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Sherlock 4.02 The Lying Detective (meta)
So, I tend to say that I don't write Sherlock meta. But um, this happened. I'm only skating over the surface, touching on the things that stood out for me, and I quite simply couldn't help myself. I am leaving out SO MUCH, but it is what it is.
First a few of points from last week:
- There were three women who fitted the profile of ‘The English Woman’, all of whom were in such a position of power/authority to make that call. This is nice.
- The episode goes out of its way to highlight the similarities between Mary and Sherlock. Even in the promo images we have John as the one holding the baby, and he is literally left holding it on several occasions in the story. The assassin and the detective think alike, the doctor is a little on the backfoot. Loved by both, but not quite in the same league. We see it most clearly (obviously) when Mary takes off to ‘deal with her troubled past’ (usually the prerogative of men) leaving everyone else behind to ‘keep them safe’. It makes for an interesting realignment of gender roles.
- I like the story of The Appointment in Samarra. I’ve not properly rewatched, but I’ve seen the start which retells the story over a backdrop of the London Aquarium. I wish the episode had been better written, because it could have been even more powerful.
But onto the meat of the story. I finally managed to re-watch it last night and it’s honestly just an astonishing thing. I defy anyone to create a better written, more innovative and straight-up clever piece of television in the next year at least. And it wears its cleverness on its sleeve - it’s a bit like Torville and Dean? Or Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. They made it look effortless, thus hiding how fiendishly clever it is.
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sueworld2003 posted this video which delves into one portion - it’s well worth watching, and deconstruct part of it:
Another thing is the way it plays with narrative, it hops-skips through places and times, but does it so well that we are never lost. The best and most easily traced demonstration of this ability is probably The S5 finale of Doctor Who, The Big Bang, specifically the part with the Doctor jumping through time and making the overall thread easy to follow through the use of the fez and the mop. The Lying Detective does not employ actual time travel, but it does rely on many different time settings (flashbacks and flashforwards galore etc) and manages to tie them together so cohesively and fluently that attempting to unravel it makes you sit back and marvel, and has - like The Big Bang - certain physical clues (Mary’s letter, the paper that ‘Faith’ brought) which the viewer can track and thus keep the crazy amounts of information more straight.
The Lying Detective
‘cereal killer’
First up - I was not expecting Sherlock to do an episode about Jimmy Savile. For those who are not British, here’s a quick summary, lifted from Wikipedia:
Especially the scene at the hospital* (both with the children and in the morgue), and Culverton’s general chummy creepiness. *shivers* it was very very unsettling, and making him a serial killer was making him LESS unappealing. Think on that.
There was also the brief moment with the young female worker on the set where they are shooting the cereal advert:
SMITH: We should bag that up, sell it. (He spits a last bit of cereal into the bin.) Make money for that on eBay.
(She chuckles nervously. He looks up at her again and nods towards the bin.)
SMITH (quietly): I could make more if you like. Any time you like.
(Her smile becomes rather fixed and she turns and walks away. He straightens up and grimly watches her go.)
Those tiny touches is part of what makes it. ‘Mirco-harassment’ that never gets reported. What would she say? She will just swallow it and try to move on (and maybe bitch about men later with her girlfriends) like millions of women do every day. Privilege is a very hard thing to fight and the power dynamics on show are very unsettling, partly because they are so familiar.
Because he’s rich and famous...
CULVERTON: I have made millions, for myself, for the people round this table, for millions of people I’ve never even met. There are charities that I support who wouldn’t exist without me. If life is a balance sheet – and I think it is – well, I believe I’m in credit!
It’s an interesting line - an attempt at trying to understand how someone like that might think. A way to justify the unjustifiable.
And the confession with the opt-in ignorance is also very fitting. Culverton voices what others do not:
CULVERTON: Money, power, fame - some things make you untouchable.
Sherlock has used Jimmy Savile before - way back in the S1 finale in 2010, before Jimmy died, and he was still just a famous celebrity. From the scene at the swimming pool:
JIM: I’ve given you a glimpse, Sherlock, just a teensy glimpse of what I’ve got going on out there in the big bad world. I’m a specialist, you see... like you!
SHERLOCK: “Dear Jim. Please will you fix it for me to get rid of my lover’s nasty sister?”
(Starting to walk forward again, Jim grins as he recognises the TV show and catchphrase that Sherlock is quoting.)
