PICSPAM REACTION/RECAP: Sherlock Series 3 Episode 3 (Part 4 of 8)
WARNING: CONTAINS IMAGES AND DETAILS OF THE SHERLOCK SERIES 3 FINAL EPISODE. If you have not watched Sherlock Series 3's finale yet, this post is CHOCK FULL OF SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Live-Bloggish Picspam Reaction/Recap for Sherlock Series 3 Episode 3
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
PART FOUR - "His Last Vow"
-Wherever do they find such interesting buildings? Well, somewhere in the UK obviously, but you know what I mean.
-PFFFFFT. Yeah. Subtle does not seem to be a concept Magnuson understands, at least in reference to himself and his own ego.
-That's not the guy from the tribunal, is it? *looks back at prior cap* HA! It is! Oh dear. That polka dot tie was your doom, dude, though I'm glad Magnuson didn't use your disabled daughter to drag you into the muck. And if Magnuson is behind this bit of downfall in some way, he's not doing it to gain anything, he's either doing it because the guy was a prat during the tribunal or he's just doing it for giggles. Not sure which would be more evil. (Also, just a teensy bit of a rip on CNN, maybe? The stylized 'CAM' on-screen like that looks a little like CNN at a quick glance)
-Sherlock, you need to be slightly more careful when appearing suddenly behind John when he's in an unfamiliar location to potentially take part in some ass-kicking. You could get hurt by mistake.
-"Magnuson's office is on the top floor, just below his private flat." Of course it is.
-"There are fourteen layers of security between us and him, two of which aren't even legal in this country." I'd guess those are the near-lethal electric shock level and the level that seals and evacuates all the air inside. Shark-filled pools also an option, but between the pool and the trap door chute from the top floor, it takes up a lot of square footage of space and is also not terribly practical or economical in central London. *nods*
-"Wanna know how we're gonna break in?" You're not, you're going in through the front door with an appointment or something. Of course.
-Hold up. *hits pause* When did they get the coffees? Teas? Cupfuls of acid, whatever. Who stops in the middle of a caper to go on a coffee run? (Besides me.) Sherlock didn't have them in his hands when he met John, and vice versa, so maybe they aren't fluid at all and were hidden in the coat as a product of that 'shopping trip' Sherlock said he was going on. Must admit, few people would question a cup of coffee/tea in a enormous media office, making those cups the perfect place to hide something, but in that case, why not hide it in a pocket? In case they get searched? I dunno, maybe there was a coffee shop on the fifth floor and they stopped in. Seriously though, sudden coffee cups are suspicious. *eyes suspiciously*
-"Standard keycard for the building. Only gets us as far as the canteen." One of these days John is not going to look vaguely surprised that Sherlock has an access card for some place he shouldn't. Today is not that day. Also, if they haven't used the card yet, they haven't gotten to the canteen yet, so they didn't get the cups-o-stuff at the canteen. (Note to self: Next time I design a dungeon for an RPG, include a canteen.)
Although they are in the building, so Sherlock would have had to use the keycard at the turnstile gate, so they have gotten access to the canteen to get coffee or tea. Maybe John was distracted when Sherlock used the card in the lobby, or is merely surprised that Sherlock's got a trick for using a normal keycard to access Magnuson's inner sanctum. Okay, fair enough.
-I swear, it just paused like this, and I spent about a minute in a staring match with my monitor. I've forgotten why I was pausing now...
-"Taken to a small room somewhere and your head kicked in." Ooo, the dirty look hypothetical!Sherlock gives John for that. XD
-"Do you really need so much colour?"/"It passes the time." Hee!
-Mess up the card so it's not wrong, just defective so it doesn't trigger alarms, okay fine, then what? Fast talk a technician? *eyes coffee cups John is holding in the background* I suppose it could just be hot coffee or tea, either works as a weapon in a pinch, but I think it's likely something else.
-Heeeee! 'Trashing' the guards. XD
-Card doesn't work, check via camera, not many people there except Magnuson's PA.... Ah hahahahahaha. And hello Janine. *canon referencey sort-of fistpump* And that explains the coffees. He's being a 'thoughtful boyfriend' and bringing her a coffee at work. *facepalm* Poor Janine.
-"Human error. I've been shopping." OH GOD. Of course Janine's not going to just let him into her boss's top security hidey-hole because he brought a coffee. He's going to fake a proposal, isn't he? *headdesk* Of course he is. Because canon.
(JOHN'S FACE THOUGH. XD)
-Yep, hi Janine!
-"Sherlock, you complete loon, what are you doing?"/"Hang on, was that- That-!" Yes, yes it was, John. And now John's going to spend the entire elevator ride up to Magnuson's office yelling at Sherlock for being a manipulative wanker now isn't he?
-PFFFT! 'Not now John. Busy trying to look convincingly sincere and impish.'
-"Go on, let me in!" See, convincingly sincere and impish. *headshake*
-"Don't make me do it out here, not in front of everyone."/"...Do what in front of everyone?" *facepalm* Yep, it's a fake proposal. Although bonus points to John who's trying very hard to look like it's perfectly normal for two blokes who look nothing like Magnuson to be standing around talking to his high security door camera thingy and holding coffee.
I did say 'trying.'
-This face.
-Oh god, poor Janine. At least she's a PA instead of a maid in this Holmesian universe, and are unlikely to have ever had to to Magnuson's laundry or clean for him?
-Oh yes, there's going to be some elevator-yelling.
-Gaaaaahhh, fffffft, the dewy eyes. *snerk*
-And of course it works. Sherlock Holmes is a manipulative bastard, but he's at least doing this for a genuine purpose rather than just for the hell of it. Magnuson is a really severe scumbag and needs to be stopped, and, in a way, by tricking Janine like this, it is kind of protecting her by keeping her as someone who's been duped rather than a person in collusion to take Magnuson down. She'd be in danger of a lot more blowback from Magnuson and his 'owned' resources if Sherlock had been truthful with her and asked for her help and she'd provided it.
-Yes, epic yelling soon. As soon as John stops being boggled. Again.
-"Did you just get engaged to break into an office?" Yes, very soon. Hopefully the yelling will be in the elevator and not on the main concourse though, or the security team will be jumping out of their trashcans everywhere.
-"Stroke of luck meeting her at your wedding, you can take some of the credit." Um. Not helping. *facepalm*
-And then John throws out the cups and tosses a hundred fine ideas for what they might have been as they were, in fact, red herrings. ...Unless they each contain a different chemical that comprises a two part smoke-bomb that's going to mix in the bin and get the elevator shut down to give them more time in Magnuson's domain or something. *ponders* Hmf. Probably not. *sigh* Still, carrying a cup of coffee does lend an "I'm not up to anything/I belong here' shield when inside an office building of any sort.
-"Jesus! Sherlock, she loves you!"/"Yes. Like I said, human error." OW. OW. OW. So much ow in so many directions.
-"What are you gonna do?"/"Well, I'll actually marry her, obviously." Okay. Now. I've listened to that about ten times on three different files including iTunes (which cuts off a bit of the edge of the image all the way around versus the broadcast version, what's up with that? :-/) and that's what it sounds like. But given what he says next is: "There's only so far you can go." I'm guessing there's a 'not' I'm missing in there somewhere... maybe instead of the I'll? But I'm really not hearing it or seeing his mouth forming a 'not', so... Uhhhh... maybe he's speaking sarcastically at the start, considering he's already admitted to getting engaged to Janine to gain access to Magnuson's office? I don't know. The sound on this episode is giving me more trouble than any other episode to date.
[Listened again just now [in March] as I'm cueing to where I am now, (five minutes further in, weeks later :-P), and now I can hear the 'not' clearly. *headshake* I blame the sinus cold/stuffy ears thing I had when I first listened to that bit *looks at timestamp on screenshot* twenty days ago.... *facepalm*]
-"I'll tell her that the entire relationship was a ruse to break into her boss's office. I imagine she'll want to stop seeing me at that point-" YAH THINK? She may have the blow slightly softened when John comes out of the elevator too and she has a chance to realize something's up before she has to fight down the urge to pitch Sherlock out an umpty-story high window.
-"-but you're the expert on women." Hee! Three continents Watson! \o/ Who is reacting to this in a similar vein to all the other Watsons ever, though with a bit less immediate shouting.
(randomly, I covet John's jacket. Those pockets.)
