marathecactupus:

gosherlocked:

The Parallels

You may know how much I love looking for parallels and mirrors in “Sherlock”. I am not sure if this has been discussed before but in TAB and S4 we get two women  

• who wear white
• who kill people with guns
• who fake their deaths actively or passively
• who are identified by a song
• whose names start with an “E”

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Wow, I really like this connection! It makes me wonder: if Eurus is a repeat of Emelia, was there an “original” woman on which they were both based?

Dark hair, white dress… there seem to be two candidates for this one:

Hmm… (Does “fake relationship” sound familiar? *cough* bus lady *cough*)

While I love Janine, I can’t remember her ever using a gun, so I’m just going to skip over her for the moment because the other option just fits so darn well:

White dress, dark hair… but a gun? Irene doesn’t– oh, wait:

*I mean, Emelia was involved with a man who had connections to America, too…*

So here’s what we’ve got:

• faked death/was assumed dead
• names start with and contain lots of vowels (and “i” and “e” are very similar sounds)
• presence is announced by a specific noise – not a song in Irene’s case, but a ringtone. It has a similar effect; it’s simple, personalized, and kind of out of place for its surroundings

I’m sure there have been plenty of metas comparing Irene and Emelia, since their appearances really are strikingly similar, so I’ll focus on Irene and Eurus.

First of all, both mention “Christmas presents;” Irene sends Sherlock her gift-wrapped phone for Christmas when she fakes her death, while Eurus talks about getting her violin and Moriarty as gifts.

1. Irene had the Moriarty connection too… and even though it’s kind of assumed that Moriarty is the ultimate boss, maybe Eurus’s mind-control/collaboration with Moriarty was meant to show that Irene actually had more power than she got credit for. I mean, she was the one to go to Moriarty in the first place, and even though she texted him the info about Bond Air, that was mutually beneficial. She didn’t just do his bidding because he’s the villain; it was a business transaction. She had power. The only reason why she didn’t win was because she wanted to have fun with Sherlock, and he figured that out in the end. With Irene, he guessed the passcode because of her interest in him; with Eurus, he solved her riddle and realized that she was calling for help. (Come to think of it – did Irene interact with anyone other than Sherlock, Mycroft and John? Or is this another similarity to Eurus?)

2. The violin connection is interesting, because Sherlock played the violin a lot in ASIB. In fact, one of his two compositions that we hear is “Irene’s theme” (which is probably about his feelings for John), and of course there’s the famous moment from the opening credits montage where he plucks a violin string so sensuously in front of the fire while spacing out thinking about John, before Irene tries to get him to talk about dinner. And then of course he plays “Irene’s theme” for Eurus, when she tells him to play “you.” (My mind just made a “you”/Emelia connection. Gah.)

We also see Sherlock play the violin at the very beginning of TAB, before Lestrade comes in with the Emelia case. Wait, hang on… what day is it….

IT’S CHRISTMAS. Emelia carries out her plan around Christmas time. (I don’t know if it’s the exact date…?) There was literally no other reason for this, since we get zero Christmas festivities, and the holiday isn’t so much as mentioned except for the awkward moment when they all get their “Merry Christmas”es out of the way and get on to interrogating Lestrade about the case.

So… what is the point of this? Why all the similarities?

Well, this is how I see it:

Irene was enormously important to Sherlock. In fact, she was pretty much the only woman of note: she rivaled him in intellect, challenged his assumptions, offered enough of a mystery to feed his curiosity. (Sorry, but Molly and Mrs. Hudson are both side characters, even acknowledged as such: “I don’t count”/“I’m your landlady, not a plot device,” and Janine and Mary are more relevant to Sherlock’s relationship with John than to him personally.) Irene was The Woman, the model upon which Emelia and Eurus are based. (This is even echoed in Emelia’s description as the Bride, and I suppose in Eurus’s “the east wind,” although that wasn’t used so much.)

So why the Emelia/Eurus dichotomy? Well, you can see Irene in two different ways:

• as Emelia, Irene is involved in a noble cause. She seems a lot
  more respected than Eurus; I certainly tear up every time I watch the
  scene in the crypt where Sherlock explains that “every great cause has
  martyrs; every war has suicide missions” and describes the army of women
  “ready to rise up in the best of causes, to put right an injustice as
  old as humanity itself.” It’s clear that Sherlock respects Emelia and
  her cause. I like the common theory that Sherlock views himself as a
  similar martyr; he faked his death for John, and then was forced to
  watch him wed another. The bride’s connection to Mary is clear, but she
  seems to be meant more as a mirror for Sherlock. Her connection to Irene
  is likely due to the fact that Irene was instrumental in helping
  Sherlock to puzzle out his heart; she came between him and John,
  revealing their feelings for each other. And remember, Irene is also a
  mirror for Sherlock. She faked her death as part of the long game (and
  hopefully is now happily reunited with Kate); she was strategic, a
  “formidable opponent.”
• as Eurus, Irene is clever, manipulative, involved with Moriarty. She understands people and likes to play games with them; we even get a horrific allusion to sexual desires (and much as I hate to think about it, maybe Irene’s lesbianism is what inspired Eurus’s comment about not noticing the gender of the nurse she ravaged). She can also be seen as childish. She doesn’t seem to care that people will get hurt (both use tranquilizers/drugs, and refer to people more as playthings with uses, rather than as fellow human beings). At the end of the day, her game is unfulfilling, and she is saved by Sherlock’s mercy.
• Irene’s taunts about Sherlock seem to have influenced Eurus’s mocking tone. She asks about sex in a very direct manner, which undoubtedly stuck with him. There’s also some taunts along the lines of “don’t be so boring.” It seems that this version of Irene is much less mature than Irene herself; I would say that either this demonstrates Sherlock’s feelings about sentiment as a silly game, or it serves as an immature mirror for how Sherlock sees himself. (Remember, Irene was a mirror for Sherlock, too.)
• the airplane connection is something to think about…

….aaaand this is getting really long so I think I’ll bring it to a close, but I would love to keep talking about this later so please add your thoughts onto this!

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TL; DR: Sherlock is haunted by the memory of Irene, and so she keeps reappearing in his Mind Palace. Emelia represents the noble, intelligent qualities that Sherlock respects about her, and that he likely sees in himself; Eurus represents the more monstrous, childish characteristics that he doesn’t like to confront.