Back in
EMP land, Sherlock is dying and Eurus needs to land the plane if she wants to
survive. And while she is rightfully worried and John about to drown, Sherlock
is pulling out of his ass a stupid solution for Eurus’ song. That’s when we
start saying that ‘Eurus’ really had time to lose to grave these tombstones in
order to fit that song.
But,
really, the correct answer is ‘Eurus created that song in a way to explain the
wrong dates’. The song isn’t a puzzle, it’s the solution needed because the
graves are the puzzle that fascinated Sherlock as a child.
A fake
gravestone where Nemo Holmes was ‘buried’. But really, Nemo was no one.
Or
nobody. There was no body.
You
can’t really face your own grave, can you? Unless you have a TARDIS, all you
can do is have a gravestone with your name on it and no date of death. You’re
still not dead so the dates will be necessarily wrong.
Basically,
if you want to survive, you need to figure out the contradiction your
gravestone is telling you. Show the inconsistencies and reveal it as a fake.
Here
starts the puzzle. Now that the inconsistencies are laid bare, you need to find
how that can tell you how to survive.
SHERLOCK:
The wrong dates, she used the wrong dates on the gravestones as the key to the
cipher and the cipher was the song.
Here,
Stupid Sherlock strikes again.
The reverse is what happened.
Do you
know what an Ottendorf code is? You have a set of numbers and they refers to a
word of a page of a very specific book. We are facing a book cipher, not
dissimilar to an Ottendorf.
The cipher is the graveyard, the key is the song.
The
graves represent the number of the stanza and the numbers the words used in said
stanza in ascending order. If you start with a number like 28 and then use 1,
that just means you need to use the last stanza above (word 28).
Grave 1
(Stanza 1): 134-1719 -> 1 3 4 17 19
I AM LOST HELP ME
Here we
can’t do 13 because we have 4 after, nor 34, so 1 3 4, now we are in the two
digits 17 and 19
Grave 2
(Stanza 2): 28.9.1520 -> 28 9 15 20 BROTHER SAVE MY LIFE
We could
have 2, 8, 9, 15 and 20 but then you get NOT SHADE SAVE MY LIFE, so 28 it is.
Grave 3
(Stanza 3): 1818 24 26 -> 1 8 18 24 26 BEFORE MY DOOM I AM
No
choice is there? You can use the last like of the last stanza but that’s is so
no 18. 1 8 and 18
Grave 4
(Stanza 4): Nemo Holmes: 1617-1822 32 -> 16 17 18 22 32 MY SOUL SEEK MY ROOM
If it’s
1, 6 and 17, It’s WITHOUT BEFORE SOUL, so 16 and the rest follows
You’ll notice that there is a part of the final message missing, so there is a grave missing.
GRAVE
4.0.0: LOST WITHOUT YOUR LOVE SAVE
So grave 4.0.0 should be : 28 1 2 3 8 in any combination.
What can
we have then?
2/8/1238?
28/12/38? 2812 age 38? Age 28 1238? 2812-38? 28.1.238?
The
grave stones aren’t real, the numbers are wrong, but at minimum they give for a
second an illusion of reality. Yes, there are two centuries of difference, but
you won’t have many graves stones starting
in the 29th century. Also we can’t start with the age of the
dead Holmes, this comes only at the end.
You can
have 2/8/1238, or even something like 28/12/38 or 28/1/238 but there is another
option I want to point out.
2/8/12,
Age 38.
Here
lies Mr. Holmes, born on the 6th of January 1974 who died the 2nd
of August 2012 at 38.
I admit,
I’m not using John’s blog to estimate Sherlock’s “deathday” because, mainly,
Watson was always shit at keeping track of dates.
But we need another Holmes grave, one that is
the fakest fake to have ever faked the word. Also, it’s the only things that makes sense. Why wouldn’t they show the
final grave needed if the numbers used were so pointless?
They
gave us a solution that is missing a fifth of the answer, and not the least
important because this is where we get the answer ‘LOST WITHOUT YOUR LOVE SAVE’.
So, the
secret behind Sherlock’s grave, the one thing that turned his own grave into a
pure architectural joke and not a genuine thing, the one thing that made sure that Sherlock is still alive is Love.
By solving these fake deaths, Sherlock found the answer to save the plane before it crashes and creates a far more genuine grave.
SHERLOCK: Help me, brother, save my life, before my doom. I am lost without your love, save my soul, seek my room.
Without Sherlock’s love, Eurus won’t be able to find her way home, back to London and the ground.
Twice already Sherlock tricked death in two finale, twice love is what gave Sherlok the means to survive. He just needs to do it again.
Love conquers all, even death.
Mofftiss can suck it because the Sherlock fandom is so much smarter and cleverer than they could ever hope to be. This is amazing, @impossibleleaf!!!!! I don’t know how you did it, but this is just fascinating! Figuring this out like this renews my faith that we aren’t just a collection of deluded little misfits. That what we are seeing, deciphering, decoding IS real and true. Because, honestly, how could it not be at this point??
They gave us a solution that is missing a fifth of the answer, and not the least important because this is where we get the answer ‘LOST WITHOUT YOUR LOVE SAVE’.