-Gotta wonder though. Sherlock being in a relationship with Janine, and Janine working for Magnuson... surely he keeps tabs on his employees' major affiliations and knows about that connection. And knows that leaving Janine as the sole doorkeeper to his office while he's off at the dinner meeting thing is a huge vulnerability, and this couldn't be a bigger trap if it had sparklers and a marching band, could it? The only question is does Janine know she's also being used as a kind of bait, or is she aware she's part of a trap for Sherlock and going along with it willingly. *ponders*
-That's a sudden look of 'it's a trap' if I ever saw one. Is Janine not there?
-Judging from the proximity to that big *handwave* curved thingy building (*googles* the Gherkin) it's right close to the building Shad Sanderson from Blind Banker was in.
-"Where did she go?"/"Bit rude, I just proposed to her." *facepalm* Somehow the whole IT'S A TRAP thing is still escaping the boys, even though they've snuck into somewhere under false pretenses and have encountered an unexpected situation that goes counter to anticipated planning. Not nearly paranoid enough. *nods sagely*
-OH SHIT. DID MAGNUSON KILL JANINE? I mean, letting Sherlock into the inner sanctum whatever was probably a bit more than a firing offense, but I didn't think he'd have her killed! D-: Unless she's shamming as part of the trap. Or knocked out as part of the trap. In any case, TRAP!
-"Did she faint? Do they really do that?" Sherlock Unknown-Middle-Name Holmes, are you really that oblivious? I mean seriously, there's overconfidence in your plan to get into the office by proposing, and there's assuming that your adversary will be keeping to the schedule that he may or may not know you are aware of, and then there's being an idiot. IT'S. A. TRAP. *headlaptop* Of course he did walk into the office in full-on fake boyfriend mode, so maybe his tactical sense is on standby as the rest of his head is filled with social cues and appropriate responses and so forth. Let's hope John isn't as oblivious.
-Well then. Blood's a great big help towards not being oblivious. JANINE!!! O.O
-"A blow to the head." Meaning that there is someone else in the room or nearby and you all need to be a little less casual about wandering around the room openly. Just a bit. Because it's a TRAP.
-"She's breathing." OH GOOD. I know me liking non-major characters usually gets them killed or turns them evil or both, but it's nice to have a momentary reprieve from that.
Although since John is in Doctor-mode with his tactical sense boggled by the whole fake proposal situation, and Sherlock has his head full of social bullshit, Janine in her injured and unconscious state is effectively acting as a fantastic bait to lure them to an area oddly far away from where Janine was last standing, in front of a whole lot of windows and a sort of a hallway thing, so if there's someone there who's waiting for a target of opportunity to attack... or shoot at... Um. It isn't happening now, is it? Is it? Will John see it happen?? O.O
-AND THEN SHERLOCK HELPS EVERYTHING EVER BY GOING WANDERING OFF ALONE. Seriously. Sherlock. Dude. How can you not see this is a trap? Janine's taken a blow to the head. This means SOMEONE HIT JANINE ON THE HEAD. Wake the hell up.
(Though he's had a history of not noticing attackers are still in the room and wandering around anyway, as he did in Soo Lin's flat in Blind Banker, so Sherlock being a tactical idiot is not entirely without precedent. *handwaves*)
-And another one. Security was there when she let Sherlock in? Absolutely a trap then. No way would any security in a location like that just shrug off the boss's personal assistant letting her boyfriend in through the front door, proposal or not. Therefore, he was either in on permitting the security breach to let Sherlock and John into the trap, or he was knocked out or killed before he could raise a protest about it and prevent them from coming up into the trap. And therefore, again, TRAP. TRAPTRAPTRAP. I mean seriously, even the camera angles know there's something gone seriously wrong and unsettling here.
-Also, whoever took out the guard didn't take the earpiece which an outside infiltrator might, to be sure the guard couldn't call for help and possibly also to listen for security alerts, so, more likely someone inside, or the guard is playing possum. Pierced ear without earring (hm... earrings that look like earphones for the intrigue-themed cosplayers, or earrings that double as earphones for actual covert type stuff) and... *tilts head* Tattoo. 14? ...Part of Sherlock's deduction flurry about Mary included 'Tattoo' and '12' which I thought was a size but... Urk. Maybe Magnuson has had some hold over Mary for a very long time and puts tattoos on his long-held 'property'? DDDD-:
-...and that's a thought that's bouncing off the 'Mary is an orphan' information and coming up with a big old flashing neon, "Magnuson fosters orphan kids and raises them to be his loyal cadre of assassins and bodyguards etc" (also since this is Moffat's script and he has a known penchant for knabbling a main character's future spouse as a child and having her trained from birth to be a psychopathic assassin out to kill him, as well as Moffat's habit of reversing ACD canon in this series, and maybe where Holmes gets engaged to a maid to gain access to the house in canon, Mary's originally gotten into a relationship with John on the orders of Magnuson so as to get access to Sherlock, or since Sherlock was 'dead' at the time, maybe... Mycroft? o.O though that's a real stretch) which makes Mary absolutely kick-ass and still not evil, because being brainwashed from a young age into abject loyalty to a slimeball like Magnuson and treated like property (have I mentioned lately that Magnuson can seriously die, like, any second now and I would be glad? Particularly if he's raising kids to be his property in any way because THAT IS SO WRONG D-:) would not put her into a position to easily break that hold, which will have gone very deep if it started in her childhood, like a cult of personality thing. She'll be fine once they get past this shooting Sherlock business (whenever it happens) and deprogram her though. *nods* Orrrr of course it's probably just be me being paranoid again. Not like that's an uncommon thing. :-P
-Oh, and just in case anyone missed that the tattoo was important, it also glows blue.
-"Ex-con. White supremacist by the tattoo, so who cares." Or, you know, it could be a perfectly common prison tattoo designating the wearer as a prejudiced moron. *sweeps entire bizarre 'Magnuson has an assassin-training creche full of fostered orphans' theory aside* Magnuson still needs thwarted. Badly, and hopefully lethally.
-This camera angle (which has developed a slow, floaty spin it seems) is still making me nervous. As was intended, so well done, show.
-That's precise measurement for a bare hand touch. Only a few degrees off core temperature and nearly the same as skin-through-clothing temperature so someone was sitting there for a significant amount of time and only left the chair in the last few minutes. Since the guard is facing towards the chair rather than away, it's not likely to be him, and Janine was in the other room, so, someone else is in the room. NO, REALLY? It hasn't been an outbreak of spontaneous head injuries after all? There goes John's hopes of an article in the British Medical Journal. *snaps fingers* Shucky darn.
-And of course hearing some distant footstep-like noises in the soundtrack helps, just in case our boys have walked into a covert ops situation with one too boggled by the other's audacity and needing to switch to doctor mode without activating his tactical brain, and the other doing complex social calculations on how best to shore up this proposal scenario while also getting whatever they were really there for and not thinking tactically because he's too overconfident to think the situation will happen any way other than how he planned, and seem to have completely missed that there is someone else in the room with them who likes knocking on people's heads.
-"They must still be here." Yay, John is starting to see the trap! Finally! \o/
-"So's Magnuson, his seat's still warm." EWWWWW that was Magnuson's body heat, ew ew ew. Wash well, Sherlock. :-P
-Ahahaha, oh, great, so, Magnuson's office is right under his flat at the top of the building, and those windows above looking down into the office are part of Magnuson's flat aren't they? So has Magnuson been sitting there watching them through the windows with a bowl of popcorn, or what? XD
-"We should call the police." UM. NO? You guys are breaking in, and are in a place you aren't supposed to be, under false pretenses, AND are standing around in a room with two injured people who act as access-controllers and guards. Nothing about your current situation will make the police like you. At all. Ever. Even if it's Lestrade. O.O
-"During our own burglary!? You're really not a natural at this are you?" See? What Sherlock said! Though to be fair given John's military role accompanying fire teams and his training, it would have been more focused on getting close to things with the fire team and then being very non-covert once getting into position, rather than sneaking around to gather intel and then sneak away again. Different sort of tactics. Though I do also still blame a residual bit of boggling.