SHERLOCK: “Dear Jim. Please will you fix it for me to disappear to South America?”
JIM (stopping again): Just so.
SHERLOCK: Consulting criminal. (softly) Brilliant.
Jim’ll Fix It was one of the most popular television shows of its day, with people writing in and Jim making their dreams come true (‘fixing it' for them). Every British viewer would have gotten the reference immediately.
I remember watching the episode some years later, when all the allegations had come to light, and thinking to myself how what had been a tongue-in-cheek reference was suddenly so much darker.
So yeah. This was a very very British episode in every way, especially in how it denigrated the worship and untouchable status of the famous. (Particularly the white, straight and male.) And I’m sure the whole country had unpleasant flash-backs.
‘your life is not your own’
This was a very interesting part:
SHERLOCK: Taking your own life. Interesting expression - taking it from who? Once it's over, it's not you who'll miss it. Your own death is something that happens to everybody else. Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it.
The evolution of Sherlock is fascinating. This story would not have been possible with S1 or S2 Sherlock. Friendship has changed him. And here it is the bonds between Mary and Sherlock, and their shared love of John, which drives the plot. Although of course it works in all ways:
MARY: He is the cleverest man in the world, but he's not a monster.
JOHN: Yeah, he is.
MARY: Yeah, OK, all right, he is. Agh! But he's our monster.
Your life is not your own… You belong to those you love and who love you back.
Sherlock learned that when he faked his own death. And now he tries to do the best he can after Mary’s very real death:
SHERLOCK: In saving my life, she conferred a value on it. It is a currency I do not know how to spend.
This is one of the most interesting lines in the whole episode, and I wish I knew how to delve into it more.
‘texting’
I know Sherlock is chock-full of ‘teh gay’. (So many jokes…) And (according those who know about such things) it is also queer coded. But I can’t see it. (ETA: The coding, I mean. I can see how they play with it, but I am not familiar with how fiction is 'queer coded' and thus can't really weigh in on it. The Bromance is obvious. But romance does not automatically follow from that.) And if Moffat and Gatiss wanted to do a queer Sherlock, I don’t think they’d be coy about it. Instead I think owls is right - they are basically writing fanfic of their own friendship.
When watching [most especially] the final Sherlock/John scene what struck me (both on first watch, and again upon re-watch) that this is the straightest show ever. I mean, Moffat is one of the straightest writers ever just by nature (although he does try to be inclusive - see Jenny & Vastra f.ex., but by inclination he loves to examine the m/f relationship dynamics) and this was a textbook example:
JOHN:I mean, how does it work?
SHERLOCK: How does what work?
JOHN: You and The Woman. Do you go to a discreet Harvester sometimes? Is there nights of passion in High Wycombe?
SHERLOCK Oh, for God's sakes, I don't text her back!
JOHN: Why not?
[...]
SHERLOCK: As I think I have explained to you many times before, romantic entanglement, while fulfilling for other people...
JOHN: Would complete you as a human being.
SHERLOCK: That doesn't even mean anything.
JOHN: Just text her, phone her, do something while there's still a chance, because that chance doesn't last forever. Trust me, Sherlock, it's gone before you know it. Before you know it!
One man who has just lost his wife giving advice to another not to let his chance slip away. I’m not sure how that could be misinterpreted. ‘I lost my woman, please don’t lose yours’. (Please don’t yell at me for how I view the show and what I take from it. I love the John/Sherlock friendship dynamic, I just can't see that it'll ever end up being a ship. If I'm wrong - well I won't complain. ;) I'll just be surprised.)
See I remember an interview with Moffat. From around S2, as Irene Adler had made her appearance. And the interviewer asked him if Sherlock was gay or not (since they obviously played on how two bachelors living together gave a different impression than it used to). His reply made such good sense, that I have remembered it ever since. This was the gist:
Moffat had given this some thought himself (which goes to show that this wasn’t actually something they had decided on, or written specifically into the show), and eventually tried to work it out logically. His conclusion was that Irene was a distraction (for Sherlock), she unsettled him and unnerved him, caused him make mistakes, and overall set his pulse racing (quite literally). Because he is attracted to her.
Watson does not have that effect. Their friendship (in Moffat’s opinion) could not endure if Sherlock was constantly having to fight unwanted impulses whenever John was around. Being attracted to John would be counter-productive to John’s purpose in Sherlock’s life.
