J: “And if my deduction is right, you’re going to be honest and tell me, ok?”
S: “Ok, though I should mention […]”
J: “Happy birthday.”
S: “Thank you, John. That’s… very kind of you.”
J: “Never knew when your birthday was.”
S: “Now you do.”
Sherlock refrained from pointing out John’s deduction was wrong! A touching “fix” to the original stories. Like in Doyle, though, Sherlock took an excuse to lengthen John’s visit. Mycroft will wish Sherlock “happy birthday” in another episode, and John will call Sherlock a cock.
THE LYING DETECTIVE, LOL
the inspiration for the entire episode was derived from two short lines of dialogue. phenomenal.
Haha.
Ahaha, omg, I love this!
There are two things about this moment I find fascinating. 1) John is lying. He spent two years staring at Sherlock’s gravestone where it clearly has his birthdate on it and 2) this is next level trashcan John. Apparently, he thinks that Irene can only possibly ever text Sherlock on ‘official’ dates- birthdays, Christmas, New Year’s. Heaven forbid he think she would randomly text Sherlock on a Tuesday for no reason. If he allowed himself to think that he will have an aneurysm now everytime Sherlock’s phone chimes.
I hate how right you probably are. DAMNIT
For anyone wondering: the headstone has a date on the bottom. You can see it in a bts photo from Arwel. They chose not to show it in the episodes but it is there. Also this makes a lot of sense!
I’ve been mulling over this theory more and more, that Mary has been drugging John and Sherlock with TD12. I’ll specifically focus on John here:
So, from possibly the end of The Six Thatchers leading into The Lying Detective, John is starting to ‘see’ Mary. But because of the drug, he is not sure what is real and what isn’t– he doesn’t understand that the real Mary is actually holding him hostage. (See Looks like John’s trapped by @teapotsubtext)
But, like the real Faith, perhaps something started to click before John forgot entirely. We see Faith upset and shaking trying to write out her note:
FAITH (tearfully): I can’t remember. Can’t remember who you’re gonna kill. SMITH: Dear, in five minutes you won’t even remember why you were crying. (x)
Imagine Smith as Mary and John as Faith:
What if John pretty damned smart Watson was fighting the effects of the drug, had started to remember that something was Very Wrong. He needs to leave a message, let Sherlock know-
But Mary is always watching him. She sees John writing the note and:
“Oh, Faith John. Don’t you think I should take that? It’s only going to upset you.”
She can’t have John and Sherlock communicating at all, she needs to keep them isolated from each other, make them feel like all hope is lost. She can’t risk Sherlock reading any sort of sign from John.
So, what does she do? Well, why not amp up the isolation even more? Threaten more people to follow her own game plan?
What if Mary threatened Molly, forcing her to hand Sherlock a note, and to tell him it was from John:
But, it wasn’t. Perhaps it was a deliberately scathing note, designed to keep Sherlock from contacting John, so that he would not reveal to John the DVD Mary sent him.
And meanwhile, Mary destroys the evidence John wrote. Without the note, just like Faith, he forgets that anything was ever amiss.
LOVE THIS THEORY. Makes so much sense. PLUS Mary KNOWS John has hallucinated in the past about dead people in his life (remember TEH and John looking to her to ensure she’s seeing Sherlock too? That to me says that John has hallucinated Sherlock in the past, and that Mary is aware of it), so she thinks she was important enough to John that she could fool him into thinking John would hallucinate her too… until he actually does, with the TD-12 drug. PLUS a lot of the language she uses in T6T and TLD is very “suggestive”, like she’s trying to plant ideas into John’s head (the “letter she wrote” to him while on the run) and is using John’s own sense of poor self worth against him.
How would she have administered the drug? We see it only used through IV.
There was a theory going around here that “Eurus” (read: Mary) intentionally made sure she had a moment alone with Sherlock in The Lying Detective (that the audience hasn’t seen the whole of yet)- more drugs could have been slipped in the water she gave him.
Well John is notoriously easy to poison, Sherlock’s said so himself. He may have even given her the idea, at the wedding. And the easiest way to slip it to Sherlock would be to have his dealer/chemist on your side, someone Mary’s already met… maybe earlier than we’re led to believe.
“Don’t drink Mary’s tea.” IF THEIR TEA WAS POISONED IN REVENGE… ALSO, could that add more to Wiggins just up and leaving when Sherlock starts his Henry V speech? “He’s lost it, he’s totally gone.” Did he know the stuff was kicking in fully and felt guilty?
