Late nite thought The fact that ‘vatican cameos’ is Ignored is significant, because that’s the codeword, that’s the signal. But has there ever been discussion about How that became so? What was the situation they were in that led to that development? And when did that happen? In S2, they’ve been roommates long enough for Sherlock to just use John’s laptop, for John to go out on cases in Sherlock’s stead, for John to be used to Sherlock taking to him when he’s not there (I know these are all examples from Blind Banker but that’s my fave S2 episode) yet John still feels embarrassed about having to ask for money and is more than willing to follow through on punching his roomate in the face. (Yes, being in debt is inherently embarrassing, and Sherlock Does need to be punched every now and again - to keep him humble but still, they aren’t quite simpatico yet) So where did the Vatican cameos come from? (Is there a ACD ref in there? I am shamefully un-read) Were they just sitting around the flat, and Sherlock just says ‘oh, by the way, we should have a code word.’ Or is that John’s suggestion, being a military man? Anyway, this is what will be keeping me up tonight.

@lillysliterature​ I think, as per usual with this show, the how is not important but the why or what it implies :)

The phrase “Vatican Cameos” does stem from ACD canon as Sherlock mentions the case of The Little Affair of the Vatican Cameos in HOUN:

But as he does not elaborate on this case, the meaning behind it is more important than the actual case. Holmes states that he was anxious to oblige the Pope, which is quite meaningful as a secretly homosexual man and if you consider ACD views on “the wrong old-fashioned ideas of what Christianity meant” (x). But I don’t think one has to have an elaborate knowledge on this to understand the reference “Vatican Cameos”. 

Since we do not see how John and Sherlock come up with the phrase in ASiB, it implies a mutual understanding here. It’s a codeword to warn each other of danger, in this case to prevent Mr. Archer from shooting John and to warn John about the gun in Irene’s safe:

At the end Mr. Archer himself gets shot.

The next time the phrase is used is in TSoT when somebody is about to die at John’s and Mary’s wedding:

Mary of course doesn’t know the phrase. John explains to her that “Vatican Cameos” references battle stations:

But we know from the beginning of the episode that the implication of battle, war and anything war-related on this show is not about actual combat:

Same goes for anything case-related btw as “The game is on”/”The game’s afoot” refer to solving cases/going into battle but are actually about Culverton John here (TLD):

And if we think about the wording “Vatican” and “Cameos” we know that it means that the Vatican is about to make a cameo which would definitely be dangerous in this special kind of war. So when Sherlock ignores the codeword in TFP he is finally ready to actually face the dangers this war brings with it. That’s why he, John and Mycroft have to be soldiers there. Another interesting codeword on the show is, of course, “amo” which should not be confused with “ammo” (TST).

Anything to add :)? @sarahthecoat​ @raggedyblue​ @possiblyimbiassed​ @therealsaintscully​

Something worth thinking about here - I saw a post that kind of jokingly linked the two and I can’t remember who it was by, so I’m sorry! But Doctor Who series 10 gets a very real Vatican cameo - see the video here! TLDR: Bill (female, despite her name) is on a date with a girl who is very unconfident in her sexuality and guilty about the whole thing - Bill has just calmed her down when the Pope comes in, yells at them in Italian and then leaves.

This might be crack theory, but as @lukessense points out the wording deliberately invokes something dangerous to queerness - mofftiss could have picked any old phrase from acd canon to be frank, but they didn’t. I don’t think that the DW reference adds anything in particular except cements that link between the Vatican and queerness, but it’s definitely worth looking at in that regard, because there is genuinely no better scene to sum up what an actual Vatican cameo might look like!

yes, all of this! multi layers of subtext! first that "vatican cameos" appears in HOUN, the story that was published during the great hiatus (though ostensibly set before it) and which (i think it's in @plaidadder 's ACD metas?) provides the more emotionally satisfying reunion scene compared to EMPT. and yes, "oblige the pope" implies hiding the queerness, as opposed to ASIP pilot Angelo's where the bust of the pope is made to watch sherlock and john's first date flirting. anyway.

then it's used in ASIB to prevent mr archer cupid's arrow from striking john, and to keep irene sherlock's gun dick from harming john, but to shoot cupid instead, oops. Then in TSOT to SAVE sholto (mirror for both sherlock and john! they both save him!) (once again, running everything through the metaphoricalizer makes sense of it all, instead of an impossibly complicated unrehearsable action sequence, it's just about how our boys aren't ready to face being in love yet, they are still resisting the inevitable)

