PICSPAM REACTION/RECAP: Sherlock Series 3 Episode 3 (Part 5 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
PART FIVE - "His Last Vow"
-Oh, lovely, sudden lighting changes and the faint "AWOOGA!" of a submarine dive klaxon. I detect... an inbound near-death experience for Sherlock? I mean, yay probable flashbacks and backstory, but eek! O.o
-Ooo. I thought it was the Study in Pink spiral staircase for a moment, but the *handwave waggle* posty-filigree-things are a little too complex.
-"It's not like it is in the movies." It's oddly heart-warming that Molly is there, being all snarky at him. Aw.
-*FLAILING ALL OVER MOLLY BEING SCIENCEY ABOUT THE PHYSICS OF GETTING SHOT IN HER BRIGHT WHITE ROOM* Though a lot does depend on the weapon. Shotgun at that range would have had a lot of 'flying backwards' involved. Also a lot of 'sudden conversion into hamburger'. Is this now Sherlock's mind palace in some way? Does Sherlock keep stuff about autopsies in this bright white room with Molly narrating? Awww. He really does respect Molly's professional opinion! \o/
-And it's kind of ponder-worthy that she's talking like she's addressing someone, even though there's no one standing there and Sherlock's on the slab. Those feet are unmistakeable.
-Well, bright lighting like that makes anyone look dead. Also the bullet hole. *checks anatomy site again*
-"You're most certainly going to die, so we need to focus." Molly's getting a lot of slapping in on Sherlock, even in his own near-death experience.
-And again. Slapping him back into reality and straight back out into the white space again. I'm finding I rather like Molly as a sort-of semi-psychopomp. I wonder if there's some meta in there.
-"It's all well and good having a mind palace, but you've only three seconds of consciousness left to use it." Ooo! *flailing a little* I'm oddly unconcerned by Sherlock having been shot, because of course he's not going to die or be permanently debilitated, and I'm fairly sure Mary has shot Sherlock in the least damaging way available (whether that's a false-hope delusion of my own devising remains to be seen), so I'm quite excited by this internal journey we're getting to go on.
-"So come on. What's going to kill you?" Nothing, I should hope. I'm not a doctor of course but I think of all the stuff in that region that could have been shot, the worst could be peritonitis from the colon or stomach? Maybe? Still potentially lethal though.
Still love that Molly's his sounding board for this in his own head.
-"Blood loss." Well, yes, that too of course. *facepalm*
-"Forwards, or backwards." Forwards I think, but better would be to cross his arms over the shot and fold up to put pressure on it, but since he's losing consciousness, that's not going to be something he can maintain, so in a pinch, as the crazy bat from Fern Gully says, gravity works.
-"One hole or two." ANDERSON! ANDERSON IS IN SHERLOCK'S HEAD! \o/ Oh my god, and Anderson is pointing out something I forgot, whether there's and exit wound or not. I suspect not. Ribcage goes lower in the back, more likelihood of the bullet being impeded by a rib or something. Ricocheted around internally? Eeep. Not likely though, because the bullet's lost a lost of momentum getting through Sherlock's innards, and also, Sherlock's obviously not going to die, because as I mentioned in the spoiler-zone on part one of this thing, the show isn't going to turn into a Doctor Who or Supernatural crossover anytime soon.
-"That one I think." Uh... sort of a snub-nosed revolver? With that silencer? Bit odd. A semi-automatic is far more likely.
-"Or that one." Yeah, much better. Wonder if he's got a head-expert on guns that might be popping in to straighten it out. Wonder if it's John.
-"Oh for god's sake, Sherlock." OR SHERLOCK'S HEAD-MYCROFT COULD SHOW UP TO GET HIM BACK ON TRACK! \o/
-Y'know... if this is Sherlock's mind palace, he keeps an awful lot of people he knows in it as advisors. It's kind of touching, and makes it more obvious that he isn't alone alone. If that makes sense? Babbling, sorry.
-"You always were so stupid." Ah, Mycroft also doubling as Sherlock's self-doubt. Ow. Not a good time for that.
-IS THAT A WEE!SHERLOCK!? HOLY CRAP, BACKSTORY? AND WEE!SHERLOCK! \o/
-"Such a disappointment." Shush, Mycroft. Or rather head-Mycroft. Or rather Sherlock's sense of self-doubt which I have no doubt that actual Mycroft has fed into at many points in Sherlock's childhood and beyond, but which is really not helping the whole surviving getting shot business. So, utterly failing at the getting him back on track.
-"I'm not stupid." *takes a mini flail break* Okay, aside from the adorableness of wee!Sherlock, and that tragic green cardigan, his voice and his face! The little questioning rise of inflection, the face, the hanging tear, hearing someone he trusts and at that age probably looks to as a role model of sorts calling him stupid, and despite protesting believing it, internalizing it, wanting the person to take it back because their word is important and is forming a deep part of identity that will always be there, under everything. *flail* THIS LITTLE ACTOR, YOU GUYS. One line with that subtle inflection and a wibble-face and Sherlock's childhood is right there. That is some nuanced line-reading from such a young actor.
-"Mummy and Daddy are very cross." Now that we've met the Holmes parents and watched them carry on a conversation with Sherlock as he goes climbing around the furniture overtop of them, I find I have a great deal of difficulty imagining them being cross about anything, really. Though I suppose Sherlock allowing his head-Mycroft to bully him as he's just been shot might irk them a tad. *pats the Holmes parents*
-"What was directly behind you as you were murdered?" *pauses, flailing and making a succession of noises like Bill the Cat* MIRRORS! \o/ FFFFFF. Got so distracted by the *handwave* symbolism and Film Studies mirror things, forgot all about their practical use, like the capacity to shatter if struck by a bullet that passed through you no matter what kind of gun it came from. *headdesk*
-"I haven't been murdered yet!" HEEE!!!
-"So we need to take him down backwards."/"I agree." Wait, what? Wouldn't falling face first to put pressure on it be better?
-"Any impact or pressure on the entrance wound could dislodge it." Okay, sure. Sherlock's head-Anderson makes logical sense. Aw, Sherlock does respect him, sort of. *tousles Anderson's post-hiatus beard*
-"Plus on your back, gravity's working for us." Oh well, gravity always wins.
-The noises I'm making are not human. Doesn't matter that he's going to be fine of course, THERE IS BBC!CANON SHERLOCK WHUMP ON MY SCREEN and I am dislocating my wrists from flailing.
(Someone had fun with the camera angles for this)
-Plant in the background sliding across the floor with the tilt is making me laugh far too damned hard, because it's Sherlock's POV, he's passing out, and of course the world revolves around him so much that random unsecured items of decorative fauna respond to changes in his personal center of gravity. XD
-"You're going into shock, it's the next thing that's going to kill you." I have got to say that I just love how wonderfully calm and in charge Sherlock's head-Molly is. It speaks to some genuine respect for her and her capabilities that he didn't show at the start of the series.
-I also kind of love Sherlock's demented OMGWTF face, as his mind palace awooga horns continue going off and Molly is sensibly telling him how he's going to die if he doesn't pay attention or fall so his legs are higher than his head or something. Just look at that face.
-"What do I do?"/"Don't go into shock, obviously." Shut up head-Mycroft, Sherlock is talking to his head-Molly, and you are being very unhelpful.
-"Must be something in this ridiculous memory palace of yours that can calm you down. Find it." Obviously not head-Mycroft for that. Mycroft is not a likely inhabitant of Sherlock's Happy Place.
-"The east wind is coming, Sherlock. It's coming to get you." Mycroft being randomly creepy is also not going to help Sherlock find his calm. It's certainly not doing much for mine. O.o
-This show finds the best staircases.
-Oh have they gone through all of series three making alternate scene moments of Mary shooting Sherlock in the setting of each episode? I love things like that! Well not protagonists shooting each other for heart-breaking reasons, but just sneaky scene bits filmed with previous episodes specifically to montage or reinterpret in a later episode. Of course, this is also not helping Sherlock be calm, as he analyses everything he knows and has experienced with Mary and castigates himself for not seeing this "maybe someday she'll shoot me" issue beforehand. Or something.
-Oh I hope he's actually shouting as he falls, because at the range distance he is from the reception area and all the intervening floors and walls etc, a silenced gunshot and a falling body are really not going to provide much of a hint for John that Sherlock's been shot and needs triage. Sherlock didn't seem to be too inclined to be loud earlier though.
