Lord Moran was arrested at the end of TEH. If he’s walking about London streets getting on buses paying no mind to John Watson at all – who, in ACD canon, was supposedly his arch enemy – then this is another point of evidence to Sherlock imagining ALL OF S4 ever since T6T. We are still stuck in S3.
I swear to fucking God if we spent all that time in Tarmac hell only to find out the tarmac never existed…
We’re still in S3. Definitely.
wanna say it here, too. bc it may be a hint to mind palace/sherlock’s imagination: when john’s at the crib..the plastic flower is first large, then it’s small…and the fish eye is glowing turquoise.
there are other things that glow in this episode too. @whatiwassuggesting has a list of everything that glows, including the skull picture
and I have a list of all the times the skull does its glow-y thing in TLD too (as well as what colours it changes into)
this is so great 🙂 yeah, there’s plenty of stuff glowing and blue/turquoise lighting effects. would love to see a list. i’ll try to find it on your blogs…thanks! 🙂
I can give you the list of TLD skull glowings, I don’t have the list from @whatiwassuggesting
I haven’t posted them onto my blog yet as we were working on a meta but I will throw them down here, one sec
Hopefully it’s eligible whoops
oh, wow..thanks 🙂 yeah, skull hell and the lighting effects kill me since day one. i am so glad for any post. can’t wait to read your meta, then! cute doodle on the left ^^
Yeah, I know that the idea that it’s the bible has often lead people to think it’s about, you know, keeping the gay feelings in.
I do imagine that it’s the bible but that he’s reading something about love and patience because being Sherlock’s not-boyfriend is so trying at times. You know something like 1 Corinthians 13:4-13. But, I’m a romantic. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I think that this is all so much in the realm of headcanon that there’s no way to meta it, really. I mean we can meta the idea that it’s the bible I think a bit since he’s reading in front of a church at one point but to imagine what it’s about is, well, pretty subjective.
I mean, it’s understandable to think that christianity = homophobia because hey, all the good advice in the world (from the bible) can’t undo the shitty things that leviticus says but yeah, I feel like John’s trying to keep things together on a personal level.
I think it’s because I see him reading that book at times when he seems to be trying to gather all his strength to be patient with Sherlock, to be a good friend, to do his role.
This could be a danger night. He’s lost his girlfriend to stay home and Sherlock’s probably going to come home and be difficult,
This is after a tense incident between them to say the least. Again, John doesn’t know how Sherlock is going to act or how difficult it’s going to be,
Anyway, that’s my personal take on this. I can definitely see why people headcanon that as a bible and the gesture as him trying to be less queer. But to me I see him gathering inner strength here, and I see this as a bible but one where he’s seeking some solace and trying to persevere in his role as not-boyfriend to Sherlock.
Realistically, do we even know it’s a bible? Could be Alice in Wonderland or something, right? There’s someone who keeps her head in the face of adversity. And absurdity. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Tbh, I really find it weird that we never have a full focus on the book in ASIB?! I mean, the book is clearly important in the shots, but it’s always filmed in a very clever way so we cannot properly identify it.
That’s why I’m not entirely convinced it’s the Bible. To me, it seems the book is more ambiguous. A classic (probably), but something of personal importance for John. Possibly a life-changing/eye-opening read?
We know how John is strongly attached to writing, and he obviously knows the power of words (ASIP – John knows words can kill). The fact that John reads this book at that particular moment is extremely meaningful, in my opinion.
Tbh, it’s my headcanon, but I’ve always imagined a book with symbolic queer content? Something like The Picture of Dorian Gray (don’t mock me), or as iconically queer? A book with which John discovered same-sex love existed and it could be powerful and fulfilling.
What if John realised who he was and who he wanted through a book? And what if this particular book is key to his relationship with Sherlock, at least from John’s perspective?
Considering TFP may be Sherlock or John’s mind palace, the fact John knows Wilde and The Importance of Being Earnest would support this reading
I wonder if the 221B google map could help us match the spine to a readable title for this book.
I hope someone on this thread sees this, but the idea of this being a bible? It came from midoz years ago. It was a theory post about John’s something or other. And no, there wasn’t ever a high enough quality image to figure out what book this was. (There are a few posts where some people got some letters out of a blurry picture, but no one ever got a match)
And people have said that this one of Jim in TFP at 38:25 is also fourth-wall breaking, but I don’t consider it this because he’s talking to Mycroft; the camera is where Myc’s shoulder is:
It’s not fourth wall breaking, to me, if the character is talking to another character. Sherlock does it often enough in the series when we are “the deduction wall”, as in when we are watching from the POV of the wall or the monitor. These ones are more noticeable because these are the ACTORS – NOT THE CHARACTERS – LOOKING AT THE CAMERA.
The John one is the most blatant one, I think, because it’s ALL MARTIN, and it’s the LONGEST ONE; HE LITERALLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE CAMERA AND TAKES A SIP OF WINE:
So yeah, gang, please add others if you see them. Remember: they have to NOT be part of the “script” of sorts. Just the actors breaking character and staring at the camera.
Did nobody notice this one? When they are around the grenade in TFP at 17:50, and John quotes Oscar Wilde, he’s looking directly at us:
That’s the only moment Martin looks at the camera in that whole scene. After he finishes quoting him, he immediately looks away, at the floor.
