Mothonthemantel wrote:

Interesting when John says "so many lies and I don't just mean you.." to Mary. Does he also mean himself?

I thought so too.

Why do they all say "Tiblisi" instead of "Tbilisi"? Isn't Mark some sort of a grammar nazi? Shouldn't he know such things?

Last edited by ewige (January 2, 2017 2:22 am)

Mothonthemantel wrote:

Swanpride wrote:

I thought that the secretary was Porlock?

 
Well maybe. But would a secretary get a codename. Plus ends in lock ?

Edit: To add,  Sherlock calls Norbury ammo (amo) and refers to her sending messages as her boss L.Smallwood.

Norbury is quite a mirror of John , looking for a new partner motive jealousy angry at the boss being the clever one and betraying secrets to the enemy (Mycroft for John) .
So in short Norbury Johns mirror and Sherlocks mistake , is love.

Neat.
 

Last edited by Mothonthemantel (January 2, 2017 3:01 am)

ewige wrote:

Maybe Sherlock's session with Ella is MP? That would totally make sense. The setting is surreal, doesn't look like Ella's usual work place at all.

Just had this exchange on tumblr.

johnsjawlineum does the fact that sherlock was talking to ella mean the whole episode was in a way his memories? because guys that means we have an unreliable narrator

deducingbbcsherlockThis is where I’m leaning. Not that this was all MP and completely fake. These events happened, but we’re getting them through an incredibly skewered lens. A possibly still-high lens.

tonnareeI like this idea.Think about this.  After the credits we get a bit of Sherlock walking through the aquarium which we now know occurs at the end of the episode.  Then we “go back” to Sherlock working cases and being domestic with the Watson’s.  It very well could be that the episode is Sherlock telling the story to Ella.

Last edited by tonnaree (January 2, 2017 3:21 am)

Okay-- finally got to watch on PBS/ Masterpiece-- and about to go watch it again... 

My initial impressions: 
An awful lot of it was Mary focused, but I suppose they were trying to give her a good send off. I think we'll see her again in flashbacks. It's not over. 

It's possible that the reason Mary wants Sherlock focused on "Saving John" is because she knows that her chickens are coming home to roost-- and John and Rosie are now in danger from some element of her past. The DVD that she left seemed like she knew it was a possibility that some element from her past- "consequences" were likely to take her out. 

I think Sherlock really was "high on life". After all-- he was going to LIVE! :-)

I suspect that "E"-- Elizabeth from a forthcoming ep is a plant and John's own weakness for the ladies will get him into a deadly situation with Culverton Smith. 

John? Johnjohnjohnjohnjohnjohn.  Sigh.  Just.  Agh. 

And I thought that Sherlock was trying to divert Norbury's attention away from Mary-- the agent who got away-- by deducing her so aggressively. In other words, draw her fire-- and protect Mary. 

Also: John really did forgive Mary, had no agenda against her, really burned the thumbdrive-- and only learned Mary's real name -- how late in the show? 

I LOVED Sherlock in this, and adored Sherlock and Mycroft interactions. Best parts of the show. 

Can't wait to see what'll happen next. 

Last edited by RavenMorganLeigh (January 2, 2017 4:51 am)

Hello all, just joined to share a theory!

What are the odds that Sherrinford, "the other one," is in fact the little girl seen in the brief mind palace  scene chasing after a little boy in the pirate hat? Possibly cast off by Mycroft for taking up with some shady characters or otherwise. Possibly recruited by Moriarty as a back up plan to attack John and/or Sherlock  after learning of Sherlock's childhood from Mycroft in the cell. Possibly going by the name Errin -- aka E xxx.

Just a thought!

Also... about the note that knocked Sherlock out so Mary could steal the USB... that's been used in Doctor Who; funnily enough by Madam Vastra (the female and Lizard version of Sherlock in that).

I guess it's likely a soporific like that could work... but if you think of the pilot and if Sherlock has gone back on drugs... it would have to be pretty strong. No?

Liberty wrote:

I was actually hoping for Mary to be redeemed, which she was.  But it feels almost too pat in the way.  As if all the boxes were ticked.  It was confirmed that she was working for Mycroft/the government (I guessed that might be the case straight after TAB!), and that that was her "freelance" work.  Once she knew she was being targeted she tried to keep the danger away from John and Rosie.  We found out her real name, she told us what AGRA was and what was on the stick.  She ended up directly taking a bullet for a Sherlock, in the heart, as a reminder of HLV.  And she apologised for shooting.

