Anderson, Don't Talk Out Loud - You Lower The IQ Of The Whole Street

            Philip Anderson is quite possibly the most under-appreciated character in the entire Sherlock cast. Granted a lot of the hatred is probably going to die down now that The Empty Hearse has begun to air, but I have a feeling that it will be slow to disappear completely.

              Anderson has been our whipping boy for years - portrayed as a bumbling, immoral, velociraptor-obsessed moron who needs a map and both hands to find his own backside. But that is truly unfair and not at all based in fact. Let us start at the beginning, shall we?

              We first meet Anderson in A Study in Pink, the very first Sherlock episode to ever air. We meet him as Sherlock approaches a crime scene, having just breezed past the rather bitter-sounding Sally Donovan, and Anderson - still removing his sterile gloves - warns Sherlock that *gasp* he doesn't want the crime scene contaminated. Wow. What a jerk! It is little wonder then that Sherlock immediately lashes back verbally and airs the dirty laundry out for all to see (including John, a civilian and relative stranger) that Anderson and Donovan are having an affair. Truly this was a justified and proportionally appropriate response to the audacity of being reminded to not disturb anything on an official crime scene.

            Oh who am I kidding? Of course it wasn't! Witty and shockingly hilarious as Sherlock's comments are, he is the one who was out of line just there - not Anderson. Sherlock is in no position to be antagonizing the police. He is an interloper being let into the crime scene because they think he might be of some help to them and because Lestrade probably knows that this is the only way to keep him off of the drugs. These officers are bending the rules and turning a blind eye to their DI outright breaking them in order to accommodate Sherlock. For all his bluster about how the Yarders need him and would come crawling back, it is really Sherlock who is dependent on NSY for the work his brain so desperately needs. So Anderson is perfectly within his rights to ask this amateur who is known for barging into crime scenes without the proper protection (and thus making the poor forensics techs have to factor out his DNA from any tests) to be careful about contamination. Strike one is in favor of Anderson.

           The next time we see Sherlock and Anderson interact it is over the 'Rache' plot point that put such a smile on my face the first time I saw it. Again, Sherlock's snark is extremely witty and hilarious...but once again he is the one who is out line, not Anderson. All Anderson did was make a comment (an extremely logical comment, coming from someone who isn't a super genius) and he suddenly has the door shut in his face.

               I'll admit that this scene gets a chuckle out of me every time, no matter how mean it is, and I understand that this is just used to show how very rude and disconnected from the world Sherlock Holmes is. But that's just the thing; it's showing us Sherlock's shortcomings rather than maligning Anderson. The series is sort of written from John Watson's POV and, because he meets Anderson through Sherlock's eyes, he sees the poor Forensic Officer as an idiot too. Of course Anderson is an idiot...but so is everyone when they're standing next to Sherlock Holmes. That doesn't mean he's a fool the rest of the time. Clearly he must have some intelligence if he's gotten to where he is now. Strike two is also in favor of Anderson.

           As to Anderson's affair with Sally Donovan I'll just say that, while he was undoubtedly wrong to ever get involved with her in that way, Sherlock was infinitely more wrong to announce their little affair to all of Anderson's colleagues and John Watson. That was a private matter and one that you can certainly understand why it happened. Sally and Philip both work on a homicide squad. They see terrible things while on the job and interact with the scum from the bottom of humankind's refuse bucket on a regular basis. There are some things that you just can't properly discuss with someone who hasn't gone through them with you, so it is little wonder that Anderson gravitated from his wife (who herself seems to do an awful lot of travelling) and sort of fell into the arms of Sally Donovan. That doesn't make it right, but we can understand why they did it. And shame on Sherlock for blabbing his big mouth about their mistake to all within earshot!
       
             The third time we get to see Sherlock and Anderson in a scene together is the drugs bust at 221B where Donovan finds the truly disgusting jar of eyeballs in the microwave and Sherlock finally figures out what 'Rachel' means. This is another scene that I have to say I find perversely amusing. I am a lover of witty snark, so naturally I giggle as Sherlock ruthlessly rips Anderson to metaphorical shreds. But this scene is also interesting as it is the first time that we see Anderson really make a stab at jabbing Sherlock back verbally. He calls him a psychopath and that leads to another famous quote and...well...let's just say that I don't honestly think either Donovan or Anderson really think that Sherlock murdered Jennifer Wilson. Yeah they both think he's unstable and a nuisance - but as much as they believe he's a psychopath who may one day finally go over the brink, this whole thing seems to be more like a snowballed, vicious running gag between the three of them. Sherlock's acerbic and cruel and the other two give him back nearly as good as they get. It's almost like a nasty, mutual game that they all play...and it is always instigated by Sherlock.

