the thing is, a lot of the plot holes don’t matter. it doesn’t actually matter about how they survived the explosion or got on the boat or got john out of the well. the problem is that the overall conclusion of the episode’s plot, no matter how you look at it, is unnecessary. we didn’t need this episode for Sherlock to realize that he’s better with his emotional connections in juxtaposition to Eurus’s lack of them, because Sherlock realized that exact thing in TAB and acted in accordance with that realization in TST and TLD. we didn’t need Sherlock’s family to be remade in a better image because the underlying love between Sherlock and Mycroft has always been clear, even if it hasn’t been perfect. we didn’t need Sherlock to understand the importance of having or saving a best friend because he realized it in TRF. we understood from the end of TLD that John and Sherlock have reconciled and are now ready to trust each other and work in partnership again (which TFP actually undermined by Sherlock ignoring John’s Vatican Cameos warning, incidentally). we knew Sherlock was willing to die to protect his loved ones two seasons ago. there was no emotional fall-out or gain for the characters on the basis of going through Eurus’s games.
we just…didn’t need a single thing this episode gave us. that’s the plot hole I can’t let go of. that’s what makes this so unsatisfying. it wasn’t just sloppy, it was a waste.
The sheer force of two opposing emotions; one seeing how wrong all of this was and knowing none of it makes any sense and feeling like there has to be an answer, there’s no way we are wrong, there’s no way it was a series of major coincidences, there has to be an answer; the other a crushing, burning heartbreak and feeling the loss of something I loved so deeply for so many years
I seriously think something happened and they were forced to not make it explicit..
Then they’d be better off coming right out and saying that. “We planned to take that relationship in one direction, but things arose, and that no longer became possible.” End comment.
There are also gentler ways they could have ended this season. There were some things in the last couple episodes that felt like very informed, and specific digs against certain ships and fan theories.
I honestly still think that this season was two grown men pulling a temper tantrum, like @madgirlspoem, mentioned to me last night, some people, especially very narcissistic ones, will prefer to burn their own creation to the ground rather than let other people play with it. It’s like the kid in kindergarten who when urged to share his toy, breaks it instead, so no one can have it.
This is the thought I keep circling around to. They decided to break it so we couldn’t keep it alive.
You know what I’m going to do about it? To paraphrase Maria Bamford, I’m going to keep the love I have alive…if for nothing else, then out of spite.
I have to say– when you’re talking about creators than “burn” their production rather than give up – I guess their feeling of agency over that production– you’re reminding me of Michael Landon– who, when he found out that Little House on The Prarie was being cancelled, literally blew up Walnut Grove to prevent a spinoff.
the things we thought we learned from the show. you can recover. you can find love. you are not defined by your trauma. you deserve to be surrounded by people who care about you. they didn’t teach us that. we taught ourselves, and we taught each other. there is less goodness in the world than we thought. but we have each other’s goodness. we have our own goodness. we thought we were looking at the light. WE ARE THE LIGHT.
Kid!Sherlock: Daddy, can I please have a dog? Pretty please!
Daddy Holmes: I’m sorry, son, but you know I’m allergic to dog fur. Here, why not take this random orphan kid that your mum and I found wandering on the fields? It’s basically the same thing.
I’ve seen a bunch of posts about who Sherlock is texting in the closing montage:
There seems to be a lot of anxiety about this, that he’s texting Molly, or Irene, but this is a callback to ASiP, where he texted this to Lestrade:
They were just putting in as many “back to normal, solving cases” visuals as possible for this closing, IMO, which is why this was included. I came across someone else pointing this out last night in passing, and I wish I could remember who, but I can’t. Anyway, here’s a standalone post about it, since I keep seeing it come up.
(top screencap originally on a post by @ghislainem70, bottom cap is mine)
sherlock: why are u so obsessed with me and why are u trying to kill me and kill my friends and kill our brother and kill these randos
churros: i wanted to play pirates with yall that 1 time in 1982 and we didnt
sherlock: oh dang my bad
churros: yup. but if u give me a hug and schedule Violin Battle Game Night every friday, we’re cool and i’ll stop alla this killin
sherlock: hahaaaaa u got it, but you’re goin DOWN sis [immediately pulls out violin rips into a playful rendition of “We Are Family” by the pointer sisters]
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