Here is the same shot but he’s looking at both Mycroft and Sherlock:
faithchan added: When Sherlock asks Mrs. Hudson to say “Norbury” to him if he gets overconfident, he looks right at the camera. Yes, it’s positioned right over her shoulder, but even on my initial watching of the episode, it STRUCK me. Same with Moriarty talking “to” Mycroft in TFP. And when you think about human eye focus, if you’re talking TO someone, you don’t usually FOCUS your eyes on a point OVER THEIR SHOULDER. Sometimes we DON’T focus, look into a middle ground or off into the distance… but looking AT THE CAMERA is a deliberate act, and it stands out because actors DO NOT DO IT UNLESS THEY ARE BREAKING THE 4TH WALL.
supervised-escapism added: The third one, Ben is like “Look what I have to endure here” – with tongue in cheek 😎
And the ultimate, it really looks like Martin is raising his glass to the camera, right before he looks to Amanda 😀
madzither added: I’m struggling with the Culverton Smith one – I think the actor has slightly wayward eyes that don’t look like they’re focusing on the same thing. So that one I’m not so sure about but yea, Benedict and Martin (especially!) definitely are breaking it.
shadow3214 added: There is that shot in TLD when John walks away from viewing Mary’s DVD , and Mrs. H tells everyone to get out, that we get a close up of John and his eyes are almost in focus with the camera. It’s not quite there but almost fourth wall..it would have been too obvious had he looked directly at us…but damn it’s like he wants us to see his pain.
Jiminy Creeper would not slouch in practically every screen time he has – at too limited time at that – like some alley drunkard loser with ugly posture and uglier fitting suit who doesn’t know the value of a Westwood or deludes himself with the title Mr. Sex.
The real Jim would have been at least halfway polished and far less cartoonish.
Thanks everyone for your additions!! ❤
Neat as always, @inevitably-johnlocked! Here’s some cool 4th-wall-breaking in TFP for you guys. One of these is NOT like the others:
I’ve got a good one, but first I need to clarify this: the girl in distress representing John is the only one looking exclusively at us. There’s no other character in that plane she’s meant to be looking at. The rest of them–who, unlike the girl, present themselves through screens for other characters to see so we also get to see them– are the villains. Yes, Eurus too, during the time John dreams of her as the evil figue. Because once she is ‘understood and redeemed’ though, Sherlock no longer sees her in a screen, but in person.
You can tell they asked the lil’ actor to look into the camera from the moment she says “please, help me” until the rest of the take. Looking directly at us is an integral part of the story. Now, in light of the topic around which John’s dream revolves, I interpret that John’s asking for OUR help.
Calling us to action. By making eye-contact with the heteronormative audience, they are forced to look back at him too (bi-visibility) and decide if they are going to help or not.This is a social problem and the character is
“Am I invisible, can you actually see me?” question. They’re practically begging people to change perspective for once so John Watson can finally break free from the chains of queerphobia and be happy. How do ya’ like them apples?
Oh, and speaking of happiness. Here’s John drawing a smile on our faces.
Yeah, don’t think about the “smiling is sadness” line (thanks @gelierzucker!) or the fact the smiley is John, or that Eurus deduces the Governor (John’s mirror) is sad and actually wants to cry… like John did in TLD. I think y’all get the point.
And people have said that this one of Jim in TFP at 38:25 is also fourth-wall breaking, but I don’t consider it this because he’s talking to Mycroft; the camera is where Myc’s shoulder is:
It’s not fourth wall breaking, to me, if the character is talking to another character. Sherlock does it often enough in the series when we are “the deduction wall”, as in when we are watching from the POV of the wall or the monitor. These ones are more noticeable because these are the ACTORS – NOT THE CHARACTERS – LOOKING AT THE CAMERA.
The John one is the most blatant one, I think, because it’s ALL MARTIN, and it’s the LONGEST ONE; HE LITERALLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE CAMERA AND TAKES A SIP OF WINE:
So yeah, gang, please add others if you see them. Remember: they have to NOT be part of the “script” of sorts. Just the actors breaking character and staring at the camera.
Moftiss face the same problem with moving John back in with Sherlock as they always did, baby or no baby. Watson moving back in with Holmes after his wife’s ‘death’ is the gayest plot line in the history of literature. They can’t escape that, even if they write themselves into a corner to avoid it. Which only makes me think fucky thoughts. They made sure to show John still in his apartment at the end of TFP, they didn’t need to do that. They could have written that scene somewhere else, at Baker St for example. Moftiss don’t suck THAT hard – they at LEAST FUCKING KNOW that these two LIVE TOGETHER for fuck’s sake. YET, we are meant to believe that this is the END. The end of their story, the “first phase” or whatever the fuck Moftiss said. Ahem … but they’re not living together Moftiss you absolute dickheads, how dumb do you think we are? (I don’t care what they said in an interview, the show is what is canon, and it’s canon that they live separately for now). And don’t even get me started on John’s daughter. If Moftiss think Sherlock and John will go ahead and “solve crimes!!” like they yelled at the BFI screening, then they’re wrong. Because John will be putting his kid to bed at 7:30pm and making her eggs in the morning, taking her to day care then washing her clothes and cleaning up filth all evening. Yes there are nannies and boarding schools, but kids also need their parent(s) no matter what, and John would want to spend that time with her because he’s a good loving person. Kids destroy change your life and you have zero control over that, and Steven knows that. This is the END of Sherlock and John solving crimes together, not the beginning. Conclusion: Fucky.
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