whenigrowupiwannabeadonut said: how the fuck do you appreciate anderson in sherlock. he was such a bitch in the last episode. the only thing i appreciate anderson in is ‘alone on the water’ and it’s not even canon.
Erm. Okay.
Here’s the reason on why I appreciate Anderson.
Won’t be a hypocrite. First, second time I watched Study in Pink, I also hated and made fun of Anderson. I rode along the “Lower the IQ of the whole street” joke. But then I managed to watch the Pilot episode, and in the opening scene, with Anderson and Lestrade, you can see that he was suddenly defensive and downcast, the moment Lestrade pulls out his phone and starts dialing. He knew he was calling in Sherlock. He says, “You’re not calling him, aren’t you? WE CAN DO THIS. WE CAN HANDLE THIS.” He doesn’t say “I can handle this.” But he says WE, and I can only think that he refers to the Forensics team. He’s been in that situation many times and maybe he’s now feeling he’s just a second option or just to make things look “by the book”. (I am not trying to discredit Lestrade though; it’s already the fourth case, and he’s bringing in the help he needs. But what would you feel if your boss suddenly brings in someone from the outside? It’s like a sign that he has given up on you.)
In re-watching A Study in Pink, I saw again the first time we actually meet Anderson. He really has some friction with Sherlock, but he lets him in the crime scene. He gives him the standard warnings, “do not contaminate the crime scene”, etc. And then the scene where Sherlock publicly deduces that Sally Donovan and Anderson were together. To spite him? To be the one who said the last word? (which was clearly effective?) It’s a part of their friction. Then in the crime scene. Anderson tries to help out. He gives his input. He says that Rache is the German for revenge. What does Sherlock do? Sarcastically thank him for that and then slam the door on his face. He was helping out and yet here comes Sherlock, slamming the door on his face. Surely he felt insulted. The drugs bust scene, with the whole Lower the IQ of the whole street thing. I understand that Sherlock manages to connect a million possibilities, and he manages to pinpoint the most probable one. That is Sherlock’s thing sure. But that doesn’t make Anderson really inferior to him. He’s a part of the forensics team, he is credited as Dr. Anderson, he’s worth something and he’s worked hard to get where he is.
In The Reichenbach Falls, in the scene where Lestrade was crediting Sherlock for helping them out in a case. This might be wrong, but look at how Anderson and Sally were in attendance during the press conference. And they were smiling and they cheered him when Sherlock put on the deerstalker cap. And Lestrade said “We all pitched in.” Again, it would seem that Lestrade, Sally and Anderson were there, and the “We” might have referred to the group of Yarders who have more or less accepted Sherlock and John as a part of the team. This, for me, is more or less established in the scene where they were trying to look for clues the boy might have left behind. Sherlock says “Get me Anderson.” He doesn’t say it along the lines of “Get me someone from Forensics.” He asks for Anderson. And the change from “Lowering the IQ” to “Nice impression of an idiot.” I saw it as “Sherlock is seeing Anderson’s value as a scientist and he can’t believe he just said that.” In the Sir Boast-A-Lot sequence, Sally shared her point of view to Lestrade, and explained how it could be plausible. I loved Anderson’s line, “We have to consider the possibility.” He doesn’t say it as “Nope, SHERLOCK DID THIS ALL. EVERYTHING WAS FAKED.” He tells Lestrade, “I know you don’t like it, but we have to look at it.” Both he and Sally were doing their duties as officers. In the scene with their superior, when he whispers “20 or 30”, when he was standing there with Sally, both of them were standing there because they had to escalate it, because lives may or may not be lost if this keeps up. And remember - this is what Moriarty wanted - he wanted whatever that was established on Sherlock to be questioned and doubted, he wanted Sherlock to fall. Yes, they were pawns, but they were unwilling pawns.
TL;DR - I appreciate Anderson for being an actual character who more or less reflects what an ordinary person in his position - doing his job and being upstaged sometimes - would do. Yes, the show is about this brilliant detective who solves the unsolvable crimes, but why are people going to hate a character for doing what one person might do given the circumstances?