-Hee! Is that Redbeard? Not very aptly named if so. Could be a very dark Irish Setter though maybe? And if it is a dog, how is that something that Magnuson thinks he can use against Sherlock to control him? O.o
-"Hello Redbeard, here boy!" That answers that question, but then what the heck happened to the dog to make it one of Sherlock's pressure points? O.o
(Aww, Sherlock's face.)
-Don't mind me, I'll just be sitting here making bweee noises now.
(Wee!Sherlock seems to have something in his hand.)
-"They're putting me down too now." *incomprehensible sounds* So! So, from that and Sherlock being all "It's me! It's okay!", did Wee!Sherlock hide Redbeard from someone who wanted to have him put down, maybe for some supposed attack that he didn't do? Or... hm. Still trying to figure out how a childhood dog is so significant that it's not only a pressure point for Sherlock, it's one Magnuson and his minions know enough about to feel it's a valid vector of influence on adult Sherlock.
Heh. Unless Magnuson is using Redbeard as the same metaphor for emotional attachment and heartbreak that Mycroft was on the phone at the wedding reception. Hehe. Yeah, that could be. *handwaves*
-(Speaking of Redbeard for a second though... if Redbeard is just a family dog Sherlock hid from being euthanised when he was 12 or whatever happened there, and it's on Magnuson's radar because Mycroft used it in attempt to emotionally manipulate Sherlock... How did Magnuson find out about it? And about Irene, and Baskerville? Does Magnuson have wiretaps on Mycroft? That would support the apparent lack of overt help from Mycroft, if he's aware his comms are compromised (and would also fit the meta of Magnuson being commentary on the media). Also, Magnuson possibly having a tap on Mycroft makes him so much scarier. O.o)
-And he's down.
[Side note: due to my insane real-life/work demands, it's taken me *looks at cap time-stamps and does math* 53 days just to watch this one bit between Sherlock getting shot and Sherlock hitting the floor. Damn RL schedules and illnesses and assorted other non-fun crap. *fistshake* :-(]
-"Without the shock, you're going to feel the pain." Well, yay, great, thanks for that.
-AAAAAH, SEIZURES, AAAAH. In the mind palace and not in the real world (maybe. Eep), which somehow makes it even more disturbing. O.o
-"You have to control the pain." Fantastic. How exactly?
-Everyone needs a circular padded cell in their mind, really. Useful in so many situations. Now, is that a version of himself in there, or someone else? We haven't seen Lestrade or John in his mind palace yet, but it'd be rather disturbing if he kept either one of them locked up mentally in a padded room... It's Moriarty. If it's not Sherlock himself, it's Moriarty. *nods*
-"Control! Control!" Gaaaah...
-Oh dear. I don't know if Sherlock knows who's lurking around in his mental padded safe room either. (If it is Moriarty, is it then a psychological metaphor for Sherlock locking away the parts of himself that are most like Moriarty? And if so, what would it mean that he doesn't know he's done that? Would he be unaware that he has that darkness, or unaware that he's suppressing that darkness... Hm. *ponders*)
-"Why did you never feel pain?"/"You always feel it, Sherlock." Yep! Moriarty! Or rather Sherlock's head-Moriarty, representing some aspect of Sherlock's mental landscape and architecture that Sherlock doesn't particularly want running around loose in his mind palace.
-*PHYSICALLY JERKS AWAY FROM THE SCREEN SWEARING* OKAY, THAT WAS VERY STARTLING. O.O
-"But you don't have to fear it." Weeeeelll in this case it's kind of killing him, but on the other hand, pain is proof he's still alive, so head-Moriarty's got a sort of a point there.
-Erm. Or not. O.o
-"Pain, heartbreak, loss, death. It's all good." Okay, yeah, definitely not. And the soundtrack callback to Hounds is not helping either.
-JOHN! JOHN! HI JOHN! IT'S BLURRY, BUT IT'S JOHN! YAY JOHN!
-Well, it looks like Mary took off but probably due to the unfortunate matter of that whole dead man switch info bomb thing, and of course Sherlock and John showing up, had to leave Magnuson alive. And a little conscious. Darn it!
-"He got shot."/"Sherlock!" I'm probably going to flail and meep for a bit because John's tone of voice when he realizes Sherlock's been shot is removing my capacity to be coherent.
That's really minimal bleeding for a gunshot wound, so well done head-Molly and head-Anderson.
-Oh and those bloody glasses caught the whole thing, of course.
-"Who shot him?!" Oh John, just this once you really do not want to know. Not that he'd believe it from Magnuson anyway. Sherlock's going to have to tell him. Once he stops dying. (In a positive and not final way, that is.)
-It's going to be really interesting for emergency responders to figure out what the hell happened, and what Magnuson tells them. Technically, John and Sherlock are intruders, so... hm. Also, John, I know you're a bit preoccupied with figuring out whose ass to kick for shooting Sherlock and getting emergency services to the umpteenth floor of the securest residence in all of London barring the Palace, but some kind of *handwave* first aid something might be good. Okay, maybe pressure on the wound would be a bad idea, but a compress of some kind to slow the bleeding, or even taking a pulse? Hm. John's rattled. Considering this entire episode so far has all happened in one day, he's in a bit of shock himself. *pats John*
-"It's raining, it's pouring, Sherlock is boring." I'll admit it, I laughed in a slightly evil way at that. Oh dear, things have gone suddenly very blue. That's probably not a good sign.
-Or maybe it's just ambulance lights. That's okay then. Magnuson must have let them up through security (or had Sherlock carted down to the lobby), and there's probably another crew still upstairs with the less-injured Janine, as well as Magnuson and the guard. Magnuson won't even need to embellish the facts to make this an interesting story for his media empire. I'd say this particular caper was rather a large bust all around.
-Eeek.
-"We're losing you! Sherlock!" EEEEEK! O.O I mean, again, obviously he'll live, but that doesn't change that John is sitting beside his friend and watching him die despite his best efforts. What was that Moffat quote? 'Only the emotional damage is real'? Something like that.
-The up-side of a person who only exists in your head breathing all over your semi-conscious face is that it's very unlikely he will have bad breath.
-Drool is another matter. Ew.
-"One little push and off you pop." There is something weirdly... companionable about Moriarty being there with him, but at the same time, nerve-wracking. (Also, and completely random, has anyone done a fanvid compilation of all the times variations on the phrase 'off you pop' appears in a script Moffat had a hand in? Just saying. It turns up a lot.)
-Oh. Well. Shit. (And since I know he's not going to die, my first thought is 'poor John')
-Orrr, it's a secondary layer in his Mind Palace, because I really don't think a surgical team would give up that quickly.
-"You're gonna love being dead, Sherlock. No one ever bothers you." ...true. And a tiny bit compelling as an argument. Tiny bit.
-"Mrs Hudson will cry, and Mummy and Daddy will cry, and The Woman will cry, and John will cry buckets and buckets." I'm sorry. I cackled. I am a bad bad bad person.
-"It's him that I worry about the most. That wife." Oh. Well. And so Sherlock will make an extra effort to not die because now he's worried about John not knowing that Mary is evidently some kind of black ops assassin ninja. As one does. Sherlock has a history of not-dying to protect John after all. Mary wouldn't hurt John though. Well. Except by appearing to try and kill his best friend, but I really do think that she shot Sherlock in a far more survivable way than she would have if she'd truly wanted him dead. I mean really, she had ample aiming time and the range was minimal, she could shoot him anywhere she pleased. And. If Mary was a danger to John, she wouldn't be worried about keeping her ninja-assassin *handwave* past a secret from him, would she now? She'd just kill him and disappear. So not something she's keen on at all.
-"You're letting him down Sherlock. John Watson is definitely in danger." Yep, that'll do it. Sproing, up he pops like toast. Well, not quite. Warmish bread.
-Something about this round room is suddenly reminding me of Bobby's Apocalypse bunker from Supernatural, particularly when Sam's stuck in it at the end of season four. Not a reassuring association, though somehow if it was Sherlock's younger self and mum and brother in here with him it would be even less reassuring than just having Moriarty there.
-Now there was a jolt that was either a renewed awareness of the pain or possibly the trauma team hitting him with shock paddles. Or both.
-Well if it was shock paddles, he'll need another jump.
-"Oh you're not getting better, are you?" *sneeeerk*
-I feel kind of sorry for Sherlock's head-Moriarty, actually. Left all alone again, chained up in the place Sherlock goes when he's trying to control his pain and suppress the nastier parts of his psyche. Aw.