Wiggins you traitor…
😥 but if this is happening, and obviously Billy Wiggins=William=William Sherlock… then it’s a mirror for Mary manipulating Sherlock…
My latest theory is that Sherlock ignores Vatican Cameos because John thinks he ignored the note (when in fact Mary interfered).
oh. OH. OUCH
oh my god @nottoolateforthegame this is KILLING ME…. John in the opening of TLD bitterly saying he’s not been in contact with Sherlock and Sherlock’s not attempted to make any contact with him;- Eurus Mary taunting him: “How can you be sure? He might have tried.” And John replying: “
No, if Sherlock Holmes wants to get in touch, that’s not something you can fail to notice.”
!!!
So Mary uses Eurus to do stuff or Mary is Eurus? And we say that TFP is John bleeding to death after Mary shot him/ Eurus for Mary? @jenna221b
yeah I see it more as Mary literally is Eurus (see A Case of (Mistaken) Identity) and after she shoots John, she causes the pained hallucinated TFP– she is ‘the grim figure of death’, the one who brings about John’s Garridebs/near death moment.
It’s a plausible theory if you want to absolve John of some of the problematic characterization in seasons 3 & 4. It paints him as a hapless victim, which means that none of his … unpalatable actions during those seasons were his fault. It’s a reading I would prefer, to be honest. I’m not quite sure there’s enough in canon to bear that out, but it works for fanfiction– which is fine by me…
I think no one would argue that he suffers from depression, low self esteem and has contemplated suicide more than once.
I think he found a slice of happiness with Sherlock. Even stopped dating and was planning on spending the rest of his life with him. I don’t think anyone can deny that John was hitting on Sherlock that first night at Angelos. I think after ASiB he was ready to live a life with Sherlock, even just as friends.
Then Sherlock committed suicide in front of John. I’ve no doubt that John blamed himself for that, after all everything is his fault, he’s said so himself. He was undoubtedly depressed after. I would not doubt he contemplated suicide again. I think there is a lot of evidence to say that he saw/heard Sherlock in his head this whole time.
Low and behold Mary comes along. Now, she was no Sherlock. But she showed interest in John. John, who obviously doesn’t do well alone. He likely thought that at least he’d have someone. And oh how Mary took advantage of a poor, depressed, unhappy man and hooked her claws into him. Look at MHR and the beginning of TEH. Did John look like a happy man to you? Nope.
Then Sherlock swooped back into his life unannounced. And during John’s “romantic” *eye roll* proposal. Shocks the shit outta John. And then, when they really need time to talk, Mary doesn’t fuck off, instead she sticks around and also sides with Sherlock the whole time. Real nice Mary. So John discovers that Sherlock faked his death, lied for two years, told a bunch of people but NOT HIM and never once tried to contact him. (not that Sherlock didn’t suffer too, but this post is about John, so chill Sherlock lovers).
So, John decided to still propose to Mary. Sherlock has, at this point, shown zero interest in a relationship with him. From JOHN’s POV easily replaced him Molly for cases (he has no idea Sherlock was hearing him in his head or calling his name out loud). Oh COURSE John would still marry Mary, why wouldn’t he? Sherlock then showed extreme interest in helping plan the wedding. From outward appearances didn’t show that the wedding itself was distressing to him, even Mary played into this lie, telling John that he just needed a break and to get out on cases. John even tried ONE MORE TIME to hit on Sherlock on his stag night, with no result again. Again, why is anyone surprised he still got married??
And then Mary was pregnant. So, even after he was miserable in his marriage, and Sherlock wasn’t contacting him but was still chatting with Mary behind his back, what was he supposed to do? Even after Mary shot Sherlock. John DID leave her for MONTHS. But SHERLOCK told him to go back to her, that she didn’t mean it bla bla bla. Obviously Sherlock didn’t want him. Mary was having his baby, and Sherlock WANTED him to go back to her. OF COURSE he went back. Even though it made him miserable and depressed.
Then S4 happened. And although I’d rather forget it, I just can’t. It starts out with Sherlock ignoring John’s texts. With Sherlock telling John he’d rather have Mary along on cases than him and them both joking about John and comparing him to a dog. Real nice. Real great for someone with depression and low self esteem. Then Mary dies, it all still seems really fake and over the top to me, but whatever. I’m sure John thinks Mary is the only person that will ever love him. Now she’s dead. Now he’s alone again. Leaving the baby at “friends.”
