#literally everyone in tld except for sherlock is a john mirror. maybe even sherlock is a john mirror as well. who the fuck knows

[buckingham-ashtray]

It's what people do, don't they? Leave a note?

—— SHERLOCK, The Reichenbach Fall

All screencaps taken from here.

[axiang-n-chengling-s-dads]

Why is S4 Fucky

I know we've probably waxed poetic about this, but I needed to clear it all so that I can work in the theories.

Also @delorb thought that Johnlockers only disliked s4 because of no canon Johnlock, so to them and all the others who think so, here's why s4 was fucky.

TST

1. Sherlock says to John and Mary that he knows exactly what he's going to do, but says doesn't really know about it to the govt officials.

2. Sherlock's behaviour towards Mary is weird at best, showing WAY too much affection for someone who literally tried to kill him.

3. And he's suddenly trading John for Mary on a case? I mean the three eventually go together on it, but he says that she's better than him, when last episode he was literally praising John (pretty damn smart) in his MP.

4. John is writing his blog but it's actually a .jpg file??? Like did literally no one on the editiing team notice just HOW noticeable that was?

5. Sherlock forgets whether the victim was a girl or a boy (your daughter... Sorry- son.) Smartest guy around indeed.

6. Mary jumps in front of the bullet, so since SHE has he time to do so, Sherlock would have had the time to jump away, and yet the greatest consulting detective of all time couldn't figure that out? Also, Moftiss broke their OWN rules that they'd made, making Mary's death too dramatized ( a bit spurt of blood and you do flying backwards)?? Why?

7. John is somehow blaming Sherlock completely for it, and giving him a note via Molly that we don't ever get to read. Mary in his head and a goddamn angel all of a sudden?

8. Also, John Watson, literally known for his loyalty, apparently cheats on his wife? (Though we're still expected to root for their marriage and believe it was a happy one?)

TLD

8. Mary sends a 'Miss me?' Note (What IS that all about? Constantly comparing her to Moriarty if they don't want us to make that connection?)

9. Sherlock is high As a kite, about to OD, and John cant be FUCKING BOTHERED TO EVEN CHECK UP ON HIM? Ruining a character arc much?

10. Also, Eurus dressing up like John for Sherlock and Sherlock for John (all dark haired, mysterious, and doesn't do this with OTHER people but she'll make an exception for John?) To LURE them. Ok. Ok.

11. "Is cup of tea code?" Like why do they fuck us up like that?

12. Culverton Smith is literally dressed up like John?

13. John is beating the SHIT OUT OF SHERLOCK? John Watson who once punched an officer who called Sherlock a freak? Hitting Sherlock until he has to be admitted to the hospital?

14. John doesn't even THINK of saving Sherlock unless Mary tells him thorough a CD? HOW did the two survive before she told them how to breathe?

15. The whole the Hug™ scene just... God. And Irene still making John jealous? This isn't really a point but that scene made me teary...

16. Eurus shooting John with a gun that was definitely NOT a tranquilizer, and then we have NO EXPLANATION of what happened next? Are we supposed to forget it ever happened? Please tell me.

TFP

15. Please don't even get me started on this one. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

16. Again we start with this weird horror house thing and we have no explanation to how things progressed till here?

17. Mycroft talking about the whole Secret Sibling Story™ like Henry Knight in THoB except Sherlock DELETED an entire person from their life who lived with him for years and not just one tiny scene of his life.

18. Eurus being able to get out of Sherrinford but still going back in????? WHAT? WHY?

19. There is a motion sensing bomb. Which grey escape alive. By jumping out of the fucking window. Ok. Fuck pHysics. I get it.

20. Sherrinford is shaped like a heart... Seriously look.

21. They write an entire message on the sand in big ass letters and the most secure place ever doesn't notice?

22. Sherlock not realizing there's NOT a glass in front of him when he's literally two cms away from it? The audience I understand, because of their cinematography (brilliantly done, btw, but lacking logic. Also if we've come to that point. EURUS' THREE DISGUISES WERE MIND BLOWING i didn't have a single fucking idea they were the same person)

23. Sherlock not listening to John when he says Vatican Cameos? Thank you Moftiss for properly destroying their friendship arc.

24. Also those torture rooms were more of a torture for John that Sherlock? Anyways.

25. Eurus connects them on the phone with a little girl, but the girl was actually in her head. So who were they talking to???? Can Eurus also change her voice to a tiny girls? Ok.

