BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Questions and ponderings about Sherlock

**Posted by Vhanja** October 3, 2015 6:56 am

Yitzock wrote:
Interesting. It doesn't bother me at all. And it's supposed to be funny, anyway. I think you're reading too much into it.
Sherlock may not have physically hurt her before, but he has hurt her. She hit him because she was angry, something she was likely tempted to do before, but didn't. Maybe this was a tipping point?
She doesn't have to be complacent all the time or polite all the time.

You also say that testing Sherlock for drugs was not something he consented to...but he still had to do it. Isn't staying clean something he agreed on? If there's a suspicion he hadn't kept that promise, he had to get tested. Besides, it's not like it was an invasive test.

I see it quite in a similar way to you. I don't think we are meant to read too much into it, and it doesn't seem Sherlok minds too much about neither the slapping nor the test. He seems to be more annoyed that the ruined his undercover (which he quickly forgets as well).

Also, if he really wanted to stay undercover and not alert his friends to him doing drugs again, perhaps alerting John to his presence in the drug den wasn't the wisest move.

**Posted by Liberty** October 3, 2015 7:16 am

I'm sure Sherlock does mind, and think's it's out of order, hence his rather cutting remark to Molly.

**Posted by RavenMorganLeigh** October 4, 2015 4:48 pm

Vhanja wrote:
Yitzock wrote:
Interesting. It doesn't bother me at all. And it's supposed to be funny, anyway. I think you're reading too much into it.
Sherlock may not have physically hurt her before, but he has hurt her. She hit him because she was angry, something she was likely tempted to do before, but didn't. Maybe this was a tipping point?
She doesn't have to be complacent all the time or polite all the time.

You also say that testing Sherlock for drugs was not something he consented to...but he still had to do it. Isn't staying clean something he agreed on? If there's a suspicion he hadn't kept that promise, he had to get tested. Besides, it's not like it was an invasive test.
I see it quite in a similar way to you. I don't think we are meant to read too much into it, and it doesn't seem Sherlok minds too much about neither the slapping nor the test. He seems to be more annoyed that the ruined his undercover (which he quickly forgets as well).

Also, if he really wanted to stay undercover and not alert his friends to him doing drugs again, perhaps alerting John to his presence in the drug den wasn't the wisest move.

If I'm supposed to take that scene as comedy-- then, it reeeeaaaally felt flat for me. That's just bad slapstick, and ..well. disappointing writing.

**Posted by Vhanja** October 4, 2015 7:28 pm

I don't see the scene as comedy either.

**Posted by Yitzock** October 4, 2015 8:04 pm

Maybe it's not "comedy." It made me laugh just because I was surprised, I guess. That's what I meant by "funny," I think. Funny because I wasn't expecting it. But not hilarious. But I don't find it disturbing, either.

**Posted by Vhanja** October 8, 2015 5:24 pm

One thing about HoB that always bothered me...

In the lab scene with John, he is influenced by the fear-inducing chemical. But how could he be? Sherlock put Henry's sugar in his coffee, but as we know, the sugar was fine. And if it was "leaky pipes", then the people working there daily would be suffering as bad as Henry (who only visited the Hollow every few years or so).

Or wasn't John under the influence of the gas? And if he wasn't, why was he then just as scared as Sherlock?

**Posted by Magingus** October 8, 2015 6:39 pm

I'm sure he was exposed to the gas through the leaky pipes. But now that you mention it ... it's a clever bit of writing as it camouflages the real source of the chemical and perpetuates Sherlock's incorrect assumption about the sugar - but I never considered it from a practical standpoint, that it could be effecting daily workers in the lab.

If I had to guess, I'd say this is one of those instances where practical reality is overlooked in order to achieve a creative situation.

