“His Last Vow” Speculation Post
I realize I’ve only got a week to do this, so we’ve got to get started right away.
So I wanted to go on and on about the brilliance that was “The Sign of Three,” and how it was one of my favorite things ever, making Sherlock’s characterization explicit in a way that had never been done before. I adored it, I adored everything about it, and I probably will be able to post those thoughts later and look upon this episode with happiness. (In the meantime, as usual earlgreytea68 accurately summarizes all my thoughts.)
But right now, guys, I need to share my fears. I’m just so terrified about what’s going to happen at the end of “His Last Vow” that I can’t focus on the squee of “The Sign of Three” (though I’m re-watching it obsessively, especially the drunk scenes). Because I don’t see a good way out of this episode for us.
I’d like to stress that this is all speculation, but I have seen the 30-second trailer for “His Last Vow” and reference it.
This is the sad state of the situation with this show: we don’t have a ton of major characters to work with here. And the writers have decided to conclude each series with a semi-tragic and dramatic cliffhanger. If anybody can think of a suitably tragic cliffhanger that doesn’t involve killing off one of our beloved and precious characters, please for the love of God speak up now. Because I can’t think of a good one. Which means that one of the characters may in fact die in “His Last Vow.” Obviously, I hope fervently to be proven wrong because I adore everyone and will be devastated if this happens.
Just for reference, let’s list the major characters of Sherlock whose deaths would have an emotional impact on fans: Sherlock, John, Mrs. Hudson, Lestrade, Molly, Mary, and Mycroft (Moriarty has already been killed). (I see Donovan, Anderson, and Anthea as more minor characters whose deaths wouldn’t have that massively significant emotional impact.) Of those, the first two are immune for obvious reasons. And now I’m going to argue that the next three are also safe, for this reason alone: the locations of importance they’re tied to.
Mrs. Hudson provides access to 221B. Also I think the writers just adore her, and so much light would be lost if she died. Lestrade-well, they’re not killing off Rupert Graves; that’s just not happening. But he also provides access to Scotland Yard. Molly provides access to Bart’s morgue. Of those, Molly is the most easily replaceable-but I just can’t see them killing her, not after making her such a fan favorite. I don’t like the look of that arc.
And now Mary. Let’s have a show of hands, everyone who thinks Mary isn’t going to die in this episode. *crickets* Nobody? Yeah, that’s what I thought. And that’s also why I think the writers won’t kill her, especially now that pregnancy is an option. They just love messing with our expectations. Plus, we just got to know (and, for many of us, adore) Mary. I know that she dies in canon (confusingly and offscreen), but the writers change things about canon all the time. What a completely wasted opportunity and dynamic if Mary were to die so soon. She has such beautiful chemistry with John (of course) and Sherlock (so lovely), and how often does that happen? Keeping her on would indicate continuing to go down a new road for these writers whom we know never like to sit on their laurels. Everything is change and development with them.
But Mycroft. Oh, my darling. Mycroft is the reason I tried this show in the first place, well before I had any idea who Benedict Cumberbatch was. I was just minding my own business in Harry Potter fandom and ignoring the many Sherlock fanfics that kept popping up, until I saw the name “Mycroft Holmes” in one of them, which I found intriguing. I’d never before heard (or seen in any adaptation) that Sherlock Holmes had a brother-an older one, a smarter one-and that idea completely fascinated me.
I was hooked on this show the moment Sherlock said, “We’ll start with the riding crop” and smiled so cheekily, but I started to love it the moment Mycroft said, “I worry about him-constantly.” And every interaction between the Holmes brothers since that moment has been better and better. Holmescest has become something of an addiction to me.
But it must be acknowledged that Mycroft is the deus ex machina of this series. He’s been compared to Dumbledore, and I think that is apt: as long as Mycroft exists, with his resources and power, Sherlock can be extracted from almost any difficulty. Mycroft is also a great device for bringing Sherlock cases of international importance.
I think their relationship has come to an impasse, and this entire show-not just this series-has been building on that to get to this point. From the second Mycroft says, “I worry about him-constantly” but then tells Sherlock that “Caring is not an advantage,” there has been a disconnect in Mycroft’s characterization that has not yet been explained.
I think the brothers are more alike than even they realize. Sherlock is an extremely emotionally repressed man who is redeemed by his love for John (and John’s for him), and I think Mycroft is the same, except instead of John he has his little brother. The world might be filled with goldfish, but Mycroft does love his brother, even if he has strange ways of showing it sometimes. Sure, he might like to see Sherlock get beaten up a bit here and there, just your regular bit of Serbian torture, but in the end Mycroft will do what it takes to extract him from a situation that, really, Sherlock got everyone into by flirting with Moriarty. Mycroft will always extract Sherlock from any situation because for so long, all they had was each other.
