Another piece of evidence that Sherlock’s past trauma has actually something to do with his dad is the scene with the two fishermen in TFP.
You know from my ‘Follow the dog’ meta (x) that I think Sherlock’s father is in the closet and was probably in love with his best friend who might or might not turn out to be the mysterious Uncle Rudy. (Or maybe Uncle Rudy and Daddy’s lover are two separate characters, and Uncle Rudy was in charge of getting rid of Daddy’s lover; I don’t know.) In any case, I believe that Sherlock’s trauma will turn out to be all about his dad being in love with a man.
So, here’s one more piece of evidence (apart from the tonne I have already amassed in the original ‘Follow the dog’ post):
In TFP, we are shown two fishermen who are caught in a storm. We know that ‘water’ is a metaphor for emotions, and in that scene, we get a huge body of ‘water’: the sea! And there is a storm brewing over these ‘waters’.
To spell out what kind of emotional storm this is all about, the set designers put a tea pot right in the foreground of the opening shot of this scene (remember that ‘tea’ is a metaphor for homosexuality on this show):
So, in other words, we have two men (one old, one young) who are both caught in the same (!) emotional storm: Sherlock and his dad are both faced with the same emotional storm, ie, have the same kind of emotional problem
(=they both fall in love with men).
To make this mirroring easier to pick up on, the older fisherman even calls the younger one ‘son’ at one point, which, of course, in English, is just an affectionate way to address a man much younger than yourself, but word choice on this show is never a coincidence. The word ‘son’ here evokes the image of a father and his (actual) son being caught in the same storm.
Well, and then there’s the fact that the younger fisherman is called Ben. The name Benjamin literally means (young/youngest) ‘son’…Sherlock!
The older fisherman (the metaphorical dad character) has got used to the storm (=has been in the closet for ages and has resigned himself to his fate). He is navigating it without ever leaving the cabin (=closet).
Young Ben (=Sherlock) is still struggling, though. He is vomiting (=finds his situation disgusting). And he is literally oscillating between being inside the cabin (=closet) with his metaphorical dad, where they’re both safe from the storm but he himself gets nauseous, and outside the cabin (=the closet) where it’s dangerous but where there’s fresh air. As the conversation starts, he has just come in again, apparently undecided as to where he should be: inside the cabin (=closet) or out.
There’s also one tiny detail that could be significant: The costume designers couldn’t give us as many mirroring clues as they usually do because both men are wearing these yellow fishermen overalls over their clothes. And yet, there’s this teensy, tiny clue:
The dish towel! It’s checkered. Like John’s clothes. Checkered things on this show always refer back to John. That’s why I think this checkered dish towel is not a coincidence. It’s nicely situated in the foreground in the above shot, too. And it’s hanging right next to the mirror image of the tea (!) pot. In other words, the checkered towel (=John) and the ‘tea’ (=gay love) are shown in close proximity to each other via an actual, real-life mirroring (!) effect.
And then, we get shot after shot of the young fisherman (=Sherlock) standing next to this towel+tea pot combo, talking about how he is literally sick (…of the whole situation he’s in):
Then both men hear the radio clearly enunciate the word ‘Sherrinford’. But the older man (=Sherlock’s dad) tells the younger one (=Sherlock) in no uncertain terms to ignore that message completely. Since ‘Sherrinford’ is basically Sherlock’s unconscious, this means that Sherlock’s dad tells Sherlock to ignore the call of his own unconscious. Wow!
“Sometimes when we’re out in these waters, we hear that message,” the older fisherman says (=sometimes when you’re faced with an emotional storm somewhere very far out on the emotional sea, ie, sometimes when you experience same-sex desire because you’ve just seen a handsome man, for example, sometimes when you’re so far out in these ‘waters’, you hear the call of your own unconscious). But the older man tells the younger one that it’s best to just ignore that call.
