BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » The Last Scene

Sherlock Holmes · January 2, 2016 10:48 pm

Sherlock's drug induced mind palace trippery seems to end when they all get off the plane and walk off, in modern day. "Moriarty is definitely dead" etc etc.

But then, it cuts back to Victorian times and a conversation between Holmes & Watson followed by the camera flying out the window and transforming Baker Street modern again.

What is the meaning behind that?

If Sherlock "woke up" and came round on the plane then walked off...why does he then go back to the past again?

Liberty · January 2, 2016 11:03 pm

I think it's an affectionate joke - the idea that instead of modern Sherlock using a Victorian mind palace to solve the case, it could have been the other way round, with Victorian Sherlock imagining the modern one. I think Moftiss are a bit in love with Victorian as well as modern Sherlock.

This Is The Phantom Lady · January 2, 2016 11:20 pm

I took it as a comment from the writers... Just to remind us that Sherlock has, and always will be a man out of his time... in his 'real' time he was too forward... and in the time he is now, he's a man of the past in a way.

I did also wonder if there was a reason why the camera seemed to be looking out of the plane's window in the last of the scenes on the plane... is there a hint in that?

Vhanja · January 2, 2016 11:23 pm

Yeah, I saw the last scene as sort of a jokey epilogue separate from the storyline that ended with them getting into the car.

Liberty · January 2, 2016 11:25 pm

This Is The Phantom Lady wrote:
I took it as a comment from the writers... Just to remind us that Sherlock has, and always will be a man out of his time... in his 'real' time he was too forward... and in the time he is now, he's a man of the past in a way.

That's very true. I was just thinking about how he was the forerunner of modern fictional detectives, doing forensic stuff long before it was mainstream. I suppose he fits in any time - he was written over such a long period by ACD, the Rathbone films took him well into the 20th century and so on.

James Norrington · January 2, 2016 11:26 pm

I might be wrong, but if I recall it correctly, Mycroft was still inside the plane when they were leaving and therefore I assumed we've been watching them from his perspective. No idea though whether that is of any importance.

Yitzock · January 2, 2016 11:38 pm

You guys basically hit on everything that I saw in that last bit of melding the two time periods. It's a neat transition.

As for the perspective from the plane window, I didn't give it much thought. I thought it was Sherlock's point of view, if anything.

Mattlocked · January 2, 2016 11:40 pm

Liberty wrote:
I think it's an affectionate joke - the idea that instead of modern Sherlock using a Victorian mind palace to solve the case, it could have been the other way round, with Victorian Sherlock imagining the modern one. ...

That's how I understand it, too.

Yitzock · January 2, 2016 11:49 pm

Interesting, I hadn't thought of that. At least, not if we're both thinking of the same moment.

Last edited by Yitzock (January 2, 2016 11:49 pm)

nakahara · January 3, 2016 12:08 am

The last scene strongly reminded me of the movie "The Others" with Nicole Kidman in a leading role. Tell me if you see the similarity too:

(the video spoils the end of the movie, so proceed with caution)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt2NRnryi40

Does that mean that the ghosts of Victorian Sherlock and John really inhabit Baker Street?

Lilythiell · January 3, 2016 2:04 am

I also took the last scene as a comment from the writers, stating that Sherlock Holmes was always out of his time.
But I also have a feeling there might be more to it than "just a nod". Otherwise, why would the theme roll and abruptly end, in much the same way HLV ended, right before the scene with Greg in a pub witnessing Moriarty's on screen appearence?
Maybe just as a way to...wet our appetite for series 4? As if they gave us a glimpse into Sherlock's mind (and given the vastness of his mind, I should think it was just a glimpse indeed), and that now we were about to resume the general storyline? Back to work, as it were?

Sherlock Holmes · January 3, 2016 11:57 pm

Yeah, it was like "this is the end. OH WAIT, it's not."

I take on board all your explanations, but I still don't really get it. Just seems out of place.

Mothonthemantel · January 4, 2016 12:38 am

Hello , and welcome me . Thanks. !
So as a long time reader and never poster of this site I couldn't resist joining to talk about the fab special.

The ending scene has blown my mind a little because the note in Mycrofts notebook , the mathematical equation , is a calculus time flux matrix thingy that theoretically connects time and space that I know , but don't actually understand . Anyway it means something like , a past Sherlock took a drug trip and connected with a future drugs tripping Sherlock in some sort of parallel paradox.
Uh both existed and happened in the same time but diff spaces .
Basically it is how to write time space co-ordinates

Just search the maths in the notebook equations.

Sorry. Crazy first post huh !

Just remember Starett .
"Only the things the heart believes are true."

Last edited by Mothonthemantel (January 4, 2016 12:43 am)

Liberty · January 4, 2016 9:13 am

Welcome! Yes, I bet the maths isn't an accident, and maybe it's just a suggestion that there could be more to it than "just a dream" - alternate realities. The funny thing is that actually neither of them are realities, they're fictional (not meaning to be flippant - just saying it's a joke in a joke). Moftiss have had to create a "reality" where ACD and the Sherlock Holmes stories don't exist, so that they could have a modern Sherlock. And then when Sherlock has to go back in time, they've had to recreate a Victorian Sherlock that they'd removed from the show's reality.

Also, maybe a cheeky reference to Doctor Who. Moffat keeps suggesting that he'd love to do a crossover but wouldn't be allowed to.

Dorothy83 · January 4, 2016 9:54 am

Liberty wrote:
I think it's an affectionate joke - the idea that instead of modern Sherlock using a Victorian mind palace to solve the case, it could have been the other way round, with Victorian Sherlock imagining the modern one. I think Moftiss are a bit in love with Victorian as well as modern Sherlock.

I agree.

Mothonthemantel · January 4, 2016 11:25 am

Yes it is an affectionate joke. So neat though the way they link all the Holmes of different times together.
Very DrWho ish.

besleybean · January 4, 2016 11:41 am

Also a neat way to set us back up for next season.

Lilythiell · January 5, 2016 10:37 pm

Last scene, Victorian Baker Street.

The elephant in the room is back.
Sherlock may still be trying to work this one out ...?
Or he's just still high.

besleybean · January 6, 2016 7:00 am

Referring back to my previous comment.
Do I have to apologise for seeing things so literally?!
But then, there is that comment: I've always known I was a man out of his time...
The cleverest man in the room?
Not keeping to the normal mores of society?
I dunno.
But I still thing the whole last image is to link the Victorin special, back in to modern Sherlock and so we are ready for the next round of adventures.

Sherli Bakerst · January 6, 2016 8:15 am

Lilythiell wrote:
Last scene, Victorian Baker Street.
Or he's just still high.

I just saw the show a second time in a movie theater. (Very different experience from watching it on my laptop!) I saw it with a fellow fan and we both thought the very end back in the Victorian era meant that Sherlock was back in his mind palace as another reaction to whatever drugs he'd taken, a relapse as it were. I didn't think of it as a joke at all. But I do see how, in light of what Mycroft's notebook scribblings apparently are, that the postulations about Sherlock being a man out of his time could be correct.