BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / IOU and it's potential meaning(s)

**Posted by Davina** April 4, 2012 11:53 pm

Irene, with reference to your questions about the pronunciation of 'you' and 'u' in English, they are both said in exactly the same way. The reason that Moriarty's pronunciation sounds a bit different to you may well be due to Andrew Scott's Irish accent. IOU is just a shorthand version of I owe you. People used to write IOU notes to give to people as an acknowledgment of a debt owed, which they intended to repay in the future. That's not to say that in the context of this programme that they could hold a different meaning.

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** April 5, 2012 12:07 am

If you guys don't mind some serious Chemistry reading check out http://www.ptable.com/ - you can click on each element and it gives you a load of information about it including what other elements bond with it, how toxic/reactive it is and so on. It's pretty late here now so I'm probably gonna give it a miss until tomorrow but will definitely look through then and see if I can make anything of it. I definitely like the idea though...especially considering the way Chemistry is so important to Sherlock...and it seems weird that the scene in the lab was never really concluded. We never got to find out anything more about what he was looking at...it's kind of a loose end. Or maybe a clue?

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** April 6, 2012 12:33 am

Watched TRF again tonight...

Jim definitely puts more emphasis on the word "owe", kind of like "I OWE you". We all know he owes Sherlock a fall, but why exactly? Is it because Sherlock stood in his way too many times?

Also, did a bit more research on the IOU possible chemical link but it doesn't look like Iodine, Oxygen and Uranium can really do much together...not an expert or anything though. Having said that, I still think there's something MORE to the IOU thing than just a phrase/expression that people say...it's repeated too many times for it not to have any significance. Just haven't observed enough yet.

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** April 30, 2012 11:50 pm

Also noticed that he says the IOU right after telling Sherlock that he should learn to like riddles...as if IOU is a riddle too perhaps..

**Posted by kazza474** May 1, 2012 2:34 am

I'm sure we're repeating things lately but never mind, lol.

IOU - Sherlock caused Moriarty to fall from grace by outwitting his criminal plans everytime (that we see); This fall from grace would be among the criminal circles. "Consulting criminal'? pfftt Sherlock beat him each time; why would the criminal world think Moriarty to be so great if he keeps getting 'Sherlocked'?
So Moriarty felt that he had to return the favour, where else but in the public eye where Sherlock had risen to be 'in favour'.

Say the letters yourself; it is natural that more emphasis is placed on the O, so I don't think that plays much of a part.

The repetition of the phrase shows a twisted mind in action. The letters don't have to mean anymore than they do. It's simply maniacal behaviour being shown in constantly repeating the phrase over and over again.
That is all the significance there is to it.
Simple but effective; like most things Sherlockian.

**Posted by Anthea** May 27, 2012 11:33 pm

Is it possible that Moriarty meant "IOU" not as a kind of retaliation, but that he felt he actually *owed* Sherlock?

Sherlock gave Moriarty a wonderful distraction, something he'd spent his whole life searching for. He didn't care about his criminal empire, the money, the power - all he wanted was a challenge, a game. He'd found a worthy adversary at last in Sherlock. Maybe he felt that he owed it to Sherlock, whom he took to be exactly like him, the same. He owed him one final game, one to top all others, that nothing would ever compare to again. They'd found their match in each other and, when all is said and done, he owed it to Sherlock to end the tedium of forever just "staaaaying alive".

As for Sherlock's mumbling "IOU" in the lab, I believe he was thinking more about what *he* owed than Moriarty's words at that point - punctuated by Molly's observation of him looking sad whenever John wasn't around to see. I believe he'd put together Moriarty's end game by that point and knew what was coming, what he'd have to do to keep the people he cared about, the people he "owed" for his humanity (aka the fact that he *wasn't* like Moriarty), safe.

**Posted by Davina** May 29, 2012 7:40 pm

I've been thinking about the whole Sherlock in the lab with Molly and John scene. Is it possible that Sherlock deliberately mutters IOU so Molly overhears and deliberately looks sad so that she notices. She says a bit later that it is because she doesn't count. Later still though, when he asks for her help, he corrects her and says that she is wrong and that she has always counted. In which case why allow her to see him looking sad? Could this be him preparing his ground in the event that he needs to ask for her help at a later date?

**Posted by sherlockskitty** May 30, 2012 1:46 am

m0r1arty wrote:
Hi Shenanigans - I'm not sure what you are asking with regards to chemistry assistance.

Iodine, oxygen and uranium cannot exist solely. There would need to be, at least, some hydrogen in there to balance it out.

I hope that was of some help, again I didn't quite grasp what you were asking.

-m0r

Hydrogen?

Ok I don't know if this is already here in this thread....but I O U can also stand for Input Output Unit. something to do with computers, tho I've got no idea as to WHAT. yet. oh, why can't they tell us NOW, and put me out of my misery?

