BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Hospital hallway, locked door, guard and nurse

**Posted by rlogcabin83** January 11, 2017 5:54 pm

OK, this may have a simple explanation - but it seems strange to me. (And I have only watched the ep once, plan to again soon.) JW is in Hudson's car on the way to the Hospital on the phone with LeStrade warning that Sherlock is in some sort of danger. Greg L. says that there is a man on the door of SH room. Cut to hallway where the guard is on the radio saying that no one has gone in. He tries the door and says it is jammed. The nurse whom we have met before is coming down the hallway with a question something like "Has that door locked itself again?" and starts pulling out keys, obviously going to get it open. Cut to interior of room where Culverton eventually tries to smother SH. Again, cut to hallway, John hurrying down to the door and finds it LOCKED. After a short cut back to SH being smothered the POV shows the door being burst open by John holding a fire extinguisher he has used as a battering ram. He is immediately followed in the room by the guard. So, pardon the set-up, but where the heck were the guard and nurse after they could not get in and between that time and when John showed up to break down the door? Would not logic suggest that Lestrade would have instructed the guard to enter by any means necessary rather than, oh, LEAVE HIS POST with a nurse, and wait for John to break down the door?! Is this just a plot hole (in a very complicated plot) or....as always....can we make some assumption about motivations for minor characters? Anyway, why didn't the nurse's keys work, where did guard and nurse then go, and why did the guard follow on John's heels entering the room after John broke it open? Thanks.

**Posted by ewige** January 11, 2017 6:02 pm

There is a theory that Sherlock asked the nurse to lock the door so that nobody would disturb CS's confesstion.

However, I tend to think that it's CS who's locking the door somehow. It must be his other "favorite room" (since it has a special secret acces door) where he usually does... whatever he does.

The nurse must have picked up on that but it never bothered her so she unwittingly calmed the guard down and they went together for a technician maybe who'd help them open the door. There's no need to break down a perfectly good door every time it's jammed a little, right? Good thing that John doesn't have any qualms in this department

Last edited by ewige (January 11, 2017 6:03 pm)

**Posted by rlogcabin83** January 11, 2017 6:22 pm

OK, maybe. I am very willing to suspend some disbelief here for the sake of enjoying the show. But the point that bothers me very much, and it seems to be a hook on which other things depend, is the guard leaving his post. That is not only a no-no, it will get you censured, investigated, reprimanded, and probably fired. Yet after being on the radio with LeStrade being told that there was great concern, the guard decides the he will leave his post. Yes, presumably to find a way to open the door. But he had John's option, and he always had the option of calling back up, help, etc. Yet he is not there. Breach of training and protocol.

**Posted by Lola Red** January 11, 2017 6:31 pm

Sherlock tells John that the nurse is in on the plan, she was also the one changing his transfusion to saline.

Last edited by Lola Red (January 11, 2017 6:47 pm)

**Posted by rlogcabin83** January 11, 2017 6:41 pm

True enough. The light bulb went off with that answer. Still, I need to think about this though. (And I am good at over-thinking.) Guard leaving should not have happened. And his return on John's heels was a little too perfectly timed.

**Posted by Lola Red** January 11, 2017 6:46 pm

Gone with the nurse to sort out stuck door situation? Sitting/standing in front of door, looking flabbergasted as John grips a fire extinguisher and ends said door?

**Posted by rlogcabin83** January 11, 2017 6:59 pm

Again...for over-thinking, I'm your guy.

Leaving an assigned post w/out permission? - Not explicitly shown.
Not calling for assistance on the radio in which he was just shown talking w/we assume, LeStrade? Not explicitly shown.
Sitting/Standing in front of door as John batters down the door? - Well, the hallway was deserted in the shot where JW comes down before breaking in. More of a stretch for me to have to imagine that the guard was just out of shot looking flabbergasted.

Mind you....I am also aware that I seem to be the only one that this bothers. Oh, well.

