I just read this yesterday and really liked it.  Lots of lovely feels.

Sorry to have been away so long, guys. I've struggled for a while with my feelings after S4.  But I'm back and hoping to regain my enthusiasm.  Some good Johnlock fan fic might just do the trick. And it really helped to meet up with tobe in London a few weeks ago and talk it all out.  I've missed being here.....

nakahara wrote:

 
I know they had to be "soldiers" in this scene to survive, but I would have liked just a bit more emotion from John.  I would have liked him to crouch down to be face-to-face with Sherlock, touch his shoulder (anything), and talk him more 'intimately' to bring him back to the task at hand.  Seeing where their relationship was at the end of TLD, I was looking for a bit more bed-side -manner from our doctor rather than 'soldier' mode at that moment; but, oh well, John did offer his hand to raise Sherlock up in a different way than he offered his hand in TLD, so I'll live with that.

I really like the idea of 'The Sussex Vampire' and hadn't thought of that! I can definitely see Eurus as the poisoner.  As a child I can see her acting all sweet and adorable but inside she is psychopathic. I can see her poisoning Redbeard until he has to be put down (psychopaths often start by torturing animals) and then attempting to poison Sherlock so that he almost dies.  Maybe she doesn't even hate
him or is jealous of him. Maybe she just can't contain her urges. Hence the decision is to be made to lock her away. Mycroft as the older brother has tried to protect Sherlock ever since, teaching him to repress all emotion and caring.  All of this happens to Sherlock when he is so young that he barely remembers anything.  But even more ironically, maybe because he has all these repressed memories and emotions, he later turns to poisoning himself - only with drugs. 

Oh dear, I'm dying to find out the real story but, at the same time, I don't want the series to end. What  dilemma!

Oh, ewige, you are such a tease with your spoiler.  I had to look LOL.

I love this thread.  The hug gif makes me weak and giddy. Like everyone else, I watch it way too much.

While it would be awesome to see Johnlock confirmed at the end of TFP (my screams of joy would fill the universe and my husband would probably end up driving me to the nearest psych clinic for hyper-euphoria), I will accept ambiguity over TPTB dashing all our hopes. I have always enjoyed the tease, the fun of finding hints, the various interpretations people have, the debates and discussions.  I think I would really miss that.

I am starting to get heart palpitations and hyperventilate thinking about what this last show could mean to all of us. I'm sad and excited all at the same time.  Please Moftiss don't dash our hopes and please let there be a Series 5!

Thank you, Preceja. This is the inner monologue, the subtext perfectly expressed.

From your mouth to God's ear!  The last episode seemed to point us down the "straight" path but this show is famous for rug-pulls and reveals.  90 minutes still to go! It can happen! :-)

Coincidentally, I am in the middle of reading a book called "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson considered one of the definitive books about this real life serial killer, H.H. Holmes.  Loved that I knew the reference when it came up in the show.  Made me feel smart - LOL!

Glad I looked at this thread because it did seem to me (on first viewing last night) that the writers were really pushing hetero-normal relationships for EVERYONE - including Mycroft, ugh.

And as far as Johnlock goes, I saw amazing, self-sacrificing love here (like never before - except maybe in TSoT) but no homo-eroticism hints I often felt in other episodes

But this thread has talked me off the ledge and I'm back on Johnlock 'terra firma'.  Thank goodness!  I agree wholeheartedly about the text conversation. That interpretation makes so much sense now.

But, you know what I would have loved to see in Sherlock's beautiful, enfolding embrace? It would have been so lovely if he had gently kissed John's hair while holding him in his arms. I would have melted onto the floor - not that I hadn't already. LOL. So happy with what we did get though.

gently69 wrote:

Wow! John really looks like he is going to explode any second.

 
I hadn't realized how close Sherlock actually came to touching him to comfort him. *sob*

I was suspicious of Mary, too until this episode.  There are, and probably still are, those who think she might have been one of Moriarty's assassins at the pool; but now I really think she did want to  leave her past behind and attempt a 'normal' life with John.  There still could be a twist on this in the end but I no longer think so.  Now her message tells us she is desperate to "Save John Watson" from something. She gives this to Sherlock as a mission/case. She doesn't say, "Take care of John for me after I'm gone". She doesn't even mention Rosie, so baby must not have even been in the picture when she made the recording. No, she knows something (from her before-life) and knows John needs to be saved from something real and dangerous - not just his own folly or stubbornness.  And of course, there are those already pointing out that "Hell" is a real place in Norway; and I can also add there is a town called "Hell" in the Grand Caymans because I've been there.