Random Sherlock 2x03 Meta dump (with the dodgy formatting now fixed)
A while back aderyn8 asked me to write meta for her on The Reichenbach Fall. I am sticking it here as a place holder as the total immersion in Media Studies and A Study in Pink carries on apace and I may not have a chance to do anything with it for a while.
The problem with this episode is that were I to cover everything I’d probably need, like Sherlock, a mind map the size of my living room wall to explain it. Yes, I really did think about doing that and taking a photograph, and am still thinking about it because I am dyslexic and work visually. Next time we have a holiday at work I may ask someone to leave a classroom open and play with a Smartboard … or at least I bring a very, very, big piece of paper home.
Now, I’m not going to speculate on HOW the fake-death trick in The Reichenbach Fall was worked. I know I already have my pet theories (I've waffled enough on this LJ about those) and some of it is pretty clear from my end. Differentiating between filmcraft, location use, time of day, sun direction, weather influence and the actual events portrayed on screen really does give me a headache. There are also the important questions about WHY Sherlock pulled the stunt in the way he did, how long it had been being planned for and how many other people were involved . I fear I am going get very cross when they do produce the reveal, as the Guardian Newspaper said a while back; ‘If they don't explain, there may be riots.’ Maybe the all-revealing episode will be one I again will take a long time to sit and watch fully like some other episodes we won't mention.
One sort of Meta using Narrative Theory ...
I am not going to talk about the fact that our writer obviously knows lots about narrative theory. For those who don’t know, I help lecture on this as part of Media Studies at the college where I work. One of the theorists I mention is Gustav Freytag the German dramatist who used his (very visual) outline -- called Freytag's Pyramid by some, there's a good explanation on Wikipedia -- to study the five-act structure of a play. Our narratologist in question apparently specifically created his method of analysis to study Greek Tragedy and perhaps someday I shall write discursive meta on TRF as a tragedy using his structure. Certainly, depending upon whose point of view you are looking at it from, Sherlock does seem to be a totally oblivious victim of the fall he is walking straight into. Whether he is totally blind to what is happening, or whether it was partly (or fully deliberate) is all part of the death-trick theory, which I’m not supposed to be talking about here, so I won’t.
Another sort of Meta on Myth-themes ...
What I can say, while on the subject of narrative structure, is that somehow our writer has decided Sherlock would follow trope in stories and follow the path of the sacrificial hero. He is using this structure in his story and his character's aims; Jim even comments at one point that 'every fairy tale needs a good old-fashioned villain'
In The Reichenbach Fall, apart from apparently dying from falling off a roof, our hero even dies the traditional threefold death seen in myths of many cultures. There is hanging (hoist by his own petard), being stabbed (in the back by a number of people who really should know better) and drowning (in the British weather and his own tears).
There are also riffs off the Christian story in the whole of this episode which I would like to detail here:
I’m not going to point out that certain dialogues weren’t written by the actual writer credited with the episode. You can spot what wasn’t because said usurping writer writes with a very recognisable rhythm and cadence (and keeps using the same phrases no matter whether he is writing about Weeping Angels or Falling Angels).
The three patch problem (more or less)
I am not sure whose idea the pesky rule of threes was that keeps turning up and making me squawk ‘whaaa?’ but even putting it into the imagery and dialogue of the episodes has given me a headache just tying to track everything. We have three IOUs, three towers of the Barbican Estate visible from Bart’s roof top, two gravestones and a weeping willow in the graveyard (not sure who exactly is what here). Then we get “the bank, the tower, the prison” and “Three bullets, three gunmen and three victims”. To give you a few other examples; there are a lot scattered in other episodes in Series Two too;
Let’s start with ASIB with Jim's “If you don't stop prying/I'll burn you/I will burn the heart out of you”. We can continue with Mycroft's “All lives end/all hearts are broken/caring is not an advantage” and end that episode with "Sherlock always replies to everything/he's Mr Punch-line/he will outlive God trying to have the last word”.