And i LOVE @lukessense 's point that it's ignored in TFP, because sherlock is now ready to face the queer "danger" (uhoh, is it bad that i suddenly have the image in my head from Holy Grail about "let me go back and face the danger!" even though it's totally apropos?)

and loving @thewatsonbeekeepers point about the dr who intertext! i think moffat probably thinks it's cheeky and funny, but that's how his mind runs. every Bill is a Sherlock mirror, and what a fun visual pun. (and that series ends with Bill getting to be with her True Love, eternal and across the universe, <3 )

Bottom of the Thames …

Sherlock BBC, The Unaired Pilot

A small collection of gun(s) below the cut …

Keep reading

good sleuthing! the gun meta i remember seeing after s4 was all about identifying the "mystery gun", and "mary"s gun. i don't think i have seen john's gun specifically connected to van coon, sholto, and LadyInRed/"faith" before. So metaphorically, is this about water=emotions?

River=Threshold

@sagestreet just posted a Black Sails meta about a painting of a river standing in for a River as a Threshold between the ordinary outside world, and the special world on the other side, and rivers as a trope in queer cinema, also separating the ordinary world from the world of free love. Of course this makes me think of Sherlock, and how many times the Thames, in particular, has figured in the episodes. It’s been a while, and I only watched S4 once, but isn’t it in TLD that Sherlock sits beside the river with Faith, and also has a kind of breakdown on the bridge right over the river. I don’t remember if it’s at the end of TST or TLD that he’s walking over the river on a bridge with the lines about when are we locked onto a certain path, etc.

But also, in general, Baker St, Barts, NSY, Buckingham Palace, Belgravia, Whitehall, Big Ben, even Soho, and many more of the show’s settings are north of the river, but Battersea Power Station and that pivotal scene with Irene=Sherlock’s libido, is south of the river, and close to it. They all had to cross the river to have that scene. 

I don’t know London geography well enough to say if, for instance, Alex Woodbridge’s corpse was on the north or south bank, or where various other places shown are. Maybe others can chip in with that, and other more well-formed ideas.

@sagestreet, @ebaeschnbliah, @possiblyimbiassed, @gosherlocked, @freethemfrom1895, @spenglernot, @watchthemfall, not sure who else to tag off the top of my head. @raggedyblue

Can anyone confirm if that’s the strand bridge they’re crossing in TLD? If so I vaguely remember some queer history meta to do with that bridge in particular

Interesting, @sarahthecoat​ - I do like this topic! Yes, there’s a lot of scenes in BBC Sherlock that are associated with the river Thames and its many bridges. I don’t know much about London’s geography either, even if I’ve been there a (small) number of times. But Google Maps is a useful tool. :) 

In the Alex Woodbridge case in TGG, I think his body was found on the south river bank, because Sherlock says this to John when they are looking at the fourth ‘pip’ on the pink phone, before they visit the site:

“View of the Thames. South Bank – somewhere between Southwark Bridge and Waterloo.” Which would be a length of about 1.5 km of the southern river bank. 

Near the end of TST, when Sherlock is trying to figure out who betrayed AGRA, he’s crossing the Vauxhall Bridge.

Those buildings in the background are on the south river bank, as far as I can see. Right after this scene, Sherlock runs towards them. And then, after Mary has died, he’s walking by the Thames, hard to tell exactly where, and says: “When does the road become a river with only one destination?” 

My answer would be: when there’s too much water (= emotions) and the current is too strong. Sherlock’s destination seems to be south of the river. If he reaches Samarra, I think it’s likely that Sherlock will be ‘killed’ (by Love) and end up on the ‘south bank’ (with free love) like Alex Woodbridge. And I don’t think Samarra can be avoided.

In TLD, when Sherlock writes his little message to Mycroft’s monitoring guys, he’s walking with Faith in Soho, near Oxford Circus and Picadilly Circus.

They keep moving southeastwards. I believe the bridge they’re crossing after that is one of the Golden Jubilee Bridges. That’s actually a triple bridge with two pedestrian bridges on the flanks and an older railway bridge (Hungerford Bridge) in the middle. 

And the park by the river that Sherlock and Faith/Eurus are visiting at dawn, and where Sherlock is having his breakdown, is the Jubilee Gardens, at the south bank of the Thames close to the Golden Jubilee Bridges. (Well, since the river is meandering, Jubilee Gardens is actually on the east side, but in general this should belong to the south side of the river). The bridges are located about 2.1 km north of Vauxhall Bridge and 1.2 km southeast of Piccadilly Circus. It’s also very close to the London Aquarium and the famous ferris wheel London Eye (both on the south side).

I also seem to recall that Culverton Smith says that “we must be careful not to burn our bridges”. So yes, it seems like you’re right, @sarahthecoat​; the river is a threshold.