26. Apparently Eurus and Moriarty planned all of this in five minutes? In which they just basically creepily mirrored each other's actions and eye-fucked? And Moriarty made all these recordings before his death? Like he knew all of this was going to happen, and her Eurus only did all of this years after his death? Why the delay?

27. (Also NONE of the Johnlock fans wanted the ILY scene to have been with John instead of Molly, and here's why: )

28. The whole shoot either John or Mycroft was really painful, but anyways. Now they're apparently transported to Sherlock's Childhood home and Eurus is able to have people make fake walls all around? Wow that's pretty resourceful.

29. Also the place has a fake dog bowl labelled 'Redbeard' so either Victor Trevor ate out of a dog bowl or Eurus knew Sherlock hasn't figured it out. But that can't be possible, because when Sherlock entered she was amused that he still didn't know ('oh, you still don't know about Redbeard do you?.)

30. John is in a well, and is chained to the said well, though later in the episode he climbs out of it with a rope, because the chain fucking dissolved in the water?

31. Also, John in Sherlock's head could break every bone of a persons body while naming them, but this real John can't tell if he's looking at HUMAN OR ANIMAL bones? Did Moftiss have a personal vendetta against John to destroy him so completely?

32. Also when John is about to die in the well, Sherlock's only response is 'Try not to drown?' The same Sherlock, who,in TEH, stole an motorcycle, rode all the way to a bonfire, jumped into the fucking fire to save John, all bbecause of a text. Wow. Are the same people writing the show anymore?

33. Also a point worth noting. Mycroft sends Sherlock to Eurus, who knows the truth about redbeard, and who could catch him unaware by the fact that he's actually a HUMAN and not a dog, without telling him the truth. Or did Mycroft also repress his memory and turn him into a dog?

34. We save the little girl (with whom we'd been talking on the phone) in eurus head, and eurus too, who wanted to kill Sherlock, but that's cool, everyone near him is trying to do that these days.

35. Sherlock and Eurus are now best mates (and hopefully she wont try to kill him again, but that's okay) and her family visits her, baker street is okay really, like what bomb ever exploded? Just the mirrors broken a and the wallpaper needs replacing that's it.

36. Also, Mary the Dictator is back at it again, telling John and Sherlock how to live, along witH little messages like (I know what you two could be if I'm not there) and life at baker street is back to normal. (Also John never really apologised to Sherlock for beating him to death, but then again, everyone tries to do him in these days.)

37. Also no one talks about the trauma, or literally anything that happened?

38. Also everyone was wearing blue and EVERYTHING was blue until the last few scenes?

Of course this may be just bad writing, but I find it hard to believe that. Maybe there's another reason?

Please feel free to add, or discuss.

[nightingveilxo]

EMP/Unreliable Narrator/Alibi/Editing All Give Sherlock His Audience

First off, you haven’t read meta Sherlock S4 as Epic Theatre, I strongly recommend it.

M: You’ve met him. How many ‘friends’ do you imagine he has? I am the closest thing to a friend that Sherlock Holmes is capable of having. John: And what’s that? M: An enemy. John: An enemy? M: In his mind, certainly. If you were to ask him, he’d probably say his arch-enemy. He does love to be dramatic. John: Well, thank God you’re above all that.

ASiP - Unlike in canon, John begins blogging in order to tell about his life, not to see that Sherlock receives credit for his work. The Detective Inspectors rotate out, rather than being limited to Lestrade and Dimmock. The press receives Wrong! texts that make them an audience. Lestrade and crew are the audience for the drugs bust, and then the moment of realization. His big fan though, is explained as Moriarty. Lestrade’s crew take photos. John thinks Sherlock is amazing, despite “This morning, for example, he asked me who the Prime Minister was.” By T6T, this isn’t amusing anymore, and John tells Sherlock he knows the answer already. Mycroft monitors Sherlock via CCTV, and communicates with John. Film noir and horror references to The Third Man and Nosferatu begin.

TBB - Seb’s staff becomes the audience, and then John, Sarah, and Soo Lin. There’s even an acting troupe. Moriarty is still a big fan.

TGG - Sherlock meets his fan, Moriarty. John and snipers are the audience to their little drama.

ASiB - Sherlock’s audience is with The Queen. It’s actually with his brother, the representative from Buckingham Palace, and Irene, but he finds out Moriarty is still taking an active interest in him. He comes in costume to meet Irene. Lestrade takes video of the outcome, and John takes care of Sherlock.

