"I'm Sherlock Holmes. I wear the damn hat."
Sherlock mega post. Wrote my thoughts down as each episode aired. You get to see how hilariously off I was on my speculation.
- 4x01: "The Six Thatchers"
For a while there, I thought we were simply getting a Sherlock twist on "The Six Napoleons". Nope. Moffat and Gatiss had to be jerks and kill off one of the best characters on the show. Grr...
While Sherlock Holmes and John Watson can't be reinvented too much, Mary Morsten is fair game. She's not a huge presence in the stories, baring "The Sign of Four", so you can be quite radical with how she's portrayed. I loved that she was a super spy who could give Sherlock and John a run for their money. She wasn't just a woman John met on a case and that was that. But she wasn't a bad ass just to be a bad ass. She helped to humanize Sherlock and my god, she and John were so happy together.
And while, yes, Sherlock needed to be knocked down a peg, why did it have to come at Mary's expense? Yes, Mary Morsten did die at some point in the short stories and it has a big impact on Watson, but I don't care if it adds drama. You can have heightened drama without a major death. Plus, in the same story, you have Sherlock getting away with murder and the whole incident with Magnussen gets swept under the rug. Then there's Mary, who, sure, was basically a mercenary for hire, but her indiscretions can't be swept away as well?
Before the A.G.R.A. flashdrive made its appearance, the episode was actually quite fun. The baby stuff with John, Mary, and Sherlock was wonderful. I wish we could have seen more with Sherlock and Rosie. That one quick scene where he's lecturing her about not throwing the rattle was adorable. Sherlock would be the world's worst babysitter, but it'd still be funny to see him trying to figure out the mindset of a baby. Sherlock's constant tweeting was funny, too. I didn't picture Sherlock as a fan of Twitter, but the man likes to show off, so I guess it's a natural extension of that.
And then the episode just really annoyed me after the flashdrive popped up. John cheating on Mary? Look, I know he's a bit of ladies' man, but seriously? Argh. It's hard to feel sympathy for the character when he screwed up.
I also feel like Moffat and Gatiss changed their mind about Mary's background. In "The Last Vow", she said A.G.R.A. was her initials, but here, they do a retcon and now A.G.R.A. is the initials of her spy team. The inconsistency is explained with a quick line, about how Mary was lying, but it feels like a cheap explanation. Didn't Sherlock also say that Mary wasn't originally English? Do the guys not read their past scripts or keep a handy character guide?
Random thoughts: Toby! He's straight out of the short stories. It was just cute to see the Watsons on an outing with Sherlock and an adorable bloodhound. They did a fake out with the pearl, which was the original reason the thief was smashing busts. The BBC isn't updating John's blog anymore, which is sad. Come on, it can't cost that much to have one writer coming up with new entries? And what was up with the post credit scene? Was it a cut line they decided to throw in? Or was Mary just really pissed at Sherlock because she knew he'd let her down?
Yeah, I don't have a lot of good things to say about this episode.
- 4x02: "The Lying Detective"
Ugh. Yet again, it's the end of the episode that ruins everything.
Seriously, a freaking secret sister?!?! That's like straight from a comic book. My god, it's like the third Summers sibling debacle from back in the day. Sigh.
Are they implying that the sister, Eurus, is in league with Moriarty? Or is the sister just using the image of Moriarty to toy with Sherlock? The "Miss me?" adds up. I'd rather not have the sister working with Moriarty, but really, I'd rather they didn't introduce a secret sibling. I mean, come on? Did the parents give up the girl for adoption? Was she put into a home? Is this tied up with Redbeard? As her name means the East Wind, and that's the story that Mycroft used to scare Sherlock when he was younger, I guess this means that Mycroft was around when whatever happened to the sister.
And now Eurus is all bitter and trying to get revenge or whatever. Going off various lines, it looks like Moffat and Gatiss had set this up a while ago. Mycroft has that line about "the other Holmes" at the end of the "The Last Vow" and it's in this episode that it's made implicit that indeed, Mycroft was referring to another sibling. Yet again, I find myself asking what this adds to the show? Sure, the villain of the season is a blood relation, and that makes it personal, but this comes across as needlessly showy and twisty. Ooh, I had a thought. What if it was Eurus, not Moriarty, who was running everything?