               This is the first time that we see Anderson get involved in the wordplay. Before he just took Sherlock's insults like a man and went on with his job. But now everything is coming to a head, people are tired, Sherlock is grumpy, and probably no one's had anything but dreadful cafeteria food for hours. Anderson in particular has had an awful day. Not only did he spend the night before with the co-worker he is definitely NOT married to (a fact he may or may not be feeling guilt over) but then that arrogant, know-it-all, Sherlock Holmes, has to show up to his crime scene and verbally dress him down and embarrass him, not only in front of his colleagues, but also in front of some new guy who probably shouldn't even be there in the first place. Then that jerk waltzes onto the crime scene unprotected and practically sniffs the corpse, probably contaminating it with personal germs, before rudely shoving Anderson out the door and turning to the civilian, possibly-unqualified stranger for a medical opinion. This is after insulting Anderson's DI and the entire Metropolitan Police Force and generally making himself a reputation of being abrasive for probably years before.

           Then Sherlock takes off running, shouting about a serial killer and some babbled information that doesn't make sense to anyone outside of the chaotic, probably unbalanced mess that is this liability's brain before rushing off to do goodness knows what and possibly get himself killed or caught (which would, I might add, lead to an investigation much like the one in The Reichenbach Fall and end up with Lestrade, Donovan, and Anderson being suspended and shunned at the very least). Is it any wonder then that he was a bit short-tempered and likely to sound less intelligent than usual simply because that irritability would compel him to speak before properly thinking? I'm not saying he was right...I'm just saying that this scene can't be taken as evidence that Anderson is a narrow-minded, idiotic fool.

             No, Sherlock, he doesn't. Much as I love that line, Anderson doesn't lower the IQ any more than your arrogance and lack of ability to see the forest for the trees does. Grow up! We're at strike three in favor of Anderson and we haven't even gotten past the first episode.

             We don't see Anderson again until the press conference from The Reichenbach Fall where he, along with Donovan, gifts Sherlock with the iconic deerstalker as a friendly little joke. (It really was meant that way, even if Sherlock was less than impressed.) He and Donovan also work tirelessly on the kidnapped children case, enduring Sherlock's smug carelessness without even a comment in the race to save the kids' lives. And yet we have Sherlock telling Anderson that he has just performed a brilliant impression of an idiot (a comment that was, in context, completely unnecessary) simply because he had the stupidity to speak aloud a thought that might not have been on the same level as Sherlock's own.

             Again - I understand that this is just the way Sherlock works and I'm not trying to disparage him any more than he deserves, I'm just trying to show the way Sherlock's (and therefore John's) perception of Anderson has colored our realization of the character.

              Even in going to the Chief Commissioner Anderson (and, of course, Donovan) was in the right. Really when you think about it - if Anderson had wanted Sherlock off of his crime scenes so badly he could have gone to the higher-ups at any point over the five or so years that Lestrade has worked with the Consulting Detective. Even whenever he and Donovan finally 'blabbed' they still were loyal to their DI. If he went down, they went down. Besides; it was the morally right thing for them to do. They had a suspicion (and in a case like that everything has to be duly examined) and Lestrade wouldn't do anything about it after Sherlock refused to come in for the customary questioning, so they did the right thing by taking it up to the next authority level. Yes Moriarty played them and yes they might not have been so suspicious if they hadn't already somewhat mistrusting of Sherlock, but in the end they did the right thing both legally and morally. Sally and Philip should feel no guilt...Sherlock brought it on himself, he really did.

            As to Anderson in The Empty Hearse, (and I should probably put a big **SPOILERS!** warning right here) we don't really know what happened to him after the events of TRF. Doubtlessly Lestrade was suspended for a while as all of his cases were reopened and thoroughly examined again...something I'm certain made him very popular with the other DI's...and that would have turned Donovan and Anderson's jobs upside down for a while. During this time something lit a spark in Anderson. Maybe he noticed something odd about Richard Brook (we know from ASiP that he knows something about German) or maybe he just honestly felt guilt about causing the death of an unofficial co-worker with whom he had a bit of a vitriolic buddies thing going, but whatever is was he set about trying to clear Sherlock's name and prove that the detective faked his death, resulting in him losing his rather plummy job and joining a Sherlock Holmes fanclub.

          That is where Series 3 finds Anderson and, so far, that is what he has been doing - being the silent support behind John Watson's Warriors (or The Empty Hearse Society) and cheering for Sherlock all the way. So much as I enjoy Anderson put-downs and absolutely adore Sherlock coming up with new witty ways to insult his intelligence, I have to say that I think we've all misjudged Philip Anderson a bit. He's not an idiot and he's not a villain. I can't wait to see what they do with his character in the rest of Series 3!