Be wrote:

She's English with a spine, according to CAM.
How so? What did she do to deserve this compliment? She is head of the enquiry. She asks questions. It's her job. When she is told that CAM owns her she seeks out for Sherlock because Sherlock is thought to be able to stand up to CAM. Someone who dares to do that. Apparently she doesn't dare to do that herself.

She lives with a husband who is or was interested in younger women. She tries to appear younger herself because she uses Claire-de-la-lune perfume." A bit young for your age." She knows that she has to stay attractive or she will lose him. Maybe she already lost him to another woman and she has to fight a constant battle with women in the shadows.
I imagine that she is in a way tired to do that. Maybe she thinks that CAM's threat to reveal Lord Smallwood's past is not that a bad situation.
We don't exactly know what happened during the interval when Sherlock was in hospital. We know that Lord Smallwood saw the need to commit suicide. Perhaps Lady Elizabeth told him that she won't be owned by CAM and that whatever happens she will not succumb to his threats.
I imagine that this outcome is just perhaps not exactly inconvenient for Lady Elizabeth. Her own public image is intact and she got rid of her husband who was unfaithful anyway. 

Lady Smallwood tells CAM that the relationship in question happened before she met her husband and that he had no idea of exactly HOW young the girl was. But nevertheless, these are all good points. It seems entirely possible that Lord Smallwood was not so innocent of wrongdoing. 

It also struck me this was a definite case, at least for Lady Smallwood herself, of "the coverup will get you in more trouble than the crime." Because SHE has not actually been accused of doing anything sexually inappropriate herself - only if she tries to protect her husband or cover up for him, or even defend him, does she become

Bear with me because this IS Sherlock-related, but I'm going to start with another series, for comparisons' sake:

Agatha Christie wrote several novels where she initially appears to set one character up as a femme fatale archtype: beautiful, supposedly irresistable to men, often with a career on the stage or as a model, notorious for her affairs, and for supposedly "breaking up marriages" and for "corrupting" men in other ways...and then Christie would subvert expectations (as she always did) by showing the character to be...NOT responsible for the evil, but also not "misunderstood" and not "with a heart of gold"...but the VICTIM of the men.

One or more of the supposed male "victims" of the femme fatale would be shown to be taking advantage of her, often beyond using her for sex. They might be cheating her out of money, and, in some cases, the notorious female is the murder victim, murdered by one of the men she thought she was seducing...with her being much more in love with him than the other way around.

And in another famous case, the man was a chronic womanizer, and he let his newest, less-experienced-than-most mistress believe he loved her enough to leave his wife for her...all so he could use her as a model for his painting....the guy's a jerk but it's made clear he cares about his wife more than anyone else. (This may have been "wish fulfillment" on Christie's part, because she WAS dumped for a younger woman.)

As Hercule Poirot says about one such woman, "She didn't fatally attract men, men fatally attracted her." Her sexuality made her, not evil perhaps, but weaker rather than stronger.

I think this kind of twist is sort of what Mofftis (and perhaps, Doyle as well) were going for with Irene. In the end, BBC-Sherlock fatally attracted his Irene more than she did him. And also, she may not have been in love with Moriarty or any other male villain, but she certainly got in over her head working with them, all the while thinking she was clever and powerful

This list misses one of the most important: 

In the final canon story "His Last Bow," Holmes has being doing espionage work, without Watson. He and Watson reunite (with Johnlock-filled delight - some Johnlockers think they're lying about the years apart and actually they retired to the country together ), but both have to go back into war service very soon. Holmes has a line about it being "the last quiet talk we shall ever have."

It was very savvy, even prescient, on Doyle's part, because the start of the war (WWI) was very much the end of an era. When you read mysteries written after WWI (such as Agatha Christie), the characters ages 40 and 50-something and up say all of the things about 20-somethings that "baby boomers" do today: they're careless, lazy, don't want to work, too casual about sex, etc. But it makes more sense when you realize that the older characters are adhering to Victorian/Edwardian times. And while King Edward's reign was a little "looser" than his mother's in some ways, WWI seems to have been the real "dividing line"

And don't forget Irene. I don't know how much sexual attraction Sherlock was feeling but he certainly didn't show the revulsion toward her that he did toward CAM (there was some suggestion he had to fight hard to not let her seduce him), yet she had a rather similar M.O. to CAM - and rather similar motivation, in that she was all about power.

