When will they? When *did* they?

There are certain topics one senses as dangerous ground upon which to tread these days. To those of us bookish writer sorts who don't indulge in any actual danger for our thrill-seeking, the tightrope walk to honestly speak of such things can definitely make life a little more interesting. So let us dive into the breech once more and talk of the Johnlock Conspiracy.

With no "how did he survive the fall?" to occupy the minds of Sherlock fans this hiatus, I'm seeing a lot more "when will they kiss?" as the big question aimed at season four of the show. And yes, that's "when will John and Sherlock kiss?" for those of you who have remained innocent of that side of fandom somehow. Having watched a lot of Xena, Warrior Princess back in the day, I can easily see how a TV show might toy with such a theme, so I'm not one to quickly write those fans off as "the moon landing wasn't real" sorts.

But as so much of the Sherlock study during the show's hiati often digs into ye old Canon Doyle for inspiration and possibilities, I'm still looking for the piece that digs into the original sixty, looks over the entire Watsonian chronicle and deduces "Here! Here is the point where they originally kissed."

Now, a staunch conservative Sherlockian would go, "They never kissed in the Canon! All the evidence there says . . ." blah, blah, blah.  But that's the thing: All the evidence in the Canon says a lot of things. Holmes is a machine. Then Holmes laughs. Holmes is not attracted toward women. Then he writes about how attractive Maud Bellamy is. Like a certain other Canon, you can pretty much find something in the Sacred Sixty to make you feel good about whatever theory you have on Sherlock Holmes.

And that is how the Game is played.

And why there even is a Game. That moment of doubt or possibility on so many subjects that Conan Doyle left us with.

Did Canonical Sherlock and John ever have that big romantic comedy moment when they realized they were more than best of friends and collided in a big, wet smooch?

Well, someone will -- or already has, I'm sure -- find evidence in there somewhere. We had to move on from Watson's wound at some point. (Oooo . . . maybe "Watson's wound" was his in-the-closet secret . . . see how the Canon plays you?) And some day we'll move on from this question as well, to the next one. Everybody gets to have their favorite at some point.

Sherlock Holmes doesn't just solve mysteries. He is a mystery to his fans.

And probably always will be.