BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » TST Headscratchers

nakahara · January 2, 2017 2:51 pm

There were some things that made me scratch my head during the episode. (Feel free to add your own or to post your own theories about them).

- did all the members of A.G.R.A have their own USB´s? So what did happen with the missing two? If they fell into the hands of the enemy, why was it neccessary to hide the one owned by A.J.?

- two members of A.G.R.A. were female - Rosamund/Mary and Gabrielle. Still, when those bizarre "terrorists" speak about an Englishwoman that betrayed them, A.J. immediatelly thinks of Mary? Why did he left Gabrielle off the hook?

- is it possible that a highly trained agent like Mary would not notice that she carries a tracker on herself?

- why is Sherlock such an imbecile when it comes to guns? In THOB when approaching the raging Henry, Sherlock showed a healthy respect for his gun. In HLV he made that fateful step only because he believed Mary would not shoot him. But here he confronts the guns wielded by A.J. and Mrs. Norbury as if they were but plastic toys. Isn´t it weird for a person who was nearly fatally short in the last episode?

- so, what exactly killed the poor boy in the car?

- how does John obtain money for his family? He tags along Sherlock all the time, together with Mary, so its obvious that they do not work anymore.

- if John replaced himself with a baloon, what exactly was he doing in the kitchen for hours? Hiding there? The kitchen is not that big, from the look of it... it had to be uncomfortable to kneel in the corner all the time.....

Last edited by nakahara (January 2, 2017 2:52 pm)

Vhanja · January 2, 2017 3:07 pm

My comments on some of these:

- Do we know that Gabrielle was English?
- It was Sherlock/John who turned the USB stick into a tracker? Perhaps she didn't expect such a thing from them?
- I got the impression that Sherlock was sort of lost in his own deductive rant (thus ignoring Mary's warnings to shut up). Having that said, Sherlock has been an imbecile (to use your words) with guns in all seasons (scratching his head with a loaded gun before waving it in front of John comes to mind).
- Didn't they say the boy was killed by a heart attack or seizure? Odd for a young and healthy man, but it can happen, I guess.
- We don't know if John doesn't work. He's seen on the bus - perhaps that is to or fro work? Perhaps he work part time? Maybe Mary has some money saved up from her freelance days?
- We don't know if John was in the kitchen for hours. He said he was talking with/helping Mrs. Hudson? Perhaps he just got up from her flat.

nakahara · January 2, 2017 3:07 pm

More headscratchers:

- if Mycroft hired A.G.R.A. for the job at a Georgian embassy and the job ended in such a collosal fail - why was Mycroft not made responsible for this and shown the door? Why was he able to continue his career with such resume?

- did Molly loose her position at St. Bart´s pathology? If not, how come she has time to babysit John´s daughter? Is she always available at John´s convenience?

Vhanja · January 2, 2017 3:09 pm

As for Molly, it could be a day off or a weekend. We don't know. You make it sound like something negative that she helps out, but she's a friend and I think it's great that she helps John in a time of horrible grief, being alone with a baby.

nakahara · January 2, 2017 3:12 pm

Vhanja wrote:
As for Molly, it could be a day off or a weekend. We don't know. You make it sound like something negative that she helps out, but she's a friend and I think it's great that she helps John in a time of horrible grief, being alone with a baby.

I didn´t meant anything negative with it. I am just stating things that I found a bit odd during the episode.

Yitzock · January 2, 2017 3:19 pm

I'm glad you made this topic nakahara, since I had a couple headscratchers of my own. First I will address the ones in your first post with my best guesses.

1. I recall at one point AJ mentioning the USB sticks that he hid. I was a little confused why it sounded like he said it in plural but maybe he somehow had more than one? Maybe recovered them after the other A.G.R.A members died so that they wouldn't end up in the wrong hands? There were six Thatcher busts. We only seem to see him hide one in a bust, but maybe there is more than one bust with a USB stick in it?

2. I think AJ would have known that Gabrielle had died by then, so perhaps the terrorists knew as well? Gabrielle could also have been French or of some other nationality, considering her name.

3. If it was in the USB stick, the tracker could have been too small to notice. That's what I'm assuming, anyway.

4. When I was watching the episode, I didn't pick up on what your describing about Sherlock's behaviour about guns, but maybe what you are noticing has to do with the fact that he promised to protect Mary and John, and so he is putting himself in danger to try and help them?

5. I was a little confused about the guy in the car, too. I might watch it again, since I recorded the episode even though I was able to watch it when it broadcast on TV over here. But from what I understood, he was hiding in the vinyl seat cover and his dad never came out to see him so he had an allergic reaction or something and asphyxiated. If anyone else understood this better, feel free to correct me on this.

6. I think John still works, even if it's not every day. We see him on the bus, so I presumed that was how he got home from work and would go to work. Every time we see him on the bus, he is carrying a briefcase, which I don't recall ever seeing him bring to Baker Street, so I think it's for work.

7. John mentions that he was with Mrs. Hudson for at least part of that time, working on her sudoku with her. So, probably he was in Mrs. Hudson's kitchen, not the kitchen at 221B? Again, I'd have to watch that bit again to see exactly what he says, but I remember him mentioning that.]

And now for a couple of my own headscratchers:

1. In The Sign of Three, Sherlock says that John and Mary have had lots of practice for having a baby because of him. "You're hardly going to need me around now that you have a real baby on the way." And yet when Greg and John joke about Sherlock being like a baby, Sherlock keeps asking if they're making a joke that he's missing and if it's about him. Is he really oblivious to them joking about dealing with him being like dealing with a baby, or is he insinuating that when he makes that joke about himself it's OK but when others do it's just mean?