I honestly think John was trying to make a clean break from Sherlock for the good of the both of them. It obviously didn’t work as he forced back in. It’s a shame S4 went so off the rails.
These are just my thoughts on John’s POV. I do think both he and Sherlock have made many mistakes. I do believe both those idiots are in love with each other too. With John we have a man with trust issues and depression and self esteem issues. These two guys really need to sit down and have a good talk.
Thank you!
Thank YOU for reading!
I agree, Sandy. And I think if s4 hadn’t been so fucky and incoherent, they could have explored John’s emotional and mental wellbeing in a nuanced and serious way. John is such a complex character and yet they turned him into a 2-dimensional bumbling sidekick in this series. I’m sad for the fandom that we didn’t get to see an honest and in-depth look at John’s character development. I would argue, as many others have done, that he has the bigger journey to becoming a good man than Sherlock did. They even hint at this in TLD with the conversation about being human, but they never did John justice by fully exploring it. I wanted to know more about him – understand his backstory, meet Harry, learn how he spent those 6 months leading up to Christmas, etc. I’m sad for the potential his character had and how they destroyed it.
Thanks Chelsea. It’s such a shame we never got to learn anymore about John’s character. They gave Mary a background story, but nothing for John and that is just so damn stupid I can’t even fathom what on earth Mofftiss were thinking when they wrote S4.
And I agree about John’s journey. And I was so ready to take that journey and instead we got The Mary Action Hour and Nobody Cares Who You Are Sister. What a waste.
All of this, and I’m feeling what @lediona25 said, so hard! It was such a waste of an incredibly complex character who was on a personal journey of growth (or so I thought) almost more interesting than Sherlock’s. But in S4, they just dropped the ball on it all, and I feel that more than any other character, they just left John’s journey hanging.
It’s the biggest thing I can’t forgive the writers for in S4, tbh. There are a lot of things I find it hard to forgive them for, let me tell you, but that is by far the worst!
sherlock: where’s john?
molly: i don’t know
mrs hudson: wait, i got this.
mrs hudson: MY CAR IS SO LONELY JUST SITTING IN FRONT OF THE FLAT I WISH SOMEONE WOULD DRIVE IT
john, knocking down the door: WHAT
Let’s talk about the inexplicable ‘Sherlock’ subplot where John Watson sexts a random woman he met on the bus.
As a dreary story about an unpleasant man having a midlife crisis, it’s perfectly typical: a tired, middle-aged father strikes up a text-based relationship with a younger woman, but ultimately decides not to follow through. But as an addition to John Watson’s characterization in ‘Sherlock,’ it’s catastrophically inappropriate.
It’s hard not to see this subplot as a transparent example of middle-aged male wish-fulfilment. Apparently seduced by the sheer animal magnetism of a 45-year-old man who embodies the word “average,” an attractive young woman approaches John Watson on the bus and gives him her phone number. While not impossible, this scenario is a thoughtlessly bizarre role-reversal of the sexual harassment women experience on public transport. Then, there’s the fact that John is actually receptive to her advances, texting another woman while he lies in bed with his wife. We’re left with a thoroughly unlikable version of Watson, who will spend the next two episodes stewing with guilt about his not-quite affair.
I was just thinking about this with the gifset about John and his ongoing misunderstanding or projection onto Sherlock, which came to an end in TLD (well, it’s more like it crashed and burned violently, really). And just as John thought Sherlock wasn’t ‘like that’, many viewers thought John wasn’t like that either, in a different way. As the article says, he’s ‘not that kind of dick’.
I realize I just answered the question of why Eurus had to text John recently, but it occurs to me that the real issue most people have is why John had to text Eurus. Of course, John has that issue himself, and John was doing the soul-searching and angsting himself– so he realizes it’s ‘out of character’, or the character he’d like to be– and surely, the whole point is just that he’s human. Sherlock is also human. That’s the whole point. The purely, absolutely loyal John Watson was never the reality.
This is clearly something that the fans have a really hard time with. I can empathize. We all have our hard limits, things we can and cannot accept about others. Perhaps it’s impossible to truly rationalize it, even in fiction, or perhaps especially in fiction. Like, for example, I can accept John no matter what, but I have more of a hard time with Mary and sometimes with Sherlock’s reactions. As I told Ivy recently, his absolute acceptance of the blame John heaps upon him after Mary’s death (and his acceptance of the shooting earlier) is really hard for me to accept or even fully understand. Clearly, I mean, Sherlock has really different standards of what he can accept from the people he really loves.