**Posted by Lola Red** January 11, 2017 7:09 pm

Have been there, driven mad by a detail and no-one else seemed to care about it

I honestly have no idea about the guard. But the thing about the nurse was stated in the episode, so I thought I may be able to al least lessen the confusion around that

**Posted by Liberty** January 11, 2017 7:51 pm

I got the impression the nurse was in on it. She helps Sherlock with his drip, and it's clear from earlier that she is concerned about Culverton and that he is threatening her. She has an idea what Sherlock is planning and knows he needs to be alone with Culverton for a while.

The police officer was hardly even needed. Sherlock outwardly was somebody who had threatened somebody with a nearby scalpel, while high on drugs and possibly delusional, but didn't injure anyone. He's now incapacitated and doesn't have access to weapons.

Last edited by Liberty (January 11, 2017 7:51 pm)

**Posted by Preceja** January 11, 2017 10:08 pm

I was thinking about it, too. The nurse could have locked the door, she seems to be informed. But SC need the door locked, too and what he told about often blocked door seems like more his work, with every murder. Who knows.

Lestarde probably did not tell the policemen that it was so ugent to kick out the door, lets say that he is waiting for the nurse outside the camera.

What seem strange to me - the policman was trying the door, it was rather noisy, the door leed stright to the room and CS did not noticed? Or was it why he decided to speed it up? But he was talking quite a while after it.

**Posted by ewige** January 11, 2017 10:19 pm

Preceja wrote:
What seem strange to me - the policman was trying the door, it was rather noisy, the door leed stright to the room and CS did not noticed? Or was it why he decided to speed it up? But he was talking quite a while after it.

He must have tried when CS already had his hands on Sherlock and Sherlock was struggling. I'll have to rewatch this scene to be sure.

**Posted by Preceja** January 11, 2017 11:09 pm

ewige wrote:
Preceja wrote:
What seem strange to me - the policman was trying the door, it was rather noisy, the door leed stright to the room and CS did not noticed? Or was it why he decided to speed it up? But he was talking quite a while after it.
He must have tried when CS already had his hands on Sherlock and Sherlock was struggling. I'll have to rewatch this scene to be sure.

No, there is still quite a long speach how CS likes killing people , he is perfectly calm not disturbed by anything from outside.

**Posted by WhoIWantToBe** January 12, 2017 2:26 am

I'm thinking this is a bit of a mirror of what Sherlock says time and time again about the police being pretty useless

**Posted by Kae Em** January 12, 2017 7:47 am

rlogcabin83 wrote:
Mind you....I am also aware that I seem to be the only one that this bothers. Oh, well.

No, you're not the only one who was bothered by that. But I think we can assume that probably Lestrade didn't tell the guard to break down the door, but just told him to chek on Sherlock to see if he was ok and making sure no one - not even staff or anyone - would go into the room alone (I assume originally the guard was there in front of the room to make sure Sherlock wouln't run away, not to protect him). I don't think the guard or Lestrade expected a secret door or thought of the possibility that someone might already be in the room with Sherlock. They expected the danger John mentioned to come from outside the door, not form the inside through a secret door.

Probably the guard didn't abandon his post completely, just followed the nurse down the hallway (about to where the camera stands when John is arriving) and always kept an eye on the door, making sure no one could get in. So it would make sense that he was quickly there as soon as John had broken down the door - just not quickly enough to stop him.

I don't know if the nurse was fully in on Sherlocks's plan. We just know that Sherlock must have shared part of his plan with her and so she probably purposely didn't hurry up while looking for the right key or something else to "un-stuck" the door.

Last edited by Kae Em (January 12, 2017 7:50 am)

**Posted by nakahara** January 12, 2017 9:13 am

rlogcabin83 wrote:
Is this just a plot hole (in a very complicated plot) or....as always....can we make some assumption about motivations for minor characters?

I believe it´s a plothole, or something was deliberately cut from the scene.
Isn´t guards cap visible on the floor when John approaches the room? What happened there, I wonder?

**Posted by Preceja** January 12, 2017 9:24 am

The cap was there before with the guard present.

**Posted by nakahara** January 12, 2017 9:28 am

Preceja wrote:
The cap was there before with the guard present.

I did not notice that, but if that´s true, then it looks like the nurse lured the guard away for some reason.