I’ve seen a lot of anti-EMP-people argue that EMP doesn’t make any sense because it wasn’t in the original ACD!stories:
“Why would Mofftiss even go for this? Just because they like ‘Inception’? Isn’t BBC ‘Sherlock’ supposed to be read on a meta level, as well? As more than just an adaptation of the original ACD!stories, as a commentary on all the other adaptations that have been done before, as a commentary on the relationship between author, audience, and the Sherlock Holmes character that has existed for more than 120 years?”
Well, I think I just had a little epiphany about that.
EMP actually makes a lot of sense not just in-universe, but also on a meta level!
But first of all, let’s remember how they foreshadowed EMP right at the very start of the show in ASiP in that very first scene that establishes Sherlock as a character for us:
In this screenshot Sherlock visually becomes one with the dead body lying on the slab. And that’s no coincidence. That dead body represents Sherlock Holmes (the man who, as Molly points out, “used to work here”).
So, we have a dead body who represents Sherlock Holmes, and a Sherlock who peers down on ‘himself’ from above.
You know…like in a near-death experience! (Thank you @monikakrasnorada, for this idea. This wouldn’t have occurred to me if you hadn’t pointed out how much TFP is like a near-death experience in our recent collaborative creative ‘shouting match’: here.:))
So, this is some nice foreshadowing of a near-death experience right there.
It tells us that Sherlock will, at some point in the show, be in two places at once: lying somewhere unconscious/in a coma (almost dead), yet also experiencing a lot of things outside his own body at the same time (or rather deep inside his own brain, as near-death experiences go).
He will be lying down, near dead, but also be very alive in his mind palace. Just like in the ASiP screenshot above.
In s4, people will try to wake Sherlock up. (As has been said before, this is probably what John beating Sherlock up in TLD and screaming, “Wake up!” is all about.) People will literally try to get a reaction out of his unconscious body.
Which again was foreshadowed in the same ASiP scene when Sherlock is literally trying to ‘get a reaction’ out of the body that’s lying there. (On the surface level of the text, Sherlock beats this dead body with a riding crop to see if bruises will form after death. But on a metaphorical level, he is trying to get a reaction out of himself, the ‘dead’ body. Just like John is when John is beating him in TLD. John, too, will be trying to get a reaction out of Sherlock in s4: He will try to wake him up.)
I’m actually astounded by how well the foreshadowing works here: Molly (the John mirror No. 1) is looking at Sherlock beating himself from outside of the room.
This means that this ASiP scene can read like this:
The room=Sherlock being trapped by walls, ie, trapped inside his own body (in a coma)
Both Sherlock and the dead body=two different aspects of Sherlock (the awake one in his mind palace and the unconscious one lying there)
Molly=John who is forced to look at coma!Sherlock from the outside, but can’t actually interfere with what’s going on inside the ‘room’, ie, inside Sherlock
Nice.
So, now that we have established that this scene neatly foreshadows Sherlock’s EMP, let’s go one step further.
We have now looked at two levels expressed in this scene: 1) the literal (textual) surface level and 2) the metaphorical/symbolic (foreshadowing) level of this scene.
But we haven’t looked at the third level yet.
3) The third level is the overarching meta level: the level that examines the relationship between author, audience, adaptations and the Sherlock Holmes character that has existed for more than 120 years.
I’m sure I’m telling you nothing new when I say that the dead body in this ASiP scene represents the Sherlock Holmes character that we’ve known for more than a 120 years.
What are we shown in this ASiP scene? Sherlock (who represents our BBC-Mofftiss-Sherlock show) beating that ‘dead horse’ (with a riding crop:)) that is the 120 year-old Sherlock Holmes character.
This is actually quite a nice commentary on what Mofftiss, in their usual sarcastic way, think the Sherlock Holmes character has become over the last 120 years: dead! A dead body.
That’s their verdict.
‘Sherlock Holmes’ as a sujet has been done to death. There have been more than 200 adaptations all over the world. The character has literally become a dead body with no pulse.
He has been shown with his typical attributes so often that we can’t think of him as a living human being anymore.
Sherlock Holmes has become the pipe and the hat and the horse carriages and the gas lamps and the cases, the man who frowns on love and/or falls in love with Irene Adler, the man who says, ‘Elementary, my dear Watson,’ even though he never did that in the books.