I kind of noticed that the fake Faith and the fake therapist sounded very similar, but I didn't catch on that they were the same person. Of course, none of us were meant to know that the woman on the bus was also the secret sister. Was that meant to be part of the larger ploy or something? Was she trying to reel John in? I can only assume John is fine, but he's locked up somewhere and Sherlock has to figure out where he is as part of the game.
Oh, and I'm somewhat relieved that John's cheating didn't go beyond texting with the bus lady (Oh wait, her first initial was E...). But now it feels like they can sweep his cheating under a rug because it was actually the secret sister the whole time and she had no intention to lead John astray (and apparently, we all text people we shouldn't, so that makes it okay; great message there, Moffat :-P). Ignoring that, I did like the scene where John confesses to imaginary Mary. It justifies the delusion. He wants to keep her around because he still has so much to say (whether I liked the idea of a Head!Mary is another thing entirely...).
And then Sherlock hugs him! We've never seen Sherlock initiate a hug before. John hugged him during his best man speech in "The Sign of Three", but Sherlock just stood there like a log. I'm sure the shippers were very happy with that scene. :-) That screenshot is going to be everywhere... And my god, John is so much shorter than Sherlock. I mean, I know Martin Freeman is shorter than Benedict Cumberbatch, but I never really noticed it until that hug.
Anyway, the main thrust of the episode, with Culverton Smith, was mostly interesting. Toby Jones was creepy as hell. Hiding behind a kind smile and charity to cover up his dark deeds. But when it's viewed as a elaborate scheme to help John, then it's kind of ridiculous. Oh look, Sherlock can predict things that are going to happen weeks in advance. God, that makes him seem like a Time Lord.
Let's be honest, the only thing I truly enjoyed from this episode was Mrs. Hudson. Moffat is not great at writing woman, but he handled Mrs. Hudson very nicely in this episode. When she orders Mycroft's men, and indeed Mycroft, out of the room, it wasn't too big or over the top. Just a stern voice and a steely gaze. You don't have to be an assassin or a soldier or a highly functioning sociopath to command a situation. And I love that she owns an Aston Martin. Me thinks she reaped the rewards from her husband's drug cartel. Oh, and that she handcuffed Sherlock and threw him into the boot of her car was also great.
Who is Sherrinford? Mycroft asked to speak with them last episode and then Lady Smallwood brings it up again. I know Sherrinford is also written down in Mycroft's notebook. Is this a person? Or a place name? The Internet is suggesting that Sherrinford is actually a fourth Holmes sibling, citing Sherlock's line about how no one keeps going after the number three. Ugh, I don't think I can handle any more secret siblings. Please just let it be a code name or a place.
Random: Did they say the Prime Minister was a she? Or maybe I was hearing things. Though, Theresa May was probably Prime Minister by the time they filmed this episode, so maybe they changed the dialogue. I wish we could have seen Sherlock's birthday party. God, he would have had a great argument about the pointless need to blow out a birthday candle. So Irene Adler continues to text Sherlock. Okay, whatever. Lady Smallwood flirting with Mycroft was vaguely amusing. I'm surprised he clued in at all.
Okay, Moffat and Gatiss, don't drop the ball on the last episode.
- 4x03: "The Final Problem"
So is this the end? Is this the last season? With a title like "The Final Problem", it does kind of feel like the end. If so, this episode is like a stealth series finale.
But let's take a moment to reflect on the fact that: 1) Eurus was imprisoned in a seemingly inescapable prison situated on an isolated island 2) Eurus was able to pretty much hypnotize everyone at said prison and escape and 3) Eurus was pretty much toying with Sherlock the entire episode because it was fun. Dude, that's the plot of "The Sea Devils" only without the googly-eyed upright snapping turtles. Maybe it's an homage, but still.
Anyway, back to the episode. So Mycroft and Sherlock have a psychotic younger sister who burned down the family home and drowned Sherlock's childhood friend. So the best solution was to lock her up and pretend she's dead? Sigh. Yes, let's pretend she never existed. This is more the plot twist of a Victorian novel or something. Oh sure, Mycroft says there was no conventional way of treating Eurus, but did anyone really try? This Uncle Rudi has a lot to answer for. Because if anyone had shown Eurus just a smidgen of compassion, then none of this would have happened.
