Reaction Picspam: Sherlock 2015 Christmas Special (Part 1 of 4)
New Sherlock! 10 Months Ago! Have a reaction picspam!
WARNING: CONTAINS IMAGES AND DETAILS OF THE SHERLOCK 2015 CHRISTMAS SPECIAL . If you have not watched the Sherlock 2015 Christmas special yet and are avoiding finding anything out about it before you do, this post is FULL OF SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
CONTAINS: random live-blog-style babble, snark, episode details and spoilers, pointless comments, meta, speculation, capslock, brief references to other fandoms, and squee. There are also 530 not terribly great (and mostly very dark) screencaps which may kill your bandwidth or overcharge your data plan to smithereens, so beware.
Things I know/theorize about this episode before starting to watch it.
-It's set in the Victorian Era, but with the same characters, which means it must be a hallucination or dream sequence or story being told to the Littlest Watson, because Moffat's not going to do a Doctor Who crossover. He's really not. Darn it.
-Watson has a quite spiffy moustache. Of course he does, it's 1895 or whatever. Ooo. Yeah, it'll be 1895, especially if it's a dream or hallucination of Sherlock's because of ACD Fandom History, and in-show, because of John's blog counter. So this might be a coma dream that happened while Sherlock was recovering after being shot, and Oh-
-The title, the Abominable Bride, which fits into Sherlock's post-shooting Mind Palacing about Mary, so yes. It's definitely all going to be a weird morphine-fuelled dream of Sherlock's maybe while he was in hospital. There. Sorted.
-It's a ghost story of some sort and the Bride might be a haunting. If it's a dream, none of that really matters, though it will be fun to watch the very logical Sherlock try to cope with an apparently actual-facts ghost if that's how his dream interprets it, and it may, as a metaphor for coping with Mary shooting him and her history of being a spy-assassin, in essence, and in somewhat common parlance, a 'ghost'.
-Lestrade has tragic sideburns (which I'll reserve judgement on myself until I see them) and Molly has a moustache (which of course she does if she's operating as a medical professional in Victorian London. Female doctors were beginning to make inroads in some areas at the time, but given Molly's nature (or at least Sherlock's view of Molly's nature), she's more likely going to hide herself and try to blend in and hide in plain sight than try to stand out and make a point.)
-Women's rights issues in Victorian times will somehow be a part of it. At least Sherlock's subconscious view of them... eek. Okay then!
I think that's about it for pre-knowledge really. I'm not on Tumblr in any significant way [or at least I wasn't when I started this, but I've still been avoiding Sherlock places], so it's easier to avoid spoilers since LiveJournal is less active than it was. I really do miss the crazy spammy days of LiveJournal, when being a day behind on my f-list meant a 60 post backlog. Sigh.
It's been a long time since I did one of these and I am terribly rusty. Also, inbetween-times a lot of RL crap happened, and I have also had multiple arguments with the software I use for screencapping, but I hope it's sorted now.
All right! Onward to The Abominable Bride!
Live-Bloggish Picspam Reaction/Recap for Sherlock 2015 Christmas Special
PART ONE - "The Abominable Bride"
[TRIGGER WARNINGS]Episode and reaction post contains discussion and depictions of suicide
(Considering this is set in the Victorian Era I really should be having tea, but in deference to recent misuse of my kettle and it being 5AM on a Sunday morning and me needing caffeine before I can safely boil water, I am having an iced coffee first. Also, I've completely forgotten how I do these things...)
Here we go!
-Ooo, is there going to be a montage?
-There is! Not a musical montage, but still nifty. 2010, wow, it has been a while.
-Now, given the general timeline weirdness of this series and in fact the original ACD novels, I wonder if they are intending that this is the in show timeline, rather than just the airings, because I'm not really sure that that works out. I mean, even the BBC's online tie-in of John's Blog (which has no update relating to this episode, gee I wonder why? XD) the timeline dating doesn't work out in spots. Like the wedding date. Among other things. Arg.
-"Those things will kill you."/"Ooo, you bastard!" Heeee!
-*reflexive full body cringe* Gah gah gah! Get off my screen Magnusson you creepy bastard.
-Okay, so, yes they're bringing us up to date, but it could all still be a medicated dream, this Victorian stuff. Though if I see a blue box anywhere in the backgrounds or lurking casually in the forest again, I may scream a bit.
-Ahahaha. Ooo. Have they done echo-scenes for that whole montage in Victorian Era? That would be ambitious, yet awesome. *finishes iced coffee, and switches to tea*
(Aw, looks like they aren't stopping at 1895. Darn.)
-DID THEY REALLY??
(Oh my god historical uniform eee!)
-!!! Can't type, flailing now.
*winces* That'll be one hell of a thing to recover from with Victorian battlefield medical technology.
-All this is like the show going. "Hey, watsons_woes! Merry Christmas!"
-I do have a weakness for BBC!Victorian London as well, particularly around Christmas. I blame 40-odd years of "A Christmas Carol" with Alistair Sim, though that was a US production aaand I am way too distractible.
-Bowler hat! No moustache yet though.
-"That great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are drained." ACD quotes, yay! Moffat and Gatiss are such adorable Holmes fanboys, there should be quite a lot of this in this episode. (Though I will admit that just coming off Christmas movie watching season and hearing Martin Freeman's voice doing a voice-over gives me a sense he'll start talking about his students at St Bernadette's, or his frustrated aspirations to become one of Santa's toy inventors and stop shovelling reindeer poo.
-OMG MIKE STAMFORD!!! IT'S MIKE STAMFORD YOU GUYS!!! \o/
-CRITERION!! \o/
(Which is probably not serving lemons, despite the pucker on John's Watson's face.)
-"Beating corpses to establish how long after death bruising is still possible." Gotta admit, that'd be a pretty off-putting way to meet a new flatmate. But at least you see what you're in for right away!
-Looks like Sherlock Victorians up well. Or well I should say Holmes, times being what they are.
-*rolls in the ACD/Sherlock 1.01 quoting*
-"Two hundred and twenty one B Baker Street." Hahahaha, yep. Mycroft's way of saying it was deliberately antique, and a deliberate fanboying by Gatiss (and probably Moffat too), because that's the way the address would be read during the era.
-Oh crap! Special title sequence! Different door!
Stock footage!
Old London Without the Eye!
This shot from the original credits is apparently the same as it would have been in the Victorian era, and that is frigging AWESOME.
OH HI BOYS! (also, Speedy's has not changed much since the 19th century! Apparently!)
Ooo, they even changed the font, lovely.
Newspapers did not proof their subheadings in Victorian times! *squints at 'Captin'*
HELLOOOOOOO WATSON. Goodness me, now there's a moustache. O.O
-Not looking too closely at the credits because plot spoilers likely lurk therein, but it's quite a lovely job done on... well it wouldn't be updating would it? Downdating them?
