."
John says it with heartfelt and almost childlike hope and equal agony, that I sometimes wonder why I re-watched this episode at all.
The performance of Martin Freeman in all it's glory ends when it turns from " painful to watch" to intorable for the audience.
The moment the speech ends with a change of posture, and the grieving John changes into Captain John Watson who needs all his energy to do what he needs to do.
Captain John Watson salutes Sherlock Holmes and walks away.
A man with a broken heart, back into a world of pain and grief, with a soul that will never heal completely.
Goodbye John.
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