Page 52 - SHERLOCK transcripts

51

(Angelo offers his hand to John, who shakes it.)
SHERLOCK: Three years ago I successfully proved to Lestrade at the time of a particularly
vicious triple murder that Angelo was in a completely different part of town, house-breaking.
ANGELO (to John): He cleared my name.
SHERLOCK: I cleared it a bit. Anything happening opposite?
ANGELO: Nothing. (He looks at John again.) But for this man, I’d have gone to prison.
SHERLOCK: You did go to prison.
ANGELO (to John): I’ll get a candle for the table. It’s more romantic.
JOHN (indignantly, as Angelo walks away): I’m not his date!
(Sherlock puts his own menu down onto the table.)
SHERLOCK: You may as well eat. We might have a long wait.
(Angelo comes back with a small glass bowl containing a lit tea-light. He puts it onto the table
and gives John a thumbs-up before turning and walking away again.)
JOHN (a little tetchily): Thanks(!)

Later, John has a plate of food in front of him and is eating from it. Sherlock’s attention is fixed
out of the window and he is quietly drumming his fingers on the table.
JOHN: People don’t have arch-enemies.
(It takes a moment but Sherlock finally looks round.)
SHERLOCK: I’m sorry?
JOHN: In real life. There are no arch-enemies in real life. Doesn’t happen.
SHERLOCK (disinterestedly, looking out of the window again): Doesn’t it? Sounds a bit dull.
JOHN: So who did I meet?
SHERLOCK: What do real people have, then, in their ‘real lives’?
JOHN: Friends; people they know; people they like; people they don’t like ... Girlfriends,
boyfriends ...
SHERLOCK: Yes, well, as I was saying – dull.
JOHN: You don’t have a girlfriend, then?
SHERLOCK (still looking out of the window): Girlfriend? No, not really my area.
JOHN: Mm.
(A moment passes before he realises the possible significance of this statement.)
JOHN: Oh, right. D’you have a boyfriend?
(Sherlock looks round at him sharply.)
JOHN: Which is fine, by the way.
SHERLOCK: I know it’s fine.
(John smiles to indicate that he wasn’t signifying anything negative by what he said.)
JOHN: So you’ve got a boyfriend then?
SHERLOCK: No.
JOHN (still smiling, though his smile is becoming a little fixed and awkward): Right. Okay.
You’re unattached. Like me. (He looks down at his plate, apparently rapidly running out of
things to say.) Fine. (He clears his throat.) Good.
(He continues eating. Sherlock looks at him suspiciously for a moment but then turns his
attention out of the window again. However, he then appears to replay John’s statement in his
head and looks a little startled. Turning his head towards John again, he starts speaking rather
awkwardly but rapidly speeds up and is almost babbling by the time John interrupts him.)
SHERLOCK: John, um ... I think you should know that I consider myself married to my work,
and while I’m flattered by your interest, I’m really not looking for any ...
JOHN (interrupting): No. (He turns his head briefly to clear his throat.) No, I’m not asking. No.
(He fixes his gaze onto Sherlock’s, apparently trying to convey his sincerity.)
JOHN: I’m just saying, it’s all fine.
(Sherlock looks at him for a moment, then nods.)
SHERLOCK: Good. Thank you.
(He turns his attention back to the street. John looks away with an bemused expression on his
face as if asking himself, ‘What the heck was all that about?!’ Just then, Sherlock nods out of
the window.)
SHERLOCK: Look across the street. Taxi.
(John twists in his seat to look out of the window where a taxi has parked at the side of the
road with its back end towards the restaurant.)
SHERLOCK: Stopped. Nobody getting in, and nobody getting out.
(In the rear seat of the taxi the male passenger is looking through the side windows as if trying
to see somebody particular.)

Transcripts by Ariane DeVere (arianedevere@livejournal.com)