The Curious Case of the Twin Wallpapers - Call for Meta!

It probably doesn’t surprise anyone that during the last hiatus, when thinking about series 3 and the things that were to come, I did not only look forward to finally knowing how Sherlock survived the fall, but also to see what wallpaper would make it into the show.

When the big moment finally came the show did not disappoint. All three episodes featured fantastic wallpaper designs but some of the choices confused me. I am familiar with Arwel’s visual style and especially one of the patterns we saw did not match my expectations.  I could clearly say “this paper is the odd one out” but I could not see why it had been chosen despite its oddity. I always say that if something is odd, then it is odd for a reason.  Also, Arwel’s use of wallpaper is semantically rich. He does not only choose patterns that look nice on camera. He has a penchant for bold, striking and impressive patterns. He makes us see the wallpaper when generally wallpaper tends to hide in the background. His wallpaper is not white noise for the eyes, quite the opposite in fact. Of course the wallpaper adds to the visual style of a show and therefore the choices have a clear need to fit within the general visual tone, but that’s not the only thing that happens with wallpaper in the Sherlock universe.  Arwel also uses wallpaper to support the characterisation and create visual links between characters and scenes.  

 So, which pattern was the odd one out you ask?

It’s the Toile de Jouy at the crime scene in The Empty Hearse.

While compiling the wallpaper patterns for the masterpost I had the opportunity to see the wallpaper patterns from all three series within short succession and then I understood. On its own that toile is the odd one out, but it is not alone, no. It has a twin. But more on that later. First we should talk about what is so odd about a Toile de Jouy pattern that it gave me pause when I spotted it on Sherlock?

Toile de Jouy is a very very traditional pattern. As in 18th century French pastoral scenes traditional. That does not match the generally bold choices we see on the show. If you look through the masterpost you will see a lot of colour, contrasts and geometry, neither of which you will find in a Toile de Jouy. What I would have expected to see is a toile with a twist, such as Timorous Beasties’ London Toile:

Seeing Timorous Beasties wouldn’t be too far-fetched given that we’ve seen one of their designs (devil damask) in Irene Adler’s bedroom.  Their London Toile features the modern London skyline instead of a farm house with trees and instead of a frolicking French couple we get scenes of gang violence.

In other words: the wallpaper we see on the show is boring. Yet it is shown quite prominently.  The camera pans over it and we can see that the paper itself is in a rather good condition. Had it been damaged, yellowed, dirtied and partly torn I would not have looked twice because that would have said “this is an abandoned house, an empty, boring old place”. But it is not. It is also not plain, striped wallpaper that would have said “nothing to see here but a wall, move on”. No, the paper features an easily recognisable design but one that is not so out there that anyone who watches the show would question its usage in this scene. It’s a perfectly everyday pattern – that just so happens not to fit into the general visual tone of the show. It was so odd that I immediately thought “what on earth is that doing in the show?” Knowing Arwel’s love for wallpaper I could not understand why he would make this choice.

But this series 3 crime scene was not the only one that broke my brain because I could not understand its wallpaper. In The Sign of Three Sherlock is doing drunk deductions in front of a black and white wallpaper that, thanks to the camera filters, we never get to see clearly.

When I try to identify a pattern and try to find the manufacturer, I write down a couple of associations and pattern descriptions so that I can try and see which company is the most likely manufacturer. For the drunk deduction scene I wrote down “crazy sixties botanical nightmare”.  Based on the retro furniture I fully expected the wallpaper to be some black and white interpretation of a mod/retro pattern and the shape of the white parts suggested that it might be a botanical pattern.  After six months of coming up empty in my searches I had to rethink this approach, at which point my brain helpfully suggested that it might me a negative Toile de Jouy.  And guess what. 2 minutes of googling later I had found it.  Again, a Toile de Jouy is not what I would expect to find in a flat that is so completely mod-ified. It is an odd choice but in this case it matters less because all we see are white blobs on black background. The filters used do not allow us to see the actual pattern on the walls.

But there’s a twist.

The drunk deduction scene wallpaper is the negative version of the Jack the Ripper how I did it crime scene wallpaper in TEH. They are the exact same pattern, the first one being the classical blue on white background while the second one has a white pattern on a black background.  Have a look yourself:

Taken on their own, both of these wallpaper choices are odd and there would have been many other choices that would have fit within the visual style of the show much better. Taken as a pair these choices add a link between two scenes and given how badly they fit into the show as a whole, the need for the link must have overwritten the need for a coherent visual style.

