This is sort of a follow up to my earlier post about “The Final Problem’s” self-indulgence and the way the writing ultimately betrays the extraordinary work being done by everyone involved in the production–including, I am about to argue, the actors.
One of the first questions that emerged as I pondered my own response to this episode was: why was I so much more affected by the scene in which the prison governor dies than I was by what I am sure was intended to be the emotional climax of the Eurus-experiments sequence, which is the scene in which Eurus demands that Sherlock kill either Mycroft or John?
Below the cut tag I’m going to talk about why. The short story is that the second scene is the moment where the whole production has to pay the piper for the cumulative effects of Moffat and Gatiss’s bad writing decisions.
If there’s not a fourth episode or an equally satisfying explanation for everything that has just occurred (including “ALIENS, SOMEHOW”), then the “fourth episode” rumor kicking off with articles published before TFP aired (in which Moffat referenced The Lost Special), the sudden media attention given to “conspiracy theorists” when there aren’t any (I mean, except for us, burning away merrily in one little corner of Tumblr, largely out of sight of the non-Aja media), the metadata on all those video sites proclaiming the existence of an untitled fourth episode on January 22, the uncharacteristic Twitter quietness following months of enthusiasm, and the fact that the episode is clearly poorly written in a way that cannot be by accident and that even calls attention to its deliberateness, will all add up to the biggest and strangest cluster of coincidences I have ever encountered and will ever encounter again in my entire goddamn life and I will forever hear the music from The Twilight Zone in my head whenever I hear or see the words “final” or “problem”
I’m envisioning a future in which niece or nephew says “Can you help me study for my final exam in math? I’m stuck on this one word problem” and the next thing I know I’m coming back to my senses on the shoulder of the Long Island Expressway
This is absolutely why i don’t have any problem believing in a fourth episode. It only makes sense. Doesn’t even matter what’s in it, there just needs to be one.
When I hear “You should stop being so ungrateful and thank them for creating the show in the first place” what I really hear is “Those kidnapped children should’ve thanked Moriarty for giving them poisoned treats. At least he fed them.”
So there was a CLOWN and mycroft was going to duel him with his umbrella because it was actually a sword that was actually a GUN but actually it was sherlock’s plan and he was like HEY BRO! and then john was like oh yeah last ep’s cliffhanger? nah just got shot but it was a tranquilizer anyway let’s go back to baker street OH LOOK A DRONE GRENADE
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