Well, keep in mind that these are pure guesses based on little more than my own personal opinions and instincts. That said, personally I don’t think there’ll be backpedaling, but I don’t expect much further progress either. We may very well see more of the same as we got in this episode, but personally I highly doubt we’ll ever see anything more explicitly romantic than we have in this episode.
As for why, another anon in another ask said:
I’d argue that while the BBC may not be homophobic/queerbating/whatever, Mofftiss are. I agree that this is a cultural issue, but I think Moffat especially may be perpetuating it.
He may be. God knows plenty of people believe it, and he has offered them a fair amount of evidence to support their point. But Gatiss and Moffat aren’t the only forces who have a say over this. There’s also the BBC (someone else pointed out that they have in recent years not been opposed to depictions of queer relationships, but on the other hand, Sherlock Holmes is a British cultural treasure, so their opinion might be different in this particular case), and the Doyle Estate (which has threatened others with rescinding their approval for projects if Holmes is interpreted as queer).
So basically I’m reserving judgment on that front and staying away from making assumptions that would result in my resenting someone for something they might not deserve. I mean, Moffat is on record as being an entitled cishet white guy who systematically fails to question his own privilege, so. I figure, blame people for stuff you know they did, but not stuff you’re only assuming they did.