Let’s just take a moment to think about that^^^^^ and what it potentially means.
I that am lost, oh who will find me? Deep down below the old beech tree Help succor me now the east winds blow Sixteen by six, brother, and under we go!
Be not afraid to walk in the shade Save one, save all, come try! My steps five by seven Life is closer to Heaven Look down, with dark gaze, from on high.
Before he was gone right back over my hill Who now will find him? Why, nobody will Doom shall I bring to him, I that am queen Lost forever, nine by nineteen.
Without your love he’ll be gone before Save pity for strangers, show love the door My soul seek the shade of my willow’s bloom Inside, brother mine Let Death make a room.
This is the full version of Eurus’ song. If you follow correctly, Grave 1=Stanza 1, Grave 2=Stanza 2 and Grave 3=Stanza 3.
But, I hope you realize that the missing grave is actually the fourth part of the solution, not the fifth.
It so goes like this:
Grave 1 -> Stanza 1 (I AM LOST HELP ME)
Grave 2 -> Stanza 2 (BROTHER SAVE MY LIFE)
Grave 3 -> Stanza 3 (BEFORE MY DOOM I AM)
Secret Grave -> Stanza 4 (LOST WITHOUT YOUR LOVE SAVE)
Grave 4 -> Stanza 4 (MY SOUL SEEK MY ROOM)
And for the five graves we need, Mofftiss decided to be lazy enough to recycle the fourth stanza.
It may be seen as overthinking and perhaps I’m wrong, but if you link the graves and the riddle with what is happening with the show’s seasons, you realize that the secret grave is actually between Season 3 and Season 4, or another version of the fourth grave.
So, if grave and stanza=1 season, we have two Seasons 4 (or 1 Season 4 and 1 Lost Special that happened before S4).
us: you know you have to talk about tfp sometime, right?
them:
I know you two; and if I’m gone, I know what you could become.
TFP
I know that many people dislike that Mary is given the last word in TFP. I, too, would have wished someone else had spoken those words. But the fact that a character who (for many fans) is not likable or not perceived as worthy is chosen to speak those words does not mean that the words as such are not important or valid.
In BBC Sherlock many essential truths are spoken by villains which does not make them less valid. I would even go so far and say that more truths are spoken by villains than by John. Just think how often John is wrong about Sherlock (”He’s not like that. He doesn’t feel things that way” / “But why would he care? He’s Sherlock. Who would he
bother protecting?”).
Villains usually tell the truth in this show, especially where Sherlock is concerned.
“But we both know that’s not quite true.”
“Oh, and somebody loves you.”
“Look at us both.”
“But look how you care about John Watson.”
So coming back to the above quote – what does it mean? What can they become? They have been shown as partners, friends, best friends, groom/best man, father/godfather, family – there is only thing that is missing here. And while I am not sure if these words are given to Mary because the writers love her so much or because villains usually tell the truth, in the end it does not really matter. What matters is that they are spoken loud and clear.
Yes, absolutely @gosherlocked These words are spoken loud and clear. They are there for everyone to hear who wants to hear them. After flatmates, colleagues, friends, best friends, family …. what’s left what Sherlock and John could become? What they could only become after the death of John’s wife? Really! What???
I’ve reached a point, in fact since some weeks after TFP (my initial reaction
to TFP was “it’s shit, but at least there’s canon johnlock“ immediately
followed by “it’s shit and johnlock isn’t undeniable AT ALL and it’s
unfulfilling in too many ways, so fuck that”), where there’s no doubt in
my mind anymore that s4 ends at a point where johnlock is canon and
I’ll calmly disregard anything that Mofftiss say or do to deny this
(they can keep their baiting game for themselves, I’m not playing),
because they’ve written it and that’s finished in my mind. It’s
dispassionate surface reading. It’s what you’ve mentioned and several
other maybe subtle but definitely textual details, especially from the
hug onwards.
I don’t even care anymore, that show was a mess
and my johnlock happiness is out of the BBC’s control, but I’m unable to
unsee how canonical it is in that adaptation. As a matter of fact, the
more detached I become, the more clearly I see it. S4 is still terrible
and there’s still queerbaiting because it should be explicit and
undeniable, but it is what it is– Diet Canon Johnlock, sort of.
wasted an episode on Marys spy stuff. We know more about Mary, then about John and John was so terrible reduced that episode, we didn’t even know why he cheated (the 2nd MAIN character). I just feel like it could have been sooooo much better 😦 and it angers me that they wasted that episode with too much action and nonsense (“It’s never twins” sounded like, it was just there, so we could go: “oh, i heard that before! HOW CLEVER!!!”)…
… Why in hell did they think that it would be a good idea to completely waste 2 episodes with backstories (the only backstory that interested me was Johns -.-), when they call the show a detective drama/show about a detective (what had TST to do with that??!!). They should promote it as family drama with cameos by John. And like i think if TST would have been “normally good”, TLD as brilliant as it was (my fave ep) and TFP terrible, then the backlash from fans and critics wouldn’t be soo bad
Hey Nonny!
Yeah, I think despite how beautiful it looks, T6T’s biggest flaw was making Mary the central character and pushing the TWO MAIN CHARACTERS off to the side as sidekicks. It was a horrible, horrible mistake, and if they did it to “make Mary more likeable” they failed miserably.
