BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » Still don't understand why they texted her phone

Sherlock Holmes · February 24, 2012 5:40 pm

I mean, I understand the basic premise of it which was to scare the killer. Sherlock said he would know the text could only have come from her. But what I don't understand is...let's assume she was alive and the text was genuine, and of course she could have borrowed someone else's phone to send the message, having lost her own. But why would she text her own phone with that specific message??? Surely, if you had lost your phone, you'd just text it saying "hi there, do you have my phone" or something?

drummerchickSH · February 24, 2012 6:52 pm

Maybe she wanted to know if any one of her mates has the phone?

Davina · February 24, 2012 9:08 pm

From the text the killer is encouraged to assume the following:
1. That the woman he assumed was dead is alive
2. She is suffering from some form of amnesia
3. There is a danger that she will remember what really happened and report it to the police

The killer taxi driver goes to the address given to see whether the woman is really there but then he sees and recognises Sherlock. Coolly he waits whilst Sherlock and John apprehend the passenger until they realise he is an innocent tourist- perhaps the taxi driver's next intended victim? The fact the passenger reports the incident immediately to a police officer may perhaps save his life.

Recall that Sherlock tells John afterwards that it was a long shot anyway that the killer would take the bait. At the time he assumes that the killer had not bitten, but of course he had!

kazza474 · February 24, 2012 10:50 pm

Sherlock Holmes wrote:
.... But why would she text her own phone with that specific message??? Surely, if you had lost your phone, you'd just text it saying "hi there, do you have my phone" or something?

Because "Hi there...etc" is boring and not exactly great TV viewing. It also wouldn't scare the killer much in reality. Considering she was in tears and scared to death the last time he saw her alive, it's not really the next thing she would say to him is it?

As for the plot - we have a lot of action to do in a short time. The writers are not going to add idle chit chat into the script. We need to get to each point asap. A "Hi there" text would require follow up texts, hardly riveting viewing & a complete waste of time.

Davina · February 25, 2012 12:06 pm

Agreed!

Sherlock Holmes · February 25, 2012 2:23 pm

Good point...I think I can accept those explanations!

Davina · March 3, 2012 5:40 pm

Thinking about it Sherlock does say texting the phone with the message of where the killer should meet his last victim was 'a long shot' and that it was mostly done to prove a point. The point being that John's limp is psychosomatic and that he does not need his walking stick. In that respect it was a total success.

Sherlock Holmes · March 3, 2012 6:44 pm

Yes! I love that bit - he goes from limping and hobbling to racing through the streets and leaping over rooftops.

Dramagod · June 26, 2012 6:45 pm

Sorry to bump an old topic. But I have a question from an earlier scene involving a phone and didn't want to make a new thread.

After meeting Sherlock for the first time, Watson checks the message Sherlock sent using his phone. It says something like "If brother has green ladder, arrest brother". Is this a nod to some original ACD story? Is there other hints at what the case might be? We know Sherlock's beating the dead body to see how it bruises, I take it this is the same as the green ladder case.

sherlockskitty · June 26, 2012 7:10 pm

dramagod--sherlock BBC version has a website called THE SCIENCE OF DEDUCTION. Our sherlock was referring to a case he had already solved, before he met John. This story of the green ladder was not in the canon;, however there are many times in the cannon in which ACD's sherlock referred to cases that were solved, but not written up for us readers.

everyone else-- about BBC sherlock sending that text in SIP-- Remember, in the unaired pilot, Sherlock asked Lestrade if he could do a news blackout--to prevent the population (including the killer) to know that they'd found the dead woman in pink. Well, in the 90 min version, THAT was not even considered, but it should have been. So, Maybe Lestrade DID put a news blackout up, without Sherlock asking for it. We don't know. That's my take on it.

Davina · June 26, 2012 8:31 pm

Ah! That would then make sense. If the cabbie had heard no news about the lady in pinks death then the text message could have come from her. Interesting!

I've watched the pilot but I had forgotten that bit.

Dramagod · June 26, 2012 8:43 pm

Davina wrote:
Ah! That would then make sense. If the cabbie had heard no news about the lady in pinks death then the text message could have come from her. Interesting!