@sagestreet @ebaeschnbliah @gosherlocked @spenglernot @raggedyblue

thanks for all these additional details! I feel like it might be possible to derive a metaphorical reading of the river as a threshold between the world of the mind and the world of feelings, or possibly the partial or fragmented self, and the fully integrated self. And maybe also “bridge code”??? I also wonder if there will ever be a scene with sherlock going into the river. He went into a swimming pool in TST, john went into a well in TFP, but those are not rivers, they aren’t moving water, just still. Like emotions that are stuck.

@sarahthecoat it would be interesting indeed if Sherlock took a swim in the Thames. ;)) The water doesn’t look too clean in the river, but that’s probably due to sediments. (Apparently, the Londoners take their tap water from the Thames - upstreams - and it’s said to have good quality). Another thing that struck me is that there are two murder victims named ’bridge’ in the show: Alex Woodbridge in TGG and Private Bainbridge in TSoT. Both are working as guardians but while Woodbridge actually dies, Bainbridge survives - saved by the army doctor John Watson, no less. ;) I wonder if this might be significant?

If we use the Canon as a source of decoding (x) the river could be the threshold between what you have to be and what you want. A limit that society imposes. A north where who you really are does not matter and a south where you are free to be what you want. Moving from one bank to another certainly requires a great emotional effort.

I really like this thing you noticed on the names @possiblyimbiassed. Destroyed bridges and bridges that have remained intact, the possibility of going further, but without destroying the bridges. A past that can be integrated with the future because it would certainly be sad if the duo were forced to leave Baker Street …. even if we know they will end up in the South Downs

@sarahthecoat

however with all this north, west, south, east, no wonder they gave us a compass at some point ….

You’re right @raggedyblue ; they gave us a compass to navigate this show - a moral compass? ;) Speaking of bridges, there’s one more bridge in the show that has been nagging on my mind:

This is the bridge that Sherlock and John are crossing together in TSoT. The water looks very calm to me, and the duck and trees in the background make me rather think of a park pond than the river Thames. In the background we can also discern the London Eye. So where is this? Well, seeing as they’re walking, on their way to speak with Steven Bainbridge, ’The Bloody Guardsman’, it should probably not be too far from the Wellington Barracks, where the Queen’s Guard is hosted (as far as I can tell - please correct me if I’m wrong). I’d venture to say that this is indeed the ‘Blue Bridge’ crossing St James’ Park Lake (thanx Google Maps!):

The bridge is at the center and Wellington Barracks is at the bottom left of the map, immediately southeast of the memorial at Buckingham Palace: 

Our friends are sitting here later, waiting for Bainbridge to finish his pass.

This is still north of the Thames, though, where you maybe aren’t allowed to be who you want, according to our little allegory here. So I reckon John and Sherlock weren’t actually crossing the real threshold, were they? They didn’t (yet) dare to go into the land of Free Love on the other side of the Thames. ;)

Thinking a bit more about Steven Bainbridge, I also realised some more things (and I’m putting the rest of this under the cut, because it’s getting lengthy)

Keep reading

right @possiblyimbiassed, the fact that the guard is unarmed is absolutely strange. A guard of the queen. Queen, Palace, Mycroft. He who is supposed to defend the Palace is unable to do so, and he is also stabbed (from behind) by a John’s mirror. And finally I see the correlation with TBV. We had already seen how Valeria, Grand Duchess of Augsburg, Bavarian but with ties to Austria, could be connected with Elizabeth Amalie Eugenie of Wittelsbach (Sissi for short). One of the things that intrigued me was that Dracula had bitten her but spared her at a young age, only to kill her years later. Only now do I realize that this is nothing more than a delayed death. Dracula talks about, among other things, the temporal distance that has have to passed so that in the end “Dracula has rights”. Why the true story can be told we could say. Sherlock Holmes was hit (in the heart) by John Watson 130 years ago, but only now he can do (falling in love)

@ebaeschnbliah @gosherlocked @sherlockshadow @sagestreet

Yep, @raggedyblue; it may give it a romantic flavour to say that Sherlock Bainbridge was ‘stung by the little arrows of Love’. But we could also say it more blatantly: he was stabbed from behind with a meat dagger, defenseless and at the mercy of this John mirror. Twice, as Irene would say. ;)) Brainbitch - sorry, Bainbridge - had to ‘lower his guard’ and could no longer protect the ‘establishment’. Hopefully Mofftiss can bridge over the giant gap in time and let Sherlock Holmes finally fall in love. It’s that “timey-wimey stuff” from Doctor Who they’re using when Agatha can travel into our time so the true story can be told. But it’s ‘delayed action stabbing’ to start a show with an unfinished ‘dinner’, and then (hopefully) finish it over a decade later. Valeria lived a lifetime in between the ‘stabbings’; how much water must flow under the bridge until it’s time for S5? Public Domain is a strong argument, and Dracula indeed has rights now and Gatiss is the devil’s advocate. One could also see the delayed death - especially while thinking of Valeria - as “I like to watch you dance”. Or, as Jim would say: “I’m gonna kill you anyway”. ;)