Ergo, Sherlock is straight. (In as much as he is anything. I'd put him as demi-sexual too. Maybe his sexuality is just ‘Irene Adler’. Mary: Oh, the posh boy loves the dominatrix. He's never knowingly under-cliched, is he? Mary <333333)
(ETA2: Tumblr thread on the topic, which includes a lot of Moffat & Gatiss quotes. Surprisingly evenhanded considering the topic.)
But that’s not really what I meant. The following is where Moffat is at his Moffatest:
JOHN: She was wrong about me.
SHERLOCK: Mary? How so?
JOHN: She thought that if you put yourself in harm's way, I'd...I'd rescue you, or something. But I didn't, not till she told me to. And that's how this works, that's what you're missing. She taught me to be the man she already thought I was.
[confession of cheating with texts]
JOHN (to Mary): I'm not the man you thought I was, I'm not that guy. I never could be. But that's the point. (Voice breaks): That's the whole point. Who you thought I was... is the man who I want to be.
Moffat generally writes men as a bit rubbish and not good enough for the (smart, capable) women who love them/happen to be in their lives. But they try to be better, to live up to the person their women think they are. We see it demonstrated not just in Mary (I love her ghostly asides, so many delightful echoes of River in every way - the women aren’t saints on pedestals), but also Mrs Hudson, who BAMFs her way through the episode, outsmarting Sherlock in order to overpower him (which Sherlock of course relied on) and taking him to see John, and continually upending people’s perceptions and putting them in their place:
JOHN: How can that be your car?!
MRS HUDSON: Oh, for God's sake! I'm the widow of a drug dealer, I own property in central London, and for the last bloody time, John, I'm not your housekeeper!
~
MRS HUDSON (to Mycroft): He thinks you're clever, poor old Sherlock. Always going on about you. (to John) I mean, he knows you're an idiot, but that's OK, cos you're a lovely doctor. (to Mycroft) But he has no idea what an idiot you are!
MYCROFT: Is this merely stream-of-consciousness abuse, or are you attempting to make a point?
MRS HUDSON: You want to know what's bothering Sherlock? Easiest thing in the world, anyone can do it.
MYCROFT: I know his thought processes better than any other human being, so, please, try to understand.
MRS HUDSON: He's not about thinking. Not Sherlock. Of course he is. No, no. He's more emotional, isn't he? Unsolved case, shoot the wall! Boom, boom!
Mrs Hudson has Sherlock’s number. And Lady Smallwood is not letting Mycroft getting away with accusing her of treason with only circumstantial evidence (could it be that he too will manage a relationship? The girls remarked that she was older than him(!) - or at least looks older - which IMHO is a very good thing).
And there’s Molly, who has a small, but significant role, and has her powers of understanding praised:
JOHN: I need the one person who, unlike me, learned to see through your bullshit long ago.
Mary is also on the same page:
MARY: You found four men and one woman [therapist]. And you are done with the world being explained to you by a man. Well, who isn't?
We also have John admitting to facts:
JOHN: You didn't kill Mary. Mary died saving your life. It was her choice, no-one made her do it.
She has been held hostage by John/the narrative, stripped of her agency. Giving it back to her is very very important, in a world where narratives often love nothing more than stealing women's agency.
And at the very end, we get yet another damning indictment of the self-centeredness of men:
Euros: Amazing the times a man doesn't really look at your face. Oh, you can hide behind a sexy smile or a walking cane, or just be a therapist, talking about *you*... ALL the time.
The sad, undeniable truth of this statement is one I hope they explore further. It also echoes Vivian in the previous episode:
SHERLOCK: Can’t have been easy all those years, sitting in the back keeping your mouth shut when you knew you were cleverer than most of the people in the room.
Because who takes note of the secretary?
Re. Euros, then I found this Radio Times article which tells how they they have been planning her arrival.
There are also unanswered questions. Is the paper real? Did Faith actually write it, and if so how did Euros get hold of it? How/why did she decide to ‘help’ Sherlock with the Culverton ‘case’? Was it all a snare with which to draw him in - after all, she also set herself up as John’s therapist and texting cheat… What are her plans? She is employing a lot of Moriarty’s tricks, and doing so extraordinary well. (Not surprisingly.)
There is also the question of who Sherrinford is, although s/he could be a red herring of course.
