*me stumbling through a john mirror maze trying to escape the clown* *record scratch* *freeze frame* yup 2016 me, that’s you. You’re probably wondering how we ended up in this situation,
In 1885, upon getting married, Conan Doyle purchased “an immense leather-bound scrap-book, inscribed [with the wedding date] for press-cuttings and notes of the hopeful future.” (The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Carr).
In A Study in Scarlet, which Conan Doyle wrote the next year, Watson started a scrap-book in which he pasted “numerous clippings and extracts” about the first case with his new flatmate.
“So spoke Sherlock Holmes and turned back to the great scrapbook in which he was arranging and indexing some of his recent material.” (The Adventure of the Red Circle)
The two dorks….. are they sharing a scrapbook? Imagine they bickering over where certain clippings should go……
Oh wait.
🤣 🤣 🤣
Love this! Is this where they got the idea for Sherlock’s ‘folder’ on John and the Vitruvian Man image? @darlingtonsubstitution
Maybe? Which means… could John have one of Sherlock, too? That’s cute.
(ok now I’m thinking “Mycroft has a file”…… the mirroring is getting out of hand)
OMG, the idea that they could BOTH have one in this verse hadn’t even crossed my mind??? Now, I won’t be able to forget it. I need this in my life.
I… would happily take a 2-hour special of just them giggling over the stuff they have on each other in those folders…… 😭
Absolutely! Sherlock would get stroppy about a photo of him with a soaking wet scowl-
“John, you can’t have that photo in there! Look at me. I look like a drowned rat!”
“Sherlock, if you think I’m not preserving, for posterity, the time you fell into the Thames thinking you’d seen a submarine periscope, you are nuttier than a fruitcake.”
“But, John-”
“A SUBMARINE, Sherlock. In. The. Thames.”
“Stranger things have happened, John.” Sherlock steps onto the table and over, stomping off to the kitchen in a snit.
“Yep. Like a consulting detective who believe he’d found a submarine. IN THE THAMES.” John collapses against the sofa in a fit of rib-cracking laughter.
YOU DID NOT JUST DO THIS. I CAN’T. WHY.
(then Sherlock starts humming yellow submarine and John nearly died laughing)
I just hard time believing that parents like math genius Mummy and “John Watson” Daddy had a hard time figuring out what the hell was happening with the children.
Victor STILL bothers me – WHY DID NO ONE GO LOOKING FOR THE CHILD? DOES HE NOT HAVE PARENTS? The Holmeses should have had some sort of legal ramifications from that sort of thing. I’m sorry but if the supposed killer goes on and on about water, the first place I would check would be A WELL ON THE PROPERTY.
Ugh, the fact that we’re supposed to believe TFP at face value is ridiculous to me.
Also are we supposed to believe that at like 7 yrs old she was locked up in a cell on an island?! And how tf do Mummy and Daddy Holmes believe all this time that their child was dead no questions asked without having a body recovered? The fire clearly didn’t burn the entire house down as we saw in TFP so why did no one try to save her or recover her body? And Mycroft was in on this plan with Uncle Rudy even though he was only like 12 at the time? Sorry but i’m calling some BS here
I KNOW.
The story of what happened to Victor had so many disturbing elements. From the point of view of say a young person who might especially identify with Victor, the fact that there was no serious attempt to look for him might be even more disturbing than the fact that he was murdered.
And I recall before s4, many fans were saying that Mary’s baby would have to live because a stillborn baby or a dead baby from any cause would be too dark for this show. That they would never go there.
Well they went there in the most bizarre way to suit their Eurus plot purposes.
One of my favourite things about Sherlock is still that he made that “weeeell” face when John said his wedding would be the most important day of his life
Yesterday I was back working on my Dad’s notes on his Holmesian thoughts and discussions. I stumbled across notes on a debate that was held in The Domininion Pub, Liverpool, back in 1963 [not December, but July] during a Sherlock Holmes readers group. Preface: The Dominion was on the dock road, a seafarers pub, and one of the few that catered to queers. It was known for ‘queer evenings’ a few times a week. My Dad was a regular there. Several of the men were working class Holmesians, not welcome in Holmesian Societies, probably gay or bi, and considered outsiders.