So, what links these two scenes apart from their wallpapers?

We find both these papers in crime scenes that seem to be the polar opposite of each other in many ways:

We have day versus night, sober versus drunk, Sherlock figuring it out versus Sherlock having no clue, without John and with John, the 6 month old skeleton and the 6 month relationship that leads to the engagement and therefore the stag night, both cases including something that is fake, the crime scene in one, the man posing as dead men in the other, the police calling Sherlock in and someone calling the police on Sherlock and in both cases “why would someone go to all that trouble?”

Why indeed? The wallpaper says that they’re mirror images and I can see a lot of elements that support this but I cannot see why they would go to all that trouble.

Tell me, what are we supposed to see when we take these cases and set them next to each other? 

“why would someone go to all that trouble?”

YESSS! This is amazing.

I’ve written metas about how each crime scene is symbolic of Sherlock’s subconscious, i.e. how his sexuality is a crime scene he’s endeavored to keep uncompromised. (The hint is Sherlock saying, “Don’t compromise the crime scene!” in the drunken deductions scene, which I’ll get to.)

In TEH, when we see the wallpaper Lestrade is actually pulling the crime scene tape off the door, haha:

Here’s some quotes and added stuff from my meta about that, so people don’t have to wade through the other stuff I talked about in it. Basically the sex part comes in with all the trains going into tunnels stuff getting mixed in with Sherlock thinking about John:

Sherlock had to walk downstairs to get to the room with the skeleton, and it’s dark and dusty; it’s symbolic of his subconscious. This visual symbolism isn’t unique to Sherlock, it’s an old trope. Then a train comes through and knocks some dust loose, i.e. stuff is being dusted off in Sherlock’s subconscious, so things he hasn’t acknowledged in a long time are being forcibly uncovered. Also it makes Sherlock think about trains.

The skeleton is also a mirror for Sherlock: it’s dressed like he dresses sometimes, we get “spruce” and “pine” as his incorrect guesses for the smell, when they’re both verbs for what he’s done this episode: he spruced himself up for John, now he pines for him. He’s been burned (might also be a Moriarty nod) and feels dead, but the skeleton can’t be more than six months old… which is how long Mary says she’s been with John (or at least how long he’s had the moustache, i.e. when John became someone different than Sherlock remembers). There’s a book called “How I Did It” when Sherlock is always telling how he did it (i.e. solved a crime) and tried to tell John how he faked his death the night before. We get a nod to the ACD Holmes with the skeleton’s “Victorian outfit.” Lestrade says, “So it was a fake,” and Molly asks why anyone would go through all that trouble, and Sherlock responds, “Why indeed, John,” because he’s thinking of how he went through all his trouble faking his death and couldn’t even be with John at the end of it.

John, in Sherlock’s head, asks Sherlock if he’s “jealous” — presumably of Mary. This question really bothers Sherlock. Then John calls Sherlock a “smart arse,” a reminder to Sherlock that John doesn’t or wouldn’t like him, perhaps especially in a romantic way. Finally, John tells Sherlock “you forgot to put your coat collar up” — which Sherlock didn’t forget, as you can see from the scene. We know from THoB that John told Sherlock he looks cool and mysterious with his coat collar up, so it’s not a stretch to interpret this as Sherlock, fraught with all the things he’s done wrong to lose John, thinking he should have looked more physically attractive for John. I actually find it kind of difficult to interpret it any other way, to be honest. We have no other information about how John feels about Sherlock’s coat collar being up than the bit from THoB.

After Sherlock leaves that room they visit the subway guy. We get a quick shot of one of the toy trains going around. We get more shots with the toy trains moving around during the scene.

Afterward, Sherlock has that big mind palace sequence of trains going into tunnels, with the tunnels projected on him. The trains-in-tunnels visual metaphor has been a trope symbolizing sex in films for a long time, especially older films when it was less acceptable to simply show sex. During this sequence, we get a shot of Sherlock’s face doubled as if his attention is split two places, and indeed, the shots of John are interspersed between shots of Moran, insinuating that Sherlock is having trouble focusing on the case because he keeps thinking of John. As a train. Going into a tunnel. Which is projected on Sherlock. 