-Now there's a sense I'm glad not to have. The capacity to differentiate between lingering perfumes. Though it seems to be something to further clue him in to more people being there since I doubt that Magnuson bashed anyone in the head himself, and the two downed people bashing each other isn't exactly practical... hang on. N°5, is that Chanel? That's what most of the Mayfly Man's targets wore... Hm. Odd. *ponders*
-Nope, false positive, it's Captain Adelaide's perfume. It'd be super weird if she was hanging around in Magnuson's office. Maybe he called on his "ownership" of her to get her to do something else? Doubt he'd invite her into his own space for that, so... Hm. ...Given Magnuson's actions involving that perfume before, maybe he's bought himself a bottle to do... I don't know what with. EW.
-"Mary wears it." Oh. Well. Shit. Yeah, it's now, isn't it? And it's going to look nothing but bad (even though whether Magnuson has something on her, or she's a creche-raised assassin (oh why not) she won't be doing this fully of her own free will. I think. Eeep.) *having increasing anxiety*
-"No, not Mary, somebody else!" Like his client for instance. Of course not Mary, because Sherlock trusts Mary, as well he and John and everyone should. Because she's awesome. Oh damn, what's coming is really going to hurt the both of them so much, even aside from the shooting, no matter the level of choice Mary has about it. (Though if this has been long in planning and she's that far under Sherlock's radar, she is an awesome sleeper agent. And of course she would be, because Mary Morstan-Watson is awesome, even at things that are going to kill me stone dead. )
(Meanwhile, subliminally, a subtle building note of imminent doom has entered the soundtrack... eeeep)
-[Catching up with the cuing now. Today is March 23rd. 2014. Yeesh. On a side note, today at work I had to spend about a half hour searching the office for 'the Magnuson file'. I was secretly amused, but am now sure I'm not spelling his name right, but I haven't noticed it written out in full on anything in the show yet, darn it.]
-Oh and now we have actual thumping from upstairs, not just footsteps in the soundtrack.
-"Sherlock!" And off he goes on his own again. I'd say this might be a habit picked up from spending 2 years abroad being entirely self-reliant (sort of) while tracking down Moriarty's crew, but he's always been a bit of an idiot like that, hasn't he? *facepalm*
-Hello, scene from this season's title montage.
-Well, if you know the person whose property you're breaking into is there but isn't coming out to confront you, why not go right on up to his flat and confront him (and whoever he's talking to in a... flirty-sexy way? I don't know but even the vague possibility is making me cringe so hard, even if it's not Mary and it probably is) rather than doing the sensible thing and leaving before you get caught? Sherlock Holmes, you have the self-preservation instincts of cartoon lemming.
-OOOOOOO!!!!! YES! GO MARY! I'm pretty sure it's Mary (though I can see they're trying to direct suspicion onto Captain Adelaide with her gymnastics career and shared perfume preference but since that one bit of information about this episode has been dogging my entire watching, I'm pretty sure it's got to be Mary now), and if so the answer to "what would your husband think" of Mary genuinely having Magnuson at gunpoint would be something along the lines of "he'd probably be pretty damned chuffed". Of course it's all a trap though. Because TRAP. Or if not a trap, something else I really don't want to think about. :-P
-Of course, hey, maybe Sherlock just made the mistake of sneaking up behind Mary while she was all armed up and in her *squints at prior cap* ninja jump-suit (which appears to have a pleasing sufficiency of pockets) and intent on putting a bullet in the brain of one of the biggest sleazeballs on the planet, and startled her into shooting him by accident? Maybe? It's not entirely outside the realm of reasonable is it? Bit comedy of errors, but.... Yeah, it's going to be something far more hurty.
-What's he saying? "You're doing this to protect him from the truth, but is this a protection he would want?" Ohhhh, crap. There goes the last chance of it being Captain Adelaide, since her spouse knows the secret Magnuson is using against her. Mary, being manipulated by Magnuson, with a secret she doesn't want John knowing. ...to the point she would willingly shoot Sherlock to keep it from him? I am suddenly SO MUCH MORE WORRIED. O.O Although Mary can shoot Magnuson first and I would cheer. Still. Still feeling like a trap.
-"Additionally, if you're going to commit murder you might consider changing your perfume." Oh and just look at all those mirrors behind Sherlock there. Ignore the wallpaper. It's a red herring. Just.... mirrors. Duplication and duplicity. And *waves hands around* stuff. Sneaky bastards.
-(The trouble with knowing what's coming and not having a lot of time to do anything except work insane hours 6 days a week and do basic 'staying alive' things on the seventh is that I know, without a doubt, within the next couple of show minutes, the thing I know will happen is going to happen, and the subsequent events and ramifications and things will require a lot of focus and brain that I don't really have right now as work is taking all my time and energy, and .... urg. Wah.)
-"Lady Smallwood." *BZZT* Wrong. Close, but really, based on the trust he's developed for Mary and his complete lack of awareness that she might even be involved in this in any way, it's understandable. Occam's razor only works if you have all the information you need to see what is the most likely explanation. Lady Smallwood has already done her fighting back by calling Sherlock in on her case. She's not going to be taking matters any further into her own hands as she's far too public a figure to start Batman-ing around assassinating douchebags, as lovely a thought as that is. Mary though has far more latitude of action, and some kind of impressive as hell backstory, I'm sure, if she's actually pulling this off, and no public eye on her or even the suspicions of her spouse and closest friends. If this isn't a trap, and Mary really is here to kill the crap out of Magnuson (which even without the spoiler I know about I'm sure she won't because there's far too much 'why?' sticking out yet to have him dead now when he's most likely going to be needed later for exposition) she might well have gotten away with it if Sherlock hadn't shown up. Then again, killing Magnuson would probably have some kind of *vague waving* deadman switch info bomb consequences, where if he's killed or dies in sudden or suspect manner, the contents of his information storage centre all gets posted to the Reuters news feed to make sure everyone he 'owns' gets screwed indiscriminately in retaliation. So. Killing Magnuson without also destroying his physical data collection/evidence would be momentarily cathartic, but ultimately a complete disaster with wide-ranging consequences for a lot of people, many of whom wouldn't deserve it. Regardless, Magnuson isn't dying now (DAMMIT), Mary may or may not be involved in setting a trap for Sherlock (willingly or not), and Sherlock's going to get shot shortly after finding out he is very very wrong about the identity of the person in front of him.
-"Sorry, who?" Yeah, it's definitely a trap. Even under a gun he's not likely to forget the name of one of his more recent acquisitions. And he's dropping his hands, and sounding far too calm suddenly. Crap.
-"That's not Lady Smallwood, Mr. Holmes." Or maybe it's not a trap and Mary really is there to kill the crap out of Magnuson of her own initiative! Hooray! \o/ Even though it's really going to go quite badly.
Hm. Whoever is in his research base who feeds the data to Magnuson's glasses based on what he's looking at has to know what's going on here by now, and should have raised the alarm, no? So either we're expecting an influx of tower guard goons, or there's a cordon below, or this really is all a trap set up by Magnuson. Or maybe Mary's one of his research staff on the side, and has suborned whoever's on glasses duty tonight. One way or another, it's going to hurt a lot in the next second or so.
-Here we go, reveal time.
Oh I do appreciate practical covert ops gear. Pockets and straps for holding stuff on and like attaching rappelling gear and things. YAY. And the look of surprise.
-RETROACTIVE DEDUCTION INCOMING!!! I do note that liking cats and baking her own bread has dropped entirely out of the running.
HM! Well, from this particular deduction shot being Mary in her PJ's in bed at the Watson house, I'd say at least at some point between Sherlock coming back and now, Sherlock was around their place to see John and Mary at some horrible hour of the morning for some reason and Mary was sufficiently calm about Sherlock's invasiveness to be smirky about it. *handwaves point of view*
And also occasionally dropped by to see them both at the surgery, evidently. Of course, why wouldn't he? *handwaves POV again*
And back to the now. Aside from the tattoo, the chiefest thing that should still stand out immediately is Mary saying she's an orphan while reading as an only child. Unless she was adopted (in which case why did she have no family at all at the wedding), those two readings are directly at odds. The liar, secret tattoo, linguist and the rest of it is probably the whole creche-raised assassin business. Or maybe she used to be in covert ops for a foreign power or something. Or was disavowed by the Mission Impossible IMF Taskforce. WHICH WOULD BE AWESOME.
-Of course Sherlock focuses on the most obvious and least salient factor in all that. Shock, perhaps.