-Seriously, if this is what actually happened in this operating theatre, they all turned away and gave up without even trying hard or using a defibrillator (no sign of that, although maybe it would have been a bad idea with the metal bullet still in, but then why haven't they even started the surgery?), or stuck him with adrenaline, or any of the usual "TV main character medical crisis" stuff, and then Sherlock's heart started up again on its own, this team is going to have to explain their decision-making process in front of some kind of review panel. I still think this is another part of Sherlock's mind palace, some underlayer getting some input from the outside world during all this and interpreting it as "I had to save my own life by sheer willpower alone because they all gave up on me. Idiots." Because Sherlock. *nods and handwaves*
-OH I AM SO RELIEVED THAT WASN'T MAGNUSON'S HAND STROKING 221B's WALLPAPER IN THE TITLE MONTAGE. I mean, I still want him off my screen forever because he's a disgusting evil revolting creep and he's done really nasty things to that poor flat, but at least he didn't fondle 221B's wallpaper. Small mercies.
-Heh. And once again, Sherlock is fighting to get back to 'home', and everything that means (and also solve the case he's working on according to the flash-montage (unless the juxtaposition of Magnuson fondling Captain Adelaide's letters with Mary shooting Sherlock is meant to be him realizing why Mary thought she had to take the action she did *ponders*) but pft *waves hand dismissively* Home). Aw.
-You know, surgeons usually tend to freak out quite a bit when you wake up on the operating table. Or at least the one I had that once did. Is the lack of shouting at the anesthesiologist another sign we're still half in Sherlock's mind palace interpretation of how he brought himself back from the dead entirely on his own?
-Oh dear. Well, this encounter can go any of several bad ways. Mary definitely did not intend to kill Sherlock or he'd be dead, so, she's probably hoping either the trauma of being shot blanked his memory for the minute leading up to it, or she's hoping she can talk to him alone and explain things, or she's hoping he's in a coma and she can persuade John to not talk to him when he wakes up, ha ha ha, no. In any case, how this goes will depend on what Magnuson told John, and whether Sherlock is awake. Odd as it might seem, I don't think Magnuson told John it was Mary, because that would be giving up what little influence he has on her. If he's decided she's a lost cause though, he may have just told John everything. *ponders*
-And since John is wandering the hospital unencumbered by police, it looks like Magnuson is handwaving that whole "breaking into my office" business too. Hmmmm. Which makes a kind of sense I guess, since Magnuson would likely rather have that to hold over them than have due process or whatever. It'd be one hell of an interesting story he must've told the ambulance crew to explain why they were picking up a man who'd been shot in his own inner sanctum when no one present and conscious had a gun though.
-"He's only bloody woken up. He's pulled through." And so Magnuson didn't tell John who shot Sherlock then, because this could be a trap for Mary but John isn't so good of an actor to hide that knowledge from coloring his first encounter with Mary after finding out, if that's what this was. Pretend like that made sense.
-Now we do know Mary is a hell of a lot better at hiding things than John, but I'm sticking with my 'she never intended to kill Sherlock' thoughts, meaning she is genuinely relieved he's alive, but now has the rather pressing issue of whether he'll clearly remember who shot him, which of course he will, so Mary's back under the 'keep John from finding out' Sword of Damocles again, So she'll either have to leave and never return, or face John with the truth about her past and hope it works out despite her shooting Sherlock (in a deliberately non-lethal as possible under the circumstances way), and at this point, killing Sherlock would solve pretty much nothing from Mary's perspective, even if I did think she was inclined to go there. Mary has a very narrow selection of stressful options for her future, and none of them are terribly happy for anyone involved. I will admit, it's a very different sort of monolithic 'ow' for Mary Morstan-Watson than I was thinking, but still, big ow impending for everyone.
-"You, Mrs Watson. You're in big trouble." *snerk* Well, I really don't think he'd be acting like that if he knew she shot him (as non-lethally as possible) soooo... hm. Maybe this is his way of letting her know that Sherlock will be convalescing at their place since it has fewer stairs than 221B? Heh.
-Look at that face. Just look. That adorable grin, with just that hint of the possibility of dread in the eyes, because she knows she's totally hooped and John and Sherlock have every right to want to have nothing to do with her ever again, even though she's stuck doing her best in a very bad situation and it's hurting the people she cares for, but it's a confused dread because being chastised like she's a scamp who's been caught raiding the neighbours' apple orchard is not the way the 'How could you have shot Sherlock?' conversation is likely to start.
-"His first word when he woke up? 'Mary.'" Ahahahaha, oh crap. XD
-Oh and this face, with that feeling of inevitable imminent doom settling down behind it. Mary's very tightly controlled secret life she's been keeping from John and the world is not going to be secret for much longer.
I really don't know how she's going to try to make this work, though if Magnuson didn't tell John who the shooter was, her shooting Sherlock may have succeeded in keeping him sufficiently cowed to keep her secret (and his hold over her) for a while longer. How she plans to spin her shooting Sherlock to John is another matter. Unless... she gets in and talks to Sherlock first, explains the situation, Sherlock realizes she deliberately did her best not to kill him... I dunno. Sherlock needs a new read on her, one that he's not doing on the face she's trying to present or on her as she's pointing a gun at him. Call me nuts, but I still think Mary's okay. I mean obviously there are issues that need to be dealt with, but she had every opportunity with that shot to make it immediately and irrevocably lethal, and she didn't. I don't know.
-Ugh. Magnuson. Well, we'll probably get some exposition about what's up with Mary, which will be good to have, but I still want him and his ridiculous house layout dead and off my screen. *shudders*
-And his matched set of Joust statuettes can go too. Seriously though, what the hell is up with those? That's twice one or both has been very conspicuously on-screen. Is it a clue? In the video game Joust, the player attacks by running their ostrich into the enemy, but if they don't hit them from a higher position, the enemy wins. Is that what Magnuson is; only effective if he's attacking from a position of strength? Is there something someone else could use against him in a similar way to overthrow him? And why two? Is there a second blackmailing 'jouster'? Is it the undead Moriarty I've heard about? I mean I realize I'm over-thinking this horrendously, but why put those figures so prominently on the screen? Arg.
-Although it does help as a memorable signpost to indicate he's going down to his file room, I suppose. As well as this inadvisable staircase.
-And hello, hospital drip bag from the title sequence. You aren't attached to who I thought you originally might be.
-"You don't tell John." Orrrr, maybe I'm wrong about Mary, but, really, if she was 100% self-serving evil, killing Sherlock would have been simple and served the purpose of keeping John closer to her. I really don't think she's bad. She's just stuck in a shitty situation and causing some really inadvisable collateral damage to stay afloat. But even so, it's still going to all come crashing down soon.
-"Bad girl. Bad, bad girl." *SHUDDERS* GAAAAH EVERYTHING HE SAYS IS SO SLIMY.
-Mary, you're making it really hard to trust your motivations when you loom like that. Though again, really, it wouldn't take too much effort for a trained assassin/covert operative/*handwave* ninja to do away with bed-ridden Sherlock here with no suspicion. John's obviously left her alone with him since he has no reason to mistrust her at this point and Sherlock did say 'Mary' when he first woke.
-Ahahahaha, what? Either Sherlock's got some pastimes we aren't privy to, or Mycroft's false intel generator has done a bang-up job feeding Magnuson some whoppers. XD
-OH GOD, POOR JANINE! Her boss nailed her with the broad side of the press too it seems. Probably none too thrilled she let them (and maybe Mary too?) in to her boss's inner sanctum.
-"I made a lot of money out of you, mister." Janine?? Say it ain't so. Damn! I liked her! Though I suppose, fair play to turn around and get back at him for stringing her along with the fake relationship and marriage proposal. Unless she was on Magnuson's orders all along?
-"God, no, one of his rivals. He was spitting." Oh good, just revenge then. Phew. Good for Janine.
-"Sherlock Holmes you are a back-stabbing, heartless, manipulative, bastard." Ayup. Definitely. And getting his name roasted in the press for it is the least he deserves.
-"You as it turns out are a-" *facepalm* Yeah, just belt him for that one. It's okay, he's in hospital already, they can set a broken nose.
-"So we're good then?" Heee! Okay, yes, I still do love Janine. I don't feel sorry for her anymore, not necessarily just because she's turned it around on Sherlock, but because she's got an almost badass sense of self-awareness. She's not like Kitty Riley, though I can see a comparison being made, but self-assured, landing on her feet, and not letting being used for months as a rather complicated secret entrance to the villain's lair get to her.
