Janine did have enough time to contact some journalists and sell her story to the press, so it might even be a bit more than just two days.

I know I'm late to the party (so to speak) but it took me several days to process this scene. This is by far the creepiest thing I've seen for a long time, and it confirms my initial feeling that CAM is much more dangerous and destructive than Moriarty has ever been. He takes the concept of a villain onto a whole different level. No guns, no semtex, a few words and very little but sublime physical action are more efficient to threaten people. Which takes me to the non-existant vaults in Appledore... I know this topic has already been discussed elsewhere but somehow this deleted scene reminds me of the fact that Magnussen does not need any props to exert pressure. And I think there were many hints during HLV ... At the very beginning of the episode Magnussen mentions his excellent memory when he is being interrogated. Then we get the line "this is my office" when Magnussen meets Sherlock in 221B which indicates to me that he does not need an actual office building because he has all he needs in his mind so he can take it everywhere to set up his "office." Of course he briefly presents a bunch of letters but they could be a ruse, how can we know that buch of paper is the real deal? The line "this is my office" is echoed during the hospital restaurant scene when Sherlock says "this is the canteen" (I still have not made up my mind if it actually happens or if it is only in Sherlock's mind palace but the line is there anyway, Sherlock either says it in real life or in his mind). To me it sounds a bit as if Sherlock wanted to say "if you can pretend that my flat is your office then I can pretend that this restaurant is the hospital canteen" - sort of playing mind games. Sorry if I got a bit carried away, but this short scene reminded me of all the subtle - or maybe not so subtle - hints in HLV... maybe I need to watch the whole episode again and try to imagine how the deleted scene would have fit in.

Then, on the other hand, one has to remember that if the producers, editors and writers agreed that they were happy for this scene to be one of the ones on the chopping board, then it couldn't have been a particularly important scene in terms of plot/characterisations. I think people are in danger of reading too much into it. If it was an important scene, they would have left it in. All it basically is, is another example of Magnussen being creepy. I just personally loved it.

Let's also keep in mind that the producers etc also allowed for this scene to show up on the DVD. There are surely a lot more scenes they deleted after shooting, but this one was at least important enough to be released. Kind of.

Maybe they deliberately left it out, to mess with us later.
Because those two minutes are enough to change the meaning of HLV´s resolution, they wanted to shock the audience into the new outlook on that episode.

I've tried to hear what they say about it on the commentary, but I'm not hearing it very well (I think it's a problem with my sound, but Steven is usually quite clear, the others are difficult to hear, particularly Una).  It's quite a light hearted conversation, lots of laughter, but sadly not really enlightening on why the scene was removed.

Steven: One of the very, very  few cut scenes from Sherlock is that we  ... we barely lost a scene, but there was a scene where Magnussen goes to visit Sherlock as he sleeps.  It was quite a creepy scene ...
Mark: (muffled) .. hands, artist's hands
Steven: woman's hands, he says and I don't know quite what he was thinking
Mark: I thought that was from Blackadder
Stven: Is that it? Is it?  Oh no!  "Aaargh, you have a woman's hands!" All my life is a confusing mess. I'm thinking I'm writing other people's shows. 

It does confirm why Magnussen didn't tell the police about Mary, but I think it's OK for us to assume that anyway.   I think it might have been useful to know that Sherlock knows it at that point (to make it clear that he knows he's in danger from Mary, and that Magnussen is going to use that information), but he would work it out anyway when Mary comes to threaten him rather than being arrested.   Even Mary works out - she knows Magnussen won't tell.

It's an extra level of creepy on Magnussen's creepiness because Sherlock is helpless here.  I think I like the fact that Sherlock already hates Magnussen on behalf of other people - it doesn't need a more personal reason.   There's something a bit personal between Moriarty and Sherlock, that there doesn't need to be between Magnussen and Sherlock.  I do think it's a good Magnussen scene - he doesn't actually DO anything much - as they've said, you can't call the police if somebody pees in your fireplace, or eats your olive .... or kisses your hand.   But the fact that Sherlock is incapacitated here somehow doesn't work well (apart from making it more horrible), because Magnussen doesn't normally NEED that - the point is that he can do these things to able, conscious people and they just let him. 

Last edited by Liberty (November 4, 2014 8:40 am)

Yes ... I wonder if there's an element of him doing it to kind of discombobulate people too?  It's difficult to think straight when somebody's just licked your face - difficult to put that aside and concentrate on the matter in hand.  

I think Sherlock would deal pretty well with this sort of thing.  I'm sure it would affect him (and when he's so close to death it must be terrifying at the time), but he doesn't let Magnussen's other intrusions and humiliations get to him or distract him too much.  It's not really a huge suprise that Magnussen treats him as he does his other victims.  I think it's us (the viewers) who would have difficulty dealing with it.  Especially with its placement at that point when Sherlock gets so much suffering thrown at him - I think it's a relief to watch it separately like this.   I think we still need to be shocked that Sherlock would shoot an unarmed man dead, and I think this scene might take away some of the shock?

Last edited by Liberty (November 4, 2014 9:18 am)

So this is not about the deleted scene, but it's something that has initially been in the script. It's from the Sherlock Chronicles:

 

And isn't THAT highly interesting, too.

(Solar, how do YOU have the Chronicles already when the bastards at Amazon are still keeping me waiting for mine?)

But I do get the feeling that this dynamic should really be considered AU (if there is such a thing as canonical AU). It puts such a different spin on HLV, it really is out of sync not with Magnussen's character as such but with all the rest of the story, including the ending.

Last edited by La Jolie (November 7, 2014 11:23 am)

Susi, it's done. 
La Jolie, I found this on tumblr, just like you I'm still waiting for my Chronicles. 

As for this piece of dialogue, together with the deleted scene it would indeed have put a different spin on the relationship between Sherlock and CAM. A lot of sexual innuendo there from CAM...