This woman has done it to him.
In whatever way. From the beginning he is interested in her. As Mycroft tells him about her, he repeats the word Dominatrix and his eyes sparkle when he hears that this woman opposes the most powerful family of Britain. - So at first he is interested in this woman because she offers him an exciting case...

Observing his face and his behavior as she naked received him then he seems unrelaxed as ever before. We might think he is resistant or prepared of those things. But he isn’t. Why ? Because nudity generally confuses him or because her nakedness confounds him? His eyes said a lot when she had come naked into the room, right? At this moment it seems he is so perplexed that he forgets to breath. The cool, head -controlled man is of a naked woman so confused that he forgets his code name and began to stutter? Is it because he is so inexperienced in these things? He must have seen many other odd things before. Why she confuses him that way?
He even seems to be a little jealous when Irene turns to John and says that she likes detectives.
And when she injected him the drug in his arm, he falls into a frenzy which is determined by the thought of Irene. He sleeps off his intoxication, his ecstasy of Irene. He is overwhelmed by her person, not only because of the drug.
But at that time there isn’t love. It’s more affection.

But if I look the scenes between them then there is something more than pure interest in the head of the other.
And as Mycroft in the morgue says that Sherlock but barely knew her he mocked Mycroft's view that one need not mourn the loss of a person you hardly knew.
The music he writes when she "died ", the carousel in the head as she do ( again ) lives .

Love.
When it begins , anyway? Where does it end?

The fact that he was looking for and saved her can mean everything ... but it can mean also love.
Why can he not love her even though he knows that they will never come together like a normal couple? Maybe he loves her just because they can never come together. This impossibility is very attractive. Two lost souls- different and yet similar.
This love would in any case never be boring because it would never be lived.
She is obviously the first woman who attracts him that way
The woman ... THE woman.

Last edited by TheWomanWoman (March 24, 2014 9:30 pm)

Perhaps because CAM never actually gets his own hands dirty.

I nevwr want to see the Woman again...The Mind Palace was bad enough!

I love the Mind Palace.
My problems with Irene:
1.  Started in Canon
2.  I accept are my problem!
It's historically been because I'm in the virgin Sherlock camp, I don't like anybody challenging that!
But I agree it was necessary for BBC Sherlock to cover that story and also that it is an interesting twist.
But for me it's been done and so I don't want to see her back.
I was being a bit churlish before, the Mind Palace appearance was fine, but no more than that.
I'd rather see Moriarty back than Irene!

I would like to see more of Irene. I don't think I would want her and Sherlock to be in a relationship but I would like to have some more screen time. The dynamic between Sherlock and The Woman was intresting to watch. I think they were both fascinated by each other and there was an intriguing chemistry there.

Sherlock Holmes wrote:

Sherlock isn't interested in sex ....

Seeing that his brain takes a break when he looks at naked Irene, I'm not so sure about that... Hormones at work - probably a purely physical reaction at that point. Though I do believe that he develops some feelings for her...

I have no problem with Sherlock forgiving Irene for drugging and beating him - after all, he forgives Mary for shooting and nearly killing him.

The Karachi rescue really happened in my opinion, even if I don't see how Sherlock could have done it, and how Mycroft could have missed it (and what was a dominatrix doing in a country full of Islamic fundamentalists in the first place?).  Firstly because I mostly like Irene and would hate to see her dead, secondly because I'm sure Mofitt know that you don't kill off great characters - you never know when you might need them again and bringing them back to life can be so awkward (anybody remember "Dallas"?)



 

Indeed, Schmiezi. And it is interesting that this pattern is later repeated with Mary in a slightly different way. He deduces her but overlooks the crucial information. 

I kind of agree Kittyhawk. He clearly has a mental block when he forgets who he is pretending to be, although his brain does calculate her measurements, so it wasn't entirely shut down  I think it was a temporary distraction though, he manages to get over the shock pretty quickly and even though he can't deduce anything further from her "battle dress" he is able to go on with the plan to find the photos. I think the fact that he can't deduce anything by looking at Irene is more due to her cleverness than his brain not working.

I still don't know if Sherlock feels love for Irene... If you read A Scandal in Bohemia, John says "It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer." So if Mark and Benedict both say that they think Sherlock was in love with Irene, then they are diverging from canon There was definitely admiration, and I think there was physical attraction or at least an involuntary physiological response to a nude woman!

Last edited by ukaunz (April 15, 2015 1:13 pm)

Yes I loved that line too

True, I guess that Dr. Watson may not know how Holmes is really feeling... And again, John isn't sure either. Is Sherlock playing sad music on his violin and refusing to eat because he is heartbroken, or because that's how Sherlock always behaves?

I watched the Jeremy Brett version of Scandal yesterday. It sticks very closely to the ACD text, but I liked Jeremy's expression when he first sees Irene; a smile to acknowledge how beautiful she is. This is before he knows how clever she is too (and she is wearing clothes unlike Sherlock's Irene )

I kind of agree with both .. I think he's gobsmacked by seeing her naked because he didn't expect her to be so clever.  But later, he's flustered and stumbles over his words trying to attract her attention towards him.