Lines were recycled, previous plot points brushed under the rug, scenes were repeated but never explained to us what for, and things were introduced but never talked about or discarded completely (the letter, Sherlock’s use of twitter, baby Watson…). Characters were all OOC, and literally no one cares about Mary’s backstory. They didn’t need to establish her character anymore because they made her a villain in S3 but then it felt like they were trying to amend that for some unknown reason, and then essentially destroyed the relationship of John and Sherlock completely, which was so freaking asinine.
TLD was probably the best of the three, but even that, all the characters were so wildly ooc and the episode was terribly uncomfortable for many to watch (but again, it was a cinematically beautiful episode) but also left so many threads loose. And then TFP SHOULD HAVE EXPLAINED EVERYTHING, but instead it does a wild 180 from everything else, and literally looks cheap, feels cheap, and lazily written.
I personally think the biggest fault with S4 was TFP, but T6T’s incoherent storyline and absurd turn to literally destroy Sherlock and John as a force to be reckoned with, PLUS making the WHOLE episode about Mary is probably more unforgiveable. I don’t blame anyone other than the writers for this.
And thus the show ‘Sherlock ‘ died. Killed by its own creators. So sad. And the most tragic fact? That Mofftiss thought it to be sooo good. They should go to ‘Rotten tomatoes’ and see the score, and then go to a mirror and look into it and then ask themselves….and learn from it….’What went wrong?” Or they could just ask their (former) fan-base. We would be happy to tell them! 😉
Also, TST was boring. Really, really BORING. I barely sat through it. At least TLD was somewhat entertaining, and I laughed like crazy at TFP.
Yes, it was very boring. Which bothers me so much because I love Rachel’s job on the episode (it looks so beautiful), but even the “funny” parts weren’t funny because I was too busy trying figure out what the hell was going on and why Mary was the central character. It’s such a shame.
I excepted TST and TLD because I thought it will all be explained it TFP. I even expected Mary as the central character because I assumed after all that back story that Mofftiss wanted to tell everyone how bad she really was so everyone in turn would want to see John and Sherlock happy together. As well as I had the feeling after TLD everything was supposed to lead us to Johnlock. I mean they have shown us that John couldn’t stop thinking about Sherlock (he talks in his head to his recently past away wife only ever about Sherlock… I mean come on), they made it absolutely clear that neither John nor Sherlock can cope/live without the other, THAT super emotional hug and John’s whole Irene – but I really talk about you and me – sociopath- speech. And than came TFP … and it literally ripped my heart out because there were no explanation at all, no logical continuity, no logic at all really. More holes like a Swiss cheese, they turned everything upside down we knew so far… and on top queerbaiting everywhere. Like they wanted it to hurt as much as possible. So to me TFP is like a deathly virus.
Oh, yeah, I’m not excusing TFP either, since it’s all over the board and should have rounded out the narrative.
This scene. I can understand why people have said “it’s not in character”; though I couldn’t disagree more.
Mycroft himself has spoken of his distaste for “leg work” and told us that “field work is not [his] natural milieu”. He doesn’t say why. Laziness is perhaps presumed by the viewer, but – having seen this – I don’t think so.
We know that Mycroft favours logical thinking patterns and that he believes emotions cloud the judgement. He therefore tries to eliminate all emotion from his thought processes. However THAT DOES NOT MEAN HE DOESN’T FEEL THEM. A stoic is not a psychopath. As humans we are designed, in-built to experience emotion. Mycroft may adhere to principles of stoicism, he may be disdainful and (I would argue) even fearful of strong emotions, but he absolutely has them. Far, FAR more than he would like, wishes to admit or wishes anyone to know about. He wears his Iceman label as a shield. It’s his protection.
Mycroft has not reached the position he is in without having to make difficult decisions. Has he ordered Loss of Life, imprisonment? Probably. More than likely. But from behind a desk. A shield against emotional attachment. “What about the girl on the plane?” I hear people ask. He was prepared to have that child crash that plane into the sea! If that’s not cold detachment I don’t know what is! Hmmm, actually he does what he always does (where Sherlock isn’t concerned!) he separates emotion and deals with the logistics. And, in a logical sense at least, he’s right! If that plane crashes into a town or city then hundreds may die. From a logical perspective, yes. He’s no stranger to decisions like this and as long as that person remains abstract to him then that gives him the ability to cope emotionally. He doesn’t know this child. He wouldn’t want to know this child, because that would make it too hard. Has anyone noticed how he protests the most fervently at the phone calls with the child? He doesn’t WANT to be drawn in. Has anyone noticed how at one point of the phonecall he covers his ears? Emotional protection. He’s protecting himself from becoming emotionally involved and it clouding his thought process.
When Mycroft is handed that gun he is being asked to DIRECTLY kill a person. There is no shield. He is being asked to point that gun at a living, breathing person and pull the trigger. And he is not capable of doing so. He has always KNOWN he isn’t capable of doing so and that is undoubtedly the real reason for his dislike of field work. Behind his desk he can do what he does best. Think. Plan. And his hands stay clean. Logically, there is no other choice and he has a man in front of him begging him to shoot him. Logically he knows this, but doing it yourself is very different to giving the order for it to be done when you’re safely back in your office.
