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abumblebeeat221b · 7 years

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A List of Remarkable Things about ‘The Lying Detective’

Sorry, I’m late. There should be a law against holding a company’s annual general meeting the day after a Sherlock episode airs.

TD 12. A memory-altering drug is an interesting addition to the Sherlockverse (as opposed to the Whoniverse, for example).

Sherlock’s flashbacks of that one gun from the beginning, and a syringe. Oddly enough, John gets the same (very similar?) flashback without the syringe.

Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it.

That almost sounds as if Sherlock believed Mary didn’t have the right to save him. My heart.

The game’s afoot.

Henry V’s famous pep talk. Niiiiiiiiiiice.

Mrs Hudson. (I really hope Una Stubbs gets at least nominated for a BAFTA, because she is brilliant). She is there when Sherlock watches Mary’s video. The whole thing. She is in on this from the very start. She watches Sherlock *go through hell*. And she puts on that act for John.

Ode to Joy. It is actually a poem written by a Friedrich Schiller, which then Beethoven (yes, THAT Beethoven) adapted in the last (and probably most beautiful) part of his 9th symphony. Why am I telling you this? Because the part we hear in the episode, just so happens to be also the official anthem of the European Union. The very European Union some British do not want to be part of any more. They could have used literally any other classical piece of music to make that scene work. But they did not. If this is not a political statement then I do not know what is… (On a side note: the original German lyrics we hear in the episode, do not belong to the anthem, officially, but there are a lot of people who sing them along anyway).

The boot was mean.

Let’s not forget that Sherlock was in the boot of that car through that ride. And I think she *did* surprise him there, which means he really scared poor Hudders. Which in return means, while Sherlock has a plan, Hudders is not sure how much of this is real, and I don’t know Sherlock is sure either. If he really drives himself to a point where he can’t beat Culverton Smith on his own, then he really must have loved Mary to give up that one thing he’s always been able to rely on. And he did it BECAUSE SHE ASKED HIM TO, and knew she was right. I really hope she comes back from the dead simply because I want to see more of that friendship.

For a moment Sherlock forgot he had been dead for two years. I’m not convinced, it’s because of the drugs (or something else). It’s more fun to imagine there were just more important things to keep in mind, so he deleted it.

Dead!Mary explaining Sherlock’s deductions to John. What is there not to like about that (apart from, you know, her being dead)?

[Who shoots up at a hospital and why would John be okay with that? Is this a plot hole (= something that doesn’t make sense), a plot point (= a crucial element of the plot that is to follow), or just something that is there because it works for the story (it proves Sherlock’s addiction beyond doubt, and shows John puts his doctor-y duties on hold for a moment, because Sherlock said he had a plan, and that he needed John on his side)? I don’t know *sobs* ]

You should be wearing the hat. The kids would love the hat.

Note the “you”. Maybe Sherlock is hallucinating her too. And I love how Mary laughs softly every time Sherlock tries and spectacularly fails to tell one of their cases because he keeps giving the solution away even before he’s properly started. Maybe, that’s what he is trying to do in the first place.

No-one’s untouchable.

The way John says that line. Welcome back to the thrill of the chase.

Look at him! Go ahead, look at him, Dr Watson!

That scene hurts. It is Moriarty at Kitty Riley’s flat all over again. Culverton Smith gives himself the power to change reality by the command of a word. He gets off on seeing other people’s fear, on making them understand that there is nothing they can do against him. He makes the rules, and then shows off how he can get away with breaking them. He may not be Moriarty or Magnussen. But he is the emotionally most exhausting villain I’ve ever, EVER seen.

Not long ago he shot Charles Magnussen in the face, we did see it coming.

Erm John, are you sure Lestrade was supposed to know that?

Let him do what he wants. He’s entitled. I killed his wife.

If the other scene hurt, then this is where they crush this fandom’s soul. Because if he really just imagined Faith at 221b, then how did he get the case? How did he get those details about her note? The meeting? He was supposed to save John with this case. And he did not just fail John, but also Mary.

John’s cane. And this is where things become tricky: Sherlock must have known the woman who brought him the case was not Faith. Because if she had been Culverton’s daughter, he couldn’t have manipulated John into beating him up in the mortuary, which put him into Culverton Smith’s 2nd most favourite room at the hospital, which in return prompted John to leave the cane there (the episode is called The Lying Detective for a reason). But this begs the question: did he recognise Eurus? If yes, why didn’t he tell John? Did he tell Mycroft? At least it would explain why she was so good at avoiding the cameras. Also, Sherlock’s “big brother’s watching” just got a new meaning.