-Moffat and Gatiss both wrote this? We're doomed.
-*has to stop and wibble for no real reason*
-"How's the Blue Carbuncle doing?" Hee. The Christmas Episode of the original stories, in essence. Not going to be reprising that one today then. Good timing for magazine sales for Watson, though.
-Just look at that moustache. Now that moustache is not an impediment to the fine upper-lip and nasal acting of Mr Freeman, unlike that unfortunate thing in Empty Hearse. This now, this is a proper Watsonian moustache. With some excellent twirly waxed bits, in case Watson decides to go evil for no apparent reason. Always keep your options open.
-"Is that him? Is he in there?" Faaaanbooooy! :-D
-*kidney punch*/"No, no, not at all. Good day to you." Pfft.
-Oh my god. There's a Granada-like riff in the soundtrack as they pan past the street sign, and then mimic the opening scene of the Granada credits. Awww. Such fanboys!! *smishes Moffat and Gatiss*
(Wonder how long Speedy's kept the Victorian awning up after shooting. It's a little different, haven't been able to make out what it says yet though)
-"That's the trouble with dismembered country squires; they're notoriously difficult to schedule." Doesn't ring a bell as an ACD story, unless things went very much worse for Mr. Acton of Reigate, which is entirely possible.
(And Holmes in full regalia, with pipe, Inverness cape and deerstalker. That hat looks so much bigger on him with his hair all slicked down.)
-ARCHIE!!! HI ARCHIE!!!
-"What's in there?"/"Never mind!" Must be a severed head. This case won't be getting published in the Strand without considerable sanitizing I suspect. Maybe it is Reigate Squire, and Watson re-wrote it so the note was torn in half instead of the, um. Squire.
-"Caught the murderer, still looking for the legs. I think we'll call it a draw." *snerk*
-"I notice you've published another of your stories, Dr Watson."/"Did you enjoy it?"/"No." Hee. Mrs Hudson, telling it like it is. Incidentally, Mrs Hudson looks absolutely lovely. That's a fantastic colour.
-*snerks at all the story meta commentary* And then: "Blame it on the illustrator, he's out of control. I've had to grow this moustache just so people would recognize me." HA! Poor Paget.
-Hahah. Not Speedy's. "Speedwell's Restaurant and Tea Rooms" Hee!
-HA. Instead of the buffalo head with head phones, it's a stag's head with an ear-horn.
-*just grins*
-OH THAT IS JUST COOL. Optical illusion. From a distance, skull. Close up, two ladies at a table. Nifty! I think the one in the modern flat is like that as well, just a different composition.
-Kitchen's about the same, with scientific equipment and whatnot of the age, as it were. (At least I think that's the kitchen, based on the window placement and the height of the table, or at least the room that was the kitchen, if Mrs Hudson's actually their housekeeper/landlady in this one, the kitchen is likely below stairs.) No fridge to keep the severed head in though. Skull in a bell jar. *nods*
-"No case pushed my friend to such mental and physical extremes as that of 'The Abominable Bride'" Hello title, I already knew you, but have a screenshot anyway. Not a name that maps to the classic cases as far as I know. Mental and physical extremes you say? Do tell.
-GAAAAAAH I DIDN'T SEE HER TILL SHE MOVED. O.O
-"I said you were out, she insisted on waiting." In the dark. Alone. Standing in their rooms waiting for them like the frigging Woman in Black. Great. Charming. Gah.
-"Why didn't you ask her?"/"How could I, what with me not talking and everything." Heee! Would it pain Watson to give Mrs Hudson a few lines now and then? You wouldn't want your tea to be brought up cold now would you?
-"For god's sake give her some lines, she's perfectly capable of starving us." Ahahahahahahahah, or that, yeah.
-"You may speak freely in front of him as he rarely understands a word."/"Holmes." Heee. Poor Watson. They are much their modern selves so far here, at least in snark levels.
-MARY! HI MARY! Heh. Recognized her from her perfume. And all that stuff about a recent marriage to a kindly man who's started hanging around with someone of dubious moral character, hahah. Yep. And definitely an impish sense of humour.
-"Because I could think of no other way to see my husband, husband." Hee. True. In the stories, if I recall correctly, Watson's wife is mentioned sporadically, mainly as needing to get back to or taking his leave of to help on a case, and then dies of some mysterious Victorian ailment left unexplored during the Hiatus. (Possibly. Due to the infamous timeline issues in the ACD stories, up to 6 wives for Watson have been theorized, and that theory includes Watson marrying Mrs Hudson.) Regardless, she's definitely not gallivanting around having adventures with the two of them it seems, and so, sneaky plotting to see John commences, because this Mary has the attitude of our modern Mary and is not content to sit at home being a housewife while the boys go out and have all the fun.
-It's alternately hilarious and touching, Holmes playing John and Mary's song from the wedding in the Sign of Three as background music to their argument. Staying out of it but being supportive at the same time.
-"What do you do, except wander 'round, taking notes and looking surprised?" HA! Well, to be fair that's how he's presenting himself in the stories for the Strand. He is his own most unreliable narrator.
-"The stage is set, the curtain rises. We are ready to begin." That's the way to stop an argument. Be unsettlingly enigmatic at everyone. *nods*
-"I shall have to go deep."/"Deep? Into what?"/"Myself." See? Totally a morphine-fuelled coma hallucination. We've got Mary suddenly appearing in a disconcerting way in Sherlock's rooms, John and Mary arguing, the song from the wedding. Coma mind-palacing to figure out exactly why Mary shot him and how's best to deal with it and still keep his vow to protect them both, Yep. Or he's just an enigmatic bastard. That works too.
-LESTRADE!!! And the sideburns. Good lord, he looks a bit like like a cross between a leprechaun and a walrus. The oversized coat isn't helping any either.
-"Lighter than Jones, heavier than Gregson." Mentioning some of the other Inspectors from the books. *glee*
-"Mrs Hudson didn't seem to be talking?" HAHAHAHAHA. Do not mess with Mrs Hudson, or it'll be cold tea and over-boiled swede for dinner. And she holds a grudge.
-"How d'you know I'm off-duty?"/"Since you've arrived you've addressed over 40% of your remarks to my decanter." Heeeeee.
-"Just to wish you the compliments of the season." And here we see Victorian Lestrade, exuding 'bullshit' vibes that can be seen from space. Which is a real challenge because there are no 'bullshit vibe'-detecting satellites in orbit in the Victorian Era.
-"He didn't want a drink, he needed one." Often a sign of a tale of woe in the offing.
-"He's not embarrassed. He's afraid." Aw, Lestrade!
