Yes, I did see that in my reading!
Relevance of the the thyroid gland ?

I know...so the 'thyroid is just random.
Mary's reading it and would know it's not mathematical, either.

besleybean wrote:

I just don't see that.
Why would he use John that way?
Isn't he more likely to use Mary?
And maybe he did...but little brother blew it!

Well, exactly!  I posted about this a while back, but out of the two of them, you'd expect John to be the one who would murder to protect those close to him.  Mary was John's pressure point.   Sherlock would get off scot-free, in the same way that John got off scot-free when Sherlock shot Magnussen (which might be another little oddity, as he was the one who brought the gun, but never mind).   Magnussen would be taken care of, John would go to prison, Sherlock would be safe, and so would Mary (which Mycroft might not care about, but might if she was actually his prized assassin/secret agent). 

Well, I have to say it makes sense to me...unless I am missing something.

SusiGo wrote:

And there is another interesting thing detail: Mrs Holmes is allegedly a mathematician, right? But the books Mary looks at is called "The Dynamics of Combustion", not really a mathematical subject. And what is more: someone recently made a screenshot of the page she is looking at. It is titled "The Thyroid Gland". Neither mathematics nor dynamics of combustion. 

Is it only me who is finding this title very odd???
I had to look up what "Combustion" means, apparently it is the (technical) process of burning something. Wow, uhm... I know someone else who likes to burn several things. ;)

I remember now, that I 've already stumbled over this a good while ago. If I rember it correctly I was watching it in German where the title even was translated so that it appeared to be written on the actual book cover. "Die Dynamik der Verbrennung" or something like that. (I can't look it up at the moment.) I was puzzled because unlike in English, Moriarty was using the same term "Verbrennung/verbrennen" when threatening Sherlock.

Could it be another hint (in addition to the unfitting content about the Thyroid Gland) that we are in Sherlock's MP. He is filling something in, that he has experienced before?

Last edited by Rache (August 23, 2016 11:55 pm)

Schmiezi wrote:

The one thing that makes me sceptical is that emp seems to be too easy. You can explain almost everything away with it, at your convenience.

It's interesting that you should mention this, because I'm feeling it would be too easy and too clever at the same time, if that does make any sense. Too clever, because when looking at all the things which don't seem to make any sense without it and which would make sense if from some point onward in HLV it all were MP, this would mean a lot of planning and attention to detail on Mofftiss' part - and quite frankly, I think the fandom is far more clever than Mofftiss when it comes to details. I know that Moffat likes extensive story arcs (and EMP would be one), he did it in DW with The Silence and the crack in the wall, but in the end it doesn't always add up. So to be honest, I'm not sure what I'm hoping for: EMP or just another unresolved TRF experience. I'm just really thinking that EMP might be too clever for Mofftiss. And well, maybe fandom always wants everything to be clever?

Speaking of fandom, I'm also not sure the 'normal' audience would get EMP. To begin with, Mofftiss would have to use a lot of flashbacks to even remind the casual viewer of what has been going on in HLV (and TAB). I'm not sure this is very elegant. But it's definitely necessary, otherwise a huge part of the audience will be at a complete loss.
 

I actually think a lot of people are turned off Sherlock because it is just too clever.
In my experience, most of the population watch absolute trash and like everything very simplistic.
Even my own parents(who are 2 of the smartest cookies I know) said they just couldn't get TAB at all and admitted it was because it was far too clever for them.

besleybean wrote:

I actually think a lot of people are turned off Sherlock because it is just too clever.
In my experience, most of the population watch absolute trash and like everything very simplistic.
Even my own parents(who are 2 of the smartest cookies I know) said they just couldn't get TAB at all and admitted it was because it was far too clever for them.

Actually-- there are all these unresolved plot points and such... that might have something to do with it. 

RavenMorganLeigh wrote:

Schmiezi wrote:

Good point about the average audience, Solar. Personally, I think everybody who could not handle emp got lost during TAB already. Like, if you understood and liked that one and still watch the show, you are also ready for the beginning of S4E1 to take place inside the Mind Palace too.

There were some news stories about how "casual" viewers were like, "WTF did I just watch" literally on twitter after viewing TAB....

I can fully understand that. :-) I guess we don't need to worry about cadual viewers in our discussions. The writers don't worry about them either.

Which I think is a good thing, btw.

Rache wrote:

SusiGo wrote:

And there is another interesting thing detail: Mrs Holmes is allegedly a mathematician, right? But the books Mary looks at is called "The Dynamics of Combustion", not really a mathematical subject. And what is more: someone recently made a screenshot of the page she is looking at. It is titled "The Thyroid Gland". Neither mathematics nor dynamics of combustion. 

Is it only me who is finding this title very odd???
I had to look up what "Combustion" means, apparently it is the (technical) process of burning something. Wow, uhm... I know someone else who likes to burn several things. ;)

I remember now, that I 've already stumbled over this a good while ago. If I rember it correctly I was watching it in German where the title even was translated so that it appeared to be written on the actual book cover. "Die Dynamik der Verbrennung" or something like that. (I can't look it up at the moment.) I was puzzled because unlike in English, Moriarty was using the same term "Verbrennung/verbrennen" when threatening Sherlock.

Could it be another hint (in addition to the unfitting content about the Thyroid Gland) that we are in Sherlock's MP. He is filling something in, that he has experienced before?

Let me come back to Mummy Holmes for a moment because this is very odd:

- She is a mathematician. 
- She has written a book about a subject belonging to physics. 
- The title of the book is an allusion to Canon where Moriarty published a book called "The Dynamics of an Asteroid". 
- We are shown that the book deals with medical instead of physical subjects. 
- In TAB we get Mycroft saying that Sherlock pushed a maths professor over a waterfall. 
- Which is strange because we had no waterfall in the show and the only mathematician so far is Mummy Holmes.