The saddest sentence in Canon

sarahthecoat:

gosherlocked:

“You have done all the work in this business. I get a wife out of it, Jones gets the credit, pray what remains for you?“
“For me,” said Sherlock Holmes, “there still remains the cocaine bottle.” (ACD, The Sign of Four)

Holmes keeps telling us he needs the cocaine between cases to alleviate his boredom. But he has just finished a case and there is no reason to doubt that the next will come along soon. This is not about boredom. Since Canon Holmes was never interested in fame or public praise, it cannot be about not getting credit either. What remains must be the truth: This is about Watson getting a wife out of it.

And this is exactly the situation Moffat re-creates at the beginning of HLV, the episode following upon The Sign of Four Three. Sherlock is not bored, he has a case and still takes drugs because John has a wife. 

@tykobrian, @monikakrasnorada, @inevitably-johnlocked, @jenna221b

yep. 😦