In other words, Sherlock is being distracted by feelings of attraction toward John. Not to put too fine a point on it, but: Sherlock is literally thinking of trains going into tunnels, but his subconscious is like, speaking of which, I wish John would fuck me in the ass.

Like. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

All of this was set off by the train’s movement in the Jack the Ripper crime scene.

But Sherlock won’t acknowledge his feelings yet; it’s all subconscious, and when it starts to creep in with John’s criticisms in his head, he gets anxious and waves it away. I’ve argued Sherlock’s acknowledgment of his feelings happens in the drunken deductions scene, and then his best man speech.

We get the negative of the Jack the Ripper crime scene wallpaper in the drunken deductions scene, which seems to tie the two scenes together as being representations of Sherlock’s subconscious.

I talked about it before here (honestly a ton of other places too; this was THE SCENE to talk about in January, lol), but among a bunch of other stuff, so again: here are some quotes and extra stuff added:

After John touches his knee, and after Sherlock hears Tessa telling the story of his and John’s first evening together and tears up, we get the drunken deductions scene. In that scene, Tessa prompts Sherlock to figure out the crime scene, which is symbolic of his own sexuality. And just like a crime scene, Sherlock has endeavored to keep it uncompromised. But everyone expects him to figure it out, so he starts stumbling around. And this is where Arwel really shines.

Sherlock starts bent over the couch, looking at a plate that looks vaguely anal:

Aside from the wallpaper, we get another hint from Arwel that this scene is metaphorical from the giant bull skull; that is not a typical decoration, but it’s an icon of how Sherlock chose to decorate 221B. This scene is about Sherlock.

And more than that, bulls are symbols of masculinity and virility. And Sherlock looks at this symbol of both himself and sexuality, and wonders if it’s dead. Sherlock is drunk this time, unlike the Jack the Ripper scene, and without his inhibitions, he’s actually confronting this stuff. Remember, the scene before this John touched his leg and said, “I don’t mind,” and he and John were getting pretty touchy-feely on the couch while Tessa reminded Sherlock of how he’d wanted to “take it slow.” Sherlock got upset realizing that John is going to be gone soon. All this stuff is swirling around Sherlock’s head, and because John is about to get married, Sherlock can’t just push it aside and “take it slow” indefinitely anymore. It’s time for him to grow up and figure out what he wants.

Sherlock then wanders toward a pink light (the color for same sex attraction in the bisexual flag) and is confronted with “wood?” or “egg?” deductions: gay or straight? He immediately looks to a woman, Tessa, and gets a few quick deductions; but Tessa is also is a mirror for Sherlock, a man. (Tessa is a nurse, and John calls Sherlock his “nurse” this episode. And Tessa was narrating Sherlock’s recollection of his first night with John.)

Sherlock says, “I’m just gonna whip this out,” ‘this’ being the magnifying glass which is going to symbolize his dick, which is pretty much the only thing you colloquially “whip out” in English. Sherlock notably has to take off his clothes — his coat — in order to do this, and his coat always symbolizes his work and “armor,” so he’s symbolically vulnerable as if he were naked, and it’s a metaphor for getting ready to have sex.

Sherlock whips out his dick — er, magnifying glass — and extends it, i.e. moves it to the “erect” position. First thing he does is get on all fours with his ass in the air toward John, which is obviously symbolic of gay sex. But Sherlock also puts his face in the carpet, which he well might: most people are heterosexual, and “carpet munching” is a euphemism for performing oral sex on a woman. Balance of probability is that Sherlock should begin looking there, right? Sherlock operates on balance of probability. But, oh, he falls asleep! Putting his face in the carpet wasn’t interesting. Tessa says, “Mr. Holmes. Mr. Holmes!” But a woman’s voice can’t rouse Sherlock, and he merely makes dry heaving noises into the carpet: he really doesn’t like having his face there, does he?

The man with Tessa gets irritated and says he’s calling the police, and grabs Sherlock’s arm from behind him. John looks like he’s going to punch the man. Sherlock immediately wakes up now that he’s had rough contact with a man, and says, “Whoa whoa whoa! What do you think you’re doing? Don’t compromise the integrity of the —”  Then he vomits, which has at least possible three symbolic meanings here: it’s a parallel for ejaculating; it indicates Sherlock’s distaste at being touched by a random guy (i.e. not John); and it’s an unstoppable revelation that he can’t suppress.