~~
Assorted delightful touches:
- Sherlock walking around so as to spell out ‘Fuck Off’
- Sherlock’s drug addled mind and his whole performance
- This exchange:
FAITH: Amazing
SHERLOCK: I know
FAITH: I meant the chips
- “Anyone”
- The 221B Baker Street interior falling down like a theatre backdrop
- The fact that the first time we hear the Sherlock theme (apart from the credits) is this moment:
CULVERTON: I've sent a car, should be outside. Mr Holmes gave me an address.
JOHN: Well, he couldn't have given you this one... (Doorbell rings)
CULVERTON: When you're ready.
JOHN: When did Sherlock give you this address?
CULVERTON: Two weeks ago.
JOHN: Two weeks?
- This exchange:
JOHN: She's my therapist.
SHERLOCK: Awesome! Do you do block bookings?
- “This is not a trick, it's a plan.”
- The walking stick
- The confrontation between Culverson and Sherlock, which is one of the most unsettling and unpleasant scenes ever. But very very well done.
- SHERLOCK: Must be something comforting about the number three, people always give up after three.
And just the look on his face. A sort of benign bewilderment at the folly of other humans.
- “You cock.”
- “Happy birthday.”
- MARY: Well, then... John Watson... get the hell on with it.
With the most delightful echoes of:
DANNY: You can miss me for five minutes a day. And you'd better do it properly. You'd better be sad. I expect my five. But all the rest of the time, Clara, all the rest of the time, every single second, you just get the hell on with it. Clear?
Last Christmas
- This exchange:
SHERLOCK: Right then. You know, it's not my place to say, but...it was just texting. People text. Even I text. Her, I mean. Woman. Bad idea. Try not to, but, you know, sometimes... It's not a pleasant thought, John, but I have this terrible feeling from time to time that we might all just be human.
JOHN: Even you?
SHERLOCK: No. Even you.
- And finally: “I'm Sherlock Holmes - I wear the damn hat! Isn't that right, Mary?
All dialogue from here
*Feel free to go look up Jimmy Savile and hospitals. You won’t like what you find.
First a few of points from last week:
- There were three women who fitted the profile of ‘The English Woman’, all of whom were in such a position of power/authority to make that call. This is nice.
- The episode goes out of its way to highlight the similarities between Mary and Sherlock. Even in the promo images we have John as the one holding the baby, and he is literally left holding it on several occasions in the story. The assassin and the detective think alike, the doctor is a little on the backfoot. Loved by both, but not quite in the same league. We see it most clearly (obviously) when Mary takes off to ‘deal with her troubled past’ (usually the prerogative of men) leaving everyone else behind to ‘keep them safe’. It makes for an interesting realignment of gender roles.
- I like the story of The Appointment in Samarra. I’ve not properly rewatched, but I’ve seen the start which retells the story over a backdrop of the London Aquarium. I wish the episode had been better written, because it could have been even more powerful.
But onto the meat of the story. I finally managed to re-watch it last night and it’s honestly just an astonishing thing. I defy anyone to create a better written, more innovative and straight-up clever piece of television in the next year at least. And it wears its cleverness on its sleeve - it’s a bit like Torville and Dean? Or Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. They made it look effortless, thus hiding how fiendishly clever it is.
sueworld2003 posted this video which delves into one portion - it’s well worth watching, and deconstruct part of it:Another thing is the way it plays with narrative, it hops-skips through places and times, but does it so well that we are never lost. The best and most easily traced demonstration of this ability is probably The S5 finale of Doctor Who, The Big Bang, specifically the part with the Doctor jumping through time and making the overall thread easy to follow through the use of the fez and the mop. The Lying Detective does not employ actual time travel, but it does rely on many different time settings (flashbacks and flashforwards galore etc) and manages to tie them together so cohesively and fluently that attempting to unravel it makes you sit back and marvel, and has - like The Big Bang - certain physical clues (Mary’s letter, the paper that ‘Faith’ brought) which the viewer can track and thus keep the crazy amounts of information more straight.
‘cereal killer’
First up - I was not expecting Sherlock to do an episode about Jimmy Savile. For those who are not British, here’s a quick summary, lifted from Wikipedia:
Sir James Wilson Vincent "Jimmy" Savile, OBE, KCSG (31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011) was an English DJ, television and radio personality, dance hall manager, and charity fundraiser. He hosted the BBC television show Jim'll Fix It, was the first and last presenter of the long-running BBC music chart show Top of the Pops, and raised an estimated £40 million for charities. At the time of his death he was widely praised for his personal qualities and as a fund-raiser. After his death, hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse were made against him, leading the police to believe that Savile had been a predatory sex offender—possibly one of Britain's most prolific.There had been allegations during his lifetime, but they were dismissed and accusers ignored or disbelieved; Savile took legal action against some accusers.