In short, Sherlock Holmes, the 120-year-old character, has become a dead body stuffed with all sorts of attributes that make it impossible for us to see him as an interesting, living human being. He has literally been done to death.
And (I’m sure I’m telling you nothing new here) this BBC Sherlock adaptation turns up and beats the shit out of this dead body to see if it can maybe, maybe still get a reaction out of this dead body, if it can make that dead body react like a living, breathing thing.
This has all been discussed amongst fans before, and it’s all shown to us in that one ASiP scene: Sherlock (representing the BBC Sherlock show) is trying to get a reaction out of Sherlock Holmes, the dead body (the character that has been done to death).
But what has this got to do with EMP?
Well, if this ASiP scene foreshadows Sherlock in an EMP at some point in the show, then the meta reading of this ASiP scene has to extend to EMP, as well.
So, what Mofftiss are telling us is that Sherlock, in a coma, represents the 200 or so adaptationsthat have been done over the past century.
It’s quite cheeky and self confident. But that’s how Mofftiss are, after all.
Sherlock in a coma/unconscious/almost dead Sherlock is a Sherlock without a pulse, a Sherlock who isn’t living up to the potential of his character anymore.
EMP!Sherlock represents the 200 adaptations that have been done before this one.
If Mofftiss manage, in s5, to wake Sherlock up, then this is a general commentary on how they have ‘woken up’ the Sherlock Holmes character after his 120-year-long, Zombie-like state of being near-dead.
They (Mofftiss) are the ones to breathe new life into the Sherlock Holmes character. That’s what the waking up of Sherlock, in s5, will mean.
(Note that, for this meta reading, it is totally irrelevant when EMP started. The starting point could be HLV or TRF or the pool or even the pilot.)
The point Mofftiss are trying to make is that at the beginning of the show, Sherlock (read: BBC Sherlock, the show) was trying to get a reaction out of a dead body (read: the Sherlock Holmes character).
And at the end of the show (s5), Mofftiss will do more than just that: They won’t just get a few reactions out of the character. They will bring him back to life. They will give him a beating heart again.
And since I’m almost certain that John Watson will be the one to wake Sherlock up in s5 (or to be involved in his waking up somehow), this will also mean that this new awakening of THE ‘Sherlock Holmes character’ will happen through love, through gay love, to be precise!
In short, what Mofftiss are telling us is that Sherlock Holmes without his gay identity and without the love for John that comes with it is an almost dead, comatose Sherlock Holmes.
The Sherlock Holmes character that has been adapted on screen (and on stage) more than 200 times across the world is a zombie, a dead body, a comatose entity BECAUSE HE IS DEVOID OF HIS GAY IDENTITY as represented by his love for John Watson!
That’s what EMP means. That’s why it’s there.
Coma!Sherlock is the 200 adaptations. Because these adaptations took away his reason to live (his gay identity, ie, his love for John).
In short: Anti-Emp-fans are right in a sense: Because, yes, EMP was never in the ACD!canon.
But that’s not the point!
EMP has nothing to do with Arthur Conan Doyle.
EMP is a commentary on what has been done to Sherlock Holmes for the last 120 years in adaptation after adaptation after adaptation.
All of these adaptations have turned Sherlock into a dead character that can only be gay on the inside (in his mind palace), torturing himself on the inside, but being dead, comatose and without a pulse on the outside.
That’s what EMP is.
The Mofftiss adaptation, however, will bring this character back to life. They will wake him up! By giving him his gay identity, his heart, his John back.
@sagestreet, let me love you. This. All of this. I mean, what is there to say?? I love absolutely every word.
For EMPers here from the beginning, it’s been a long hard year and a half of ridicule and dismissal. I really never have understood exactly why EMP theory has been so derided. It was never a theory to dismiss or excuse what we didn’t like about anything in the show. It was literally what we saw happening.
BBC ‘Sherlock’ supposed to be read on a meta level, as well?
Why does one exclude the other? Maybe there is something about reading on a meta level that I don’t get because I thought we were reading it through subtext and the ‘meta level’. Through intertextual readings like the film Stay and a theatre of the absurd in order to tell the story of Sherlock’s inner self. Is that not meta enough? Just because you don’t have a phd in English lit or something to even understand this theory, then it isn’t worthy of being considered?
Sometimes I really believe that Moriarty was speaking to this fandom when he told Sherlock he was wrong to want everything to be so clever. The key code was never anything. It was simple daylight robbery.