-"Fear is wisdom in the face of danger. It is nothing to be ashamed of." *nods* Don't know offhand if that's an ACD quote, it sounds like it could be one, but very valid nonetheless.
-Aw, just look at Lestrade's little freaked out furry face.
-"From the beginning then." Great. Now I've inexplicably been earwormed by the "Do Re Mi" song from the Sound of Music. Thanks, Sherlock.
-Oh look, a bride with guns terrorizing the streets of London! This isn't some dream of Sherlock's as on some level he works through getting shot by Mary at aaaaaaaall. ;-)
-*Jeremy Irons in Die Hard Voice* "Looks like someone's having fun." XD
-"A moment." Heee! Yes. Taking one's entire sitting room to the crime scene in medias res should always be an option.
-"White as death, mouth like a crimson wound." Ah, there was a poet among the witnesses.
-"Poetry or truth?"/"Many would say they're the same thing." Two shots of whiskey and Lestrade's a philosopher, good to know!
-From this angle the sideburns are far less walrussy. (I must admit I'm finding anxious, freaked out Lestrade to be something I want to see more of. And also wrap in blankets and feed soup. As one does.)
-I sometimes wonder why Moffat and Gatiss have such a thing for characters blowing their brains out, but in this case, since we're in Sherlock's Mind Palace/post-shooting coping dream thingy (we totally are) it makes sense, because he's conflating the trauma of being shot by Mary with the older trauma of watching Moriarty blow his brains out at close range. Hey, if there's a coma to sort through this sort of stuff in a dream state and get it all dealt with while unconscious, why not deal with all the traumas. I expect Redbeard may be along at any moment.
-*bang* *splat* Icky.
-"Why are you telling us what may be presumed?" Because Lestrade is not drunk enough yet for the rest of it, I wager. (Golly, it's very dark in this sitting room when it's not in the middle of the street.)
-This group look at the camera shot makes me giggle for some reason. Kind of a slow-motion group "dramatic chipmunk" Lestrade's poor scared furry face though. I want to smish it and wrap him up in blankets and fight off the nasty ghost lady. (What? Oh of course she turned up as a ghost again somewhere. Even if I hadn't *points up at "pre-viewing spoilers/theory" section* already heard some things, it's pretty obvious what's freaking Lestrade out is the apparent concrete evidence that an undead woman is roaming the streets of London. Merry Christmas!)
-"Presumably on his way to the morgue to identify her remains." Two things; firstly, wow, that was some speedy policing, there, Victorian Era Scotland Yard, (especially considering this is all in Sherlock's head and we know what he thinks of Scotland Yard's efficiency) and secondly, he really doesn't look like he's on the way to identify his former spouse's body. He looks like the opera let out early and he's thinking of getting a pint somewhere on his way home.
-Speaking of dramatic chipmunk head turns, the spree-shooting bride's spouse isn't too shabby either.
-Well, since there aren't really ghosts in Sherlock and this one is wearing a veil, I'm thinking now either conspiracy/suicide pact or a friend taking some sort of retribution for her friend's death. More likely a conspiracy, involving a group. A friend finding out the bride had started shooting up the street and then killed herself would not have the time - in a few hours in Victorian London - to locate the bride's spouse and find a wedding dress that matched. So conspiracy/suicide pact. I doubt this one's his actual wife, with the veil and all. Ooo, hm. Or there's something else going on and the husband needs to die so he can't go identify the corpse because it's not his wife at all and she's run off with a clear slate now. Hard to find someone willing to shoot themselves in the head just to give another person a fresh start in life though. So, back to some sort of conspiracy.
-Or we're going the zombie route. hard to escape the morgue under the eye of Scotland Yard though. Really though, it's dark, and the stark makeup is all that can really be seen, so still very likely not her, and still a conspiracy.
-"You can't be here, you're dead!" Okay, so he knew his wife was dead when he was unhurriedly walking out onto the street looking calm and collected. I find that suspicious.
-"It's a shotgun wedding." AHA! Anachronism! *googles* ...no, no, actually, it's not. Usage occurs in 18th-century American songs and folk tales. Hunh. I did not know that. Americanism though, and the last time there was an Americanism it turned out to be a key clue, so, nonetheless: *points significantly*
-Yeah, shooting him point blank in front of a constable is a pretty good sign this one's going to be blowing her brains out too since there's not much chance of escape. Not a subtle bunch of conspirators, these.
-Complete with the resemblance of a head wound. Ooo, it's a detail-oriented conspiracy. Nice.
-Hey, uh, Constable, you just witnessed a point blank shooting. In fact, you just witnessed a lady walking slowly up to a guy, point a shotgun at him and fire. You might want to do something about that, yeah? Stop the shooter, maybe? Especially considering she shot both barrels and hasn't reloaded, and attempting to, say, stop her before she actually shoots anyone is now water very much under the bridge? Although, seriously, this constable is probably the primary source of this 'ghost bride shot her spouse' information, and so he may have fudged the details somewhat to give his superiors a slightly better story about why he didn't stop the shooter. Making her the taunting undead revenant of a known recent corpse that froze his heart in terror of the unholy et cetera is a lot easier on the ego than "there was a lady with a gun in a wedding dress or something and I didn't stop her shooting that fellow because she had a gun and I have a whistle and a stick." Even better when Lestrade seems to be taking the ghost story on board wholesale. So vagaries and details in this bit can all be written down to unreliable narration. And also all being in Sherlock's head. *nods*
-Oh, well this one's just walking off into the fog ("the apparition vanished into the mists, never to be seen again sir! It was only then that the, uh, unnatural hold it had over me ceased and I was able to, um. Spring into action. Yeah."), so still a conspiracy, but not so much a suicide pact. Vengeance still a possibility, but it's a hell of a lot of detail for that fast a turn-around. Except unreliable narrator factors in there, so... hm...
-Yes, blow your whistle and run! Well done. *pats the very young constable*
-"To the morgue, there's not a moment to lose... which one can so rarely say of a morgue." Heee.
-"Am I just to sit here?"/"Not at all my dear! We'll be hungry later! *chucks her under the chin like a toddler*" *headdesk* Yes, fine, it's a Victorian attitude, and not even one that can be fully blamed on Sherlock's hallucinations. I did hear mention there was going to be a bit of something about attitudes towards women in Victorian times. Hm.
-"Votes for women."/"And are you for or against?" *headdesk* Ooo, I can tell this is going to get painful already.
-"Get out." Ahahahahaha. Yep.
-Aw, Mary's scowly pout face! Is it not a thing of wonder. Although if actual Mary saw the way Sherlock's coma-imagining her expression after being left out of fun times at the Victorian morgue with the boys, she might punch him.
