Arrggg!  John getting married could be the 'Wedding'!  Say it isn't so Moftiss 

Thanks tobe.  I feel somewhat relieved    Will read the Milverton story tonight as soon as I get home.

RAT:

The Boscombe Valley mystery has an indirect reference to a rat.

WEDDING:

Wedding could be The Noble Bachelor where the groom disappears, leaving the bride at the altar. It could also be a reference to The Sign of the Four, where John meets Mary, and this leads to John's wedding. It could also reference The Illustrious Client, though A Scandal in Belgravia had a reference to this case in the meeting between Sherlock and the liaison.

There's also The Solitary Cyclist, which has a sham wedding in the end, as well as The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax, but it's more of a tangential reference to a wedding.

I think the creators goal is to reference each case in the canon either directly, by basing the episode on it, or indirectly through colorful references.

BOW:

Well, bow could be bow as in "His Last Bow", the last adventure of Sherlock Holmes chronologically, taking place during World War I. This would be fitting if the episode is meant to be the end of the series.

Found this on Wikki:

Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rat of Sumatra. Perhaps the best known giant rat in fiction comes from the pen of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who in The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire has Sherlock Holmes declare, as an aside, to Dr. Watson:

Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson, ... It was a ship which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared.
Quite how the ship, the mammal, and the Indonesian island are associated is not specified. There are a number of species of large rats on Sumatra, with one, Sundamys infraluteus, actually being referred to as the "giant rat of Sumatra". Rats commonly colonise ships, and so there is an obvious line of speculation.

Holmesianist Alan Saunders has argued that the reference is in fact to events connected with The Adventure of the Dying Detective, although he identifies the rat as the Large Bamboo Rat.[1] A number of authors of Sherlockiana have endeavoured to supply the missing adventure of the giant rat of Sumatra

I don't recall any stories in the canon that have to do with a bow as in a bow and arrow. Bow for a ship could refer to the Gloria Scott or Abbey Grange, though it seems less likely given that "Woman, Hound, Fall" were rather overt references.

If one wants to go with the giant rat angle, one could imagine an interesting combination of The Empty House and The Speckled Band and/or The Sign of the Four that plays off a large rat creature. If Wedding refers to John's wedding, the Sign of the Four is the story that sets it up.

I love how Moftiss are playing cat-and-mouse with us, keeping the interest very much alive. I'll be rereading everything in the nearby future, but my current speculations are:
RAT. Quite possible "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", as not only there is an important reference to "Rat" in the story- which was short for Ballarat- but a secondary character, a fourteen-year-old daughter of the lodge- keeper is called Patience Moran. I am sure it was just coincidence/ forgetfulness on part of Conan Doyle, but  can see Moftiss making a thing out of it and combining "Empty House" with "Boscombe Valley" to deal with Sebastian Moran.
I'll have to re-read "The Sign of Four" to recall the rat reference there.
"Wedding" is the most ambiguous one. There are tons of cases featuring near-weddings, unhappy weddings etc. And, of course, there is Sherlock's engagement in Augustut Milverton" ( which I'd OVE for them to tackle!) and John's very real wedding to Mary Morstan. I'll have to come back to this one later.
"Bow". Most probably refering to "His Last Bow". Why? Becasue Moftiss wants us in hysterics that it's Sherlock's last case. So many articles say that's when Sherlock goes into retirement, which of course is false- that when he comes out of retirement. I do not believe for a second that they'll definitevely bring the series to an end. They might put it on hiatus- who knows- but this toy is too fun- not only for us, but for them as well.
My current theory on "Bow"- in "His Last Bow" Sherlock is undercover, flushing out a spy ring. Watson joins him late in the case, after they have not seen each other for years. Quite similar to "Empty House", where Sherlock is under cover flushing out Moriarty's criminal web, and he and John do not see each other for years. I do not see "Empty House" and "His Last Bow" in one season, unless they make an overall arc of Sherlock under cover dealing with a criminal ring ( or a spy ring... with computer codes etc it might well be one and the same) for the whole season 3. Which is possible. But that means no Baker Street and very little Ms. Hudson. Which woul not be fun. Ooooh, Moftiss, you wicked wicked men

But didn't they tell the plane fangirl they wouldn't marry John?

And could the bow be a violin bow? (which, indeed, could be about any story)

I bow to your superior deduction (well, induction) skills on this one!

ok   those three words make less sense than WOMAN, HOUND,  FALL.  I've posted my ideas on the theories of those words in another thread--  I'll  post them here.   ok  I  gues  PIPE,  SLIPPERS,  and BED  were red herrings,  right? 

Now,  let's take the word Bow.   His Last Bow   was when Sherlock came out of retirement for one last case.  OR  it  could be something about his Violin Bow.   OR  the BOW  street Runners  (irregulars  in the canon--  a little group of boys who do errands for Sherlock occasionally)  BUT   what if the spelling is wrong?   What if Steven meant  it as  BEAUX  (which means  boyfriend,  to me)   Hmmm?   

The Mofftis Circle are just  .....brilliant  to  play  us fans like this!!   I  don't  know whether to kiss them  or smack them. 


Rat--

Moriarty is a Rat.   
The great Rat Of Sumatra--this was a story that was alluded to but never written up. 

Wedding---

The adventure of the Noble Bachelor
John's wedding to whoever

Bow--

His Last Bow,  of course.  That's the one  where Sherlock goes  somewhere   to find something,  only  he's in disquise as someone else. 

PIPE--

three pipe problem?    Red Headed League,  which was done before with Jeremy Brett--So I doubt it.
Can't think of anything else.  OR  it's  the same thing  to  Three patch problem  which  was in Study In Pink. 

Slippers--Sherlock looks for Tobacco in a slipper--  wasn't that done in HOUNDS? 

Bed--Scandal In Belgravia--A bed popped up out of Nowhere....

Last edited by sherlockskitty (August 26, 2012 4:24 am)

KeepersPrice wrote:

Arrggg!  John getting married could be the 'Wedding'!  Say it isn't so Moftiss 

Yucko. I hope not, too. Not that I don't want to see the dear boy happy, but....
OTOH, if John and Mary had a child, I would pay real money to see Uncle Sherlock
bouncing the kid on his knee. Seriously. *grin*