-"Is John with you?"/"H-he's um....*brain has gone 404, please reboot system and run diagnostics*" Yes. Sherlock's in a wee bit of shock. Considering he's been completely blind-sided and missed something this major about a person who he trusts as much as he does Mary, that's to be expected. Right now, as it's developing, I'm still not sure whether she's taken this op on her own, or whether it is still a trap set up by Magnuson. I'm feeling oddly better about it all though and I'm not sure why. Perhaps because Mary appears right now to be in control of the situation, and I... still trust her. Even though I know what's about to happen. What can I say, Mary's awesome. *throws hands in the air helplessly*
-"Is John here?"/"Hhhhhhhe's downstairs." Mary has this face. And it's doing the exact same thing that John's face does now and then (like beside the fireplace in Hound. "Why would you listen to me, *face* I'm just your friend," that face). And it's kind of sweet and kind of heart-breaking.
-"So, what do you do now, kill us both?" I think part of the reason I'm still trusting Mary and sort of sanguine about this all is that right now, Mary seems to be entirely in control of the situation, in as much as anyone is in control of it. Also, much as his glasses comm-link and deadman info bomb (he's an idiot if he doesn't have something set-up with the number and power of people he's blackmailing) still give Magnuson an advantage, right now, Magnuson is in essence or at least in appearance, groveling for his life. It's a good look on him, and Mary put it there. YAY MARY.
-However Mary's grin in response to Magnuson's question is making me a little nervous now. Really though, if she shoots Sherlock to any serious degree here, the injury could cause some degree of amnesia directly surrounding the event and Sherlock may forget all this. Doubtful as this is a kind of trauma in itself, but it's a thought.
-"Mary, whatever he's got on you, let me help." *EXPLOSIVE FLAILING EVERYWHERE* BECAUSE. *KEYMASH* *flailing hands around trying to find words* *points back at Sign of Three* " Whatever it takes, whatever happens, from now on I swear I will always be there. Always." *MORE MAD OCTOPUS FLAILINGS* BECAUSE EVEN WITH HER INTENT ON MURDER AND POINTING A GUN IN HIS FACE SHERLOCK'S STILL KEEPING THAT FRIGGING VOW AND EVEN IF HE'D NEVER SPOKEN IT ALOUD HE'D STILL BE KEEPING IT BECAUSE WATSONS. Oh god, I think I sprained something flailing. But, just. *flail*
-"Oh Sherlock, if you take one more step I swear I will kill you." And she's got her own plan and solution, and Sherlock's mucking it all up right now. It's hard when you're in a situation where someone else has been exerting control over you against your will to then accept an offer of help, whether that's because you can't see a way out of it, or you feel like the situation is something you deserve, or you feel that accepting someone's help would be handing over another kind of control, or because you have your own plan that seems to be working. She can't take the offer. She needs to have her own control back. Oh Mary.
-Also, I'm finding it quite encouraging that while Mary likely does need help to get out of the situation Magnuson has her in, she isn't being helpless about it. She isn't a passive victim, she's fighting back. *nods*
-"No Mrs Watson-" Oh now that's playing dirty, and it will backfire. John's name may be one to conjure with in the influencing of both Mary and Sherlock, but I suspect in this instance John and their future child are why Mary is doing this now when she hasn't taken this action before. She has much more to lose and can't let Magnuson keep his hold on her, so she's removing that hold by any means necessary. Hearing that name (particularly used in a way intended to influence or shape her actions, considering that's the sort of thing Magnuson has been doing to her for however long he's had her) will most likely strengthen her resolve to do this and, of course, get Sherlock shot. Because Mary shoots Sherlock. (I would have had such a different view of this episode to this point and this scene in particular if I hadn't known that was going to happen. *beats spoiler to a pulp*)
-"-you won't." And now Sherlock gets himself shot by pushing his assumptions about Mary and how her actions can be influenced. *facepalm* Dumbass. But, BUT. Still trusting her. In a weird way. So still, OW.
-Yep. Boom. (Not much wobble on the shot, but she's not going to be too far off her target at that range. I forget if there's a negative modifiers to silenced weapons for aiming, but if she's targeting a specific area of the body to minimize chance of death or lasting damage, any negative mod will still be a big risk. On the up side, she's had *scrolls back* Ooo, nearly a full minute of aiming time, so she's got the full Accuracy bonus for the weapon, plus another 3 for aiming, so if she's got any kind of decent Guns skill (presumably, given that she made it into Magnuson's inner sanctum in tactical gear without pinging any alarms or defenses, this is hardly her first rodeo) and isn't targeting something ridiculous like Sherlock's appendix which would be like a -15 or -20 or something to hit if it was on the aiming charts at all, wherever she shoots Sherlock is most likely exactly where she intends to shoot Sherlock. Sorry. I cope with traumatic fictional events by reverting to GURPS rules.)
-Shot is mid-abdomen, right of centre, but not by much.
*looks up anatomy* Well away from the heart, likely below the lungs, may hit part of the liver, diaphragm, stomach, upper colon or gall-bladder. Obviously not a minor injury at all as there is no good organ to get shot in in the human body, and could well still kill him. But. BUT. It's not an area to get shot in that will be quickly fatal, like the head or heart or spleen, and also... Well. She asked if John was there now, didn't she? So she knows for a fact that there is a field-medicine-trained doctor experienced in gunshot trauma on-site who is not only very good, but who also has a vested personal interest in making sure Sherlock Holmes doesn't die and will not choose to pursue her over saving Sherlock's life. There is no way Mary intends to kill Sherlock here. I mean. As I said, it's still a potentially lethal wound probably with lasting consequences and a chance at some debilitation going forward, but the odds are very deliberately tilted in Sherlock's favour. It's as best a compromise of lethal-looking versus lethal-being location as can be targeted in the heat of the moment, without Sherlock being in on a deception already, really. If Sherlock had said John wasn't there, Mary would probably have shot Sherlock somewhere far less potentially lethal and risk Magnuson thinking she and Sherlock are in collusion on this and put Sherlock at risk of Magnuson's attention (since she isn't aware at this point he's got Magnuson on his back and is picking through blackmail options already). Mary is still awesome. And definitely a bit of an experienced assassin of some kind, which may come in handy when the Watson baby is old enough to start dating. *nods sagely*
-Also, the shape of the shadow of the impending massive OW for John dealing with the aftermath of this incident before having all the info about the whys and such and even after, trying to cope with the whole 'my wife shot my best friend' thing plus the 'Mary's a bamf assassin and never told me?' and Sherlock being actually grievously wounded so soon after getting him back from being "dead", only this time it's going to be a hands on "yes, he's actually bleeding" situation, is gi-freaking-normous. Poor John, in advance, again some more.
-Mary's face. Oh.
Added factor: Magnuson saw that happen and is now well-convinced that Mary is not just messing about. Given the likelihood of the posthumous info bomb, which if she's been involved in this sort of business before, Mary will have been aware of as a factor, Mary quite likely was not going to kill Magnuson, but was aiming for a sort of detente along the lines of leave her and her family and friends alone, and she won't sneak into his flat and blow his brains out (because handy as having a posthumous info bomb may be, it's not much of a consolation for being dead). Mary shooting Sherlock in a non-trivial manner is one hell of a convincer for that proposal.
-Meanwhile, Sherlock's thinking he was wrong, again, about the same person, even though he kind of isn't, but he'll get round to figuring that out later. Sometime when he hasn't just been shot.
-Incidentally, since obviously Sherlock's not going to die from this, CANON SHERLOCK WHUMPAGE! WOOHOO! \o/
-"I'm sorry, Sherlock. I truly am." Her voice. That quaver. OH GOD, MARYYYY. *flails*
-"...Mary?" Oh that soft-voiced disbelieving query. Oh ow.
-Nice to see that the shooting of Sherlock is having a useful effect on Magnuson though. He looks quite usefully stunned. And terrified. Which, as I may have already said, looks good on him.
-[Had to set this aside for a bit again due to RL insanity, but of course that gave me a chance to think about the sequence of events on the entry to the office. If his chair was still warm, then Magnuson was in the other room when Sherlock buzzed Janine. Why would she let him in if her boss was right there? Was it part of a trap Magnuson had set for Sherlock that Mary has kindly blown to smithereens, and was Janine in on it or did she actually have so little insight into her boss's nature that she thought he'd be thrilled at an uncleared person being allowed into his inner sanctum to make a marriage proposal to one of his employees? *ponders*]
Continued in...
PART FIVE
PART SIX
PART SEVEN
PART EIGHT
IF THE LINKS DON'T WORK, PLEASE WAIT A FEW MINUTES AND REFRESH.
