who’s ready to love this show again

Some of the best researched, persuasive analysis I have ever read. This should be preserved and discussed by serious scholars. My genuine congratulations and well-deserved respect.

Copyright and s4; it's worth considering.

I’ve visited the idea of BBC politics in my musing. But let’s not forget the menace that is The Conan Doyle Estate. Have a read:

http://www.arthurconandoyle.com/copyrights.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/mr-holmes/sherlock-copyright/

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150524/17521431095/sherlock-holmes-case-never-ending-copyright-dispute.shtml

Even a ‘'nuisance’ threat could be expensive and time consuming. It’s worth keeping all this in mind when we look for answers. Note: THE THREE GARRIDEBS IS STILL UNDER COPYRIGHT. 

Throw a plethora of other films/books at the plot and make it all so unrecognisable that it confuses all who watch it. Sum it all up by placing Holmes and Watson right back where they have always been; who you are doesn’t matter. It is what it is, and it’s shit. Sounds like a pissed off statement to me. 

“The Three Garridebs is still under Copyright.”

Fucking hell.This could be one very valid answer. The still existing copyrights and their respective holders could have prevented the BBC/writers to act completely free.

“…and it is shit.”

Dangled in front of us but legal papers served? So they dangle them over a cliff!!! The past 3 seasons maybe?  All leading up to Garridebs but then cut off, killed. It’s a great metaphor if this is actually what happened. Plus the ‘'good time to take a break’ makes sense, they can’t write their ending till after 2019. 

I think we can see a clue to this also in some of “mycroft"s behavior, ie vomiting in a corner in tfp, it’s like the writer’s avatar telling us something is wrong. Then the subtext comes on very strong, and opposite of the stoopid surface "narrative”. If the writers are under some kind of NDA or gag order, either from the doyle estate or the bbc, then they cant come out and explain that, they have to convey it in the very coding they have been teaching us how to interpret. This is the one thing that, for me, may redeem the writers. Their silence since s4 is congruent with this gagging. I wonder when it changes…

all that meta

Here’s all my meta-ish ramblings since series 4 aired, in case you’re bored and in need of some entertainment 😉

What the hell happened in series 4

The Sign of (the) Three (Garridebs): One Two Three (bonus: My Dear Watson)

Decoding E’s number

Spetre at the Feast

The Song is the Answer (except the date part obviously damn it)

The longest 5 minutes, better make that 15, in TV History

The Abominable Bride, The Noble Bachelor, and Rose of the World

Thatcher, Redbeard, a series of dreadful events, and the love that have yet to speak its name

It’s a dummy. I suppose it was a fairly obvious trick

New readings: series 1 + 2

The Curious Incident of the Hounds of Baskerville

The Elephant in the Room

TBB and the Opium Wars

The Sign of (the) Three (Garridebs): Part Three

Part One   Part Two  Episode Type/Structure Chart

John. John Watson. Sherlock Holmes is lost without his blogger. So are we. What’s happening to John? Well, Eurus did tell us, but did we listen?

Three Garridebs. Six Months. Who’s Evans?

John. A dead man walking? When did this supposedly happen?

As I mentioned in a separate post, series 4 consists of events of the past, “5 minutes since Mycroft called” and 10 minutes after Sherlock landed. I may be changing my mind about how close to the present time we got by the end of TFP, but there’s really not much to go on. I think what we saw in series 4 included the missing months between Mary shot Sherlock and Christmas at the Holmes, which all connected back to Moriarty, TRF, and the cause and effect of Redbeard. All of which likely had something to do with Carl Powers,1989, kidnapped siblings (cough Jim and Mary cough), their wicked father, and Hansel and Gretel. Series 4 was not a dream, but we were mostly in Sherlock’s head. As Sherlock sorts through his memory of everything he observed and stored away, pieces from wildly different occurrences were inevitably melted together to represent various aspects of one single story: save John Watson. Not only his life but of his heart and his love – all of which tied to Sherlock’s own.

But how? Well, Sherlock was doing exactly what Sherlock Holmes does best: solve the murder. Let’s take a look at our timeline.

Six months before the tarmac scene. We know Sherlock spent a week in solitary confinement after the Magnussen incident; since his birthday was mentioned in TLD, it was likely Sherlock spent the day on the tarmac saying goodbye to his love and his life – no wonder Sherlock wanted to leave his name with John. Hahaha, but it’s not a girl’s name. FUUUUUUUUUCK. No, there is no baby, but still. Sherlock didn’t know. I don’t think he did. FUCK either way.

Anyway.