All the boxes ticked, almost too well.  I'm just suspicious.

I agree, it almost felt as if they had just gone down a list and made sure to show us this and this and this...
And at the same time I'm wondering about Mary telling John in HLV hat he won't love her anymore once he's read what's on the memory stick. Because what we saw in TST felt just... not dramatic enough, if you know what I mean. The scene in 221B in HLV was so full of drama, and now this is the explanation? And if this already is her freelance work, then what she did beforehand must have been truly harmless. There is something missing, and although I'm not really interested in seeing still more of Mary, I think we need to get more if this is supposed to make sense in the end.

Apart from that, I really missed what I would call the "Sherlock style". Someone already mentioned it, I never got the feeling that I was watching the show which blew me anyway during its first six episodes, especially visually. I always loved the show because it was different, because it was a tv show with the feeling of a movie, because it was fascinating on a visual as well as on a story-telling level. And now we're getting scenes with Mary in combat situations which make me think 'God, I have seen this a thousand times before, can it get anymore ordinary...?'. So many things felt uninspired, from the scene with Mary more or less giving birth in a car and behaving like a lunatic (how many times have I seen this before on tv or in a movie?) to Mary's death scene. Yes, the setting with the aquarium was fascinating, but in that case the setting wasn't enough.

And since I'm talking about 'not enough': I know that Mark said that ultimately it's a show about Sherlock and John. And after TST I'm really, really hoping that he's not only talking about it, but that they're also doing it. Again. And very, very soon. Because boy, at the moment I feel like Tom Hanks in "Sleepless in Seattle" when he's talking about missing his dead wife: I miss the boys so much that it hurts. 
 

ewige wrote:

Mothonthemantel wrote:

Interesting when John says "so many lies and I don't just mean you.." to Mary. Does he also mean himself?

I thought so too.

Why do they all say "Tiblisi" instead of "Tbilisi"? Isn't Mark some sort of a grammar nazi? Shouldn't he know such things?

That kept bothering me - I just thought it seemed an odd way to pronounce it, but I don't know the correct way so assumed they were right! 

And yes, I think John meant bus stop lady ... but as I've said, I think there's more to her than meets the eye.  And I think possibly Mary knew - in the sense of knowing John is at risk.  I think this may be the case she's sending Sherlock on at the end.
 

All the Porlock comments ... the first thing that springs to mind for me (and probably a lot of you too!) is the person from Porlock.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_from_Porlock
The person from Porlock was an unwelcome visitor to Samuel Taylor Coleridge during his composition of the poem Kubla Khan in 1797. Coleridge claimed to have perceived the entire course of the poem in a dream (possibly an opium-induced haze), but was interrupted by this visitor from Porlock while in the process of writing it. Kubla Khan, only 54 lines long, was never completed. Thus "Person from Porlock", "Man from Porlock", or just "Porlock" are literary allusions to unwanted intruders who disrupt inspired creativity.

That could have been a little in-joke by Mark, if he had been interrupted while writing the script.   But Coleridge so famously used drugs, and Sherlock using drugs is a theme, that I wonder if it's about Sherlock and his drug-induced mind palace use.  Both of them use dream-like states to help their minds work.

You are so right, Whisky. And even when John was there with Sherlock, most of the time Mary was there with them. The scenes at the beginning with clients in 221B, of course it's not just Sherlock and John, no, of course Mary has to be there with them. And although I understand that this was an episode about Mary (which we needed to do some explaining about her character - but Jesus, the explaining is still not done yet!), it just didn't reach me. Yes, John felt like such an empty character most of the time. But basically so many things felt so empty, sinply because it wasn't the two of them against the rest of the world.  

So even if this episode is only one part of three episodes which will lead to the boys being back together again (which I'll only believe when I see it...), for me it also is the fifth wasted episode in a row since TEH where Sherlock's and John's relationship is concerned. It may all make sense in the end, it may all add up... but I don't like that before it all may (or may not) make sense to me, the show didn't work for me for such a long time.