I've watched the pilot but I had forgotten that bit.

I just wrote regarding to this in the "Random questions" thread. I think the cabbie was with his victims when they did the pill game. Because he did say he knew all the quiet places in the town. So when he noticed she chose the bad bottle, he left, before he saw her craving "rache" on the floor. So I'm sure he knew she would die.

Davina · June 27, 2012 10:52 am

Hmm! Yes! It's all a bit too problematic isn't it.

kazza474 · June 27, 2012 11:06 am

Oh we all know, no-one is dead till you see them dead, and even then it's a 50/50 chance.

In the 90 minute version, we are introduced to the cabbie as being somewhat of a 'budding genius'; let's face it, he is not stupid & he is working with Moriarty. Those things considered, it is quite likely that he KNEW when the text came that it was more likely to be from Sherlock.That is, he would have realised that Sherlock had tracked down the phone somehow.
Because let's face it, IF he thought it was just the pink chick why would he have gone to Sherlock's place to pick him up?
He knew it was Sherlock & the game was about to get serious.

Davina · June 27, 2012 2:43 pm

So, this bit is more like chess than the pill-swallowing bit. Sherlock sent a text (well John actually but you know what I mean) which the cabbie might think was from the dead woman, who is not dead (in theory). BUT Sherlock is pretty sure that the cabbie knows that he has made a mistake with the pink overnight bag and that, in fact, the text is not from the woman but from whoever has found the bag. The cabbie goes to the arranged meeting place, with a fare on board. There Sherlock realises the fare isn't the murderer and the cabbie sees it is Sherlock Holmes who has sent the message. The assumption is that the cabbie has been made familiar with what Sherlock looks like courtesy of Moriarty and probably he also tells the cabbie where Sherlock lives.

The thing that is puzzling is, why should the cabbie keep the woman's pink phone? I have some ideas but I want to see what the rest of you can make of it first.

I think that the whole set up, with the forced suicides etc. were designed solely to get Sherlock's attention, with the cabbie being used as a fall guy.

imane nikko · June 27, 2012 3:10 pm

Yes, Davina, that bit bothered me too... why not get rid of the phone? The longer he keeps it, the more likely its location data could be traced. They do it with lost hikers all the time.

But not that much time elapses between Jennifer Wilson's death and Sherlock sending the text... assuming she's as smart as Sherlock says, it's possible she hid it well and the cabbie didn't notice the phone in the car until the text arrived. Once he gets the text and sees who's behind it, that line of Sherlock's about the brilliant ones being desperate to be caught seems a semi-logical reason to keep it.

Then again, Moriarty was the cabbie's sponsor, and encouraging his murders could absolutely have been a bid for Sherlock's attention. It's hard to say, since the cabbie wouldn't give a name until Sherlock tortured him, whether Moriarty intended to reveal himself this way or not.

Davina · June 27, 2012 5:31 pm

The cabbie thinks he is brilliant hence Sherlock's sarcastic comment about him being a genius, however he isn't brilliant at all. The brilliant adversary in this is Moriarty. Even if the cabbie had not revealed his name I suspect Sherlock would still have tried to find out who was behind it all. Moriarty could not know for sure that Sherlock did get his name from the cabbie, could he? In which case his demanding attention in The Great Game makes more sense.

imane nikko · June 27, 2012 5:52 pm

Hm... I thought the cabbie was probably above average. Nothing in comparison to Moriarty or Sherlock, of course, but if he were a total doofus Sherlock wouldn't have cared whether he'd beaten him.

Davina · June 27, 2012 7:12 pm

No cabbies are dim. See my other threads about London cab drivers but that doesn't make him a genius...he is just a bit delusional...he thinks he is one.

sherlockskitty · June 27, 2012 8:13 pm

It bothered me why the cabbie kept the phone, too. here's my take on that---he kept it, because he WANTED to get caught. Even tho Moriarty was sponsoring him, he still couldn't see his kids, and he didn't know how much money his kids were actually getting from M, therefore he had no real reason for living. So, he wanted to be caught, but ONLY by Sherlock Holmes. that's what I think. And Sherlock knew the cabbie wanted to get caught, so he set things in motion for that. brilliant, eh?