ties that bind, socks that hold

Why your socks should match your tie, not your outfit

Intro: John as the body, Sherlock as the heart

After observing their attraction cues and their protests to those attractions, I wrote this post about how Sherlock is uncomfortable with his emotional attraction and how John is uncomfortable with his sexual attraction and vice versa. (x)

TIES

Watching the scene where Sherlock and John have a mock affair, at the encouragement of Mary something struck me,

The repetition of the word, ‘tie’, makes this funny.  They attempt to co-ordinate the excuses for their mock affair and fail, twice.  It’s made funnier by the fact that Sherlock attempts to recycle, 'tie’, each time, in a different context and still fails.

Then, I thought about this show and repetition.  When something is repeated there’s always a reason.  Like, Irene saying, 'I know what he likes’, several times, this is a meaningful clue to us about what Irene’s role is on the show.

So, 'ties’.  What are, 'ties’?  They’re things that go tightly around your neck.  They can be colourful.  Formal, informal.  They can be loose, they can be tight.  They can be a noose.  Then I thought abut the saying, 'the ties that bind’, and, 'cutting off all ties’: 'ties’ are bonds, they’re attractments.

Now, once we have a theory, we can check it against other mentions of ties by Sherlock.  We know that Sherlock fears them and shuns them, literally.  And also,

In this context this association is further cemented.  This comment is against the backdrop of John being what I call, 'first lady John’, he is being incredibly supportive and attentive, like the wife of a public figure.  Furthermore, this case is about a man grateful to be reunited with his family, at last, and we have this Sherlock looking child admiringly giving him this tie pin.  This shot is evocative equally of parent lock as it is of Sherlock’s inner child.  In either possibility, Sherlock is keeping himself insular: he doesn’t do ties.

SOCKS

Then I thought that if ties were symbolic then socks could be, too.  When I thought socks I immediately thought about the Red Hot Chilli Peppers playing with nothing but socks on their penises.  And about men masturbating into a sock.  A sock is a tube.  It is phallic.  It’s a sheath.  It could have a sexual connotation.

So, a penis reference for John and a heart reference for Sherock fits with the idea that this is each of their areas of fear of attraction.

Yet, here each of them is representing them and bringing them up.

Now, if we look at the socks/tie scene again we can see that John wants to get the right, 'socks’.  And Sherlock wants to get the right, 'tie’.  In a relationship one would hope to get both, the right person for your heart and body: someone you love and want, as well.  But, we see each is concerned with a different aspect: sex and love.

Then Mary, goes with John’s idea of, 'socks’.  Why don’t you get the right socks?  Mary agrees you should pick the right person to be with sexually.  i.e. her.

(Mary takes the side of the sexual analogy because in this context she represents sex.  She is the one that John loves who has sex with him, this is her advantage as a potential mate of John’s over Sherlock.  If we theorise that John loves Sherlock even more than he loves Mary then why is he choosing Mary?  Because she will have him [Remember his proposal, ’…if you’ll have me, Mary…  Now, remember Irene saying, 'Have you ever had anyone?’, to Sherlock.  To have = sex].  Simple as that, Mary will have John, sexually, she will be in a relationship with him.  Sherlock closed that door and John went another direction.  Doesn’t make it the right choice, though.)

Now, what are the right, 'socks’, for John?  With whom should he be sexually attached?  Mary?  Or Sherlock?

Here we see John ready to marry Mary and he says that the socks should go with his outfit.  Whereas Sherlock thinks the socks should go with his tie.

OUTFIT

An outfit is the whole of one’s clothed, 'look’.  The totality of all your clothes, one’s appearance.  'Outfit’, is John’s appearance.  

If he picks socks to go with his outfit, he picks Mary.  His appearance is that of a straight man, since he’s never explicitly said he’s bi.  The sexual liaison he is choosing goes with his image.

Sherlock is saying that his socks should go with his tie.  Your penis should go with your heart.  John should be with Sherlock because he loves him more.  

gotta include this one too. <3

Henry’s deduction explains why John is no longer dating in THoB

If you’ve read my last post, you will remember that I was thinking that Sherlock is especially despondent at the begging of THoB because John no longer has a girlfriend, i.e. isn’t smoking.  It helps Sherlock to sublimate his own desire if John is dating, like it helps him sublimate his desire to smoke if Henry smokes in front of him.  