@ebaeschnbliah @gosherlocked @sherlockshadow @sagestreet 

RB for even more discussion! How interesting, that john & sherlock crossed a bridge in TSOT, but over a lake (still water), not a river (flowing).

I LOVE all the "unreal" details about the bainbridge/sholto case coming out again. People in s3 hiatus decried the "delayed stabbing" of course, and then the empress incident was trotted out, as if that covered all the other nonsense as well. So instead of one big lie being hidden by a smattering of small truths, we had a whole pack of nonsense hiding behind one highly improbable, but did happen once, sort of, incident.

Sholto and bainbridge can also both be seen as double mirrors. They are both soldiers like john, as well as being "tall, dark & handsome" like sherlock. So they've both been "struck by cupid's arrows", where jonathan small is also a jim moriarty mirror. AAHHH it's like a kaleidoscope, taking one image (johnlock) and fragmenting it in all directions.

sherlock mirror saying this… (in front of a mirror may i add!) talking abt a military uniform…and sherlock at johns wedding like… he’s not supposed to have john anymore………his own military man who Keeps Him Right n all that.,, special dispensation they’re still besties supposedly… sholto nearly killed by the uniform sherlock could have overdosed…….

just having this thought and hating it

it goes the other way too like. john ain’t supposed to have sherlock anymore bc sherlock is dead. he got his special dispensation, his miracle, to keep sherlock. keeping sherlock in this capacity (ie friends not lovers) makes John suicidal - in mortal danger like sholto is in mortal danger from the uniform. i like thinking abt it that way bc it seems like john is thinking about that in these gifs….and then the uniform could also symbolize tradition, regiment, conservative military values…which are a knife through John’s body, causing internal damage, but in danger of more damage/death if the “uniform” is removed…UGH….THE LEVELS!!!!!!!!!!

WELL FUCK.

yes, sholto being a double mirror also underscores the doctor=straight/soldier=gay metaphor for john's bisexuality. And "i'm your doctor", aauugghh, that sherlock wants ALL of john, not just part. "mary" belittles the "soldier" aspect in the next episode.

Why didn’t John wear his uniform to his wedding? Isn’t that kind of a custom?

Saving that for his wedding with Sherlock

HMM.

Love all the notes on this.

Also IRL (which obviously this show isn't!) it seems to be optional depending on the veteran's preference.

Is John’s blog canon?

When I first learned about John Watson’s online blog - I think it must have been sometime after the airing of Series 2 - I thought it was created only for the entertainment of the show’s most dedicated fans. I took for granted that the blog must be some sort of complementary reading for those who wanted a more in-depth version of the crime cases. It was a bit of fun to read John Watson’s ‘public version’ of what we could all clearly see was the story’s ‘real’ content, namely the TV show. But also to read the comments from characters that appeared in the show and those who didn’t (like John’s sister Harry). 

But then Series 4 aired, and I think many of us realised pretty soon that if the show no longer seemed to make much sense, this was certainly true for the blog as well. In S4 we quickly learned, for example, this:

a) John is now writing on a jpg file instead of the blog editor, which is simply impossible.

b) Lestrade talks about being able to take the credit “…until John publishes his blog”. But this never happens; the blog hasn’t been updated since TSoT.

c) People in the show no longer consider it to be John’s blog; in TLD everyone thinks it’s actually Sherlock’s blog.

So now there’s definitely something fishy going on with the whole blog theme. Which seems a bit weird for a complementary device, doesn’t it? But then this addition by @raggedyblue to another post made me realise that the blog might actually be so much more - it might represent a true version of BBC Sherlock’s canon. And suddenly the pieces seemed to fall into place - and I don’t mean just some of them, I mean all the pieces.

Because the thing is, that this blog of John’s, which we can all very easily find and read online in real life (’IRL’), is in itself a part of the show. It doesn’t just have some references in the show; it’s referred to in every single episode except for TBB, TRF, HLV and TFP, and often multiple times. We hear about it from Day 1 in ASiP when John is seen with his laptop. On no less than 35 occasions in this show, which I have listed below, John’s blog posts are being referred to, shown, discussed or alluded to by the different characters in the show - and not only by Sherlock and John themselves. 

