Posted by SherlocklivesinOH January 19, 2014 7:44 pm | #1 |
For anyone who doesn't know, The Seven Percent Solution is a re-write of The Final Problem in which Moriary is NOT a criminal mastermind, and Holmes' insistence that he is is a delusion brought about by cocaine.
There is Johnlockian subtext here: it is implied that Holmes' cocaine use became worse when Watson moved out of Baker Street and into his marital home with Mary.
The first half involves Watson, Mary (who seems very intelligent), Mycroft (whom it was Mary's idea to ask for help), and Moriarty (who taught both Holmes in math at some time during their academic career!) all conspiring to get Holmes into treatment...and the treatment is provided by none other than Sigmund Freud.
And then they get involved an international intrigue.
At the end (and here is the spoiler), Holmes permits Freud to hypnotize him and a traumatic event in his past is revealed: his mother had a lover, and his father killed her and her lover.
In Holmes' version of the story he gives under hypnosis, all Moriarty did was break the news to Holmes; however, Watson deduces that Moriarty must have done something which gave Mycroft a "hold" over him so that Mycroft could ask Moriarty for the favor of helping get Holmes to Freud.
So the question (for those of you who've read it) is: Was Moriarty the lover? Did Holmes just pretend to himself that the lover died also?