BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / TST Headscratchers

**Posted by besleybean** January 2, 2017 5:06 pm

I think it was the 1st Greg heard about any of those things...
But I posed the same question about Miss Me.

**Posted by GOLD MEDAL** January 2, 2017 5:57 pm

Hello. I'm new and tormented by TST.

Here are my main torments.

1. How did the secretary know that the kidnapped ambassador (is ambassador the right title ?) knew she (the secretary) was the traitor ?

2. Mary refers to their plan to release the hostages being 'changed', strongly implying a change of instructions. As far as I can see the plan itself worked beautifully (sliding down ropes and shooting). It was the welcoming committee that was the problem. So what change was made ?

3. Why, if Mary was simply going to disappear, did she need the memory stick at all ? (I think I've just thought of the answer, to stop Sherlock looking at it for clues to find out where she was going.....oh well.)

More concerns to follow.

**Posted by Vhanja** January 2, 2017 6:03 pm

I'm rewatching the episode and have a couple of questions myself.

1. How could Sherlock have gone alone to the pool place. Lestrade knew that's where he was going, he knew there was a fair chance the bust guy (whom they now knew could kill) would be there - why didn't Lestrade join him? It was clear he didn't as Sherlock is waiting there for hours before the long fight that no one interrupts.

2. When Sherlock sees the USB stick, we get flashbacks. It can't be Sherlock's flashbacks, because he wasn't present at the fireplace scene. Also, he says "she destroyed it", but that's not true - John destroyed it. What Sherlock says directly contradicts what we saw two seconds earlier.

3. If Vivian was "just a secretary", why was she present to see the top-top secret thruth of who shot Magnussen, something not even the prime minister would know.

4. After Mary got up to tend to crying Rosie (after they've talked about Antichrist and the Devil), John gets a text alert. What is this? We aren't shown what it is,and this is before he got the number from the Bus Lady, so it can't be her.

I will probably have some more later in the episode, just had to pause and write these down before I forgot them.

**Posted by besleybean** January 2, 2017 6:13 pm

I thought that was AFTER he had the phone number...
On the secretary thing, she was there to take minutes...altho was then instructed not to

**Posted by Schmiezi** January 2, 2017 6:22 pm

My own headscratcher:
Why did Sherlock call John and Mary to confront the secretary together with him? Mary was Kind of scared for her life, so why asking her to come there?

**Posted by nakahara** January 2, 2017 6:31 pm

Schmiezi wrote:
My own headscratcher:
Why did Sherlock call John and Mary to confront the secretary together with him? Mary was Kind of scared for her life, so why asking her to come there?

Well, through the episode, Mary was informed about every Sherlock´s case, howered over him when he spoke with his clients, was privy to his every musing and deduction... it was their private agreement, perhaps? That she has to be involved in everything?

Plus: it was done to show how conpletely unmysoginistic Sherlock is?

Last edited by nakahara (January 2, 2017 6:32 pm)

**Posted by ewige** January 2, 2017 6:34 pm

My headscratcher:
isn't shooting in an aquarium a bit like shooting on an airplane? I.e. very unsafe for everyone involved?

**Posted by nakahara** January 2, 2017 6:34 pm

GOLD MEDAL wrote:
3. Why, if Mary was simply going to disappear, did she need the memory stick at all ? (I think I've just thought of the answer, to stop Sherlock looking at it for clues to find out where she was going.....oh well.)

I am wondering why did members of AGRA even carry these sticks on themselves - even during a dangerous action.

**Posted by Mothonthemantel** January 2, 2017 6:38 pm

If the Thatcher bust was soft when the memory stick was inserted. How did the memory stick survive the kiln?

If they all carried the memory stick with them , the opposite of non betrayal is surely true? Any member could look at any time and decide they didn't love AGRA anymore .Curiosity killed many a cat.

How did a little old secratary become a better shot than Mary - killing with one shot from a tiny handbag gun! Not even a .2!

**Posted by nakahara** January 2, 2017 6:38 pm

Vhanja wrote:
1. How could Sherlock have gone alone to the pool place. Lestrade knew that's where he was going, he knew there was a fair chance the bust guy (whom they now knew could kill) would be there - why didn't Lestrade join him? It was clear he didn't as Sherlock is waiting there for hours before the long fight that no one interrupts.