So, with this much support for the idea that the blog is much more than just a complementary device directed at fandom, I think we can conclude that yes; the blog must indeed be regarded as part of canon. Which means, in my opinion, that any theory, any hypothesis about what’s going on in this many-layered show, that contradicts what we learn from the blog, will have some explaining to do. 

If you want to claim, for example, that Mary isn’t at all real in the show, that she only exists in Sherlock’s or John’s imagination, you’ll also have to explain why she appears on John’s online blog, making conversation with other characters. If you want to claim that Sherlock never recovered from the Fall, that everything that happens after TRF is totally fake, you also need to explain how Sherlock can be writing on John’s blog after that. And - of course - if you want to take S4 at face value, you need to give a reasonable explanation of how John can write on a jpg file, and how come the blog hasn’t been updated since TSoT, in spite of so many references to it in S4. 

On the other hand, in 2017 I tried to come up with a theory that does not contradict the blog, but still doesn’t accept the inconsistencies and weirdness we can see in this show. In short, the idea (which is originally @raggedyblue‘s) is that up until the wedding in TSoT Sherlock is using John’s blog posts to set up mental scenarios based on his and John’s experiences together. And after TSoT, Sherlock’s (now unconscious) brain keeps going with the introspection even without the blog. It’s all here (part of my meta series), so if you have a better idea that does not contradict the blog, feel free to try to debunk mine. :)

In the mean time, if you have the patience to read it, let me present an extensive list of the 35 occasions where John’s blog is mentioned in this show. if you have more examples, please add them to those presented under the cut (Thanks to Ariane DeVere for all these invaluable transcripts):

Keep reading

Wow, good work! I generally buy the idea that john's blog represents "reality", and the show is sherlock's "embellished" mind theater, at least through s2. S3 is so over the top bs in places, it's harder for me to buy into, ie, even john writing a blog post about something is not necessarily convincing. S4 is clearly fake, so, w/e, mind theater, blog theory, it's all good, or better than the surface anyway!

I love the idea in #19, that this scene is entirely in sherlock's imagination. And again, it's sherlock himself providing the "embellished" version!

#20, hmm, is there such a thing as a blog that's not online? "blog" being short for "web log".

#17 & 21, sherlock's claims to have "written a blog", which were never shown on his website. I came to the show well after s2 aired, so all i ever saw of the tobacco ash entry was "deleted". Is anyone still here from early enough to say if that entry was ever there either?

#25 good catch with the guardsman's missing gun. And boy does the mayfly man cosplay TGG moriarty here or what? The baseball cap, the cold weather version of what jim wore to the crown jewels. Homophobia stabs england/john in the back, while pretending everything is fine. I know we have seen meta about bainbridge and sholto as sherlock mirrors, but soldiers in uniform also screams john mirrors.

#26 a very interesting thought that the stabbing could be entirely in sherlock's mind theater.

Is John’s blog canon?

When I first learned about John Watson’s online blog - I think it must have been sometime after the airing of Series 2 - I thought it was created only for the entertainment of the show’s most dedicated fans. I took for granted that the blog must be some sort of complementary reading for those who wanted a more in-depth version of the crime cases. It was a bit of fun to read John Watson’s ‘public version’ of what we could all clearly see was the story’s ‘real’ content, namely the TV show. But also to read the comments from characters that appeared in the show and those who didn’t (like John’s sister Harry). 

But then Series 4 aired, and I think many of us realised pretty soon that if the show no longer seemed to make much sense, this was certainly true for the blog as well. In S4 we quickly learned, for example, this:

a) John is now writing on a jpg file instead of the blog editor, which is simply impossible.

b) Lestrade talks about being able to take the credit “…until John publishes his blog”. But this never happens; the blog hasn’t been updated since TSoT.

c) People in the show no longer consider it to be John’s blog; in TLD everyone thinks it’s actually Sherlock’s blog.

So now there’s definitely something fishy going on with the whole blog theme. Which seems a bit weird for a complementary device, doesn’t it? But then this addition by @raggedyblue to another post made me realise that the blog might actually be so much more - it might represent a true version of BBC Sherlock’s canon. And suddenly the pieces seemed to fall into place - and I don’t mean just some of them, I mean all the pieces.

