I think it probably have worked better for you if you hadn't known the plot in advance; I entirely agree that there is a lot of stuff where it's difficult to see why people acted as they did, and knowing the plot in advance rather underlines that.

We are left with a lot of unanswered questions but I must disagree with you about Janine. Someone who spitefully turns off the analgesia of a seriously injured person isn't good friends material; she is a self-centred sadist. Given all the stuff about how pain can kill you underlined in Sherlock's Memory Palace when he had been shot I don't think it is accidental that Janine deliberately inflicted pain on Sherlock...

Wow…..  that was something else!  Spectacularly creepy enemy, who was also well-acted and surprising at times.  Equally spectacular cinematography/style/directing again.  Those mind palace scenes!  And everyone being bad-ass at different points, and seeing his parents again!  Just saw it last night, still need to read through all the thoughts here, and still a little uncertain about how things ended with Magnussen (because otherwise Sherlock knew they had nothing to pin on him?  And both of them would be the ones in trouble?).   

And that ending!  …What??  I was so convinced they were going to break hearts with a 'horrible cliffhanger' promised by something final happening to Mary.  Wide-eyed excitement followed by 'wtf?'  Sherlock not sent to 'death' after all?  Moriarty… what?  No way… he's dead.  The writers even said it would be silly to have them 'fake suicide' at each other.  Uh oh, Sherlock… you missed someone in his network… (Moran?) 

It's really interesting, from the first minute I saw him I had a much bigger dislike against Magnussen than Moriarty. When he licks Lady Smallwood face  I cringed so much and I mean Magnussen is "just" a blackmailer compared to Moriarty, I mean alone what he did in Great Game (the human-bombs and the swimming pool scene). But that John-flicking was so disturbing and I felt so much for John, I could have killed him.
At least Moriarty was polite when he came over for tea and didn't pee in the fireplace.

Last edited by Ivy (February 4, 2014 1:40 pm)

Ok,  I've backread just a little bit,  all  of you have the same ideas that CAM  is evil.   Me  too.    But,  the writers should have stuck to the name MILVERTON!!     that  stuck  to me like a  sore thumb.   it's Milverton,  not Mangnussen.   (Charles Disgusting Magnussen was a very funny aside)   

Ok   that said---I've watched the episode twice.   

John finding Sherlock AND  Isaac  and Bill Wiggins   at the same drugs place was  ok.   And then Mary must have been embarrased  to still be in her jim jams  and having all those men in her car......

Molly slapping Sherlock  was unexpected.   But it reminded me of Irene slapping Sherlock.  I  don't really like repetitive stuff.  

Sherlock and john arriving back in baker street  to find Mycroft there....and no one believing Sherlock that he was doing it for a CASE,  Poor Sherlock.

and finding Anderson there with another fan  from THE EMPTY HEARSE  club....not to my licking.   Does Anderson no longer work for the police?  If not,  then  he's got no reason to be there.   OOOHHH   maybe he's now working for Mycroft!!  

Mycroft telling Sherlock  not to go after Magnussen was a treat,  and that exchange between him and sherlock reqally was splendidly done.   But,  dosen't Mycroft realize by now, that telling sherlock NOT to do something will only make sherlock do it anyway?   geee.   that even works in real life.  with real people.   

OK   Mycroft leaves  and we see Janine come out of Sherlock's bedroom.   Sherlock knew she was there,  and that's why he told Mycroft to stop going towards it.   John was so flabbergasted.   He couldn't believe what he was seeing.   I  don't think he was jealous,  I  think he was just...flummoxed.  (Great acting by Martin...you CAN  use your face to express words or unbelief)  I  loved the flirting with Sherlock and Janine,   but HE was only playing at it,  SHE was not.   hehehehehe

And then CAM comes to visit john and Sherlock at Baker Street,  and Sherlock's feathers are ruffled.  And then  CAM  doing something that is totally disgusting,  I wonder why the censors allowed that scene to stay in?  And I'm not talking abt the part where CAM showed Sherlock the letters in his coat pocket.   

Fast fwd to where S  and J  go to CAM's office and SH  finds Mary there.   Mary  turns and asks  if John was with him.   I  think she asked him that because John had not told her where he was going that night.   So Mary  must have deduced that where Sherlock goes, John is most likely to follow.  So  she HAD to ask if John was there, in order to figure out her next move.   So  she shot Sherlock and then knocked out CAM  and left.   That was plan B  for her.   

Sherlock in hospital---did the doctors there take out the bullet?   That question  is still unanswered, for me at least.   Sherlock escaping from Hospital,  in order to get to work on the mystery....

the cottage,  where  we meet  up with  The Holmes parents again.   I  could not believe the fact that those two  were actually  Ben's real life mum and Dad.   I  knew there was a resemblance.   all in the family, eh?  that was a nice bit of casting.  And I think I may have seen that same cottage in a der who episode.   

Ok---S  and J  go to Cam's house   and  find.....nothing.   Appledore doesn't exist.   it's the MIND PALACE  again!!!   soooo--   are CAM  and Sherlock related?   hmmm.   Sherlock shoots CAM,  to fulfil his promise and HIS LAST VOW.     and then we see the same 11 year old boy on the patio.   Did you all know that that was Louis Moffat,  who is the son of Steven and Sue Moffat?   Oh,  he was brilliant.    

