besleybean wrote:

Taught in the army.

Oh wow, that was quick, thanks
Is it also used in the army? (I confess I really have no idea about army related stuff)
 

Even if it is not a necessary qualification for an army doctor to know Morse, I can totally see how someone who choses the military for his career would be interested in these things. Maybe  he's also interested in military history, maybe he learned it in the boyscouts... John is just the type who would know, isn't he? Nice to see him do some quick and accurate (albeit misdirected) brainwork, for a change...

It's a bit like the cat's paws in TGG, too, isn't it? That would have been a brilliant deduction and a much more brilliant solution to the mystery, btw, than the real one (Raoul upping the botox dose to a fatal level). It's just bad luck that every time John comes up with something clever, it turns out he's wrong...

But I do like it when he really gets involved in Sherlock's cases, when he's not just being Sherlock's audience but truly his partner in crime (pun intended).

The way I see it, gcode, it was just a normal (though very big and not very fluffy) dog. The publicans at the village let it loose on the moor to attract more tourists. It was probably confused and maybe hungry, but I don't think Frankland controlled it and set it on Henry deliberately. So shooting it dead was actually a bit of an overreaction (but wonderfully dramatic, as well as canon).

Frankland was relying on the drugs in the fog alone to drive Henry mad and kill himself. It must have suited his purpose very well when additionally, a real dog appeared on the scene, but for Henry, the combination of the drug and his real evil memories would probably have been enough.

The dog is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy - Henry, as an adult, returns to Dartmoor and decides to go public with his story of a gigantic hound. The story goes viral in the media. From that point onwards, it's only a matter of time until a real hound appears on the scene. As in, if people want to see it, someone will put it there. By making the story public, Henry was actually working towards his own destruction without knowing it.

Welcome to the Forum, by the way!

Last edited by La Jolie (September 17, 2014 7:00 am)

I'v also got a question and I haven't found the answer in this thread so far ...
At the beginning when Henry appears at Sherlock's for the first time, telling his story. At first, Sherlock is bored and not interesting in getting involved in the case. But when he hears Henry say the word "hound" he's electrified.
Why? Is there anything special about the word?

After reading The Devil's Foot story and going on to watch the Jeremy Brett/Granada series episode of the same name, I can guess that this is where Moftiss drew their inspiration for the fear-inducing halucinagenic gas used in Hounds. I love how they weave all these little bits of canon into each episode of Sherlock, it's so fun to discover them

I believe it was a play on the fact that in Canon he pretends not to go, but actually does incognito.