Because the thing is, that this blog of John’s, which we can all very easily find and read online in real life (’IRL’), is in itself a part of the show. It doesn’t just have some references in the show; it’s referred to in every single episode except for TBB, TRF, HLV and TFP, and often multiple times. We hear about it from Day 1 in ASiP when John is seen with his laptop. On no less than 35 occasions in this show, which I have listed below, John’s blog posts are being referred to, shown, discussed or alluded to by the different characters in the show - and not only by Sherlock and John themselves. 

So, with this much support for the idea that the blog is much more than just a complementary device directed at fandom, I think we can conclude that yes; the blog must indeed be regarded as part of canon. Which means, in my opinion, that any theory, any hypothesis about what’s going on in this many-layered show, that contradicts what we learn from the blog, will have some explaining to do. 

If you want to claim, for example, that Mary isn’t at all real in the show, that she only exists in Sherlock’s or John’s imagination, you’ll also have to explain why she appears on John’s online blog, making conversation with other characters. If you want to claim that Sherlock never recovered from the Fall, that everything that happens after TRF is totally fake, you also need to explain how Sherlock can be writing on John’s blog after that. And - of course - if you want to take S4 at face value, you need to give a reasonable explanation of how John can write on a jpg file, and how come the blog hasn’t been updated since TSoT, in spite of so many references to it in S4. 

On the other hand, in 2017 I tried to come up with a theory that does not contradict the blog, but still doesn’t accept the inconsistencies and weirdness we can see in this show. In short, the idea (which is originally @raggedyblue‘s) is that up until the wedding in TSoT Sherlock is using John’s blog posts to set up mental scenarios based on his and John’s experiences together. And after TSoT, Sherlock’s (now unconscious) brain keeps going with the introspection even without the blog. It’s all here (part of my meta series), so if you have a better idea that does not contradict the blog, feel free to try to debunk mine. :)

In the mean time, if you have the patience to read it, let me present an extensive list of the 35 occasions where John’s blog is mentioned in this show. if you have more examples, please add them to those presented under the cut (Thanks to Ariane DeVere for all these invaluable transcripts):

Keep reading

Wow, good work! I generally buy the idea that john's blog represents "reality", and the show is sherlock's "embellished" mind theater, at least through s2. S3 is so over the top bs in places, it's harder for me to buy into, ie, even john writing a blog post about something is not necessarily convincing. S4 is clearly fake, so, w/e, mind theater, blog theory, it's all good, or better than the surface anyway!

I love the idea in #19, that this scene is entirely in sherlock's imagination. And again, it's sherlock himself providing the "embellished" version!

#20, hmm, is there such a thing as a blog that's not online? "blog" being short for "web log".

#17 & 21, sherlock's claims to have "written a blog", which were never shown on his website. I came to the show well after s2 aired, so all i ever saw of the tobacco ash entry was "deleted". Is anyone still here from early enough to say if that entry was ever there either?

#25 good catch with the guardsman's missing gun. And boy does the mayfly man cosplay TGG moriarty here or what? The baseball cap, the cold weather version of what jim wore to the crown jewels. Homophobia stabs england/john in the back, while pretending everything is fine. I know we have seen meta about bainbridge and sholto as sherlock mirrors, but soldiers in uniform also screams john mirrors.

#26 a very interesting thought that the stabbing could be entirely in sherlock's mind theater.

honestly the best? worst? thing about tsot is that we’re all expecting the person who’s about to die as a result of john and mary’s wedding to be a sherlock mirror.. sholto is so clearly set up as a former sherlock figure in john’s life, and the “into battle” dressing scene is almost too blatant, so we all know right away that this wedding is killing sherlock. it’s so clear that you almost forget that sholto is a military man, fair, broken by the war, and only made it through the day because of sherlock’s (and mary’s to a lesser extent) help. sherlock warns sholto that “it’s you” right after telling john “it’s always you” in an attempt to keep them safe, but when he realizes that sholto had been dying of his wound the whole time, he sees only himself reflected back, not realizing that john is suffering too :)

God DAMN it.

John being killed at his own wedding, and the damage being invisible to anyone until such time as he takes of his armour heterosexuality uniform, and desperately wanting Sherlock to figure it out, despite locking himself away in a closet small hotel room, saying, “You’re the great Sherlock Holmes. Solve the case and I’ll open the door.”

Did I ask for this? Did anyone?

It’s worth noting that Sherlock does solve it, though, and saves the life. So hopefully we have that to look forward to.

Yikes, yes. So, there's a kind of suggestion in s4 that john is in even more danger in TLD/TFP than he was in TST/HLV.

Baker Street Knife

Why Mary Stands There

In the Baker St confrontation Mary immediately goes to stand next to the mantel.  Why?  Because there’s an open knife there.  She is ready for a fight and is not just armed with a gun but is also aware of this other weapon in the flat.  By standing to the left of the knife, she can easily grab it with her right hand and she can also prevent John and Sherlock from grabbing it to use against her.