-"M. Immediately." Oh ho, is Mary part of the conspiracy? If her shooting him is part of what Sherlock's dream/whatever is trying to work through, it would make sense. Hm. M for Mycroft or M for Moriarty? Or just M for Mary? Too many M's.
-"What friend?"/"England!" Wheee! Mary's off adventuring! Yay! \o/
-"Please tell me which idiot did this?" I dunno, chains seem a perfectly reasonable precaution with evidence of the walking dead around. Although, if the corpse was in the morgue during the second shooting, then it is obviously innocent and should be set free immediately. *nods*
-Yep! It's Sherlock's dream/hallucination-thingy, of course Anderson's the one chaining up potential zombies.
-"Tell that to her husband, he's lying under a sheet over there." I must admit, Anderson's often misguided sass has grown on me.
-"Stranger things have happened."/"Such as?"/"Strange... things..." *facepalm*
-"Holmes." Pfffffffft!!!! AHAHAHAHA! HI MOLLY!!! XD
-"Is there anything to which you would like to draw my attention?"/"Nothing at all Mr Holmes." Oh dear, and the crush is still a little bit present, making everything even more awkward in Victorian times. And poor John who's already very much noticed something is different about the young pathologist is probably mostly boggled that Sherlock hasn't apparently noticed. But of course Sherlock hasn't 'noticed' because Doctor Hooper gets the job done, and if he outed her he'd be stuck working with Anderson. Holmes's Victorian self has a pragmatic liberality.
-"There are two features of interest as you are always saying in Doctor Watson's stories."/"I never say that."/"Actually, quite a lot." Heeee!
-"She was positively identified by her husband seconds before he died." ...in a dark foggy street, according to a constable who might be inclined to make the identification more positive than "Is that you?" to bolster his 'yeah I just stood there and watched her shoot him' alibi.
-"The cabbie knew her too." Hm. 'Woman in a wedding dress wearing a veil and carrying a shotgun? Sure I know who she is. She's that dead lady, wosserface. Swear it on a stack of Bibles tall as my mum, I would. *pockets a shilling from the constable*'
-"Holmes, could it have been twins?"/"No." Yeah, that was bound to come up. I just about suggested it myself but, nah.
-"Why not?"/"Because it's never twins!" Weeeelllll... No, that one's just a recent pastiche, so no. Never twins.
-"Maybe it was a secret twin." Sherlock's face! XD
-"This whole thing could have been planned."/"Since the moment of conception? How breathtakingly prescient of her!" Actually the more Holmes protests about how it's never twins, the more possible it seems. *ponders*
-"Why were you so frightened?" You know that's actually a good dose of respect from Holmes for Lestrade, there. He's not assuming Lestrade is going to go to pieces just because something seems like the walking dead, as reported through second hand reports. Holmes assuming it must be more than has been let on so far based on Lestrade's reactions is Holmes according a quite decent amount of respect, actually. *nods*
-"-and why have you allowed a dead woman to be placed under arrest?" Well, respect within reason, obviously. XD
-A smear of blood on her finger that wasn't there earlier? Well, it is a morgue, and splatter happens? Maybe? Though if this is all a coma-dream/mind palace visitation, maybe zombies are real in it. Would mean frightful things about the state of Sherlock's mind, but that's probably to be expected, really.
-Ah yes. This is the problem with dimly-lit rooms. You can't see where the corpses have been fingerpainting.
-"You!" Ah yes. As I recall, she was just taking aim at anyone male in the streets, but considering this is all somehow in Sherlock's head.... I'm suddenly thinking about Moriarty and I.O.U.s and... ooo. Maybe this isn't a coma dream but some really... really bizarre Mind Palace visit, trying to figure out what Moriarty is up to when he 'shows up' at the end of Series 3 (although, much as I think his death was entirely fakeable, the return of Moriarty consists right now of a looped gif and a fragment of video that could have been recorded anytime, so it could, again, just be a group conspiracy, using the image of a dead person as a figurehead/stalking horse). Which makes the "It's never twins" argument take on more useful significance as it's Sherlock's head-John suggesting a way Moriarty might still be alive after shooting himself in the head, oh right, just like the Bride, hahaha, yeah. No coma. Sherlock's probably standing on the airport tarmac doing the weirdest Mind Palace Macarena yet. Which means the Abominable Bride is a stand-in theoretical cognate for Moriarty. Which could probably bring forth some bizarre metas on Sherlock's subconscious impressions of Moriarty. Particularly since last we saw him, much like the current corpse, Moriarty is also chained up in Sherlock's Mind Palace. o.O
-"Gun in the mouth, bullet through the brain, back of the head blown clean off. How could he survive?" He. Ahahahahaha. And just in case there's anyone else as slow as me watching this (and who also didn't immediately notice how the "YOU" scrawled in blood looks quite like "IOU" when the Y is at that angle), there it is, spelled out in full. This is about figuring out why and how Moriarty is still annoying London (with a side order of coming to terms with being shot by Mary.)
-"Oh isn't he observant now that Daddy's gone." Ooh! Doctor Hooper has quite the attitude. I misjudged in my *points up at 'pre-viewing spoilers/theory' section* pre-watch theorizing, but it is still a bit defensive. Pre-emptive aggression to throw people off.
-"I am observant in some ways, just as Holmes is quite blind in others." Yeah, not that blind, really, just less inclined to fuss about something that is helping his cases rather than hindering them.
-"What's he saying that for?" Well, at least Doctor Hooper has a good assistant in Anderson. Either he knows and is in full support without saying anything outright, or he has no idea and wouldn't begin to fathom that his boss has to keep a major secret to be allowed to do the job. Either way, yay Anderson? Maybe?
-As for John, or rather Watson, he's unfortunately in the position of being the standard Victorian male perspective, so, he seems like a real jerk sometimes in demonstrating the attitudes of the age. All for furthering the plot and somehow contributing to Sherlock's analysis of Moriarty. Somehow. *scratches head*
-"And I shall have to go deeper still." Just in case there was any lingering doubt that we're in Sherlock's mind palace.
-Actually, now that we know we're in Sherlock's mind palace for all this, I really wonder about that blatant spelling error of 'Captain' as 'Captin' on the banner subhead there. Is it some form of subconscious clue Sherlock's mind palace is trying to whack him over the head with? The captain isn't really a captain? And what Captain is this anyway? His body was found in a chapel in Islington, and that's not anywhere near either of the current known "Ricoletti Ghost" incidents, is it? Was the initial shooting spree in Islington? Or am I missing something? *ponders* Hm. Anyway, it's catching my eye, and with something as visible as a banner subhead that they used in the opening montage and again here, I'd like to think this show wouldn't be that sloppy about spelling unless it was deliberate.
Continued in...