Henry, however, hasn’t had a smoke since the night before and is himself very hard up for a smoke.  Like, John who hasn’t had a girlfriend since the last episode.  Now, something SCARED Henry into coming to Sherlock fast, really fast, so fast that he has had no time to smoke.  Something happened (last night i.e. last episode) that scared Henry (John).  

We can look at Sherlock’s deduction of Henry as a deduction of why John is no longer dating.  This would also be supported by John’s unusual behaviour in requesting that Sherlock not do this deduction, at all.

So, Henry has had a coffee with no milk.  For John that means he has attempted to have relationships with women.  If you look at the drink code we can see that this is corroborated.  Henry/John has used a napkin to mop up both coffee and ketchup.  Now, ketchup was only been mentioned once before, in TBB.  Sebastian wears a tie with pink and blue, reminiscent of the bisexual pride flag colours.  He mentions that Sherlock could always tell whom, ‘you’d been shagging’, at university.  He could read who you were into sexually/emotionally.  This upset him.  As he prepares to have Sherlock deduce him he jokes that Sherlock can probably tell he has travelled because his tie has a ketchup stain from a ketchup you can only get in Manhattan.  Now…  In TBB I think there’s a theme of people who are queer travelling abroad to have affairs and possibly a secret gay life.  Sherlock might know that Sebastian is bi because of something he did in Manhattan; because something stained his tie in Manhattan.  Could this be a reference to semen/oral sex?  I dunno.  Note that this is not Sherlock’s deduction but what Seb fears Sherlock may deduce: that he’s bi.  But, whatever it is, it is repeated here in THoB.  Ketchup, maybe it’s the semen stain on your tie that shows your classmate at university that you’re into guys, too.  I think that, ‘ties’, on the show denote emotional connections and if you’ve got seminal fluid on your feelings well, this could show that Seb’s feelings emotional and sexual can be towards men: something he didn’t want Sherlock to see so easily and certainly not to discuss publicly.

The coffee stain could represent Henry’s drinking the coffee, going for opposite-sex relationships.  The ketchup stain could betray his true feelings towards other men: he’s attracted to them.  So, Henry is bi: his napkin will, ‘mop up’, coffee and ketchup.

There is also ketchup around Henry’s lips and on his sleeve from his cooked breakfast that he had on the train, this shows he wiped his mouth with his sleeve, a gesture suggestive of oral sex,

So, he’s eating something (a sexually symbolic act) and he’s on a train (a phallic symbol par excellence) and it’s left visible staining.  The nearest thing those trains can manage: probably a sandwich, that was disappointing.  So he drinks a coffee which represent women and eats a sandwich with ketchup which represents men.    

So Henry is in a hurry to get on a train and eat anything, he’s hungry for food and really needs to be on this train.  Basically, something scares John into running towards the train and while he’s on there he might as well try to enjoy something to eat.  If the train is sex and the food is feelings then we see John get scared of his feelings for Sherlock and jump head-long into dating (sex, the train) and while he’s on there he tries to have feelings but it’s a disappointment because you can’t get anything not-disappoinintg feelings(food)-wise on a train.  So, John is rushing into sex with possibly men and women according to this ketchup/coffee thing and is finding no meaningful connection with either because he’s just rushing into sex to get away from his feelings for Sherlock that scare him.

A woman sat across from him gave him her number and got off.  Then he mopped up the coffee with the napkin smudging some of the numbers.  He then got out a pen and rewrote the numbers, however after wiping his nose with the napkin at Baker Street we cannot be sure if he’s still interested in her.  Here we see Henry being very ambivalent about calling this woman.  He is interested enough to keep the napkin, then careless enough to smudge the numbers, then interested enough to restore the numbers and then again careless enough to smudge them again.  It’s like he’s trying to care, he’s making an effort and then when he’s distracted his true colours come out and show that he doesn’t really care that much.  This sounds so much like John and Jeanette in THoB: he’s trying to make an effort, playing the boyfriend role at the Christmas party and yet eventually the truth comes out, he doesn’t even know if his girlfriend has a dog or what.  She walks out, he says he will call her, she says no and he seems to accept that as the inevitable outcome.  So, he’s trying though he knows that he will eventually fail by sabotaging the relationship and he doesn’t even really care despite his own efforts to do so.