THoB - Henry, Louise, Dr. Stapleton, and John all become a captive audience. Henry through fear, and being targeted. Louise through John, and then at gunpoint, Stapleton because she has to prove she’s innocent, and John through Sherlock directly. In John’s case though, it backfires, because Sherlock not only says he doesn’t have friends, but John is left to wonder how far Sherlock will go to prove he’s clever. The TARDIS is in a background shot.

TRF - John warns Sherlock they have to be more careful, which will take away Sherlock’s audience. The press is again Sherlock’s audience, but they’re turning against him. Kitty Riley (who later becomes a prototype for Mary-see links below) assists “Richard Brook” with her journalism. Moriarty is the “good old fashioned” villain. John and the snipers are the audience when Sherlock jumps, but Sherlock also has actors, crew, and props that help him. Sherlock no longer has John as his audience, and this is going to result in a lot more film/tv/lit references–things will built-in audiences.

MHR - John receives the box of items from Lestrade, including the DVD that is the Sherlock version of the DW episode “Blink”, where they literally use a script to “communicate”. This mini episode marks where the DW/Torchwood and Rathbone/Bruce overlaps (the LMS train engine) really escalate. Sherlock, although not present, still has John as his audience. Sherlock talking about John’s friends not liking him will come up in TEH, talking about Mary and the wedding guests.

TEH - Restaurants full of people, John, and Mary are Sherlock’s audience, and he even comes in costume. Sherlock’s fan club finds out he’s alive, but a scenario involved Moriarty being put in colored contacts and a face mask to pass as Sherlock, as if his build and height wouldn’t give him away as someone else. Anderson does video of Sherlock’s explanation. The TARDIS is on the wall. Mary is Rathbone/Bruce The Woman in Green and takes over the traits of previous season villains. Sherlock has an audience as he rescues John, his Damsel in Distress, but John is more important. Still, Magnussen has footage in his MP.

TSoT - The Best Man Speech gives Sherlock the wedding guests and Sholto as captive audiences, John calls Sherlock a drama queen, and the villain is the photographer. Stag Night through TFP will mimic the ending of Casablanca.

HLV - Sherlock hasn’t seen John, and has no audience, as he’s in a drug den. We’re introduced properly to Magnussen, the power of MP, and pressure points. There is a camera when Sherlock goes to propose to Janine. Mary kills Sherlock, and his audience is all in his MP, except for Mary and Magnussen. We know from a script segment that Magnussen called the paramedics, and Sherlock’s heart monitor goes backwards. Mary is shown to be a facade through her projection on the buildings. John is furious, but supposedly still decides to be with her, so Sherlock shoots Magnussen for them both. That eliminates Sherlock’s favorite audience, because he is sent away. *Why did Mycroft and crew even film Sherlock shooting Magnussen?

HLV Deleted Scene - Magnussen hides evidence about Mary’s identity and her shooting Sherlock from the police, but offers it to Sherlock. Lestrade wants video, but he and John discover Sherlock has escaped. *Explanation…Eurus.

Alternatively…

TAB - Everyone in the episode is an actor and audience member. It’s set up like a play, and Sherlock says, “The stage is set, the curtain rises, we are ready to begin.” Shotgun wedding mimics TSoT, and romantic entanglement first appears, as well as Watson needing Patience (as opposed to Hope or Faith). John is once more the primary audience, because this is Sherlock’s gay fever dream. Sherlock reads John’s blog from when this was the case, before. Mary is dressed her in Miss Evangelista (DW Silence in the Library ghost/intro to River Song, who later shoots the hero), the brides and Moriarty are all in costume. "Suicide street theatre, murder by corpse – Lestrade you're spoiling us"

Clue: The Movie, where everyone is running around lying about their identities, wearing costumes, there’s a secret messenger, odd phones calls, weapons, a government agent (who might be homosexual, and definitely works for Hoover, who was a “crossdresser” like Uncle Rudy), and a lot of editing/Alternate endings.