(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS OR RUMOURS OR REFERENCES TO ANY INFORMATION FOR OR ABOUT FUTURE EPISODES OR SERIES' OF SHERLOCK)
Live-Bloggish Picspam Reaction/Recap for Sherlock Series 3 Episode 3
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
PART FOUR - "His Last Vow"
-Wherever do they find such interesting buildings? Well, somewhere in the UK obviously, but you know what I mean.
-PFFFFFT. Yeah. Subtle does not seem to be a concept Magnuson understands, at least in reference to himself and his own ego.
-That's not the guy from the tribunal, is it? *looks back at prior cap* HA! It is! Oh dear. That polka dot tie was your doom, dude, though I'm glad Magnuson didn't use your disabled daughter to drag you into the muck. And if Magnuson is behind this bit of downfall in some way, he's not doing it to gain anything, he's either doing it because the guy was a prat during the tribunal or he's just doing it for giggles. Not sure which would be more evil. (Also, just a teensy bit of a rip on CNN, maybe? The stylized 'CAM' on-screen like that looks a little like CNN at a quick glance)
-Sherlock, you need to be slightly more careful when appearing suddenly behind John when he's in an unfamiliar location to potentially take part in some ass-kicking. You could get hurt by mistake.
-"Magnuson's office is on the top floor, just below his private flat." Of course it is.
-"There are fourteen layers of security between us and him, two of which aren't even legal in this country." I'd guess those are the near-lethal electric shock level and the level that seals and evacuates all the air inside. Shark-filled pools also an option, but between the pool and the trap door chute from the top floor, it takes up a lot of square footage of space and is also not terribly practical or economical in central London. *nods*
-"Wanna know how we're gonna break in?" You're not, you're going in through the front door with an appointment or something. Of course.
-Hold up. *hits pause* When did they get the coffees? Teas? Cupfuls of acid, whatever. Who stops in the middle of a caper to go on a coffee run? (Besides me.) Sherlock didn't have them in his hands when he met John, and vice versa, so maybe they aren't fluid at all and were hidden in the coat as a product of that 'shopping trip' Sherlock said he was going on. Must admit, few people would question a cup of coffee/tea in a enormous media office, making those cups the perfect place to hide something, but in that case, why not hide it in a pocket? In case they get searched? I dunno, maybe there was a coffee shop on the fifth floor and they stopped in. Seriously though, sudden coffee cups are suspicious. *eyes suspiciously*
-"Standard keycard for the building. Only gets us as far as the canteen." One of these days John is not going to look vaguely surprised that Sherlock has an access card for some place he shouldn't. Today is not that day. Also, if they haven't used the card yet, they haven't gotten to the canteen yet, so they didn't get the cups-o-stuff at the canteen. (Note to self: Next time I design a dungeon for an RPG, include a canteen.)
Although they are in the building, so Sherlock would have had to use the keycard at the turnstile gate, so they have gotten access to the canteen to get coffee or tea. Maybe John was distracted when Sherlock used the card in the lobby, or is merely surprised that Sherlock's got a trick for using a normal keycard to access Magnuson's inner sanctum. Okay, fair enough.
-I swear, it just paused like this, and I spent about a minute in a staring match with my monitor. I've forgotten why I was pausing now...
-"Taken to a small room somewhere and your head kicked in." Ooo, the dirty look hypothetical!Sherlock gives John for that. XD
-"Do you really need so much colour?"/"It passes the time." Hee!
-Mess up the card so it's not wrong, just defective so it doesn't trigger alarms, okay fine, then what? Fast talk a technician? *eyes coffee cups John is holding in the background* I suppose it could just be hot coffee or tea, either works as a weapon in a pinch, but I think it's likely something else.
-Heeeee! 'Trashing' the guards. XD
-Card doesn't work, check via camera, not many people there except Magnuson's PA.... Ah hahahahahaha. And hello Janine. *canon referencey sort-of fistpump* And that explains the coffees. He's being a 'thoughtful boyfriend' and bringing her a coffee at work. *facepalm* Poor Janine.
-"Human error. I've been shopping." OH GOD. Of course Janine's not going to just let him into her boss's top security hidey-hole because he brought a coffee. He's going to fake a proposal, isn't he? *headdesk* Of course he is. Because canon.
(JOHN'S FACE THOUGH. XD)
-Yep, hi Janine!
-"Sherlock, you complete loon, what are you doing?"/"Hang on, was that- That-!" Yes, yes it was, John. And now John's going to spend the entire elevator ride up to Magnuson's office yelling at Sherlock for being a manipulative wanker now isn't he?
-PFFFT! 'Not now John. Busy trying to look convincingly sincere and impish.'
-"Go on, let me in!" See, convincingly sincere and impish. *headshake*
-"Don't make me do it out here, not in front of everyone."/"...Do what in front of everyone?" *facepalm* Yep, it's a fake proposal. Although bonus points to John who's trying very hard to look like it's perfectly normal for two blokes who look nothing like Magnuson to be standing around talking to his high security door camera thingy and holding coffee.
I did say 'trying.'
-This face.
-Oh god, poor Janine. At least she's a PA instead of a maid in this Holmesian universe, and are unlikely to have ever had to to Magnuson's laundry or clean for him?
-Oh yes, there's going to be some elevator-yelling.
-Gaaaaahhh, fffffft, the dewy eyes. *snerk*
-And of course it works. Sherlock Holmes is a manipulative bastard, but he's at least doing this for a genuine purpose rather than just for the hell of it. Magnuson is a really severe scumbag and needs to be stopped, and, in a way, by tricking Janine like this, it is kind of protecting her by keeping her as someone who's been duped rather than a person in collusion to take Magnuson down. She'd be in danger of a lot more blowback from Magnuson and his 'owned' resources if Sherlock had been truthful with her and asked for her help and she'd provided it.
-Yes, epic yelling soon. As soon as John stops being boggled. Again.
-"Did you just get engaged to break into an office?" Yes, very soon. Hopefully the yelling will be in the elevator and not on the main concourse though, or the security team will be jumping out of their trashcans everywhere.
-"Stroke of luck meeting her at your wedding, you can take some of the credit." Um. Not helping. *facepalm*
-And then John throws out the cups and tosses a hundred fine ideas for what they might have been as they were, in fact, red herrings. ...Unless they each contain a different chemical that comprises a two part smoke-bomb that's going to mix in the bin and get the elevator shut down to give them more time in Magnuson's domain or something. *ponders* Hmf. Probably not. *sigh* Still, carrying a cup of coffee does lend an "I'm not up to anything/I belong here' shield when inside an office building of any sort.
-"Jesus! Sherlock, she loves you!"/"Yes. Like I said, human error." OW. OW. OW. So much ow in so many directions.
-"What are you gonna do?"/"Well, I'll actually marry her, obviously." Okay. Now. I've listened to that about ten times on three different files including iTunes (which cuts off a bit of the edge of the image all the way around versus the broadcast version, what's up with that? :-/) and that's what it sounds like. But given what he says next is: "There's only so far you can go." I'm guessing there's a 'not' I'm missing in there somewhere... maybe instead of the I'll? But I'm really not hearing it or seeing his mouth forming a 'not', so... Uhhhh... maybe he's speaking sarcastically at the start, considering he's already admitted to getting engaged to Janine to gain access to Magnuson's office? I don't know. The sound on this episode is giving me more trouble than any other episode to date.
[Listened again just now [in March] as I'm cueing to where I am now, (five minutes further in, weeks later :-P), and now I can hear the 'not' clearly. *headshake* I blame the sinus cold/stuffy ears thing I had when I first listened to that bit *looks at timestamp on screenshot* twenty days ago.... *facepalm*]
-"I'll tell her that the entire relationship was a ruse to break into her boss's office. I imagine she'll want to stop seeing me at that point-" YAH THINK? She may have the blow slightly softened when John comes out of the elevator too and she has a chance to realize something's up before she has to fight down the urge to pitch Sherlock out an umpty-story high window.
-"-but you're the expert on women." Hee! Three continents Watson! \o/ Who is reacting to this in a similar vein to all the other Watsons ever, though with a bit less immediate shouting.
(randomly, I covet John's jacket. Those pockets.)