Maybe it’s just that Sherlock (unlike Mary, unlike John, unlike fandom) sees John truly, and isn’t surprised. That’s why he’s not angry or resentful after John rejects him so radically in TST: as @ivyblossomtold me earlier, Sherlock accepts and understands John just that much, that deeply, that radically. To Sherlock, John is a ‘loaded gun’, and he knows exactly how far John can go and exactly how much John can hurt him. How much John has hurt him in the past. So he simply makes the decision that John is worthwhile. He even agrees with John that he deserves it in the morgue scene, which I don’t agree with, but my point is that Sherlock is always with John even during the time that John isn’t with him. He knows that it’s not John’s loyalty that broke but John himself.
Fan (especially female fans’) reaction to John’s texting affair takes it a bit personally, I think, and treats the situation a bit like John had betrayed them, or their own image of him. This is definitely why I still disagree with @unreconstructedfangirl’s insistence that there’s no evidence Mary idealized John. It seems to me that everyone but Sherlock (including John!) has idealized John, maybe without even realizing it. Not in an extreme, obvious way. More of a well-meaning, admiring way. No one said John was absolutely extraordinary like they’d imagine Sherlock to be (except maybe Sherlock, actually), but he’s loyal, he’s a good man, he does love Mary– stuff like that. Of course, even people who could see what a disaster Mary and John’s marriage was tried to justify John and Mary continuing with it, either by saying John had a plan or Mary’s just waiting for John to wake up and smell the coffee. In reality, it was a case of both of them deluding themselves. It’s not really surprising that John snapped. No one could be perfectly loyal to a partner who’s already betrayed them, after being pregnant with a child neither wanted, and having to go back and try again after adding the caveat that one is still angry. The frustration has to go somewhere. He can’t even complain, because Sherlock is Mary’s friend too, and encouraged him to go back to her right after revealing it was Mary who shot him. ‘Mixed messages’, indeed. Repressing all that– anyone would crack. John is human, isn’t he?
Likability, of course, is a tricky affair. I was just talking about this in regards to Mary’s storyline: in my opinion, the way the narrative unfolded with Mary– primarily the lack of obvious consequences for her (excepting her relationship with John, which isn’t narratively acknowledged as being Mary’s fault), and the use of her as a constant mirror and conduit– made her character ultimately unlikable. But at the same time, that’s just my opinion, my response. Obviously, this isn’t the intended response, and nor is the response of plenty of people who see canon Johnlock. This is just an issue of expectations and needs, which has a complicated relationship to the actual story. As I said, I’m aware we’re supposed to like Mary, and I enjoyed a lot about her character, but I can’t fully overcome the issues I have with the portrayal. That’s a valid response to John, too, even if I didn’t have any issues relating to him or accepting him, and you could even argue John didn’t face enough consequences from Sherlock, either. So there’s a similarity there. You could argue there’s no actual reason to accept John’s humanity in TST but resent Mary’s portrayal in the same episode. You’d probably be right. In the end, though, just like the characters– we’re all only human.
Of course, some people will look at this parallel and say, “oh, Moftiss are bad writers because they are tonally inconsistent. They can’t decide if violence is funny or serious.” But I think the contrast was totally deliberate on their part. This is precisely the point they are making: not only is John Watson repeatedly inclined toward violence, but we are all implicated by it.
This is, in fact, the story they’ve been telling since the beginning, which I talked about in my meta, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Season 3. From the first episode, we were meant to read John as an Everyman, as relatable, as a basically good guy who is “like us”, compared to inscrutable, morally questionable geniuses like Sherlock, Mycroft, Moriarty, and Adler.
HLV and S4 then deliberately undermined that reading, not just by showing us that John has a dark side, but that we always knew his dark side, but we laughed about it or brushed it off or considered it charming that he killed a man in the first episode and giggled about it. It’s not just that John has a dark side – it’s that anyone who chooses to watch (or write) a show like Sherlock has a bit of darkness in them too.
It’s particularly telling that John’s line I quoted above – “We did
see it coming. We always saw it coming. But it was fun.”
– is meant to be about Sherlock, when really it better describes himself.
Yeah, I was just talking about this yesterday: the ideas/ideals and projections people in fandom have had about John. It was more rampant before Series 3, but there’s been another, greater shock with the violence in TLD ‘cause of course, it’s much less justified.