“Sometimes a deception is so audacious, so outrageous that you can’t even see it when it’s staring you in the face.”
It’s hard to imagine a deception more audacious and more outrageous as EMP, and it’s been staring us in the face this whole time. 🙂
What could be more meta than the opportunity to actually see inside the world’s foremost deductive mind. It’s certainly something that’s never been done before.
I, for one, can’t believe i didn’t notice the fact that both ASIP and TLD had similar “corpse-beatings in the morgue” scenes. This is such a good meta, thank you for this
Anytime we’ve been shown John writing up his blog- onscreen- it has looked like this:
However, in T6T, whenever we see the writing of John’s blog, it appears like this:
Nothing about the “Blog of John H Watson” or date, merely the title (we know how much Sherlock really loves the titles, no matter what he says because that is not the face of a man who could care less about the title)
Why change the format?
We also see that John isn’t even present for some of the cases, when clearly the ‘write-ups’ reflect that who ever is writing them was there when the client showed up:
For each and every case we see in this montage, the text of the blog posts coincides with Sherlock being on his phone, typing away, making it look as if he is writing them.
AND, the only time we see John ‘writing’ anything, it is a fake:
You gotta be kidding me pls look at this tho: these are screenshots from TST (Ajay being tortured) …….I mean honestly?! When I saw this scene I immediately thought of the “Jack the Ripper” scene. I think there is no other scene in the whole series that has these kind of lights and the blueish/greenish lighting.
It’s all fake. Whole s4 = EMP or at least somoehow twisted, We just don’t know the specific way yet…
Also, the shadow of the person does remind me A LOT of Sherlock in Serbia but that’s no news…
I don’t share all of these ideas, but I hadn’t noticed Sherlock’s death dates on CAM’s profile before reading this, so… interesting.
Honestly, there are So. Many. things wrong with CAM’s profiles that I literally find it hard to look at them. I still remember feeling embarrassed for the writers when I realized that Sherlock’s “there’s a lot” list was only six items on an infinite loop… but those profiles just keep giving and giving. They can’t be THAT full of errors and inconsistencies accidentally, but I can’t think of a reason why they would be like this.
“You seem so much better, John.” “Yeah, I…I am. I think I am. Not all day, not every day, but, you know.” “It is what it is?” “Yeah.” […] “And Sherlock Holmes?” “Back to normal.”
But, why is John so much better, and Sherlock “back to normal”? Well, they tell us: IT IS WHAT IT IS (says love). Love is the answer.
(An aside: of course that again confirms someone’s been spying on John and Sherlock’s private moments, and if the therapist is actually Mary (seeEurus is fake: MARY is the true EAST WIND)…then Yikes at her taunting John with “it is what it is.”)
The thing is, John doesn’t share everything with his therapist, he holds details back. I always thought it was weird that straight after The Hug scene we get this establishing exterior shot of 221B:
Why do we need this? We already know that we’re inside 221B for the hug, why do we need to fade out to this if we’re just going right back to the living room?
Because, it implies some distance. (Literally and metaphorically). Something’s being held back from us- temporarily. And here’s some proof: see this post by @waitedforgarridebs. We know that there was likely a scene in between that hug fadeout and John and Sherlock getting ready to go out to ‘the cake place.’
And, disregarding this missing scene, didn’t you get the impression that John was going to… say Something Else? He ‘seems so much better’- perhaps he had decided that the therapy sessions with a new face had run their course- time to go back to Ella?
And, of course, we have John smiling up there at the thought of his Sherlock doing well, too. I don’t know about you, but I was half holding my breath, expecting them to show us John and Sherlock, smiling and chatting while having cake or something.
The hug felt like a bridge on their road to proper communication: we almost had Sherlock finish this loaded sentence: “Forgive me, but you are doing yourself a disservice. I have known many people in this world but made few friends, and I can safely say…” (x); We had John admit he “still wanted more”, ranting about ‘missed chances’ and how ‘romantic entanglement would complete Sherlock as a human being.’; We had Sherlock get frustrated at John’s wrong assumption about him and Irene: “Oh, for God’s sake, I don’t text her back!”