In THOB we get:"Liberty in death/isn't that the expression?/The only true freedom." and this episode can also add “Because dead men get listened to/he needed to do more than kill you/he had to discredit every word you ever said about your father.”
I’ll let you spot more of them yourself and leave you to make your own conclusion.; I have a pet theory on this and you can probably see where I am going when I say I can’t find many of these three-shaped phrases (or any used so pointedly) in Series One.
Now the number-shape of phrases in TRF are malleable too (up to four, down to two) when different people are handed them and when there is a need to say something important to the story. In TRF Moriarty seems to be trying to have the upper hand because although he often has three-phrase sentences sometimes his end with a fourth. To give you an example the ‘three bullets, gunmen, three victims,’ phrase is finished by, ‘nothing can stop them now.' Visually the three Barbican towers get the big blocky 200 Aldersgate building behind them as a visual version of this three plus one and the graves and the weeping willow have a tall leylandii behind there in the graveyard there too.
John in his dialogue, saying ‘shut-up Sherlock, shut up, the first time we met, the first time we met,’ and ‘one more thing, one more thing,’ is clear enough about where he is in understanding. He is stuck in his number-phrases at two, and is not getting through to three. We, the audience are also in similar state with twos having two false deaths (Irene Alder and that chappie in TRF) and two screaming kids (The young Henry Baskerville and the girl in TRF), two showers of rain (in ASiB when Mycroft tells John about Irene’s supposed death and in TRF when John is talking to Ella) and two punches to the face (John punching Sherlock and then that twit of a Superintendent). Do I need to round that out by mentioning a partridge in a pair tree?
If you can, BTW spot any other number themed items in this show please tell me about them; Media Studies students who I am working with this term would be very interested to hear.
Bookending for an ending ...
So, having talked about everything I'm not going to talk about I have proved a I can talk about a lot of things. I can also mention that although The Reichenbach Fall is an end of series episode (and where we got landed with one hell of a cliff hanger) it’s a plot-arc episode and we're pulling in events from various other related episodes too. When I said ‘nightmare with events from ASIP played backwards’ I was taking this into account too; what we have here apparently, according to the Media Students is bookending. I’ve created a list to look at the similarities between the story events between ASIP and THOB for you to look at.
The problem with this episode is that were I to cover everything I’d probably need, like Sherlock, a mind map the size of my living room wall to explain it. Yes, I really did think about doing that and taking a photograph, and am still thinking about it because I am dyslexic and work visually. Next time we have a holiday at work I may ask someone to leave a classroom open and play with a Smartboard … or at least I bring a very, very, big piece of paper home.
Now, I’m not going to speculate on HOW the fake-death trick in The Reichenbach Fall was worked. I know I already have my pet theories (I've waffled enough on this LJ about those) and some of it is pretty clear from my end. Differentiating between filmcraft, location use, time of day, sun direction, weather influence and the actual events portrayed on screen really does give me a headache. There are also the important questions about WHY Sherlock pulled the stunt in the way he did, how long it had been being planned for and how many other people were involved . I fear I am going get very cross when they do produce the reveal, as the Guardian Newspaper said a while back; ‘If they don't explain, there may be riots.’ Maybe the all-revealing episode will be one I again will take a long time to sit and watch fully like some other episodes we won't mention.
One sort of Meta using Narrative Theory ...
I am not going to talk about the fact that our writer obviously knows lots about narrative theory. For those who don’t know, I help lecture on this as part of Media Studies at the college where I work. One of the theorists I mention is Gustav Freytag the German dramatist who used his (very visual) outline -- called Freytag's Pyramid by some, there's a good explanation on Wikipedia -- to study the five-act structure of a play. Our narratologist in question apparently specifically created his method of analysis to study Greek Tragedy and perhaps someday I shall write discursive meta on TRF as a tragedy using his structure. Certainly, depending upon whose point of view you are looking at it from, Sherlock does seem to be a totally oblivious victim of the fall he is walking straight into. Whether he is totally blind to what is happening, or whether it was partly (or fully deliberate) is all part of the death-trick theory, which I’m not supposed to be talking about here, so I won’t.