Henry’s fingers have nicotine stains.  There are signs, physical signs that Henry wants to smoke.  His fingers betray his desire.  Notice how sexual this looks when Sherlock deduces it: Henry’s wide-open eyes, his wide-open mouth,

John’s fingers betray his stress, at times, too.  Sherlock has known this since he met him.  Can Sherlock tell when John is aroused and in need of, ‘a smoke’?  Maybe it’s these tells that drive Sherlock even more crazy with desire.  Perhaps if John satisfies his own sexual impulses then Sherlock is not bombarded with these signs of sexual tension from him that drive him crazy.  Note John’s hand after he accepts going on Sherlock’s case for him,

John suggests to Henry that what he saw is not real, it’s his imagination.  This could be how he feels about the incident at Battersea, maybe it wasn’t real, after all.  This could be John trying to tell himself it was nothing.

Henry says that The Hollow made him feel afraid and strange (queer).  Talking to The Woman frightened John.  But then something even more frightening happened.  He saw footprints whereas John heard footsteps when Sherlock got The Woman’s text and his location was revealed.  This is what scared John and made him stop dating just like this is what scared Henry and made him not smoke for many hours.

The footprints were of a, ’gigantic HOUND’, we find out as Sherlock moves closer and closer into the foreground, looming over John and Henry.  This reinforces the idea of Sherlock as The Hound, 

…the thing that scared John.  He will be John’s hound later, at the lab, when he decides to see if he can stimulate John.

As soon as he realises that the word, ‘hound’, is odd he decides to take the case.  Subtextually, as soon as he realises that John stopped dating because he heard Sherlock at Battersea he decides to look into that.  But, no, in fact, as soon as he realises this he decides that JOHN must take the case.  This is something that John needs to figure out for himself.  He needs to understand it too but this is about John’s feelings, it would behoove John, himself, to know what’s going on with this.

What is the point textually of saying to John and Henry that he’s not coming but that John is and then to say, ‘j/k, I am coming!’?  I don’t know.  But, in the subtext, I think it’s pretty cool to think that this is Sherlock realising that John had this epiphany that John needs to face this first and then Sherlock will face it, too.  They both need to understand this situation separately.  This is why this episode shows them both struggling with their fears in such a separate way: John at the lab and Sherlock at the moor.

If John just ate at home, he would have had a satisfying breakfast.

YES!  I love this comment!  <3  Just look at him in ASiB,

I love this! What do you think about Sherlock saying to Irene “The chemistry is simple and very distracting” when talking about love? I’ve taken that to mean, since he’s already talking about John, Sherlock has noticed John’s chemistry before and it’s devastatingly distracting. (He can’t be referencing Irene, he just figured her out) Which is why we see him SO JITTERY at the start of THoB - Sherlock figured out that Irene was in love with him, and he overheard her telling John that, which means John’s distracting chemistry must be intended for him as well.

Another thing that’s been bothering me that your post reminded me to ask - Do you think there’s a reason every person who wears a tie also wears a tie pin even though the one person who NEVER wears a tie once seen doing so does not have a tie pin? Sherlock has plenty of opportunities to wear ties considering the formality of his everyday attire yet he chooses not to. John wears them a couple of times, but not usually. Then we have Moriarty who always wears one along with a tie pin. I see this as how they are willing to communicate emotion - Sherlock never wears a tie but he does at John’s wedding and even though John has a pin Sherlock does not. That whole speech was Sherlock letting his emotions run free as he read a love letter to his best friend. The subtext in this show glorious.

Woa, nice catch!  The chemistry is distracting!  How distracting?  See Sherlock trying to not, ‘smoke’, in the beginning of THoB!

omg @the-7-percent-solution: tie talk!  This is so exciting for me!  I love your interpretation!  Does this mean that if you have a pin in your tie the pin is holding you back from speaking about your feelings?  John definitely can’t talk about his feelings for Sherlock at his wedding that’s for sure.

I think in my interpretation of ties on Sherlock the ties are symbolic of your feelings, you know your, ‘ties’, to people.  Sherlock, ‘doesn’t wear ties’, because he doesn’t, ‘get involved’.  So, just the fact that he’s wearing a tie at the wedding confirms Mycroft’s statement that he’s involved.  Then I think the pin I would interpret as a commitment, to be, ‘pinned down’, is to be held down, to be immobilised.  John’s tie pin at his wedding is black, which I think looks sort of terrible aesthetically but symbolically I think it’s like marrying Mary is like his own funeral.  That commitment would certainly keep him from speaking out, too.

Anyway I really like your idea that Sherlock can only share his feelings while wearing a tie, that’s actually beautiful.