-Gotta wonder though. Sherlock being in a relationship with Janine, and Janine working for Magnuson... surely he keeps tabs on his employees' major affiliations and knows about that connection. And knows that leaving Janine as the sole doorkeeper to his office while he's off at the dinner meeting thing is a huge vulnerability, and this couldn't be a bigger trap if it had sparklers and a marching band, could it? The only question is does Janine know she's also being used as a kind of bait, or is she aware she's part of a trap for Sherlock and going along with it willingly. *ponders*
-That's a sudden look of 'it's a trap' if I ever saw one. Is Janine not there?
-Judging from the proximity to that big *handwave* curved thingy building (*googles* the Gherkin) it's right close to the building Shad Sanderson from Blind Banker was in.
-"Where did she go?"/"Bit rude, I just proposed to her." *facepalm* Somehow the whole IT'S A TRAP thing is still escaping the boys, even though they've snuck into somewhere under false pretenses and have encountered an unexpected situation that goes counter to anticipated planning. Not nearly paranoid enough. *nods sagely*
-OH SHIT. DID MAGNUSON KILL JANINE? I mean, letting Sherlock into the inner sanctum whatever was probably a bit more than a firing offense, but I didn't think he'd have her killed! D-: Unless she's shamming as part of the trap. Or knocked out as part of the trap. In any case, TRAP!
-"Did she faint? Do they really do that?" Sherlock Unknown-Middle-Name Holmes, are you really that oblivious? I mean seriously, there's overconfidence in your plan to get into the office by proposing, and there's assuming that your adversary will be keeping to the schedule that he may or may not know you are aware of, and then there's being an idiot. IT'S. A. TRAP. *headlaptop* Of course he did walk into the office in full-on fake boyfriend mode, so maybe his tactical sense is on standby as the rest of his head is filled with social cues and appropriate responses and so forth. Let's hope John isn't as oblivious.
-Well then. Blood's a great big help towards not being oblivious. JANINE!!! O.O
-"A blow to the head." Meaning that there is someone else in the room or nearby and you all need to be a little less casual about wandering around the room openly. Just a bit. Because it's a TRAP.
-"She's breathing." OH GOOD. I know me liking non-major characters usually gets them killed or turns them evil or both, but it's nice to have a momentary reprieve from that.
Although since John is in Doctor-mode with his tactical sense boggled by the whole fake proposal situation, and Sherlock has his head full of social bullshit, Janine in her injured and unconscious state is effectively acting as a fantastic bait to lure them to an area oddly far away from where Janine was last standing, in front of a whole lot of windows and a sort of a hallway thing, so if there's someone there who's waiting for a target of opportunity to attack... or shoot at... Um. It isn't happening now, is it? Is it? Will John see it happen?? O.O
-AND THEN SHERLOCK HELPS EVERYTHING EVER BY GOING WANDERING OFF ALONE. Seriously. Sherlock. Dude. How can you not see this is a trap? Janine's taken a blow to the head. This means SOMEONE HIT JANINE ON THE HEAD. Wake the hell up.
(Though he's had a history of not noticing attackers are still in the room and wandering around anyway, as he did in Soo Lin's flat in Blind Banker, so Sherlock being a tactical idiot is not entirely without precedent. *handwaves*)
-And another one. Security was there when she let Sherlock in? Absolutely a trap then. No way would any security in a location like that just shrug off the boss's personal assistant letting her boyfriend in through the front door, proposal or not. Therefore, he was either in on permitting the security breach to let Sherlock and John into the trap, or he was knocked out or killed before he could raise a protest about it and prevent them from coming up into the trap. And therefore, again, TRAP. TRAPTRAPTRAP. I mean seriously, even the camera angles know there's something gone seriously wrong and unsettling here.
-Also, whoever took out the guard didn't take the earpiece which an outside infiltrator might, to be sure the guard couldn't call for help and possibly also to listen for security alerts, so, more likely someone inside, or the guard is playing possum. Pierced ear without earring (hm... earrings that look like earphones for the intrigue-themed cosplayers, or earrings that double as earphones for actual covert type stuff) and... *tilts head* Tattoo. 14? ...Part of Sherlock's deduction flurry about Mary included 'Tattoo' and '12' which I thought was a size but... Urk. Maybe Magnuson has had some hold over Mary for a very long time and puts tattoos on his long-held 'property'? DDDD-:
-...and that's a thought that's bouncing off the 'Mary is an orphan' information and coming up with a big old flashing neon, "Magnuson fosters orphan kids and raises them to be his loyal cadre of assassins and bodyguards etc" (also since this is Moffat's script and he has a known penchant for knabbling a main character's future spouse as a child and having her trained from birth to be a psychopathic assassin out to kill him, as well as Moffat's habit of reversing ACD canon in this series, and maybe where Holmes gets engaged to a maid to gain access to the house in canon, Mary's originally gotten into a relationship with John on the orders of Magnuson so as to get access to Sherlock, or since Sherlock was 'dead' at the time, maybe... Mycroft? o.O though that's a real stretch) which makes Mary absolutely kick-ass and still not evil, because being brainwashed from a young age into abject loyalty to a slimeball like Magnuson and treated like property (have I mentioned lately that Magnuson can seriously die, like, any second now and I would be glad? Particularly if he's raising kids to be his property in any way because THAT IS SO WRONG D-:) would not put her into a position to easily break that hold, which will have gone very deep if it started in her childhood, like a cult of personality thing. She'll be fine once they get past this shooting Sherlock business (whenever it happens) and deprogram her though. *nods* Orrrr of course it's probably just be me being paranoid again. Not like that's an uncommon thing. :-P
-Oh, and just in case anyone missed that the tattoo was important, it also glows blue.
-"Ex-con. White supremacist by the tattoo, so who cares." Or, you know, it could be a perfectly common prison tattoo designating the wearer as a prejudiced moron. *sweeps entire bizarre 'Magnuson has an assassin-training creche full of fostered orphans' theory aside* Magnuson still needs thwarted. Badly, and hopefully lethally.
-This camera angle (which has developed a slow, floaty spin it seems) is still making me nervous. As was intended, so well done, show.
-That's precise measurement for a bare hand touch. Only a few degrees off core temperature and nearly the same as skin-through-clothing temperature so someone was sitting there for a significant amount of time and only left the chair in the last few minutes. Since the guard is facing towards the chair rather than away, it's not likely to be him, and Janine was in the other room, so, someone else is in the room. NO, REALLY? It hasn't been an outbreak of spontaneous head injuries after all? There goes John's hopes of an article in the British Medical Journal. *snaps fingers* Shucky darn.
-And of course hearing some distant footstep-like noises in the soundtrack helps, just in case our boys have walked into a covert ops situation with one too boggled by the other's audacity and needing to switch to doctor mode without activating his tactical brain, and the other doing complex social calculations on how best to shore up this proposal scenario while also getting whatever they were really there for and not thinking tactically because he's too overconfident to think the situation will happen any way other than how he planned, and seem to have completely missed that there is someone else in the room with them who likes knocking on people's heads.
-"They must still be here." Yay, John is starting to see the trap! Finally! \o/
-"So's Magnuson, his seat's still warm." EWWWWW that was Magnuson's body heat, ew ew ew. Wash well, Sherlock. :-P
-Ahahaha, oh, great, so, Magnuson's office is right under his flat at the top of the building, and those windows above looking down into the office are part of Magnuson's flat aren't they? So has Magnuson been sitting there watching them through the windows with a bowl of popcorn, or what? XD
-"We should call the police." UM. NO? You guys are breaking in, and are in a place you aren't supposed to be, under false pretenses, AND are standing around in a room with two injured people who act as access-controllers and guards. Nothing about your current situation will make the police like you. At all. Ever. Even if it's Lestrade. O.O
-"During our own burglary!? You're really not a natural at this are you?" See? What Sherlock said! Though to be fair given John's military role accompanying fire teams and his training, it would have been more focused on getting close to things with the fire team and then being very non-covert once getting into position, rather than sneaking around to gather intel and then sneak away again. Different sort of tactics. Though I do also still blame a residual bit of boggling.
-Now there's a sense I'm glad not to have. The capacity to differentiate between lingering perfumes. Though it seems to be something to further clue him in to more people being there since I doubt that Magnuson bashed anyone in the head himself, and the two downed people bashing each other isn't exactly practical... hang on. N°5, is that Chanel? That's what most of the Mayfly Man's targets wore... Hm. Odd. *ponders*
-Nope, false positive, it's Captain Adelaide's perfume. It'd be super weird if she was hanging around in Magnuson's office. Maybe he called on his "ownership" of her to get her to do something else? Doubt he'd invite her into his own space for that, so... Hm. ...Given Magnuson's actions involving that perfume before, maybe he's bought himself a bottle to do... I don't know what with. EW.