**Posted by Liberty** October 8, 2015 7:21 pm

I'm due for a rewatch of this, so I may have some of my facts wrong, but wouldn't the drug only have an effect when people were expecting there to be something scary? Henry has already seen something scary in the hollow as a child. Sherlock goes there after hearing Henry's story. And Sherlock sets it up so that John will believe there is a hound stalking him. Workers wouldn't necessarily see a hound in their day to day business because they wouldn't be expecting it.

**Posted by nakahara** October 8, 2015 7:34 pm

I bet Dr. Frankland had his fingers in the stuff and was responible for the "leaked pipes"...

**Posted by Liberty** October 8, 2015 7:40 pm

You make it sound like a euphemism

**Posted by nakahara** October 8, 2015 7:42 pm

Because I´m not sure that some pipes were really involved, but I have a hunch that Frankland poisoned John somehow...

**Posted by RavenMorganLeigh** October 8, 2015 7:51 pm

nakahara wrote:
Because I´m not sure that some pipes were really involved, but I have a hunch that Frankland poisoned John somehow...

That's interesting. Speaking of druggings-- what it means is that Sherlock *didn't* drug John. In TEH, he says that John lost an entire Wednesday due to him drugging John-- but, has anyone ever thought that that easily could have been Sherlock just trying to be funny? If a person misses a day-- they will generally be quite disoriented and remember *that*. Why was John so suprised? Maybe, because it never actually happened.

**Posted by Liberty** October 8, 2015 8:07 pm

John could have been exposed the drug if he was close enough to the hollow when they visited - but he got distracted by the "morse code".

Would Frankland want to poison John? His aim was to discredit Henry, rather than to have other reputable people seeing the same thing as Henry.

And yes, I think it's possible that he was trying to be funny during the speech. (Although not completely certain! After all, he did try to drug John in HOB!).

**Posted by RavenMorganLeigh** October 8, 2015 8:10 pm

Liberty wrote:
John could have been exposed the drug if he was close enough to the hollow when they visited - but he got distracted by the "morse code".

Would Frankland want to poison John? His aim was to discredit Henry, rather than to have other reputable people seeing the same thing as Henry.

And yes, I think it's possible that he was trying to be funny during the speech. (Although not completely certain! After all, he did try to drug John in HOB!).

Operational word: "Try". Here's what gives me pause-- John made it very, very clear to Sherlock that drugging him was "Not Good." Sherlock also knew he'd done wrong.

**Posted by Vhanja** October 8, 2015 8:18 pm

Sherlock doesn't always care if something is labelled "Not Good".

**Posted by nakahara** October 8, 2015 8:30 pm

Liberty wrote:
Would Frankland want to poison John? His aim was to discredit Henry, rather than to have other reputable people seeing the same thing as Henry.

Frankland knew who Sherlock was and it is possible he wanted to get rid of him and John. Poisoning them and making them mad with fear could be a method to drive them away (they could injure themselves during their bout of fear or be scared off).

**Posted by ukaunz** October 17, 2015 10:53 am

So this is something interesting that someone noticed: John parts his hair on the right n S1 and S2, but on the left in S3.
http://slashscribe.tumblr.com/post/131300779881/your-gifset-is-wonderful-do-you-know-what-its

Is there a deeper meaning to this, or just a new hair stylist that got it wrong?

**Posted by Vhanja** October 17, 2015 10:56 am

Oh, never noticed that. Cool detail. My first thought was that it was done to show passage of time. That with the mustache and a subtle change to his hair, we get to see that two years have actually passed.

Sherlock also have a slightly different style in S3. I preferred him in S1 and S2, to be honest.

**Posted by SusiGo** October 17, 2015 11:03 am

I think that the explanation about the changing POV is quite intelligent and fits with the narrative:

Your part is on the opposite side when you look in a mirror, the same way photos of you don’t look like your reflection (because you’re used to seeing your own image reversed). The S3 episodes are from Sherlock’s POV, so John’s part is on the other side.

**Posted by RavenMorganLeigh** October 17, 2015 8:05 pm

Huh. That's actually pretty compelling!