We knew what all of this was signposting towards: a romance between John and Sherlock finally blossoming, and being recognised for what it is. And we still know. The Final Problem is the horror film temporarily hijacking and interrupting our beautiful love story. (x)
My prediction is that the next episode will open on John being shot in TLD, and we’ll get a ‘life flashing before his eyes’ moment: including these missing scenes, moments where they are much closer than normal- not a couple, not yet, but the audience will see their relationship is undeniably heading that way. And that will make the Garridebs moment even more gutwrenching, John lying there, thinking he will never be able to say the things he wanted to say and couldn’t…
And, of course, Sherlock will experience the same when he finds John. His “I love you” confession will save John Watson, and bring him back to life.
Yes, this, thank you very much @jenna221b! Honestly –and I’m sure I’m not the only one who felt like this– that bit in TLD before the hug, had me on the edge of my seat feeling exactly the same as when watching the tarmac scene in HLV. I thought that was it, that I was about to see a love confession; but again, it derailed into something else.
And adding to your analysis of John’s mood when talking to Eurus–actually the bit of dialogue that ellipsis refers to– he implies having spent quality time with Sherlock and Rosie. I wrote about it HERE, it’s clear John’s quoting Sherlock in the way he talks about Rosie, and he does it with the warmest smile on his face. Add to that what Sherlock told John about wanting to go to his house to see Rosie, and you can see it’s left implied that there’s quite a
meaningful time-jump in there which was very important for both of them, and given that this is “The Sherlock and John Show”, if it was ommited, it’s because showing it would give something away… seems to me it’s the same reason why they told us Sherlock taught John how to watlz, but chose not to show it.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
Interesting. Not quite agree with everything, but interesting. I still think that only EMP stretching back to HLV (or preferably TRF) could redeem the show. But I’m starting to give up faith. “Sherlock” is dead and “Dracula” news pretty much confirmed it. It’s heartbreaking and I will never be over it.
Back in
EMP land, Sherlock is dying and Eurus needs to land the plane if she wants to
survive. And while she is rightfully worried and John about to drown, Sherlock
is pulling out of his ass a stupid solution for Eurus’ song. That’s when we
start saying that ‘Eurus’ really had time to lose to grave these tombstones in
order to fit that song.
But,
really, the correct answer is ‘Eurus created that song in a way to explain the
wrong dates’. The song isn’t a puzzle, it’s the solution needed because the
graves are the puzzle that fascinated Sherlock as a child.
A fake
gravestone where Nemo Holmes was ‘buried’. But really, Nemo was no one.
Or
nobody. There was no body.
You
can’t really face your own grave, can you? Unless you have a TARDIS, all you
can do is have a gravestone with your name on it and no date of death. You’re
still not dead so the dates will be necessarily wrong.
Basically,
if you want to survive, you need to figure out the contradiction your
gravestone is telling you. Show the inconsistencies and reveal it as a fake.
Here
starts the puzzle. Now that the inconsistencies are laid bare, you need to find
how that can tell you how to survive.
SHERLOCK:
The wrong dates, she used the wrong dates on the gravestones as the key to the
cipher and the cipher was the song.
Here,
Stupid Sherlock strikes again.
The reverse is what happened.
Do you
know what an Ottendorf code is? You have a set of numbers and they refers to a
word of a page of a very specific book. We are facing a book cipher, not
dissimilar to an Ottendorf.
The cipher is the graveyard, the key is the song.
The
graves represent the number of the stanza and the numbers the words used in said
stanza in ascending order. If you start with a number like 28 and then use 1,
that just means you need to use the last stanza above (word 28).
Grave 1
(Stanza 1): 134-1719 -> 1 3 4 17 19
I AM LOST HELP ME
Here we
can’t do 13 because we have 4 after, nor 34, so 1 3 4, now we are in the two
digits 17 and 19
Grave 2
(Stanza 2): 28.9.1520 -> 28 9 15 20 BROTHER SAVE MY LIFE
We could
have 2, 8, 9, 15 and 20 but then you get NOT SHADE SAVE MY LIFE, so 28 it is.
Grave 3
(Stanza 3): 1818 24 26 -> 1 8 18 24 26 BEFORE MY DOOM I AM
No
choice is there? You can use the last like of the last stanza but that’s is so
no 18. 1 8 and 18
Grave 4
(Stanza 4): Nemo Holmes: 1617-1822 32 -> 16 17 18 22 32 MY SOUL SEEK MY ROOM
If it’s
1, 6 and 17, It’s WITHOUT BEFORE SOUL, so 16 and the rest follows
You’ll notice that there is a part of the final message missing, so there is a grave missing.
