gently69 wrote:

I never doubted Martin's acting skills in tthis scene. IMO he did it perfect. Benedict and Martin are totally different in their expressions and that's fantastic. It would be boring for me if they both act in the same way. I loved both performances which showed me their harm in different versions. Both fit to the characters.

I know you didn't  I was referring to earlier posts who had started to doubt some of the acting choices of MF. You just kindly helped to "prove" my point  I agree that Ben's and Martin's acting styles are very different but both fantastic in their own way. They complement each other perfectly.

gently69 wrote:

And my explanation for "near to tears"... I see that if the eyes starting to get wet... didn't see that at the end of TRF... compared to several scenes in S3. His whole face changes then. Benedict can control that perfectly.

I don't see any tears at the end of TRF either. I would say the the expression is serious and probably like he's trying to distant himself from what he has just seen, but I don't really see "sad"  and definitly no tears. But again, it's an expression that can be read differently by different people and that's what makes it feel much more real than an obvious, one dimentional expression. And I think the same can be said about that airport scene - which I love and wouldn't want it to be any different.
 

miriel68 wrote:

I am wondering whether some - no, not doubts, this is too strong a word - but hesitations about John's reactions and feelings in s3, especially HLV stem from the script or from MF perfomance. Evidentely there must be something slightly disturbing and I wouldn't put it on simple not being able to observe and understand a subtle performance: not on this board, at least, where the people are not casual viewers and tend to watch and re-watch episodes, analysing them in depth. One thing I noticed, for example, in the scene at the beginning of the episode, when they are leaving drug den and Sherlock is shouting, is that MF is actually smiling! (Well, it is true that Benedict is hilarious as an enraged junkie!). This is the first time in the whole series I noticed MF acting out of character.

Taking into consideration that they usually film several takes of every scene and MF never plays his part exactly the same in each take (because that would be too boring), I'm rather confident that what we see from John in this last scene at the airport is what the writers wanted him to be like. By the way, Sherlock seemed rather cold in that graveyard at the end of TRF, after seeing a broken John at his grave. Did anyone question Ben's acting there? I don't think so . . .
 

mrshouse wrote:

Quiet so, and that is what i love martin's acting for!

Couldn't agree more! His ability to subtly yet still palpably convey every single emotion is something very rare!
 

SPOILER WARNING This answer refers to a question concerning episode 3.03. If you haven't seen it yet, don't read it.

lisa wrote:

Can we address the change in Sherlock? He seems friendlier more humble, which is all explainable, he had so many of his friends come through and help him. I really had to get used to that though, but what is with the ladies man routine. He is having sex now? He was "the virgin" just a few episodes ago. Now don't get me wrong, I loved it, but I didn't expect it. My secret fantasy always was that after he saved Irene Adler  they went off to some exoctic hotel and she "Thanked" him. So now I see that she probably did and taught him a few things. RoWWWWWW! Wish they made that into an episode! LOL!

I don't think he was having sex with Janine. In the hospital, she answered his "I exploited the fact of our connection" remark with: "Just once would have been nice" to which Sherlock responds "I was waiting until we got married". As far as I understand this, Janine was complaining that they never had sex. What else could the "waiting until they got married" remark have referred to?
 

"But she wasn't supposed to be like that!" Always manages to break my heart. 

Willow wrote:

Don't get me started on the jumpers! I mean, it was a blindingly obvious symbolic lead in to what was going to happen in TRF and not one of the critics noticed!
 

This just made me laugh out loud in the middle of the night. I hope that my neighbours will be forgiving!  But how blind have we been, indeed!
 

Willow wrote:

LightPurple wrote:

Yes, he said to Whitney that he hand't seen Sherlock "for ages", which Mary corrected into "one month!" Taking into consideration how VERY keen John was on getting out of the house to do his own little inverstigation in the drug den, and just how generally frustrated he seemed in that scene, I don't doubt that he had started to sorely miss his life with Sherlock, and not having been out on a case with Sherlock for a whole month had, indeed, felt like ages to him. 

Is this intended to fit with the stuff on John's blog, where we have Mary telling John that he's not supposed to be reading his blog when he's on his Sex Holiday?

I do think that Sherlock's analysis of why John was attracted to Mary is too glib; John believes that he deliberately chose someone who would not endanger herself, because losing someone you love hurts and he doesn't want to do that again.

I haven't read John's blog for quite a while, but will do so after writing this. 

A think you are spot on with this thought. It would make perfect sense for John to consciously look for someone save, someone "normal", because he wouldn't want to go through such an intense experience of loss again. His heartbreaking "but she wasn't supposed to be like that!" in HLV supports this thought. On the other hand, we don't consiously choose who we love and get along with, and I think John's character just seems to be a perfect match for people who don't actually fit into that box of "normalcy", even if they seem to do so at first sight. 
 

SherlocklivesinOH wrote:

Sherlock Holmes wrote:

I just always imagined that the true reveal would come from Sherlock telling John how he did it. And there was that moment, when John asked him as they were about to go out and face the press. There was like...five minutes left to spare, and I honestly thought Sherlock was about to tell him then.

You honed in here on the piece that bothered me: I assumed at the time this was the true explanation because 1) it was almost the end of the episode, and 2) I thought he was talking to John. And I assumed he would tell John the truth. (Silly me!)

And then at the end, didn't John ask Sherlock again how he did it?

I do see the point behind the "he wouldn't tell Anderson the truth," comment. I have said many times that he could get back at those who hated him in-universe by keeping them in the dark....thinking about supernatural possibilties...and maybe making them wonder a little if it was anything like History's Greatest Rise From the Dead...and John HAS to be wondering that on some level, too.

I have thought about that conversation between John and Sherlock at thte end of TEH a lot, because it didn't really make much sense to me at first. Sherlock wanted to tell John how he did it very early on in the episode, but was interrupted by John not wanting to know. So why wouldn't he tell him later, once John had calmed down? Now I've come to think that in this last scene at Baker Street, John didn't actually ask Sherlock to tell him how he did it. He doesn't really put a question mark at the end of his sentence, but just quietly states "you're not going to tell me how youd did it". I now have come to the conclusion that this is actually John telling Sherlock NOT to tell him how he actually did it, so they could just pretend it was a miracle Sherlock had provided for John when he asked for it (or two years after he had asked for it, more precisely). I now to see this scene as an understanding between John and Sherlo

silverblaze wrote:

I thought the 'ages' remark referred to Whitney. Like he said to the neighbour she'd better ask Sherlock to investigate than come to him, because he really didn't know where he was, hadn't seen him for ages. 

Yes, he said to Whitney that he hand't seen Sherlock "for ages", which Mary corrected into "one month!" Taking into consideration how VERY keen John was on getting out of the house to do his own little inverstigation in the drug den, and just how generally frustrated he seemed in that scene, I don't doubt that he had started to sorely miss his life with Sherlock, and not having been out on a case with Sherlock for a whole month had, indeed, felt like ages to him. 

@Swanpride By the way, I'm not saying your arguments are wrong. You're arguing on the side of the prosecuter, I'm arguing on the side of the defender. I'm not sure who would actually "win" or be more convincing in court, but I think we both would have a shot. As so many things in life, the law isn't always just black or white / right or wrong.