Because that's the point of a Mind Palace, it has everything.
Sometimes the pointless clutter is exactly what you need.

Looking for logic in the mind palace is probably not the right way to go. They didn't go for realistic, they went for awesome theatre. Derren Brown's description of how a mind palace could work is very different from what's depicted here, this is more like an internal dialogue. It just looks cool.

But I agree that Mycrof's behavious seems a bit suspicious, he even stated that 'there must be something in the punch'. Maybe he was just playing along, and had already foreseen Sherlock's plan. Of course, they were both surprised by the absence of vaults, that's why Sherlock wanted CAM to tell Mycroft the truth before he shot him. 

Interesting, though I do still wonder if things would have been different, if Mary had not been pregnant.
I still tend to think that Sherlock just accepts John really loves  Mary.
I actually think Sherlock also feels quite protective towards Mary.
He actually knows what it's like to spend a life on the run.

Last edited by besleybean (January 19, 2014 11:44 am)

What ever eventually happens to Mary I don't want it to be anything John can even remotely blame on Sherlock.  I want our boys to be united, not pulled apart again.

I agree. And this is why I am very curious as to what they have planned.

Because like I said I do want to believe Sherlock has the situation under control - as in, I don't want to see him once again completely out of his depth if it turns out something else involving Mary turns up to bite them in the arse - that would break my heart.

But if that is the case, I think that would hurt John even more than before, since Sherlock has already 'not trusted' him once before, and we've all seen the disastrous consequences...

RavenMorganLeigh wrote:

tonnaree wrote:

What ever eventually happens to Mary I don't want it to be anything John can even remotely blame on Sherlock.  I want our boys to be united, not pulled apart again.

I really hope so, too-- but I hate to say this,because I really love John; I suspect that John will end up (at least temporarily ) blaming Sherlock. I think it's a knee jerk reaction for him , at this point-- to look for someone to blame, and that someone is very often Sherlock. 
 

Yes; in some ways Sherlock seems to have grown up a bit this season, whereas John seems to be going backwards. I am sure, however, that the show runners recognise the power of the Sherlock/John iconic centre of the stories; they can't undermine that without destroying the entire show. So I am hoping that John, like Sherlock, has learned his lesson 
 

silverblaze wrote:

Willow wrote:

Yes; in some ways Sherlock seems to have grown up a bit this season, whereas John seems to be going backwards. I am sure, however, that the show runners recognise the power of the Sherlock/John iconic centre of the stories; they can't undermine that without destroying the entire show. So I am hoping that John, like Sherlock, has learned his lesson

It would be interesting if they played with that a bit in the next series. What happened between them in s3 was so emotional, hard to top that, they might want to bring it back to calmer waters. It's interesting that Sherlock seems to be the most loyal of the two, while John is often sceptical. Though I guess you won't easily trust a friend who pulled such a stunt as Sherlock did. Sherlock really needed to earn it back. 
 

I entirely agree that Sherlock needed to earn the trust back; he had a perfectly good reason for not letting John in on the secret since John isn't exactly the master of subtle deception but two years is too long

silverblaze wrote:

Willow wrote:

I entirely agree that Sherlock needed to earn the trust back; he had a perfectly good reason for not letting John in on the secret since John isn't exactly the master of subtle deception but two years is too long

I'd lose trust, good reason or not. And John knows that he can act like an emotionless psychopath, so that wouldn't help much either. I didn't think I'd discover another layer in this but yes, I think that's why he blames Sherlock so much, even after he forgave him. Maybe Sherlock's 'Christmas present' healed a few things for John. 
 

 
Actually that hadn't occurred to me before but yes, the inviting them together so that they could see the Holmes Happy Christmas family seems a tad unusual for Sherlock but it may have worked. My reservations stem from the way that Mary was 'playing' Holmes senior, and the way in which she spoke to John before the 'prepared words' emerged. However,  I do not believe that John Watson would ask Holmes senior to go away; that is an incredible breach of good manners which just doesn't fit with the character. In middle class England you do not tell a chap to get out of his own sitting room, particularly when that chap is a generation older than you.