(x)
Especially the scene at the hospital* (both with the children and in the morgue), and Culverton’s general chummy creepiness. *shivers* it was very very unsettling, and making him a serial killer was making him LESS unappealing. Think on that.
There was also the brief moment with the young female worker on the set where they are shooting the cereal advert:
SMITH: We should bag that up, sell it. (He spits a last bit of cereal into the bin.) Make money for that on eBay.
(She chuckles nervously. He looks up at her again and nods towards the bin.)
SMITH (quietly): I could make more if you like. Any time you like.
(Her smile becomes rather fixed and she turns and walks away. He straightens up and grimly watches her go.)
Those tiny touches is part of what makes it. ‘Mirco-harassment’ that never gets reported. What would she say? She will just swallow it and try to move on (and maybe bitch about men later with her girlfriends) like millions of women do every day. Privilege is a very hard thing to fight and the power dynamics on show are very unsettling, partly because they are so familiar.
Because he’s rich and famous...
CULVERTON: I have made millions, for myself, for the people round this table, for millions of people I’ve never even met. There are charities that I support who wouldn’t exist without me. If life is a balance sheet – and I think it is – well, I believe I’m in credit!
It’s an interesting line - an attempt at trying to understand how someone like that might think. A way to justify the unjustifiable.
And the confession with the opt-in ignorance is also very fitting. Culverton voices what others do not:
CULVERTON: Money, power, fame - some things make you untouchable.
Sherlock has used Jimmy Savile before - way back in the S1 finale in 2010, before Jimmy died, and he was still just a famous celebrity. From the scene at the swimming pool:
JIM: I’ve given you a glimpse, Sherlock, just a teensy glimpse of what I’ve got going on out there in the big bad world. I’m a specialist, you see... like you!
SHERLOCK: “Dear Jim. Please will you fix it for me to get rid of my lover’s nasty sister?”
(Starting to walk forward again, Jim grins as he recognises the TV show and catchphrase that Sherlock is quoting.)
SHERLOCK: “Dear Jim. Please will you fix it for me to disappear to South America?”
JIM (stopping again): Just so.
SHERLOCK: Consulting criminal. (softly) Brilliant.
Jim’ll Fix It was one of the most popular television shows of its day, with people writing in and Jim making their dreams come true (‘fixing it' for them). Every British viewer would have gotten the reference immediately.
I remember watching the episode some years later, when all the allegations had come to light, and thinking to myself how what had been a tongue-in-cheek reference was suddenly so much darker.
So yeah. This was a very very British episode in every way, especially in how it denigrated the worship and untouchable status of the famous. (Particularly the white, straight and male.) And I’m sure the whole country had unpleasant flash-backs.
‘your life is not your own’
This was a very interesting part:
SHERLOCK: Taking your own life. Interesting expression - taking it from who? Once it's over, it's not you who'll miss it. Your own death is something that happens to everybody else. Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it.
The evolution of Sherlock is fascinating. This story would not have been possible with S1 or S2 Sherlock. Friendship has changed him. And here it is the bonds between Mary and Sherlock, and their shared love of John, which drives the plot. Although of course it works in all ways:
MARY: He is the cleverest man in the world, but he's not a monster.
JOHN: Yeah, he is.
MARY: Yeah, OK, all right, he is. Agh! But he's our monster.
Your life is not your own… You belong to those you love and who love you back.
Sherlock learned that when he faked his own death. And now he tries to do the best he can after Mary’s very real death:
SHERLOCK: In saving my life, she conferred a value on it. It is a currency I do not know how to spend.
This is one of the most interesting lines in the whole episode, and I wish I knew how to delve into it more.
‘texting’
I know Sherlock is chock-full of ‘teh gay’. (So many jokes…) And (according those who know about such things) it is also queer coded. But I can’t see it. (ETA: The coding, I mean. I can see how they play with it, but I am not familiar with how fiction is 'queer coded' and thus can't really weigh in on it. The Bromance is obvious. But romance does not automatically follow from that.) And if Moffat and Gatiss wanted to do a queer Sherlock, I don’t think they’d be coy about it. Instead I think owls is right - they are basically writing fanfic of their own friendship.