Also, I didn't think CAM's shooting was actually much of a stretch beyond other things Sherlock, John, and Mycroft have done (or had ordered), and yet it was treated as some big crossing of a line.

The baby not being John's would probably make Sherlock madder than anything else Mary has done, including shooting him!

And let's not forget that, in the middle of Mrs. Hudson talking about her sex life, John blurted out "Sherlock!"

Of course, it could have been at a WORSE moment. It could have gone:

Mrs. Hudson: It was purely physical between me and - 
John (interrupts): Sherlock!

This Is The Phantom Lady wrote:

Good idea!

And so do I, and I might even get to see it over here... the media is a bit excited about Magnussen's debut! 

What are you referring to as Magnussen's debut? The first thing I thought of was something about Rupert Murdoch...

 

besleybean wrote:

This scene is one of the most hilarious so far.
I roared laughing from start to finish.
Also one of the times I was glad I knew my Canon and realized the relationship was well (as we find out later) non-existent, but pretend as well!
I don't think jealousy comes into it.
John is aboslutely gob smacked and I don't think is ever fully convinced.
To be fair, it's his reactions that make me howl with laughter.
But he cannot believe Sherlock would be so ' cruel'.
Though this make me laugh a bit...what's really that cruel about it?
As Janine herself acknowledges, she knows what kind of man Sherlock is...

Why does everyone think that Janine was "using" Sherlock too? Granted, she seems kind of into the idea of dating "the famous Mr. Holmes," and far from naive, but still, she seems more genuinely attracted than he is. Although I think she looks (and in some ways acts) like she could be Irene's little sister, I don't think she was spying on him for CAM or anything like that.

I already posted that my brother and sister-in-law named their dog "Watson." They're not even that obsessed with Sherlock Holmes...the only version they watch is Elementary.

They wanted a "famous sidekick name." Now the dog has made friends with a stray cat. I sad, "You have to name the cat Sherlock." They said they already refer to it as Sherlock.

SusiGo wrote:

Yep. And then keeps going on and on about it while Sherlock tries to tell him about this most exciting Magnussen case. 

Jealous because Sherlock might be doing it with someone else? Or just turned on thinking about Sherlock doing it?

And I admit in that scene it did seem like Sherlock and Janine really were...involved. Maybe she was just in his bedroom to get ready to...try to get him interested?

 

tonnaree wrote:

Those are all the same kind of concerns a parent could have with ANY relationship their teenager is in.  The only thing different with it being same sex is the social stigma they're put through.

The way you discribe the relationship in the book it sounds like your average whirlwind teenage romance.  There's big emotions and physical exploration.  They think it will last forever but it doesn't.  And in the end it becomes a part of their journey.

Your first sentence is an important point which I thought was a flaw in the way that the adult characters who were shown as antagonists - objecting to the relationship - were portrayed. They were focused almost entirely on the same-sex angle, and didn't really raise the other issues.

The character who is the closest to being a villain, Liza's private-school principal, does confess that she and her husband were high-school sweethearts, and that if they hadn't had such a religious upbringing, they might have given in to temptation and become sexually active then. So she is against any teens having sex, but she also reinforces the idea of staying with the person you meet in high school. (And she does proceed to call Liza's relationship "unnatural sex!)

The other kids do a few things that could be considered bullying, but mostly they're just kind of shocked, and most of the homophobia is more of the "thinking being gay is a mental illness" and "we want you to get help to be cured" kind, than of the "you're a monster, get away from me, kind."

As for the "thinking it will last forever," we don't know about "forever," but they get back in contact at the very end, make plans to meet for spring break, and exchange "I love yous," Liza seemingly having accepted that she's gay.

And Annie isn't that upset about the months of silence - dare I say "hiatus"? - she is just glad to hear from her love again. Shades of canon-Watson there, I suppose[img]http://