Can you imagine what hell it must have been for Mycroft growing up all alone with nobody but his ordinary parents for company? And then he got a little companion. Whom he thought was an idiot. Who maybe is an idiot in comparison to Mycroft, but is a genius when compared to the rest of the world.
In “The Empty Hearse,” the brothers finally reach that impasse I talked about earlier. Mycroft’s position is that it’s pointless to care about other people-ordinary people-because they will drag you down, become a liability, use you up and leave you worse than before, and in his job, liabilities must be kept to the minimum. Mycroft feels that Sherlock should also adopt this belief-he’s been drilling it into Sherlock for ages. Over the course of the series, Sherlock has slowly come to adopt the position that having “Caring is not an advantage” as your motto dooms you to a life of unhappiness, makes you lonely, means there’s something wrong with you. Sherlock’s seen how much his life has been enriched by genuinely caring about John and the other members of his little adopted family, and all he wants for his brother is to be happy.
I think that all Mycroft wants for his brother is to be safe. Mycroft’s seen-we’ve all seen, now, after “The Sign of Three”-exactly how soft Sherlock is, how easily he can be hurt, and it terrifies Mycroft. Moriarty’s already manipulated Sherlock into throwing away two years of his life by using three disadvantages to get at him and hurt him. Mycroft sees John and Mary getting married and thinks he can see the future, which Sherlock also dreads but bravely tries to ignore: domestic bliss between the happy couple, with no place for Sherlock, who’s left out in the cold, lonely again. Everyone, even Mrs. Hudson, thinks that’s how it will end up-except John and Mary seem determined not to let that happen. Only time will tell who’s right. Mycroft dreads that for Sherlock, having loved and lost will be worse than never having loved at all. And you know what? Looking at Sherlock’s face as he realizes there’s no dance partner for him and leaves the wedding early, I fear Mycroft might be right.
Which brings us to “His Last Vow.” Because Sherlock has married himself into Mary and John’s relationship, promising to do whatever it takes, forever and always, to keep them safe. He didn’t need to vow that; everyone already knew. But I’ll bet you that one Charles Augustus Magnussen finds that little vow to be fascinating, especially in light of how deeply disturbed Mary and Sherlock were, how easily they coordinated, how quickly they acted when John was in the bonfire. It’s clear to me that Magnussen (“CAM”) is blackmailing Mary, though I can’t guess the details or extent. I don’t believe Mary is evil, though. How far does that vow extend, one might ask, if one were a psychopath who turns even the stomach of Sherlock Holmes.
Well, we already know: Sherlock’s already been prepared to give his life to stop Moriarty, who was threatening his friends. But it’s easy to sacrifice yourself to save your friends, to selflessly throw away two years of your own life. I’m sure it’s much harder to make that decision between choosing to save someone you love over someone else you love.
So that is what I think will happen in “His Last Vow.” Sherlock will have to choose, and it will be an impossible decision. Choose between John and Mary? Or John/Mary and Mycroft? Or someone else? And one outcome is that Mycroft may end up dying because of that decision. Choosing to sacrifice himself to save Sherlock having to make the decision? Or Sherlock having to put his vow to the test, choosing between John+Mary and his own brother? I don’t know. I don’t want to know. But I fear something terrible is on the horizon.
I can tell from Mycroft’s scene on the treadmill and on the phone with Sherlock, which I thought was one of the saddest in the episode. I have no clue what the “Redbeard” reference means (I mean, if I had to guess, I would say it was the name Sherlock chose when he wanted to be a pirate, perhaps the mighty dread Captain Redbeard, and then other children at school made fun of him or perhaps worse, joined his pirate crew and then had a mutiny and kicked him out, leaving him all alone again and dashing his hopes of piracy-and friends-forever, until he met John), but I think Mycroft feels that no matter what happens from this point on, John and Mary are going to doom Sherlock, and Mycroft can’t bear to be there and watch it happen. They can destroy Sherlock by shutting him out of their relationship, they can destroy him by letting him in. These goldfish own Sherlock no matter what they do, and sooner or later some psychopath is going to take advantage of that, and it’s never been so clear to Mycroft that caring is a disadvantage.
And then, completely outside of the universe, there’s the practicalities of the filming situation. All the actors seem to like working on Sherlock. It’s become a family affair for many of them. Martin Freeman loves working with Amanda Abbington. Nobody wants to leave. And the writers certainly don’t want any of their precious actors to leave. And that is the beauty and the awful tragedy of having Mark Gatiss playing Mycroft: his character can die, and he can still be involved in the show as a writer. Hell, even as an actor in scenes taking place in Sherlock’s head (similar to Irene).
So yeah. If someone has to die-and I desperately hope that is not the case!-then I think it may very well be Mycroft. And that makes me want to sob.