2. When Mary and Sherlock have their meeting in secret, Mary makes like she's giving Sherlock a note, but it's actually a cloth with chloroform (or something similar) on it. Sherlock unfolds it and seems to know what's going on and yet he still lifts it to his nose to sniff it and pass out anyway. Did he want to let Mary get away with drugging him and taking the USB stick away or was he trying to confirm whether there really was a substance on it? If he knew what it was, I'm not sure why he would inhale it all the same.

Last edited by Yitzock (January 2, 2017 3:22 pm)

Vhanja · January 2, 2017 3:30 pm

For your first headscratcher, Yitzock:

1. This one is probably open for interpretation, but I get the feeling that Sherlock do understand the joke, but choose to wilfully ignore it. I don't think he mind too much, they banter all the time (just as he bantered with John about whether or not they should bring him).

nakahara · January 2, 2017 3:47 pm

Yitzock wrote:
2. When Mary and Sherlock have their meeting in secret, Mary makes like she's giving Sherlock a note, but it's actually a cloth with chloroform (or something similar) on it. Sherlock unfolds it and seems to know what's going on and yet he still lifts it to his nose to sniff it and pass out anyway. Did he want to let Mary get away with drugging him and taking the USB stick away or was he trying to confirm whether there really was a substance on it? If he knew what it was, I'm not sure why he would inhale it all the same.

It seems to me he probably wanted to see Mary escape only to track her down later with John and to persuade her that fleeing her new home is unneccessary.... so he inhaled the stuff willingly.

besleybean · January 2, 2017 3:49 pm

Oh no I don't think so.
I think she caught him completely by surprise on that one.

nakahara · January 2, 2017 3:54 pm

besleybean wrote:
Oh no I don't think so.
I think she caught him completely by surprise on that one.

But if he was taken by surprise here, then when exactly did he place a tracker on Mary?
And if he was not aware that she may escape, why placing that tracker on her in the first place?

besleybean · January 2, 2017 3:56 pm

Er he placed a tracker on her because he knew she might run...I'm sorry, what am I misunderstanding?
She caught him by surprise by drugging him...presumably to give her a head start.

SusiGo · January 2, 2017 3:57 pm

1. Why is the Watson flat mirrored? The living room is the completely the other way round from MHR and HLV.
2. We see them in bed in TEH and HLV. Now they suddenly have switched sides.
3. When did they grow their hair? It has struck me since setlock and I still do not get it. The length indicates several months of growth which does not comply with the duration of the pregnancy.
4. What am I to make of the strange glowing skull painting?

Last edited by SusiGo (January 2, 2017 3:59 pm)

Yitzock · January 2, 2017 3:58 pm

He did seem a bit surprised, perhaps disappointed that she still felt she had to drug Sherlock, but at the same time it could have been a bluff (though Mary can often call his bluff?) to let her get away with it so he could track her. Or maybe he knew she would escape in some way no matter what?

besleybean · January 2, 2017 3:59 pm

I think the latter.
But Mary had no idea about the tracker.

Yitzock · January 2, 2017 4:01 pm

Yeah, she didn't know. I know some might say that she should have checked, but I think she was too focused on everything else to think of that, and probably didn't anticipate that Sherlock would do that, either. Plus if it's inside the USB stick then she wouldn't see it.

Liberty · January 2, 2017 4:01 pm

I thought the name was Gabriel (as in, the angel!), and thought he was male. Rosamund was the only woman. I'll see what I think when I listen again. Did they say she was female?

The boy in the car - they speculated that it was an epileptic fit or something. Just a random event.

Punch me in the face · January 2, 2017 4:02 pm

What buggers me is that in HLV, Sherlock tells Mary "Your accent is currently English but I suspect you are not."

If AJ suspected Mary to be the English woman who'd betrayed AGRA, that means that either Sherlock was wrong (I can't see him making such a mistake, but he did make mistakes in the past, so why not?) or that AJ ignored Mary wasn't English (which seemed unlikely too if they were like family)

Last edited by Punch me in the face (January 2, 2017 4:03 pm)

Lis · January 2, 2017 4:04 pm

Yitzock wrote:
2. When Mary and Sherlock have their meeting in secret, Mary makes like she's giving Sherlock a note, but it's actually a cloth with chloroform (or something similar) on it. Sherlock unfolds it and seems to know what's going on and yet he still lifts it to his nose to sniff it and pass out anyway. Did he want to let Mary get away with drugging him and taking the USB stick away or was he trying to confirm whether there really was a substance on it? If he knew what it was, I'm not sure why he would inhale it all the same.

I'm not sure about this one as obviously he thought something was going to happen as otherwise he wouldn't have needed to put a GPS tracker in the USB stick.

They both distrusted each other here, Mary didn't know about the USB stick but she still went to meet Sherlock with something to knock him out?

Another head scratcher for me is how did Mary know about the "dragon slayer" comment from Sherlock and Mycroft's conversation?

besleybean · January 2, 2017 4:05 pm

Possibly he thought the terrorists thought she was English, even though he knew she wasn't.
She spoke English with a convincing accent.
Or just the fact that they were freeing Brit Nats?

EDIT: I have speculated that Mary using dragon-slayer is another nod to her working with Mycroft.

Last edited by besleybean (January 2, 2017 4:06 pm)

nakahara · January 2, 2017 4:09 pm

Punch me in the face wrote:
What buggers me is that in HLV, Sherlock tells Mary "Your accent is currently English but I suspect you are not."

If AJ suspected Mary to be the English woman who'd betrayed AGRA, that means that either Sherlock was wrong (I can't see him making such a mistake, but he did make mistakes in the past, so why not?) or that AJ ignored Mary wasn't English (which seemed unlikely too if they were like family)

A good point. I think it was established that Mary is an American, or at least not English. That would make A.J. suspicion completely misplaced.