BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » Analysis Mycroft

TheGirlInTheNight-Time · November 27, 2016 10:39 pm

This has probably been discussed but I was recently re-omnibus Sherlock. An I realised that Mycroft basicaly lives for his brother. They're supposed to have this strained relationship but Mycroft is constantly using his position to get Sherlock out of trouble he even goes to Sherlock to solves crimes he could easily do being the supposedly superior brother. I feel like Mycroft might have even become part of the secret service to be able to look after his brother. The way I see it Sherlock has John, Mary, Molly, Mrs Hudson, DI Lestrade and Mycroft but all Mycroft has is Sherlock. Because of the demands of his job he's not allowed to surround himself with people therefore I feel that Sherlock is in some way his obsession. For example the first episode Sherlock had only known John for a few hours and Mycroft had tracked him down which shows that he has Sherlock on surveillance and even takes time out of his schedule to confront the new person in his brothers life. Like when Sherlock "died" I knew he did not really die cus I felt like Mycroft would have been destroyed cus yeah John lost his best friend but Mycroft lost his brother and basically his entire life apart form his work.

This is a huge jumble and quite repetitive of some of the other post but whatever. Please tell me what u think. Be kind.

SusiGo · November 28, 2016 7:41 am

Interesting thoughts. And, yes, you might be right about the obsession and Mycroft having no one else. Question: is this a good thing? I doubt this. To me it seems as if Sherlock could manage quite well without his brother, at least most of the time. And if you look at the cases he gets from Mycroft - Bruce-Partington and Irene - they turn out to be very dangerous to him.

I do not have the time at the moment to write more, but please add your thoughts. I find Mycroft is a fascinating character.

Liberty · November 28, 2016 10:31 am

Yes, we only have the tiniest hints of Mycroft having a life outside of his work and Sherlock.

He does occasionally put Sherlock in danger. The hiatus must have been risky (even the fall was risky!). And of course, he sends him off to his probable death (or appears to!) at the end of HLV. He even makes the point that he won't give in to sentimentality over it.

He does try to warn Sherlock off Irene (after putting him on her case in the first place). He also tries to warn him off Magnussen (but I do have a half-baked theory that he tries to set up John!).

He does seem to be passing the role of protecting Sherlock to John, at the end of TAB. Although that could be just because John is close to him and would do the day to day "looking after". But I wonder ... and I agree that we are going to find out more in S4. I can't wait!

kgreen20 · November 28, 2016 6:14 pm

SusiGo wrote:
Interesting thoughts. And, yes, you might be right about the obsession and Mycroft having no one else. Question: is this a good thing? I doubt this. To me it seems as if Sherlock could manage quite well without his brother, at least most of the time. And if you look at the cases he gets from Mycroft - Bruce-Partington and Irene - they turn out to be very dangerous to him.

I do not have the time at the moment to write more, but please add your thoughts. I find Mycroft is a fascinating character.

Irene indeed did turn out to be dangerous, but Bruce-Partington--not so much. Furthermore, Sherlock ended up foisting that job on John.

Last edited by kgreen20 (November 28, 2016 6:15 pm)

TheGirlInTheNight-Time · November 28, 2016 8:51 pm

SusiGo wrote:
Question: is this a good thing? I doubt this.

I think his obsession is a good thing as he only seems to have his brothers best interest in mind. Like when he first approached John I think that was to see if John would betray Sherlock or not which he didn't. And whenever it looks like Sherlock might be getting back on drugs he's the first to notice and ask Sherlock for the list. I think so far his obsession is healthy and he does't get in his brothers way or becomes dangerously obsessive like Moriarty.

TheGirlInTheNight-Time · November 28, 2016 8:54 pm

kgreen20 wrote:
Sherlock ended up foisting that job on John.

I don't think he foisted it to John because as Sherlock said he'd been following John the entire case I just think he had John look into it to satisfy Mycroft as Mycroft always has them on surveillance if he saw John looking into it he would think they were on the case as Sherlock trusts John

Vhanja · November 28, 2016 8:54 pm

Hm, can we discuss things from the S4 trailer here?

TheGirlInTheNight-Time · November 28, 2016 9:01 pm

Liberty wrote:
He does occasionally put Sherlock in danger. The hiatus must have been risky (even the fall was risky!). And of course, he sends him off to his probable death (or appears to!) at the end of HLV. He even makes the point that he won't give in to sentimentality over it.

Sorry to say this but I believe you are wrong everything Mycroft does in regards to Sherlock has everything to do with sentimentality although he says otherwise. Mycrofts missions for Sherlock only ever put him in more trouble but Mycroft knows his brother would never take a case if there wasn't at least a 70% chance he could get hurt, go insane (Baskerville) or die therefore those are the cases he gives him because Sherlock is an adrenaline junkie and if he doesn't get his high off his cases he does drugs and that is the last thing Mycroft want therefore he gives him dangerous cases.

Liberty · November 28, 2016 9:24 pm

Yes, Sherlock is his pressure point. But he claims that Sherlock would be dead in six months if he went on the mission, but he chooses that for him over prison. And he does say that he's not prone to brotherly compassion, and Lady Smallwood points out that he's not being merciful. It's not a "dangerous case" so much as an almost certain death sentence. Of course, this is at odds with his concern before and after, so it does make you wonder. I suspect that he may have had some other plan, but at the moment that hasn't been revealed yet.

