Sorrows Flower

This scene… just… it literally takes my breath away. Absolutely brilliant.

Setting aside the fact that there is too little Irene in Season 3 (less than 30 seconds in three frickin’ episodes, Moffat, really?!), I still feel that this scene is so wonderful (like a little golden nugget, haha). In approximately 5 seconds of screen time together, Lara and Ben are able to portray the growth of both their characters so eloquently… and that’s without dialogue between them too (expect for the “I am busy!” line).

Take a look at how Sherlock approaches Irene. He goes from making a rational deduction, to musing about what The Woman is doing (”God knows where she is…”), to a wordless sigh of relief at the sight of her, almost as if he’s been tense and holding himself tightly all this time… and then he sees her, and for a moment, all the tension drains from him.

And then, there’s Irene’s reaction. Just look at the way she looks at him. She starts out in a very proud, unruffled pose, but as Sherlock approaches, she begins to soften, and she gains a look of almost… wonder, in her face. Something new. Now, Lara could have chosen to do any number of facial expressions for this scene – she could have done a devious smirk in the Dominatrix Irene tradition, she could have laughed, hell, she could have slapped Ben with a riding crop again – and the director could have had her play it out differently, but instead they chose this:  Irene with a look of wonder, like a person experiencing something new, stroking a finger down Sherlock’s face. Which was genius, really, because it makes you think of the emotional journey her character could have taken to get a look like that on her face.

Okay, let’s say that this is Sherlock’s mind palace and this is not the “real” Irene, but his projection of her. But let’s remember that Sherlock’s mind palace is based on his memories that he deposits in there. His projection of Irene is based on his memories of her (hence Irene in her “battle dress”). And Irene Adler, as far as we know in the previous story line has never had reason to look at Sherlock or touch him like that, like a lover would. Essentially, they have been opponents up to Karachi, which is the last we see of Irene until this scene. So, at some point, maybe in Karachi, maybe after, but at some point in the story, this happened. She looked at him like that, stroked his face like she did in this scene… and now it’s cropping up in his mind at the most inopportune times.