Six months - that put us before John and Mary’s wedding according to John’s blog. End of June, beginning of July. When John posted The Bloody Guardsman and The Hollow Client. I’ve covered the parallels between these cases and series 2 in part 1 but didn’t really think much about it in term of John. I rambled on a paragraph or two about The Poison Giant right after TST because of the six pearls and the Thatcher busts and the black pearl of Borgias; the jellyfish in connection to The Adventure of Lion’s Mane and how Mary’s possible posthumous revenge could work – but I didn’t pursue the idea further. However, after reading Doyle’s The Parasite and s4 by @may-shepard I realized perhaps we’ve been given clues about what’s been happening to John, alongside Sherlock and Mycroft’s more distant past. 

The sign of three referred not only to Mary (666) and Sherlock’s love (3rd death), it applied to John as well – John is the 3rd Bloody Guardsman. The case of The Poison Giant was likely the “planned and rehearsed”. But by whom?

Six pearls; six Thatcher busts. Swandale’s laptop; Ajay’s memory stick. A trap for Sherlock and John; a noose for Sherlock to put his neck into. A pair of jewel thieves; a pair of assassins. That’s… quite a few coincidences, wouldn’t you agree? Sherlock and John were able to escape The Poison Giant—Sherlock’s good with a sword and John had bought a gun—one of the thieves fell off the roof, and the other ended up in prison. In TST, Ajay ended up dead and then… nothing. Was what we saw on screen really what happened?

There are two not-good scenarios running side by side here, both lead to John being, um, undermined: a) delayed action poisoning (how little Carl died); and b) gun shot. I’m uncertain if they are both life-threatening or one is more symbolic of ACD’s The Three Garridebs:

Keep reading

Q: What was the evidence behind the concept of TLS airing during easter?

Thanks in advance

Please feel free to answer even if you weren’t tagged <3 :)

@worriesconstantly @sherlockians-get-bored @swimmingfeelsinajohnlockianpool @love-in-mind-palace @shawleyleres @shag-me-senseless-watson

I can’t remember exactly why. I’ve seen multiple posts about it. I’ll see if I can find any.

I remember it had something to do with the number of days between either TLD or TFP and Easter, plus there being biblical references in the show. I wasn’t on tumblr yet when most of them were being written. Tagging a few people that might have saved those posts: @teapotsubtext @inevitably-johnlocked @love-in-mind-palace @the-7-percent-solution @tjlc @sidryan @kinklock

It was 40 days after the date on the Rouge billboard, on the TLS site a 40 was added onto the image of Sherlock sitting in John’s chair during Moriarty’s visit, and Gatiss once tweeted about Resurrection in reference to Sherlock coming back after TRF. 40 days is the repeated biblical timeframe for periods of trial and tribulation to end. It’s also an Easter egg reference in a 2016 episode of Sherlock: Uncovered between Moffat and Gatiss that had the same dice used in a 2012 video, which ties it back to TRF again. The date on Mary’s passport has her birthday as April 16th, which this year is Easter. http://221bloodnun.tumblr.com/post/158365690934/vanillaerose-inevitably-johnlocked @themanandthemachine @sherlockians-get-bored

Also Rachel Talalay’s tweet about “making Monday brighter". Bright Monday is Easter Monday. And then her reply about being “a pawn in the theatre of the absurd”

@themanandthemachine @221bloodnun @sherlockians-get-bored

Also lots of biblical allusions on the show tying Sherlock to Jesus, Mary/Moriarty to the Devil, etc, so if the show really did Reichenbached itself with TFP, then it would “rise” and come back on Easter.

Also, on this amazon promo video, there were numbers all referring to episodes of series 4; the “92″ after the third episode struck me:

92 days after TFP is Easter.

Wait a minute. A hack. On the 16th of March? That’s tomorrow. Why do I have a strange feeling that…?

Well. It’s funny to think it anyway.

@worriesconstantly @sherlockians-get-bored @jenna221b @inevitably-johnlocked @themanandthemachine @whimsicalethnographies @bibliophile-slave @221bloodnun

@livinginadreambubble also showed me this today. Worth watching if nothing else

STOP THIS

Noticed this picture in the new Burberry ad on Tumblr. Probably not ARG related and someone probably already pointed it out by now, but the picture immediately screamed Sherlock to me. The turned up black coat collar, the dark curls, even the nose and eyes are similar to Sherlock’s. V suspicious to me, especially since it’s a company based in London. Could be that we’re getting “played for an ad campaign” again like viva.la (I see you, Moftiss.)

