I wondered about that, and I think he has to know.  He seems shocked but the whole thing is an act to get Culverton to try to kill him and have John rescue him (including John beating him up - much as I don't like that, it does seem to be part of Sherlock's plan).  If Culverton's daugher "remembered" him, then what good would that have done anyway?  Would Culverton have confessed when she wasn't drugged? I doubt it.

Sherlock is holding back on us, I think.

He definitely thinks that later on, but I'm not sure what he thinks earlier - he does seem to be genuinely suprised.  However, I just can't see how phoning the daughter really fitted into his plan.  It was never going to be resolved there in the mortuary.  It needed Sherlock to be almost killed by Culverton.  If bringing Faith there had made Culverton confess, then that wouldn't have happened.   I don't know if that's a plot hole, or if Sherlock is hiding that he suspects more than we know.   

My sister and I were trying to work this out yesterday as if he did think he had met Faith and she was actually on her way to the hospital we couldn't work out how that would have resolved things and Sherlock had already planned getting the confession from Culverton when he was trying to kill him as shown by him putting the audio recorder in John's cane. The only thing we could think was that even if Sherlock had met the real daughter and she arrived Sherlock was going to still have some sort of drug fuelled freakout and attack Culverton and the woman he met turning out not to be Faith was just a sort of additional reason to get his freakout going. It's still a bit of a puzzler for me though.

Him suspecting something about Faith but not letting on could make sense too but them he seems reassured that he did actually meet a real woman when he finds the note at the flat.

Last edited by Lis (January 9, 2017 7:51 pm)

Perhaps this was his Plan A - if Faith could here the confession, perhaps CS would call in guards, attach Sherlock or something like that - and thus John could play the protective soldier part again.

If that for whatever reason failed, being put in hospital might have been his Plan B?

Vhanja wrote:

Perhaps this was his Plan A - if Faith could here the confession, perhaps CS would call in guards, attach Sherlock or something like that - and thus John could play the protective soldier part again.

If that for whatever reason failed, being put in hospital might have been his Plan B?

Plan A and Plan B, or Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the plan.  Like the different scenarios for jumping off of Bart's, there were different measures he predicted he would need, and he ended up needing them.

They did not want to elaborate it too much. Sherlock says that he had backup plans but could not remember them. (I am not sure how it was exactly, if he could not remember them back in his flat or in the hospital , which would be quite dangerous) . So we are supposed to  believe that it was safe for him even if John did not come on time. It did not seem that way and I really hate when a person is saved in the last second  so it is better to believe that Sherlock had it under control as I do not expect any more information here. 

Liberty wrote:

I do feel that Sherlock had to have the "dying detective" plan ready.  It was the only one that was going to work - he just placed an awful lot of faith in John working it out, or perhaps seeing Mary's message, and coming to get him at just the right time!

 
That's what I didn't get either.... I commented several times to my viewing friend 'but.. how did he know he could count on John showing up in time?'  And to have the cane ready for weeks with a listening device, if he thought he could get a confession out of Culverton in the morgue (what, did he have a device ready on him then, too, in case?). Again, television dramatic timing... (kind of like Molly ringing the therapist doorbell right after John's comment about who to get a second opinion from)
I couldn't help but laugh at a tumblr fan's affectionate snark about it, though -

Sherlock: I need to know what to do about John
Ella, probably: You could give him a bit of time and then have a conversation like two grown ass adults
Sherlock: hmmmmmmmm
Mary from beyond the grave: you could GET WREKT and DIE
Sherlock: Yes, that'll work

Yes, I think there was quite a lot of dramatic timing in this episode!  Same at the beginning when John talks about Sherlock and the car arrives! 

Another thing was that it seemed that they had to get Culverton arrested for attempted murder.  The recording wasn't admissible due to entrapment.   I don't know if that would still have been the case if Sherlock had got a confession in the mortuary. 
 

Sherlock had several plans and had to prepare everything in advance , I see nothing strange in the cane prepared just in case. But where was it? In Baker street? Probably so John had to go there and back to hospital but there could be quite a long time between mortuary and the scene in the room. 

And the DVD scene- Mrs. Hudson was watching the video with Sherlock so he might even ask her to aim John to it. But why she asked him then if he would not like to watch it later when she knew it was so urgent. Or did not she realized that Sherlock was in danger at the moment fulfilling the wish of Mary? 

 

Last edited by Preceja (January 11, 2017 8:33 am)