Of course, Moffat may have put that in as the precursor to Sherlock asking the others to go away at the airport; being Moffat he probably was, but it's still a really strange thing to do.

But I don't think John is an emotionless psychopath; CAM was wrong about that. Being an adrenaline junkie is not the same as being a psychopath; I hope that John finally works that one out for himself, because otherwise he is going to get into horrendously deep waters...

silverblaze wrote:

Willow wrote:

 Actually that hadn't occurred to me before but yes, the inviting them together so that they could see the Holmes Happy Christmas family seems a tad unusual for Sherlock but it may have worked. My reservations stem from the way that Mary was 'playing' Holmes senior, and the way in which she spoke to John before the 'prepared words' emerged. However, I do not believe that John Watson would ask Holmes senior to go away; that is an incredible breach of good manners which just doesn't fit with the character. In middle class England you do not tell a chap to get out of his own sitting room, particularly when that chap is a generation older than you.

Haha, no, by 'Cristmas present' I meant shooting CAM. He sacrificed himself for John and Mary and I thought that might heal John's trust. 

I don't think Mary was playing Holmes senior, she was just having light conversation with him, how's that playing? And he volunteered to leave when he saw how Mary and John interacted, John just said something like 'yes please'. 

Mary to Holmes senior:

 'Oh my God; you are the sane one, aren't you?'

To which he replies:

'Aren't you?'.

Mary is portraying herself as the sane one, trying to create a non-existent link between herself and Holmes senior; I very much doubt that he would regard her as sane if he knew what we know.

The second piece of dialogue is John coming into the doorway of the room where Mary and Holmes senior are and saying:

'Oh.' Sorry, I, I, just, er'

whereupon Holmes senior says:

'Oh, er. Do you two need a moment?

To which John replies:

'If you wouldn't mind'.

This is a blatant breach of middle class English conventions; they've been invited into someone else's home for Xmas day and yet John, who had convention ground into him in the Army if nowhere else,  apparently forgets the most fundamental rules. It has been established that Mary is very probably not English, so she wouldn't know the rules, but John does.

It's weird, and I don't know whether it's supposed to tell us something about John or it's just Moffat setting up for the scene at the airport when Sherlock asks for some time with John, and we get that surprised look on Mycroft's face...

Willow wrote:

Mary to Holmes senior:

 'Oh my God; you are the sane one, aren't you?'

To which he replies:

'Aren't you?'.

Mary is portraying herself as the sane one, trying to create a non-existent link between herself and Holmes senior; I very much doubt that he would regard her as sane if he knew what we know.

No, she says he is the sane one, not she. He says 'aren't you' and she looks unconfortable and breaks eye contact, as in 'not really'. She really says 'you', she never implies that she means herself, she's just placing herself in his position. As I said, smalltalk. 

Willow wrote:

The second piece of dialogue is John coming into the doorway of the room where Mary and Holmes senior are and saying:

'Oh.' Sorry, I, I, just, er'

whereupon Holmes senior says:

'Oh, er. Do you two need a moment?

To which John replies:

'If you wouldn't mind'.

This is a blatant breach of middle class English conventions; they've been invited into someone else's home for Xmas day and yet John, who had convention ground into him in the Army if nowhere else, apparently forgets the most fundamental rules. It has been established that Mary is very probably not English, so she wouldn't know the rules, but John does.

Ok, I'm not English, you're spelling it out for me and I still don't see the faux pas. He walks into the room, surprised to find them, he and Mary are immediately unconfortable and mr. Holmes is nice enough to notice and to give them some space. He doesn't ask him to leave, he probably would have left himself if mr. Holmes hadn't picked up on the signals. Then he's visibly relieved that he did and accepts the offer. What's impolite about that? Should he have said no, stay?