PART TWO
PART THREE
PART FOUR
(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS OR RUMOURS OR REFERENCES TO ANY INFORMATION FOR SERIES 4 OF SHERLOCK IN COMMENTS)
WARNING: CONTAINS IMAGES AND DETAILS OF THE SHERLOCK 2015 CHRISTMAS SPECIAL . If you have not watched the Sherlock 2015 Christmas special yet and are avoiding finding anything out about it before you do, this post is FULL OF SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
CONTAINS: random live-blog-style babble, snark, episode details and spoilers, pointless comments, meta, speculation, capslock, brief references to other fandoms, and squee. There are also 530 not terribly great (and mostly very dark) screencaps which may kill your bandwidth or overcharge your data plan to smithereens, so beware.
Things I know/theorize about this episode before starting to watch it.
-It's set in the Victorian Era, but with the same characters, which means it must be a hallucination or dream sequence or story being told to the Littlest Watson, because Moffat's not going to do a Doctor Who crossover. He's really not. Darn it.
-Watson has a quite spiffy moustache. Of course he does, it's 1895 or whatever. Ooo. Yeah, it'll be 1895, especially if it's a dream or hallucination of Sherlock's because of ACD Fandom History, and in-show, because of John's blog counter. So this might be a coma dream that happened while Sherlock was recovering after being shot, and Oh-
-The title, the Abominable Bride, which fits into Sherlock's post-shooting Mind Palacing about Mary, so yes. It's definitely all going to be a weird morphine-fuelled dream of Sherlock's maybe while he was in hospital. There. Sorted.
-It's a ghost story of some sort and the Bride might be a haunting. If it's a dream, none of that really matters, though it will be fun to watch the very logical Sherlock try to cope with an apparently actual-facts ghost if that's how his dream interprets it, and it may, as a metaphor for coping with Mary shooting him and her history of being a spy-assassin, in essence, and in somewhat common parlance, a 'ghost'.
-Lestrade has tragic sideburns (which I'll reserve judgement on myself until I see them) and Molly has a moustache (which of course she does if she's operating as a medical professional in Victorian London. Female doctors were beginning to make inroads in some areas at the time, but given Molly's nature (or at least Sherlock's view of Molly's nature), she's more likely going to hide herself and try to blend in and hide in plain sight than try to stand out and make a point.)
-Women's rights issues in Victorian times will somehow be a part of it. At least Sherlock's subconscious view of them... eek. Okay then!
I think that's about it for pre-knowledge really. I'm not on Tumblr in any significant way [or at least I wasn't when I started this, but I've still been avoiding Sherlock places], so it's easier to avoid spoilers since LiveJournal is less active than it was. I really do miss the crazy spammy days of LiveJournal, when being a day behind on my f-list meant a 60 post backlog. Sigh.
It's been a long time since I did one of these and I am terribly rusty. Also, inbetween-times a lot of RL crap happened, and I have also had multiple arguments with the software I use for screencapping, but I hope it's sorted now.
All right! Onward to The Abominable Bride!
Live-Bloggish Picspam Reaction/Recap for Sherlock 2015 Christmas Special
PART ONE - "The Abominable Bride"
[TRIGGER WARNINGS]Episode and reaction post contains discussion and depictions of suicide
(Considering this is set in the Victorian Era I really should be having tea, but in deference to recent misuse of my kettle and it being 5AM on a Sunday morning and me needing caffeine before I can safely boil water, I am having an iced coffee first. Also, I've completely forgotten how I do these things...)
Here we go!
-Ooo, is there going to be a montage?
-There is! Not a musical montage, but still nifty. 2010, wow, it has been a while.
-Now, given the general timeline weirdness of this series and in fact the original ACD novels, I wonder if they are intending that this is the in show timeline, rather than just the airings, because I'm not really sure that that works out. I mean, even the BBC's online tie-in of John's Blog (which has no update relating to this episode, gee I wonder why? XD) the timeline dating doesn't work out in spots. Like the wedding date. Among other things. Arg.
-"Those things will kill you."/"Ooo, you bastard!" Heeee!
-*reflexive full body cringe* Gah gah gah! Get off my screen Magnusson you creepy bastard.
-Okay, so, yes they're bringing us up to date, but it could all still be a medicated dream, this Victorian stuff. Though if I see a blue box anywhere in the backgrounds or lurking casually in the forest again, I may scream a bit.
-Ahahaha. Ooo. Have they done echo-scenes for that whole montage in Victorian Era? That would be ambitious, yet awesome. *finishes iced coffee, and switches to tea*
(Aw, looks like they aren't stopping at 1895. Darn.)
-DID THEY REALLY??
(Oh my god historical uniform eee!)
-!!! Can't type, flailing now.
*winces* That'll be one hell of a thing to recover from with Victorian battlefield medical technology.
-All this is like the show going. "Hey, watsons_woes! Merry Christmas!"
-I do have a weakness for BBC!Victorian London as well, particularly around Christmas. I blame 40-odd years of "A Christmas Carol" with Alistair Sim, though that was a US production aaand I am way too distractible.
-Bowler hat! No moustache yet though.
-"That great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are drained." ACD quotes, yay! Moffat and Gatiss are such adorable Holmes fanboys, there should be quite a lot of this in this episode. (Though I will admit that just coming off Christmas movie watching season and hearing Martin Freeman's voice doing a voice-over gives me a sense he'll start talking about his students at St Bernadette's, or his frustrated aspirations to become one of Santa's toy inventors and stop shovelling reindeer poo.
-OMG MIKE STAMFORD!!! IT'S MIKE STAMFORD YOU GUYS!!! \o/
-CRITERION!! \o/
(Which is probably not serving lemons, despite the pucker on John's Watson's face.)
-"Beating corpses to establish how long after death bruising is still possible." Gotta admit, that'd be a pretty off-putting way to meet a new flatmate. But at least you see what you're in for right away!
-Looks like Sherlock Victorians up well. Or well I should say Holmes, times being what they are.
-*rolls in the ACD/Sherlock 1.01 quoting*
-"Two hundred and twenty one B Baker Street." Hahahaha, yep. Mycroft's way of saying it was deliberately antique, and a deliberate fanboying by Gatiss (and probably Moffat too), because that's the way the address would be read during the era.
-Oh crap! Special title sequence! Different door!
Stock footage!
Old London Without the Eye!
This shot from the original credits is apparently the same as it would have been in the Victorian era, and that is frigging AWESOME.
OH HI BOYS! (also, Speedy's has not changed much since the 19th century! Apparently!)
Ooo, they even changed the font, lovely.
Newspapers did not proof their subheadings in Victorian times! *squints at 'Captin'*
HELLOOOOOOO WATSON. Goodness me, now there's a moustache. O.O
-Not looking too closely at the credits because plot spoilers likely lurk therein, but it's quite a lovely job done on... well it wouldn't be updating would it? Downdating them?
