#Look I really don't like Elias Openshaw and I don't think he is at all redeemed by the narrative

[mariana-oconnor]

The Five Orange Pips pt 2

There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads.

Ghost murderer.

"They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in the house with me." "Has he come with you tonight?" "No. His orders were to stay in the house." Again Holmes raved in the air.

First, all my Holmesies at the rave:

Second, I'm really going to agree with Holmes here. Neither of the first two deaths occurred in the house. The policeman should be on bodyguard duty not house guarding duty. What the actual? This is spectacular incompetence. To the point where it borders on conspiracy.

"There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do you understand?"

And we come to the further reason why Elias Openshaw was a massive dick. By burning the papers he ensured that his family would have no way to prove that they were gone and therefore protect themself. The one scrap exists by luck rather than design and honestly, isn't proof that everything's been destroyed. Do I want the bad guys to get their papers back? No. But there was definitely a better way to play this than to leave your family with literally no way to protect themselves. You can't just say 'the papers don't exist anymore' and expect everyone to believe it.

Outside the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come to us from amid the mad elements—blown in upon us like a sheet of seaweed in a gale—and now to have been reabsorbed by them once more.

In case you had forgotten, the weather is miserable, but Watson's clearly loving it.

"But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to what these perils are?" "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered.

Based on the lack of any physical evidence at the second death site, I still feel like 'the ghosts of the people Elias Openshaw murdered' would 100% be a reasonable solution for this story if it were to step into the supernatural.

As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone,

Sounds fake, but OK. It's the Victorian period. Anything goes. (Also apparently Cuvier was anti-evolution and laid the basis for scientific racism, so we're really in it now)

"It was a singular document. Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the main points of my analysis."

Ah, a flashback to A Study in Scarlet, if I remember correctly. Nice little nod to the readers, ACD.

a possession of all knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment

In these days of wikipedia... I think you might call that a completely unknown accomplishment.

And we finally get to the part of the story with the anti-racism. Thank you ACD for putting this in Holmes' voice and making it very, very clear where he stands on the matter.

"You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may well have been cause and effect."

And this is where we get the 'Openshaw might have been remorseful and changed sides' narrative from. That and the 'my sins' line from the first part. Sure, fine. Maybe he decided that they were going too far and perhaps the murdering, intimidation and terrorism were a little more extreme than he wanted. But fuck that, because he kept the fucking papers.

Maybe it was shame that held his tongue, but I keep coming back to the papers, over and over again. If he was already marked for death then why tf did he burn the papers and not turn them over to an authority that could actually do something with them? That would have protected his family at least a little and it would have stopped the papers from falling back into the wrong hands. It's absolutely the best play here. He has evidence of crimes committed. He has nothing left to lose. He should have turned the papers over immediately, but whatever. At this point he has no reason not to turn them over.

Sure, he probably would still have been killed, but he was dead anyway. All he had to do was try to take them down with him. But he didn't. He burnt the papers. So even if he was remorseful or ashamed or whatever (and it doesn't seem like from his nephew's description of him that he was particularly changed in his viewpoints) he still didn't go far enough to actually try to do something about it. Instead he put his family at risk and tried to protect what? His reputation? Fuck that.

He stopped for himself. He protected himself. And then at the end, he protected his reputation.

"There is nothing more to be said or to be done to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable ways of our fellowmen."

Some music to soothe the spirits. Holmes fiddles while London storms.

#long post #the five orange pips #letters from watson #Sherlock Holmes #Look I really don't like Elias Openshaw and I don't think he is at all redeemed by the narrative #he's a racist selfish idiot murderer