Last edited by Liberty (November 28, 2016 9:25 pm)

TheGirlInTheNight-Time · November 28, 2016 9:32 pm

Liberty wrote:
It's not a "dangerous case" so much as an almost certain death sentence.

Lady Smallwood may have thought this was cruel but Sherlock would have seen this as the best Christmas present he'd ever been given. A common person would have chosen jail over a certain death situation but not Sherlock and Mycroft knows that when given this case Sherlock doesn't complain he probably would have willingly taken the case were the circumstances different. Therefore Mycroft is actually being kind because although it seems like a punishment to the Layman to Sherlock its the biggest challenge of his life "can I face certain death and use my powers of deduction to beat it?".

SusiGo · November 28, 2016 10:00 pm

Sorry, but I cannot for the life of me see Mycroft as being kind in this case. Sherlock is deeply unhappy, if not heartbroken, on the tarmac and allegedly tries to kill himself. I do not think he sees it as a challenge to go on the mission.

Liberty · November 28, 2016 10:02 pm

You mean Mycroft is trying to tempt Sherlock with the the MI6 mission, rather than protect him from it? It's possible. It's not clear exactly what's going on with Mycroft in that scene and whether he's really warning Sherlock off, or encouraging him. (My pet theory is that he was setting up John to get rid of Magnussen, and is shocked when Sherlock takes the fall).

However, Sherlock doesn't seem at all delighted to be going on the mission, and he (apparently?) overdoses beforehand.

TheGirlInTheNight-Time · November 28, 2016 10:05 pm

SusiGo wrote:
Sorry, but I cannot for the life of me see Mycroft as being kind in this case. Sherlock is deeply unhappy, if not heartbroken, on the tarmac and allegedly tries to kill himself. I do not think he sees it as a challenge to go on the mission.

Don't get me wrong I'm not going to go around giving Mycroft the brother of the year award any time soon but I feel he did the kinder thing because in jail Sherlock would be bored out of his mind and to Sherlock that is like death. And although he's unhappy about having to leave at least he won't be bored he might be away from everything he loves to the point that he almost over dosed he would have been miserable but not bored which I think Sherlock would rather have.

Last edited by TheGirlInTheNight-Time (November 29, 2016 2:41 am)

TheGirlInTheNight-Time · November 28, 2016 10:11 pm

Liberty wrote:
My pet theory is that he was setting up John to get rid of Magnussen, and is shocked when Sherlock takes the fall

I agree with that and I think he misjudged Sherlock's love for John, but I also think he thought if John was in harms way Sherlock's mind would go into overdrive and figure out a way to defeating Magnussen he just didn't expect that he would shoot someone for John.

Last edited by TheGirlInTheNight-Time (November 29, 2016 2:41 am)

SusiGo · November 28, 2016 10:11 pm

I really do not think that this is about boredom at this point. Sherlock tries to kill himself on the plane and not because he is bored but because he does not want to lose John and his life all over again and die alone somewhere in Eastern Europe.

TheGirlInTheNight-Time · November 28, 2016 10:14 pm

SusiGo wrote:
I really do not think that this is about boredom at this point. Sherlock tries to kill himself on the plane and not because he is bored but because he does not want to lose John and his life all over again and die alone somewhere in Eastern Europe.

I completely agree with that but personally I felt like Mycroft was trying to be kind he's just out of touch with the new set of priorities his brother has because pre-John I think Sherlock would have been excited about this mission rather than depressed.

JP · November 28, 2016 11:16 pm

Folks, if Sherlock really wanted to kill himself by overdosing - he would be dead. Just saying.

Last edited by JP (November 28, 2016 11:16 pm)

TheGirlInTheNight-Time · November 29, 2016 2:50 am

JP wrote:
Folks, if Sherlock really wanted to kill himself by overdosing - he would be dead. Just saying.

You have a point. Personally I think that if Sherlock were to kill himself he would end more spectacularly. He would want people to talk about how he died like when he did in the Reichenbach Fall.

Lola Red · December 2, 2016 3:15 pm

I think Mycroft was well aware that he could not lock up Sherlock without his baby brother tearing himself to pieces after a while. I believe, for all his no-brotherly-compassion-talks, Mycroft was looking for a solution to get Sherlock out of trouble. But this is Mycroft we are talking about, who honestly feels a plane full of stolen corpses is a neat solution to a terrorist threat and has no qualms about sending his brother into a house about to roam with hostile CIA agents, so unsurprisingly his solution is terrifying. We still don't know who is behind the conveniently-timed Moriarty GIF and Mycroft has straight out told the shadow government that they will always need Sherlock.

SusiGo · December 2, 2016 3:32 pm

TheGirlInTheNight-Time wrote:
JP wrote:
Folks, if Sherlock really wanted to kill himself by overdosing - he would be dead. Just saying.
You have a point. Personally I think that if Sherlock were to kill himself he would end more spectacularly. He would want people to talk about how he died like when he did in the Reichenbach Fall.

The Sherlock I see in HLV is resigned. He sacrificed everything, again, and does not want John to know he is going to die. Why would he commit suicide in a spectacular fashion? This would negate the whole development they have given us for him. IMO this would be very much six years ago.
As an EMP theorist I do not believe that anything in TAB is real but if it were I am very sure that this would be precisely how Sherlock would choose to die. Quietly, thinking of John, and not bothering anyone with a messy death.