Happy 12th Night - Aka Sherlock's Birthday (looking good for a centenarian)
So… the short review is this episode was basically hand crafted for me with… one detail I'm going to hand wave, because… that's how it is when you like something.
K, S, and I went to see the theater showing of TAB, as well as having seen it off broadcast. I'm glad I spent the intervening days reading up on meta, because it did help when looking for things the bounteous Easter eggs second time around.
I mean, I'm not sure quite why the Moff and Gat decided to make an episode of Sherlock exactly tailored to my interests, but they did and there you have it. I'm glad it did well in the ratings. Generally, what I like doesn't do quite so well.
If it had just been Victorian would have been enough. If there had been a dozen or so references to other Sherlock versions, I'd have been thrilled.
But no, they gave us an absolutely fascinating look into the mind of unreliable (and very high) narrator. It made me think very much of the Esther's POV sections in Dicken's Bleak House, where practically everything she says cannot be taken at face value, and yet is incredibly meaningful about her state of mind. Okay, it made me think of BtVS, Restless.
Consider that everything we see (and arguably almost the entire episode - and how delicious we can't know what of the modern portions are real is either how Sherlock wants to be seen or perceives how others see him. When Mary says that he is the less intelligent brother, it is Sherlock ultimately who is making that comment. Even as he positions (as half of tumbler has noted) Mary as smarter than Mycroft with Mary hacking MI5 with a phone. Like I said, we can't know what's real and what isn't. All we can know is that more than any other episode this is through Sherlock's point of view. 3rd person limited so to speak, and perceptions, even for someone as perceptive as Sherlock, are flawed.
Sherlock doesn't notice Molly is a woman. Except, of course, it's his dream. He is the one perceiving John as being that perceptive. He is the one placing Molly there in men's clothes. Perhaps because he doesn't care. Because it's all transport. He sets up the end of the mystery (in a Watsonian rather than Doylistic view) with that moment. Just as he sets up disaster for himself when he imagines the Woman in Mourning Black as Mary (a reference to the play "The Woman in Black"?). His words to Watson could just as easily be for himself at the end when Sherlock doesn't see that the Bride (a Wo(man) in White) is Moriarty. Gender and identity are fluid here. Anyone can be the Dread Pirate Roberts. Anyone can be the Robin of the Green Hood. Anyone the Bride.
Which gets to the questionable bit. On one hand, the Orange Pips are a reference to the KKK and I'd rather not have women's suffrage mansplained with reference to the KKK. On the other hand, it's not like England doesn't have a history of grown people dressing in similar outfits for more bacchanalian reasons. And yeah, he's mansplaining because possibly this isn't even about suffrage/women/transport.
Consider that as Sherlock's mind palace is shaking, the elephant in the room literally falls to the floor. Literally, but also figuratively. In a true Mind Palace, everything is figurative. That's how a Mind Palace as a memory technique works. Which makes this episode the greatest of gifts. An episode where we can analyze anything, because everything can have meaning.
That MP John asks Sherlock about his sexuality in a glass bird house. I can take that to refer to, http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/theymightbegiants/birdhouseinyoursoul.html
Or, I can take it mean that Sherlock does want to talk with John about his sexuality, because he's the one who has MP John ask the questions.
Or that when Sherlock says that he made himself this way, and we hear a dog bark (Redbeard - who may also be a figurative figure for a past trauma), then interrupts the whole discussion by starting up the mystery again, we can see him as not yet ready to face that conversation.
Or we can take it to mean he's in a glass house at which one should not throw stones.
Or, or, or… It's a case where the Queen in "Through the Looking Glass" can and should believe six impossible things before breakfast, and fandom should one up her with a seventh.
And that's one scene. Seriously, this episode is a gift. From the "Monstrous Regiment of Women" quote (I see that Mary Russell/Holmes reference - John Knox lambasting three separate Mary's and living to regret it when an Elizabeth took the throne) to the equations for light and constant points in Mycroft's notebook, TAB is absolutely full of meaning. Though, as I look at the acronym, I'm not going to make any assumptions about TAB = Tab. Or hmmm….