Tagging some people because I’m not capable enough to decipher what is ARG and what is not:

@teapotsubtext @tjlc @tjlcisthenewsexy @marcespot @jenna221b @kinklock @lilbabylestrade @sidryan @worriesconstantly @yan-yae

I inmediatly thinked that was Sherlock!! But Im not in the ARG thing and I think this is just marketing by Burberry

Oh, so sorry for tagging you! I remembered chatting with you about a meta a week or so ago and I accidentally made the connection in my head that you were part of ARG. But yeah I thought it was marketing too after like 10 seconds of thought lol. (I never know though, so I always share just in case.) Sorry again for tagging you!

oh good here’s the image in question

In what I hope is not too much of a downwards spiral, I attempt to explain the “Bless the Poisoner” theory. (Part One?)

Part One: Set the stage (aka “Why are we looking out a window in the Abominable Bride if Sherlock left the plane?”)

(We’ll be acknowledging their fictitious reality for the most part, and hopefully you can see for yourself how it parallels the set-up of the actual seasons of the series from a “Writers” and “Show” perspective, but there may be some acknowledged points, such as the anger Series 4 caused, but they rather stick out on their own.)

BOOKS!

It’s in books. {Their books?} Because of course it’s in books, that’s the original argument. “But the source said…”

However, we were told right from the decoder episode that it was books all along. (Yes, you read that right. The Decoder Episode aka why John finds everything so easily: the spray paint behind books, the rando tea cup with the number. {I’m a storyteller. I know when I’m in one.}.

Look at it as thus: the stage is set, the puzzle given, the game’s afoot; the players are introduced (A Study in Pink), the cypher is acknowledged (The Blind Banker), solve it (The Great Game). The spoken cypher in The Blind Banker was books, everything else is visual and sub-textual (like tea code and such, which is why I think something “drastic” will happen in 5x1, maybe 15 minutes in?).

But which book is it?

Well, let’s make a list.

Now hear me out on this, because I really do believe “The Princess Bride” is one of these decoder books.

Mainly, it’s the plot decoder. Their reality and ours (to a degree, I mean, don’t ask it for lotto numbers).

(*violently whispers* Shakespeare’s sonnets is the emotional decoder.

Sherlock was attached to a heart monitor with a number readout, in an episode about the effects of mixed memories in relation to drug use, and Sherlock spouting Shakespeare whilst drugged out. Well, then he’s “drugged out” in the hospital, heart machine, and the earlier mentioned Shakespeare has a collective works of numbered sonnets, as pictured above. It’s a much nicer looking book than the picture credits… has so many notations, it’s beautiful. Okay, sorry, back to this.)

Anywho!

Side Thought of coincidences: {‘William’ Sherlock Scott Holmes. That’s the whole of it – if you’re looking for baby names. Sherlock:HLV}

Another side thought fluttering into view, murmuring: Baby. Buttercup’s baby. Mary’s baby. The baby is a representation of love, and “self-loathing” is holding it hostage. (oh dear, it’s not murmuring, it’s fuming.)

Well, let’s delve into that plot everyone thinks the Writers lost.

(But let’s be honest.   Cause really.   They haven’t.

Not in the least.

{Am I invisible? Can you actually see me?} )

But to the plot! Starting at the very beginning, with a look at the 30th anniversary introduction as we set the stage a little.

The Princess Bride:

No.. not yet. No. This one, the book one:

I’d never read it, only seen the movie (i know! a crime! and that’s what we’re getting to here, patience) but I found a copy in a rummage sale awhile back and I know this book is never leaving my shelves hereafter.

It’s a delight, but what I take most joy in are the parallels between BBC Sherlock and this book blurring lines of fiction and reality (much like the way fandom has seemed to turn).

By creating a fictional author (S. Morgenstern), Goldman (also spinning a fictional life of himself) is able to experience the book alongside the reader. The way I see it Goldman and his (-son Willy and their fictional-) reality represent the writers and fandom and such, going to the Sherlock Holmes museum and such. Therefore, “The Story” is Sherlock Holmes and his motley crew.

Now..

Indeed the most obvious thing to point out right away is the idea that S. Morgenstern existed in the first place, as he did not, but thinking along these lines tends to unravel in a thought process that is similar to that of “The Holmesian Game” so we’ll plunge forward keeping the fiction alive.

Let’s go straight to the source!

The sanctuary? Hm, kinda like a mind palace. hmmm. I wonder then what could be going on as to make one retreat so fully into the Sanctuary, so as wanting to read the volumes there, as if in comfort? HMM. See here, regarding the skull picture.

Okay, forget subtly. WE ARE CURRENTLY IN THE ZOO OF DEATH, AS OF His Last Vow. So much shit hit the fan and this book tells us why––in both realities. (Possible reason why Sherlock is brutalized without blood? Taking his mind away from the scene? As like Westley..? But it can’t help but leak in?)