Now, the question is: if a tie means a relationship and a pin means a commitment, then who is Moriarty wearing a pin tie for?  Sherlock?  Someone else?  I have this little idea that he’s secretly been with Mary all along.  Especially after that incident with the gum in the courtroom.

another from s3 semester, it is so exciting to read again and this time reblog! i am guessing this might have been written shortly before the phone=heart was #confirmed, and of course well before @sagestreet 's follow the dogs series, but those references absolutely work with the interpretations here!

@just-sort-of-happened I want to hear your thoughts on Moriarty and Mary! When it comes to the ties, i see it as a metaphor for emotion/sentiment whereas the tie pin signifies how in control of those emotions one happens to be. Sherlock never wears a tie, but when he does he has no pin and no control of his feelings. His best man speech was his heart on his sleeve, he didn’t hold back, while John had a black tie pin to restrain his emotion (even though that choice of pin wasn’t aesthetically pleasing). Moriarty always wears a tie and pin, signifying to me that he has emotions but knows expertly well how to control them.

Hey!!!  Sorry I had missed this post ‘til right now!  I see the pin as a commitment and the tie as an emotional bond.

Since Sherlock avoids, ‘ties’, getting involved, being, ‘tied down’, then for him to have worn a tie at John’s wedding, at all, is to have shown his, ‘tie’, to John.  I see John wearing a tie and a pin because he’s the one being, ‘pinned down’, by his new commitment to Mary.  His feelings/his tie is for Sherlock, too, but Mary is the pin that keeps these feelings under control.  In fact, John specifically asks her to tell him not to hug Sherlock.  And she’s like, ‘lol, no, that’s your problem’, which speficially shows that she’s not into that role: he’s the one who’s invested in using her to put a pin in his feelings for Sherlock.  She’s a device for him.

In this context, then, I’d see Moriarty’s pin as his commitment to someone romantically.  Now, I have the random idea that that somebody could be Mary because of the, ‘his John Watson’, thing on John’s blog.  But, it could also be about his commitment to, ‘get Sherlock’, in his role as romantic false lead.

I do think that it’d be sweet AF if the two romantic false leads were secretly in love with each other and were consulting criminal spouses.  

Now, your theory is great.  And I think it’s very evocative.  Sherlock’s tie at the wedding is like his microphone or his, ‘talking stick’.  He puts it on and it becomes a conduit for his expressing himself.  I think that’s amazing.  John’s pin keeping his emotions pinned down makes total sense, too.  You know what’s cool to think about?  Sherlock was in charge of their clothes!  It’s made very clear in TSoT that Sherlock is highly opinionated on the matter and John’s like *shrug*.  This means that Sherlock chose for him to not have a tie pin and for John to have one.  Sherlock knew he needed to give a speech, this was emphasised from the beginning when John asked him to be best man.  He also knew that the groom wasn’t making a speech and that he would be better off not talking about his feelings, anyway.  In this way, Sherlock is possibly complicit in the arrangement where Mary is the variable that ensures that they’ll never be together.  It’s almost like they failed at getting together and now this wedding will give them closure but…  well, it doesn’t work, obviously.

Now, let’s throw Moriarty into the mix: I don’t necessarily see him as in control of his emotions.  He describes himself as, ‘so changeable’, randomly screams in his regular speech and seems to kill himself on a whim.  I see him as Mr Sex, Sherlock’s id and a kind of Tyler Durden figure for Sherlock, in a way.  Moriarty has always struck me as, ‘free’, he’s certainly free from moral qualms.  Now, doesn’t mean he’s not protective of whomever he may be attached to, if it’s someone besides Sherlock.  So, if he is in love with someone on the side, like Mary or Moran or even Kevin the intern or whomever then yeah, he’s certainly keeping that under tight wraps, which would fit with your theory.  

If his feelings really are for Sherlock then the pin wouldn't fit as a symbol of not expressing feelings because he is quite vocal about liking Sherlock.  So, if the pin means what you think it means I think that might confirm for us that Moriarty isn’t really into Sherlock, after all, but has a secret lover/person waiting in the wings.

Anyway, @the-7-percent-solution, what do you think?

Also did you read my ties and socks post?  I think you might like it.

I’m fascinated by the idea of the pin as revealing that Moriarty is only acting like he wants Sherlock.  Maybe it’s all part of an elaborate ruse…

PS Moriarty also uses a tip clip, not a tie pin in TGG.  I wonder if that makes any of this different.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Please, if you expand further on your theory, do tag me.  I’m super into objects and their meaning on Sherlock.

yay, i knew this was here somewhere! say what we will about tumblr and tagging, but sometimes it works! :)