K, S, and I went to see the theater showing of TAB, as well as having seen it off broadcast. I'm glad I spent the intervening days reading up on meta, because it did help when looking for things the bounteous Easter eggs second time around.
I mean, I'm not sure quite why the Moff and Gat decided to make an episode of Sherlock exactly tailored to my interests, but they did and there you have it. I'm glad it did well in the ratings. Generally, what I like doesn't do quite so well.
If it had just been Victorian would have been enough. If there had been a dozen or so references to other Sherlock versions, I'd have been thrilled.
But no, they gave us an absolutely fascinating look into the mind of unreliable (and very high) narrator. It made me think very much of the Esther's POV sections in Dicken's Bleak House, where practically everything she says cannot be taken at face value, and yet is incredibly meaningful about her state of mind. Okay, it made me think of BtVS, Restless.
Consider that everything we see (and arguably almost the entire episode - and how delicious we can't know what of the modern portions are real is either how Sherlock wants to be seen or perceives how others see him. When Mary says that he is the less intelligent brother, it is Sherlock ultimately who is making that comment. Even as he positions (as half of tumbler has noted) Mary as smarter than Mycroft with Mary hacking MI5 with a phone. Like I said, we can't know what's real and what isn't. All we can know is that more than any other episode this is through Sherlock's point of view. 3rd person limited so to speak, and perceptions, even for someone as perceptive as Sherlock, are flawed.
Sherlock doesn't notice Molly is a woman. Except, of course, it's his dream. He is the one perceiving John as being that perceptive. He is the one placing Molly there in men's clothes. Perhaps because he doesn't care. Because it's all transport. He sets up the end of the mystery (in a Watsonian rather than Doylistic view) with that moment. Just as he sets up disaster for himself when he imagines the Woman in Mourning Black as Mary (a reference to the play "The Woman in Black"?). His words to Watson could just as easily be for himself at the end when Sherlock doesn't see that the Bride (a Wo(man) in White) is Moriarty. Gender and identity are fluid here. Anyone can be the Dread Pirate Roberts. Anyone can be the Robin of the Green Hood. Anyone the Bride.
Which gets to the questionable bit. On one hand, the Orange Pips are a reference to the KKK and I'd rather not have women's suffrage mansplained with reference to the KKK. On the other hand, it's not like England doesn't have a history of grown people dressing in similar outfits for more bacchanalian reasons. And yeah, he's mansplaining because possibly this isn't even about suffrage/women/transport.
Consider that as Sherlock's mind palace is shaking, the elephant in the room literally falls to the floor. Literally, but also figuratively. In a true Mind Palace, everything is figurative. That's how a Mind Palace as a memory technique works. Which makes this episode the greatest of gifts. An episode where we can analyze anything, because everything can have meaning.
That MP John asks Sherlock about his sexuality in a glass bird house. I can take that to refer to, http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/theymightbegiants/birdhouseinyoursoul.html
Or, I can take it mean that Sherlock does want to talk with John about his sexuality, because he's the one who has MP John ask the questions.
Or that when Sherlock says that he made himself this way, and we hear a dog bark (Redbeard - who may also be a figurative figure for a past trauma), then interrupts the whole discussion by starting up the mystery again, we can see him as not yet ready to face that conversation.
Or we can take it to mean he's in a glass house at which one should not throw stones.
Or, or, or… It's a case where the Queen in "Through the Looking Glass" can and should believe six impossible things before breakfast, and fandom should one up her with a seventh.
And that's one scene. Seriously, this episode is a gift. From the "Monstrous Regiment of Women" quote (I see that Mary Russell/Holmes reference - John Knox lambasting three separate Mary's and living to regret it when an Elizabeth took the throne) to the equations for light and constant points in Mycroft's notebook, TAB is absolutely full of meaning. Though, as I look at the acronym, I'm not going to make any assumptions about TAB = Tab. Or hmmm….