John finishes, “Crime scene!” Yup: Sherlock’s “crime scene” — his refusal to engage with his sexuality — is definitely compromised now. Sherlock wipes what looks like semen, not vomit, off his mouth, looking surprised. Arwel chose to have a giant dick-looking thing on the table behind Sherlock, and they framed the shot so it’s just above Sherlock’s face:

You know: like Sherlock just sucked a dick. And it came all over his face.

Sherlock then closes his magnifying lens, i.e. resetting it to the flaccid position. And we get the camera transition of Sherlock on his knees, having just wiped his mouth, to the inside of John’s mouth:

Mutual blowjobs, y’all.

So we get a couple things from this: Sherlock just realized he’s gay, probably, and doesn’t want anyone but John compromising the integrity of his crime scene, i.e. deflowering him. Unsurprisingly, the next morning we see Sherlock empty an entire mind palace full of women down to eventually nothing. (“Not you. Not you. Not you.”) Who is the only person Sherlock doesn’t kick out of his mind palace? John. Which is interesting, because we know in THoB he used to kick John out of the literal room when he went to his mind palace. Then during his best man speech, once he figures out John had been lying about being bisexual, Sherlock empties the whole room of men (after sexually evaluating one, no less) and his mind palace of Irene Adler and “narrows it down” to “It’s always you, John Watson.”

And that’s how I link the wallpapers together. Bless you for finding this stuff, stepfordgeek! <3 <3 <3 I loooove all the shit Arwel puts in the show, he’s amazing.

Edited to add: right, I got so excited I didn’t talk about the pattern choice itself or why it changes color. I think it was chosen for two purposes: 1) it depicts couples and domestic stuff, so it fits the concept of Sherlock wrestling with romance; and 2) it’s very old, which I take to be a meta commentary on Sherlock Holmes as a character, i.e. they bring the wallpaper back the second time and changed it in a significant way while still retaining the gist of the first version of the wallpaper, which is symbolic of remaking Sherlock Holmes as an (eventually) openly gay character in that scene.

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one little detail i love from the novel is that when crowley is in his flat waiting for the apocalypse he starts trying to stress clean. but everything is already organized so he can't. that's so stupidly adorable i can just imagine him in the bookshop and in a moment of distress organizing aziraphale's books and being like. "IT'S CALLED THE DEWEY DECIMAL SYSTEM YOU ASSHOLE WHO RAISED YOU"

i think he does occasionally stress-clean the bookshop and aziraphale would HATE IT

“It’s exactly how it’s supposed to be, thank you very much. I have in the optimal configuration for dissuading potential book-buyers and I won’t have you messing it up,” he says, handing Crowley one of the 3D puzzles he’s learned to keep around for these occasions.

I can imagine Aziraphale, in despair, taking a Rubik cube and quietly switching one piece physically around and then mixing it up. With the switched piece, it should be impossible to solve, right? Right,

Only until you hand it to a demon, who will bring it back six hours later, completed.

But hey, at least he stopped trying to vacuum the carpets for a moment.

Okay, but now I'm imagining Aziraphale as the opposite. Like when he's anxious he'll just pick up random objects absentmindedly to fiddle with them, and then put them down a few minutes later, in the wrong places.

(Just checked and this is practically canon. When Aziraphale figures out where the antichrist is and is worrying over whether to tell Crowley or take it straight to Heaven, he walks around his shop picking up bits of paper and dropping them again and fiddling with pens.)

He'll pick at paint and pull at loose threads. He'll stress-eat and not think to clear away the crumbs.

And so now I have the image in my head of Aziraphale and Crowley being stressed together for whatever reason, and Aziraphale just going around absently messing things up and Crowley stress-cleaning behind him.

Yes. Headcanon fully and instantly absorbed.

So glad I found this again. *Clears throat*

OMG I was just writing a scene where Aziraphale and Crowley are arguing about Heaven/Hell and Order/Chaos, and Aziraphale starts fiddling with things uncomfortably and I remembered this thread and realized -

Aziraphale is an agent of order but when he gets stressed he creates CHAOS. Crowley is like a one-man force for chaos but keeps his life in complete ORDER.

Even the default state of the bookshop is a sort of barely-controlled disaster.

Are their conscious and subconscious tendencies actually at war, or do they just contain BOTH within themselves and the one they don’t “tend to” slips out when they least expect it?

I don’t know, but this show, man. It just keeps coming.

