Sherlock the Special Snowflake

[frayadjacent]

I mostly enjoyed Elementary 2x12, but damn I hated when Sherlock said, "I'm not sure I'm one of them" to Moriarty.  I mean, one of the things I enjoy about Elementary is how it takes down this notion of this Special White Man who's different from all the sheeple.  It totally works for me that Moriarty thinks that about the two of them, but I want Sherlock to reject it! 

And even more so, I want the narrative to reject it. 

I just see some conflict brewing between Joan and Sherlock and it is not making me happy.

Aside: I was severely annoyed by how thoughtless and careless Moriarty's "guards" were.  She gets glass? Really?

Comments

[quarter_to_five]

Yes, I never know quite how at face-value to take Sherlock's special-snowflakiness. Are we supposed to feel sad for him in that moment because he is a special snowflake and the only other snowlflake in the world is evil, or feel bad for him because he thinks he's a special snowflake and can't see that the world is full of snowflakes? I just don't know, although I do feel like the show is inviting us to ask the question and isn't taking our sympathy for granted the way it sometimes does, which makes it vastly more interesting to me.

[frayadjacent]

I guess I feel like at one point it seemed like he did know about the other snowflakes, and now he's like, regressing?

[quarter_to_five]

Maybe, dunno. I never entirely bought his shifts one way or another as particularly meaningful. Maybe for him, as a person, but not for the show's commentary (or lack thereof) on the whole special-snowflake concept. Even when he'd take a step in the right direction, it would kind of celebrate him for being the snowflake so special that he can try to stop being it. Or something. Like, even when he's moving closer to other people, he's still doing it almost as a favour to them, a demonstration of how awesome HE is, on a meta level. Here I actually felt a genuine moment of sadness for both him and for Moriarty, for being so alienated, so failing to get it, which is more than the show has ever gotten out of me before.