Anyway on to my find: My Dad had drawn out an idea that had been discussed.
At the top: Watson’s Great Cover-Up
Then three subheadings: Cases. Vigilante. Invert.
Under ‘cases’ he has a huge list of the Sherlock Holmes cases including the mentioned but not explained cases. I presume there had been discussion on each one as to how John was twisting or inventing plot to hide things.
Under ‘vigilante’ he has the words Milverton killing. Now we all know that many readers felt that Sherlock had killed Milverton and the unnamed woman who just showed up at the right time to kill Milverton was a lie. [CAM Towers scene reinvented this scenario. Mary there to kill CAM first then kills Sherlock instead] But there are other instances in canon where Holmes displays a habit of being his own form of justice. Another notation which I haven’t even gone into yet is ‘Baskerville. Holmes secretly there.’ And finally ‘LAST’ for His Last Bow. Undercover Holmes could have done many things in the name of Altamont.
Under ‘invert’ is written ‘all’. I think he means ‘ALL’ of the canon Watson’s subtext. Everything proves that Holmes was gay.
But the main thing for me in reading this is that readers were seeing Watson as not just a narrator, a Boswell, but asa spin doctor. Watson himself being Holmes’ ALIBI whenever required. An upstanding doctor, a retired captain of the Queen’s Army, a stalwart citizen, a married man…..a perfect alibi for any dodgy behaviour. Watson was cover for Holmes’ need to go beyond the law at times regarding villains, and also to remain inside it regarding homosexual acts. Watson gave Holmes credibility. Watson was ALWAYS protecting Holmes in every word he wrote. Mofftiss touch on this in TAB repeatedly. John’s spin on Sherlock bleeds into their reality. John creates the legend as well as facilitates it.
I believe the now fandom famous ‘John’s Alibi’ is not an alibi for John but John’s alibi for Sherlock. John is spinning reality. Always has done. And Mofftiss have tried to incorporate this into the show and attempted to modernise it. If John is covering up for Sherlock killing Mary, how layered would that be with the Milverton kill/CAM Towers redo. Sherlock actually states; I killed his wife. Maybe he really did, and the rage from John is the cover up, the staged reaction for form sake.
All thoughts welcome on this.
Oh mercy this is so good.
Bless this precious piece of history @i-love-the-bee-keeper – thank you so much for sharing! I truly believe in my heart of heart this is the case — John-the-spin-doctor has been in control of the narrative, always — as Dr. Watson did in canon because every story is written in codes.
There’s a hidden narrative in every canon story, and I don’t mean just subtext. Albeit this is my personal opinion/speculation as I can’t find any collaborating evidence… but there IS a pattern. Nearly every story in canon is constructed the same way, as in two parts – Holmes and Watson domestics and conversations and/or Watson monologue/conversation about Holmes, then, the case. The signs are usually provided in part one, and as you read through part two you use the signs in part one to decode the real story in part two. Some signs I noticed to-date:
locations (as in NWES of London) in relation to past/present/future,
time (as degrees in a circle) a gauge of gay/straight (as the missing ring/bell, or, an incomplete circle is a reoccurring motif in many stories)
currency (something to do with 7% return/solution – working on this one)
physical features of characters (usually what’s considered defects in the Victorian era=crooked=criminal=gay)
languages and nations (France/French/Latin=heart and love, Germany=logic and the matters of the mind…..)
This is all very overly simplified obviously…. but in regards to Sherlock, I’m probably in the super minority that still believes we are simply never given the whole picture, i.e. the untold stories rather than dream-states. The theatric was for…… solving a past that our modern Sherlock and John never lived but must address, and that past is being manifested in all the M characters (as Mor in ACD canon because it all began with the, um, religious organization in A Study in Scarlet). Case in point:, the last six episodes of Sherlock, with TAB in the middle as a bridge, are all about the M characters: Moran, Morstan, Magnussen, Margrete Thatcher, Morphine (as in what it really means in canon – morphing of different characters, i.e., disguise), and finally Moriarty/Mycroft/Mary with Eurus as M inverted to W and the true meaning of the phrase “the Woman” for both Holmes and Watson.