When watching [most especially] the final Sherlock/John scene what struck me (both on first watch, and again upon re-watch) that this is the straightest show ever. I mean, Moffat is one of the straightest writers ever just by nature (although he does try to be inclusive - see Jenny & Vastra f.ex., but by inclination he loves to examine the m/f relationship dynamics) and this was a textbook example:
JOHN:I mean, how does it work?
SHERLOCK: How does what work?
JOHN: You and The Woman. Do you go to a discreet Harvester sometimes? Is there nights of passion in High Wycombe?
SHERLOCK Oh, for God's sakes, I don't text her back!
JOHN: Why not?
[...]
SHERLOCK: As I think I have explained to you many times before, romantic entanglement, while fulfilling for other people...
JOHN: Would complete you as a human being.
SHERLOCK: That doesn't even mean anything.
JOHN: Just text her, phone her, do something while there's still a chance, because that chance doesn't last forever. Trust me, Sherlock, it's gone before you know it. Before you know it!
One man who has just lost his wife giving advice to another not to let his chance slip away. I’m not sure how that could be misinterpreted. ‘I lost my woman, please don’t lose yours’. (Please don’t yell at me for how I view the show and what I take from it. I love the John/Sherlock friendship dynamic, I just can't see that it'll ever end up being a ship. If I'm wrong - well I won't complain. ;) I'll just be surprised.)
See I remember an interview with Moffat. From around S2, as Irene Adler had made her appearance. And the interviewer asked him if Sherlock was gay or not (since they obviously played on how two bachelors living together gave a different impression than it used to). His reply made such good sense, that I have remembered it ever since. This was the gist:
Moffat had given this some thought himself (which goes to show that this wasn’t actually something they had decided on, or written specifically into the show), and eventually tried to work it out logically. His conclusion was that Irene was a distraction (for Sherlock), she unsettled him and unnerved him, caused him make mistakes, and overall set his pulse racing (quite literally). Because he is attracted to her.
Watson does not have that effect. Their friendship (in Moffat’s opinion) could not endure if Sherlock was constantly having to fight unwanted impulses whenever John was around. Being attracted to John would be counter-productive to John’s purpose in Sherlock’s life.
Ergo, Sherlock is straight. (In as much as he is anything. I'd put him as demi-sexual too. Maybe his sexuality is just ‘Irene Adler’. Mary: Oh, the posh boy loves the dominatrix. He's never knowingly under-cliched, is he? Mary <333333)
(ETA2: Tumblr thread on the topic, which includes a lot of Moffat & Gatiss quotes. Surprisingly evenhanded considering the topic.)
But that’s not really what I meant. The following is where Moffat is at his Moffatest:
JOHN: She was wrong about me.
SHERLOCK: Mary? How so?
JOHN: She thought that if you put yourself in harm's way, I'd...I'd rescue you, or something. But I didn't, not till she told me to. And that's how this works, that's what you're missing. She taught me to be the man she already thought I was.
[confession of cheating with texts]
JOHN (to Mary): I'm not the man you thought I was, I'm not that guy. I never could be. But that's the point. (Voice breaks): That's the whole point. Who you thought I was... is the man who I want to be.
Moffat generally writes men as a bit rubbish and not good enough for the (smart, capable) women who love them/happen to be in their lives. But they try to be better, to live up to the person their women think they are. We see it demonstrated not just in Mary (I love her ghostly asides, so many delightful echoes of River in every way - the women aren’t saints on pedestals), but also Mrs Hudson, who BAMFs her way through the episode, outsmarting Sherlock in order to overpower him (which Sherlock of course relied on) and taking him to see John, and continually upending people’s perceptions and putting them in their place:
JOHN: How can that be your car?!
MRS HUDSON: Oh, for God's sake! I'm the widow of a drug dealer, I own property in central London, and for the last bloody time, John, I'm not your housekeeper!
~
MRS HUDSON (to Mycroft): He thinks you're clever, poor old Sherlock. Always going on about you. (to John) I mean, he knows you're an idiot, but that's OK, cos you're a lovely doctor. (to Mycroft) But he has no idea what an idiot you are!
MYCROFT: Is this merely stream-of-consciousness abuse, or are you attempting to make a point?