(“I need to speak to Mycroft.” “He’s in hospital, there was an media explosion.” “Put me through to the hospital.” “He’s not conscious. He’s severely injured. No-one is even confident he’s going to pull through.” “Where’s his brother? Where’s Sherlock Holmes?” “Missing.”)

Mycroft is drinking himself into Hospital (Inigo drinks heavily, thinking himself a failure) {Oh Sherlock, what have you done? Mycroft:HLV}, Sherlock is Heaven’s knows where (*cough*InTheCarBoot, so to speak*cough*Zoo of Death*cough*), John is with Humperdinck–I mean, uh–Mary.

And Fezzik Lestrade? Well, like any good friend I assume he’s concerned.

Right, you all asked for a puzzle. Here it is again in a picture.

(9 nicely presented teacups; 9 episodes. To the right is an arrow, oh look it points to a book! (keep moving in that round direction) The book leads deciphers the papers, the letters papers to the teapot, it shattered (the first two shards are greater than the last, thank-you tiny shard). There’s three cups waiting to be made presentable, you just need a new vase, i mean, teapot. I think I heard of a small production company coming together to make a great story..)

Don’t worry! Sherlock’s got it covered! He’s good with tea.

Series One: Sherlock catches the teapot. (He startled the curator, by being a little too forward?) Series Two: John suggests that Hudson ask if Sherlock wants tea. (To help with “the withdrawal”) Series Three: Sherlock drops a burnt eyeball into his tea. (*quietly hums Private Eyes*) Series Four: Sherlock saves the tea cup. (But not without a bloodletting tea spilling)

Please. Could anyone spare some change–for the tea, of course.

But come with us now on a journey through page and verse! As we dig deep into the meta to untangle this fable.

(MORE)

Keep reading

So many bells going off in my head on reading this. Won’t hijack the post, will post separately. 

From “Sherlock Uncovered: The Return” (2016)

It wouldn’t be an ARG if we didn’t read way too much into every little thing…right? Apologies for tags, just wanted to share. ;) @diemeliyay​ @arglocked @inevitably-johnlocked @jenna221b @waitedforgarridebs

UHM. WHAT ARE THEY DOING THERE. THAT’S A REALLY SPECIFIC NUMBER OF DICE WITH A VERY SPECIFIC NUMBER DISPLAYED ON THEM. 

AND WHY DICE. THERE’S NO LOGICAL REASON FOR THAT TO BE A SET PIECE… unless it’s hinting at a game.

*looks wearily at Sunday April 16th*

UHM OKAY. I JUST HAD A FUCKING EPIPHANY WITH THIS.

What does one normally do with dice when PLAYING A GAME? 

You add up the sides.

FOUR DICE. SHOWING THE NUMBER 4.

4. TIMES FUCKING 4. 

IS FUCKING SIX FUCKING TEEN.

APRIL 16…. *heavy sigh* IS FUCKING EASTER SUNDAY.

GODDAMNIT.

NOW I AM WILLING TO ADMIT THAT THIS IS JUST A NOD TO SEASON 4.

But an EASTER EGG. IS STILL A FUCKING EASTER EGG.

ahem i’d like to point out that the dice were also shown in this video from john’s blog on the 16 of march (this video was uploaded in 2012) 

???????

@teapotsubtext @the-7-percent-solution 

@whimsicalethnographies @worriesconstantly

all I can think of is four out of four, like “4/4”, like four episodes out of season four

its on hoes

“It’s only going to upset you.” Mary took John’s note?

I’ve been mulling over this theory more and more, that Mary has been drugging John and Sherlock with TD12. I’ll specifically focus on John here:

So, from possibly the end of The Six Thatchers leading into The Lying Detective, John is starting to ‘see’ Mary. But because of the drug, he is not sure what is real and what isn’t– he doesn’t understand that the real Mary is actually holding him hostage. (See Looks like John’s trapped by @teapotsubtext)

But, like the real Faith, perhaps something started to click before John forgot entirely. We see Faith upset and shaking trying to write out her note:

FAITH (tearfully): I can’t remember. Can’t remember who you’re gonna kill. SMITH: Dear, in five minutes you won’t even remember why you were crying. (x)

Imagine Smith as Mary and John as Faith:

What if John pretty damned smart Watson was fighting the effects of the drug, had started to remember that something was Very Wrong. He needs to leave a message, let Sherlock know-

But Mary is always watching him. She sees John writing the note and:

“Oh, Faith John. Don’t you think I should take that? It’s only going to upset you.” 