I assume it was Eurus who was beyond the Moriarty message appearing everywhere. But did she "enslave" him? Or did Moriarty twist Eurus into wanting revenge on Sherlock and Mycroft? The Governor says Eurus wasn't the same after Moriarty visited her. And Eurus has a line about how Moriarty didn't care about being alive. But I kind of interpret that more as Eurus convinced him to kill himself in the grand scheme of things. On the other hand, you can argue that Moriarty used Eurus as his back-up in case something happened to him. Posthumous revenge. But what was the point of Eurus flirting with John on the bus and visiting Sherlock as fake!Faith? Was it all part of the game?
This does feel like a final episode. Everything is tied up nicely via Mary's voice over. Life goes on at Baker Street, whether we get to see the stories or not. I know it's next to impossible to schedule time for Benedict, and to a lesser extent, Martin to film episodes, but it'd be nice to have one more story. They don't have to do a full season of three episodes, but just a little coda would be nice. Set it in the near future or something with Rosie. Have her reflecting on the life of her father and his eccentric friend. I don't know. Just something. I need to have an end that I know is coming, rather than this uncertain future.
Random: They blew up 221B! Well, it got really singed. None of the walls fell down. What kind of grenade is that if it can't blow out a few walls? Anyway, I'm glad they rebuilt at the end. But wow, that reno happened really fast. Mrs. Hudson must know some good contractors. I'm glad Mr. and Mrs. Holmes got to find out about Eurus and were suitably angry at Mycroft for lying to them all these years. Um, was Mycroft watching a porno at the beginning of the episode? Mrs. Hudson listens to heavy metal while vacuuming. I love this woman. So glad that Sherrinford didn't turn out to be another Holmes sibling. I was right that it was a place. I was worried that Redbeard was actually yet another Holmes sibling, but thankfully he was just a friend. At times, Eurus sounded like GLaDOS from Portal and that actually helped to make her creepier. Happy family unit at the end with the boys and Rosie and Molly and Mrs. Hudson. Oh man, the fics that will be generated from that... :-) Rathbone Place! Nice nod to Basil Rathbone.
And that is that. If we get more Sherlock within the next two years, great. If not, well, I blame Marvel. ;-)
- 4x01: "The Six Thatchers"
For a while there, I thought we were simply getting a Sherlock twist on "The Six Napoleons". Nope. Moffat and Gatiss had to be jerks and kill off one of the best characters on the show. Grr...
While Sherlock Holmes and John Watson can't be reinvented too much, Mary Morsten is fair game. She's not a huge presence in the stories, baring "The Sign of Four", so you can be quite radical with how she's portrayed. I loved that she was a super spy who could give Sherlock and John a run for their money. She wasn't just a woman John met on a case and that was that. But she wasn't a bad ass just to be a bad ass. She helped to humanize Sherlock and my god, she and John were so happy together.
And while, yes, Sherlock needed to be knocked down a peg, why did it have to come at Mary's expense? Yes, Mary Morsten did die at some point in the short stories and it has a big impact on Watson, but I don't care if it adds drama. You can have heightened drama without a major death. Plus, in the same story, you have Sherlock getting away with murder and the whole incident with Magnussen gets swept under the rug. Then there's Mary, who, sure, was basically a mercenary for hire, but her indiscretions can't be swept away as well?
Before the A.G.R.A. flashdrive made its appearance, the episode was actually quite fun. The baby stuff with John, Mary, and Sherlock was wonderful. I wish we could have seen more with Sherlock and Rosie. That one quick scene where he's lecturing her about not throwing the rattle was adorable. Sherlock would be the world's worst babysitter, but it'd still be funny to see him trying to figure out the mindset of a baby. Sherlock's constant tweeting was funny, too. I didn't picture Sherlock as a fan of Twitter, but the man likes to show off, so I guess it's a natural extension of that.
And then the episode just really annoyed me after the flashdrive popped up. John cheating on Mary? Look, I know he's a bit of ladies' man, but seriously? Argh. It's hard to feel sympathy for the character when he screwed up.