-"Yeah of course." Hee. You are lucky, Sherlock. Could have been punches and lawsuits. This was a bit less emotionally fraught than the ACD version, but then again, modern relationship mechanics are very different from Victorian ones.
-"Sussex Downs. ... There's beehives, but I'm getting rid of those." BWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAH! *canon-reference fistpump* XD
-"Might want to restart your morphine. I might have fiddled with the taps." Still can't really blame her. XD
-"How much more revenge are you gonna need?" Hehehehehe.
-"Exploited the fact of our connection."/"When?"/"Hm?"/"Just once would have been nice."/"Oh. ...I was waiting until we got married." Ohhhhh. So all the tabloid stuff Janine's spreading about her sexcapades with Sherlock are lies as well, which fits; hurt with a lie, hurt back with a lie. That's reassuring. Good to know there's a line he didn't cross in his manipulation of her for the case. It suits him, and it suits the ACD canon as I know it. *nods*
-Aw.
-"You shouldn't have lied to me. I know what kind of man you are. But we could've been friends." I still really really like Janine. I really do.
-That face.
-Down goes the morphine, back to work.
-Reviewing what he knows about Mary. First off, he has to get past the "Liar" bit, as it's clouding his view quite badly.
-"I'm not gonna use the phone, I just want to take a video." *sneeeeeerrrrrrk* One would hope as a tool for the statement being taken, but given he's got a video of Sherlock after he was drugged and beaten by Irene, maybe not entirely for practical reasons. The Met's private YouTube channel has to be very interesting indeed.
-Oh for pete's sake, Sherlock, you've been shot! Though that's one hell of a trick to get out of there. How's he managed to fool all the monitors and such? And get out past the big... hall window thing. (This private room has to be Mycroft's doing, yeah?)
-He went out the window. Of course he did. If this isn't some kind of proof that Mary shot him in as non-lethal a way as she could manage under the circumstances... or it could just be proof that Sherlock is a bone-headed idiot when it comes to his personal health and safety. Not like we haven't had ample proof of that before.
-And now Mary knows he's in the wind, and will either try to find him first and circumvent whatever he's planning, or will rabbit out of there without a trace.
-"He's got three known boltholes." Oooo, has he now? From before the Fall or from after? I mean after two years out being dead, he's probably got a ton more, all over the world.
-"Parliament Hill, Camden Lock (Loch? Lot? Camden Lock Hotel?) and Dagmar Court." *turns to Google Maps, as one does* Also, my what a pretty hospital.
-"Five known boltholes." LESTRADE AND MYCROFT ARE COORDINATING TO FIND SHERLOCK. *FLAIL*
*squints* Mission Code Name: "Ugly Duckling"? Mycroft, you're a jerk.
-"There's the blind greenhouse in Kew Gardens and the leaning tomb in Hampstead Cemetery."
-MOLLY! HI MOLLY! WITH YOUR SANDWICH AND YOUR SATSUMA! "We agreed he needs the space." OF COURSE HE'D GO TO MOLLY WITH THIS!! HE KNOWS SHE CAN KEEP A SECRET AND HE HAD TO TALK TO SOMEONE, AND SHE'S MEDICALLY TRAINED SO IF HE DOES SOMETHING STUPID LIKE POPS A SEAM OR DEVELOPS AN INFECTION, SHE CAN CHECK ON HIM AND STUFF! \o/ Or maybe I'm totally reading that wrong because the sounds muddy, and he's actually disappeared on her while he's seriously hurt and that totally explains it being her bad dream because he's off on his own again and hurt like she probably kept imagining he was the whole time he was gone. Either way, MOLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! LET ME SMISH YOU! \o/
-"Behind the clock face of Big Ben." Holy crap, is that a Great Mouse Detective reference?? And they're asking everyone where Sherlock might be. *smishes everyone*
-"Lenister Gardens." *squeaks* THEY'RE ASKING ANDERSON AND THE EMPTY HEARSERS! \o/
-Ooo. Or Mary is. Ooo. Although after all the searching, if he's not where the fan club thinks he'd go, he's probably in 221C.
-"He only knows about it 'cause he stalked him one night."/""Followed!" Heeeee! (Looks like Mary's asked them to meet her in a... parking garage? That's not sketchy at all... If you're helping your spouse search for his injured idiot hospital-escapee BFF, you wouldn't need to meet in secret, would you?)
-"He knew who shot him. The bullet hole was here so he was facing whoever it was." Oh dear, John's deducing things. And so the snowball starts rolling.
-"Protecting the shooter, why?" Yep, and Lestrade's not thick either. They can brainstorm their way into a pretty decent picture of what's going on with Sherlock's shooting, but it's going to take a bit of a leap to realize it was Mary.
-"Why would he care? He's Sherlock. Who would he bother protecting?" *headdesk* WELL HE DID FAKE HIS OWN DEATH TO PROTECT THE THREE OF YOU CURRENTLY IN THE ROOM!! *headdesk* There is either a giant penny to land splat on John here when I unpause, or they're all going to continue to be obtuse about the value Sherlock places on his friends until something obvious happens AND HEY. HEY. HEEEEEEEY. *points* JOHN'S CHAIR IS BACK. Sherlock either moved it back in before going to meet John at Magnuson's, or John moved it back while Sherlock was in hospital, because I don't think Mrs Hudson would have moved it (*side-eyes Mrs Hudson* I don't think...) and I doubt Sherlock moved it after being shot (though I'm sure he's stupid enough about his own health to try shifting furniture with a recent chest surgery), and to consider it an oblique clue that Mary shot him because he's making a spot for John to be safe in or be home in (because SHERLOCK'S FACE IN THE MIRROR IN EMPTY HEARSE WHEN JOHN SAT IN THAT CHAIR!!) or something. AAAAAH!!! *flails*
-Ahahahahaahah. I love the pause button. It gives me the time to notice things before the characters notice them for me.
-Hee! Lestrade lecturing John in advance for keeping him out of the loop and going off on his own recognizance to kick ass and find Sherlock. Because we all know John's gonna. Because Watson. *glee*
-THE SIDE TABLE AND BOOKS (and a shiny thing?) ARE BACK TOO. AND THE BLANKET. And given John's reaction, he didn't move the furniture himself because he was surprised to find himself sitting in it. Mrs Hudson was lurking in the back unsurprised though. I suppose she may have moved it in after she cleaned up Magnuson's revolting mess. Or maybe she's so used to finding all manner of insane, disgusting and dangerous things in 221B that a suddenly re-appearing chair doesn't even ping her radar. Poor Mrs Hudson.
-"Mrs Hudson, why does Sherlock think that I'll be moving back in here?" Well, that's one conclusion to draw from it. Also that he either did it before being shot by Mary, (in which case, it'd be more an expectation of John hanging around more than moving back in because the last thing Sherlock expected at that point was to be shot by Mary) or after, (in which case he's an idiot and may have popped his stitches unless that chair is less heavy than it looks like it may be and he obviously thought that moving that chair right then to be in perfect position exactly as it was before John moved out was much more important than his own pain and health (Awww Sherlock *flaaaail*)). Myself, as soon as the room cleared I'd be searching it and the books on the table beside it for notes. Or check my texts for weird ones from unnamed burner phones that consist of pairs of two numbers and go looking through the books for page references.
-Oh and *FLAIL JOHN'S CHAIR IS BACK AND HE'S SITTING IN IT FLAIL* just because.
-Ohhhhhh, crap. That's what the shiny thing on the side-table is. It's a Clair de la Lune perfume bottle. And since our Watson isn't a Jam!Watson, he's not as likely to jump to the conclusion that Captain Adelaide shot Sherlock, since Sherlock's first word on regaining consciousness was 'Mary'. Though I am quite curious which books those are now, as I suspect the titles might be part of the message. Far more efficient than a hidden note or code, and meaningless to anyone who doesn't have the context. *nods appreciatively* (Although I just have to say that wearing your usual distinctive perfume while sneaking around somewhere you aren't supposed to be, whether you're intent of assassinating manipulative assholes or not, is tactically damned sloppy of Mary. *tsktsk*)
-Oh his faaaaace. Oh. You can see things shattering inside.
-And John's so mind-blown he can't even answer the phone when it's Sherlock. Phoning. When he prefers to text. And who also has been spending part of his afternoon moving furniture after recently being shot (unless he had help? He'd pretty much have to...). So yeah, John's just a bit boggled, in a very world-changing way.
Continued in...