It’s the younger guy who keeps asking and prodding what ‘Sherrinford’ (=the unconscious) is. He (=Sherlock) is the one who doesn’t seem to want to ignore it. He has his hand on the door handle (of an actual closet!) as if he’s about to pull the closet door open any minute now:
It’s the older guy who seems to be hiding so deep in the closet that he wants to ignore ‘Sherrinford’.
And yet…The older guy (=Sherlock’s dad) seems to know deep down that being in the closet isn’t good for you because, as the young man (=Sherlock) tells him that he’s feeling sick, the older one wistfully replies, “Better out than in.”
Yeah, the subtext here is quite clear: Better out than in!
It’s just that it’s apparently too late for the older man (=Sherlock’s dad) to heed his own advice.
But then the fact that Sherlock’s dad is probably not happy with his situation was already established in my ‘Follow the dog’ meta: Sherlock’s dad was said to be allergic to dogs (‘dog’=homosexuality metaphor). Note that it’s not that Sherlock’s dad hated dogs. For all we know, he loved dogs. But he had an allergy, aka an internal condition (=internalised homophobia) that made it impossible for him to have a dog (=be in an openly gay relationship).
So, this conflicted attitude the older fisherman is displaying by, on the one hand, saying, “Better out than in,” and, on the other, hiding in the cabin and ignoring the call of ‘Sherrinford’ seems consistent with a character who is torn between what he wants and what he thinks he has to do, deeply conflicted about his own same-sex desires.
And then there’s, of course, the fact that, in this TFP scene, they are both presented as fishermen. And we have already seen how an unemployed fisherman in THoB was a metaphor for homosexuality (here).
The TFP scene ends with both fishermen being forced out of their cabin (=closet) by pirate!Sherlock, ie, Sherlock in the incarnation of his childhood dreams.
Sherlock has reverted back to who he wanted to be as a child (ha!) and forced both his metaphorical dad and himself to literally ‘come out’. As he does this, he’s holding steadfastly on to the radio mast that is transmitting the weather news from ‘Sherrinford’ (=his own unconscious). He doesn’t want to ignore it any longer.
And let’s not forget that Sherlock forces himself to come out of the cabin (=closet) with the help of John wielding his gun (=penis).:) Sorry, not sorry.:P But that’s Mofftiss for you. With Mofftiss, a dick joke is never very far away. John’s penis is the thing that forces Sherlock to sail towards ‘Sherrinford’ (=confront his unconscious).
And how does the whole ordeal end for the two fishermen (=Sherlock and his dad)?
Whether they want it or not, they’re both dragged to ‘Sherrinford’ island (=to confront the unconscious). And once there, they’re tied to each other: One cannot solve his problem without the other. The two problems are literally entangled with each other, which again tells us that Sherlock being closeted (at least for now) and his father being in the closet (since…forever) are two things that are inextricably bound to each other. To resolve one situation, the other has to be resolved too.
Oh, by the way, the older fisherman is double coded and can be read as a mirror for Sherlock himself too, as is evident from the cheekbones, the eye colour, the hat that Sherlock will wear himself just minutes later and the black ‘popped’ collar visible underneath his yellow overall.
This was probably done to tell us loudly and clearly that Sherlock himself has, at least, the potential to end up like his dad: closeted and sad.
Unless Sherlock does something about it right now…like break into his own unconscious (‘Sherrinford’) and confront what’s in there.
After all, the old fisherman is called Vince. And the name Vincent means ‘Conqueror’, the ‘Victorious one’.
Sherlock has the potential to score a victory here. But he has to face up to the battle with his (inner) dragon. He has to confront his own unconscious.
The double coding makes this scene so, so brilliant. Because you can basically read the old fisherman as an AU!version of old, closeted Sherlock and young-fisherman-Ben as that other inner aspect of Sherlock that’s sick of it all and just wants to ‘come out’. A conversation, a conflict, between two voices inside Sherlock’s head.
(It’s at least possible that this scene is even triple coded: You could read the old fisherman as a closeted Sherlock and the young fisherman as John who’s struggling to come out. In this case, pirate!Sherlock and John-with-his-*cough*-‘gun’ would be forcing themselves (!) out of the cabin, aka the closet. They would be forcing themselves to confront the unconscious, aka go to ‘Sherrinford’, where the two of them, Sherlock and John would be shown bound together by fate. Because John and Sherlock have always been bound together. What happens to one of them is inextricably linked to what happens to the other one.)