 Sherlock Season 4 It’s Not A Game Anymore - That’s Because It’s A Play

T6T - MI6- Same primary audience as HLV, though Lady Smallwood’s name is edited. Aquarium- Same primary audience as in TAB–John, Mary, Mycroft, and Lestrade. Lestrade is fixated on receiving credit, but can’t due to John’s blog. We suddenly have more DIs, which goes with ACD canon. Shark tank mimics Magnussen’s office from HLV, and integrates in another film noir. Mary, the facade is killed by Norbury, which goes back to MHR. Rosie, the Sherlock mirror established by John and Lestrade, is only Sherlock’s audience when Mary isn’t around or conscious. Objects and people disappearing, then reappearing. Technology not working the way it should. These “issues” will continue throughout S4, because someone is remembering/forgetting and/or editing. Sherlock’s reoccurring nightmare is Granada’s Eligible Bachelor & Musgrave Ritual, with his only audience being Ella.

TLD - Sherlock running around quoting the play ‘Henry V’ by Shakespeare. Mycroft doesn’t see all footage when speaking to Lady Smallwood, because it is held back by other people in the room. The blog has gone downhill, and John isn’t receiving credit anymore, so Sherlock is receiving his audience back in a time when John has supposedly written him off (What did the note say? Isn’t that what people do…leave a note?) Faith/Eurus leaves a note of her own. Sherlock has a captive audience in hospital. John is also living Billy Wilder’s (yes, of TPLoSH fame), The Lost Weekend. Most of the ending takes place in someone’s mind, John’s confession isn’t recorded, and Culverton says he doesn’t know what happened–but he owes John (so a mirror owes his life to himself). Mary is still around, handling objects, and it turns out the hat, cane, and umbrella may be recording devices. Voice bleed-throughs abound, and this will happen in TFP, too. Romantic entanglement returns from where it was first discussed in TAB, and the subject of Irene (sex with women), is put to rest. A time gap, and obligatory Epiphany cake, occur after the hug–suggesting Sherlock and John spent the night together. Sherlock has back his most precious audience–John. This continues through TFP.

TFP - Mycroft watching home movies looks like Magnussen watching films in his own MP, and the macabre events staged by Sherlock and John mimic various horror films, as well as Granada’s The Devil’s Foot hallucination. Suddenly, Magnussen is back in the music, and the voice overs continue. The Patience grenade appears, igniting what happened in the greenhouse during TAB. Discussion of Mycroft as Lady Bracknell in production of Wilde’s 'The Importance of Being Earnest’. Further pressure points become an issue, and include integration of Rathbone/Bruce Voice of Terror. COSTUMES!! Eurus is being filmed all the time on CAM, and the numbers are in the same sequence as the cameras used in the train portion of TEH. MRI scans are visible. Moriarty is in pre-recorded footage, and Eurus monitors things the way Mycroft usually does. Mycroft is locked away, and later chastised for what he did regarding Eurus. **John, Daddy Holmes (John’s mirror), and Eurus (Sherlock mirror) are all Sherlock’s primary audience. Sherlock turns his attention to saving John, instead of his own brother. Rosie shows up in 221B at the end, along with Mrs. Hudson, Molly, and Lestrade. Mycroft is still in Sherrinford, maybe as a Mofftiss mirror incapable of seeing John as anything else besides Sherlock’s blogger or friend, despite Sherlock saying John is family.

Other supporting meta and tags are under the cut…

@holmesianscholar @monikakrasnorada @may-shepard @antisocial-otaku @devoursjohnlock @sarahthecoat @mrskolesouniverse @swimmingfeelsinajohnlockianpool @ebaeschnbliah @posh-boy-clever-boy @sherlockshite @gosherlocked @inevitably-johnlocked @simpleanddestructivechemistry @darlingtonsubstitution @jenna221b @sherlockshadow @kateis-cakeis @tjlcisthenewsexy @queerdraco @green-violin-bow @sherlockians-get-bored @princesse-des-lucioles

EMP/Unreliable Narrator/Editing

Justifying Holmes/Watson or Johnlock as a Player in the Drama (Part I)

MHR and Dr. Who “Blink” ( x )   and The MHR Box of Goodies ( x )

Can I Be Of Assistance? BBC Sherlock and The Secret of Sherlock Holmes (The Granada Play)

Sherlock Loving His Touch of the Dramatic

Anyone in Sherlock and How John in TGG Started It Off

Magnussen & Mycroft & Mary (Magnussen’s MP looks like Mycroft’s theatre)

Nothing to Edit or How Lestrade Helps the Editing Process

**A Happy Ending (Mycroft has been an idiot)

Why Was Magnussen Being Shot Filmed?

Sherlock With The Hat From Hell (hat recording)

It Is Possible For the Victim To Do It If They’re Lying (umbrella and cane recording)

A Composite of Villains (Assumes many Mary/Moriarty connections)

Mary is KITTY Riley

Mary is Also Molly (Or how Molly is used)

Why Irene Adler is in TLD & Just Another Source for Mary (Inc info on the morgue scene as memory of Sherlock being beaten.)