I do think we’re all implicated, on one level. At the same time, I wouldn’t necessarily say the narrative is suggesting all of John’s violence is intentionally portrayed as problematic, because everyone is violent (and it lacks serious consequences), it being part of the genre. Mary shot Sherlock to the point of him flat-lining, but was pretty easily forgiven and faced *no* criminal charges for armed assault of an innocent any more than John did for killing the cabbie to save Sherlock’s life. Needless to say, Sherlock shot Magnussen in cold blood and never faced trial. My point is that it’s odd to point specifically to John’s violence when even Molly slaps Sherlock to make a point, unless you admit this is due to a fundamental misunderstanding of and projection onto the character. Everything may not be funny, but it still exists in the context of a universe that condones violence, on some level. And indeed, while John is clearly self-hating and deeply disappointed in himself for his treatment of Sherlock in TLD, he is forgiven and accepted by Sherlock. I doubt the audience is meant to finally hold his behavior against John as a way of ‘taking it seriously’ this time. Not if we’re meant to forgive Mary without anything but that passing apology before her death in TST.
And so, if it’s not about provoking serious moral judgment, what role is John’s violence playing in the narrative? I think Ivyblossom’s post on the subject addressed this pretty well: a way of pushing John to his lowest point, to get to a narrative resolution of his issues and the stuff he kept unspoken or misunderstood with Sherlock.
If we’re implicated with the show’s violence in general, it continues with all the moral dilemmas Sherlock faced in TFP. Eurus kept challenging him to choose, to find the best or most moral solution. We also saw that assumption that violence would come easily enough to John, after Sherlock handed the gun to kill the Governor first and Mycroft couldn’t do it, as we have discussed earlier. The point is that John couldn’t do it either, of course, not in cold blood. John is a soldier, but he is still a good man, after all– as is Mycroft, for that matter. That kind of refusal to kill an individual for the ‘greater good’ or for rational reasons is a classic distinguishing trait of heroes, particularly in action genre films. It’s why Mary’s easy dismissal of the idea of not killing Magnussen in HLV brought her censure from John, who remains the embodiment of the moral principle of BBC Sherlock, flaws and all. Of course, John is flawed and human– that’s the ‘whole point’, even– but he’s the person who taught Sherlock to ‘save the life’ rather than solving the mystery, as he said in TSoT. That’s what allowed Sherlock to defuse the situation with Eurus in TFP, hugging her at the end. Sherlock’s arc resolves with him becoming a forgiving, empathetic human being who accepts the darkness in others as well as embracing the light in himself.
What exactly was this about? Because this is exactly what we do NOT see in S4 which is meant to be a direct continuation of the last modern scene of TAB.
Remember our speculations about Mycroft being in mortal danger, of his imminent death, passing on the responsibility for Sherlock on to John? And what did we get? Nothing. The only time in all of S4 Mycroft might have been in serious danger comes in TFP when Eurus makes Sherlock choose between best friend and brother. But Mycroft could not foresee this in TAB. And the way he behaves at the beginning of TST does not reflect in any way on this either.
Same goes for John. I am not going to discuss his issues in this post but it is a fact that John is not looking after Sherlock in TST and most of TLD. What we see, however, is Sherlock trying to protect John, Mary, and Rosie, calmly accepting John’s anger, going to hell for John, comforting John, calling him his family, and saving him from drowning in a well.
This raises the question to me…is S4 maybe the exact opposite to what the story should have been? Do we see a negative of the picture? The other side of the coin? I don’t know why they would do that… but you are right… actually we don’t see continuation of the modern time scenes in S4!!!
@loveismyrevolution: Yes, this is an interesting question. And I had a similar idea – not wishing to be predictable, delivering twists that unexpected, not going down the route we thought they would. I love the image of the photo negative. Question is – was it all real? And, if yes, was it worth it? Because doing the unexpected does not necessarily mean that what you do is good or logical or makes sense. (As you know, I do not think that it was all real but one should at least allow the possibility).
Yes, of course there is the possibility…but do we really count that in @gosherlocked?
What would Sherlock say “if you eliminate the impossible….” you know 😉 … is it even possible that any of S4 could be real? Okay we are also told that “of course it makes no sense, because it’s not real”. That was Moriarty, Sherlock’s other side of the coin…but whom do we trust and whom do we follow? I’m going for Sherlock!!! This can’t be real!!