Another sort of Meta on Myth-themes ...
What I can say, while on the subject of narrative structure, is that somehow our writer has decided Sherlock would follow trope in stories and follow the path of the sacrificial hero. He is using this structure in his story and his character's aims; Jim even comments at one point that 'every fairy tale needs a good old-fashioned villain'
In The Reichenbach Fall, apart from apparently dying from falling off a roof, our hero even dies the traditional threefold death seen in myths of many cultures. There is hanging (hoist by his own petard), being stabbed (in the back by a number of people who really should know better) and drowning (in the British weather and his own tears).
There are also riffs off the Christian story in the whole of this episode which I would like to detail here:
- The Carl Powers back-story and Sherlock’s early attempts at detection match with the child Christ discussing scripture in the temple.
- The various triumphs and awards at the beginning of TRF could be Christ’s later triumphal arrival in Jerusalem in Holy Week.
- The hanging-the-shop-window-dummy experiment with John is obviously the calm before the storm and the Last Supper put together.
- Sally and Anderson provide us with a female and male Judas.
- We also see Greg Lestrade becoming St Peter; Sherlock’s with his oldest friend/disciple having to deny him when he goes with the Superintendent to 221B.
- Mycroft makes an excellent Pilate regretfully washing his hands of his brother (sacrificing him for the good of the many) in that last meeting with John at the Diogenes.
- Kitty Reilly and her jounalistic scourging and mocking covers that action by the Roman soldiers before the crucifixion.
- Sherlock sitting thinking while John falls asleep in the lab at Bart's really does echo the dozing disciples in the Garden of Gethsemene.
- John, the beloved disciple stands not at the foot of the cross but in the roadway at Bart's in this story. “I want you to tell Mrs Hudson ...” is pretty close to “behold thy mother,”, and when Sherlock falls off the roof Benedict puts his hands out in a crucifix pose.
- Even Molly Magdalene gets a look-in with her pathological embalming of bodies. I do wonder if she is going to get a scene somewhere after the stunt is pulled off where she tries to hug Sherlock and gets the ‘do not touch me’ brush off.
- While this is actually not particularly a Holy Week theme we do also have a devilish Moriarty on screen. We see him presenting apples, hissing his triumph (literally in the original thing, metaphorically when dubbed into various languages) and meeting Sherlock/Jesus gleefully on a high building which parallels one of the temptations given to Christ during his 40 days and nights in the desert.
- We have questionable hero,
- There are magpies and stealing crowns (and Moriarty stealing Sherlock’s)
- Apples play a part in the story (does that make Sherlock Eve or Snow White in this story?),
- Hansel and Gretel and breadcrumbs appear (which we ourselves are following),
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears (and Richard Brook fleeing out the window; but who are Mummy Bear and Daddy Bear?)
- The 'Run, run as fast as you can' burnt [hearted] Gingerbread Man (and please stop cracking jokes about Benedict.)
- ‘Your big brother and all the kings horses' can’t save Sherlock from having a great fall and breaking both himself and his friends.
- Did I miss any?
I’m not going to point out that certain dialogues weren’t written by the actual writer credited with the episode. You can spot what wasn’t because said usurping writer writes with a very recognisable rhythm and cadence (and keeps using the same phrases no matter whether he is writing about Weeping Angels or Falling Angels).
