BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / The Abominable Bride (for those who have seen it)

**Posted by Harriet** January 2, 2016 12:23 am

Miss Sherlock Watson wrote:
Oh my god, that was so good! Fat Mycroft - what a crazy but wonderful idea!

It's not so crazy, it's ACD canon.

**Posted by tonnaree** January 2, 2016 12:23 am

Once again we have proof that The Powers That Be lie their asses off.

Just saying.

**Posted by Vhanja** January 2, 2016 12:36 am

I like that this is - I hope - part of the entire storyline. Because if I am to criticise the Special for anything, is that Sherlock seems to be completely out of control the entire episode. I usually prefer it when Sherlock seems to be out of control/wrong, but turns out to have known the answer all along. There was very little superdetective about him in this episode.

In the Victorian MP he was harsher and more snappish towards Watson then I've ever seen him in the main series, only to struggle with his own past, his own memories and an OD all through out. He had his reveal with the women "cult", but he was wrong about that as well, as Moriarty said. He couldn't kill Moriarty, because Watsons did that. He couldn't solve the case... he was confused and out of it through the entire episode, in both "worlds".

**Posted by nakahara** January 2, 2016 12:45 am

Vhanja wrote:
I like that this is - I hope - part of the entire storyline. Because if I am to criticise the Special for anything, is that Sherlock seems to be completely out of control the entire episode. I usually prefer it when Sherlock seems to be out of control/wrong, but turns out to have known the answer all along. There was very little superdetective about him in this episode.

In the Victorian MP he was harsher and more snappish towards Watson then I've ever seen him in the main series, only to struggle with his own past, his own memories and an OD all through out. He had his reveal with the women "cult", but he was wrong about that as well, as Moriarty said. He couldn't kill Moriarty, because Watsons did that. He couldn't solve the case... he was confused and out of it through the entire episode, in both "worlds".

True, very true, Vhanja... but I guess, since this wasn´t real case, but rather Sherlock´s psychoanalysis, we must take everything in the Special with a grain of salt.

**Posted by Vhanja** January 2, 2016 12:48 am

So basically, Sherlock is reallly out of it mentally when he sits on that plane.

**Posted by a_maze** January 2, 2016 12:49 am

Vhanja wrote:
I like that this is - I hope - part of the entire storyline. Because if I am to criticise the Special for anything, is that Sherlock seems to be completely out of control the entire episode. I usually prefer it when Sherlock seems to be out of control/wrong, but turns out to have known the answer all along. There was very little superdetective about him in this episode.

Thanks for pointing that out. The entire time during Sherlocks encounter with Moriarty, I had this overwhelming "WTF is wrong?" moment, because Sherlock tried so hard to pass as his normal self and understand a fact that no one could understand. Reminds me of THoB, wherein he breaks down because he is once not fully in control.
But how could he be in control if he has simultaneously ODed? That would also be a bit OoC.

Last edited by a_maze (January 2, 2016 12:52 am)

**Posted by nakahara** January 2, 2016 12:50 am

Vhanja wrote:
So basically, Sherlock is reallly out of it mentally when he sits on that plane.

After the fiasco of HLV, he may see himself as a big failure.... probably.

**Posted by Vhanja** January 2, 2016 12:54 am

So the question is then - how much of what we see in the episode is how Sherlock really sees himself, and how much is distorted from drugs?

**Posted by Smee** January 2, 2016 12:55 am

Wow! What an episode! Sherlock using = heartbreaking. I had always thought that Mofftiss weren't going to address Sherlocks drug use beyond a few small mentions in the series, and always seemed very against it in everything I've read/heard, but what a job they did with this!
Love that we get to see a different side to Mycroft, he's such a great character that we rarely get to see. I know the interplay between Mycroft and Sherlock in regards to his using goes against what a lot of people have as headcannon, but I'm always drawn back to the line Mycroft says to John at their first meeting in ASiP 'I worry about him. Constantly.'
Can't wait to see where they go from here, and how they deal with the aftermath of Sherlock's relapse. Roll on S4

**Posted by Miss Sherlock Watson** January 2, 2016 12:58 am

Harriet wrote:
Miss Sherlock Watson wrote:
Oh my god, that was so good! Fat Mycroft - what a crazy but wonderful idea!
It's not so crazy, it's ACD canon.

I know that, of course. But I would never have expected that they would really do that! I wish I could have seen everyone's reaction to the costume. I'm sure it must have been priceless...

**Posted by a_maze** January 2, 2016 1:03 am

Could somebody explain this?