But joke aside… why would Mofftiss do this? Why suddenly try to change plans, why suddenly going for the unexpected? What would be the purpose? Why now? What changed now? They never did that before? Even S3 wasn’t that unexpected….not even villains-Mary was quite shocking, was it?
What happened to Mofftiss and with that to Sherlock too?
@loveismyrevolution: Agreed in all points. 😉 You want to know my personal idea why S4 was unexpected and S3 was not? Because in S3 they basically kept to Canon, at least up to a certain point (I will come to that again). In spite of the pregnancy and Mary being a villain, Sherlock returned, John got married, there was the Milverton/Magnussen case, Moriarty remained dead (yes, there was the video but this was not a confirmation of him being alive). All major plot points that were known from Canon.
For me the turning point has always been the Watson domestic resp. John staying with Mary and Sherlock shooting an unarmed man. And with S4 we left Canon definitely behind. Even in TLD which IMO is closest to Canon we are very far from the original story – which is fine because it is more dramatic and Sherlock for a change does not fake anything. But as for TFP – well. There is no substantial Canon connection apart from the title. And I think that this explains why S4 feels so off to many people. And accounts for all the EMP meta as well.
For a lot of us, John’s s3 characterization, while troubling, was still something we could accept as plausible and a place it seems the writers could still move on from. S4 changed that, and left a fair number of us kind of appalled at the kind of man they turned him into, a change that didn’t feel built on top of his previous presentation and one that made the happily-ever-after future, even as directed by Mary, kind of implausible.
There’s also been some sense in fans that Sherlock’s role has been, over the years, tweaked by some star-service in things like letting BC play some fun bits he likes (French waiter, the fight scenes, probably the Shakespearean drugfest, and of course the ever-shortening hair). That makes sense, given how big and busy a star BC is: it takes some concessions to woo him back each time.
But I sort of wonder whether the same thing might have been going on for MF. He has taken on a wider variety of roles in his post-hobbit work, most notably some increasingly edgy or skeevy guys in things like Fargo, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, StartUp, and CA:Civil War. These really broaden his style far beyond the nice innocuous guy he played before, and I think about how much that might please him professionally, given how he kept the StartUp hair into Sherlock. So I do wonder how much he might have asked for the writers to give John some toning up in his personality, giving him a whole level of complexity and darkness that canon Watson really didn’t have but that he, Martin, thought might be fun to play. After all, if the writers were already indulging themselves in explosions and secret siblings, AA in doing her “Jewish” schtick (ugh!), and BC in hair, fight scenes, and XtremeShakespeare, maybe MF got to lobby for a wishlist, too.
There’s no way to know and it’s always perilous to take simple correlation in time as suggestive of causation, but I can’t help but wonder.
oh, thank you for mentioning AA’s awful characterization on the plane, which almost everyone else got a kick out of. Is Ruby Wax the only Jewish American she’s ever met?
Mofftiss seems to only deal in Hollywood stereotypes.
The John’s Garridebs fuelled dream theory I knew, I knew seemed familiar to me, but I couldn’t quite place why… and then I remembered this TV Show. Long story short- the DCI Alex= John, someone who is shot but is thrown into this weird limbo. This could still apply for the ‘we’re still in Sherlock getting shot limbo’, too. Featuring some very applicable quotes such as:
“Right, let’s break it down. Now, I was shot. I saw the bullet and I thought: this is it, Alex. This is how it ends. The result of that act was my arrival in this… dystopia. My mind creates a dark, twisted place for me to go to, my brain is in severe trauma, therefore, everything here is significant!”
“This is a full sensory hallucination! You’re not real.”
SHOT OF A CLOWN SHOOTING HER SAYING: “We are waiting for you, Alex.”
“I have to prove to my subconscious that I am its master, and that is how we’ll get help.”
“I’m strong enough to wake up.”
“They say that as you die your life flashes before you. Well, bring it on. My life can flash away as much as it likes because I am Not. Going. To die.”
Wow they copied the plot of ‘Ashes to Ashes’. Amazing find, @jenna221b! Yep, I think that’s what’s happening to John. His love for Sherlock, and realizing in this hallucination that Sherlock loves him back, makes John fight for his life ❤
“I am not. Going. To die.”
This is so convincing but I wonder if they’ll wait 2-3 years to do it?
The Final Problem is The Three Garridebs. The final explanation to John that Sherlock is in love with him.