-Moffat and Gatiss both wrote this? We're doomed.
-*has to stop and wibble for no real reason*
-"How's the Blue Carbuncle doing?" Hee. The Christmas Episode of the original stories, in essence. Not going to be reprising that one today then. Good timing for magazine sales for Watson, though.
-Just look at that moustache. Now that moustache is not an impediment to the fine upper-lip and nasal acting of Mr Freeman, unlike that unfortunate thing in Empty Hearse. This now, this is a proper Watsonian moustache. With some excellent twirly waxed bits, in case Watson decides to go evil for no apparent reason. Always keep your options open.
-"Is that him? Is he in there?" Faaaanbooooy! :-D
-*kidney punch*/"No, no, not at all. Good day to you." Pfft.
-Oh my god. There's a Granada-like riff in the soundtrack as they pan past the street sign, and then mimic the opening scene of the Granada credits. Awww. Such fanboys!! *smishes Moffat and Gatiss*
(Wonder how long Speedy's kept the Victorian awning up after shooting. It's a little different, haven't been able to make out what it says yet though)
-"That's the trouble with dismembered country squires; they're notoriously difficult to schedule." Doesn't ring a bell as an ACD story, unless things went very much worse for Mr. Acton of Reigate, which is entirely possible.
(And Holmes in full regalia, with pipe, Inverness cape and deerstalker. That hat looks so much bigger on him with his hair all slicked down.)
-ARCHIE!!! HI ARCHIE!!!
-"What's in there?"/"Never mind!" Must be a severed head. This case won't be getting published in the Strand without considerable sanitizing I suspect. Maybe it is Reigate Squire, and Watson re-wrote it so the note was torn in half instead of the, um. Squire.
-"Caught the murderer, still looking for the legs. I think we'll call it a draw." *snerk*
-"I notice you've published another of your stories, Dr Watson."/"Did you enjoy it?"/"No." Hee. Mrs Hudson, telling it like it is. Incidentally, Mrs Hudson looks absolutely lovely. That's a fantastic colour.
-*snerks at all the story meta commentary* And then: "Blame it on the illustrator, he's out of control. I've had to grow this moustache just so people would recognize me." HA! Poor Paget.
-Hahah. Not Speedy's. "Speedwell's Restaurant and Tea Rooms" Hee!
-HA. Instead of the buffalo head with head phones, it's a stag's head with an ear-horn.
-*just grins*
-OH THAT IS JUST COOL. Optical illusion. From a distance, skull. Close up, two ladies at a table. Nifty! I think the one in the modern flat is like that as well, just a different composition.
-Kitchen's about the same, with scientific equipment and whatnot of the age, as it were. (At least I think that's the kitchen, based on the window placement and the height of the table, or at least the room that was the kitchen, if Mrs Hudson's actually their housekeeper/landlady in this one, the kitchen is likely below stairs.) No fridge to keep the severed head in though. Skull in a bell jar. *nods*
-"No case pushed my friend to such mental and physical extremes as that of 'The Abominable Bride'" Hello title, I already knew you, but have a screenshot anyway. Not a name that maps to the classic cases as far as I know. Mental and physical extremes you say? Do tell.
-GAAAAAAH I DIDN'T SEE HER TILL SHE MOVED. O.O
-"I said you were out, she insisted on waiting." In the dark. Alone. Standing in their rooms waiting for them like the frigging Woman in Black. Great. Charming. Gah.
-"Why didn't you ask her?"/"How could I, what with me not talking and everything." Heee! Would it pain Watson to give Mrs Hudson a few lines now and then? You wouldn't want your tea to be brought up cold now would you?
-"For god's sake give her some lines, she's perfectly capable of starving us." Ahahahahahahahah, or that, yeah.
-"You may speak freely in front of him as he rarely understands a word."/"Holmes." Heee. Poor Watson. They are much their modern selves so far here, at least in snark levels.
-MARY! HI MARY! Heh. Recognized her from her perfume. And all that stuff about a recent marriage to a kindly man who's started hanging around with someone of dubious moral character, hahah. Yep. And definitely an impish sense of humour.
-"Because I could think of no other way to see my husband, husband." Hee. True. In the stories, if I recall correctly, Watson's wife is mentioned sporadically, mainly as needing to get back to or taking his leave of to help on a case, and then dies of some mysterious Victorian ailment left unexplored during the Hiatus. (Possibly. Due to the infamous timeline issues in the ACD stories, up to 6 wives for Watson have been theorized, and that theory includes Watson marrying Mrs Hudson.) Regardless, she's definitely not gallivanting around having adventures with the two of them it seems, and so, sneaky plotting to see John commences, because this Mary has the attitude of our modern Mary and is not content to sit at home being a housewife while the boys go out and have all the fun.
-It's alternately hilarious and touching, Holmes playing John and Mary's song from the wedding in the Sign of Three as background music to their argument. Staying out of it but being supportive at the same time.
-"What do you do, except wander 'round, taking notes and looking surprised?" HA! Well, to be fair that's how he's presenting himself in the stories for the Strand. He is his own most unreliable narrator.
-"The stage is set, the curtain rises. We are ready to begin." That's the way to stop an argument. Be unsettlingly enigmatic at everyone. *nods*
-"I shall have to go deep."/"Deep? Into what?"/"Myself." See? Totally a morphine-fuelled coma hallucination. We've got Mary suddenly appearing in a disconcerting way in Sherlock's rooms, John and Mary arguing, the song from the wedding. Coma mind-palacing to figure out exactly why Mary shot him and how's best to deal with it and still keep his vow to protect them both, Yep. Or he's just an enigmatic bastard. That works too.
-LESTRADE!!! And the sideburns. Good lord, he looks a bit like like a cross between a leprechaun and a walrus. The oversized coat isn't helping any either.
-"Lighter than Jones, heavier than Gregson." Mentioning some of the other Inspectors from the books. *glee*
-"Mrs Hudson didn't seem to be talking?" HAHAHAHAHA. Do not mess with Mrs Hudson, or it'll be cold tea and over-boiled swede for dinner. And she holds a grudge.
-"How d'you know I'm off-duty?"/"Since you've arrived you've addressed over 40% of your remarks to my decanter." Heeeeee.
-"Just to wish you the compliments of the season." And here we see Victorian Lestrade, exuding 'bullshit' vibes that can be seen from space. Which is a real challenge because there are no 'bullshit vibe'-detecting satellites in orbit in the Victorian Era.
-"He didn't want a drink, he needed one." Often a sign of a tale of woe in the offing.
-"He's not embarrassed. He's afraid." Aw, Lestrade!
-"Fear is wisdom in the face of danger. It is nothing to be ashamed of." *nods* Don't know offhand if that's an ACD quote, it sounds like it could be one, but very valid nonetheless.
