So when the flat is apparently destroyed everything except their chairs and that rug and everything else, Sherlock replaces a lot of the “cornered” furniture with rounded furniture:
A. That’s not their original breakfast table and chairs. They’re now a rounded set with a little shelf under them.
B, C, and D. Same with the long table, the chair at the end of the couch, and the stack of magazines.The sitting room table is now a small rounded one, the chair now has fully padded arms, and the stack of magazines have been replaced with rounded dressers, which Sherlock probably now keeps his military porn stash the magazines:
(E) used to be a hard-edged metal table, and (F) used to be a shelf with a lot of breakables on it.
And (G) used to be a very wobbly-looking side table. It’s been replaced with the sturdy one we see in TFP:
Plus, I believe the bookshelves are also less-cluttered as well, and those glass cases we see in the above image no longer have breakables in them
Sherlock literally changed the common area of the flat so he could be a better parent for Rosie.
Stab me.
Look, I’m not a fan of parentlock in this arc, but good god this is EXACTLY how I imagined Sherlock as a parent. And if we’re going with the John’s TAB theory,this is exactly how John imagines Sherlock as a parent too.
I just can’t get over the fact that John can’t stop visualizing Sherlock holding his daughter like that. I mean, did you guys pick up on this little lovely detail:
EURUS (as the therapist): And Rosie? JOHN: Oh, beautiful, perfect… unprecedented in the history of children. That’s not my bias [I know, John, it’s Sherlock’s]; that’s scientific fact [yep,
you’re definitely quoting Sherlock here]. EURUS: Good. EURUS: And Sherlock Holmes? [LOL even the dialogue brings him up right after that thus confirming John was actually thinking of him!] JOHN: Back to normal.
LISTEN JOHN DROOLS OVER THE IMAGE OF SHERLOCK BEING ALL CUTE WITH ROSIE AND WANTS TO RAISE HER WITH HIM AND THAT’S CANON
Did you see how both TAB and TFP began with a close-up shot of John’s and little Eurus’ (Mirror-John’s) left eye, respectively? They’re letting us appreciate that precious thing from up close, because we’re not gonna be able to see it anymore. Yes, you can start mourning it.
Remember how we thought Sherlock was gonna be the one going blind thanks to Skully’s brilliant theory? Well, I guess we got many of the hints at ‘blindness’ happening at some point, only that it wasn’t Sherlock’s, but John’s in one eye.
Yes! I speculated this in another post that cannot find at the moment, but I agree, especially with how often the focus on John’s eyes is brought to light. You CAN survive a gunshot to the head – in fact I watch a documentary recently about a man who was shot in the face and recovered for many months but lost one of his eyes – And a parallel to Sherlock coming back to life for John, John may will himself back to life for Sherlock, realizing how much Sherlock loves him.
Why DID they have all the dark allusions? Nothing in the episodes really were that dark (aside from a few poignant scenes in TLD). Those allusions are WHY the blind theory came up in the first place.
Okay, the Jane Eyre connection. I thought from Day One that the child being named Rosemonde was so interesting. This is the name of St. John’s love in Jane Eyre, the one that he gives up so that he can be a missionary. Was the child’s name an allusion to this character? The point of Jane Eyre, of course, being a repudiation of St. John’s renunciation of love. In the same way, Sherlock is a repudiation of the renunciation of love that took place in the original Canon.
Ooh this is brilliant. Plus Mofftiss kept saying we were missing something that was “blindingly obvious” or something like that, as I recall.
Brilliant additions, everyone! And don’t even get me started with Jane Eyre because it’s too trmojas. Seriously read that classic if you haven’t yet. The parallels between Edward/Jane and John/Sherlock are outstanding even in the smallest of details.
And omg yes, Mark did try to call our attention to something ‘blindingly obvious’ last September for Radio Times:
“There are things that come to fruition in this series which we’ve been planning for years. But people also find things that aren’t there. Which is my favourite. And then miss the blindingly obvious things that are there. People read an awful lot into it.”
Sitting around the living room with my son, the writer. We were discussing storytelling, tropes and possibly buying the DVD for Neon Genesis Evangelion. He reminded me it had a Gainax ending.
Famous films with Gainax endings are 2001:A Space Odyssey, The Shining the Matrix and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, to name a few. In TV we have Buffy, Lost, the Sopranos, Dr. Who. More than I could list. After much discussion, I started to relate this trope to BBCs Sherlock. Because all roads lead back to Sherlock for me.
The article below is completely lifted from All the tropes WIKI
“”I wanted controversy, arguments, fights, discussions, people in anger waving fists in my face saying, ‘how dare you?’“.—Patrick McGoohan on the ending of The Prisoner
What do you mean, “The END”??
A Gainax Ending is an ending that doesn’t make any sense. This is usually a deliberate form of Mind Screw or intended as a Sequel Hook to a sequel that was never made. For whatever reason, after watching a Gainax Ending, you won’t have any idea what happened. After rewatching it, rewatching the entire series, discussing it with other fans, looking up the meaning of the symbolism, and subjecting the entire thing to a comprehensive literary analysis, you still might not have any idea what happened. If you’re lucky, then there will be some kind of emotional or symbolic resolution even if it doesn’t actually explain what happened to the characters, and you’ll be left with the sense that the series as a whole was more deeply thought out than it seemed before. If you’re unlucky, then you’ll be left with more questions than when you started with, and the sense that the series as a whole has been voided of the meaning you once read in it.
A Gainax Ending frequently involves bizarre and nonsensical Genre Shifts, Fauxlosophic Narration, and/or Faux Symbolism, and may very well cause Ending Aversion. For an aborted Sequel Hook, you might encounter a Diabolus Ex Vacuus (where a new villain appears from nowhere, does something villainous, and then disappears again) or No Ending in the form of an ambiguous Cliff Hanger. Either way, it would have been addressed in the sequel… had there been one.