The three patch problem (more or less)
I am not sure whose idea the pesky rule of threes was that keeps turning up and making me squawk ‘whaaa?’ but even putting it into the imagery and dialogue of the episodes has given me a headache just tying to track everything. We have three IOUs, three towers of the Barbican Estate visible from Bart’s roof top, two gravestones and a weeping willow in the graveyard (not sure who exactly is what here). Then we get “the bank, the tower, the prison” and “Three bullets, three gunmen and three victims”. To give you a few other examples; there are a lot scattered in other episodes in Series Two too;
Let’s start with ASIB with Jim's “If you don't stop prying/I'll burn you/I will burn the heart out of you”. We can continue with Mycroft's “All lives end/all hearts are broken/caring is not an advantage” and end that episode with "Sherlock always replies to everything/he's Mr Punch-line/he will outlive God trying to have the last word”.
In THOB we get:"Liberty in death/isn't that the expression?/The only true freedom." and this episode can also add “Because dead men get listened to/he needed to do more than kill you/he had to discredit every word you ever said about your father.”
I’ll let you spot more of them yourself and leave you to make your own conclusion.; I have a pet theory on this and you can probably see where I am going when I say I can’t find many of these three-shaped phrases (or any used so pointedly) in Series One.
Now the number-shape of phrases in TRF are malleable too (up to four, down to two) when different people are handed them and when there is a need to say something important to the story. In TRF Moriarty seems to be trying to have the upper hand because although he often has three-phrase sentences sometimes his end with a fourth. To give you an example the ‘three bullets, gunmen, three victims,’ phrase is finished by, ‘nothing can stop them now.' Visually the three Barbican towers get the big blocky 200 Aldersgate building behind them as a visual version of this three plus one and the graves and the weeping willow have a tall leylandii behind there in the graveyard there too.
John in his dialogue, saying ‘shut-up Sherlock, shut up, the first time we met, the first time we met,’ and ‘one more thing, one more thing,’ is clear enough about where he is in understanding. He is stuck in his number-phrases at two, and is not getting through to three. We, the audience are also in similar state with twos having two false deaths (Irene Alder and that chappie in TRF) and two screaming kids (The young Henry Baskerville and the girl in TRF), two showers of rain (in ASiB when Mycroft tells John about Irene’s supposed death and in TRF when John is talking to Ella) and two punches to the face (John punching Sherlock and then that twit of a Superintendent). Do I need to round that out by mentioning a partridge in a pair tree?
If you can, BTW spot any other number themed items in this show please tell me about them; Media Studies students who I am working with this term would be very interested to hear.
Bookending for an ending ...
So, having talked about everything I'm not going to talk about I have proved a I can talk about a lot of things. I can also mention that although The Reichenbach Fall is an end of series episode (and where we got landed with one hell of a cliff hanger) it’s a plot-arc episode and we're pulling in events from various other related episodes too. When I said ‘nightmare with events from ASIP played backwards’ I was taking this into account too; what we have here apparently, according to the Media Students is bookending. I’ve created a list to look at the similarities between the story events between ASIP and THOB for you to look at.
- John starting the story by visiting Ella / finishing the story by visiting Ella
- Murderous taxi drivers / Moriarty driving the same himself (that said might just be a vehicle reused)
- Travelling in Taxis together / travelling in taxis alone
- Greg’s ‘drug bust’ to find the Pink Lady’s case / Greg turning up to arrest Sherlock
- Chasing around streets after taxis at night / being chased around streets BY a police car in the dark
- Standing laughing together with backs to the wall in 221B when the chase is over / Standing stressed and handcuffed together against a shutter while evading the police
- John’s first conversation with Mycroft in the factory / last conversation at the Diogenes
- First meeting with Sherlock in the lab inviting John to 221B / last conversation there chosen to drive him away
- Taxi, meeting with Sherlock & Mrs Hudson at 221B / Taxi, John & Mrs Hudson minus Sherlock and 'Has Sherlock sorted at all out ?'
- Sherlock standing on roofs showing absolutely no fear whatsoever of heights / looking terrified when told to climb on the edge at Bart's by Jim
- John and his walking stick and his limp / John’s limp returning both at the pool and also as he walks away from the gravesite.