That double coding (and possible triple coding) is what makes this whole fishermen scene so fascinating.
It was intentionally written so that we would understand that, whichever way we turn this puzzle, it’s all about the issue of coming out; it’s just that the characters change with our shifting point of view.
Edit: Also, look at the mirror image of the tea pot above. There are three mirror images of the tea pot. It’s mirrored three (!) times. Triple coding it is, then.
and even recognizing that mark and moff are both white cis (though not het) upperclass men, i don’t think at this rate you can argue that they control the current narrative of sherlock holmes. sherlock may have brought holmes back into the modern era in a big way, but the narrative has fundamentally changed. holmes’ sexuality will now be up for debate with every new adaptation. fandom creates, and out of fandom creation comes the new narrative. in a heartbeat, with sherwin and jonathan, is shortlisted for an oscar. miss sherlock will hopefully be bringing women into the fold more than ever before. how many of us are writing, and not only for ao3 but for publishers like improbable press and carnation books, and using those opportunities as stepping stones into bigger, better, brighter projects that will someday steal the spotlight?
we here are the narrative of sherlock holmes, the same way historical holmesian societies have provided the narrative since the 1910s and 20s and 30s and 40s. they were no more than fans the way we are fans, and we are bigger, we are faster, we are more connected, compiling more information and hosting bigger discussions and questioning even the most sacrosanct terms of sherlock holmes’ nature. the narrative will be the one we make it.
Visualizing Camera Movement in Scene I of Sherlock’s “The Six Thatchers”
Camera movement is one of the most basic aspects of cinematic storytelling and when you notice it, it’s usually because you’re meant to. The kind of camera movement I’m mapping in my Sherlock video above is extremely subtle. It’s not the kind of camera work that will win awards or accolades because it’s as fundamental to cinematic (and now television) grammar as as my first person writing style is to this meta. You’ll see a restless camera everywhere now that I’ve brought it to your attention.
In the case of Sherlock the first of six similar shots in T6T’s introduction is the only completely static shot where the camera doesn’t move at all, and it’s the shot that establishes Sherlock’s boredom. His total disengagement from Mycroft’s proceedings has gone unnoticed for a spell until Mycroft realizes his little brother has been too still, too quiet for too long- while silently and flippantly tweeting.
Here are some examples of more obvious camera work. It’s a short video and worth a gander.
Interesting! It’s striking that the director would make this choice, given that I assume a static camera would be the easiest, most intuitive choice. Why bother with a moving camera for such a subtle effect? But it’s true that it does make the scene just a bit more visually interesting, even when we’re not consciously aware of it.
Ever since john’s “anyone but you” note plus his previous proclivity to
violence, i had always suspected that it was only a matter of time until
sherlock became his victim. the harsh truth is: THIS is how
martin’s/bbc’s john is like. flawed, violent, angry, imperfect. he’s NOT
the perfect saint that fandom has often very mistakenly characterize
him as in their fics
Not that I ever cared for the perfect saint but the thing is that John is such an OTT repulsive, violent idiot that it’s impossible to believe anyone would want to marry him or have him in their life as a friend. But we’re supposed to believe that both Mary and Sherlock predicted that this was how John would react if she died, and they thought it was okay.
Well, maybe they all deserve each other but I think it’s understandable when people who ship Johnlock don’t want him to be like that. Maybe if you want to read/write non-con and such but for an ordinary romance it’s hardly common to want violence and anger. Not that there aren’t countless fics where Sherlock is afraid of doing/saying something that doesn’t please saint John and he’ll leave. Never knew people found that sort of thing desirable but whatever. Many Johnlockers are weird that way, wanting Sherlock to worship saint John, no matter what. In fact, I believe the perfect John isn’t so much a misinterpretation of canon as it is a desire to have Sherlock worship John. I blame TJLCers, most of whom favoured John and wrote accordingly, and got others to write the same thing too, for which the conspirators of course can’t be blamed.