-Aw, just look at Lestrade's little freaked out furry face.
-"From the beginning then." Great. Now I've inexplicably been earwormed by the "Do Re Mi" song from the Sound of Music. Thanks, Sherlock.
-Oh look, a bride with guns terrorizing the streets of London! This isn't some dream of Sherlock's as on some level he works through getting shot by Mary at aaaaaaaall. ;-)
-*Jeremy Irons in Die Hard Voice* "Looks like someone's having fun." XD
-"A moment." Heee! Yes. Taking one's entire sitting room to the crime scene in medias res should always be an option.
-"White as death, mouth like a crimson wound." Ah, there was a poet among the witnesses.
-"Poetry or truth?"/"Many would say they're the same thing." Two shots of whiskey and Lestrade's a philosopher, good to know!
-From this angle the sideburns are far less walrussy. (I must admit I'm finding anxious, freaked out Lestrade to be something I want to see more of. And also wrap in blankets and feed soup. As one does.)
-I sometimes wonder why Moffat and Gatiss have such a thing for characters blowing their brains out, but in this case, since we're in Sherlock's Mind Palace/post-shooting coping dream thingy (we totally are) it makes sense, because he's conflating the trauma of being shot by Mary with the older trauma of watching Moriarty blow his brains out at close range. Hey, if there's a coma to sort through this sort of stuff in a dream state and get it all dealt with while unconscious, why not deal with all the traumas. I expect Redbeard may be along at any moment.
-*bang* *splat* Icky.
-"Why are you telling us what may be presumed?" Because Lestrade is not drunk enough yet for the rest of it, I wager. (Golly, it's very dark in this sitting room when it's not in the middle of the street.)
-This group look at the camera shot makes me giggle for some reason. Kind of a slow-motion group "dramatic chipmunk" Lestrade's poor scared furry face though. I want to smish it and wrap him up in blankets and fight off the nasty ghost lady. (What? Oh of course she turned up as a ghost again somewhere. Even if I hadn't *points up at "pre-viewing spoilers/theory" section* already heard some things, it's pretty obvious what's freaking Lestrade out is the apparent concrete evidence that an undead woman is roaming the streets of London. Merry Christmas!)
-"Presumably on his way to the morgue to identify her remains." Two things; firstly, wow, that was some speedy policing, there, Victorian Era Scotland Yard, (especially considering this is all in Sherlock's head and we know what he thinks of Scotland Yard's efficiency) and secondly, he really doesn't look like he's on the way to identify his former spouse's body. He looks like the opera let out early and he's thinking of getting a pint somewhere on his way home.
-Speaking of dramatic chipmunk head turns, the spree-shooting bride's spouse isn't too shabby either.
-Well, since there aren't really ghosts in Sherlock and this one is wearing a veil, I'm thinking now either conspiracy/suicide pact or a friend taking some sort of retribution for her friend's death. More likely a conspiracy, involving a group. A friend finding out the bride had started shooting up the street and then killed herself would not have the time - in a few hours in Victorian London - to locate the bride's spouse and find a wedding dress that matched. So conspiracy/suicide pact. I doubt this one's his actual wife, with the veil and all. Ooo, hm. Or there's something else going on and the husband needs to die so he can't go identify the corpse because it's not his wife at all and she's run off with a clear slate now. Hard to find someone willing to shoot themselves in the head just to give another person a fresh start in life though. So, back to some sort of conspiracy.
-Or we're going the zombie route. hard to escape the morgue under the eye of Scotland Yard though. Really though, it's dark, and the stark makeup is all that can really be seen, so still very likely not her, and still a conspiracy.
-"You can't be here, you're dead!" Okay, so he knew his wife was dead when he was unhurriedly walking out onto the street looking calm and collected. I find that suspicious.
-"It's a shotgun wedding." AHA! Anachronism! *googles* ...no, no, actually, it's not. Usage occurs in 18th-century American songs and folk tales. Hunh. I did not know that. Americanism though, and the last time there was an Americanism it turned out to be a key clue, so, nonetheless: *points significantly*
-Yeah, shooting him point blank in front of a constable is a pretty good sign this one's going to be blowing her brains out too since there's not much chance of escape. Not a subtle bunch of conspirators, these.
-Complete with the resemblance of a head wound. Ooo, it's a detail-oriented conspiracy. Nice.
-Hey, uh, Constable, you just witnessed a point blank shooting. In fact, you just witnessed a lady walking slowly up to a guy, point a shotgun at him and fire. You might want to do something about that, yeah? Stop the shooter, maybe? Especially considering she shot both barrels and hasn't reloaded, and attempting to, say, stop her before she actually shoots anyone is now water very much under the bridge? Although, seriously, this constable is probably the primary source of this 'ghost bride shot her spouse' information, and so he may have fudged the details somewhat to give his superiors a slightly better story about why he didn't stop the shooter. Making her the taunting undead revenant of a known recent corpse that froze his heart in terror of the unholy et cetera is a lot easier on the ego than "there was a lady with a gun in a wedding dress or something and I didn't stop her shooting that fellow because she had a gun and I have a whistle and a stick." Even better when Lestrade seems to be taking the ghost story on board wholesale. So vagaries and details in this bit can all be written down to unreliable narration. And also all being in Sherlock's head. *nods*
-Oh, well this one's just walking off into the fog ("the apparition vanished into the mists, never to be seen again sir! It was only then that the, uh, unnatural hold it had over me ceased and I was able to, um. Spring into action. Yeah."), so still a conspiracy, but not so much a suicide pact. Vengeance still a possibility, but it's a hell of a lot of detail for that fast a turn-around. Except unreliable narrator factors in there, so... hm...
-Yes, blow your whistle and run! Well done. *pats the very young constable*
-"To the morgue, there's not a moment to lose... which one can so rarely say of a morgue." Heee.
-"Am I just to sit here?"/"Not at all my dear! We'll be hungry later! *chucks her under the chin like a toddler*" *headdesk* Yes, fine, it's a Victorian attitude, and not even one that can be fully blamed on Sherlock's hallucinations. I did hear mention there was going to be a bit of something about attitudes towards women in Victorian times. Hm.
-"Votes for women."/"And are you for or against?" *headdesk* Ooo, I can tell this is going to get painful already.
-"Get out." Ahahahahaha. Yep.
-Aw, Mary's scowly pout face! Is it not a thing of wonder. Although if actual Mary saw the way Sherlock's coma-imagining her expression after being left out of fun times at the Victorian morgue with the boys, she might punch him.
-"M. Immediately." Oh ho, is Mary part of the conspiracy? If her shooting him is part of what Sherlock's dream/whatever is trying to work through, it would make sense. Hm. M for Mycroft or M for Moriarty? Or just M for Mary? Too many M's.
