#empmeta

[smoljohnlock]

Stay 2005 & Sherlock

First of all, huge thanks to @221bloodnun for finding this film (x, x). I’ve seen a few short posts/metas about this film before but didn’t want to spoil it for myself so I haven’t read any, so sorry if it was talked about 9348394 times.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(If you haven’t seen it, there’ll be spoilers, you’ve been warned)

The summary is: 

Sam Foster, a psychiatrist, has a new patient, Henry Letham, who claims to be suicidal. In trying to diagnose him, Sam visits Henry's prior therapist and also finds Henry's mother - even though Henry has said that he murdered both of his parents. As reality starts to contradict fact, Sam spirals into an unstable mental state. Then he finds a clue as to how and when Henry may try to kill himself, and races to try to stop him.

Doesn’t really tell us anything. So the most important things:

Basically, Henry had a car accident and is fighting for his life in his head. You don’t realise (generally speaking) what you’re watching isn’t real, till the very end (just like Sherlock but we’re still waiting for him to wake up).

He imagines himself as three people ("my husband is 3 people", hello):

Henry - himself, an art student. Is going to commit suicide.

Sam Foster - a psychiatrist who’s trying to help him

Lila - an art teacher, who survived a suicide attempt. Aka his future self, if he lives. You could call her... yep, you guessed it - Faith.

More under the cut 

1. PARALLELS

^ Those are their memories on both screens

^Those scenes are very similar, the music, editing, it’s all very alike.

Also note the moment in T6T when Sherlock’s clutching his side in pain while talking about Ajay. They took so much inspiration from this film I think it’s safe to assume Sherlock’s injuries in his dream are real, to some degree.

PREDICTING THE FUTURE

REAL VOICES IN THE DREAM

(^this one is reality but putting it here to show the parallel)

There’s more. There’s loads more, you could probably find something for every scene. What also caught my attention, was the editing - same as in T6T. The episode is built the same way as the film, as well.

It’s interesting how Henry’s dream mirrored reality - he subconsciously knew he killed his parents, used known to him faces (people who gathered around him on the road) like the girl from ASIB & TFP, boy from TSOT & TAB, etc. as characters, 

Feel free to reblog with additions \o/

[smoljohnlock]

It helps me if I see myself through his eyes sometimes: PART ONE: THE BLOG

This is not a meta where I’ll be theorizing or analysing some deep buried subtext, or what Sherlock is trying to solve exactly, my point is so bring to the surface some themes that explicitly tell us that season four takes place in Sherlock’s mind, because without it, it’s impossible to solve the previous problems. Let’s say his trance/dream/EMP/whatever starts in TAB, not because I think so but because the previous seasons are irrelevant here, this is tightly focused on TAB+S4.

Okay, let’s get started. I’m going to reference TAB a lot  because it gives us all the answers. (In the next parts though, instead doing a huge meta I decided to break it into a few parts).

This here is the key to understanding why S4 is the way it is. Keep it in mind at all times when thinking about season four, as it’s just a continuation of TAB.

Sherlock Holmes 28 March 13:08 : Also, please note that sentences can also end in full stops. The exclamation mark can be overused.

Sherlock Holmes 7 November:  I see you haven't spent the last two years working on your writing technique.

Boop! And they were fine. Here’s the answer to all the Bond/horror movie vibes and even the unfired Chekov’s gun - in Sherlock’s opinion, John is a lousy writer (although I’m sure he just teases most of the time).

More examples of John’s blog coming to life:

The Great Game:  This morning, for example, he asked me who the Prime Minister was. Lestrade described Sherlock as a child and, in many ways, that’s what he is. = The Six Thatchers

The Great Game:  As is my sudden use of phrases like “regular readers of my blog”. It seems I’m starting to enjoy writing up my life. It helps, though, when I discover that half of Scotland Yard are reading it. = Lestrade in The Six Thatchers

The Great Game: He was an assassin known as the Golem. He killed people by squeezing the air out of their body with his bare hands!  The Golem was there and it killed her. Then, it attacked Sherlock. I don’t think I’ve actually seen him scared before. Me, I was bricking it! I’d seen horror in Afghanistan. But this man was barely human. He really was a monster! = The Lying Detective (Golem = Culverton, the hospital scene. Sherlock’s line ‘This monster must be ended’)

The Blind Banker: It was all very James Bond. = The Final Problem

Tilly Briggs Cruise of Terror: I've had to take this post down for a while as the ship's owners are launching an appeal. = The Final Problem

The Geek Interpreter:  Three young men came to Baker St claiming that events in recent issues of a comic had started happening in real life.