PART SIX
PART SEVEN
PART EIGHT
(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
PART FIVE - "His Last Vow"
-Oh, lovely, sudden lighting changes and the faint "AWOOGA!" of a submarine dive klaxon. I detect... an inbound near-death experience for Sherlock? I mean, yay probable flashbacks and backstory, but eek! O.o
-Ooo. I thought it was the Study in Pink spiral staircase for a moment, but the *handwave waggle* posty-filigree-things are a little too complex.
-"It's not like it is in the movies." It's oddly heart-warming that Molly is there, being all snarky at him. Aw.
-*FLAILING ALL OVER MOLLY BEING SCIENCEY ABOUT THE PHYSICS OF GETTING SHOT IN HER BRIGHT WHITE ROOM* Though a lot does depend on the weapon. Shotgun at that range would have had a lot of 'flying backwards' involved. Also a lot of 'sudden conversion into hamburger'. Is this now Sherlock's mind palace in some way? Does Sherlock keep stuff about autopsies in this bright white room with Molly narrating? Awww. He really does respect Molly's professional opinion! \o/
-And it's kind of ponder-worthy that she's talking like she's addressing someone, even though there's no one standing there and Sherlock's on the slab. Those feet are unmistakeable.
-Well, bright lighting like that makes anyone look dead. Also the bullet hole. *checks anatomy site again*
-"You're most certainly going to die, so we need to focus." Molly's getting a lot of slapping in on Sherlock, even in his own near-death experience.
-And again. Slapping him back into reality and straight back out into the white space again. I'm finding I rather like Molly as a sort-of semi-psychopomp. I wonder if there's some meta in there.
-"It's all well and good having a mind palace, but you've only three seconds of consciousness left to use it." Ooo! *flailing a little* I'm oddly unconcerned by Sherlock having been shot, because of course he's not going to die or be permanently debilitated, and I'm fairly sure Mary has shot Sherlock in the least damaging way available (whether that's a false-hope delusion of my own devising remains to be seen), so I'm quite excited by this internal journey we're getting to go on.
-"So come on. What's going to kill you?" Nothing, I should hope. I'm not a doctor of course but I think of all the stuff in that region that could have been shot, the worst could be peritonitis from the colon or stomach? Maybe? Still potentially lethal though.
Still love that Molly's his sounding board for this in his own head.
-"Blood loss." Well, yes, that too of course. *facepalm*
-"Forwards, or backwards." Forwards I think, but better would be to cross his arms over the shot and fold up to put pressure on it, but since he's losing consciousness, that's not going to be something he can maintain, so in a pinch, as the crazy bat from Fern Gully says, gravity works.
-"One hole or two." ANDERSON! ANDERSON IS IN SHERLOCK'S HEAD! \o/ Oh my god, and Anderson is pointing out something I forgot, whether there's and exit wound or not. I suspect not. Ribcage goes lower in the back, more likelihood of the bullet being impeded by a rib or something. Ricocheted around internally? Eeep. Not likely though, because the bullet's lost a lost of momentum getting through Sherlock's innards, and also, Sherlock's obviously not going to die, because as I mentioned in the spoiler-zone on part one of this thing, the show isn't going to turn into a Doctor Who or Supernatural crossover anytime soon.
-"That one I think." Uh... sort of a snub-nosed revolver? With that silencer? Bit odd. A semi-automatic is far more likely.
-"Or that one." Yeah, much better. Wonder if he's got a head-expert on guns that might be popping in to straighten it out. Wonder if it's John.
-"Oh for god's sake, Sherlock." OR SHERLOCK'S HEAD-MYCROFT COULD SHOW UP TO GET HIM BACK ON TRACK! \o/
-Y'know... if this is Sherlock's mind palace, he keeps an awful lot of people he knows in it as advisors. It's kind of touching, and makes it more obvious that he isn't alone alone. If that makes sense? Babbling, sorry.
-"You always were so stupid." Ah, Mycroft also doubling as Sherlock's self-doubt. Ow. Not a good time for that.
-IS THAT A WEE!SHERLOCK!? HOLY CRAP, BACKSTORY? AND WEE!SHERLOCK! \o/
-"Such a disappointment." Shush, Mycroft. Or rather head-Mycroft. Or rather Sherlock's sense of self-doubt which I have no doubt that actual Mycroft has fed into at many points in Sherlock's childhood and beyond, but which is really not helping the whole surviving getting shot business. So, utterly failing at the getting him back on track.
-"I'm not stupid." *takes a mini flail break* Okay, aside from the adorableness of wee!Sherlock, and that tragic green cardigan, his voice and his face! The little questioning rise of inflection, the face, the hanging tear, hearing someone he trusts and at that age probably looks to as a role model of sorts calling him stupid, and despite protesting believing it, internalizing it, wanting the person to take it back because their word is important and is forming a deep part of identity that will always be there, under everything. *flail* THIS LITTLE ACTOR, YOU GUYS. One line with that subtle inflection and a wibble-face and Sherlock's childhood is right there. That is some nuanced line-reading from such a young actor.
-"Mummy and Daddy are very cross." Now that we've met the Holmes parents and watched them carry on a conversation with Sherlock as he goes climbing around the furniture overtop of them, I find I have a great deal of difficulty imagining them being cross about anything, really. Though I suppose Sherlock allowing his head-Mycroft to bully him as he's just been shot might irk them a tad. *pats the Holmes parents*
-"What was directly behind you as you were murdered?" *pauses, flailing and making a succession of noises like Bill the Cat* MIRRORS! \o/ FFFFFF. Got so distracted by the *handwave* symbolism and Film Studies mirror things, forgot all about their practical use, like the capacity to shatter if struck by a bullet that passed through you no matter what kind of gun it came from. *headdesk*
-"I haven't been murdered yet!" HEEE!!!
-"So we need to take him down backwards."/"I agree." Wait, what? Wouldn't falling face first to put pressure on it be better?
-"Any impact or pressure on the entrance wound could dislodge it." Okay, sure. Sherlock's head-Anderson makes logical sense. Aw, Sherlock does respect him, sort of. *tousles Anderson's post-hiatus beard*
-"Plus on your back, gravity's working for us." Oh well, gravity always wins.
-The noises I'm making are not human. Doesn't matter that he's going to be fine of course, THERE IS BBC!CANON SHERLOCK WHUMP ON MY SCREEN and I am dislocating my wrists from flailing.
(Someone had fun with the camera angles for this)
-Plant in the background sliding across the floor with the tilt is making me laugh far too damned hard, because it's Sherlock's POV, he's passing out, and of course the world revolves around him so much that random unsecured items of decorative fauna respond to changes in his personal center of gravity. XD
-"You're going into shock, it's the next thing that's going to kill you." I have got to say that I just love how wonderfully calm and in charge Sherlock's head-Molly is. It speaks to some genuine respect for her and her capabilities that he didn't show at the start of the series.
-I also kind of love Sherlock's demented OMGWTF face, as his mind palace awooga horns continue going off and Molly is sensibly telling him how he's going to die if he doesn't pay attention or fall so his legs are higher than his head or something. Just look at that face.
-"What do I do?"/"Don't go into shock, obviously." Shut up head-Mycroft, Sherlock is talking to his head-Molly, and you are being very unhelpful.
-"Must be something in this ridiculous memory palace of yours that can calm you down. Find it." Obviously not head-Mycroft for that. Mycroft is not a likely inhabitant of Sherlock's Happy Place.
-"The east wind is coming, Sherlock. It's coming to get you." Mycroft being randomly creepy is also not going to help Sherlock find his calm. It's certainly not doing much for mine. O.o
-This show finds the best staircases.
-Oh have they gone through all of series three making alternate scene moments of Mary shooting Sherlock in the setting of each episode? I love things like that! Well not protagonists shooting each other for heart-breaking reasons, but just sneaky scene bits filmed with previous episodes specifically to montage or reinterpret in a later episode. Of course, this is also not helping Sherlock be calm, as he analyses everything he knows and has experienced with Mary and castigates himself for not seeing this "maybe someday she'll shoot me" issue beforehand. Or something.
-Oh I hope he's actually shouting as he falls, because at the range distance he is from the reception area and all the intervening floors and walls etc, a silenced gunshot and a falling body are really not going to provide much of a hint for John that Sherlock's been shot and needs triage. Sherlock didn't seem to be too inclined to be loud earlier though.
-Hee! Is that Redbeard? Not very aptly named if so. Could be a very dark Irish Setter though maybe? And if it is a dog, how is that something that Magnuson thinks he can use against Sherlock to control him? O.o
-"Hello Redbeard, here boy!" That answers that question, but then what the heck happened to the dog to make it one of Sherlock's pressure points? O.o
(Aww, Sherlock's face.)