As I understand it, a large part of the message of this story is that everyone is a complex combination of forces and desires both good and bad, and that even those of us who feel most inconsequential and small are made up of entire worlds of potential and wonder. And I take that deeply to heart - especially with the ‘cancel’ fad of recent, the way people have been painted as two-dimensionally good or bad without nuance.  People are generally good-intentioned, and when they do things we consider wrong, it’s mostly because something is wrong with them.  They were failed by their brain or their upbringing or their society - and we must, to remain human, understand that all people are complex aggregations of thoughts and feelings and experiences, just like you are.

rb for additional discussion, YES.

THE EMPTY BOX

The Sign of the Four is an intricate house of mirrors, in which the reader is invited to enter and to which, in a very veiled manner, a way out has been indicated.

It’s not a coincidence that one of the first things we are told is that “Some facts should be suppressed”. This immediately after the opening that deals with the bad habit of Holmes, an opening that is a perfect counterpart of the closure. The story opens and closes with Holmes dedicated to drugs, and in the middle we are explained why, suppressing the real reasons, or rather hiding them behind others, reflecting them in a mirror, telling their exact opposite.

If you notice carefully, in the first part of the novel there is a continuous play between the OPPOSITES. A suggestion that what is happening could be the exact opposite. NEGATIVE vs POSITIVE. First of all we introduced Mary Morstan. I have often seen her description as proof that Watson was actually describing Holmes and I honestly never understood the point. Actually it would seem to describe its exact opposite: FEMALE, BLONDE, MINUTE, IMPERFECT INCARNATE, BEAUTIFUL BUT NOT REGULAR FEATURES, SWEET AND AMABILE EXPRESSION. Holmes we know well: MALE, DARK, TALL, PALE, only a few lines after his features are described as “his clear-cut, hawklike features” and without even a precise reason. Rarely if ever the expression of Holmes is called sweet and lovable. The only thing certain is that Watson is infatuated from the beginning of the woman, but he thinks he is not at her level, and this even before any treasure is named in history.

On the first evening of their adventure, the doctor admits, because of the great stress, that he has repeatedly been confused. It seems he had told how during the war he had shot a musket entered his tent with a tiger, and advised caution with castor oil and ease with strychnine (CONTRARY).

During the evening the three pass the bridge of Vauxall Bridge Road, crossing the river to reach a more neglected part of the city. Here they stop in front of a house, squalid like the neighborhood that houses it, and the door is opened by an exotic Indian servant (CONTRARY). The house itself is a surprise, squalid outside, inside it hides incredible treasures and is luxuriously furnished (CONTRARY).

After all these opposites, perhaps it would not be so crazy if we asked ourselves if, by chance, the unreliable narrator, is not trying to tell us that yes he fell in love with someone, yes he probably did it when he set his eyes on he, yes, the first time they were close to each other was in the moment of danger, but he is not Mary Morstan but her CONTRARY.

“Miss Morstan and I stood together. A wondrous subtle thing is love, for here were we two who had never seen each other before That Day, between-whom no word or even look of affection had ever passed, and yet now in an hour of trouble our hands instinctively sought for each other . I have come to you so far, but I have been able to do it for you” . So how many times have we seen Holmes and Watson doing exactly the same thing? holding hands in the dark, looking for comfort? is this therefore love ?.

At this point in history we come to know the two brothers Sholto and we enter another dimension, from the opposite to the mirror.

The two are brothers, to be precise twins. One of the things that tormented us in BBC Sherlock is the sentence ”they are never twins“, even if then the solution of the case “my husband is three people” actually turns out to be a case of twins, even three identical … are they twins or are they never? Does it refer to something else? With this I don’t want to imply that Thaddeus Sholto and Bartholomew Sholto aren’t twins. At the textual level there isn’t doubt that they are, but on a metaphorical level? On a metaphorical level they aren’t twins because they are the same person. They are identical twins, the same coin with two faces.

Thaddeus Sholto a refined esthete, an arts lover, a pipe smoker, a hypochondriac who believes he has a heart condition … he asks Watson to check his heart.

Bartholomew Sholto is a chemist, misanthrope, he is found killed in a closed room. He kept a treasure hidden, a treasure that he didn’t want to share with anyone, but his killer took his treasure away from him (I understand that the fandom has irremediably corrupted my mind, but I would dwell on the murder weapon: “It was long, sharp, and black, with a glazed look near the point”.)

I would say that it is quite evident that the SHOLTO dyad represents SHerlock Holmes or SH which is good at the same.