I also feel like Moffat and Gatiss changed their mind about Mary's background. In "The Last Vow", she said A.G.R.A. was her initials, but here, they do a retcon and now A.G.R.A. is the initials of her spy team. The inconsistency is explained with a quick line, about how Mary was lying, but it feels like a cheap explanation. Didn't Sherlock also say that Mary wasn't originally English? Do the guys not read their past scripts or keep a handy character guide?
Random thoughts: Toby! He's straight out of the short stories. It was just cute to see the Watsons on an outing with Sherlock and an adorable bloodhound. They did a fake out with the pearl, which was the original reason the thief was smashing busts. The BBC isn't updating John's blog anymore, which is sad. Come on, it can't cost that much to have one writer coming up with new entries? And what was up with the post credit scene? Was it a cut line they decided to throw in? Or was Mary just really pissed at Sherlock because she knew he'd let her down?
Yeah, I don't have a lot of good things to say about this episode.
- 4x02: "The Lying Detective"
Ugh. Yet again, it's the end of the episode that ruins everything.
Seriously, a freaking secret sister?!?! That's like straight from a comic book. My god, it's like the third Summers sibling debacle from back in the day. Sigh.
Are they implying that the sister, Eurus, is in league with Moriarty? Or is the sister just using the image of Moriarty to toy with Sherlock? The "Miss me?" adds up. I'd rather not have the sister working with Moriarty, but really, I'd rather they didn't introduce a secret sibling. I mean, come on? Did the parents give up the girl for adoption? Was she put into a home? Is this tied up with Redbeard? As her name means the East Wind, and that's the story that Mycroft used to scare Sherlock when he was younger, I guess this means that Mycroft was around when whatever happened to the sister.
And now Eurus is all bitter and trying to get revenge or whatever. Going off various lines, it looks like Moffat and Gatiss had set this up a while ago. Mycroft has that line about "the other Holmes" at the end of the "The Last Vow" and it's in this episode that it's made implicit that indeed, Mycroft was referring to another sibling. Yet again, I find myself asking what this adds to the show? Sure, the villain of the season is a blood relation, and that makes it personal, but this comes across as needlessly showy and twisty. Ooh, I had a thought. What if it was Eurus, not Moriarty, who was running everything?
I kind of noticed that the fake Faith and the fake therapist sounded very similar, but I didn't catch on that they were the same person. Of course, none of us were meant to know that the woman on the bus was also the secret sister. Was that meant to be part of the larger ploy or something? Was she trying to reel John in? I can only assume John is fine, but he's locked up somewhere and Sherlock has to figure out where he is as part of the game.
Oh, and I'm somewhat relieved that John's cheating didn't go beyond texting with the bus lady (Oh wait, her first initial was E...). But now it feels like they can sweep his cheating under a rug because it was actually the secret sister the whole time and she had no intention to lead John astray (and apparently, we all text people we shouldn't, so that makes it okay; great message there, Moffat :-P). Ignoring that, I did like the scene where John confesses to imaginary Mary. It justifies the delusion. He wants to keep her around because he still has so much to say (whether I liked the idea of a Head!Mary is another thing entirely...).
And then Sherlock hugs him! We've never seen Sherlock initiate a hug before. John hugged him during his best man speech in "The Sign of Three", but Sherlock just stood there like a log. I'm sure the shippers were very happy with that scene. :-) That screenshot is going to be everywhere... And my god, John is so much shorter than Sherlock. I mean, I know Martin Freeman is shorter than Benedict Cumberbatch, but I never really noticed it until that hug.
Anyway, the main thrust of the episode, with Culverton Smith, was mostly interesting. Toby Jones was creepy as hell. Hiding behind a kind smile and charity to cover up his dark deeds. But when it's viewed as a elaborate scheme to help John, then it's kind of ridiculous. Oh look, Sherlock can predict things that are going to happen weeks in advance. God, that makes him seem like a Time Lord.
Let's be honest, the only thing I truly enjoyed from this episode was Mrs. Hudson. Moffat is not great at writing woman, but he handled Mrs. Hudson very nicely in this episode. When she orders Mycroft's men, and indeed Mycroft, out of the room, it wasn't too big or over the top. Just a stern voice and a steely gaze. You don't have to be an assassin or a soldier or a highly functioning sociopath to command a situation. And I love that she owns an Aston Martin. Me thinks she reaped the rewards from her husband's drug cartel. Oh, and that she handcuffed Sherlock and threw him into the boot of her car was also great.