Last edited by sherlockskitty (May 30, 2012 1:47 am)

**Posted by m0r1arty** May 30, 2012 2:52 am

Whilst I/O might be important I think if it is indeed a clue we're looking more at a chirality problem than a simple hardware one Kitty.

Don't forget that mathematics was Moriarty's first love and chemistry was Sherlock's.

-m0r

**Posted by Smoggy_London_Air** June 5, 2012 3:33 am

Really, there are two phrases that Moriarty keeps repeating, the "I O U" and "Fall". I consider them two separate components, really. I feel like the I O U might have a greater meaning behind it.

And while it was Steve Thompson that wrote the episode, I don't think that any Doctor Who fans can forget the line "He'll rise higher than ever before, and fall even further." I'm almost positive that this is not a coincidence. We don't want the two shows to get too intertwined. This line might even have been taken from Sherlock, because not only does he physically fall but he also falls emotionally and in the eyes of the public. We never see Sherlock cry before Reichenbach unless he's faking it.

So there are three "falls" here. The Reichenbach Fall; the waterfall. The Fall from Grace; they way that he is discredited. The Fall; his physical jump. Then we consider the I O U part, and the part where Moriarty comes into the flat.

Last edited by Smoggy_London_Air (June 5, 2012 3:33 am)

**Posted by kazza474** June 5, 2012 3:37 am

It had better be a coincidence.
I'm watching Sherlock, not Dr Who!
lol

**Posted by Tantalus** June 5, 2012 11:40 am

Stands. Clears throat. Speaks.

"I'm Tantalus, and I'm a Sherlock fan who has never seen Dr. Who."

Takes seat. Receives affirming nods from others in group.

**Posted by Davina** June 5, 2012 12:47 pm

Regarding not seeing Sherlock cry before TRF he does start to well-up and go all wobbly voiced when he meets the wife of the man who disappeared leaving a blood soaked car in The Great game and we know this was completely fake emotion, he didn't even know the man, which he turned on ' like a tap' to test the reaction he would get.

**Posted by Molly Hooper** June 5, 2012 3:03 pm

Tantalus wrote:
Stands. Clears throat. Speaks.

"I'm Tantalus, and I'm a Sherlock fan who has never seen Dr. Who."

Takes seat. Receives affirming nods from others in group.

*Wipes tear from eye*
"Beautiful, Tantalus. Utterly beautiful!"

From a Sherlock fan who should've seen Dr. Who but has't got 'round to it yet!

**Posted by tobeornot221b** June 5, 2012 8:40 pm

Here's my today's IOU observation.

We all know the third IOU appearing opposite 221B (after the apple and the IOU in the windows opposite Scotland Yard).
That graffito may represent the wings of a thieving magpie or even the wings of an angel:

Something I haven't noticed before is that there's the statue of an angel opposite Sherlock's grave:

Just when John delivers his "I owe you so much." the angel appears between him and the tomb stone:

For me, that means that John doesn't use the IOU in the sense Moriarty does. John ows Sherlock a debt of gratitude, Moriarty seems to mean a debt in the sense of revenge.

**Posted by Molly Hooper** June 5, 2012 8:43 pm

Oh, Deep...

**Posted by Irene Adler** June 5, 2012 9:34 pm

Good point, tobe. I think you're quite right in the distinction of the two "owes".

I must say, a bit off-topic, that I noticed that angel some time ago and I only could think of the weeping angels in Blink... but that's a whovian story, nothing to do with this

**Posted by Smoggy_London_Air** June 6, 2012 12:00 am

kazza474 wrote:
It had better be a coincidence.
I'm watching Sherlock, not Dr Who!
lol

I was a little bit disappointed when I watched that Doctor Who episode. Falls from grace occur very often in good television and books, but...
I do like Sherlock more than I like Doctor Who. They're both great shows, but Sherlock is much more literary and a lot more complicated. I'm watching Reichenbach again as I write this (bad multitasking!)

I'm thinking about the Agatha Christie mystery And Then There Were None, and I'm thinking about the hypnotic atmosphere that is used to draw the last victim to suicide. In a way, I think that IOU might be similar. Drive Sherlock to the edge of insanity before you deal the final blow in the form of his dying friends.

Then there's the phone call that John receives. I'm wondering if it was engineered by Sherlock in the first place, or if it was something Jim did that Sherlock saw through. I tend towards the former. Moriarty didn't care about luring John away because Sherlock had chosen the place of the confrontation. I'm wondering now whether Moriarty tried to entice Sherlock to pick the roof through the same sort of subconscious suggestion.

Last edited by Smoggy_London_Air (June 6, 2012 1:30 am)

**Posted by m0r1arty** June 6, 2012 3:18 am

Smoggy_London_Air wrote:
They're both great shows, but Sherlock is much more literary and a lot more complicated.

-m0r

**Posted by Molly Hooper** June 6, 2012 4:20 pm

Is that Father Ted?!