(reblogging because awesome meta. and: “field work is not [his] natural milieu” i love this line i don’t know why maybe simply because mycroft.) (“in case you’ve forgotten”)
I thought this scene was absolutely in character for most of the reasons above. Mycroft doesn’t like legwork. He thinks “getting involved” is always a mistake. Ordering an assassination is not the same as being the assassin.
Doesn’t mean your hands are clean, though. Even (sometimes arguably) within the government agency context, ordering an assassination is still premeditated murder and the first person to admit that would be Mycroft. He straightens his tie and lifts his chin when a gun is pointed in his own face. He knows his moral worth is questionable and he doesn’t feel he especially deserves to live.
Mycroft has not reached the position he is in without having to make
difficult decisions. Has he ordered Loss of Life, imprisonment?
Probably.
Well, if Sherlock and Eurus count, it’s not just probably. Also, Mycroft didn’t have any trouble letting his brother go on life-threatening missions, nor did he have trouble watching Sherlock being tortured and since he went there to do the watching, he did do leg work. And he didn’t mind Sherlock getting shot by Mary. The word “stoic” is not what I’d use of a brother like that.
If he was so against leg work, why did he go with Sherlock and John? He even wore a disguise and seemed to enjoy that. And he was the one who knew what they were up against. Not that John was able to kill that man either. But totally in character for him, of course, since he was established as a coward long before.
I thought the girl was someone’s imagination. I haven’t rewatched but I’ve seen people say so several times. How could Mycroft know about any phone calls? OTOH, why would anyone care about an imaginary girl in the first place? *puzzled*
Wouldn’t Mycroft have shot and killed that clown with his gunrella if the bullets had been there?
I think the point is that “leg work” would have been doing the torture rather than the watching?
Mycroft sends Sherlock off to do legwork overseas but wouldn’t choose to do it himself. The first time, Sherlock chooses to go as he has to break Moriarty’s network up completely or John, Lestrade and Mrs Hudson are still at risk from snipers. The second time is punishment for shooting Magnusson and the decision is forced by the scrutiny of other government officials. Also, Mycroft only goes to Serbia at the start of S3 when Sherlock isn’t traceable (took him 6 months to track Sherlock down).
He only told Sherlock and John “the truth” about Eurus when he was terrified by the clown break-in – a deliberate set up devised to terrify him.
Even in the U.K. you’re allowed to defend yourself in your own home if faced by mortal peril (clown had a big sword and was about to charge). Providing the weapon is licensed and proper safeguards are in place, self defence would be legal.
Then he felt he had to go with John and Sherlock as he’d continued Uncle Rudi’s ahem questionable treatment of Eurus and it was his responsibility to sort things out once he was convinced she’d escaped. He also still apparently didn’t tell the whole truth.
The little girl was believed to be real by Mycroft, Sherlock and John until very late in the episode.
I still don’t get how they all could have had the same hallucination or whatever. Did Eurus pretend to be the girl? Change her voice and everything? Was it some sort of hypnotism?
I guess “leg work” depends on how you define the word but I’d say that learning Serbian in a couple of hours and infiltrating whatever that group was that had Sherlock counts. No way of knowing what he had to do to get where he was. And if he really was as much against it as he complained afterwards, why not send someone else? Besides, like Sherlock said, he was already working on saving himself. I don’t remember anything said about how long it took him to track Sherlock or that he had trouble tracing him. He was in a hurry because London was in danger. Also, I doubt any snipers were interested in John & co after Jim killed himself.
My point about the clown was that it showed Mycroft had no qualms about shooting a person. He could have run away. I’m sure that big house of his had somewhere secure where he could’ve been waiting for the police to arrive. It’s got nothing to do with any legal issues. Killing that man to save his wife wouldn’t have meant he was a murderer. Especially considering the circumstances. Sherlock was a murderer. Mycroft didn’t have any trouble making that go away, when he (finally) wanted to. He could easily have done that again if necessary. Now both the wife and husband died. If Mycroft had shot himself, I wonder what had happened. He was the one responsible for Eurus and her safe-keeping. That was something he failed at. He could’ve played the hero and sacrificed himself because of that.
JOHN:
Redbeard?
SHERLOCK: He was my dog.
MYCROFT : Eurus took Redbeard and locked
him up somewhere no-one could find him.
JOHN:
Mycroft’s been lying to you; to both of us.
JOHN: They’re not dogs’ bones.
I’m working on another meta and I’m curious what headcanons people have formed on this point. Preferably Watsonian, not Doylist explanations.
I get that, as children, Mycroft would have wanted to protect Sherlock from the ugly memory of his best friend’s murder. But now that they are all adults and Eurus is using Sherlock’s ignorance on this point to manipulate him, why doesn’t Mycroft simply tell him, “By the way, we never had a dog. Redbeard was a young boy who went missing”?
Aside from saving a juicy plot reveal till later in the episode, I think he was probably hoping/clutching desperately at straws that it wouldn’t come out. Either that or he hoped that he’d have chance to bring it up at a later date when he thought Sherlock could deal with it better (or when John wasn’t around – he clearly wasn’t at his most comfortable having to air the dirty family laundry in front of John).