Last edited by a_maze (January 2, 2016 1:03 am)

**Posted by Lilythiell** January 2, 2016 1:15 am

I am dead. Deaded. Overdeaded.
Too many emotions at the same time. Too much happened -and too little.
I need series 4 (don't we all...?).

I really, really liked the setting in both 1895 and present day. This episode closes the discussion about Andrew Scott's Moriarty being dead. Even Sherlock says it at the end "he blew his own brains off, no one can survive that".

The purple dressing gown...the Persian slipper...the deer with bells on its antlers...so much more things to say...

"Why don't the two of you just elope?" that was soooo good for my Johnlock heart. I've a feeling the not so subtle Moriarty flirting with (at? I need to watch it again) Sherlock was just a big distraction (well, at least they tried) to keep TJLC "in the dark".

The drugs! Oh my God the drugs... I mean, why? Why? Why? Why?
Okay, I get it, it is more IC to have Holmes do drugs. But, Sherlock...I thought (well, that's what he said, anyway) that was for a case...

I don't know what to do. What can I do? Watch it again, that seems pretty obvious. But...other than that, how am I going to survive the hiatus -yet again?
I know they start filming in April, but when in April?

*faints*

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** January 2, 2016 1:18 am

a_maze wrote:
Could somebody explain this?

In a word....no.

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** January 2, 2016 1:19 am

Swanpride wrote:
I have one big gripe with the episode: the part with Mycroft eating so much. Yes, fat Mycroft is canon but the explanation there is that he is too lazy to move enough in combination with enjoying good food. But he is not an over-the-top over-eater.

Yeah, that bit was a tiiiiiny bit cringeworthy. Like, it was the one point where I thought they might have taken the joke too far. It was pretty over the top ahaha.

**Posted by Vhanja** January 2, 2016 1:20 am

I thought the fat Mycroft joke was overdone too - until I learned that it was Sherlock's MP. Then it makes perfect sense.

**Posted by Vhanja** January 2, 2016 1:24 am

a_maze wrote:
Could somebody explain this?

I'm really out of my depth here, but after some googling my understanding is that it's the mathematical formula of the fourdimensional space (as opposed to the other view of the threedimensional space), where the fouth dimension is Time.

**Posted by a_maze** January 2, 2016 1:25 am

Sherlock Holmes wrote:
In a word....no.

I am fairly certain that it is absolute nonsense, but who knows... even Sherlock himself thinks that Mycroft is the smartest.

Vhanja wrote:
I'm really out of my depth here, but after some googling my understanding is that it's the mathematical formula of the fourdimensional space (as opposed to the other view of the threedimensional space), where the fouth dimension is Time.

Stephen Hawking recently talked about something relating to that topic. But I do not think that it's something meta that we missed. Maybe some inside joke or just doodle that ought to look clever.

Last edited by a_maze (January 2, 2016 1:30 am)

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** January 2, 2016 1:28 am

Vhanja wrote:
I thought the fat Mycroft joke was overdone too - until I learned that it was Sherlock's MP. Then it makes perfect sense.

AH YES! I never thought about that...I can totally forgive it now then. The episode is back to being perfect again. Phew.

**Posted by Bibliophile10** January 2, 2016 1:29 am

I loved the scenes with Mycroft, but I didn't like that the script seems to be foreshadowing his death in S4. With the Victorian Mycroft constantly predicting his own death in a specific number of years and modern Mycroft asking John to take care of Sherlock, the foreshadowing was as light as an anvil.

**Posted by Lilythiell** January 2, 2016 1:30 am

About the fact that Sherlock was high in HLV...well, I rather think that he must have been throughout the episode. He would hardly have had time, I think (though I'm not an expert) to get that much (he had a list, for Christ's sake!) into his blood stream between the moment he blew Magnussen's brains off (Merry Christmas!) and the Tarmac scene.
So HLV opens with high Sherlock (quite obviously) who then proceeds to continue being high because he misses John. What may have had stopped him was his "stay" in the hospital, but the fact that...well, John didn't settle back in 221b for good ("months of silence, and we're doing this now") must have made him throw everything away...
So, he was high at Christmas. No wonder Wiggins is his protégé, no matter his deductive abilities which he shows off at the beginning of HLV. That's just a bonus.
Furthermore, him being high at Christmas explains pretty well why he didn't think of the Appeldore Vaults being Magnussen's Mind Palace -and the look on his face as he realises it has another perspective. Distraught, and sick, I should think.