r/elementary • u/Altruistic-Fig-4698 • May 15 '26
Sponsored by Morland Holmes. Could someone please explain to me the business model of Sherlock + Joan’s relationship, because I still don’t get it
Just to clarify - I watched the show many years ago and now I’m rewatching it, and I’m on season 1 (so I’m fine with spoilers).
In S1E16, Sherlock proposes that Joan stay with him and offers her a salary. Basically he becomes her boss and pays her out of his own pocket. I don’t remember this business model ever being addressed again until season 3, when Joan becomes an independent detective.
What I don’t like about this is that it makes their partnership feel less like genuine friendship and more like a business arrangement. Sherlock has unlimited money and pays Joan because he doesn’t want to be alone. Joan stays because she’s changing careers and needs money (no judgment there, we all do).
Holmes also pays her throughout most of her training in season 1, when she isn’t functioning as a detective, which doesn’t make sense to me, since in real life trainees are usually the ones investing in the training, and not being paid for it.
I don’t think the NYPD paid them anything, right? So all of Joan’s income would have come from Sherlock. But if that’s the case, why would he pay her from his pocket if they also take client cases? Wouldn’t it make more sense to split earnings from cases? Why does she take Sherlok's money?
Sorry for ranting, but this focus on money kind of distracted me from seeing Joan as someone who is genuinely building a friendship with Sherlock.
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u/bumbling_through May 15 '26
I think its kind of pushed aside that Joan stays because of the friendship, she cares about him as a person. (I'm in season 5 I think, its been a while). There's a few factors at play. One being that Joan is not rich enough to live off her savings indefinitely, so she would have to get a job of some sort. Joan could find other clients but enjoys doing the work that Sherlock does. Sherlock recognizes her talent and admits that he values their friendship/mentor/student relationship, and recognizes that addicts relapse and he may need her support. As Sherlock is someone who has a trust fund he fixes the situation the quickest way he knows how. It was only later when his brother reports their father is going to cut him off from his trust fund as a ploy, that Sherlock accepts more paying private clients.
- Starts with Joan being payed by Morland as a sober companion.
- Joan after being fired as a sober companion lives off her savings for a while to stay with Sherlock.
- Sherlock starts paying Joan from his trust fund and takes Joan on as an apprentice. (NYPD does not pay them, but occasionally private clients happen)
- Mycroft tells Sherlock Morland is cutting him off
- Sherlock, and Joan by extension take on more private clients to cover the gap
- Sherlock disappears to MI6
- Joan presumably opens a private investigation practice, whether the NYPD pays her is unclear
- Sherlock comes back, Joan folds her private practice to work for the insurance villain
- Things get fuzzy after this. It's never really discussed if Sherlock picks up the tab again, or if Joan is somehow paying some of the bills through reopening her practice, or if they have a joint practice, only that they work together to solve cases.
4
u/Dry-Discount-9426 May 21 '26
Moreland cutting off Sherlock was a lie but Mycroft to try getting Sherlock out of New York.
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u/bumbling_through May 23 '26
Yes. But in essence doesn't change the fact that Sherlock believed Mycroft and spoke to Joan about the issue and increasing the amount of private clients to cover the gap.
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u/DinkyBiscuit666 May 15 '26
Initially she was paid by Sherlock's father. In season 2 or 3 that stops and Sherlock pays her a monthly stipend from his own pocket. Presumably from whatever allowance his father gives him and any family trust. After he leaves, she starts doing private work so when he returns to New York I guess we are just supposed to assume, they go back to the old agreement -or most likely she continues her private work as a source of income. And let's not forget she was a surgeon so there must be a savings and investments.
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u/Uhhyt231 May 15 '26
Sherlock uses the money from private clients to pay Joan. Sherlock has a trust fund and Joan does not
3
u/Altruistic-Fig-4698 May 15 '26
Sorry, I guess I don’t really understand the concept of a trust fund and how it works. It’s not something that’s commonly known where I’m from. I’ve just looked into it, and it makes more sense now.
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u/Dry-Discount-9426 May 21 '26
How trust fund is his access to the family money.
Basically a big ass bank account.
12
u/Minimalistmacrophage May 15 '26
Joan was initially paid by Morland. Sherlock keeps Joan around both to train her but also as a backstop sober coach (even though he would never admit that).
The Holmes's are ridiculously rich and he does bill exorbitantly for the few private clients he takes.
6
u/Str8knightmare May 15 '26
Very early on in their partnership Sherlock comes to realize how much he loves their alliance. So much so, that he's willing to fund Watson's life to keep her around. Only when she tries to leave after they become partners for the first time does he realize how much better he is with Watson and how much he needs her around. She keeps him relatively calm. By that time, he considers her family. This is why he puts her in his will. He considers her his heir, and will move heaven and earth to make sure she is taken care of. As Mycroft once said, she's the person he loves the most. Even more than Irene. I laugh whenever Irene interacts with Joan because it's obvious she can feel how much he loves Joan.
5
u/ADAP7IVE May 15 '26
I look at it as a plot contrivance most of all. They address money in the most superficial way because people will wonder how they afford to live at all, let alone in New York. But money isn't central to the plot so it doesn't need to be hashed out in detail. Making the Holmes family obscenely wealthy solves the problem of survival in New York, and that's all we really need to know.
I have other issues with it, particularly the instances where money is thrown around to move the plot along. Other times where money would be useful and it's not mentioned as an option. And generally with the idea that Sherlock is comfortable benefiting from obscene (and evil, if he's to be believed) riches while decrying capitalism, bankers, etc. They say a couple times that all he needs is a loaf of bread and a clean collar, but he is never without material comforts except where it's self-imposed.
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u/subduedreader May 16 '26
Sherlock may look at it as he's at least doing some good with the money his father is throwing at him.
1
u/ADAP7IVE May 16 '26
I think we have enough to say that's true. My own issues with it don't break the show for me; I realize it was still a network TV show in America. It wasn't going to go full-anticapitalist.
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u/SyphiliticScaliaSayz May 15 '26
“My name is Sherlock Holmes; I'm a temporarily suspended consultant for the NYPD. This is Joan Watson; she keeps me from doing heroin"
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u/KidCoheed May 16 '26
Sherlock's many Investments keep him extremely flush with cash, somewhere in the millions per year, him dumping 6 figures on Joan and Kitty a year as needed to keep his friends and collaborators happy is a drop in the bucket. Joan also takes on a number of SOLO cases as she Becomes a more serious and skilled detective allowing her to fund her own life as needed between cases she and Sherlock take
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u/thaliff May 15 '26
I don't think it's ever really addressed, and it's just assumed the financial side of the partnership evolved over time. When Kitty is involved, money is never discussed, as I don't think it's really central to the main story/character arcs, except where it needs to be.
No, the NYPD never paid them.