Philip Anderson, the penitent

Sherlock and Philip Anderson have a special relationship, from the beginning. Sherlock usually ignores people, but he dislikes, despises Anderson. His presence makes him nervous. 

In a study in pink, he asks Lestrade who the forensic is, and let slip “he denigrates me”. That’s what lots of people do (including Sally Donovan, for example). So why does he care?

When they meet, the contempt between them is tangible. Both childish, they try to tease and provoke each other (Sherlock playing much better this stupid game, of course). Each one seizes any opportunity to humiliate the other one.

Sherlock: “Turn your face to the wall!” Anderson:"What?" Lestrade (exhales) "Do as he says".Sherlock: “Anderson, don't talk aloud, you’re lowering the IQ of the whole street.”

So when Anderson, along with his colleague and sometimes mistress Donovan, is convinced that Sherlock really stepped over the line and became a kidnapper, he charges him as much as he can… and successfully takes his part in Sherlock’s fall, as planned by Moriarty.

Two years later (beginning of season 3), we discover a completely different Anderson, metamorphosed into a humble fan of the great detective. 

After Sherlock’s death, Anderson could have kept his certainties. He could have thought that was a logical end, more or less deserved, for such a psychopath. But God knows why, he didn’t; he began to doubt… Doubt he was right about Sherlock’s guiltiness; doubt about his very death –creating “the empty hearse”, a club of those who don’t believe it. A long time skeptic and critic about Sherlock’s genius, he becomes in turn the target of skepticism of his colleagues.

An evidence that Anderson, behaving as a stupid asshole in the beginning, was never a bad cop, after all. Maybe is that what Sherlock detected in him, and the reason why he noticed him. When he returns, he will grant a sort of special interview to Anderson. Tribute or mockery? Probably both altogether.

Jonathan Aris gives a pretty good performance with this complex character, annoying but charming, though. The role is not very clear in the first season (forensic or detective?) and wins in consistency in 3.1 "the empty hearse". But there is still more to learn from Anderson.