My only explanation for that is that Sherlock sent a message to Lestrade shortly before he jumped on an intruder. That´s why Lestrade appeared on the spot only after their confrontation.

I would like to know if Sherlock was already near the pool while the lonely girl was swimming there. If I was not sure Sherlock was gay, that would have been really squicky....

**Posted by Vhanja** January 2, 2017 7:06 pm

He must have been, because he shows up the moment the father takes the girl away. I don't see anything squicky about it, really, as I don't think Sherlock - no matter sexual orientation - has any interest in small girls. That is not why he was there.

And now that I've rewatched the episode, I understood the bit about the text John received. *slaps forehead*

**Posted by nakahara** January 2, 2017 7:15 pm

I wonder why are Thatcher´s busts produced... in Georgia?

**Posted by ewige** January 2, 2017 7:19 pm

nakahara wrote:
I wonder why are Thatcher´s busts produced... in Georgia?

I thought for a moment it was in the States! Would have made more sense!
And I'm still not over everybody saying TABlisi instead of Tbilisi! Pfft!

Last edited by ewige (January 2, 2017 7:19 pm)

**Posted by Vhanja** January 2, 2017 7:26 pm

nakahara wrote:
I wonder why are Thatcher´s busts produced... in Georgia?

Cheap labour? LIke how everything in the 80s was "Made in Hong Kong"?

**Posted by nakahara** January 2, 2017 7:35 pm

Schmiezi wrote:
My own headscratcher:
Why did Sherlock call John and Mary to confront the secretary together with him? Mary was Kind of scared for her life, so why asking her to come there?

But it seems he never actually called her there. He only called John:

Which makes the final accussation of him by John even more unjustified....

**Posted by Vhanja** January 2, 2017 8:17 pm

Someone asked Arwel about the glowing skull portrait and the fact that John isn't really blogging:

http://sherlocksbestfriend-john.tumblr.com/post/155307992756/bimartin-so-eliza-bbcromance-whos-on-post

**Posted by Liberty** January 2, 2017 8:17 pm

Well, I thought that initially. But then his text to Mary seems like an invitation to come along to watch a show. He wanted to show off, maybe, being proud of catching another of her dragons. And he doesn't need to say where, because she knows, having been briefed there in the past (at least, I assume so. She doesn't ask John - although maybe she gets a look at his phone?)

**Posted by nakahara** January 2, 2017 10:51 pm

nakahara wrote:
- why is Sherlock such an imbecile when it comes to guns? In THOB when approaching the raging Henry, Sherlock showed a healthy respect for his gun. In HLV he made that fateful step only because he believed Mary would not shoot him. But here he confronts the guns wielded by A.J. and Mrs. Norbury as if they were but plastic toys. Isn´t it weird for a person who was nearly fatally short in the last episode?

Now, that I too rewatched the episode, with much better dubbing than yesterday, I can answer my own headscratcher:

Sherlock isn´t imbecillic at all here.

I was surprised why he babbled about Mary to AJ and why he seemed a bit careless when facing his gun. Now I think his babbling was deliberate - it was the only way for him to survive. AJ would have immediatelly shot him, but he spared him after Sherlock ingrained the thought to his head that he would eventually lead him to Mary, if tracked down.

Also, when facing Mrs. Norbury, after he sprouted that seemingly arrogant deduction, Mrs. Norbury at first seemed to be absolutely cowed by that and totaly broken and meek. Sherlock´s presumtion probably was that he would disarm her that way. He was even reaching for her gun at the end of the scene, when she gleefuly shot at him - not everything in her behaviour could be predicted, unfortunatelly. But Sherlock´s strategy was good and it was really not his fault that the woman´s action were so irrational and random.

**Posted by SusiGo** January 3, 2017 12:33 pm

Here is a good one, based on this post:

http://inevitably-johnlocked.tumblr.com/post/155341958560/blog-before-baby

Why does John blog about changing and buying nappies and have their life run by a baby when the child is not even born yet?

**Posted by ewige** January 3, 2017 1:05 pm

SusiGo wrote:
Here is a good one, based on this post:

http://inevitably-johnlocked.tumblr.com/post/155341958560/blog-before-baby

Why does John blog about changing and buying nappies and have their life run by a baby when the child is not even born yet?

This is a brilliant catch! The game is on! Wheee!