She can’t have John and Sherlock communicating at all, she needs to keep them isolated from each other, make them feel like all hope is lost. She can’t risk Sherlock reading any sort of sign from John. 

So, what does she do? Well, why not amp up the isolation even more? Threaten more people to follow her own game plan? 

What if Mary threatened Molly, forcing her to hand Sherlock a note, and to tell him it was from John:

But, it wasn’t. Perhaps it was a deliberately scathing note, designed to keep Sherlock from contacting John, so that he would not reveal to John the DVD Mary sent him.  

And meanwhile, Mary destroys the evidence John wrote. Without the note, just like Faith, he forgets that anything was ever amiss.

LOVE THIS THEORY. Makes so much sense. PLUS Mary KNOWS John has hallucinated in the past about dead people in his life (remember TEH and John looking to her to ensure she’s seeing Sherlock too? That to me says that John has hallucinated Sherlock in the past, and that Mary is aware of it), so she thinks she was important enough to John that she could fool him into thinking John would hallucinate her too… until he actually does, with the TD-12 drug. PLUS a lot of the language she uses in T6T and TLD is very “suggestive”, like she’s trying to plant ideas into John’s head (the “letter she wrote” to him while on the run) and is using John’s own sense of poor self worth against him.

How would she have administered the drug? We see it only used through IV.

There was a theory going around here that “Eurus” (read: Mary) intentionally made sure she had a moment alone with Sherlock in The Lying Detective (that the audience hasn’t seen the whole of yet)- more drugs could have been slipped in the water she gave him.

Well John is notoriously easy to poison, Sherlock’s said so himself. He may have even given her the idea, at the wedding. And the easiest way to slip it to Sherlock would be to have his dealer/chemist on your side, someone Mary’s already met… maybe earlier than we’re led to believe. 

“Don’t drink Mary’s tea.” IF THEIR TEA WAS POISONED IN REVENGE… ALSO, could that add more to Wiggins just up and leaving when Sherlock starts his Henry V speech? “He’s lost it, he’s totally gone.” Did he know the stuff was kicking in fully and felt guilty?

Wiggins you traitor…

:’( but if this is happening, and obviously Billy Wiggins=William=William Sherlock… then it’s a mirror for Mary manipulating Sherlock…

My latest theory is that Sherlock ignores Vatican Cameos because John thinks he ignored the note (when in fact Mary interfered).

oh. OH. OUCH

oh my god @nottoolateforthegame this is KILLING ME…. John in the opening of TLD bitterly saying he’s not been in contact with Sherlock and Sherlock’s not attempted to make any contact with him;- Eurus Mary taunting him: “How can you be sure? He might have tried.” And John replying: “ No, if Sherlock Holmes wants to get in touch, that’s not something you can fail to notice.”

!!!

So Mary uses Eurus to do stuff or Mary is Eurus? And we say that TFP is John bleeding to death after Mary shot him/ Eurus for Mary? @jenna221b

yeah I see it more as Mary literally is Eurus (see A Case of (Mistaken) Identity) and after she shoots John, she causes the pained hallucinated TFP– she is ‘the grim figure of death’, the one who brings about John’s Garridebs/near death moment.

This transition shot from T6T is similar to the drug effects of TD-12 we see in The Lying Detective the next episode that affects the memory.

(Thanks to @jenna221b and @smoljohnlock whose observations inspired this post)

Faith tries to write down what happened before she forgets, but her note is confiscated by the perpetrator.

It also happens during Sherlock’s sequence of deducing Culverton’s “anyone” was the one word of the person he wanted to kill. The transition at the top also has a weirdly ominous tone with Sherlock passing by, and while the episode and series has other transition shots like it, it reminded me specifically of the end of the episode with the shark:

As I explained here, while Magnussen is also compared to a shark in His Last Vow in relation to the Samarra metaphor, the grim figure of death is actually Mary. In an episode filled with shark imagery that very much jumps the shark, beginning the bad reviews of the season, and doesn’t make sense because it’s not real.

Mary is the shark, Mary is death, Mary is Samarra, Mary’s supposed post-humous Retro-Netflix DVD Subscription message is the final shot we see in The Final Problem before the last shot of John and Sherlock being frozen in time. Mary is still alive, somehow altering what we’ve seen with the TD-12 drug.

Immediately afterwards as Vivian Norbury is dragged out like a Scooby-Doo villain with a projector behind her (“that’s not how it happened at all”) we see Mary’s ashes supposedly enveloped by flames.