GRAVE
4.0.0: LOST WITHOUT YOUR LOVE SAVE
So grave 4.0.0 should be : 28 1 2 3 8 in any combination.
What can
we have then?
2/8/1238?
28/12/38? 2812 age 38? Age 28 1238? 2812-38? 28.1.238?
The
grave stones aren’t real, the numbers are wrong, but at minimum they give for a
second an illusion of reality. Yes, there are two centuries of difference, but
you won’t have many graves stones starting
in the 29th century. Also we can’t start with the age of the
dead Holmes, this comes only at the end.
You can
have 2/8/1238, or even something like 28/12/38 or 28/1/238 but there is another
option I want to point out.
2/8/12,
Age 38.
Here
lies Mr. Holmes, born on the 6th of January 1974 who died the 2nd
of August 2012 at 38.
I admit,
I’m not using John’s blog to estimate Sherlock’s “deathday” because, mainly,
Watson was always shit at keeping track of dates.
But we need another Holmes grave, one that is
the fakest fake to have ever faked the word. Also, it’s the only things that makes sense. Why wouldn’t they show the
final grave needed if the numbers used were so pointless?
They
gave us a solution that is missing a fifth of the answer, and not the least
important because this is where we get the answer ‘LOST WITHOUT YOUR LOVE SAVE’.
So, the
secret behind Sherlock’s grave, the one thing that turned his own grave into a
pure architectural joke and not a genuine thing, the one thing that made sure that Sherlock is still alive is Love.
By solving these fake deaths, Sherlock found the answer to save the plane before it crashes and creates a far more genuine grave.
SHERLOCK: Help me, brother, save my life, before my doom. I am lost without your love, save my soul, seek my room.
Without Sherlock’s love, Eurus won’t be able to find her way home, back to London and the ground.
Twice already Sherlock tricked death in two finale, twice love is what gave Sherlok the means to survive. He just needs to do it again.
Love conquers all, even death.
Mofftiss can suck it because the Sherlock fandom is so much smarter and cleverer than they could ever hope to be. This is amazing, @impossibleleaf!!!!! I don’t know how you did it, but this is just fascinating! Figuring this out like this renews my faith that we aren’t just a collection of deluded little misfits. That what we are seeing, deciphering, decoding IS real and true. Because, honestly, how could it not be at this point??
They gave us a solution that is missing a fifth of the answer, and not the least important because this is where we get the answer ‘LOST WITHOUT YOUR LOVE SAVE’.
Let’s just take a moment to think about that^^^^^ and what it potentially means.
I that am lost, oh who will find me? Deep down below the old beech tree Help succor me now the east winds blow Sixteen by six, brother, and under we go!
Be not afraid to walk in the shade Save one, save all, come try! My steps five by seven Life is closer to Heaven Look down, with dark gaze, from on high.
Before he was gone right back over my hill Who now will find him? Why, nobody will Doom shall I bring to him, I that am queen Lost forever, nine by nineteen.
Without your love he’ll be gone before Save pity for strangers, show love the door My soul seek the shade of my willow’s bloom Inside, brother mine Let Death make a room.
This is the full version of Eurus’ song. If you follow correctly, Grave 1=Stanza 1, Grave 2=Stanza 2 and Grave 3=Stanza 3.
But, I hope you realize that the missing grave is actually the fourth part of the solution, not the fifth.
It so goes like this:
Grave 1 -> Stanza 1 (I AM LOST HELP ME)
Grave 2 -> Stanza 2 (BROTHER SAVE MY LIFE)
Grave 3 -> Stanza 3 (BEFORE MY DOOM I AM)
Secret Grave -> Stanza 4 (LOST WITHOUT YOUR LOVE SAVE)
Grave 4 -> Stanza 4 (MY SOUL SEEK MY ROOM)
And for the five graves we need, Mofftiss decided to be lazy enough to recycle the fourth stanza.
It may be seen as overthinking and perhaps I’m wrong, but if you link the graves and the riddle with what is happening with the show’s seasons, you realize that the secret grave is actually between Season 3 and Season 4, or another version of the fourth grave.
So, if grave and stanza=1 season, we have two Seasons 4 (or 1 Season 4 and 1 Lost Special that happened before S4).
