How Sherlock Survived a Cardiac Arrest

[wellingtongoose]

The Most Miraculous Thing

The medical explanation I am about to give for Sherlock’s survival is nowhere near as uplifting or exhilaration as watching Sherlock struggling out the steps of his mind palace with the sheer determination to live for John. If you want to keep thinking about Sherlock’s “revival” as a miracle of love and a testimony to our

Comments

Wedding date

[ruahnna]

Unless I missed something, or something changed, Mary told Mrs. Hudson at the end of The Empty Hearse that they were thinking of a May wedding, not an August one. Given that Mary is preggers at the wedding itself, I presume she is ready to pop at Christmas. (Still praying for a safe delivery and a bouncing baby Watson--I don't think I can bear for John to undergo that sort of loss.)

In my opinion, they've played rather coy with the timeline. We've seen two Christmases, a New Year's Day, Guy Fawkes Day (first part of November) and some weather that seems warm as well as some snow. I think creators' (Gatiss and Moffat) handling of the timeline is rather brilliant, because--as much as we fans like exactitude (witness this completely amazing explanation--thank you wellingtongoose)--I believe there needs to be a certain elasticity in the timeline to give the writers the freedom that they need to insert history and backstory at will. ACD did the same, alluding to things that happened "off-screen" without committing. One of the ones that made me smile--at the wedding, Sherlock says that he knew John for "years" before he confided in him about his middle name. We know, of course, that Sherlock never got that confession out of John, but ordered his birth certificate instead--what we DON'T know is WHEN. Another curious time thing (sorry if I'm dragging THIS discussion off-central) is when John's therapist says during the opening of TRF that John hasn't been to see her in 18 months. I'm taking that to mean that John MUST have been to see his therapist (to gloat, I'm thinking, about his leg and his blog, respectively) after he moved in with Sherl. To me, there is as much joy in the speculating as their is in the KNOWING.

Many wonderful kudo to Wellingtongoose for doing such a stellar job of explaining things here for us non-medical folk.

Ru

Re: Wedding date

[wellingtongoose]

The timeline really confuses me to no end. I think I gave up trying to wrap my head around it. The truth is I'm not completely sure that the writers have actually plotted out the timeline in any great deals. They do have a vague idea so that the characters can talk about their own space-time continuum without contradicting each other. However I find it terribly difficult to pin-point stuff but the speculation was fun to read.

Re: Wedding date

[swanpride]

It depends on the writer...Thompson is very malicious. TBB for all it's fault is so precise, even the weekdays match up with the dates given. Gatiss is the worst of the three...I have tried to line-up The Great Game, and nothing matches up time-wise, he jumps from day to night with no rhyme or reason. It's fortunate that HOB and TEH happen in two days respectively.
Moffat loves this long time jumps - which currently jumped so far ahead that the show is now playing in the future (around next Christmas) - this has the advantage that they can easily pick up where they left off after the hiatus.

Re: Wedding date

[ruahnna]

This is more than likely a moot point, as the post and responses are from February...but, just in case, and if there's still questions surrounding the timeline: The wedding took place on May 18th, per the invitation, which was shown when the Sherlock was remembering no one knew John's middle name (other than Irene), but that it was on the invitation.

John's blog, however, contradicts this as Sherlock's entry about the wedding is shown as August. I see this as a continuity error made by the blog writer and one that should be amended.

The timeline is very clear throughout the whole season, however, it takes some specific (i.e. obsessed) focus to track. ;) For example, we learn about the Lady Smallwood case at the beginning of HLV, but Sherlock actually began that case shortly after his return in November. It's not 'in your face' obvious, but viewed through Anderson's television during the announcement "The Hat Detective Lives." It's there we learn Magnussen is summoned before a Parliament committee hearing, which then caused Lady Smallwood, knowing of Sherlock's return, to seek out his help.

As always, this is an excellent meta, and one I thoroughly enjoy reading and learned. Thank you!