Ok.  the last part I absolutely LOOOOVED.    Sherlock getting onto a plane to go who knows where,  then  Moriarty showing up with  DID YOU MISS ME??   and the plane turning around to bring Sherlock back.  On we go,  to Series 4!!!!    

ok, I think that's my review.   some parts I liked,  and some parts I didn't.   However I do think THIS was the best episode of the three.   the other two were lacking some ooomph,  but this one made up for it.    

 

KeepersPrice wrote:

Russell wrote:

Uh oh, Sherlock… you missed someone in his network… (Moran?) 

Didn't we already have Lord Moran in TEH - the guy behind the bomb plot?  So, maybe not Moran but someone else in the network?
 

 
Yes!  But at the end, he just went to jail, right?  He still could have orchestrated it, or someone else for him, once they realized Sherlock was back.  Sherlock still 'missed' him in the network dismantling.  That is, if he's actually part of the network… they didn't quite say, despite the connection of that name in canon, did they?

Well, well, well – after two years of waiting, we've finally made it past the dreaded Spoiler Zone and we can now say anything we want. 
 
Stuff like, "Sherlock SHOT that face-licking, fireplace pissing, Britain-bashing son of a bitch!" – or – "Here, Chuck!  Put this bullet into your goddamn Mind Palace, you well-dressed piece of toxic waste!"
 
We all know there's no such thing as a bad episode of Sherlock, but this one has several things I would have changed if my name happened to be Steven Moffat or Mark Gatiss.  This is what I mean.

*  They worked a bit too hard to make Magnussen really despicable.  Moriarty was more believable. He was so gleefully evil that I enjoyed the bullet he put into his own head more than the bullet Sherlock put into Magnussen's.  Licking the face of a distinguished middle-aged woman and taking a leak in Sherlock's fireplace lacked subtly.  We didn't hate him for doing these things, we just wanted to slap him hard enough to send his glasses from the T-off on the first hole all the way to the sand trap next to the green.
 
* They cheated outrageously when they claimed that any human being could have a memory so phenomenal he could keep terabytes of data in his head and call them up just as easily as pouring a spot 'a tea.  Do I buy that, Steven and Mark?  To quote Sherlock, "No--pe (pop)."
 
Obviously I was more than a little miffed when Charles Bogus Magnanimous walked into a closet, sat down, and pretended to wander through his spacious vault of endless files, chuckling while he turned imaginary pages.
 
My first thought was, "What?  No REAL blackmail material?  Damn! Try taking that act into court, Chucky Cheese, and the judge while provide you with a nice padded cell where you can pretend to read War and Peace for a few years."
 
Hell, why should Sherlock shoot this asshole in front of all those witnesses?  Just take him to court and prove he doesn't have squat on any of his victims, then release him and quietly let Bloody Mary finish the job that Sherlock interrupted.
 
* Another cheat: whenever they presented the scenes in which Magnussen was "reading" data that appeared in this field of vision, everything about the text was styled to look like a computer read-out. There were even little beeping sounds when the data appeared.  The natural assumption (one that even Sherlock made) was that his glasses were wireless displays which presented data from an extremely sophisticated computer. 
 
Okay, maybe we're supposed to assume that it was just a representation of how well organized Magnussen's computer-like brain was.  But as I already stated, I don't accept the idea that a human brain could hold that much information and make it available to the conscious mind so quickly and clearly.
 
* They created a wonderful character in Mary – warm, intelligent, caring, and sensitive.  She loves John with all her heart, and she'd do anything to keep him safe while protecting their long and loving lives together.  She's the wife I wanted, thought I'd found, didn't get, and eventually had to leave before she drove me insane.  Maybe I left her a bit too late.  My therapist would agree.  (Just kidding. I can't afford a therapist.)
 
So naturally, when Magnussen threatened Mary's relationship with John, she called on her skills as a trained assassin and a covert government operative from some country other than England (Sherlock said so) to sneak into Magnussen's office dressed in her cool black commando outfit so she could kill him in cold blood.
 
When that didn't work out, she shot Sherlock in the chest and hoped he wouldn't do something drastic. Like die.
 
Gee, I caught my sweet, elderly mother in a commando outfit just like that one once, sneaking into my ex-wife's house with the same idea in mind.  But thankfully, I talked her out of it.
 
Later I wished I'd . . . well, never mind.
 
My point, of course, is that pulling such a complete "about face" on a well-established and much-loved character seems like a heavy-handed way to surprise us with a plot twist.  Amanda Abbington has done such a wonderful job creating Mary that I just can't accept this whole Jane Bond, licensed to kill bit.
 
Having said all that, I'll just say this:  It's easy for armchair critics like me to use hindsight to take potshots at the brilliant creations of people who have cranked out more amazing work before breakfast on any given day than I have since Clinton was president and Monica Lewinsky showed no respect for fine cigars.  But I'm pretty sure these brilliant people are greatly entertained by all the comments on this fine board.
 
Even mine.
 
PS: If you giggled a time or two while reading the stuff above, I can recommend a very funny book, and it's about fighting crimes . . . partly.  It's sold on Amazon, and this is what the cover looks like.  It's also very romantic. Just a thought.

[img]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jIcdkyZ9L._SY346_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_.jpg[/img]

Last edited by Bruce Cook (February 5, 2014 5:09 pm)

I had a lot of shouting Mary's and Sherlock's names and gasping and crying and looking away from the scene, along with some insane laughter. When Moriarty appeared, I jumped up, knocking something off of the couch, and then fell on the floor.

YES!! I liked it!! Series 3 is saved for me . I am just sooo happy..

No plotholes or fridge logic bothered me, I was just hooked from the first minute. Like it´s supposed to be..