For all Mycroft is ruled by reason and pragmatism, he makes some terrible decisions when his judgement is clouded by emotion, and particularly terrible ones when he has little to no control over a situation. I think him withholding that information was both
a way of him maintaining some sort of semblance of control over the situation and an attempt to shield Sherlock from further emotional pain.
Mycroft is a very cost/benefit analysis kind of thinker to me, and personally I don’t think he wouldn’t see the utility in telling Sherlock something so distressing unless it was absolutely necessary. Especially given that he’s been forced to dump a metric shit ton of fucked up family history on him in a very short space of time.
Also:
I used – at discrete intervals – potential trigger words to update myself as to your mental condition. I was looking after you.
Redbeard was a trigger word. Even at the point at which Mycroft has pretty much lost all control of the situation in Baker Street, he’s still trying desperately to cling on to it because he thinks if he can he can look after Sherlock (even though it’s quite evident that he can’t, but hey, emotions + Mycroft = blindness to his own flaws and limits).
Mycroft’s whole life since he was a child has consisted of him carrying the family secrets in order to protect those around him. He then went into a career where keeping secrets is top priority in order to protect lives. It’s ingrained in him to keep things to himself for the good of others. I think giving up that responsibility and burden in one go would be hard for him, he’s hard wired to want to keep things quiet.
But if what Redbeard really stood for was such a big secret that even Mycroft dared not to reveal it to Sherlock in one go – how could Magnussen know about Redbeard and even had a file on it/him? Because I doubt Magnussen cares for missing dogs…
If Magnussen knew about Redbeard/Victor and thereby of Eurus and her existance/function, why was he allowed to continue? Why does Mycroft say people like Magnussen never do too much harm when he in fact knew one of the biggest secrets not only of the Holmes family, but of the British Government (Eurus and Sherrinford) and was very likely to use it for blackmail? Why did he built a nonesensical chain of pressure points when he had both Mycroft and Sherlock in his pocket by knowing about Redbeard/Eurus?
And how did Magnussen know?
And why did Moriarty, who also knew about Redbeard, never use this specific, devastating knowledge against Sherlock or Mycroft, but instead killed himself before his greatest triumph?
And if Moriarty was in cahoots with Eurus, who gave him the perfect ammunition to destroy Sherlock, why did he set up that suicide plan in which Sherlock had to kill himself or his friends would be killed? Why did Moriarty neither mention Victor, Redbeard or Eurus to destroy Sherlock? To show him that he knew nothing and was but a puppet, operated by his brother?
What was all this about?
Also,
what about the Holmes parents? They also didn’t know were Victor was, what
happened to him and who did it. I don’t see any reason, why they would agree to
the brilliant idea of turning Sherlock’s memory of Victor into a freaking dog!
Or do they wanna tell me they didn’t know about the memory conversion and by
pure chance no one ever mentioned Victor ever again after he got lost?
In
general, the Holmes parents are so OOC and act implausible in TFP. At the end
of the episode they are told that their son Mycroft has lied to them for
decades because their daughter Eurus is alive, a psychopath and, in fact, the
murderer of their other son’s childhood friend. But apparently, the Holmes are
alright. I must admit, they were a bit annoyed, but maybe visiting Eurus on her
lonely island and listening to her playing the violin calmed them.
@isitandwonder, I think you may be assuming too much? All we know from HLV is that Magnussen knows the word “Redbeard” and knows that it relates to something sensitive for Sherlock Holmes. That doesn’t necessarily imply that he knows all about Eurus and Victor and Sherrinford and Musgrave. Odds are, he got the info from someone in Moriarty’s criminal network – someone who knew that “Redbeard” was connected to a big secret involving Sherlock, but nothing more.
As for why Moriarty didn’t use the information, my sense is that he regarded it as an insurance policy, in case he died but Sherlock survived. He wanted to be sure the “game” would continue after his death, and he’d be able to torture Sherlock from beyond the grave. Eurus and “Redbeard” was the best way to do that.
@a-consulting-criminal, your question about the Holmes parents is one of the things I’m hoping to address in the meta I’m working on.
Regarding Magnussen and for whatever it’s worth – he said it himself – he doesn’t need to know all the details of a secret or even the truth – just having limited information is all that’s important. Or, the fact that he knows certain people or subjects are pressure points. Redbeard could have been fed to him through a multitude of avenues. Eurus could have done it…if for no other reason than to see where that particular investigation led Sherlock – how he handled it. She was (obviously) aware of what was going on, since it was her, after all, that broadcasted Moriarty’s pre-recorded message that brought Sherlock back from exile and certain death.
As for Eurus and Moriarty – she also wouldn’t have to feed him every bit of information. Moriarty was so fixated on Sherlock that just bits and pieces was more than enough to pacify / excite him. Eurus did say that Jim Moriarty wasn’t nearly as interested in staying alive as he was Sherlock’s eventual demise – no matter how that came about. Even posthumously.