Both share the same treasure, the treasure of Agra, which represents homosexual love (it comes from the east). A brother wants to share it with Mary Morstan. Attention, as I said here the games change, we aren’t longer in the realm of the opposite, but in the house of mirrors.

To better understand the mirrors you have to take a step back in time and forward in history (this meta  is a bloody mess, I believe that nobody will ever understand anything).

Before Mary, Thaddeus and Bartholomeus there were their parents.

The CAPTAIN ARTHUR (really not too thin) MORSTAN, father of Mary who will marry CAPTAIN WATSON and MAJOR SHOLTO father of the twins that as we said can be seen as the perfect sum of Holmes. The two were inseparable.

Thaddeus Sholto / SH, a Bohemian esthete wants to share the treasure with Mary Morstan / Watson while Bartholomew Sholto, a grumpy chemist wants to keep it hidden. But a man with a wooden leg arrives to take it away anyway. Now … a man with a wooden leg. I go back to the point where the fandom ruined me, once I was a good person, but considering the Victorian pruderie for the legs, which were even covered even those of the tables or called limbs because to say legs was indecente, here we have a man, Major Sholto, literally terrorized by another man with a wooden leg, and every bloody time I can’t help, but  I think of an embarrassing and persistent erection.

Anyway, I said, Bartholomew was robbed by a man with a massive erection and was killed by the long, dark, shiny, wet spine (not my words, thank you) of whom? Of a wild of Antipodes. A native of the Andaman Islands at north of Sumatra (a case? Possible?). A cannibal. One who regulalry banquets with his similars. Now it’s obvious that put it in this way is repulsive, but Tonga represents the wild, unmentionable and inconceivable side of the events linked to the treasure of Agra. The erotic and unspeakable side in an era in which even the conjugal kisses were unspeakable. The wild and primordial side that dwells in any English gentleman (or not). In this case he prefers to feast with his fellows. (is that why in TFP Moriarty refers to cannibals in the TFP? in addition to the more obvious, too obvious, reference to SAW? And the fact of making him whistle is a mockery to Fleming, considered the tone definitely “bond” of the episode? Ian Fleming had made tell to someone of his Bond that you can recognize a homosexual, because he didn’t know how to whistle … but here I went off topic…).

The same Jonathan Small (the man with the massive erection) will turn out to be a fairly accurate mirror of Watson. MILITARY, INJURED to a leg, after having been involved with the theft of the treasure and sentenced to life imprisonment, he will start working in an infirmary and learning notions of MEDICINE. In the course of history it is suggested that during his stay in India he learned a certain familiarity with the men that it was not allowed at home: “Mr. Abelwhite was a kind man, and he would often drop into my little shanty and smoke with me, for white folk out there feel their hearts warm to each other.”

And so, it’s Small / Watson that forces SHolto to separate from his treasure after having him (his uncontrollable and wild part) stabbed (with his meat dagger) … ok, I’ll stop.

But things at the end of the 1800s were not very simple, they are not yet for someone now. We have Mary Morstan not particularly anxious for the treasure to be recovered, Watson who is terrified of it, Holmes quivering for a solution, but in the meantime also strives to be at his best like never before. He plays serenades to sleep Watson and lays dinners in which he plays the part of the friendly and jovial guest. A few other times, if we never, we see behavior more like a courtship.

And then there is the pursuit on the river. Holmes and Watson chase Small, Tonga and the treasure who are on board a small and fast boat, the  Aurora

I would stop for a moment on the name because it’s worth it. Aurora was the name of the Latin goddess of dawn, she is who brings a new day every morning from the east. She is the mother of the four winds, one of whom has a curious name … Eurus …

This is a frenetic pursuit, narrated with a growing climax. Watson himself admits that he has never experienced such excitement, “I have coursed many creatures in my countries during my checkered career, but never did sport give me such a wild thrill as this mad, flying man-hunt down the Thames” , while the engines are “panting”, and in the end the guns of the two men simultaneously shoot “Our pistols rang out together”, while Tonga disappears in “ the white swirl”. After that the Aurora gets stuck, Small tries to escape, but his wooden leg gets entangled in the soft ground.