-Don't mind me, I'll just be sitting here making bweee noises now.
(Wee!Sherlock seems to have something in his hand.)
-"They're putting me down too now." *incomprehensible sounds* So! So, from that and Sherlock being all "It's me! It's okay!", did Wee!Sherlock hide Redbeard from someone who wanted to have him put down, maybe for some supposed attack that he didn't do? Or... hm. Still trying to figure out how a childhood dog is so significant that it's not only a pressure point for Sherlock, it's one Magnuson and his minions know enough about to feel it's a valid vector of influence on adult Sherlock.
Heh. Unless Magnuson is using Redbeard as the same metaphor for emotional attachment and heartbreak that Mycroft was on the phone at the wedding reception. Hehe. Yeah, that could be. *handwaves*
-(Speaking of Redbeard for a second though... if Redbeard is just a family dog Sherlock hid from being euthanised when he was 12 or whatever happened there, and it's on Magnuson's radar because Mycroft used it in attempt to emotionally manipulate Sherlock... How did Magnuson find out about it? And about Irene, and Baskerville? Does Magnuson have wiretaps on Mycroft? That would support the apparent lack of overt help from Mycroft, if he's aware his comms are compromised (and would also fit the meta of Magnuson being commentary on the media). Also, Magnuson possibly having a tap on Mycroft makes him so much scarier. O.o)
-And he's down.
[Side note: due to my insane real-life/work demands, it's taken me *looks at cap time-stamps and does math* 53 days just to watch this one bit between Sherlock getting shot and Sherlock hitting the floor. Damn RL schedules and illnesses and assorted other non-fun crap. *fistshake* :-(]
-"Without the shock, you're going to feel the pain." Well, yay, great, thanks for that.
-AAAAAH, SEIZURES, AAAAH. In the mind palace and not in the real world (maybe. Eep), which somehow makes it even more disturbing. O.o
-"You have to control the pain." Fantastic. How exactly?
-Everyone needs a circular padded cell in their mind, really. Useful in so many situations. Now, is that a version of himself in there, or someone else? We haven't seen Lestrade or John in his mind palace yet, but it'd be rather disturbing if he kept either one of them locked up mentally in a padded room... It's Moriarty. If it's not Sherlock himself, it's Moriarty. *nods*
-"Control! Control!" Gaaaah...
-Oh dear. I don't know if Sherlock knows who's lurking around in his mental padded safe room either. (If it is Moriarty, is it then a psychological metaphor for Sherlock locking away the parts of himself that are most like Moriarty? And if so, what would it mean that he doesn't know he's done that? Would he be unaware that he has that darkness, or unaware that he's suppressing that darkness... Hm. *ponders*)
-"Why did you never feel pain?"/"You always feel it, Sherlock." Yep! Moriarty! Or rather Sherlock's head-Moriarty, representing some aspect of Sherlock's mental landscape and architecture that Sherlock doesn't particularly want running around loose in his mind palace.
-*PHYSICALLY JERKS AWAY FROM THE SCREEN SWEARING* OKAY, THAT WAS VERY STARTLING. O.O
-"But you don't have to fear it." Weeeeelll in this case it's kind of killing him, but on the other hand, pain is proof he's still alive, so head-Moriarty's got a sort of a point there.
-Erm. Or not. O.o
-"Pain, heartbreak, loss, death. It's all good." Okay, yeah, definitely not. And the soundtrack callback to Hounds is not helping either.
-JOHN! JOHN! HI JOHN! IT'S BLURRY, BUT IT'S JOHN! YAY JOHN!
-Well, it looks like Mary took off but probably due to the unfortunate matter of that whole dead man switch info bomb thing, and of course Sherlock and John showing up, had to leave Magnuson alive. And a little conscious. Darn it!
-"He got shot."/"Sherlock!" I'm probably going to flail and meep for a bit because John's tone of voice when he realizes Sherlock's been shot is removing my capacity to be coherent.
That's really minimal bleeding for a gunshot wound, so well done head-Molly and head-Anderson.
-Oh and those bloody glasses caught the whole thing, of course.
-"Who shot him?!" Oh John, just this once you really do not want to know. Not that he'd believe it from Magnuson anyway. Sherlock's going to have to tell him. Once he stops dying. (In a positive and not final way, that is.)
-It's going to be really interesting for emergency responders to figure out what the hell happened, and what Magnuson tells them. Technically, John and Sherlock are intruders, so... hm. Also, John, I know you're a bit preoccupied with figuring out whose ass to kick for shooting Sherlock and getting emergency services to the umpteenth floor of the securest residence in all of London barring the Palace, but some kind of *handwave* first aid something might be good. Okay, maybe pressure on the wound would be a bad idea, but a compress of some kind to slow the bleeding, or even taking a pulse? Hm. John's rattled. Considering this entire episode so far has all happened in one day, he's in a bit of shock himself. *pats John*
-"It's raining, it's pouring, Sherlock is boring." I'll admit it, I laughed in a slightly evil way at that. Oh dear, things have gone suddenly very blue. That's probably not a good sign.
-Or maybe it's just ambulance lights. That's okay then. Magnuson must have let them up through security (or had Sherlock carted down to the lobby), and there's probably another crew still upstairs with the less-injured Janine, as well as Magnuson and the guard. Magnuson won't even need to embellish the facts to make this an interesting story for his media empire. I'd say this particular caper was rather a large bust all around.
-Eeek.
-"We're losing you! Sherlock!" EEEEEK! O.O I mean, again, obviously he'll live, but that doesn't change that John is sitting beside his friend and watching him die despite his best efforts. What was that Moffat quote? 'Only the emotional damage is real'? Something like that.
-The up-side of a person who only exists in your head breathing all over your semi-conscious face is that it's very unlikely he will have bad breath.
-Drool is another matter. Ew.
-"One little push and off you pop." There is something weirdly... companionable about Moriarty being there with him, but at the same time, nerve-wracking. (Also, and completely random, has anyone done a fanvid compilation of all the times variations on the phrase 'off you pop' appears in a script Moffat had a hand in? Just saying. It turns up a lot.)
-Oh. Well. Shit. (And since I know he's not going to die, my first thought is 'poor John')
-Orrr, it's a secondary layer in his Mind Palace, because I really don't think a surgical team would give up that quickly.
-"You're gonna love being dead, Sherlock. No one ever bothers you." ...true. And a tiny bit compelling as an argument. Tiny bit.
-"Mrs Hudson will cry, and Mummy and Daddy will cry, and The Woman will cry, and John will cry buckets and buckets." I'm sorry. I cackled. I am a bad bad bad person.
-"It's him that I worry about the most. That wife." Oh. Well. And so Sherlock will make an extra effort to not die because now he's worried about John not knowing that Mary is evidently some kind of black ops assassin ninja. As one does. Sherlock has a history of not-dying to protect John after all. Mary wouldn't hurt John though. Well. Except by appearing to try and kill his best friend, but I really do think that she shot Sherlock in a far more survivable way than she would have if she'd truly wanted him dead. I mean really, she had ample aiming time and the range was minimal, she could shoot him anywhere she pleased. And. If Mary was a danger to John, she wouldn't be worried about keeping her ninja-assassin *handwave* past a secret from him, would she now? She'd just kill him and disappear. So not something she's keen on at all.
-"You're letting him down Sherlock. John Watson is definitely in danger." Yep, that'll do it. Sproing, up he pops like toast. Well, not quite. Warmish bread.
-Something about this round room is suddenly reminding me of Bobby's Apocalypse bunker from Supernatural, particularly when Sam's stuck in it at the end of season four. Not a reassuring association, though somehow if it was Sherlock's younger self and mum and brother in here with him it would be even less reassuring than just having Moriarty there.
-Now there was a jolt that was either a renewed awareness of the pain or possibly the trauma team hitting him with shock paddles. Or both.
-Well if it was shock paddles, he'll need another jump.
-"Oh you're not getting better, are you?" *sneeeerk*
-I feel kind of sorry for Sherlock's head-Moriarty, actually. Left all alone again, chained up in the place Sherlock goes when he's trying to control his pain and suppress the nastier parts of his psyche. Aw.