Who is Sherrinford? Mycroft asked to speak with them last episode and then Lady Smallwood brings it up again. I know Sherrinford is also written down in Mycroft's notebook. Is this a person? Or a place name? The Internet is suggesting that Sherrinford is actually a fourth Holmes sibling, citing Sherlock's line about how no one keeps going after the number three. Ugh, I don't think I can handle any more secret siblings. Please just let it be a code name or a place.
Random: Did they say the Prime Minister was a she? Or maybe I was hearing things. Though, Theresa May was probably Prime Minister by the time they filmed this episode, so maybe they changed the dialogue. I wish we could have seen Sherlock's birthday party. God, he would have had a great argument about the pointless need to blow out a birthday candle. So Irene Adler continues to text Sherlock. Okay, whatever. Lady Smallwood flirting with Mycroft was vaguely amusing. I'm surprised he clued in at all.
Okay, Moffat and Gatiss, don't drop the ball on the last episode.
- 4x03: "The Final Problem"
So is this the end? Is this the last season? With a title like "The Final Problem", it does kind of feel like the end. If so, this episode is like a stealth series finale.
But let's take a moment to reflect on the fact that: 1) Eurus was imprisoned in a seemingly inescapable prison situated on an isolated island 2) Eurus was able to pretty much hypnotize everyone at said prison and escape and 3) Eurus was pretty much toying with Sherlock the entire episode because it was fun. Dude, that's the plot of "The Sea Devils" only without the googly-eyed upright snapping turtles. Maybe it's an homage, but still.
Anyway, back to the episode. So Mycroft and Sherlock have a psychotic younger sister who burned down the family home and drowned Sherlock's childhood friend. So the best solution was to lock her up and pretend she's dead? Sigh. Yes, let's pretend she never existed. This is more the plot twist of a Victorian novel or something. Oh sure, Mycroft says there was no conventional way of treating Eurus, but did anyone really try? This Uncle Rudi has a lot to answer for. Because if anyone had shown Eurus just a smidgen of compassion, then none of this would have happened.
I assume it was Eurus who was beyond the Moriarty message appearing everywhere. But did she "enslave" him? Or did Moriarty twist Eurus into wanting revenge on Sherlock and Mycroft? The Governor says Eurus wasn't the same after Moriarty visited her. And Eurus has a line about how Moriarty didn't care about being alive. But I kind of interpret that more as Eurus convinced him to kill himself in the grand scheme of things. On the other hand, you can argue that Moriarty used Eurus as his back-up in case something happened to him. Posthumous revenge. But what was the point of Eurus flirting with John on the bus and visiting Sherlock as fake!Faith? Was it all part of the game?
This does feel like a final episode. Everything is tied up nicely via Mary's voice over. Life goes on at Baker Street, whether we get to see the stories or not. I know it's next to impossible to schedule time for Benedict, and to a lesser extent, Martin to film episodes, but it'd be nice to have one more story. They don't have to do a full season of three episodes, but just a little coda would be nice. Set it in the near future or something with Rosie. Have her reflecting on the life of her father and his eccentric friend. I don't know. Just something. I need to have an end that I know is coming, rather than this uncertain future.
Random: They blew up 221B! Well, it got really singed. None of the walls fell down. What kind of grenade is that if it can't blow out a few walls? Anyway, I'm glad they rebuilt at the end. But wow, that reno happened really fast. Mrs. Hudson must know some good contractors. I'm glad Mr. and Mrs. Holmes got to find out about Eurus and were suitably angry at Mycroft for lying to them all these years. Um, was Mycroft watching a porno at the beginning of the episode? Mrs. Hudson listens to heavy metal while vacuuming. I love this woman. So glad that Sherrinford didn't turn out to be another Holmes sibling. I was right that it was a place. I was worried that Redbeard was actually yet another Holmes sibling, but thankfully he was just a friend. At times, Eurus sounded like GLaDOS from Portal and that actually helped to make her creepier. Happy family unit at the end with the boys and Rosie and Molly and Mrs. Hudson. Oh man, the fics that will be generated from that... :-) Rathbone Place! Nice nod to Basil Rathbone.
And that is that. If we get more Sherlock within the next two years, great. If not, well, I blame Marvel. ;-)