While it’s never said directly, there is aspects of dialogue that implies Sherlock and Moriarty began their ‘dance’ as children. Sherlock was the ONLY person who suspected Carl Powers’s death was not an accident. He was the ONLY one who noticed Carl’s shoes were missing. As a kid, he went to the police, “made a fuss”, but no one paid attention. James Moriarty must have been made aware of this at the time (maybe they lived in close proximity to one another?) – because Carl Powers is how Moriarty began TGG with Sherlock – his first case. It was Moriarty’s ‘treat’ to Sherlock – to show him he had been right all along. So, Moriarty knew of Sherlock as a kid and it fascinated him – that there was someone else in the world like him – as brilliant as him.
The Holmes parents – I don’t think they lived in obliviousness regarding Victor Trevor. They knew Eurus knew his whereabouts as they were desperate to get this information out of her. This much was stated in Mycroft’s flashback. Mycroft also added that they knew what happened, that Victor died, since Eurus began calling him “dead Redbeard.” So, none of that was left ambiguous.
I think it’s a lot to assume that these parents “allowed” Sherlock a “conversion” of his memories – it’s something he did on his own. Which, btw, is not uncommon in children with PTSD. Realistically, it’s not a leap to think that everyone, including Mycroft, suffered from the emotional fallout of what happened (Mycroft still feels it). These parents not only lost a 4 year old daughter to an asylum and what they thought was her eventual death a few years later; their 5 year old (Sherlock) almost died in a house fire, they later learn Victor had also died but were helpless in finding him, they lost their home and undoubtedly dealt with an ongoing investigation. They further continued to have both Mycroft and Sherlock professionally evaluated with psychiatrists and specialists – not only for their intelligence, but emotional trauma. This much is said within the episode, but also through Sherlock’s sarcasm throughout the entire series, such as: John: “Are you insane?” Sherlock: “No, my parents had me tested. Numerous times.” Sherlock’s parents might have been encouraged to maintain the illusion of Redbeard as a dog, until a later time when memories began to surface. And, since I suspect they lost all of their possessions in the fire at Musgrave Hall, it means they also probably lost family photos and any physical trace of Eurus.
We have to remember that at one point Sherlock was just a clever little boy. Not the man who denies emotion. For children you have to let them grieve in a certain way. The Holmes parents are not going to keep bringing up a boy who went missing, that meant a great deal to their son. They don’t want him to keep feeling pain. The same for Mycroft as a big brother. Sherlock was his little brother who played pirate games with his best friend. Just an extremely clever little boy, not the consulting detective who has honed and crafted his mental ability today.
Mycroft didn’t know how the memory of Eurus and Victor would affect Sherlock if and when it would be revealed. He always went out of his way to protect Sherlock even if it wasn’t the right way about it.
As we have seen, drugs played a large part of Sherlock’s like and his balance on the edge of falling into hole was always uncertain. This could’ve been the leap off. Mycroft just simply didn’t know. Also, just like Sherlock today, there’s a chance Sherlock detached himself from his parents from an early age so where might the conversation about Victor even come up?
Just remember at the time and ever since, Sherlock has been a vulnerable little boy who went through an extremely traumatic experience and his family, out of love, would not mentally want to do anymore harm.
“Listen to the tape. Do it now, listen. Just listen!”
Because John tells us to pay attention to the tape–and we really should. So I put it all together,
isolated the audio, tried to tune my ear to hear what they say, and transcribed it for you guys. Maybe you can decipher the bits I couldn’t understand? But I think this is enough to get the idea.
If you follow me you probably already know I read this episode as being a product of John’s unconscious mind. With that in mind, paying attention to this conversation is truly revealing, since it’s John himself who comes up with this dialogue. The Governor is John’s mirror. Eurus deduces that he doesn’t trust his wife, that she’s selling him a fake image of her while hiding something, that he’s struggling with his feelings towards her, that he is sad, and that he has a secret.That secret possibly being his bisexuality(and his love for Sherlock). John also really seems to be rethinking his morals/ethics –which is actually a running theme in this episode. He keeps questioning himself what’s ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, in the scenarios he imagines, and relates them to his wife. Since he’s also figuring out Mary’s true nature in his hallucination (just like Sherlock was able to figure out a lot of things at the same time in TAB) I just think John might be reconsidering if it’s bad to feel the way he does about Mary, when he’s supposed to be mourning her. Notice the Governor saying “I like my wife”, as if that’s what he knows he HAS to say–but it’s not what he truly feels and Eurus knows he’s lying when he says that. Just like John, he never truly trusted his wife.
Also, I just clutch my chest seeing how the incredibly repressed Capt. John Watson tells himself he doesn’t need to cry–while actually knowing it’s okay to do it. Clear callback to that scene in TLD. Being embraced by Sherlock was just so important for him, because Sherlock let him know without a word that it’s okay to cry. God, my feels.
Okay, so I understand why people think S4 sucks, and why TFP sucks in particular. I understand how people perceive John and Sherlock and Mary, and the issues people have with their characterization, ‘cause there’s plenty of posts about that. I suppose these are more analytical subjects. I understand why people are disappointed with the plot twists, or with Mary’s narration. I get there are many things that Sherlock fans wish would have happened differently, or just… not happened (say, the beating or Mary’s being rehabilitated by the narrative, etc).
