BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / What was the final problem?

**Posted by Schmiezi** January 20, 2017 2:13 pm

Well, I think the headline says it all.

What exactly is / was the final problem? How to stay alive? I don't think so because IMO thexepisode, maybe the whole series, is not about survive but about love.

I would love to read what you think.

**Posted by ewige** January 20, 2017 6:16 pm

I think it's fascinating that nobody knows for sure
Not enough to post here, anyway.

What a TELLING title for the show finale. I actually think that "Family Business" (as translated in Russia) wasn't too bad after all.

**Posted by NicoleCollard** January 20, 2017 7:21 pm

Hahaha, Go for the free translations, Russian people, haha.

I don't really know what 'The final problem' means. The final problem may be how to realise that caring isn't always a disadvantage.

Last edited by NicoleCollard (January 20, 2017 7:21 pm)

**Posted by besleybean** January 20, 2017 7:28 pm

I thought the Final Problem was for Sherlock to save John and not lose himself in the process.

**Posted by ewige** January 20, 2017 7:36 pm

NicoleCollard wrote:
The final problem may be how to realise that caring isn't always a disadvantage.

I like this idea a lot!

bb,
Sherlock also saved Mycroft, Eurus and himself...

**Posted by besleybean** January 20, 2017 7:39 pm

Clever boy!

**Posted by tonnaree** January 20, 2017 7:42 pm

It's possible "the final problem" could be Euros herself. She's been locked away for years and now she wants to force everyone to deal with her.

**Posted by besleybean** January 20, 2017 7:47 pm

She possibly has a point...
Anyhow, Sherlock's doing his bit.

**Posted by Kae Em** January 21, 2017 2:10 am

I think the "I am lost" song was the first puzzle Eurus had ever made up for Sherlock and it was also the last puzzle/test/problem she had ready for him. The song was the key to connect the two worlds, Eurus world of an IQ high above anyone else's and the rest of the world. I guess she always wanted Sherlock to decipher her coded cry for help because this would have given her the hope that there actually was someone out there who would be able to understand her, connect with her and thus help her "land her plane". So deciphering the song was the final problem: According to Eurus' plan the final task/problem for Sherlock to save his sister (and everyone else).

The interesting thing is that if you decipher the song with the numbers shown on the headstones, Eurus' message is actually one line shorter than the one Sherlock deciphers. The line

". . . lost without your love (save) . ."

does appear in Eurus's song between the coded message

"before my doom I am . . "

and

" . . . my soul, seek my room."

But it isn't part of the solution Eurus provided with the numbers on the headstones. Probably that's supposed to mean that actually love (or the fact that Eurus was lost without Sherlock's love) was the one thing that Eurus missed and that Sherlock was to provide himself. So Sherlock's final problem was to give Eurus the emotional context she had always missed: Love.

I have no idea if what i just wrote makes any sense, it sounded much more logical in my head than spelled out . . .

**Posted by ewige** January 21, 2017 7:35 am

I love your explanation, Kae Em! Thank you!

**Posted by Schmiezi** January 21, 2017 7:37 am

So many great thoughts. Thank you all. :-)

At the moment I think that "How do you survive while allowing yourself to love?" is what TFP is about.

**Posted by Vhanja** January 21, 2017 7:38 am

I figured the final problem was for Sherlock to remember who Redbeard really was, and therefore also understand Eurus and where she came from.

So more or less the same as Kae wrote.

Interestingly enough, I don't think Sherlock would've been able to do that hadn't he come such a long way himself in his own emotional development.

**Posted by Schmiezi** January 21, 2017 7:42 am

Vhanja wrote:
I figured the final problem was for Sherlock to remember who Redbeard really was, and therefore also understand Eurus and where she came from.

So more or less the same as Kae wrote.

Interestingly enough, I don't think Sherlock would've been able to do that hadn't he come such a long way himself in his own emotional development.

Absolutely right! I don't see him saving John from drowning that way earlier in the show.

I wonder if Eurus was aware of it and has waited until now to play her game.

**Posted by Liberty** January 21, 2017 8:32 am

Oh, interesting point, Schmiezi! I wonder if that's why!

I was just thinking about something as well - that it was Eurus who brought Sherlock back at the end of HLV, wasn't it? She presumably had been keeping close tabs on him. But it means it was Eurus rather than Mycroft who saved Sherlock - unless Mycroft was kind of in on it, or knew it was Eurus - he may well have done, especially as he'd set her up with Moriarty.

**Posted by besleybean** January 21, 2017 8:46 am

If he did work it out, I think it was only later on...

**Posted by SolarSystem** January 21, 2017 9:34 am

Interesting ideas, but I wonder: Where does Moriarty come into all of this? Because let's not forget what he said to Sherlock on the roof in TRF: "Here we are at last - you and me, Sherlock, and our problem - the final problem." (Thanks to Ariane DeVere!)
So again, what does all of this have to do with Jim? In my opinion it can only be Eurus, because that is the only thing that really connects them. And if it's the answer, then for me it's a bit of a disappointment.

**Posted by besleybean** January 21, 2017 11:16 am

See I really love that Jim worked with Eurus.

**Posted by athameg** January 21, 2017 11:28 am

In canon it's simple: the final problem is dealing with Moriarty and his death. But here It's a bit more complicated. I think, ist is the problem, that Sherlock must find out what made him the way he is and to cope with that. And that's really a problem. It means, he must remember Euros and see the truth about her. And he must find out the truth about Redbeard, which is extreme psychical stress.

(I hope you get what I mean - I am not a native speaker, and the theme means some psychological stress for myself.)

**Posted by besleybean** January 21, 2017 11:29 am

I think you expressed it really well.
Mark and Steven are so much cleverer than ACD.

**Posted by SusiGo** January 21, 2017 11:42 am

Well said, athameg. Sherlock had to find out what made him like that. The only thing that does not work for me in this respect is this: In TAB he connected this question expressly with his impulses = his sexuality. This was in his own mind, he was searching himself. Now that he has solved this problem and found an answer, I would hope to see him in the "romantic entanglement" that would "complete him as a human being". But maybe there will be another series or episode giving us this answer as well.