making sense of His Last Vow’s final scene

[marta_bee]

This whole post is pretty much one giant spoiler for the tail end of “His Last Vow” and everything leading up to it. If you haven’t seen it and are avoiding spoilers, you should probably stop reading now.

Still with me? You’re sure you don’t want to stay spoiler-free? Good.

Setting aside certain not-dead-after-all (perhaps) consulting criminals,

Comments

[fanbot]

Very good.

I just wonder why Sherlock did not shoot the bastard inside. ... unless he wanted no possible blame on John. Hummmm

[vinib]

For the same reason Mary kept him alive, I think.

[laurtew]

I honestly believe that was it. The same reason Mary didn't shoot him when she shot Sherlock. If she had, John would he been in trouble for being there and would have been charged. If Sherlock had shot him inside, even if he said John had nothing to do with it, John would have been arrested as well for at least being an accomplice. Sherlock made sure there was no real evidence against Mary and then in full view of everyone (he even went behind John to get the gun so no one could see that it was John's gun, absolving John of ANY guilt) he shot the man and then screamed at John to get away and distance himself. He was sacrificing himself for John and there was no way he was letting John take any blame at all.

[marta_bee]

I agree with what pretty much everyone said. I also was under the impression (possibly mistaken) that Sherlock shot Magnussen with John's illegal firearm, making the need to take the shot in front of witnesses that much more important.

[ascendant_angel]

That was a wonderful explanation, though personally to me I never had issue with this scene being unemotional or what ever; it honestly hadn't occurred to me that people would

[laurtew]

You make a great point here:

There was no need for grand emotional discussions they had both said their I love you's long before, and there was no ambiguity in those, they both knew how they felt about each other; it simply did not need saying.The writers made a huge point in Sign of Three of having both men explicitly tell each other how much they cared

[marta_bee]

This, right here? This is why I love this fandom. So much attention to detail and thought-promoting discussions. Thank you for pointing out all these details like this. You have given me a good bit to muse over, and I love it.

[marta_bee]

I've talked about this a bit more up-thread, but briefly, my own frustrations with this scene have much more to do with what I entered the episode expecting than about what I (objectively) think it should have done. Also, now that I have worked my way around to why it makes sense for the scene to play out this way, it's that much more beautiful than I think it would have been if we had some un-nuanced emotional affair. I'm glad you found the explanation interesting, even if you didn't need it personally.

As for why it's unnecessary and why John doesn't need to say anything more, I really liked your explanation. Well put.

[kalypso_v]

The game, in Sherlock’s words, is over.

Not quite what I've got in my jotted transcript, which is all I have until Ariane delivers:

JOHN: The game is over.
SHERLOCK: The game is never over, John, but there may be some new players now. It's OK, the east wind takes us all in the end.

[laurtew]

You are right. That is what they said. Right before Sherlock tells him why Mycroft was a rubbish big brother.

So, no, Sherlock was not the one who dismissed John from service. But he did tell him the players were different, essentially saying John has to sit this one out.

I've just went and watched that part over. After Sherlock explains the East Wind, John asks where he's going and how long it will take. So, he's not been told anything about this. He then asks, rather hopefully, what happens after that. So, again, no clue.

It also bears note that Sherlock goes very serious, impresses that this will be the last time they speak and he needs to tell John something. Then he goes on to say Sherlock is a girl's name. No wonder John isn't worried!

Sidenote about Ariane: She's working insanely hard on this. She was up until past two working on the mind palace scene. Amazing woman, that one is!

[kalypso_v]

No intent to suggest impatience re Ariane's transcript; given how long it took me to jot down the couple of very short conversations I wanted for immediate purposes, I can imagine what an enormous task the whole episode is!

I think the offering of Sherlock's name is very significant; in folklore and fantasy, knowledge of someone's true name can have magical power. Sherlock would scorn such an explanation, of course, but names and knowledge of them have been a recurring theme of the season.