What I’m not clear on, even all this time later, is what’s so *emotionally* painful specifically about TFP in particular (for TJLCers). It seems to go beyond a lack of explicitly canon Johnlock, though maybe I’m wrong. It seems people think TFP is somehow uniquely destructive of the queer reading in general (as well as plot continuity? I guess) in a way I’m not grasping intuitively, and that trumps the extensive levels of angst we’ve had in TST and TLD (not to mention Series 3). That’s what I’d like to have someone help me understand.
Like… TST was painful for me ‘cause Mary was there with them all the time and Sherlock seemed so oblivious to John’s discomfort, and Sherlock joked about how she’s a better partner than John, and then at the end, John told Sherlock to get lost. That’s not to mention Mary’s death scene and John’s growls and wails, which were painful to watch on several levels. John’s sudden rejection of Sherlock afterwards was naturally super painful, not to mention bewildering. Then TLD has John beat up a vulnerable and unresisting Sherlock, only to reject him yet *again* and return the cane as a symbol of how much he means it. TLD also had Sherlock POV angst big-time, with that awful scene where he remembers ASiP!John; then at the Thames with Eurus, he screams when she says ‘anyone’ and he remembers John’s rejection, and later where he says he doesn’t want to die. Then there’s that awful moment John tells Sherlock he only rescued him because of his inner Mary, and he pushes him at Irene with all sincerity, after bemoaning his own lost chances with Mary. Like… I’m traumatized even thinking of these things. The only happy or even private John and Sherlock moment in these two eps was the hug.
In terms of contrast, John and Sherlock get along for all of TFP, Sherlock calls John family and he smiles, they make plans together and basically act like a well-oiled machine. Yes, Sherlock still acts a bit ‘not good’, but again: this is normal for Sherlock, as opposed to walking on eggshells and *still* being brutally rejected, like in TLD. The worst thing I’ve seen people accuse Sherlock of is perhaps ignoring John’s ‘Vatican Cameos’ and/or prioritizing the case in a dangerous situation with Eurus, but that’s Sherlock being efficient and focused on the big picture or the plan, and he’s *always* been like that. Then we have an open ending where they solve cases and raise Rosie together, forever and ever. As opposed to the weirdness and unending emotional torture ever since TEH, it’s TFP that’s traumatized people the most? Why? Any insight appreciated.
I think there’s a different expectation of TFP because it’s the last episode of the series. There are things that people can see as transitory in episodes 1 and 2 of a series that seem a lot more final/shitty in the third episode. (Especially if this is possibly the last episode ever).
There was hype in the media surrounding the show and series 4 about it making history, etc. that set expectations high and so I think people feel a let down about the lack of that uhm climax?
I think there’s a tonal oddness about TFP that makes the whole universe feel like it’s not itself. I think that’s happened at other times but it’s felt by a lot of people more severely in TFP.
Re: the ending, the voiceover, I think for a lot of people, spoils whatever positive things appear onscreen. It creates, again, an odd tone that makes the ending not seem real, seem almost like a parody.
Overall, the plot, for me, was boring, it felt stilted. These set pieces where they go from one room to another just didn’t work for me. I didn’t feel like there was a real threat to them, I didn’t feel tension. Unlike Moriarty’s game in TGG, this game felt very low-stakes and just, fake.
Granted I didn’t love TST or TLD but I felt more invested, and I felt there was more suspense.
I think there’s tons of possible subtext for the idea that John and Sherlock became a couple at the end of TLD and are together in TFP (I first heard that from you, actually) but it just wasn’t what I wanted to see with regards to them being romantically involved. I thought that their romantic entanglement was becoming increasingly clear in the text by series 3 so to have it buried by the end of series 4, felt like an anti-climax.
I think from a Johnlock perspective it was pretty blah and from the perspective of the rest of the plot it felt pretty blah, too. I didn’t think there was enough realism or humanity to Eurus or to the Eurus plot to like grab onto, personally. I’ve felt more invested in like the old woman dying, and she’s a random person, than in what supposedly happened with the third Holmes sibling, unfortunately.
PS by, ‘a lot of people’, I mean me. This is just how I feel and I’m guessing others might feel this, too.
Thanks for this! This isn’t exactly an explanation for *trauma* (more feeling ‘blah’), but I imagine being disappointed or let down enough could itself be traumatizing? I have heard things about hating the voiceover, of course, it’s just… you know, like, of all the awful things that happened on the show (just in TLD and TST alone), that doesn’t really… rank in my mind? It’s not even, you know… angsty. Still, well, I get that it’s the last ep and that makes everything feel super important and final, I guess. So yeah, that helps.
I think it is just because people kept thinking it’d be fixed in the final episode – that everything painful and wrong in the previous episodes wouldn’t be real or would be explained somehow – and then it wasn’t.
That’s probably a lot of it, definitely: people not taking all that stuff at face value and thinking it’d be made better. I myself did think that. I didn’t think it wouldn’t be real (that’s just… not a thought I have… ever), but I suppose I did think it’d be fixed. And of course that didn’t happen. But… I mean… John and Sherlock were ok, so on some level I was cheered up. John was himself again, so was Sherlock. It was over. The first ep in two seasons that they were a team. Anyway, we didn’t get the ‘how’, but I was pleased. Plus I enjoyed the plot and was at the edge of my seat with intense tension throughout. In any case, obviously I’m the weird one here, haha.
