![status quo [kwəʊ]
n
(usually preceded by the) the existing state of affairs
[literally: the state in which]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/3cd3cadee51cc928114d67bbbc28024d/tumblr_mlb785lymU1qm2xxpo1_500.jpg)
status quo [kwəʊ]
n(usually preceded by the) the existing state of affairs[literally: the state in which]
“Lestrade is so lazy! LOL!”
If you genuinely think that, then I can only assume you’re only seen one 10 second scene and 3 words of dialogue from Sherlock and you’ve missed the entire rest of the show where Sherlock makes his deductions and then swans off, leaving Lestrade and the other police officers to do all the arresting, questioning, witness statements, notifying relatives, gathering evidence, assisting prosecution and filling in all the paperwork every step of that entails.
Lestrade is working before Sherlock gets there and usually long after. We just don’t see it because all that hard work would be boring television.
Go watch The Great Game again - Lestrade is there at the start of every pip, providing Sherlock with all the information he asks for (Connie’s autopsy, the location of the car, the body on the foreshore) because he and his fellow officers have been out working hard while Sherlock and John are still eating breakfast and reading the papers.
Lazy?
He helps even when he’s meant to be on holiday.
Sherlock is the one who won’t even get out of bed for a murder unless it’s sufficiently interesting.
If you’re calling Lestrade lazy, then I’m calling you stupid - and with far more evidence.
Down on his luck army veteran Gregory Lestrade finds himself caught up in a murder investigation. While assisting Detective Inspector John Watson, Greg comes to the attention of Mycroft Holmes, amateur detective and older brother of the most dangerous man in the British government, Sherlock. An AU retelling of A Study in Pink with the major roles reversed.
This is a fantastic story. The portrayal of Mycroft, in particular, was amazing. It could be considered pre-slash for Greg/Mycroft, but mostly it’s just a really fascinating character study of Greg and Mycroft, and even John and Sherlock to a degree.
BBC Sherlock: Greg? by ~RinGreen
Oh, so many things that Greg could be hearing from Sherlock right now…. and I’m not sure any one is less disturbing than the next…
I don’t think Sherlock is saying anything… I think he just squeezed Lestrade’s arse - and is now cataloguing the response. ;)
The police are treating Sherlock roughly, as if they just caught him in the act. They don’t need to handcuff him, because he intends to go with them willingly. He put on his scarf and his coat; he intends to go quietly. But they cuff him and haul him out anyway, with contempt. That is more than John can bear. It’s unjust.
John wants to see a warrant, for one. At least a warrant. He demands that they treat Sherlock with respect. After everything Sherlock has done for them: all the cases he’s solved for free, after all the good he’s done, this is how they treat him, in the end. The way they wing him around so that he stumbles; I wonder if that’s the point where John starts to seriously lose his temper. Sherlock is a strange creature, but he is, if nothing else, dignified, and the police are not allowing him any dignity at all. They are deliberately humiliating him.
Given John’s fundamentally moral nature, his inclination to defend the people he loves at any cost, the injustice of this arrest, and the willful humiliation of someone he admires while he is helpess to prevent it, it’s no wonder he ends up resorting to righteous violence.
Righteous violence is kind of John’s thing.
This is all good analysis, however I feel it’s being a little harsh on the police and I’d like to raise a few points in response (if I may).
1) Sherlock has already been asked to attend the station voluntarily and he refused. That isn’t the same as resisiting arrest but you have to admit it doesn’t look good.
2) An arrest warrant is not required. They’d need a search warrant to search the flat but they’re not doing that at this point.
3) Yes, they are treating Sherlock far more roughly than necessary - I am not contesting that in the slightest - but Sherlock has been verbally abusing and humiliating everyone on the Force at almost every opportunity for quite some period of time. They’re not saints. He’s been rude to them for ages and now they have probable cause to bring him in. I think it’s completely understandable they don’t politely ask him to follow them down to the car and allow him to do so at his own pace.
4) I would be very surprised if Sherlock hasn’t been arrested or at least detained at some time in the past. I also think it unlikely he co-operated. Would I consider it more prudent to cuff him if I know he’s resisted before? You betcha.
5) This is a case involving children. Feelings always run higher in such cases.(More of a minor point but still relevant, I feel).
6) Damn right John thinks this is injust and he’s completely correct. We know it is and John knows it is. The police don’t. They are acting according to their procedures and based on available evidence (and Moriarty’s superlative stitch-job). I think John’s anger certainly comes from helplessness and a moral sense of injustice but it’s not until that twonk of a DCI takes a personal crack at Sherlock that John loses it. John doesn’t stop the police arresting Sherlock - he knows they have to. He doesn’t like it but I really don’t think his anger is directed at them, more at Moriarty and the situation in general.
So, I just read that meta post about Lestrade that’s been going around…
The whole concept of Sherlock really depresses me, and that post accidentally high-lighted why that is.
The idea of all these decent hard-working people revolving around and having to cater to a spoilt man-child because of some kind of divine talent on his side is just so sad to me.
They don’t even get any real love on a Doyle-ist level, because their stories are never really their own. In the end, all they exist for is to provide Sherlock with opportunities for character growth.
“You are not my Watson.”
“And you’re definitely not my Sherlock.”
-
CBS’s Watson and BBC’s Sherlock.
