I only recently noticed this. (Sorry if this has been discussed before).
When John is in therapy in ASIP, he is framed with two different houseplants in the shot:
On the right hand side, there are “Calla lilies” (I encircled them in pink for your convenience).
I’m sure you can all do the whole google and wikipedia thing just as well as I, so I’ll just say that they are often associated with the Greek goddess Hera, with femininity, fertility and childbirth. Bingo!
So, that’s our metaphor for heterosexuality on this show; that’s the heterosexual side of John’s dual sexuality, so to speak.
Do you want further proof? Well, do you know what a “Calla lily” actually looks like? I shall be a gentleman and refrain from posting pictures of the female organ in question here. Instead I will just leave you with this lovely painting by Georgia O’Keeffe and whistle innocently to myself:
On the left hand side, there’s a “Monstera” (I encircled it in blue in the screencap above).
This houseplant is literally called the “monstrous” or the “abnormal”. You do understand where I’m going with this, right? Mofftiss have repeatedly used this metaphor in (and even outside of) their show because it’s something that has been done A LOT in Victorian horror stories. Think of the brilliant meta ‘Ghost stories are gay stories’ (x) by @heimishtheidealhusband. Mofftiss did this with ‘Dracula’, too, wherein Dracula himself is a metaphor for repressed, ‘abnormal’ homosexual desire, for the monstrous, the exotic, the weird.
And if you don’t believe me that the “Monstera” plant in that shot is supposed to represent John’s homosexual side, here’s one other little hint. This is the fruit of the “Monstera”:
Yeah, I know, right?:D
Kinda phallic!
And what’s even better: You can eat it.:D Apparently, it’s delicious. Which is why this plant is actually called “Monstera Deliciosa”. You can’t make this stuff up.:)
So, in other words: John is sitting in the office of his therapist, and visually his problem (his actual problem, not the surface-text problem, but the subtextual one) is sitting right there in the room with him: He has trouble dealing with his bisexuality.
I mean we had seen a similar metaphor on the menu during John’s wedding, hadn’t we? There were two meal options, remember? (x)
Bonus plant:
There’s actually a third plant in that room (encircled in yellow). (Of course, there is! This is five minutes into the show; it’s all exposition. They have to introduce Sherlock, too.)
It’s a bit blurry, but I’m willing to bet that this is a ficus. And you know, ‘ficus’ is slang for ‘gay man’ in some languages. Because a ficus is, erm, tall, wispy and sort of sprawling all over the place…like…I hate to say this, but there’s an ironic eye twinkle in this and I’m saying this with love, really…like Sherlock!:)
And look they put it right next to the infamous bust, which I had already discussed in my sculpture and art meta series (here: x), the bust that represents introspection and childhood.
Yeah. So, the solution to John’s conundrum above (bisexuality) is already in the room: The solution is Sherlock! It’s just that Sherlock is caught up in some introspection business (dare I say, extended-mind-palace stuff) and has to deal with his childhood first (*ahem* see ‘Follow the dog’ theory: x) before he can be the solution to what ails John.
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And I have only decided to post this now because @dinner-starving had asked me about any new meta coming up. Apparently I need a kick up the backside sometimes.:)
All screencaps taken from here: https://kissthemgoodbye.net/
One small note, probably to be ignored because my thumb is so black that it is probably gangrenous and will fall off soon … but I’m not sure if the third plant is a ficus. If I really have to give it a name, maybe I would think it is a bamboo. It comes from the East, it bends but does not break, it takes time to grow, because it needs solid roots, but then nobody stops it anymore.
A metaphor that would be beautiful were it not that this plant is very strange because it seems to grow directly from the desk. It seems without a vase. The vase count, are overturned (TBB), slide (TEH), are used for drinking (TLD). We have an entire vase/vessel in Dracula.
But it’s probably a ficus and I babbled about nothing ….
You know, it could absolutely be a bamboo, as well. *shrugs* After all, you know the old saying:
There once was a sad, gay bamboo,
who felt so depressed and so blue,
he went to a shrink,
where with a bi wink,
a Monstera said, “Wanna screw?”
:D
Which leads me to @sherlockshadow’s question about the screwy, curling bamboo in the Pilot:
It looks like they just combined the long-ish bamboo with the curls on top (=Sherlock) and the (bisexual) Monstera (=John), which we’ve already mentioned above, in one vase, instead of putting them in separate ones.
Edit to add: And there’s a third plant in there, which ties the two of them together. It’s difficult to make out, but it’s purple, so I’m going to go with lavender or lilac (=ancient symbols of our gay tribe:D). So, this purple gayness is binding the curling bamboo (Sherlock) and the Monstera (John) together. Nice.
Also:@raggedyblue *rofl* at your AirBnB comment.:D
At this point, Ella should just rename it AirBi&Bi.;)