This satanic imagery links her to Moriarty once again (the I.O.U. apple as Satan offering Eden the apple in The Reichenbach Fall, Moriarty in the valley of death in The Hounds of Baskerville), as did the script of His Last Vow, referring to her as “satanic.”

The flames are blue, linking Mary again to the blue visions of water Sherlock keeps having, Mary is the shark again, Sherlock keeps thinking it must be Moriarty. The connection to Eurus and Victor in The Final Problem doesn’t make sense because it’s not real, Sherlock has no reason to connect that to this moment, aside from the incredibly loose “Eurus killed Trevor, Eurus recorded reaction gifs from Moriarty five years ago, I have no way of knowing that tho as I stare at the missing figure of Thatcher which has the AGRA USB inside” which is already discarding the Mary connection.

Mary and Moriarty are the same person. “It’s the gap, it’s wrong.” Blue is fake.

John is seen walking through a graveyard as the shot is out of focus, and he looks like he’s dissociating (that 2017 #mood):

Someone is calling him but he doesn’t answer. He returns to the same dissociative march.

Zooming in and stretching out, the number is private.

This is reminiscent of Molly in The Final Problem, letting us know again that Molly is a mirror for John. Molly/John needs Sherlock to say it first before they can say it back, except with her the phone did say “Sherlock”, and in this instance John literally CAN’T answer because he is being prevented from answering the phone and communicating with Sherlock. Phones are heart metaphors, John can’t answer his heart, they can’t love each other because the the truth is being obscured.

Molly gives Sherlock the letter from John. In the context of how much this miscommunication/last minute confession has been set-up over the course of the show in terms of John and Sherlock confessing their love for each other, which was planned to be and will be the climax, this is the planted seed to uncovering what’s going on as we’ve all been saying, it was left unresolved on purpose.

Also remember that Mary literally did already drug Sherlock in this version of events by bringing and… drugging a fake note, bringing chloroform to a meeting containing information about her past that she had no way of knowing about, designed as part of the alibi to make Mary on the run look as good and redemptive as possible. lmao I don’t think it was a baby thing she was hiding in her fanny pack

In the beginning of The Lying Detective John is still dissociating but in a more coherent or settled state. The eerie way it’s set up makes it look like at first that Mary is really there and she’s holding John hostage… did she confiscate John’s letter or forge it somehow, as Culverton did with Faith?

This is part of the long-running parallel with The Abominable Bride which foreshadowed series 4:

Mary isn’t dead, she faked her death, drugged John, and is back for revenge. The ultimate revenge of keeping them apart. Mary and Moriarty are Emelia Ricoletti:

Also, I know that people are bitter on dale pike since we first found the AO3 fics, but I think the metaphor that I pointed out here still works:

Because… it’s exactly what the opening did:

Some of us assumed that John in the well would be the Garridebs moment, but it was faked. There was so much discussion about the hands in the opening, The Lying Detective’s first shot and it’s last not matching I didn’t realize.

Of course, as The Abominable Bride told us, John will be the one to save the day after John and Sherlock admit they love each other. If Mary and Moriarty are the same person but Moriarty is really dead (which seems up in the air, but Mary is definitely alive), John shooting Mary could be the equivalent.

The real Garridebs moment is still out there, frozen in time with the teacup as well as John and Sherlock in the last shot of The Final Problem. Sumatra is still out there, the bomb waiting to explode. It can still be prevented.

Leak the special, you monsters. John’s been bleeding out for almost two months.

bless you

John’s hair conundrum

I’ve had a lot of spare time to simply think over the last couple of weeks and my wee little obsessive brain just can’t let go thinking about John’s fucking S4 hair! Honestly, it drove me mental that it was never hinted at, poked fun of, or tangentially mentioned that John Watson had this super massive make-over practically overnight. The most observant man in the world didn’t see fit to mention it? Or that the wife’s had grown several inches in the span of days???

What gives????

As I lay sick as a dog, this is the thing that haunted my idle hours, until it hit me. Duh! Like, we’ve been staring the reason in the face for ages now and I kind of feel foolish that it took me this long to realise (because, surely, someone else in fandom has figured this out and I’ve missed it, and if that is the case, all the apologies for being late to the game here and I do not mean to step on any toes)

Remember where we left them.

TAB

Holmes and Watson, together at Baker Street as it should always be. I know there is still fandom leanings that not all of TAB was mind palace, that some of the plane scenes might have been real, that some of them weren’t. I’ve seen it stated that this end scene was merely ‘decorative’. The bridging gap between the modern and Victorian. I agree that it is that, but that it’s also real. This ending was the same as the one of Moriarty at the end of HLV and I believe it’s meant to be read in the same way. 

This scene is our connection (bridge) to S4. 