Things that occur earlier in this episode enforce this idea.  Bill pulls a knife on John and John takes it from him, even asking if the knife is, ‘a clue’.  Here, with Mary, it most certainly is,

Only slightly earlier we get the idea of making do with whatever weapon you can find, here,

(*cough* pay no attention to the fact that Mary seems to be mocking his wang, here…)

Then, at Baker St, itself, we will have Magnussen’s henchman reveal that John has multiple weapons, 

(*ahem* pay no attention to the fact that Sherlock looks impressed as crap by John’s, ‘wang’, here, in stark contrast to Mary’s reaction…)

And soon after, Sherlock will mock him for it,

Except, there’s a clause, 

Now, that we know, ‘how the night’, went, we must wonder, is John armed during the Baker St confrontation?

In this nifty visual, we see Mary in relation to the knife and to John: she is a threat to him, but she’s looking away.  Maybe she doesn’t want to have to hurt him?

Ditto, here, with Sherlock, except she looks right at him in a penetrating way.  Maybe Sherlock she doesn’t mind hurting so much.  I mean, she did just shoot him,

With bonus: as Sherlock sits down, we see a sliver of Mary’s arm and the knife is seen as being right in his back.  She stabbed him in the back once and she would/will do it again,

Now, for poetic flare, let us harken to the sweet, sweet past of ASiP and see that this is a knife that Sherlock put here, on the mantel, the first time John walked into Baker St,

This is the knife he puts there because he’s, ‘straightening up’, for John.  He is trying to make his flat more appealing while also using a suggestive idiom for cleaning up.  Sherlock will do whatever it takes to have John in his life, including hiding his feelings and appearing straight.

This is the same knife that Mary will put in his back.  She is using his love of John against him.  She knows that he has a blindspot for her because he loves John and she has, up to this point, exploited this to her advantage, nearly killing him.

Wow

John Watson voice: That… was amazing

Yep - brilliant @just-sort-of-happened ! And already in TSoT - before this confontation - two Sherlock mirrors got backstabbed, closely associated with John marrying Mary. When Sherlock literally makes John’s wedding happen in TSoT by organizing it for him, he is indeed ’straigthening up’ for (what he believes is) John’s benefit. And of course it all comes back to bite him, because he’s been denying and trying to hide his own feelings. And ’Mary’ - the hetero norm who is a killer - will certainly take advantage of this opportunity.

@sarahthecoat @ebaeschnbliah @gosherlocked @loveismyrevolution @sagestreet @tjlcisthenewsexy @raggedyblue

oh, and both sholto and bainbridge are double mirrors, as soldiers they can be john mirrors as well as tall handsome sherlock mirrors. Since "mary" harming sherlock="mary" harming john.

honestly the best? worst? thing about tsot is that we’re all expecting the person who’s about to die as a result of john and mary’s wedding to be a sherlock mirror.. sholto is so clearly set up as a former sherlock figure in john’s life, and the “into battle” dressing scene is almost too blatant, so we all know right away that this wedding is killing sherlock. it’s so clear that you almost forget that sholto is a military man, fair, broken by the war, and only made it through the day because of sherlock’s (and mary’s to a lesser extent) help. sherlock warns sholto that “it’s you” right after telling john “it’s always you” in an attempt to keep them safe, but when he realizes that sholto had been dying of his wound the whole time, he sees only himself reflected back, not realizing that john is suffering too :)

@ebaeschnbliah

LIVING  ISOLATED

________________________________________________________________

JOHN: Where are you living these days? SHOLTO: Oh, way out in the middle of nowhere. You wouldn’t know it.

‘Way out in the middle of nowhere’ and ‘dead centre of town’  …. those descriptions sound somehow rather alike

Also …. has anyone noticed that the tiles in Molly’s kitchen are very similar compared to the ones in 221b?  

@gosherlocked @sarahthecoat @sherlockshadow @raggedyblue @possiblyimbiassed @sagestreet @loveismyrevolution

Great parallel, @ebaeschnbliah, just the way I like it. I really wonder why these kitchens are so similar? Could it be that someone is mirroring someone else?

Yes @gosherlocked And those kitchen tiles relate to the very first and the (so far) last episode of the story. If this isn’t just a coincidence, it means that there is a very long term plan behind it.