So I wanted to go on and on about the brilliance that was “The Sign of Three,” and how it was one of my favorite things ever, making Sherlock’s characterization explicit in a way that had never been done before. I adored it, I adored everything about it, and I probably will be able to post those thoughts later and look upon this episode with happiness. (In the meantime, as usual earlgreytea68 accurately summarizes all my thoughts.)
But right now, guys, I need to share my fears. I’m just so terrified about what’s going to happen at the end of “His Last Vow” that I can’t focus on the squee of “The Sign of Three” (though I’m re-watching it obsessively, especially the drunk scenes). Because I don’t see a good way out of this episode for us.
I’d like to stress that this is all speculation, but I have seen the 30-second trailer for “His Last Vow” and reference it.
This is the sad state of the situation with this show: we don’t have a ton of major characters to work with here. And the writers have decided to conclude each series with a semi-tragic and dramatic cliffhanger. If anybody can think of a suitably tragic cliffhanger that doesn’t involve killing off one of our beloved and precious characters, please for the love of God speak up now. Because I can’t think of a good one. Which means that one of the characters may in fact die in “His Last Vow.” Obviously, I hope fervently to be proven wrong because I adore everyone and will be devastated if this happens.
Just for reference, let’s list the major characters of Sherlock whose deaths would have an emotional impact on fans: Sherlock, John, Mrs. Hudson, Lestrade, Molly, Mary, and Mycroft (Moriarty has already been killed). (I see Donovan, Anderson, and Anthea as more minor characters whose deaths wouldn’t have that massively significant emotional impact.) Of those, the first two are immune for obvious reasons. And now I’m going to argue that the next three are also safe, for this reason alone: the locations of importance they’re tied to.
Mrs. Hudson provides access to 221B. Also I think the writers just adore her, and so much light would be lost if she died. Lestrade-well, they’re not killing off Rupert Graves; that’s just not happening. But he also provides access to Scotland Yard. Molly provides access to Bart’s morgue. Of those, Molly is the most easily replaceable-but I just can’t see them killing her, not after making her such a fan favorite. I don’t like the look of that arc.
And now Mary. Let’s have a show of hands, everyone who thinks Mary isn’t going to die in this episode. *crickets* Nobody? Yeah, that’s what I thought. And that’s also why I think the writers won’t kill her, especially now that pregnancy is an option. They just love messing with our expectations. Plus, we just got to know (and, for many of us, adore) Mary. I know that she dies in canon (confusingly and offscreen), but the writers change things about canon all the time. What a completely wasted opportunity and dynamic if Mary were to die so soon. She has such beautiful chemistry with John (of course) and Sherlock (so lovely), and how often does that happen? Keeping her on would indicate continuing to go down a new road for these writers whom we know never like to sit on their laurels. Everything is change and development with them.
But Mycroft. Oh, my darling. Mycroft is the reason I tried this show in the first place, well before I had any idea who Benedict Cumberbatch was. I was just minding my own business in Harry Potter fandom and ignoring the many Sherlock fanfics that kept popping up, until I saw the name “Mycroft Holmes” in one of them, which I found intriguing. I’d never before heard (or seen in any adaptation) that Sherlock Holmes had a brother-an older one, a smarter one-and that idea completely fascinated me.
I was hooked on this show the moment Sherlock said, “We’ll start with the riding crop” and smiled so cheekily, but I started to love it the moment Mycroft said, “I worry about him-constantly.” And every interaction between the Holmes brothers since that moment has been better and better. Holmescest has become something of an addiction to me.
But it must be acknowledged that Mycroft is the deus ex machina of this series. He’s been compared to Dumbledore, and I think that is apt: as long as Mycroft exists, with his resources and power, Sherlock can be extracted from almost any difficulty. Mycroft is also a great device for bringing Sherlock cases of international importance.
I think their relationship has come to an impasse, and this entire show-not just this series-has been building on that to get to this point. From the second Mycroft says, “I worry about him-constantly” but then tells Sherlock that “Caring is not an advantage,” there has been a disconnect in Mycroft’s characterization that has not yet been explained.
I think the brothers are more alike than even they realize. Sherlock is an extremely emotionally repressed man who is redeemed by his love for John (and John’s for him), and I think Mycroft is the same, except instead of John he has his little brother. The world might be filled with goldfish, but Mycroft does love his brother, even if he has strange ways of showing it sometimes. Sure, he might like to see Sherlock get beaten up a bit here and there, just your regular bit of Serbian torture, but in the end Mycroft will do what it takes to extract him from a situation that, really, Sherlock got everyone into by flirting with Moriarty. Mycroft will always extract Sherlock from any situation because for so long, all they had was each other.