-"Mary wears it." Oh. Well. Shit. Yeah, it's now, isn't it? And it's going to look nothing but bad (even though whether Magnuson has something on her, or she's a creche-raised assassin (oh why not) she won't be doing this fully of her own free will. I think. Eeep.) *having increasing anxiety*
-"No, not Mary, somebody else!" Like his client for instance. Of course not Mary, because Sherlock trusts Mary, as well he and John and everyone should. Because she's awesome. Oh damn, what's coming is really going to hurt the both of them so much, even aside from the shooting, no matter the level of choice Mary has about it. (Though if this has been long in planning and she's that far under Sherlock's radar, she is an awesome sleeper agent. And of course she would be, because Mary Morstan-Watson is awesome, even at things that are going to kill me stone dead. )
(Meanwhile, subliminally, a subtle building note of imminent doom has entered the soundtrack... eeeep)
-[Catching up with the cuing now. Today is March 23rd. 2014. Yeesh. On a side note, today at work I had to spend about a half hour searching the office for 'the Magnuson file'. I was secretly amused, but am now sure I'm not spelling his name right, but I haven't noticed it written out in full on anything in the show yet, darn it.]
-Oh and now we have actual thumping from upstairs, not just footsteps in the soundtrack.
-"Sherlock!" And off he goes on his own again. I'd say this might be a habit picked up from spending 2 years abroad being entirely self-reliant (sort of) while tracking down Moriarty's crew, but he's always been a bit of an idiot like that, hasn't he? *facepalm*
-Hello, scene from this season's title montage.
-Well, if you know the person whose property you're breaking into is there but isn't coming out to confront you, why not go right on up to his flat and confront him (and whoever he's talking to in a... flirty-sexy way? I don't know but even the vague possibility is making me cringe so hard, even if it's not Mary and it probably is) rather than doing the sensible thing and leaving before you get caught? Sherlock Holmes, you have the self-preservation instincts of cartoon lemming.
-OOOOOOO!!!!! YES! GO MARY! I'm pretty sure it's Mary (though I can see they're trying to direct suspicion onto Captain Adelaide with her gymnastics career and shared perfume preference but since that one bit of information about this episode has been dogging my entire watching, I'm pretty sure it's got to be Mary now), and if so the answer to "what would your husband think" of Mary genuinely having Magnuson at gunpoint would be something along the lines of "he'd probably be pretty damned chuffed". Of course it's all a trap though. Because TRAP. Or if not a trap, something else I really don't want to think about. :-P
-Of course, hey, maybe Sherlock just made the mistake of sneaking up behind Mary while she was all armed up and in her *squints at prior cap* ninja jump-suit (which appears to have a pleasing sufficiency of pockets) and intent on putting a bullet in the brain of one of the biggest sleazeballs on the planet, and startled her into shooting him by accident? Maybe? It's not entirely outside the realm of reasonable is it? Bit comedy of errors, but.... Yeah, it's going to be something far more hurty.
-What's he saying? "You're doing this to protect him from the truth, but is this a protection he would want?" Ohhhh, crap. There goes the last chance of it being Captain Adelaide, since her spouse knows the secret Magnuson is using against her. Mary, being manipulated by Magnuson, with a secret she doesn't want John knowing. ...to the point she would willingly shoot Sherlock to keep it from him? I am suddenly SO MUCH MORE WORRIED. O.O Although Mary can shoot Magnuson first and I would cheer. Still. Still feeling like a trap.
-"Additionally, if you're going to commit murder you might consider changing your perfume." Oh and just look at all those mirrors behind Sherlock there. Ignore the wallpaper. It's a red herring. Just.... mirrors. Duplication and duplicity. And *waves hands around* stuff. Sneaky bastards.
-(The trouble with knowing what's coming and not having a lot of time to do anything except work insane hours 6 days a week and do basic 'staying alive' things on the seventh is that I know, without a doubt, within the next couple of show minutes, the thing I know will happen is going to happen, and the subsequent events and ramifications and things will require a lot of focus and brain that I don't really have right now as work is taking all my time and energy, and .... urg. Wah.)
-"Lady Smallwood." *BZZT* Wrong. Close, but really, based on the trust he's developed for Mary and his complete lack of awareness that she might even be involved in this in any way, it's understandable. Occam's razor only works if you have all the information you need to see what is the most likely explanation. Lady Smallwood has already done her fighting back by calling Sherlock in on her case. She's not going to be taking matters any further into her own hands as she's far too public a figure to start Batman-ing around assassinating douchebags, as lovely a thought as that is. Mary though has far more latitude of action, and some kind of impressive as hell backstory, I'm sure, if she's actually pulling this off, and no public eye on her or even the suspicions of her spouse and closest friends. If this isn't a trap, and Mary really is here to kill the crap out of Magnuson (which even without the spoiler I know about I'm sure she won't because there's far too much 'why?' sticking out yet to have him dead now when he's most likely going to be needed later for exposition) she might well have gotten away with it if Sherlock hadn't shown up. Then again, killing Magnuson would probably have some kind of *vague waving* deadman switch info bomb consequences, where if he's killed or dies in sudden or suspect manner, the contents of his information storage centre all gets posted to the Reuters news feed to make sure everyone he 'owns' gets screwed indiscriminately in retaliation. So. Killing Magnuson without also destroying his physical data collection/evidence would be momentarily cathartic, but ultimately a complete disaster with wide-ranging consequences for a lot of people, many of whom wouldn't deserve it. Regardless, Magnuson isn't dying now (DAMMIT), Mary may or may not be involved in setting a trap for Sherlock (willingly or not), and Sherlock's going to get shot shortly after finding out he is very very wrong about the identity of the person in front of him.
-"Sorry, who?" Yeah, it's definitely a trap. Even under a gun he's not likely to forget the name of one of his more recent acquisitions. And he's dropping his hands, and sounding far too calm suddenly. Crap.
-"That's not Lady Smallwood, Mr. Holmes." Or maybe it's not a trap and Mary really is there to kill the crap out of Magnuson of her own initiative! Hooray! \o/ Even though it's really going to go quite badly.
Hm. Whoever is in his research base who feeds the data to Magnuson's glasses based on what he's looking at has to know what's going on here by now, and should have raised the alarm, no? So either we're expecting an influx of tower guard goons, or there's a cordon below, or this really is all a trap set up by Magnuson. Or maybe Mary's one of his research staff on the side, and has suborned whoever's on glasses duty tonight. One way or another, it's going to hurt a lot in the next second or so.
-Here we go, reveal time.
Oh I do appreciate practical covert ops gear. Pockets and straps for holding stuff on and like attaching rappelling gear and things. YAY. And the look of surprise.
-RETROACTIVE DEDUCTION INCOMING!!! I do note that liking cats and baking her own bread has dropped entirely out of the running.
HM! Well, from this particular deduction shot being Mary in her PJ's in bed at the Watson house, I'd say at least at some point between Sherlock coming back and now, Sherlock was around their place to see John and Mary at some horrible hour of the morning for some reason and Mary was sufficiently calm about Sherlock's invasiveness to be smirky about it. *handwaves point of view*
And also occasionally dropped by to see them both at the surgery, evidently. Of course, why wouldn't he? *handwaves POV again*
And back to the now. Aside from the tattoo, the chiefest thing that should still stand out immediately is Mary saying she's an orphan while reading as an only child. Unless she was adopted (in which case why did she have no family at all at the wedding), those two readings are directly at odds. The liar, secret tattoo, linguist and the rest of it is probably the whole creche-raised assassin business. Or maybe she used to be in covert ops for a foreign power or something. Or was disavowed by the Mission Impossible IMF Taskforce. WHICH WOULD BE AWESOME.
-Of course Sherlock focuses on the most obvious and least salient factor in all that. Shock, perhaps.
