ancientsgate wrote:
besleybean wrote:
Sorry you are having problems with this.
It seems fairly clear to me.
Planted lady gives John her number.
John hesitates but decides to text.
That's all he actually does...but he was really wanting to take matters further.
That's what we've been led to think so far anyway. God knows what the last episode of this season will leave us with.
I agree ancientsgate, there is an entire third act missing with TFP unaired. And also to clarify I suppose I am not having problems with this plot point, I am thinking it is incomplete due to the knowledge I have (in a professional role as well as a fan) and questioning the validity. I don't believe all of the plot points are going to be wrapped up in the remaining 90mins, but there is a lot of inconsisitencies and underdevelopments remaining, that I don't believe are error.
Why show the number at all? Every time, literally EVERY time in the past we see text on screen, there is a reason. "HOUND. < H.O.U.N.D". Sherlock's many deductions, 'Rache < Rachel'.
There is a scholarly paper that delves into this in an excellent manner. http://refractory.unimelb.edu.au/2015/02/07/dwyer/ This information is accessible in practice and theory mainly to film directors and editors, and here the writer has not only made it accessible and digestible to the public, it is all about subtext and misdorection in Sherlock using a variety of techniques! It is a feast, and I strongly recommend all Sherlock fans read it.
Extra post-poduction is HARD- you can't just block text on screen after filming, the frame needs to be set, to accommodate any additional features so it can be shown. It's not just a technique for coolness, those numbers mean something. The framing means something.
Feeling guilty, and deliberating, or deducing? Why he he looking at the paper in his hands over the paper on the table from such a wide FOV? He is taking in the whole table. Usually when John reads, he leans in close. Look at him while he types a blog for instance.
Really there is no need to keep the number visible on screen to the audience? Why is it held so long? Why does he blink and look away like he has realized something? It has been established that he is clever. I'm not sure I accept its only about a pretty lady in that look.
In the world of editing and post, there is liertally NO reason to cut to this close up unless we want the audience to glance at something. Freeman would have been directed to place his hands in exactly a certain way, not too high or far, there would have been marks on the table for him as this is a really close up shot and even lifting his hand one centimeter would have thrown the image out of focus. Yet his watch AND the paper underneath when revealed show the content. There is no way cast and crew had a few extra minutes and decided to grab an insert.
And finally we cut back to the main establishing shot of John entering the new contact. With the number presented to us, again.
I know it looks like I am picking on this scene and obsessing over it, but I can't stress enough what a red flag these kind of scenes are to me. To leave such subtle misdirection, or even possibly very DIRECT direction (maybe John was clearly texting a pretty lady, maybe he wasn't). But this, coupled with the unreliable narrator of His Last Vow through to now, along with all the mirroring of lines and visuals over and over is so incredibly clever I can't take anything at face value. EIther there is a huge curtain lift in TFP, or the writiers/producers/directors/cast of Sherlock left a deliberate crumb trail in many directions a la Hitchcock/Welles so each of us can own 'our' version of the story. Its just brilliant. Even if I am wrong and this is nothing more than John texting a pretty lady on the bus, I am quite sure that the series has set me up to question and think twice about what I saw.