Liberty wrote:

Irene - for me it was because of what Eurus said - about you don't understand Bach - "play you".  And apparently you/Sherlock is romantic yearning.   And I'm glad that's just as far as it went.   But I like the idea of Sherlock having those romantic feelings and secretly seeing them as what he is. 

 
I think this has been mentioned a few ties about Eurus asking Sherlock to "play him" and he chooses Irene's theme, but I just took it at face value that he composed that music therefore it was "him" or his music rather than Bach, not necessarily any underlying sexual meaning to it.  Though, I suppose Eurus' comments about sex after hearing it could give the impression of a deeper meaning to his song choice.
Sorry, I know this is a minor point and rather old hat by now, but it had bothered me for some reason!

Yes.  She's more of a symbol than a person.   I don't think the song itself is sexual (it's wistful and romantic), but of course Eurus picks up that it was about a lover, and demeans that sexual urge to something horrible.  I don't think she'd have answered in the same way if Sherlock had played John and Mary's wedding theme (which he also wrote).

My guess is that they used the name because of the "east wind" line from canon.  But perhaps that's where they got the idea! 

SolarSystem wrote:

besleybean wrote:

Every time Sherlock is linked to attraction/romance, it is with Irene.  The Woman.  She has that title for a reason!

Interesting though that The Woman herself romantically links Sherlock to John. 
 

Also, she has the title "The Woman" because he respects her as a worthy adversary, not because he is romantically linked to her.

Irene has the title The Women because that's what she calls herself professionally.

Artemis wrote:

Rewatching TBB, and the opening credits say the episode was directed by Euros Lyn. Wonder if that's where they got the name.

Wow! I like it so much!  
And they mix the story and the reality in absolutely fantastic way

athameg wrote:

That's true: he respects her as a worthy adversary. Her intellectual abilities are equal to his, if not better. It was so in the original text by ACD. And when you consider when that was written, it was a real sensation. At this time it was seen as an acknowledged fact, even by reputable scientists, that the intellectual abilities of women were inferior than those of men. And that is the cause why Sherlock is fascinated by Irene Adler: she ist a woman, and  nevertheless her intellectual abilities are at least as good as his. Fascinating, indeed.

Agreed: fascinating. And we can have no doubts, Holmes was fascinated by her mind, since ACD's The Woman was happily married.
 

besleybean wrote:

Yes, but when Sherlock stops a moment and looks dreamily out of the window, he entitles her 'THE Woman'.

Which is the title she gave herself.

besleybean wrote:

I believe the episode shows Sherlock attracted to Irene and the BBC Sherlock team agree with me.

That's fine.  I wasn't talking about Sherlock's level of attraction.
I was just pointing out that The Women is what Irene calls herself so it's not unusual for Sherlock to refer to her as such.
 

besleybean wrote:

I assume he hasn't called her that through all their years of texting.

But we don't know for sure!  
Maybe he calls her Adler.

Exactly. Because he usually ignores her texts as Steven stated in a recent interview.