This is the same exact thing we’ve been saying about EMP for over a year now.
@jenna221b you are so right!! I watched Ashes to Ashes recently and hoooo boy this is fucking similar
Wasn’t this the one where there’s a painting that’s the same as the one in Mycroft’s office as well as the ceiling reminding us of a chessboard?
yup! it’s mycroft’s portrait of the queen in his office and the chessboard ceiling pattern- here you go!
The other obvious thing is the use of billboards in the two shows. Maybe the March 8th red herring was actually a direct link to John’s psyche [or Sherlock’s]
So, which is it? Dr. Watson or Mr. Watson? May 18th or August XXth?
Either way, he’s supposedly marrying Miss ME.
Do not forget me…Do not forget me…The Maid(en) of the Mill
The video that comes after the post, and before the comments, is at the bottom of this meta.
this post is somewhat of a **curates egg as while the prose is better i do not come here to read about weddings
theimprobableone
11 August
Looks like it was a brilliant day! Congratulations and sorry again I couldn’t make it!
Mike Stamford
11 August
sorry john 😦
Harry Watson
11 August
STOP POSTING ON MY BLOG! AND THERE WON’T BE ANOTHER WEDDING! John Watson
11 August
Does your wife know you’re on the Internet when you’re supposed to be enjoying your Sex Holiday with her?
Sherlock Holmes
11 August (Text me, John. I have news.)
Yes. Yes, she does.
Mary Morstan
11 August (Why are you still using your maiden name?)
LOLZZ!
Dame Latif
11 August
Awh!! Lovely!!
Donna Staveley
11 August
Mary. I’ve been doing some research and you need to avoid seafood.
Sherlock Holmes
11 August
SHERLOCK! SHUT UP NOW!
Mary Morstan
11 August
I’ve just had a text from John. I’ll shut up now.
Sherlock Holmes
11 August
Seafood eh!?
Jacob Sowersby
11 August
Why do you all comment on this? Some of you don’t even know John.
Sherlock Holmes
11 August
We’re just happy for him!
Jacob Sowersby
11 August
But haven’t you got better things to be doing? You’re spending all your time on the Internet.
Sherlock Holmes
11 August
Is this why most of you are single?
Sherlock Holmes
11 August
Sherlock. You’re being rude again.
John Watson
12 August
John. You are reading your blog again.
Mary Morstan
12 August
Sorry:)
John Watson
12 August
I just don’t understand why you’re all here. Go outside and find something to do.
Sherlock Holmes
12 August
Pot. Kettle. Black.
Mike Stamford
12 August
HAHAHAAHA!!! MIKE WINS THE INTERNET!!!
Dame Latif
12 August
I don’t understand the reference.
Sherlock Holmes
12 August
He’s asking why you’re here.
Bill Murray
12 August
Aren’t you an actor?
Sherlock Holmes
12 August
Not that Bill Murray. Bill Murray 12 August
DARLING!!!!!!! The photos look amazing and your wife looks
amazing!! Big hugs to you both!!! Sorry again we couldn’t be there but
Ted’s leg was doing that thing again and we just couldn’t make it and I
wish we had because it looks like such a wonderful beautiful
heart-breaking celebration of absolute love!! Big hugs to you both!! Big
squishy hugs!!!! Xxxxxxxxxxxx
Stella and Ted
12 August
You couldn’t make this up.
Sherlock Holmes
12 August
Did nobody notice the attempted murder I mentioned? What’s wrong with you all?
Sherlock Holmes
13 August
Par for the course, mate.
Mike Stamford
13 August
You use the word ‘mate’ a lot, Mike. It’s a sign that you’re
overcompensating for your very middle-aged, middle-class existence. You
want the world to see you as young and cool.
Sherlock Holmes
13 August
Who else wants to be deconstructed?
Sherlock Holmes
13 August
do me
theimprobableone
13 August
LOL!! theimprobableone wants Sherlock to do him.
Jacob Sowersby
13 August
You are all utterly ridiculous. And still none of you have
asked about the attempted murder. John has catalogued two cases on this
blog that we have since discovered tied into what happened today.
The Bloody Guardsman featured a brilliant attempted murder. In the case of
The Mayfly Man , I deduced the how but not the why. During the wedding I
discovered the answer to both. Bainbridge had been stabbed by a tiny
blade through his belt. The belt bound the flesh together when it was
tied tight but once he removed it he started to die. It was a delayed
action stabbing. It transpires that he was merely a test subject for the
attempted murder at the wedding. The Mayfly Man was the man who
attempted to kill Bainbridge. He was sleeping with women to get close to
another potential victim. Through them he discovered that the victim
would be at John and Mary’s wedding.
