Not excusing Sherlock’s drug use, but if his mind is always like this – filled with demeaning, belittling, jealous, mocking, and disappointed voices (that, worse, take on the form of his friends and family) – would it be any wonder why he wouldn’t mind throwing away the “beautiful gifts” he was born with?
Sherlock really is flooded with negativity. What hurts me most is that so many people, including people involved with the show, seem to think he deserves everything he gets.
Obviously names can be one word, the
show is called Sherlock.
Jeff Hope yelling Moriarty!
Sherlock walks over and throws the gun in the Thames, a callback to John throwing his gun
in the Thames in ASIP/Pilot.
We see a gunshot and then the London
Aquarium. The aquarium where Mary died. Mary died by a gunshot in
front of sharks. Sherlock died in CAM’s tower; CAM is like a shark.
(Ever notice the plane flying over the
aquarium?)
Sherlock then appears to be floating in
the sky on a ledge near water. This is a metaphorical reference to Sherlock’s death. Which also matches Moriarty’s deaths: TRF, TAB waterfall scene.
Why show the aquarium? Why bring up Mary’s death?
Like Moriarty, Mary is a facade. The facade has many names.
Anyone is one word. One word for Facade
Molly: “He’d
rather have the facade.”
Faith/Love: “Your nicer than the
facade.”
Mary: “Don’t think the facade is
going to save him, because there isn’t a facade.” “I’m dead,
remember. It’s important you remember.”
Facade!
Facade!
Facade!
Facade!
Facade!
Culverton: “I need to kill someone.”
Facade!
Culverton: “I don’t want to kill one
person, I want to kill the facade.” Sherlock is the serial
killer. Killing himself to kill the facade. “Taking your life.
Interesting expression. Taking it from who? It’s not you who will miss
it.”
Sherlock dies/John dies.
Facade!
Facade!
Facade!
Facade!
Facade!
John: “Have you spoken to Mycroft,
Molly, uh, the facade?”
Mary: “You don’t want the facade
knowing you’re in therapy.” (“Say it now”)
John: “The facade ever “opt” to
remember?”
Mrs. Hudson: “You want to know what’s
bothering Sherlock? Easiest thing in the world, even the facade can
do it.”
“If the facade stays here a minute
longer, they are admitting to me personally they don’t have a single
spark of human decency.”
Mary: John Watson never accepts help,
not from the facade. Not ever.
Mycroft: “It will certainly destroy
this flat and kill the facade in it.”
Mycroft: “The facade spent time with
her (Eurus/love) and was automatically compromised.”
Mycroft: “She (Eurus/love) won’t communicate with the facade in any way. She has
passed beyond our view. There are no words that can reach her now.” Translation: Love conquers all.
“You said your life turned on one word. That’s the impossible thing. Just that, right there.”
“This is a lie!”
Sherlock’s
life did change on one word. It wasn’t Jeff Hope yelling out Moriarty’s
name.
Sherlock’s facade married John in
TSOT. Traditionally it’s “The Adventures
of Sherlock Holmes.” Mary is Sherlock.
Redbeard was
introduced in TSOT.
Sherlock has a vision of him and
Redbeard during the same scene with Faith on the bridge. Redbeard is one
word.
Redbeard is John. John is one word.
“One word to let me know you were alive.” Alive inside. “Flesh and blood. You must have feelings.”
Faith is one word. Faith is Sherlock and John. She’s love.
“…in the early days of my association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors in Baker Street” (italics mine)
I can’t decide whether this is a signal of propriety or impropriety. why would you need to specify that you were sharing them as bachelors, as opposed to any other way? Is this a big Victorian no homo? Or is it quite the opposite, given the connotations of bachelorhood, a signal that only those in the know could read but that could be easily denied should suspicions arise?
This is a topic I have been trying to research, here are some of the things I have found…I am going to be quoting heavily from a book that I ADORE called Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis 1918-1937 by Matt Houlbrook.
Wow, this is great information!
I don’t have much to contribute, just this:
Watson convincing Holmes to stay at a friend’s house by assuring him that it is a “bachelor” establishment. (from The Reigate Squires)
John’s words have power. John misreads Sherlock and it shapes the text, it shapes how Sherlock sees himself, it shapes how he behaves.
HOLMES: […] all emotion is abhorrent to me. It is the grit in a sensitive instrument … HOLMES and WATSON (almost simultaneously): … the crack in the lens. WATSON: Yes. HOLMES: Well, there you are, you see? I’ve said it all before. WATSON: No, I wrote all that. You’re quoting yourself from The Strand Magazine.
I love this meta, and I love this show.
John criticizes Sherlock carelessly on the presumption that he’s incapable of being hurt by it. Sherlock takes in all of John’s criticisms, strips them of all their context, and uses them to punish himself.
This is very odd, @ebaeschnbliah. I did not notice and just checked a bit. The phrase seems to crop up now and then in English but it is far from accepted or being an idiom. I have no idea at all why Lestrade should use this phrase here. One more strange thing a series full of puzzles?
There were several little words and phrases that stuck out like a sore thumb in S4 for me. This one, and Sherlock calling Mycroft ‘dear’ in TFP. So weird.
I thought he said Strassa @ebaeschnbliah, which sounds like mock-Italian? And then, his name’s Lestrade = La Strada? Someone’s trying to be funny here?
There isn’t an Italian word ‘strassa’, is there? The saying is ‘up your street’, meaning it is something you would like. Strasse is street in German. Is this a saying in Germany? This is so weird to me.
YES THANK YOU, WHY?? WHY????!! The only other thing I heard when I replayed it was “right up your strata” but then that makes no sense either
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