-Seriously, if this is what actually happened in this operating theatre, they all turned away and gave up without even trying hard or using a defibrillator (no sign of that, although maybe it would have been a bad idea with the metal bullet still in, but then why haven't they even started the surgery?), or stuck him with adrenaline, or any of the usual "TV main character medical crisis" stuff, and then Sherlock's heart started up again on its own, this team is going to have to explain their decision-making process in front of some kind of review panel. I still think this is another part of Sherlock's mind palace, some underlayer getting some input from the outside world during all this and interpreting it as "I had to save my own life by sheer willpower alone because they all gave up on me. Idiots." Because Sherlock. *nods and handwaves*
-OH I AM SO RELIEVED THAT WASN'T MAGNUSON'S HAND STROKING 221B's WALLPAPER IN THE TITLE MONTAGE. I mean, I still want him off my screen forever because he's a disgusting evil revolting creep and he's done really nasty things to that poor flat, but at least he didn't fondle 221B's wallpaper. Small mercies.
-Heh. And once again, Sherlock is fighting to get back to 'home', and everything that means (and also solve the case he's working on according to the flash-montage (unless the juxtaposition of Magnuson fondling Captain Adelaide's letters with Mary shooting Sherlock is meant to be him realizing why Mary thought she had to take the action she did *ponders*) but pft *waves hand dismissively* Home). Aw.
-You know, surgeons usually tend to freak out quite a bit when you wake up on the operating table. Or at least the one I had that once did. Is the lack of shouting at the anesthesiologist another sign we're still half in Sherlock's mind palace interpretation of how he brought himself back from the dead entirely on his own?
-Oh dear. Well, this encounter can go any of several bad ways. Mary definitely did not intend to kill Sherlock or he'd be dead, so, she's probably hoping either the trauma of being shot blanked his memory for the minute leading up to it, or she's hoping she can talk to him alone and explain things, or she's hoping he's in a coma and she can persuade John to not talk to him when he wakes up, ha ha ha, no. In any case, how this goes will depend on what Magnuson told John, and whether Sherlock is awake. Odd as it might seem, I don't think Magnuson told John it was Mary, because that would be giving up what little influence he has on her. If he's decided she's a lost cause though, he may have just told John everything. *ponders*
-And since John is wandering the hospital unencumbered by police, it looks like Magnuson is handwaving that whole "breaking into my office" business too. Hmmmm. Which makes a kind of sense I guess, since Magnuson would likely rather have that to hold over them than have due process or whatever. It'd be one hell of an interesting story he must've told the ambulance crew to explain why they were picking up a man who'd been shot in his own inner sanctum when no one present and conscious had a gun though.
-"He's only bloody woken up. He's pulled through." And so Magnuson didn't tell John who shot Sherlock then, because this could be a trap for Mary but John isn't so good of an actor to hide that knowledge from coloring his first encounter with Mary after finding out, if that's what this was. Pretend like that made sense.
-Now we do know Mary is a hell of a lot better at hiding things than John, but I'm sticking with my 'she never intended to kill Sherlock' thoughts, meaning she is genuinely relieved he's alive, but now has the rather pressing issue of whether he'll clearly remember who shot him, which of course he will, so Mary's back under the 'keep John from finding out' Sword of Damocles again, So she'll either have to leave and never return, or face John with the truth about her past and hope it works out despite her shooting Sherlock (in a deliberately non-lethal as possible under the circumstances way), and at this point, killing Sherlock would solve pretty much nothing from Mary's perspective, even if I did think she was inclined to go there. Mary has a very narrow selection of stressful options for her future, and none of them are terribly happy for anyone involved. I will admit, it's a very different sort of monolithic 'ow' for Mary Morstan-Watson than I was thinking, but still, big ow impending for everyone.
-"You, Mrs Watson. You're in big trouble." *snerk* Well, I really don't think he'd be acting like that if he knew she shot him (as non-lethally as possible) soooo... hm. Maybe this is his way of letting her know that Sherlock will be convalescing at their place since it has fewer stairs than 221B? Heh.
-Look at that face. Just look. That adorable grin, with just that hint of the possibility of dread in the eyes, because she knows she's totally hooped and John and Sherlock have every right to want to have nothing to do with her ever again, even though she's stuck doing her best in a very bad situation and it's hurting the people she cares for, but it's a confused dread because being chastised like she's a scamp who's been caught raiding the neighbours' apple orchard is not the way the 'How could you have shot Sherlock?' conversation is likely to start.
-"His first word when he woke up? 'Mary.'" Ahahahaha, oh crap. XD
-Oh and this face, with that feeling of inevitable imminent doom settling down behind it. Mary's very tightly controlled secret life she's been keeping from John and the world is not going to be secret for much longer.
I really don't know how she's going to try to make this work, though if Magnuson didn't tell John who the shooter was, her shooting Sherlock may have succeeded in keeping him sufficiently cowed to keep her secret (and his hold over her) for a while longer. How she plans to spin her shooting Sherlock to John is another matter. Unless... she gets in and talks to Sherlock first, explains the situation, Sherlock realizes she deliberately did her best not to kill him... I dunno. Sherlock needs a new read on her, one that he's not doing on the face she's trying to present or on her as she's pointing a gun at him. Call me nuts, but I still think Mary's okay. I mean obviously there are issues that need to be dealt with, but she had every opportunity with that shot to make it immediately and irrevocably lethal, and she didn't. I don't know.
-Ugh. Magnuson. Well, we'll probably get some exposition about what's up with Mary, which will be good to have, but I still want him and his ridiculous house layout dead and off my screen. *shudders*
-And his matched set of Joust statuettes can go too. Seriously though, what the hell is up with those? That's twice one or both has been very conspicuously on-screen. Is it a clue? In the video game Joust, the player attacks by running their ostrich into the enemy, but if they don't hit them from a higher position, the enemy wins. Is that what Magnuson is; only effective if he's attacking from a position of strength? Is there something someone else could use against him in a similar way to overthrow him? And why two? Is there a second blackmailing 'jouster'? Is it the undead Moriarty I've heard about? I mean I realize I'm over-thinking this horrendously, but why put those figures so prominently on the screen? Arg.
-Although it does help as a memorable signpost to indicate he's going down to his file room, I suppose. As well as this inadvisable staircase.
-And hello, hospital drip bag from the title sequence. You aren't attached to who I thought you originally might be.
-"You don't tell John." Orrrr, maybe I'm wrong about Mary, but, really, if she was 100% self-serving evil, killing Sherlock would have been simple and served the purpose of keeping John closer to her. I really don't think she's bad. She's just stuck in a shitty situation and causing some really inadvisable collateral damage to stay afloat. But even so, it's still going to all come crashing down soon.
-"Bad girl. Bad, bad girl." *SHUDDERS* GAAAAH EVERYTHING HE SAYS IS SO SLIMY.
-Mary, you're making it really hard to trust your motivations when you loom like that. Though again, really, it wouldn't take too much effort for a trained assassin/covert operative/*handwave* ninja to do away with bed-ridden Sherlock here with no suspicion. John's obviously left her alone with him since he has no reason to mistrust her at this point and Sherlock did say 'Mary' when he first woke.
-Ahahahaha, what? Either Sherlock's got some pastimes we aren't privy to, or Mycroft's false intel generator has done a bang-up job feeding Magnuson some whoppers. XD
-OH GOD, POOR JANINE! Her boss nailed her with the broad side of the press too it seems. Probably none too thrilled she let them (and maybe Mary too?) in to her boss's inner sanctum.
-"I made a lot of money out of you, mister." Janine?? Say it ain't so. Damn! I liked her! Though I suppose, fair play to turn around and get back at him for stringing her along with the fake relationship and marriage proposal. Unless she was on Magnuson's orders all along?
-"God, no, one of his rivals. He was spitting." Oh good, just revenge then. Phew. Good for Janine.
-"Sherlock Holmes you are a back-stabbing, heartless, manipulative, bastard." Ayup. Definitely. And getting his name roasted in the press for it is the least he deserves.
-"You as it turns out are a-" *facepalm* Yeah, just belt him for that one. It's okay, he's in hospital already, they can set a broken nose.
-"So we're good then?" Heee! Okay, yes, I still do love Janine. I don't feel sorry for her anymore, not necessarily just because she's turned it around on Sherlock, but because she's got an almost badass sense of self-awareness. She's not like Kitty Riley, though I can see a comparison being made, but self-assured, landing on her feet, and not letting being used for months as a rather complicated secret entrance to the villain's lair get to her.
-"Yeah of course." Hee. You are lucky, Sherlock. Could have been punches and lawsuits. This was a bit less emotionally fraught than the ACD version, but then again, modern relationship mechanics are very different from Victorian ones.
