To my mind, nearly EVERYTHING in this flat scene is over the top and a bit exaggerated, "gigantic, monstrous"! 
Like "threatening" Mrs. Hudson with a harpoon, "Call Lestrade - an escaped rabbit!", Sherlock's acting like mad and "showing off" when it isn't really necessary - poor Henry! -, all the blood, the TV presenter's sinister innuendos.

It's like a forerunner for things to come. Gatiss is preparing us - and Sherlock - for something very terrifying...

Last edited by tobeornot221b (February 21, 2012 5:40 am)

Also it is relevant that he has obviously had some sort of drug habit in the past. Evidence his action when the police do the drugs bust search of his flat in series 1 Study in Pink. John is leaping to his defence and saying that such a raid is ridiculous nonsense but it is quite clear from Sherlock's reaction that he does have a bit of a 'history" here. 'You might want to shut up now John!'

Although now 'clean' - his words- he has an addictive personality and his withdrawing from cigarette smoking is perhaps tainted and exacerbated by his experience withdrawing from the other drug(s).

This is a direct link to the original Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes who is also a drug addict, cocaine and a Nicotine addict, in his case smoking a pipe. He is equally over-the-top in his behaviour at such manic times.

Sherlock's behaviour whilst withdrawing from cigarette smoking is, perhaps, an exaggerated version of what many people are like when they give up smoking. But then he has an exaggerated personality. We also never see him smoke, apart from the one scene outside the morgue when Mycroft gives him a cigarette as a present. He could have been a 100 a day man in which case I guess he would be quite aggressive about it.

Yeah, I think you mentioned that on that other thread about drugs...it'll be interesting to see whether they develop it any further or whether some kind of problem in the past will just be alluded to but never revealed.

Like you said, it was quite common place for people to take opium and narcotics in the 1800s so wasn't as big a deal as people make out, but most people still remember that fact about Holmes so maybe Moftiss just stuck some scenes in as a little nod towards it but without going over the top.

I do quite like that addictive side of his personality though as it shows he's human and prone to weakness like the rest of us.

That's why they make such good arch enemies!

Hi, SussexieVampire, it's in "The Adventure of Black Peter".

In Stucy in Pink he has 3 nicotine patches on, a reference to a 3 pipe problem in the original canon.

Also during the police raid in Study in Pink, John is outraged by the drugs bust and starts to tell the police how riidiculous the idea is, at which point Sherlock tells him that he might want to drop that line and when John looks at him quizzically he tells him to shut up. He then says to Lestrwde that he is 'clean' to which Lestrade queries whether his flat is.

Sherlock then uses the fact that he no longer smokes &is wearing a nicotine patch as 'proof' that he is clean.

Finally the police would not be able to make a drugs bust/search without reasonable grounds for doing so, which would suggest a previous history.

It's all pretty subtle but it is all there in the background.

Yes that's interesting because Mycroft offers Sherlock the cigarette as a sort of test as to how weak his resolve is. Mycroft knows that Sherlock will be affected by Irene Adler's death and as a result will be more likely to want to smoke. Even though they have the discussion about whether there is something wrong with them both because they do not 'feel' like other people who 'care so much'. As Moriarty is aware Sherlock does have a heart, even though he wishes he didn't. After Sherlock accepts the cigarette Mycroft phones John to warn him that Sherlock will want to smoke another one, most likely, when he gets home.

What I like about the following scene is that John and Mrs. Hudson think they have been really careful not to disturb things whilst they are looking for a hidden stash of fags but as soon as Sherlock asks in he knows that things are not the same and mutters about hoping that they have not ruined the order of his sock drawer this time!

The thing about Sherlock's addiction is that the writers have to maintain what I guess I want to call a "balance" between Sherlock being an addict with an obviously very addictive personality, and cocaine/heroin addiction being a real social stigma these days. He's obviously already an outcast, but he goes from being an aloof asshole to being a junkie if he's on any controlled substance.

I think the tobacco is a perfect compromise because, usually, smoking cigarettes doesn't have the same stigma attached to it, even though people don't usually approve (same with opium in those days—bad, nasty habit but not illegal) Sherlock says as much in Pink.

The cigarettes thing is a good way of handling it although House dealt with the addiction side pretty bluntly- they wouldn't want to copy that though anyway.

Point of reference in the original ACD stories for addiction, apart from Sherlock Holmes's own penchant for cocaine would be the story of The Man With the Twisted Lip.

Told, as usual, from the viewpoint of Doctor Watson it is clear what Sir ACD thought of opium addiction and its effects. Sherlock Holmes also mentions that Doctor Watson has imparted his medical opinion upon the effects of his indulgences.

In the story Isa Whitney '...found, as so many more have done, that the practice (of smoking opium) is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point pupils, all huddled up in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble man....As the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of the metal pipes.' there is also a detailed description of the behaviour and attitudes of the addicts within the opium den.

A distraught wife enters Watson's  surgery asking him for help in finding her opium addicted husband and bringing him home to her. He has been missing for days.

When Watson finds the addicted man he is looking for the reaction is an upsetting one, '"I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday . What d'you want to frighten the chap for?" He sank his face o to his arms and began to sob in a high treble.' The man thinks it is Wenesday whereas it is actually Friday. Smoking the opium pipes has made him lose all track of time.

Clearly ACD is very aware of the effects of opium addiction both for the addicts and for their families. No doubt this is at least partly due to his own medical training. If his view reflects that of most late Victorians then addiction of this kind was clearly frowned upon, if it was not then perhaps he was using the stories as a means of educating people about the dangers of such addictions.