The Geek Interpreter:  They'd been using Chris as a form of advertising. = The Lying Detective

The Aluminium Crutch: The play itself was mediocre but there was a murder! Live on stage! = The Lying Detective, Culverton

The Six Thatchers: We went to visit the people who’d been burgled and it turns out that they’d all bought one of the Thatcher figures. Nothing else had been taken during the break-ins which, again, was what Sherlock had expected to hear. We found the addresses of the people who owned the remaining two figures and contacted them. That night, I took one address and Sherlock the other.

I sat there, in the dark and waited. Then, hearing the sound of a window breaking, I hid. I watched as Beppo broke in and found the figure on the mantlepiece. I followed him outside and called Sherlock who joined me. We followed him to a bridge and watched as he smashed the figure to the ground. Something was inside it which he picked up, ready to throw in the river. Before he could, we stopped him and found that he was holding a penknife with his initials on it.

Knowing that it was all over, he confessed immediately. He and Pietro had had an argument and, in a struggle, Beppo had stabbed him. He’d seen the figures were about to go into the oven and had pushed the knife into the clay. He’d then smashed a window to make it look like there’d been a break-in. = The Six Thatchers and the greenhouse scene in The Abominable Bride

The Hounds of Baskerville: Doctor Louise Mortimer, had suggested he revisit the location of the attack in order to put old ghosts to rest [...]  And so, Sherlock took the case and off we went into deepest, darkest Devon = The Final Problem

The Hounds of Baskerville:  There was one thing that had bothered Sherlock from the start and that was Henry's use of the word 'hound'. It was an odd word, old-fashioned. He wondered whether it was another piece of his memory trying to break through and whether it was actually an acronym he'd seen. = The Lying Detective, Faith’s one word name

The Hounds of Baskerville: I've ever seen him do - he made Henry look at the dog's body. He didn't need to, he'd solved the case but it was as if he knew that the truly important thing was showing Henry what was real and what wasn't. = The Final Problem, Sherlock comforting Eurus/open your eyes, you’re not lost anymore

The Hounds of Baskerville:  His mind just couldn't cope with all the conflicting information - what he remembered, what he thought he remembered, everything. = Sherlock’s flashbacks in S4

The Inexplicable Matchbox: I'm afraid I can't say anything else about the case other than it was probably the maddest adventure we ever had. I mean, Sherlock had to dress up as a clown! Mrs Hudson was pushed out of a helicopter! And me? Well, I had to do something I never thought I'd ever do. = The Final Problem and The Lying Detective (Mrs Hudson, the car scene)

Many Happy Returns:  But then there was this DVD. It was a video of Sherlock recording a message for my birthday dinner. = Mary’s DVDs

The Empty Hearse:  And all I could hear were children! Singing and laughing like they were in a horror movie. = The Final Problem, ‘Eurus’ and Mycroft

The Empty Hearse:  It was probably Sherlock himself. Set it all up just so he could save my life so I'd forgive him about what he did. = The Lying Detective, but John saving Sherlock

Happily Ever After: That night, the three of us (Mary insisted on coming along) broke into Chris's office searching for signs of an affair. = Mary joining them in The Six Thatchers

The Bloody Guardsman: He'd nicked a hat, disguised himself as a guard and entered the building. = The Final Problem, Sherlock entering Sherrinford

The Hollow Client:  We’d been drugged on the way in and taken to an exact replica of 221B Baker Street where a camera was projecting the suit into the chair. = all the projectors and drugs in S4, 221B is different, as well.

The Hollow Client: Jack was dressed up in the same fabric as the chair... = The Six Thatchers, car seat case

The Hollow Client:  I think he [Sherlock] preferred the idea of it being some elaborate plot involving ninjas and a complex set of mirrors. = TAB+S4

The Mayfly Man:  We'd just returned from a quiet, civilised evening in the pub when our latest client arrived at Baker Street. She was a nurse. And, apparently, she'd been out for dinner. With a ghost. [...]  Sherlock went onto the website and found a number of other women he believed had met the same man.  = The Lying Detective, Sherlock and Eurus as Faith

The Mayfly Man:  They'd swapped numbers but, when he hadn't got in touch, she'd gone to his flat to see if he was okay. And it turns out, he wasn't. Because according to his landlord, the guy who'd been in the flat had died over a week before. = The Six Thatchers, kid in the car dead for a week

The Mayfly Man: He'd found single recently-deceased men who had lived alone - and he'd taken the women back to their homes. = The Lying Detective, Eurus as John’s therapist

The Mayfly Man: Sherlock Holmes can really miss the bloody obvious. I pointed out that it was just a tiny bit possible that possibly there was a man out there who just, possibly, maybe wanted a few one-night stands. = John texting Eurus