-"What friend?"/"England!" Wheee! Mary's off adventuring! Yay! \o/
-"Please tell me which idiot did this?" I dunno, chains seem a perfectly reasonable precaution with evidence of the walking dead around. Although, if the corpse was in the morgue during the second shooting, then it is obviously innocent and should be set free immediately. *nods*
-Yep! It's Sherlock's dream/hallucination-thingy, of course Anderson's the one chaining up potential zombies.
-"Tell that to her husband, he's lying under a sheet over there." I must admit, Anderson's often misguided sass has grown on me.
-"Stranger things have happened."/"Such as?"/"Strange... things..." *facepalm*
-"Holmes." Pfffffffft!!!! AHAHAHAHA! HI MOLLY!!! XD
-"Is there anything to which you would like to draw my attention?"/"Nothing at all Mr Holmes." Oh dear, and the crush is still a little bit present, making everything even more awkward in Victorian times. And poor John who's already very much noticed something is different about the young pathologist is probably mostly boggled that Sherlock hasn't apparently noticed. But of course Sherlock hasn't 'noticed' because Doctor Hooper gets the job done, and if he outed her he'd be stuck working with Anderson. Holmes's Victorian self has a pragmatic liberality.
-"There are two features of interest as you are always saying in Doctor Watson's stories."/"I never say that."/"Actually, quite a lot." Heeee!
-"She was positively identified by her husband seconds before he died." ...in a dark foggy street, according to a constable who might be inclined to make the identification more positive than "Is that you?" to bolster his 'yeah I just stood there and watched her shoot him' alibi.
-"The cabbie knew her too." Hm. 'Woman in a wedding dress wearing a veil and carrying a shotgun? Sure I know who she is. She's that dead lady, wosserface. Swear it on a stack of Bibles tall as my mum, I would. *pockets a shilling from the constable*'
-"Holmes, could it have been twins?"/"No." Yeah, that was bound to come up. I just about suggested it myself but, nah.
-"Why not?"/"Because it's never twins!" Weeeelllll... No, that one's just a recent pastiche, so no. Never twins.
-"Maybe it was a secret twin." Sherlock's face! XD
-"This whole thing could have been planned."/"Since the moment of conception? How breathtakingly prescient of her!" Actually the more Holmes protests about how it's never twins, the more possible it seems. *ponders*
-"Why were you so frightened?" You know that's actually a good dose of respect from Holmes for Lestrade, there. He's not assuming Lestrade is going to go to pieces just because something seems like the walking dead, as reported through second hand reports. Holmes assuming it must be more than has been let on so far based on Lestrade's reactions is Holmes according a quite decent amount of respect, actually. *nods*
-"-and why have you allowed a dead woman to be placed under arrest?" Well, respect within reason, obviously. XD
-A smear of blood on her finger that wasn't there earlier? Well, it is a morgue, and splatter happens? Maybe? Though if this is all a coma-dream/mind palace visitation, maybe zombies are real in it. Would mean frightful things about the state of Sherlock's mind, but that's probably to be expected, really.
-Ah yes. This is the problem with dimly-lit rooms. You can't see where the corpses have been fingerpainting.
-"You!" Ah yes. As I recall, she was just taking aim at anyone male in the streets, but considering this is all somehow in Sherlock's head.... I'm suddenly thinking about Moriarty and I.O.U.s and... ooo. Maybe this isn't a coma dream but some really... really bizarre Mind Palace visit, trying to figure out what Moriarty is up to when he 'shows up' at the end of Series 3 (although, much as I think his death was entirely fakeable, the return of Moriarty consists right now of a looped gif and a fragment of video that could have been recorded anytime, so it could, again, just be a group conspiracy, using the image of a dead person as a figurehead/stalking horse). Which makes the "It's never twins" argument take on more useful significance as it's Sherlock's head-John suggesting a way Moriarty might still be alive after shooting himself in the head, oh right, just like the Bride, hahaha, yeah. No coma. Sherlock's probably standing on the airport tarmac doing the weirdest Mind Palace Macarena yet. Which means the Abominable Bride is a stand-in theoretical cognate for Moriarty. Which could probably bring forth some bizarre metas on Sherlock's subconscious impressions of Moriarty. Particularly since last we saw him, much like the current corpse, Moriarty is also chained up in Sherlock's Mind Palace. o.O
-"Gun in the mouth, bullet through the brain, back of the head blown clean off. How could he survive?" He. Ahahahahaha. And just in case there's anyone else as slow as me watching this (and who also didn't immediately notice how the "YOU" scrawled in blood looks quite like "IOU" when the Y is at that angle), there it is, spelled out in full. This is about figuring out why and how Moriarty is still annoying London (with a side order of coming to terms with being shot by Mary.)
-"Oh isn't he observant now that Daddy's gone." Ooh! Doctor Hooper has quite the attitude. I misjudged in my *points up at 'pre-viewing spoilers/theory' section* pre-watch theorizing, but it is still a bit defensive. Pre-emptive aggression to throw people off.
-"I am observant in some ways, just as Holmes is quite blind in others." Yeah, not that blind, really, just less inclined to fuss about something that is helping his cases rather than hindering them.
-"What's he saying that for?" Well, at least Doctor Hooper has a good assistant in Anderson. Either he knows and is in full support without saying anything outright, or he has no idea and wouldn't begin to fathom that his boss has to keep a major secret to be allowed to do the job. Either way, yay Anderson? Maybe?
-As for John, or rather Watson, he's unfortunately in the position of being the standard Victorian male perspective, so, he seems like a real jerk sometimes in demonstrating the attitudes of the age. All for furthering the plot and somehow contributing to Sherlock's analysis of Moriarty. Somehow. *scratches head*
-"And I shall have to go deeper still." Just in case there was any lingering doubt that we're in Sherlock's mind palace.
-Actually, now that we know we're in Sherlock's mind palace for all this, I really wonder about that blatant spelling error of 'Captain' as 'Captin' on the banner subhead there. Is it some form of subconscious clue Sherlock's mind palace is trying to whack him over the head with? The captain isn't really a captain? And what Captain is this anyway? His body was found in a chapel in Islington, and that's not anywhere near either of the current known "Ricoletti Ghost" incidents, is it? Was the initial shooting spree in Islington? Or am I missing something? *ponders* Hm. Anyway, it's catching my eye, and with something as visible as a banner subhead that they used in the opening montage and again here, I'd like to think this show wouldn't be that sloppy about spelling unless it was deliberate.
Continued in...
PART TWO
PART THREE
PART FOUR
(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS OR RUMOURS OR REFERENCES TO ANY INFORMATION FOR SERIES 4 OF SHERLOCK IN COMMENTS)