I don’t think that feeling blah about something that you’ve been passionate about for years ends up being a blah feeling about TFP. I mean, I’m unlikely to get colourful here but I was most definitely crushed by the end of TFP. To feel like this historical climax was a bland let down, was nothing if not devastating. I would think that the fact that I’m answering this question would imply that I was very upset with the episode without having to reveal any personal details. Please don’t dismiss my response as one of someone who is indifferent to this show or to series 4.
I definitely didn’t feel like John or Sherlock were themselves again by the end. It felt like they were destroyed by the end and its, ‘who you are doesn’t really matter’, theme. If the end shows these characters and they don’t seem like themselves then the effect is devastating. If that’s not really them then who cares if they look happy or not? If the end seems fake and the drama felt superficial then it’s worse than if they’d left us with TLD and its problems as the ending. It feels like there’s no cliffhanger not because everything is okay in the end but rather because everything feels fake by the end which is deeply unsatisfying and upsetting.
I was replying to your previous post as you were writing this, @just-sort-of-happened–yes to all of this as well.
TFP had baggage. The problem was MORE than the episode itself. Namely the BFI incident where Moffatt bullied a young fan for asking a ‘relationship’ question and then went on to insist that John DID NOT move back to Baker Street. This incident went online immediately and there was a Twitter reaction from LGBTQ viewers which lasted for several days. People who hadn’t seen the episode were outraged by the online video of Moffatt, some vulnerable LGBTQ fans were in deep distress that the representation they had been hoping for had not only been denied but ridiculed. In the midst of all this we had TFP ep leak. So many people viewed it early, and went into denial. They simply refused to believe an ep so strange was real. The leak felt staged, managed by TPTB, as the tweets to not watch it from Sue brought attention to the fact it existed. When the ep did air, and it was indeed the same as the leaked ep,it was inferior to TLD, and for all the reasons @just-sort-of-happened pointed out. It was even rejected by general viewers and had just over 5 million viewers versus the 8-12 million of other episode.
TJLC community were very attuned to the BFI feedback, the Twitter reaction and the details of the leak. Many tjlcers were banking on a kiss/confirmation since SDCC, as Ben, in his exuberance at working with Martin, was hinting at it, and Amanda had blurted out how groundbreaking and history making the episode was. TFP was just not either of those things and if there was a kiss filmed then they pulled it. Emotions ran very high over all of this, and many leading tjlcers left the fandom in anger and sadness. Many went into the tin-foil-hat battalion and dove into the episodes looking for clues that it was all not real and a Lost Special or s5 will redeem this AU. All in all a huge emotional knock for TJLC. Plus the ‘hate’ and ridicule sent to tjlcers post season end was huge and we felt as if the creators had thrown us to the wolves and then blamed us for putting ourselves in a vulnerable position.
SO when you wonder why TJLC folks were experiencing an emotionally painful reaction to TFP, you have to see the big picture and not just the episode itself. It’s many things, plus the loss of a dream held since TSoT aired.
The violin scene at the end of The Final Problem is truly one of the most impactful moments (if not the most) in all of BBC Sherlock. I honestly am still speechless that Moftiss wrote something so profound. Eurus was beyond communication with the outside world after the events of this episode, back to the untouchable genius in her glass cage. But Sherlock. Sherlock, this incredible and kind man, who had lost so much to this woman, understood her and still reached out to help. He wasn’t encouraging her to play her own song, he was initiating a duet–so she wasn’t alone, even in her music. It was a conversation, it was understanding, it was connection. This man went beyond words, where others had failed and stopped trying, and showed her that she wasn’t alone. Sherlock has become- or perhaps he always was- one of the best men I’ve ever seen.
I completely agree. The beauty of it made me cry, it shows what a great heart Sherlock has.
One of the reasons I’m sad a lot of TJLC keep on considering S4 only dream, is that by doing it they fail to appreciate how pivotal TFP is for Sherlock, how much it tell us about the man he has become.
That’s one of the many reasons I loved S4 more than S3 – I feel like it gave us more unexpectedly profound moments like that. I mean, TFP was OTT and weird – but it has such a bizarre jagged beauty to it for all that, and the violin duet scenes are some of the most gorgeous in the whole series. I like the way they kept showing him arriving – like, he didn’t just go once or twice. He persists. He’s committed. And he’s starting to heal the gigantic rifts in his whole fucked-up family because of it, in a way only he could do.
“Love conquers all”: absolutely, that was total truth in advertising. There’s a LOT of love in S4. It’s primarily family love – family of blood and family of choice. And that’s what the resolution is all about, Sherlock with all his family members – not just his biological relations but also John and Rosie and Molly and Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson, this weird loving cluster of people who’ve coalesced around a frustrating but remarkable man, and the way he’s learned to love them back.
I love reading everyone’s thoughts on this! I like hearing other perspectives on things, and I have adjusted my own thinking accordingly. I’ve found new things to appreciate, but of course new things to be perturbed over as well, lol.
Of course I had disappointments with this episode and other parts of the series. But I tell you what. The Final Problem made me cry, and that doesn’t happen often for me. That tells me something, about myself if nothing else.
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