The extended chess metaphor which is so central to S4 is pretty interesting because we already know from TEH that chess actually represents a game of Operation between Mycroft and Sherlock, where Mycroft “can’t handle a broken heart” after Sherlock returns from Serbia to find John engaged to Mary.
It makes all the chess promo pics, which really have nothing to do with the actual textual content of Season Four, really intriguing because they feature Mycroft and Sherlock having this calculated battle of wits with John just sitting between them like he’s the one whose heart is central to the game — like if Sherlock’s heart ‘breaks’ so does John’s by proxy. He also looks a bit like a gamesmaster, or someone who’s mediating/watching it all unfold.
And then we have that final promo pic where Sherlock breaks the fourth wall and throws the chess pieces away like, ‘Screw this — I’m not playing anymore’ like he’s abandoning the idea Mycroft gave him that intelligence/planning/oneupmanship and repressing your emotions is the only way to protect people, and instead realising that to ‘win’ he has to take the risk that comes with embracing emotions.
This links into how chess is typically depicted in films as a metaphor for intelligence and strategy, but it also links in with ideas of preoccupation and being incredibly focused on ‘making the right move’ to the point of exclusion of all else.
There’s this really specific narrative trope that I’m only familiar with because I watch too much TV, which sticks out to me here. As I couldn’t find any single page for it on TV Tropes here’s the best summary I could manage:
“A character is stuck in a dreamscape/alternate reality of their own making, existing within their subconscious. Within this illusion their preoccupation with a strategy game such as chess/checkers, created by a character that acts as a facet of the protag’s mind, works as a metaphor for an inability to let go of not letting people in and depending on your intellect in combination with a fear of ‘losing’ and taking risks.
The climax of these bottle episodes occurs when the protagonist overcomes their inner struggle by realising that the only way to ‘win’ is not to play.
They then proceed to ‘break the rules’ in some way, whether it’s walking away from the game board, flipping it, dying/jumping off a building Inception-style, etc., and they then wake up in the real world having developed as a character.”
This trope has origins in the 1983 film WarGames where “the only winning move is not to play”.
The most obvious examples I can think of of this are from cheesy shows like Teen Wolf (3×22 – “De-Void”) or The Magicians (1×04 – “The World In the Walls”) where the writers really spell out the metaphor and the protagonists literally smash game boards to wake up.
Other examples of include Supernatural (2×20 – ”What Is and What Should Never Be” and 8×20 – “Pac-Man Fever”), Inception, and Doctor Who (5×07 – “Amy’s Choice” — which is a bit like 9×0 – “Last Christmas”).
Holy shit. So I’m rewatching TLD for the one billionth time focusing on the set and background significance, as you do, and I’m freaking out????
Basically in the scene where Sherlock has his meltdown on the bridge and then finds himself in the middle of the street, only to have Wiggins tell him he’s actually in 221b, we get the spinning around on the ceiling scene and the skull is just going nuts. So much happens at once that I didn’t think about it take by take, but now that I’m really going over it … I have some thoughts.
Here’s a basic breakdown:
When we first see Sherlock slam into the wall, the skull painting glows white.
Then we get a shot of Culverton Smith who I see as being the physical manifestation of Sherlock’s self-loathing and suicidal thoughts + a dark!John mirror, saying “kill” and slamming a big red button. And another one of him making a “w” with his hands, winning some sort of charity race.
Then, in the background you can literally hear hospital alarms start clanging and John voice saying Sherlock’s name.
And we get another shot of Culverton again shutting down a store on his show Business Killer with a “Sorry! We’re CLOSED” sign.
Then the soundtrack abruptly kicks with these really ominous, feverish strings of like, impending doom, and the skull has changed to a dark magenta/maroon-ish colour.
Then we get a shot of Culverton laughing and saying “anyone” and Molly’s voice echoing the “anyone” from the “he’d have anyone but you” scene.
So … Sherlock’s on the brink of death — and his self-loathing and suicidal thoughts are goading him into just letting go because John would literally have anyone but him. (Yikes™.)
It’s also quite interesting because Culverton doing this is similar to what Moriarty does to Sherlock in HLV, telling him that he just needs one more push because no one will bother him when he’s dead. “Off you pop.” (Which also happens to be what Culverton says while strangling Sherlock in hospital.) But the thing is, Moriarty also ends up being the one to say “John Watson is definitely in danger,” waking Sherlock up. Whereas Culverton really just wants Sherlock dead.
