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- Shooting The Wall
Offline - Registered: December 28, 2014
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Sherlock/Mary/Janine in CAM's office
We obviously know how Sherlock got into CAM's office, but we don't really know how Mary got there. I'm also a bit confused about Janine's involvement. A few people have implied/suggested that CAM had used Janine to lure Sherlock into breaking into his office either by having her feed Sherlock false information about his schedule or by making sure that he was allowed up to the office.
I don't really understand that, since it would actually be better blackmail-wise for CAM to allow Sherlock to search the office and find nothing, then tell Sherlock he has a video of him breaking and entering. The big payoff for luring Sherlock up to his office was supposed to be what? CAM smiling evily and doing another little monologue? I can certainly see him wanting Sherlock to break into his office (Sherlock ends up frustrated and CAM gets an incriminating security tape), but CAM needs to be out of the office for that to work.
When I first watched the episode, I immediately assumed that Mary had found some other way into the building and Janine didn't know Mary was already there (or was about to be there) when she buzzed Sherlock up. I'm sure Mary's talented enough to find another way in. Given her history and the fact that she's not wearing street clothes, she probably came through a window or something.
So Mary shows up and knocks out the bodyguard and Janine (possibly without Janine knowing it was Mary that had knocked her out). She then proceeds into Magnussen's office.
Meanwhile, Sherlock and John arrive and find Janine and the bodyguard on the floor and Magnussen's chair warm. Is the warm chair meant to indicate that Magnussen was sitting at his desk just out of frame when Sherlock paged Janine?
A few people have said that Janine was being blackmailed, and while it's obvious that Magnussen wasn't a particularly nice boss, blackmailing your PA seems a bit like blackmailing the person handling your food. Magnussen is supposed to be running this huge newspaper empire, and as his PA, Janine would be the gatekeeper. It would be very very stupid of him to blackmail the person that books his flights, schedules his meetings, decides who's worthy of face-time with him, is privy to tons of confidential information/meetings, and uses his CC to send his mother gifts on her birthday.
She might not know about all of the blackmailing of other people (there's no reason for her to know, as far as she's concerned it's just her boss's 2 o'clock with the PM).
So returning to the chain of events in Magnussun's office, Sherlock arrives in the outer office and then finds CAM standing with his hands raised while Mary points a gun at him. Mary shoots Sherlock, knocks out CAM, leaves the scene, and calls an ambulance on her way out.
This just seemed like a such an congested scene to me, and it wasn't really clear what Janine knew or was told when Sherlock was in surgery, and whether CAM had arranged this or was basically an innocent bystander. The characters just seemed to behave so oddly.
Last edited by melissak334 (January 3, 2015 4:23 am)
- Liberty
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Re: Sherlock/Mary/Janine in CAM's office
Yes, it's complicated, and everything happens really quickly at that point when Sherlock is "breaking in" to the office.
I've assumed that Magnussen lured Sherlock there (feeding the information that he would be out of the office through Janine, and showing him the "letters"). Janine might have been under instruction to let him in (or CAM might have been there, just to make sure he did).
But the lift doesn't take long, and in that time, CAM goes upstairs and Mary ... arrives? (She can't have been there watching from the shadows, or she'd have known Sherlock was coming). Sneaks up on Janine and the guard and knocks them out (Janine apparently didn't see her) and gets upstairs quickly enough to not see or hear John and Sherlock arriving. The timing seems a bit too precise!
I assume Mary got in through a window, and has a route that doesn't take her past John (or past Magnussen when he's going upstairs, and she's on her way down!). I imagine the windows would be secure in that sort of building, but Mary maybe had special tools, and we do have a history of people getting in through unlikely windows (in the Blind Banker). Irene leaves and enters throught windows too. I think they were going to film a scene of Mary breaking in, but didn't. I don't think it matters. We just see that both she and Sherlock use their special skills to get in there.
We were talking about this in another thread - that if Magnussen lured Sherlock to his office, he wanted to show him something that he couldn't do at 221B. I wondered if it was Mary - that he assumed Mary would break in at that point too? It would be a dramatic way to do the reveal and Magnussen would have control over it and them. And a lot more powerful than threatening him with video footage. No that he'd need footage - it's not Magnussen's MO to actually have physical evidence 
.
And blackmailing his PA - yes, I agree, but I think he just enjoys having people under his control.
I don't know if Janine is told anything beyond what the police know (she was knocked out by an unknown assailant, who targeted Magnussen then shot Sherlock and escaped). She does know the engagement is fake before she has a chance to talk to Sherlock about it. John is the only one who could have told her, but I don't know if he'd have done that in all the panic and worry, so I think she guessed herself. I get the impression that she suspected anyway (it seems extremely unlikely that Sherlock, of all people, would propose after what? A fortnight?). And also, it was clear that Sherlock had come for Magnussen not her. He went straight to Magnussen's office instead of even phoning an ambulance for her and the guard (which John should have done too).