He begins to solve the case in The Sign of Three when he realises the significance of Tessa knowing John's full name (and flashes back to John mentioning baby names to him and Irene).

In His Last Vow, John realises that he doesn't even know his wife's name; if he's telling the truth, he still doesn't know when they're standing on the runway, as he rejected the opportunity to hold that power over her.

And Sherlock is about to return to a status not unlike Mary's, where his name must be a secret, just as it was when we first saw him in The

[marta_bee]

I have had the privilege to help arianedevere proof those transcripts before they're publicly posted. I've only been able to help about half the time because they can take hours simply to read and research (not massive amounts, and I love it, but still the better part of an evening). The sheer amount of work she puts into them is fantastic, and she is so friendly and kind-hearted and all-out geeky in the best possible way to those of us doing our small parts behind the scene. I thought I appreciated her work before I saw what she really puts into it. Honey, we should all see her in a crown, as far as I'm concerned - what a labor of love for the fandom

[internetname]

Excellent points, all. I confess I just don't see any "lack of emotion" during the runway scene at all, especially considering this is two grown British men standing out in public. What exactly do people want John to do? Bawl his eyes out? Throw himself on the plane? Act like two teenaged girls and declare they're BFFs? I'd never believe that

[laurtew]

That is actually something I glossed over. There was as much emotion in that handshake as any hug. Thanks for pointing it out.

[kalypso_v]

I just don't see any "lack of emotion" during the runway scene at all, especially considering this is two grown British men standing out in public.

Absolutely. I would have rolled my eyes at anything else. In any case, the beauty of these three episodes for me was the way they followed on from one another, in so many ways. On this theme:

The Empty Hearse - Sherlock tricks John into repeating his graveside eulogy by pretending they are going to die, and then laughs when he succeeds. (I have no idea why John didn't hit him again at this point.) This is doing it WRONG.

The Sign of Three - John has had several months to calm down and reintegrate Sherlock into his life, and no doubt being focussed on the wedding makes it easier for him to speak about emotional matters. He tells Sherlock, straightforwardly and in private, that he's his best friend. To general astonishment, Sherlock reciprocates by stating what John means to him, in public, and dedicates himself to the protection of the Watson family. This is doing it RIGHT.

His

[marta_bee]

In retrospect, if we'd actually been given an emotional scene, it would have been a huge disappointment. It simply wouldn't have felt believable. But that doesn't mean in the abstract that its lack left us feelin like something was missing.

I wonder if this is the great difference between American and British TV. I can imagine American programs trying to offer just something like that because it was expected. I've sat through those teary scenes, and they are almost always awful - but almost mandatory, like the scraping sound of pulling a sword out from a scabbard. British shows on the other hand seem to mercifully skip the trope. Mercifully. But I still miss it, just like if a sword-and-sorcery movie gave me nothing but the usual squelch of a sword being pulled out of leather, something simply wouldn't seem right.

But, good God. That handshake. Now that I see what's going on there and have moved past my expectations to how things really ought to be, that handshake is brutal. And I mean that in the best of possible ways.

[dkwilliams]

Good point. I grew up in a military family (U.S. Air Force) and when we watched my dad fly off to Vietnam, we had to do exactly that. We were told in no uncertain terms by the Military Liaison staff that we were not to cry, we were to act as if he was just going on a milk run and would be back that night, we were not to take mementos to remember them by, or in any way insinuate that we didn't expect them to return. We were supposed to make small talk about household or school stuff, just as if it was an ordinary event, so that his morale wouldn't be weakened and he wouldn't worry about us at home. John would definitely know that. Add in the typical British reserve, and that scene makes sense.

[marta_bee]

Thanks for confirming that I had aspects of the military family psyche correct. I have several cousins who served in Afghanistan, but this is something I've always seen from a slight distance, so I wasn't completely sure.

I think the reserve customary of the British, and also a bit for men generally, also goes a long way toward explaining this dynamic.