So … Maybe in the end Sherlock’s more of a threat to himself than Moriarty is. Just something to think about. I feel like TLD in general is Sherlock overcoming his suicidal thoughts that lead to his overdose in the first place — because even though Mycroft says that he estimates Sherlock would be dead in six months in Eastern Europe, obviously Sherlock knows Mycroft wouldn’t actually let him die. (”Your loss would break my heart” etc.,) Sherlock just doesn’t want to live anymore.
Back to the scene: Next shot we see, Sherlock’s standing on the ceiling again, but this time the skull is glowing bright white again.
While this is happening Sherlock begins to monologue about serial killers: “They’re always poor, and lonely, and strange — but those are only the ones we catch.” – “Who do we catch?” – “Serial killers. But if you were rich and powerful and necessary … What if you had the compulsion to kill and money? What then?”
A shot of Culverton in 221b:
And then the skull has changed literally within two shots back to being magenta/maroon as Sherlock collapses onto the couch, unconscious. End scene.
The way the skull is changing so rapidly in this scene … Surely there’s some sort of correlation between the darker skull painting and the lighter one. But I have no idea what it is. Possibly it represents how deep Sherlock is into his dream? Or whether information is drawing upon the past or completely fabricated?
We know from Billy the skull that the skulls in 221b act as Sherlock mirrors, so it’s likely that the painting is linked to his state somehow. This along with the fact that when Sherlock goes to commit suicide in Culverton’s hospital the skull painting is pitch black, which is probably the biggest tell represents him being in danger.
First a few background notes: I have not been following EMP theory. I read 2 posts before s4 aired and it just wasn’t hitting home for me. I discussed this with two of the primary EMP bloggers, and respectfully agreed to disagree. I just didn’t read anything more on the idea after that, I avoided EMP posts. I found it all unsettling. Then s4 occurred, and on Jan 20th rambling around in the theory that TST was Sherlock’s perception of real time events, I decided that I would revisit EMP but as an independent study. To really look at it and see if I reached the same conclusions on it’s validity as others, even though I was very skeptical about the premise. I kept a draft of all my ideas, and two months of arguing with myself ensued. But I am at the stage where I need to post my progress. So here it all is with the chains of thought I experienced and explanations of how I reached certain conclusions.
First it was the sharks that got me. They hammered those sharks into our heads prior to s4. The whole Rachel’s-crew-tee-shirt-thing, the shark graffiti, and the Mark and Amanda tweets, all appeared rather ‘lame’ after watching TST. All our pre s4 speculation fizzled out and we were left with the only real thread being s3 and the most obvious clue to sharks with it’s clear depiction and reference to CAM. He’s identified as the shark. In TST we see water haunting Sherlock, but not JUST water, it’s illuminated water, it’s tank water. Shark tank water. And Sherlock, by the end of the episode, ends up in a building with shark tanks.
Oh and look at his clothes:
He’s in a white shirt which is the same shirt as he was wearing when he broke into CAM Towers and got shot: CAM’s office – shark tank – aquarium. Could they be one and the same but in a dream reference of Sherlock’s subconscious. Yes. They could and it would be a very good one at that.
So then my mind takes me to that magic bullet and the ladies firing the gun, one in CAM/Shark Tower and one in the aquarium:
Two women with secret identities, both mistaken for Lady Smallwood. Sherlock thought Mary was Lady Smallwood in CAM/Shark Towers, Sherlock and Mycroft think Lady Smallwood was the leak that led to the AGRA debacle when it was actually Vivianne Norbury. Mirror events. Then we have Mary jumping in to take the bullet for Sherlock. Mary SUBSTITUTING herself for Sherlock. Wonder when she began to be a substitute herself for Sherlock? Oh yes, when John thought Sherlock was dead, when John was the grieving widower, devastated and very angry. An anger that balloons out of all proportion in Sherlock’s mind as it’s John directing anger at him for killing himself and disappearing for two years. He accepts John’s beating in atonement in TEH but in his mind it is far more violent, graphic and sadly justified by Sherlock, as we learn in TLD. But it’s Sherlock beating himself up. In essence Sherlock did kill John’s spouse, he made John believe that he had killed himself. And Sherlock knows John is not over that event:
Sherlock underestimates John’s grief, he sees only the anger phase, displayed on his return, but he didn’t consider the deep depression, the many regrets, and John’s inability to ever recover fully. Mary’s letter during her hiatus is everything Sherlock wanted to say and didn’t. Mary’s journey in TST looking for AJ is Sherlock’s hiatus twisted down to involve an ending where John is with him on that journey. That suicide mission to Eastern Europe Sherlock was being sent on? Well he’s already been on it and died on his return. Mycroft brought him home into heartbreak. His life, as Sherlock knew it, and the hopes he had for his future were dashed, and Sherlock’s heart broke.