Oh, but they did, Sherlock! Because he then gets up and moves to the window overlooking Baker Street and we see it in modern times.

We go from this, straight into The Six Thatchers. A wholly enthusiastic Sherlock, Twittering up a storm, taking advantage of multiple electronic platforms to solve crimes, spinning all those plates. 

S4 Sherlock truly is a man out of his time. The Victorian sensibility let loose in the modern landscape. It’s no wonder he seemed high. 

Where does this leave John? (and Mary??)

For me, understanding that when we look at S4 we are seeing Holmes and Watson as they would be in the modern era, helps tremendously in understanding their characterisations this series. The number one complaint I had immediately (and I’ve seen echoed in other comments as well) was just how wrong John’s character seemed this time round. If he is inhabiting the more stoic and staid Victorian Watson personality throughout S4 it becomes, not a case of character change, but perception change. This is Sherlock’s continued vision (EMP) carried over from TAB.

Hence the hair!

The hair is the same as TAB because this is the same John Watson as TAB. And that is why there is never any comment about it, imo. Why would there be? This is a dream / mind palace journey, so there is no right or wrong; there is no reason to make note of it for Sherlock (or anyone else) because it just is.

It goes for Mary, too. Transferring all of her TAB characteristics make perfect sense of her characterisation in S4. The sudden WTFery of having her character do a complete 180 now becomes, not sloppy careless shitty writing on Mofftiss’ part (and I am not looking for a reason to excuse Mofftiss for being complete asshates to fandom, this is has nothing to do with that at all) but the continued heart-wrenching need for Sherlock to make sense of who and what she is and what she did to him. Sherlock cares too much, too deeply and I believe, doesn’t have it in him to believe the truly worst in the people he has decided to love and trust. Much to his continued detriment.

So, looking at Mary through this lens starts to make sense. She’s in no way been redeemed. It’s merely that Sherlock hasn’t seen the light about her yet.

MARY (voiceover): My darling. (John sits in a chair at home reading a handwritten letter.) MARY (voiceover): I need to tell you this because you mustn’t hate me for going away.

That’s a enough to be going on with, don’t you think?

@loveismyrevolution @ebaeschnbliah @isitandwonder @tjlcisthenewsexy @yan-yae @gosherlocked @may-shepard @impatient14 @shawleyleres @themanandthemachine

This is great @monikakrasnorada!!

I can’t screen shot it but there was also the moment in TAB when Sherlock was on the floor after he awakens from his cocaine stupor and John is standing over him, where SHerlock’s hair comes loose and he threads his fingers through it to put it back in its place. Well, John does the exact same move on the bus in TST when he is eye fucking “E.”

Its purposefully the exact same move. 

As I said in my space-time continuum meta’s, I think TAB serves as the reflective surface (pepper ghost) between series three and four, so it would definitely make sense that there would be mirroring moments such as these!

Yes, @impatient14, the hair move™. That Sherlock gave John that same smooth move gives me life, tbh. And one of the gazillion little things that make me 1000% believe ALL of S4 is EMP through Sherlock. Even TFP (I know I’m in the minority in that thinking, but I can’t add head-hopping to Mofftiss’ list of deplorable schenanigans this series) so it has to be in Sherlock’s head, not John’s.

Very, very interesting. I can’t believe none of us have talked about it being the same hair as TAB. Their hair length has been bothering me since setlock.

I just can’t reconcile the idea of S4 being in Sherlock’s mind, though. To me, S4 has to be something that John is working through. This is a lot to think about, thank you!

That it’s still in Sherlock’s head makes more sense to me than it being somehow now in John’s in TFP. Unless everyone is now saying the entirety of s4 is in John’s mind?? Which, no. I can’t make much sense of that either. And if it’s only TFP and means that T6T and TLD are ‘real’? I’m really not onboard.

This is brilliant and SO interesting! And finally, finally, someone is analyzing John’s changed appearance in S4. I fully agree that it’s all happening inside Sherlock’s head; it’s the only reading of S4 that ultimately makes sense to me, clever as the John versions may be too. If Sherlock really did wake up on the plane in TAB, why would we see the domestic Victorian scene after that? But him shifting into modern times without traveling back, without waking up does make logical sense if it’s still inside his head. 

Apart from the hair, I also think John’s new way of dressing is entirely because of Sherlock. It’s usually Sherlock who has a “certain quiet primness of dress” - not John Watson. But in S4 John wears tasteful blue shirts, doing justice to his eyes, and the (in my opinion quite horrible) jumpers are gone. This is Sherlock dressing John up according to Sherlock’s taste! :) And I think Sherlock is idolizing Mary as well, making her look more angel-like than in HLV, inventing excuses for her, converting her into a martyr rather than consciously facing who she really is (and connecting her to Moriarty). It really does make sense.