And the reason our modern Sherlock and John must be the “face” of that past? Because Holmes and Watson are part of the collateral damage, and as an audience, we are being asked to confront what we know and believe to be “the true story” no matter where we stand.
Anyway, my apology for rambling on your post! Glad to see you on my dash once more, welcome back!
IS NOBODY GOING TO MENTION THE FACT THAT MORIARTY WAS A PATIENT AT SHERRINFORD!?!?!
wait what the hell? someone explain!
During the TFP flashback to when Moriarty was in Mycroft’s office at Sherrinford:
MYCROFT: You know what this place is, of course? JIM (quietly): Of course. (He fiddles with some of the animals on the table as he speaks.) So am I under arrest again?
Implying that he had been held under arrest at Sherrinford, referring to this scene at the end of THoB:
Actually, the scene in THoB is an arrest afterhis first encounter with Eurus.
Sherlock and John met at January 29, 2010.
The Christmas in ASIB was in 2010.
Moriarty died and Sherlock “died” before June 16, 2011 via John’s post.
As stated by John’s therapist: 18 months since your last appointment—John’s last appointment was in January 2010 via his blog where Ella Thompson had commented on his January 25 and 31 posts saying “Is that why you missed your appointment? I tried to call.” “Please answer your phone.” respectively. Her next comment was in April 20, 2013 after John’s post about moving on.
Sherlock comes back from the dead on November 3, 2013 with his name finally cleared and him visiting all his friends immediately after being rescued.
John and Mary get married on 2014.
Sherlock kills Magnussen on Christmas 2014.
The tarmac scene happened on January 2015.
Mary died around 2015.
The ending of TLD happened in January 6, 2016 (Sherlock’s bday)
TFP
A few days after Sherlock’s bday, John got shot by Eurus.
A few days after, they go to Mycroft.
The next day, Mycroft goes to 221B to talk about all this.
A few days after, everyone thought Mycroft was still being attended to in hospital which im assuming takes days, especially since they haven’t replaced Mycroft yet to take care of everything—if it took a week, Mycroft would have had a temporary replacement…
So everything that happened in TFP happened about a week or two after Sherlock’s birthday. This is consistent with Sherlock’s eye haemorrhage he got in TLD—either from John’s beating or being asphyxiated by Culverton.
From my observation, since it’s still around January, Christmas 2015 is still in mind… so Christmas five years ago, in the mindset of everyone, would be Christmas of 2010.
So basically, what I’m saying is that this:
Was on the same day as this:
And that Mycroft being alone in ASIB, thinking here:
Happened in the evening after this, which is probs why he was thinking so hard in the dark at night on Christmas Day cos this thing just happened:
Which means that this:
Happened months after this:
Which is probably why Moriarty was much more interested with Sherlock’s life story as pointed out by John here, saying “…in return you had to offer him Sherlock’s life story”:
Because Moriarty had met Eurus but they had only talked in 5 minutes, and probably only talked about how to successfully destroy Sherlock by threatening to kill his best friends since Eurus had witnessed it happen before… and he probably wanted more info about Sherlock regarding that…
We also know that Eurus didn’t know that Sherlock had forgotten her completely.
EURUS: Interesting. Mycroft told me you’d rewritten your memories; he didn’t tell me you’d written me out completely.
So to them, they thought that Sherlock had made up his own story about his best friend dying…
Eurus probably didn’t know that Sherlock had rewritten Redbeard as a dog. The only time we ever really know for certain that Eurus was told that Sherlock thinks Redbeard is a dog was Sherlock telling her himself in this scene:
Before that, when Sherlock mentioned Redbeard, he only said, “I know what happened to Redbeard.” and Eurus was like “Do you now?” HAHA fooled u, u idiot… u probs got it wrong…
But after Sherlock says, “Redbeard was my dog.”
Eurus was softer, but her smirk was larger. And that’s probs why Eurus was much more smug at that point with that particular tone of hers, “Ohhh, Sherlock… You know nothing.” as if she’s just seeing how deeply the scars really went… as if she’s saying something like oh jfc srsly sherl dafuq happened to u daz wayyy worse than i hoped…
The point is that, THOB interrogation happened after Moriarty met Eurus, and before that, Moriarty was already arrested before… probably immediately after that first scene in ASIB.
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