The post Mary shooting Sherlock scenes in HLV now take on a sad twist, as they are in Sherlock’s mind. He imagines that he reveals to John the truth about the person who shot him, and John is furious at Mary, rejects her and relegates her to client. It’s probably not far from the truth of real events. He says a goodbye to Janine and assigns his dream retirement cottage to her, in an offering of repentance. He’ll revisit this theme in his Victorian MP in TAB. But I digress. Back to my chain of thought, as I need to leave the rest of HLV and TAB out of this for now. I came to the conclusion that Sherlock isn’t still on that plane, he’s not in the hospital. Sherlock is still on the floor in CAM’s office. And they PLANTED a trigger in that scene to tell us. The plant moved.This is all on repeat. Everything is being replayed. Twisted and convoluted, and nothing is new. Rest under cut:
I’m in a happy daze after reading this. I intensely agree with so many details here it’s ridiculous. I too started out a major sceptic (the best place to start, really). I love that you pin point Sherlock lying on the floor in CAM tower as the point that EMP began, because I’m leaning more this way recently (rather than, say, Sherlock dreaming while in hospital after he’s shot). There’s a draft decaying in my drafts folder that takes the dream theory and mingles it with @impatient14′s space-time continuum theory. Like you say – Sherlock is still right there on the floor, so while dream symbolism and imagery is used and while dialogue hints at it being a literal dream, or a coma drug induced hallucination or whatever, I suspect that what is actually happening is that time is standing still – we are frozen in a single moment. And to move that moment you’ve pin pointed just 3 seconds earlier, my newest fave idea is that Mary’s fake-ass death scene featured a big clue – the slo-mo bullet. I think we are frozen in time as the bullet sails through the air out of Mary’s gun towards Sherlock (and the slo-mo effect is quite accurate because my time research tells me that theoretically time could never be stopped, but it could be slowed right down).
The reason I think the bullet is in the air, is because well…then he still has a chance to live. And it’s symbolic of the importance of choice – something that can go two ways – the bullet buries in his chest and kills him….or it doesn’t. It represents how a decision effects all of the future. S4 is symbolic of “all of the future”, which also includes “all of the future of Sherlock Holmes”, because S4 shows how the love story is recognized but ignored and the no-homo ending of TFP represents the heteronormative future of the character….UNLESS. Unless a different choice is made in a single moment which will change the course of the future. And the poignancy of “the course of the future” wouldn’t be there without us actually having watched it play out. But really, the “future” of S4 is really the past. The old version of Holmes and Watson, the one we’ve seen before (the wheel turns…).
The significance of Vivian Norbury getting that role in T6T ties back into CAM tower and the idea of a choice that effects the whole rest of your future, and which is to do with over-confidence. Sherlock got cocky with deducing Vivian and got shot for it. In HLV, Sherlock was cocky with Mary, thinking he could so easily talk her down (”No, Mrs Watson, you won’t”), and he got shot for it. “Norbury” is really about how he handled that moment of confrontation with Mary in CAM tower, and how it changed the future (it got him killed, and because #sherlocklives means #johnwatson lives, it kills John too). I keep trying to imagine how over-the-top the EMP reveal could be, and a return to Mary firing the gun seems to be dramatic enough for Moftiss. I’m only spewing this idea on to your lovely post because I haven’t written it anywhere else yet, and because you also recognized the possibility of a frozen-in-time type of scenario where we return to a moment in that room in CAM tower. I might possibly spew more ideas onto another reblog, lol. Because I really love the way you’ve explained EMP here.
[Sorry not done: Molly tells us that Sherlock has 3 seconds of consciousness left to figure out how to live. The answer, they deduce, is forwards or backwards. Backwards into the past, where the love story needed to stay hidden, or forwards into the future where it does not. Sherlock fell backwards, and look where he ended up. I wrote something after T6T aired that predicted that the EMP reveal would involve Sherlock falling forwards instead of backwards….something to do with the mirror shattering….anyway it was a nice idea]
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