Oh yes @ebaeschnbliah; I think there’s a lot more weirdness to look forward to before John and Sherlock finally find their own synchronized pace. :)) Molly’s flat looks like a slightly modernized version of 221B. And it seems like the mirrors are mirroring each other, doesn’t it? If Sholto is a John mirror, has Molly become a Sherlock mirror? And neither of them is happy; James is subject to some nasty attacks and Molly puts lemon in her tea (=sour). John moved out to the suburbs, didn’t he, while Sherlock stayed in the centre of town. Which is now ‘dead’, unfortunately. Seems like living separated is the worst thing that could happen to these two guys.

@gosherlocked @sarahthecoat @raggedyblue @sagestreet @loveismyrevolution @sherlockshadow

rb for discussion.

LIVING  ISOLATED

________________________________________________________________

JOHN: Where are you living these days? SHOLTO: Oh, way out in the middle of nowhere. You wouldn’t know it.

‘Way out in the middle of nowhere’ and ‘dead centre of town’  …. those descriptions sound somehow rather alike

Also …. has anyone noticed that the tiles in Molly’s kitchen are very similar compared to the ones in 221b?  

@gosherlocked @sarahthecoat @sherlockshadow @raggedyblue @possiblyimbiassed @sagestreet @loveismyrevolution

sort of a same/opposites feel to it.

Folded, ready to pack

I’m not sure how I could have missed this, but… These are Major Sholto’s shirts:

And his gun:

John’s shirts:

…and his gun:

I’ve been thinking of Sholto as a Sherlock mirror, but now I realize he just as well might be John’s. 

@gosherlocked @ebaeschnbliah @sagestreet @sarahthecoat @tjlcisthenewsexy @raggedyblue

Great analogy, @possiblyimbiassed. And if I remember correctly, it is in TSoT that we see Sherlock for the first and only time wearing a checkered shirt as well. Which also emphasises the strong connection between these men. Wonder what it could be … ;)

Oh, this is nice @possiblyimbiassed  So many checkered shirts. Now that I see this, I remember that somone else wears a very similar shirt as a young boy.

Indeed, @ebaeschnbliah - I hadn’t thought of that, but yes - there are lots of checkered shirts! And little Euros’ jumper is very John-ish too. ;). @gosherlocked which scene is it when Sherlock wears a checkered shirt? I can’t remember but would sure like to re-watch! :)

hmm, is everyone on sherlock's mind stage a version of john? alternatively, if this (TFP anyway) is inside john's head, then everyone is an aspect of john. I guess it works both ways.

Folded, ready to pack

I’m not sure how I could have missed this, but… These are Major Sholto’s shirts:

And his gun:

John’s shirts:

…and his gun:

I’ve been thinking of Sholto as a Sherlock mirror, but now I realize he just as well might be John’s. 

@gosherlocked @ebaeschnbliah @sagestreet @sarahthecoat @tjlcisthenewsexy @raggedyblue

good catch, yes, there are a LOT of characters that mirror both sherlock and john in different ways.

Sholto is definitely a Sherlock-mirror in his love for John - Sherlock even blatantly points that out. 

But Sholto is also a mirror for John in his pain over what happened in Afghanistan and his suicidal tendencies. 

Sholto is what John would have been if he hadn’t met Sherlock, and what Sherlock is because he met John. 

But Sholto is one more thing; he’s the place where their mirrors meet and becomes one endless reflection. 

Sherlock puts on his “uniform” for the wedding with the words “into battle”. Sholto probably did the same, for slightly different reasons. 

…but given that Sholto reflects Sherlock before the wedding and John after (the folded shirts and the desperation born from one terrible mistake comes in HLV); does this not hint at John thinking the same way about the wedding? As having put on his uniform and gone into battle. And lost. HLV certainly gives us a return to John’s PTSD nightmares that’s almost a perfect mirror of the very first scene…

oh, yes. :(

Folded, ready to pack

I’m not sure how I could have missed this, but… These are Major Sholto’s shirts:

And his gun:

John’s shirts:

…and his gun:

I’ve been thinking of Sholto as a Sherlock mirror, but now I realize he just as well might be John’s. 

@gosherlocked @ebaeschnbliah @sagestreet @sarahthecoat @tjlcisthenewsexy @raggedyblue

good catch, yes, there are a LOT of characters that mirror both sherlock and john in different ways.

james sholto is so interesting bc on a surface level he seems like a really strong sherlock mirror, but his name is also james and the way he dies / the fact that he gets the piece of paper that says ‘it’s YOU’ literally two seconds after sherlock tells john that it’s ‘you. always you.’ makes him also appear as a john mirror

he’s almost like a eurus prototype, representing both sherlock and john’s relationship

wow, yes! It seems like more and more characters are turning up as both/and mirrors, it's very interesting!