MRS HUDSON: You want to know what's bothering Sherlock? Easiest thing in the world, anyone can do it.
MYCROFT: I know his thought processes better than any other human being, so, please, try to understand.
MRS HUDSON: He's not about thinking. Not Sherlock. Of course he is. No, no. He's more emotional, isn't he? Unsolved case, shoot the wall! Boom, boom!
Mrs Hudson has Sherlock’s number. And Lady Smallwood is not letting Mycroft getting away with accusing her of treason with only circumstantial evidence (could it be that he too will manage a relationship? The girls remarked that she was older than him(!) - or at least looks older - which IMHO is a very good thing).
And there’s Molly, who has a small, but significant role, and has her powers of understanding praised:
JOHN: I need the one person who, unlike me, learned to see through your bullshit long ago.
Mary is also on the same page:
MARY: You found four men and one woman [therapist]. And you are done with the world being explained to you by a man. Well, who isn't?
We also have John admitting to facts:
JOHN: You didn't kill Mary. Mary died saving your life. It was her choice, no-one made her do it.
She has been held hostage by John/the narrative, stripped of her agency. Giving it back to her is very very important, in a world where narratives often love nothing more than stealing women's agency.
And at the very end, we get yet another damning indictment of the self-centeredness of men:
Euros: Amazing the times a man doesn't really look at your face. Oh, you can hide behind a sexy smile or a walking cane, or just be a therapist, talking about *you*... ALL the time.
The sad, undeniable truth of this statement is one I hope they explore further. It also echoes Vivian in the previous episode:
SHERLOCK: Can’t have been easy all those years, sitting in the back keeping your mouth shut when you knew you were cleverer than most of the people in the room.
Because who takes note of the secretary?
Re. Euros, then I found this Radio Times article which tells how they they have been planning her arrival.
There are also unanswered questions. Is the paper real? Did Faith actually write it, and if so how did Euros get hold of it? How/why did she decide to ‘help’ Sherlock with the Culverton ‘case’? Was it all a snare with which to draw him in - after all, she also set herself up as John’s therapist and texting cheat… What are her plans? She is employing a lot of Moriarty’s tricks, and doing so extraordinary well. (Not surprisingly.)
There is also the question of who Sherrinford is, although s/he could be a red herring of course.
Assorted delightful touches:
- Sherlock walking around so as to spell out ‘Fuck Off’
- Sherlock’s drug addled mind and his whole performance
- This exchange:
FAITH: Amazing
SHERLOCK: I know
FAITH: I meant the chips
- “Anyone”
- The 221B Baker Street interior falling down like a theatre backdrop
- The fact that the first time we hear the Sherlock theme (apart from the credits) is this moment:
CULVERTON: I've sent a car, should be outside. Mr Holmes gave me an address.
JOHN: Well, he couldn't have given you this one... (Doorbell rings)
CULVERTON: When you're ready.
JOHN: When did Sherlock give you this address?
CULVERTON: Two weeks ago.
JOHN: Two weeks?
- This exchange:
JOHN: She's my therapist.
SHERLOCK: Awesome! Do you do block bookings?
- “This is not a trick, it's a plan.”
- The walking stick
- The confrontation between Culverson and Sherlock, which is one of the most unsettling and unpleasant scenes ever. But very very well done.
- SHERLOCK: Must be something comforting about the number three, people always give up after three.
And just the look on his face. A sort of benign bewilderment at the folly of other humans.
- “You cock.”
- “Happy birthday.”
- MARY: Well, then... John Watson... get the hell on with it.
With the most delightful echoes of:
DANNY: You can miss me for five minutes a day. And you'd better do it properly. You'd better be sad. I expect my five. But all the rest of the time, Clara, all the rest of the time, every single second, you just get the hell on with it. Clear?
Last Christmas
- This exchange:
SHERLOCK: Right then. You know, it's not my place to say, but...it was just texting. People text. Even I text. Her, I mean. Woman. Bad idea. Try not to, but, you know, sometimes... It's not a pleasant thought, John, but I have this terrible feeling from time to time that we might all just be human.
JOHN: Even you?
SHERLOCK: No. Even you.
- And finally: “I'm Sherlock Holmes - I wear the damn hat! Isn't that right, Mary?
All dialogue from here
*Feel free to go look up Jimmy Savile and hospitals. You won’t like what you find.
no subject
*HUGS BACK*