-"Sussex Downs. ... There's beehives, but I'm getting rid of those." BWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAH! *canon-reference fistpump* XD
-"Might want to restart your morphine. I might have fiddled with the taps." Still can't really blame her. XD
-"How much more revenge are you gonna need?" Hehehehehe.
-"Exploited the fact of our connection."/"When?"/"Hm?"/"Just once would have been nice."/"Oh. ...I was waiting until we got married." Ohhhhh. So all the tabloid stuff Janine's spreading about her sexcapades with Sherlock are lies as well, which fits; hurt with a lie, hurt back with a lie. That's reassuring. Good to know there's a line he didn't cross in his manipulation of her for the case. It suits him, and it suits the ACD canon as I know it. *nods*
-Aw.
-"You shouldn't have lied to me. I know what kind of man you are. But we could've been friends." I still really really like Janine. I really do.
-That face.
-Down goes the morphine, back to work.
-Reviewing what he knows about Mary. First off, he has to get past the "Liar" bit, as it's clouding his view quite badly.
-"I'm not gonna use the phone, I just want to take a video." *sneeeeeerrrrrrk* One would hope as a tool for the statement being taken, but given he's got a video of Sherlock after he was drugged and beaten by Irene, maybe not entirely for practical reasons. The Met's private YouTube channel has to be very interesting indeed.
-Oh for pete's sake, Sherlock, you've been shot! Though that's one hell of a trick to get out of there. How's he managed to fool all the monitors and such? And get out past the big... hall window thing. (This private room has to be Mycroft's doing, yeah?)
-He went out the window. Of course he did. If this isn't some kind of proof that Mary shot him in as non-lethal a way as she could manage under the circumstances... or it could just be proof that Sherlock is a bone-headed idiot when it comes to his personal health and safety. Not like we haven't had ample proof of that before.
-And now Mary knows he's in the wind, and will either try to find him first and circumvent whatever he's planning, or will rabbit out of there without a trace.
-"He's got three known boltholes." Oooo, has he now? From before the Fall or from after? I mean after two years out being dead, he's probably got a ton more, all over the world.
-"Parliament Hill, Camden Lock (Loch? Lot? Camden Lock Hotel?) and Dagmar Court." *turns to Google Maps, as one does* Also, my what a pretty hospital.
-"Five known boltholes." LESTRADE AND MYCROFT ARE COORDINATING TO FIND SHERLOCK. *FLAIL*
*squints* Mission Code Name: "Ugly Duckling"? Mycroft, you're a jerk.
-"There's the blind greenhouse in Kew Gardens and the leaning tomb in Hampstead Cemetery."
-MOLLY! HI MOLLY! WITH YOUR SANDWICH AND YOUR SATSUMA! "We agreed he needs the space." OF COURSE HE'D GO TO MOLLY WITH THIS!! HE KNOWS SHE CAN KEEP A SECRET AND HE HAD TO TALK TO SOMEONE, AND SHE'S MEDICALLY TRAINED SO IF HE DOES SOMETHING STUPID LIKE POPS A SEAM OR DEVELOPS AN INFECTION, SHE CAN CHECK ON HIM AND STUFF! \o/ Or maybe I'm totally reading that wrong because the sounds muddy, and he's actually disappeared on her while he's seriously hurt and that totally explains it being her bad dream because he's off on his own again and hurt like she probably kept imagining he was the whole time he was gone. Either way, MOLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! LET ME SMISH YOU! \o/
-"Behind the clock face of Big Ben." Holy crap, is that a Great Mouse Detective reference?? And they're asking everyone where Sherlock might be. *smishes everyone*
-"Lenister Gardens." *squeaks* THEY'RE ASKING ANDERSON AND THE EMPTY HEARSERS! \o/
-Ooo. Or Mary is. Ooo. Although after all the searching, if he's not where the fan club thinks he'd go, he's probably in 221C.
-"He only knows about it 'cause he stalked him one night."/""Followed!" Heeeee! (Looks like Mary's asked them to meet her in a... parking garage? That's not sketchy at all... If you're helping your spouse search for his injured idiot hospital-escapee BFF, you wouldn't need to meet in secret, would you?)
-"He knew who shot him. The bullet hole was here so he was facing whoever it was." Oh dear, John's deducing things. And so the snowball starts rolling.
-"Protecting the shooter, why?" Yep, and Lestrade's not thick either. They can brainstorm their way into a pretty decent picture of what's going on with Sherlock's shooting, but it's going to take a bit of a leap to realize it was Mary.
-"Why would he care? He's Sherlock. Who would he bother protecting?" *headdesk* WELL HE DID FAKE HIS OWN DEATH TO PROTECT THE THREE OF YOU CURRENTLY IN THE ROOM!! *headdesk* There is either a giant penny to land splat on John here when I unpause, or they're all going to continue to be obtuse about the value Sherlock places on his friends until something obvious happens AND HEY. HEY. HEEEEEEEY. *points* JOHN'S CHAIR IS BACK. Sherlock either moved it back in before going to meet John at Magnuson's, or John moved it back while Sherlock was in hospital, because I don't think Mrs Hudson would have moved it (*side-eyes Mrs Hudson* I don't think...) and I doubt Sherlock moved it after being shot (though I'm sure he's stupid enough about his own health to try shifting furniture with a recent chest surgery), and to consider it an oblique clue that Mary shot him because he's making a spot for John to be safe in or be home in (because SHERLOCK'S FACE IN THE MIRROR IN EMPTY HEARSE WHEN JOHN SAT IN THAT CHAIR!!) or something. AAAAAH!!! *flails*
-Ahahahahaahah. I love the pause button. It gives me the time to notice things before the characters notice them for me.
-Hee! Lestrade lecturing John in advance for keeping him out of the loop and going off on his own recognizance to kick ass and find Sherlock. Because we all know John's gonna. Because Watson. *glee*
-THE SIDE TABLE AND BOOKS (and a shiny thing?) ARE BACK TOO. AND THE BLANKET. And given John's reaction, he didn't move the furniture himself because he was surprised to find himself sitting in it. Mrs Hudson was lurking in the back unsurprised though. I suppose she may have moved it in after she cleaned up Magnuson's revolting mess. Or maybe she's so used to finding all manner of insane, disgusting and dangerous things in 221B that a suddenly re-appearing chair doesn't even ping her radar. Poor Mrs Hudson.
-"Mrs Hudson, why does Sherlock think that I'll be moving back in here?" Well, that's one conclusion to draw from it. Also that he either did it before being shot by Mary, (in which case, it'd be more an expectation of John hanging around more than moving back in because the last thing Sherlock expected at that point was to be shot by Mary) or after, (in which case he's an idiot and may have popped his stitches unless that chair is less heavy than it looks like it may be and he obviously thought that moving that chair right then to be in perfect position exactly as it was before John moved out was much more important than his own pain and health (Awww Sherlock *flaaaail*)). Myself, as soon as the room cleared I'd be searching it and the books on the table beside it for notes. Or check my texts for weird ones from unnamed burner phones that consist of pairs of two numbers and go looking through the books for page references.
-Oh and *FLAIL JOHN'S CHAIR IS BACK AND HE'S SITTING IN IT FLAIL* just because.
-Ohhhhhh, crap. That's what the shiny thing on the side-table is. It's a Clair de la Lune perfume bottle. And since our Watson isn't a Jam!Watson, he's not as likely to jump to the conclusion that Captain Adelaide shot Sherlock, since Sherlock's first word on regaining consciousness was 'Mary'. Though I am quite curious which books those are now, as I suspect the titles might be part of the message. Far more efficient than a hidden note or code, and meaningless to anyone who doesn't have the context. *nods appreciatively* (Although I just have to say that wearing your usual distinctive perfume while sneaking around somewhere you aren't supposed to be, whether you're intent of assassinating manipulative assholes or not, is tactically damned sloppy of Mary. *tsktsk*)
-Oh his faaaaace. Oh. You can see things shattering inside.
-And John's so mind-blown he can't even answer the phone when it's Sherlock. Phoning. When he prefers to text. And who also has been spending part of his afternoon moving furniture after recently being shot (unless he had help? He'd pretty much have to...). So yeah, John's just a bit boggled, in a very world-changing way.
Continued in...
PART SIX
PART SEVEN
PART EIGHT
(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS OR RUMOURS OR REFERENCES TO ANY INFORMATION FOR OR ABOUT FUTURE EPISODES OR SERIES' OF SHERLOCK)