Sherlock Holmes
13 August
(Recall how Sherlock says John never mentioned Sholto, but then later Sholto says he and Holmes are much alike. It might not have just been about loving John. They’re both the victim, because Sholto is Sherlock, based on what Sherlock thinks John wants.)
Does anyone want to ask me how I worked it all out? And who the potential victim was?
Sherlock Holmes
13 August
Anyone?
Sherlock Holmes
13 August
John would ask me if he was here. He always asks me what’s going on and how i worked it out.
Sherlock Holmes 13 August
Anyone?
Sherlock Holmes
13 August
i am interested but I am going out on a date theimprobableone
13 August
ANYONE!? Sherlock Holmes
13 August
Sweetheart, do you want me to come up and play Cluedo wuith you?
Mrs Hudson 13 August
If you must.
Sherlock Holmes
13 August
Last year, at this same time…(Or it now?) Internet Sensations!!!
Yes, we’re recycling information again. Mrs. Hudson offering to play Cluedo with Sherlock, because they need the hat to be back in the game. It will come up again in S4, because the victim did do it after all. (Original meta linked into the second one deals with The Hat.)
**What’s with the egg?
Well, for one thing, it’s a reference from 1895. In its original context, the term refers to something that is obviously and essentially bad, but is euphemistically described as nonetheless having good features credited with undue redeeming power. Its modern usage varies. Some authorities define it as something that is an indeterminate mix of good and bad and others say it implies a preponderance of bad qualities.
by George du Maurier – grandfather of Daphne du Maurier, author of My Cousin Rachel, which is important with the idea of twins and entanglement theory… We’ve already started looping on the blog, in S3.
The second important element about egg, was resolved by @tjlcisthenewsexy and @darlingtonsubstitution I added a portion about “E” being Mary, Molly, and Eurus, because that carries over into TFP. It’s related to John putting up barriers for why he thinks he can’t/or shouldn’t be with Sherlock.
Matters escalated, in TLD. Sherlock’s transport is weeks from not working, so Mrs. Hudson had to intervene, as Anyonethat cared about Sherlock and John would. She’s been in the game since the beginning, after all.
@darlingtonsubstitution provided a list of a few meta. This is the original version. I added onto a couple of them, but this link is excellent to see what’s out there, and I’ve gone link happy in this already.
Part of this is why I don’t immediately get on board with the idea of EMP in HLV (though I am not discounting it altogether). It’s just that things were weird before Sherlock was shot. But, if we’re still in S2 TRF, then all this makes a bit more sense. Whether it’s the thirteen scenarios being worked out and/or John needs an alibi for killing Mary or Magnussen (because Mary was never real or already gone). We saw the note about John needing an alibi, so he did something or Sherlock imagines he did.
Great additions @221bloodnun ! Reading this reminded me of what Sherlock said at the end of TEH: “Unlike the nicely embellished fictions on your blog, John, real life is rarely so neat.” The fact that it bookends with TFP’s “truth is rarely pure and never simple.” is incredibly telling. I love Sherlock’s MP as a storytelling device – it allows us insights into the making of his mind, and by extension, his heart – which rarely happens in Sherlock Holmes adaptations as we always see the detective through Dr. Watson’s eyes. Despite the surreal quality of series 4, though, I still believe we’re being kept pretty close to the heart of the Sherlockian game – the problem of unreliable narrators and the chronological paradox. But the key to Sherlock, the show itself as well as this version of the detective, I think (and hope still), will come down to John Watson as the one fixed point in the changing world.
Like you, I don’t think “dreaming” is what’s happening here either – it’s the matter of “imagined” v.s “perceived” and I’m definitely in the latter camp. A lot of series 4 has more to do with presentation and appearance as a form narrative commentary, while the actual plot being embedded and hidden. I don’t think this is out of the blue either – it actually began with THoB (in my opinion), then TAB, and series 4 being a mashup of every allegorical and metaphorical storytelling techniques under the sun. It may seem like an impossible rabbit hole to climb out of at the moment, but A LOT can be said in a matter of minutes on screen, so I’m still hopeful that whatever the point(s) Sherlock is trying to make will come about sooner or later, and won’t be as convoluted as we fear 😀
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