OK Sherlock was pretty straight forward until TAB, where we had Mind Screw, Genre Shifts, and ?Faux Symbolism as well as a dead villain reappearing, being villainous and then disappearing again. Lots of the reports from S4 setlock indicate that the MP vs extended dream sequence scenes will continue for awhile. It’s never twins, ghosts aren’t real and we lie all the time.
I just wanted to bring this up, because it looks like we are in for lots more of this before—Sherlock wakes up from his ?coma and we can get back to reality? and the ?facts of the story. Right now I can’t find the quote, but I read somewhere Mark Gatiss joking maybe the whole show could be a dream of the Victorian Sherlock. AAGGHH!!!
I really feel that there is still lots to cover and we all should be cautious that the shows very creative, experienced Dr. Who writers may drag us all much longer through the mind palace in order to resolve all the threads of this convoluted story.
Tagging a few people. If you don’t want to be tagged, PLS let me know, thanks!!
”I wanted controversy, arguments, fights, discussions, people in anger waving fists in my face saying, ‘how dare you?’“
Wow. Good call, OP! The question remains… why tho?
How does it feel to be clairvoyant, @multivariate-madness? This is so Spot in. And at sherlocked, moffat even talked about The Prisoner.
@roadswewalk I’m wrecking my brain to remember his exact words. Just found this in an old post by @mollydobby about The Prisoner:
Moffat just mentioned The Prisoner on the Panel Sherlocked) I think as an exampel of setting a whole Episode in a different place or time. There it was a Western.
(2/2) so do you think John truly understands now? Like if he woke up right now would he just pull Sherlock down for a kiss immediately or would he still need Sherlock to say it first to be able to believe it? And his repression/Eurus was healed with a loving hug so is that barrier down for good now? And in that case was that montage at the end really the best that John can imagine or does he still not dare envision himself and Sherlock as a full blown couple? Thank you and sorry for the bother 😉
Woah there, Nonny!
Thank you for your kind words. It’s no bother at all, but I just wish I had all the answers! I mean, don’t we all? That said, I’m gonna try my best and give you a coherent answer to these questions with my humble opinion. 😉
On Mary’s characterization at the end:
John just made up a whole story about someone who’s able to completely brainwash people with a seemingly friendly/helpful message. Before shooting him, Eurus told John “you can hide behind a smile”, so he dreamt that “smiling is advertising”. Think of the ‘Miss You’ DVD as John’s implementation of this theory. Mary may look sweet but what she says is actually not good at all: it’s all manipulation. One of the things that stands out the most to me, is the way John seems to translate Mary’s words from the real ‘Miss me’ DVD. He turns “the man we both love” into “I know what you could become”. But that’s in no way a supporting statement on what Sherlock and John ‘could become’: that’s John thinking she always knew about his and Sherlock’s true feelings for each other. And given her actions since TEH, that only speaks ill of her! So I see this message as John realising he’s been thoroughly manipulated by her. I mean, he even hears her fueling his self-loathing in “who you really are doesn’t matter”, and voicing his fears –and possibly her contempt towards them– describing them as “a junkie who solves crimes to get high and a doctor who never came home from war”. That’s the opposite message from literally the whole story! It negates their character development. Though it makes sense that as the villain, she’d want them stuck in the past with their issues unsolved. And of course, note the possessive pronoun in “My Baker Street Boys”. Ownership, chains.
On John understanding Sherlock’s feelings for him:
We can’t know whether this is how John thinks Sherlock truly feels, or how he’d want Sherlock to feel.
But he certainly imagined Sherlock caring for him, crying for him, being soft with him, telling him is not too late for them, breaking him free, saving him and saying ‘I love you’ three times. Now, the climactic ‘I love you’ scene gives us a good insight into John’s pov. Everything Molly says is what he thinks. Again, it reflects his fear that Sherlock only wants him as a friend to tag along for the cases, and therefore that his love is unrequited. We can see his incredible repression and his desperate need to hear Sherlock telling him those three words. And literally, his dying wish to confess his love for Sherlock. Then, after Molly (read:John) is gone, and Eurus reminds us of aborted declarations of love (”all those words unsaid”) John imagines Sherlock in denial and desperate about losing him. To the point of almost commiting suicide later on (”I’m remembering the Governor”). We also get the whole Eurus=Sherlock parallel, with John characterizing her as an unfeeling machine, a freak that turns out to be a traumatized emotional being that “just needed a hug”, and gives her a redeeming arc. So, given that John’s dream centers around making Sherlock an emotional vivisection in order to figure him out, I’m inclined to think this is not ony the creators showing the audience Sherlock’s true nature, but John himself understanding it.
On John’s attitude, and daring to envision himself and Sherlock as a full blown couple.
He couldn’t even imagine the ‘I love you’ exchange without the use of a mirror– grant it, this is as close as the creators could get without spoiling the real love confession! But the image of them raising Rosie together did flash before John’s eyes. Also, Sherlock might’ve confessed his love to an unconscious John for all we know. He may actually remember hearing those words. Now, we saw how repressed John is, how unsure he feels. I don’t think John “I find it difficult, this sort of stuff” Watson would just ‘pull Sherlock down for a kiss immediately’, like you put it. Not without Sherlock reassuring him his feelings are requited. Also because in this aspect, what we saw in
Sherlock’s Mind Palace and John’s Mind Bungalow harmonizes perfectly: in TAB Sherlock realizes he’s the one who has to make the move and finally confess, while in TFP John wishes Sherlock to be the first one to say ‘I love you’. They’re on the same page even on this, it seems 😉
That’s my take on it, Nonny! Hope that helped. Thanks for the ask.
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