I wanted to post this, a long time ago, but one of the main fandom friends that I used to talk to about the inter-weaving of Myths and Astrology in BBC Sherlock left ( I miss you @longsnowmoon5!), so I shelved it. Previously, I toyed with the idea of Mycroft as Saturn. That was fun. In A Scandal In Belgravia, Aphrodite Venus, the Empress Tarot, herself, is reincarnated as Irene, who really lived up to the myth, not only coming between Sherlock and John, but also being a strong catalyst for attempting to bring their romantic relationship to the surface. Venus, the planetary body, representative of Love, is known by certain motifs: I will go through them here.
“What are you going to wear?” asks Kate. “My Battle Dress.” answers Irene. “Lucky Boy!” Irene then ask for a lip color in the shade of Blood.
This is awesome @tendergingergirl – Irene Adler is more important to the romantic relationship of Holmes and Watson in ACD canon than I ever realized. She is indeed THE woman, her gender is her disguise and battle dress, or vatican cameo, and she’s the invert of every M characters. I think we’ll see why Sherlock Holmes from being the witness-in-disguise to Irene Adler’s wedding in ACD canon, to being John Watson’s best-man-in-battle-dress in TSoT. Perhaps The 7th Chronical is foreshadowing what’s to come, because:
We’ve been stuck on “the sixth” for a while now – The Six Thatcher, a total of six episodes after TEH (including TAB). “The Big Rat. Rat Number One.” The Giant Rat of Sumatra “a story for which the world is not yet prepared” according to Holmes………
lit his pipe with an ember from the fireplace because he thought it looked cool
feel free to add to this
built a pillow fort in a client’s house
told a guy he was giving him secret government documents and then gave him a book about bees instead
told watson stories about his past solely to avoid cleaning his room
oh i almost forgot
decorated his room with pictures of famous criminals
Ordered a picnic for a pair of newlyweds
Was offended that Watson doesn’t praise his skills as a housekeeper
Waived his fee if his clients are too poor to pay him
Made hot chocolate to wake Watson up on a cold morning
Danced around and bowed to imaginary friends
‘Flushed up with pleasure’ when being praised
Wouldn’t explain how he comes to conclusions because he was worried Watson would think he is ordinary
Grabs Watson’s hand when he’s frightened
Let another puppy lead him on adventures.
WHERE ARE YALL GETTING THIS/1!!1!!!????!?
Leaped over furniture like a gazelle.
•Shook hands with a baby :,}
noticed watson looking sad and touching his old war wound and tried to cheer him up with some deductions about his sparkling eyes
deliberately knocked over a table, shattering a glass fruit bowl which sent fruit rolling everywhere, then blamed it on watson and ran away
was not surprised when a dog died after its owner died, due to the “beautiful, faithful nature of dogs”
sent watson a telegram telling him to come over at once so he could tell him his most recent thoughts about dogs and the importance of their emotions to detective work
told Watson anecdotes about his favorite violinist for an hour while they had lunch together
made a little diagram out of breadcrumbs while explaining something to Watson
Shared a room with watson in a house that had 11 bedrooms
Makes his client wait while he changes into slippers
Has a realistic dummy made of himself and uses it to fool a client
twice
in the same story
Let a jewel thief off one time because:
a, the thief cried
b, the case had been really easy & if the Yard couldn’t solve it then frankly fuck em
c, it was Christmas
And People ™ still think he was an unfeeling, cold man of reason. Honey that man probably slept with a fluffy stuffed bee.
Made a BIG drama about killing a jellyfish with a rock
In The Great Game, Moriarty made Sherlock dance by sending coded messages through the pink replica phone. And in “Many Happy Returns”, we see this:
The box of stuff Greg has of Sherlock’s that he’s kept for some reason and decides to give to John. In it are four important pieces of information – one could even say a game.
A yellow mask, a Hornby Train, Nicotine patches, and the pink phone.
At first glance, seeing the pink phone reminds us of “A Study in Pink”, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that phone. In “The Great Game”, Moriarty sends a replica to Scotland Yard to communicate clues. This phone in the box is more than likely Moriarty’s phone to Sherlock, since it was mailed to him in the first place and therefore Sherlock’s legal property.
This box is a signal for the last pip.
The writers have sent the final pip, alongside the phone. The viewers were given hints as to where the series was going. It’s all in that box. And it’s been there this whole time.