I don’t really understand this need to say that John’s actions in TLD were in character. So what? I mean, do people honestly believe that kicking Sherlock was good writing? Necessary for the episode? Making Johnlock better in fics? The show more enjoyable? Why did you ship it if you thought the next thing, judging by John’s character, was going to be him trying to kill Sherlock? And most importantly, why didn’t he ever hit and kick all those other characters far more deserving his anger and violence than Sherlock. Like Mary or Mycroft. If you can choose when and who you kick, you are not a predictably violent and angry person. You just choose your victim especially, rationally.
Don’t know if any of you “John’s violent and angry; this was only to expect” people were those who also believed he didn’t forgive Mary for shooting Sherlock and had a plan with Mycroft because he’s such a BAMF and great friend, but in case you are: LOL
You know what is so, SO Mofftiss about that plane metaphor?
@possiblyimbiassed and I had proposed a while ago (x) that the dead (‘asleep’) people on the plane represent the audience and that the plane itself is basically the show.
Well, go and watch TFP again. What are we told about the plane (=the show)?
In TFP, John asks, “Is the plane big or small?” And the girl on the plane replies, “Big.” Then she adds, “There are lots and lots of people on the plane.”
In other words, it’s one huuuuge audience. Lots and lots of people watch this show.
And then, Mofftiss take it one step further and have Sherlock ask, “Outside the plane window, is it day or night.”
And the girl replies, “Night.” (‘Cause people watch TV in the evening. Makes sense.)
But then Mycroft (=the author) adds, “Well, that narrows it down to half the planet.”
Yes. Half the planet watches ‘Sherlock’! Gee, Mofftiss, modesty is not your strong suit, is it?:) How proud were you of that line, I wonder?
Also, in ASiB we’re told that the plane is probably not from one of the more superstitious countries…so, yeah, they’ve conceded that there are countries were it’s at least more difficult to show this kinda thing (‘superstitious’ being code for religious fundamentalist, basically).
And they told us one more thing, remember…
The driver is ‘asleep’, too! The little girl in TFP repeats several times that she can’t wake the driver up. The driver is dead to the world, too.
And who is the ‘driver’ of a TV show? Yes, the TV channel.
So, not only are there millions and millions of viewers who don’t get it (=are dead on the plane), the TV channels are ‘asleep’, too (=aren’t privy to what BBC ‘Sherlock’ is all about either).
Mofftiss, you smug bastards. What are you telling us there?
That the TV channels (drivers) in the countries that constitute ‘half the planet’ don’t know what they’re dealing with: a gay romance! The drivers (=TV channels) are all ‘asleep’, too.
This should turn out to be one interesting spectacle to watch once season 5 comes out…
P.S. And I kinda doubt those ‘asleep’ TV channels include the BBC. At least someone at the BBC probably knows what this is all about (=is not metaphorically ‘asleep’), but it’s possible that, even at the BBC, there aren’t that many who are ‘in the know’.
I cannot get over the fact that in The Sign of Three Sherlock says his idea of the greatest man in the whole world is a serial killer who gives a lot to children’s charities because counting the lives saved against the stranglings means more in the long run BUT THEN THEY MADE THE LYING DETECTIVE about Sherlock’s hatred for Smith who GIVES A LOT TO CHILDREN’S CHARITIES BUT IS A STRANGLER and somehow the worst man in existence. Series 4 is the Twilight Zone. It is an inversion of facts. It is that way on purpose. I have no doubt.
Brand New Pictures from Sherlocked Oct 2017 Pt 44 – Museum & Costume pictures Pt 12 –Props Display Box 2 Pt 3 – These
are my photos, so please do not repost Anywhere. You may make Edits with these
if you wish, but please put a link to this post as credit, thanks!(As you can see in some pics these actually have die-cut holes in them, which looks lovely. Also note Janine’s surname change!?)
Sherlock Fandom Archive 