“See here,” said Holmes, pointing to the wooden hatchway. “We were hardly quick enough with our pistols.” There, sure enough, just behind where we had been standing, stuck one of those murderous darts which we knew so well. It must have been whizzed between us at the instant that we fired. Holmes smiled at it and shrugged His shoulders in his easy fashion, but I confess That it turned me sick to think of the horrible LITTLE death Which had passed so close to us That Night.”

Now if all this is not a climax and an exhausted post orgasm also cloaked by a certain sadness I don’t know … (certainly could also be a pursuit along the river).

After the capture of Small Watson is left again at the bridge of Vauxall Bridge Road, which had already crossed earlier to reach the house of Thaddeus Sholto. It seems that the river is a watershed for our two men, and interesting things happen in the middle. “SHERLOCK (voiceover): When does the path we walk on lock around our feet? When does the road become a river with only one destination? Death waits for us all in Samarra. But can Samarra be avoided?” (x)

The doctor brings the treasure to Mary / Watson who does not seem at all anxious or happy to receive a treasure (intended to be then shared with the eccentric Sholto).

To our romantic eyes the story Holme /Watson is the most beautiful that has ever been written but we must never forget that at that time it was a love that could not be told. We can therefore forgive the recalcitrance to Watson. We can understand the why of Mary. Keeping in mind that some things in history are told to us otherwise. That some facts have been suppressed. That the treasure was thrown into the river, was buried by layers of mud, and there is only one beautiful empty box left. But this doesn’t mean that the treasure is gone, it is only hidden. A full declaration of subtext. The jewels are there, they are scattered around all the stories of the Canon, the reader careful is able to find them but have been dragged around by words like the river water. For all the others the Canon remains a beautiful box of fine Indian manufacture. Wonderful to see, even if it is empty inside.

This novel is a labyrinth in which to get lost, and I found, perhaps, the exit only of some corridors. I don’t know if I managed to make me even vaguely understand, thanks for coming up here, you are heroes (or masochists).

@ebaeschnbliah @gosherlocked @sagestreet @sarahthecoat @possiblyimbiassed @tjlcisthenewsexy @sherlockshadow @devoursjohnlock @tendergingergirl @221bloodnun

@raggedyblue  Seldom I’ve enjoyed reading a meta that much as this one. This is so interesting and fascinating and - as I think - ‘right up the street’ of Mofftiss. 

Some thoughts that came immediately to mind while reading:

The leg - it reminded me at once of @sagestreet ‘s brilliant meta about ‘Cleopatras leg’ … the sexy tapestries in ASIB …. and the leg hidden/vanished behind Mark Antony’ s red coat. A leg dyed red to make it invisible. Something hidden in plain sight. Fake tan. Painted over. Like a facade.  Looks like a massive case of ‘the lazy universe’  :)))

The poison - in a metaphorical reading, where poison is equal to the ‘chemistry of love’, the poisoned dart of Tonga hit Holmes …. almost … but got stuck in his coat …. in his protecting armour, his ‘security wall’. Metaphorically …. in his mask, his facade …. whatever you might all it. Mary, the facade, the guardian. 

Oposites …. negative vs positive - Sherlock fighting against his worst enemy - his archenemy - himself. Holmes killing Homes. You know that for some time now I suspect Sherlock BBC tells the story of Sherlock being at war with himself. His emotions at war with his brain, with logic and reason. 

The league of furies, the monstrous army …. emotions.  ‘Not just a criminal organisation; it’s a cult’  (TBB). Seems like Sherlock is chased by emotions already since S1. 

Did I say that your meta is a joy to read? It is!  :))))

@gosherlocked @sarahthecoat @sherlockshadow @possiblyimbiassed

Thanks @ebaeschnbliah I’m just melted ☺️. I absolutely agree, BBC Sherlock is the the narration of what’s going on in the strange funny head of that incredible man, in his head and in his heart. How he’s trying to get them to get along. A journey that began more than a century ago.

Yes, @raggedyblue   The Mind Palace. It’s like a whole world in his head. (TAB)  :)))))

“He wants to rise above us like a snowcapped mountain, but he’s actually a volcano.“     Steven Moffat on Sherlock (IGN interview, February 2014)

‘It is what it is’ …. has the snowcapped mountain realized by now that he’s actually a volcano and ready to …. explode like a gigantic bomb?  :)))))

Sherlock imagines the massive explosion under the parliament (brain). But he’s actually ‘on fire’ since TGG. Probably before that, because the ‘pink case’ is ablaze already in PILOT and ASIP. :))))

rb for discussion, yes!