“Nicotine patches. Helps me to think”
This box is meant to be decoded. The patches imply focus, brainwork. The phone is the pip. The mask is a reference to “The Adventure of the Yellow Face” while the train is a reference to Doyle’s “The Lost Special”.
The Adventure of the Yellow Face includes a wife with a huge secret regarding her previous life in America, the potential for blackmail, her chickens coming home to roost, her husband who stays with her no matter what the cost, her husband who (upon her request) doesn’t ask questions she does not want to answer, the concept of whether or not she believes her husband is a “good man” (and that he wants to be a good man), and Sherlock Holmes screwing it all up then instructing Watson to use the term “Norbury” whenever he gets too cocky in the future.
Whew. That’s, like, episodes 8-12 right there.
And this was hinted at before episode 7 aired.
Now let’s look at the train.
By now you must have heard the story of Doyle’s “The Lost Special”. In 1893 he published a detective story about a missing traincar (called a ‘special’) that was detached from the original and hidden somewhere else. This is exactly what happens in episode 7, The Empty Hearse, which is also parallel to “V for Vendetta”. Considering V’s hearse was a detached traincar that went on to blow up Parliament, Sherlock having an “empty hearse” coincides perfectly with the empty traincar positioned under Parliament, as well, and now I have a migraine.
In Sherlock, the missing piece of the train is hidden beneath Sumatra Road and it’s carrying something so disastrous that it must be stopped, lest it unleash hell.
“The roads we walk have demons beneath, and yours have been waiting for a very long time.”
So the yellow mask in the box was pertinent to five episodes spanning two series and eight plot points, but the train in the box was pertinent to only one episode and one throw-away plot point? I don’t buy it.
So here I wait, patient as ever, for that bomb to go off, the one hidden beneath the surface, tied up in legal disputes, the one that was detached from the rest and stowed away for the perfect time when nobody would know what hit them.
They gave us our pip and told us to think, now it’s just a matter of time.
Nice! I would argue, however, since the moment John shot Jefferson Hope, the “original serial killer,” John had ceased the connection of his narrative from that of the 5 pips, or, the past in America, i.e., the original story of Jefferson Hope in A Study in Scarlet.
TBB sort of followed The Sign of the Four, the game is afoot! But instead of the Agra treasure, the quest has become “cracking the codes.” The first time Sherlock and John followed a train track in search of “the lost special,” they found a wall of ciphers. And instead of recovering the lost treasure in the tramway, we had a case of mistaken identity on all sides. Sherlock and John did crack the “book code” in the end, though, but we didn’t, hence, The Great Game.
The Empty House blew up in pieces in the opening minutes of TGG – which means ACD’s The Final Problem was not at all what it seemed. Since then, we’ve been provided breadcrumbs of where to look, why we must bear witness, and perhaps participate, in solving a 130-year-old problem. 7 years on, we are back at where we started:
Read the books – it wasn’t a comment meant to be patronizing, it was a plea – lots of people read ACD canon in the last 130 years, and yet, here we are.
I just realized that John already has the initial for “Holmes” in his name. John H. Watson. John Holmes Watson. Thank you grandad ACD
“And you must be Doctor John Watson, I presume?” “That’d be Doctor John H. Watson.”, I rectified, shaking the man’s hand.
I dared a playful glance at my companion. Holmes never failed to flush up with pleasure at my correction, and the queerly boastful way in which I always uttered it.
36 seconds in and i’m laughing because the D-Notice is signed by ‘E Smallwood’ – way to carefully draw attention to the fact that her name’s not bloody Alicia!
“…the cutter Alicia which sailed one
spring morning into a small patch of mist from where she never again
emerged, nor was anything further ever heard of herself and her crew.“
And the cutter Alicia was based on the Mary Celeste.
Ha. Good old Mary Elizabeth.
Alicia-Elizabeth Smallwood’s codename is Love…it seems the Iceman is finally tempted by Love
but he’s not, because it’s not real, because Alicia doesn’t bloody exist
You know what’s funny about this……
ACD’s J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement is a fictionalized version of the real Mary Celeste. Some took the story as a true account much to ACD’s astonishment.
The story could be one and the same to Watson’s The Cutter Alicia.
If so…… both ships: ACD’s Mary Celeste and Watson’s Alicia stories were meant to be fake AF.
Same could be said for…… Mycroft’s Alicia and John’s Mary Elizabeth “ships” then.
But!! Lady Smallwood – Alicia and Elizabeth, were NOT ONE. But two… Loves.
The kind of love that tempted ACD/Mycroft/John was
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