-"Is John with you?"/"H-he's um....*brain has gone 404, please reboot system and run diagnostics*" Yes. Sherlock's in a wee bit of shock. Considering he's been completely blind-sided and missed something this major about a person who he trusts as much as he does Mary, that's to be expected. Right now, as it's developing, I'm still not sure whether she's taken this op on her own, or whether it is still a trap set up by Magnuson. I'm feeling oddly better about it all though and I'm not sure why. Perhaps because Mary appears right now to be in control of the situation, and I... still trust her. Even though I know what's about to happen. What can I say, Mary's awesome. *throws hands in the air helplessly*
-"Is John here?"/"Hhhhhhhe's downstairs." Mary has this face. And it's doing the exact same thing that John's face does now and then (like beside the fireplace in Hound. "Why would you listen to me, *face* I'm just your friend," that face). And it's kind of sweet and kind of heart-breaking.
-"So, what do you do now, kill us both?" I think part of the reason I'm still trusting Mary and sort of sanguine about this all is that right now, Mary seems to be entirely in control of the situation, in as much as anyone is in control of it. Also, much as his glasses comm-link and deadman info bomb (he's an idiot if he doesn't have something set-up with the number and power of people he's blackmailing) still give Magnuson an advantage, right now, Magnuson is in essence or at least in appearance, groveling for his life. It's a good look on him, and Mary put it there. YAY MARY.
-However Mary's grin in response to Magnuson's question is making me a little nervous now. Really though, if she shoots Sherlock to any serious degree here, the injury could cause some degree of amnesia directly surrounding the event and Sherlock may forget all this. Doubtful as this is a kind of trauma in itself, but it's a thought.
-"Mary, whatever he's got on you, let me help." *EXPLOSIVE FLAILING EVERYWHERE* BECAUSE. *KEYMASH* *flailing hands around trying to find words* *points back at Sign of Three* " Whatever it takes, whatever happens, from now on I swear I will always be there. Always." *MORE MAD OCTOPUS FLAILINGS* BECAUSE EVEN WITH HER INTENT ON MURDER AND POINTING A GUN IN HIS FACE SHERLOCK'S STILL KEEPING THAT FRIGGING VOW AND EVEN IF HE'D NEVER SPOKEN IT ALOUD HE'D STILL BE KEEPING IT BECAUSE WATSONS. Oh god, I think I sprained something flailing. But, just. *flail*
-"Oh Sherlock, if you take one more step I swear I will kill you." And she's got her own plan and solution, and Sherlock's mucking it all up right now. It's hard when you're in a situation where someone else has been exerting control over you against your will to then accept an offer of help, whether that's because you can't see a way out of it, or you feel like the situation is something you deserve, or you feel that accepting someone's help would be handing over another kind of control, or because you have your own plan that seems to be working. She can't take the offer. She needs to have her own control back. Oh Mary.
-Also, I'm finding it quite encouraging that while Mary likely does need help to get out of the situation Magnuson has her in, she isn't being helpless about it. She isn't a passive victim, she's fighting back. *nods*
-"No Mrs Watson-" Oh now that's playing dirty, and it will backfire. John's name may be one to conjure with in the influencing of both Mary and Sherlock, but I suspect in this instance John and their future child are why Mary is doing this now when she hasn't taken this action before. She has much more to lose and can't let Magnuson keep his hold on her, so she's removing that hold by any means necessary. Hearing that name (particularly used in a way intended to influence or shape her actions, considering that's the sort of thing Magnuson has been doing to her for however long he's had her) will most likely strengthen her resolve to do this and, of course, get Sherlock shot. Because Mary shoots Sherlock. (I would have had such a different view of this episode to this point and this scene in particular if I hadn't known that was going to happen. *beats spoiler to a pulp*)
-"-you won't." And now Sherlock gets himself shot by pushing his assumptions about Mary and how her actions can be influenced. *facepalm* Dumbass. But, BUT. Still trusting her. In a weird way. So still, OW.
-Yep. Boom. (Not much wobble on the shot, but she's not going to be too far off her target at that range. I forget if there's a negative modifiers to silenced weapons for aiming, but if she's targeting a specific area of the body to minimize chance of death or lasting damage, any negative mod will still be a big risk. On the up side, she's had *scrolls back* Ooo, nearly a full minute of aiming time, so she's got the full Accuracy bonus for the weapon, plus another 3 for aiming, so if she's got any kind of decent Guns skill (presumably, given that she made it into Magnuson's inner sanctum in tactical gear without pinging any alarms or defenses, this is hardly her first rodeo) and isn't targeting something ridiculous like Sherlock's appendix which would be like a -15 or -20 or something to hit if it was on the aiming charts at all, wherever she shoots Sherlock is most likely exactly where she intends to shoot Sherlock. Sorry. I cope with traumatic fictional events by reverting to GURPS rules.)
-Shot is mid-abdomen, right of centre, but not by much.
*looks up anatomy* Well away from the heart, likely below the lungs, may hit part of the liver, diaphragm, stomach, upper colon or gall-bladder. Obviously not a minor injury at all as there is no good organ to get shot in in the human body, and could well still kill him. But. BUT. It's not an area to get shot in that will be quickly fatal, like the head or heart or spleen, and also... Well. She asked if John was there now, didn't she? So she knows for a fact that there is a field-medicine-trained doctor experienced in gunshot trauma on-site who is not only very good, but who also has a vested personal interest in making sure Sherlock Holmes doesn't die and will not choose to pursue her over saving Sherlock's life. There is no way Mary intends to kill Sherlock here. I mean. As I said, it's still a potentially lethal wound probably with lasting consequences and a chance at some debilitation going forward, but the odds are very deliberately tilted in Sherlock's favour. It's as best a compromise of lethal-looking versus lethal-being location as can be targeted in the heat of the moment, without Sherlock being in on a deception already, really. If Sherlock had said John wasn't there, Mary would probably have shot Sherlock somewhere far less potentially lethal and risk Magnuson thinking she and Sherlock are in collusion on this and put Sherlock at risk of Magnuson's attention (since she isn't aware at this point he's got Magnuson on his back and is picking through blackmail options already). Mary is still awesome. And definitely a bit of an experienced assassin of some kind, which may come in handy when the Watson baby is old enough to start dating. *nods sagely*
-Also, the shape of the shadow of the impending massive OW for John dealing with the aftermath of this incident before having all the info about the whys and such and even after, trying to cope with the whole 'my wife shot my best friend' thing plus the 'Mary's a bamf assassin and never told me?' and Sherlock being actually grievously wounded so soon after getting him back from being "dead", only this time it's going to be a hands on "yes, he's actually bleeding" situation, is gi-freaking-normous. Poor John, in advance, again some more.
-Mary's face. Oh.
Added factor: Magnuson saw that happen and is now well-convinced that Mary is not just messing about. Given the likelihood of the posthumous info bomb, which if she's been involved in this sort of business before, Mary will have been aware of as a factor, Mary quite likely was not going to kill Magnuson, but was aiming for a sort of detente along the lines of leave her and her family and friends alone, and she won't sneak into his flat and blow his brains out (because handy as having a posthumous info bomb may be, it's not much of a consolation for being dead). Mary shooting Sherlock in a non-trivial manner is one hell of a convincer for that proposal.
-Meanwhile, Sherlock's thinking he was wrong, again, about the same person, even though he kind of isn't, but he'll get round to figuring that out later. Sometime when he hasn't just been shot.
-Incidentally, since obviously Sherlock's not going to die from this, CANON SHERLOCK WHUMPAGE! WOOHOO! \o/
-"I'm sorry, Sherlock. I truly am." Her voice. That quaver. OH GOD, MARYYYY. *flails*
-"...Mary?" Oh that soft-voiced disbelieving query. Oh ow.
-Nice to see that the shooting of Sherlock is having a useful effect on Magnuson though. He looks quite usefully stunned. And terrified. Which, as I may have already said, looks good on him.
-[Had to set this aside for a bit again due to RL insanity, but of course that gave me a chance to think about the sequence of events on the entry to the office. If his chair was still warm, then Magnuson was in the other room when Sherlock buzzed Janine. Why would she let him in if her boss was right there? Was it part of a trap Magnuson had set for Sherlock that Mary has kindly blown to smithereens, and was Janine in on it or did she actually have so little insight into her boss's nature that she thought he'd be thrilled at an uncleared person being allowed into his inner sanctum to make a marriage proposal to one of his employees? *ponders*]
Continued in...
PART FIVE
PART SIX
PART SEVEN
PART EIGHT
IF THE LINKS DON'T WORK, PLEASE WAIT A FEW MINUTES AND REFRESH.
(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS OR RUMOURS OR REFERENCES TO ANY INFORMATION FOR OR ABOUT FUTURE EPISODES OR SERIES' OF SHERLOCK)