The secret sibling. Who is Eurus? I know she claims her parents are Mr and Mrs Holmes. But isn’t it a bit odd that in TAB when MP!John suggests that maybe Emilia had a secret twin, Sherlock is outright against the idea, even though he is actually trying to answer the question if Moriarty could have faked his death. I know we are talking a secret sibling here, but wouldn’t Sherlock having a secret sibling stashed away somewhere be reason enough to give MP!John’s idea a go?

Get out of my house, you reptile.

Hudders says that because Mycroft didn’t leave her flat, and thereby admitted not to have a single spark of human decency. I just love Mrs Hudson, okay?

The Dying Detective. Culverton Smith at Sherlock’s hospital bed. Now, that’s how you adapt Doyle.

- You’re okay? - No, no, of course I’m not okay. Malnourished, double kidney failure, and frankly, I’ve been off my tits for weeks. What kind of a doctor are you?

Because I was talking about The Dying Detective a second ago: I love how Moffat turns the original scene where in the end Holmes tries to console Watson’s hurt feeling (because he claimed earlier he didn’t trust him as a doctor) upside down.

And, of course, I hadn’t really anticipated that I’d hallucinated meeting his daughter.

Liar. If he hadn’t known she wasn’t the real Faith, John would have never beaten him up in the morgue (although in all fairness, he is Sherlock Holmes. He knows how to push John’s buttons). I know later we see Sherlock saying “she was real” and getting too excited about that note. Do you really think Sherlock wouldn’t recognise his own sister? But then, who knows, maybe, she is not his sister after all.

The useless recording of Culverton’s confession. When John is about to leave and Sherlock says how the recordings can’t be used as evidence he is really trying to make John stay a bit longer. Awwwwwww.

Actually, he should wear the hat as a special tribute to me. I’m dead, I would really appreciate it.

Even John’s subconscious in the form of his lovely Dead!Wife is trying every trick in the book to make John stay.

Irene’s text alert. As much as I’d love them to bring Irene Adler back I’m not buying it. Yes, it is Sherlock’s birthday, and odds are she wouldn’t forget something like that and would therefore text him (that also would mean that John said his long overdue *it was not your fault* on Sherlock’s birthday, which is a nice touch. AND that Sherlock made sure to keep that alert on his new phone). But. With a possibly faked death, a mystery woman on the loose, and whatever “Sharinford” is referring to, I think this story has already enough going on. So, I doubt she’d make an appearance. (I’d laugh if it tuned out that text wasn’t from our all-time-favourite dominatrix. I mean, this episode was officially written by the Mighty Moff who likes to be unpredictable).

High Wycombe. What has High Wycombe got to do with anything? Is this a clue? Are they being clever? Is there an inside joke I’m not aware of? Foreshadowing? This show has ruined me, hasn’t it?

John’s confession to Dead!Mary. Wow, Moffat really wants Sherlock to know about the woman on the bus.

Dead!Mary’s reaction.

Now, that is a bit self-serving isn’t it? Yes, it was just texting, and Mary would have forgiven him, obviously. But that scene still feels wrong for a reason. IMO it’s that we have Mary forgiving him in a heartbeat in John’s fantasy that leaves a sour after taste. It’s not the worst thing which happened on the show. But I don’t like how by the next episode that texting will have lost this fuzzy emotional impact, in favour to be turned into a neatly defined plot device. It’s a bit like them insisting on Janine being Mary’s best friend, but when Mary dies nobody as much as mentions her. How convenient.

I’m Sherlock Holmes - I wear the damn hat! Isn’t that right, Mary?

Awwwwww. He does have hallucinations about her too. Of course, that scene should have ended with John looking back, and seeing her sitting in Sherlock’s chair, smirking. For various reasons. [ PS: If they really bring Mary back (and I really hope they will), I need Sherlock and John to do the classic “you can see her too” trope.]

Faith’s note. Okay. If Culverton Smith gave Eurus that note (odds are not completely voluntarily, even if (or because?) a certain common friend and criminal master mind was involved) then the moment Sherlock mentions that Culverton invited Faith to a special meeting, Culverton knows who is really playing Sherlock Holmes.

Faith’s gun. Great. They turned John’s and Sherlock’s flashbacks of that gun into the gun Eurus points at John (what is time other than wibbly-wobbly-timey-whimey stuff? Oh, right. Wrong show). Of course, once she pulls the trigger the scene should have gone dark, followed by a pause. A bang. And the end-credits.

#sherlock #sherlock bbc #bbc sherlock #series 4 #the lying detective #just some random notes #i wanted to post this on monday

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