Can you imagine what hell it must have been for Mycroft growing up all alone with nobody but his ordinary parents for company? And then he got a little companion. Whom he thought was an idiot. Who maybe is an idiot in comparison to Mycroft, but is a genius when compared to the rest of the world.
In “The Empty Hearse,” the brothers finally reach that impasse I talked about earlier. Mycroft’s position is that it’s pointless to care about other people-ordinary people-because they will drag you down, become a liability, use you up and leave you worse than before, and in his job, liabilities must be kept to the minimum. Mycroft feels that Sherlock should also adopt this belief-he’s been drilling it into Sherlock for ages. Over the course of the series, Sherlock has slowly come to adopt the position that having “Caring is not an advantage” as your motto dooms you to a life of unhappiness, makes you lonely, means there’s something wrong with you. Sherlock’s seen how much his life has been enriched by genuinely caring about John and the other members of his little adopted family, and all he wants for his brother is to be happy.
I think that all Mycroft wants for his brother is to be safe. Mycroft’s seen-we’ve all seen, now, after “The Sign of Three”-exactly how soft Sherlock is, how easily he can be hurt, and it terrifies Mycroft. Moriarty’s already manipulated Sherlock into throwing away two years of his life by using three disadvantages to get at him and hurt him. Mycroft sees John and Mary getting married and thinks he can see the future, which Sherlock also dreads but bravely tries to ignore: domestic bliss between the happy couple, with no place for Sherlock, who’s left out in the cold, lonely again. Everyone, even Mrs. Hudson, thinks that’s how it will end up-except John and Mary seem determined not to let that happen. Only time will tell who’s right. Mycroft dreads that for Sherlock, having loved and lost will be worse than never having loved at all. And you know what? Looking at Sherlock’s face as he realizes there’s no dance partner for him and leaves the wedding early, I fear Mycroft might be right.
Which brings us to “His Last Vow.” Because Sherlock has married himself into Mary and John’s relationship, promising to do whatever it takes, forever and always, to keep them safe. He didn’t need to vow that; everyone already knew. But I’ll bet you that one Charles Augustus Magnussen finds that little vow to be fascinating, especially in light of how deeply disturbed Mary and Sherlock were, how easily they coordinated, how quickly they acted when John was in the bonfire. It’s clear to me that Magnussen (“CAM”) is blackmailing Mary, though I can’t guess the details or extent. I don’t believe Mary is evil, though. How far does that vow extend, one might ask, if one were a psychopath who turns even the stomach of Sherlock Holmes.
Well, we already know: Sherlock’s already been prepared to give his life to stop Moriarty, who was threatening his friends. But it’s easy to sacrifice yourself to save your friends, to selflessly throw away two years of your own life. I’m sure it’s much harder to make that decision between choosing to save someone you love over someone else you love.
So that is what I think will happen in “His Last Vow.” Sherlock will have to choose, and it will be an impossible decision. Choose between John and Mary? Or John/Mary and Mycroft? Or someone else? And one outcome is that Mycroft may end up dying because of that decision. Choosing to sacrifice himself to save Sherlock having to make the decision? Or Sherlock having to put his vow to the test, choosing between John+Mary and his own brother? I don’t know. I don’t want to know. But I fear something terrible is on the horizon.
I can tell from Mycroft’s scene on the treadmill and on the phone with Sherlock, which I thought was one of the saddest in the episode. I have no clue what the “Redbeard” reference means (I mean, if I had to guess, I would say it was the name Sherlock chose when he wanted to be a pirate, perhaps the mighty dread Captain Redbeard, and then other children at school made fun of him or perhaps worse, joined his pirate crew and then had a mutiny and kicked him out, leaving him all alone again and dashing his hopes of piracy-and friends-forever, until he met John), but I think Mycroft feels that no matter what happens from this point on, John and Mary are going to doom Sherlock, and Mycroft can’t bear to be there and watch it happen. They can destroy Sherlock by shutting him out of their relationship, they can destroy him by letting him in. These goldfish own Sherlock no matter what they do, and sooner or later some psychopath is going to take advantage of that, and it’s never been so clear to Mycroft that caring is a disadvantage.
And then, completely outside of the universe, there’s the practicalities of the filming situation. All the actors seem to like working on Sherlock. It’s become a family affair for many of them. Martin Freeman loves working with Amanda Abbington. Nobody wants to leave. And the writers certainly don’t want any of their precious actors to leave. And that is the beauty and the awful tragedy of having Mark Gatiss playing Mycroft: his character can die, and he can still be involved in the show as a writer. Hell, even as an actor in scenes taking place in Sherlock’s head (similar to Irene).
So yeah. If someone has to die-and I desperately hope that is not the case!-then I think it may very well be Mycroft. And that makes me want to sob.