Yes yes yes, @possiblyimbiassed!! John’s S4 clothing choices!!! That’s more of what I wanted to further explore about this theory because it’s truly the only thing that makes sense of all these changes. Sherlock’s made John his personal mind palace Ken doll. “Tweeds in a morgue?” Honestly, since when has John Watson commented on what is appropriate attire? That is completely Sherlock’s wheel house. And, MARY! Why else would she be styled in clothing so reminiscent of Sherlock this series if not to show that Sherlock is vicariously projecting his ‘attributes’ onto her? I can’t believe we haven’t been talking about this all along!!!

@loveismyrevolution @tjlcisthenewsexy @impatient14 @shawleyleres @may-shepard @devoursjohnlock

and I don’t know about you guys but the way Mary was dressed in these promo pictures always bothered me. like, why the suit? she totally abandoned her feminine attire. she looks like a short and blonde female version of Sherlock.

I never really voiced my concerns but it’s nice to know I wasn’t “seeing into things” and someone else noticed too!

Reblogging this again for all the amazing and insightful comments.

so, i attempted to cram as many of s4′s film references as i could into one video …

Keep reading

So nothing is original. Awesome.

Amazing. Thanks for this incredible compilation!

CAM’s looking glass

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

IS MAGNUSSEN’S LOOKING GLASS IN 221B?

Is it obscuring the flow of time?

And the truth?

Who’s HE? Not once did John and Lestrade mentioned Sherlock by name during the exchange in the interrogation room.

AND WTF IS THAT BEHIND JOHN?

W.T.F.

JFC is that a reflection of Mycroft in double sided glass, @darlingtonsubstitution?

IT’S ALL FAKE

what the fuck

Ffuucckkk

WHAT. WOW GOOD EYE. I NEVER SAW THAT CREEPY FACE BEHIND JOHN.

Animal symbolism on BBC Sherlock -- short version

I love the symbolism of animals on BBC Sherlock, but haven’t seen anyone write a meta about it, so I think this could be helpful?

Before you read: you need to have read M-theory from @loudest-subtext-in-tv​ and watched TJLC Explained, or at least be familiar with the concepts. I’m lazy so I take a lot of shortcuts with this, and it will not make much sense to you if you aren’t. The “water is gay” thing comes from this s4 trailer and various fan metas about the show.

Anyway, here goes:

Cats = women or girls. 

By association, this also applies to anyone with a name similar to or diminutive of Katherine.

Dogs = men or boys. 

Elephants = gay unspoken love. 

I don’t even need to say any more at this point, do I? They’ve been everywhere since TEH at least.

Rabbits = children

Magpies = Moriarty or Moriarty-mirrors.

Spiders = Mycroft. 

This one is really tricky. A

lthough Sherlock refers to Moriarty as a spider in TRF:

Note 2: The spider/bird dynamic that Moriarty and Mycroft have going on is quite interesting, because although most of time birds (ie Moriarty) are the ones that prey on spiders (Mycroft), there are spiders that hunt and eat birds. They are big, jumping, and utterly terrifying, spiders. So Mycroft may not be doomed after all. Or he may contribute in a significant way to Moriarty’s downfall. I hope so, anyway.

Sharks = someone or something that preys on gay people 

I’m saying this because sharks are predators and water is gay. And because they’re associated with Magnussen, professional blackmailer, Norbury, who uses love (Amo) as a weapon, and Mary, who does pretty much the same. And I found what follows on John’s blog, on the post that Sherlock made about John and Mary’s wedding:

Now, after some quick research on pregnancy and seafood, I found this:

So subtextually: Sherlock advises Mary to not prey on gay people if she wants her baby to have a healthy nervous system (ie not have depression or anxiety and/or other mental illness and/or personality disorder that comes with, you know, being constantly under threat because of who you are), and Mary gets angry with him. Meanwhile, Jacob Sowersby, aka Sherlock and John’s biggest fan, knows exactly what’s going on.

(Moreover…. children being poisoned with mercury… where have I seen this before? Oh, right. TRF, of course. Could be another hint that Mary is part of Moriarty’s circle.)

Jellyfish = victorious gay love

Now, apparently, aequoria victoria means seas victory in latin. And since water is gay, that makes jellyfish a symbol of gay love’s triumph.

TL;DR: Animals are important to read the subtext.

Don’t hesitate to comment or pm me if you want to add things or have objections or whatever.

I don’t know who to tag.