Mary is Also Ian from Janus Cars

Kitty is Magnussen while Moriarty is Richard Brook

Ajay as Memories of Torture, Snipers, Bombs, and Moriarty’s NATO Code

Other Related Meta

Mrs. Hudson is Sherlock’s Audience and Transport in T6T & TLD

Sherlock and John Became a Couple in TLD Part I

TFP Not the Real Molly

Lit, Film, and TV References Master Post

MHR and Dr. Who “Blink” ( x )

[mara-the-cactupus]

Eurus and the Mayfly Man

I’ve been seeing some interesting meta/gifsets floating around, connecting Tessa’s story about her encounter with the Mayfly Man to ASIP, and also connecting Faith’s night with Sherlock to ASIP, so I thought I’d go ahead and look at the connections between the Mayfly Man and Eurus, based on Tessa’s story.

The big takeaway: ghosts.

So, inspired by a couple of posts that drew connections between the Mayfly Man and Eurus, I thought I’d have a look at Tessa’s dialogue in TSOT, especially since it’s already been linked back to Sherlock and John’s meeting in ASIP, which is also echoed directly in Faith’s visit in TLD:

“I don’t... a lot... I mean, I don’t... date all that much... and he seemed nice, you know? We seemed to automatically connect. We had one night – dinner, such interesting conversation. It was... lovely. To be honest, I’d love to have gone further... but I thought, ‘no, this is special. Let’s take it slowly, exchange numbers.’ He said he’d get in touch and then... maybe he wasn’t quite as keen as I was... but I – I just thought... at least he’d call to say that we were finished. I went round there, to his flat. No trace of him. Mr. Holmes... I honestly think I had dinner... with a ghost. [...] I checked with the landlord, and the man who lived there died. Heart attack. And there we are, having dinner one week on. And I found this thing online, sort of a chatroom thing, for girls who think they’re dating men from the spirit world.”

(Bonus: Sherlock replies, “Don’t worry. I’ll find him in ten minutes – what’s your dog’s name?” It reminds me of TAB: all this talk about ghosts, and then Sherlock says “Redbeard?” ...and of course, John is compared to a dog, and also to Victor/Redbeard in TFP)

Okay, so, I’m just gonna list the things that jump out at me:

Yeah, Sherlock doesn’t date all that much. That piece of dialogue seems to be about him.

“Nice” reminded me of E’s comment: “Well, I think they’re nice. Nice eyes.” Which is then followed by: “Look, look... I don’t normally do this, but...” and then she hands John her number. So that first sentence of dialogue is also sort of echoed in E. (Although John does get in touch, and then does call it off – if you think that it’s her he was texting.)

One night, dinner... this definitely reminds me of Sherlock’s nighttime walk with Faith: “I spent a whole evening with her. We had chips. I think she liked me.” That last part is so smol and heartbreaking interesting in the context of Tessa’s story, since the “instant connection” is key. Sherlock doesn’t usually show that he cares about his clients, but he obviously likes Faith, and they did have lovely conversation. The idea that it was all fake makes him distraught, just as it made Tessa distraught (although admittedly for different reasons; he thinks it means he’s losing his grip on reality, or that it was an imposter.)

“Such interesting conversation” could refer to therapy, maybe.

The “I went to his flat” bit reminds me of Sherlock at the end of TST, when Sherlock went to John’s house but wasn’t able to see John.

Ghosts... there’s obviously the TAB connection, but I’m gonna follow my intuition out on a limb here:

The “ghost” of TAB was Emelia, as well as the other brides she inspired; the other main bride was Mary, and the whole fake death/revenge on husband parallel has been made. So if Mary = Emelia and Emelia = ghost, maybe Mary = ghost too. (*read this meta, which links Emelia to Eurus*)

In TLD, Mary is literally a ghost. John knows he’s imagining her, and everyone knows that she’s dead.

I’m partial to the Eurus = Mary idea, which could play in here: Mary has been shown adopting a number of different disguises in TST, and combined with the memory drug and general weirdness of S4, there’s a chance that she could actually be all of the Eurus characters too. So, the meetings with Faith, the therapist, and Eurus could be considered “posthumous.”

In the scene where he meets the real Faith, Sherlock has flashbacks of Wiggins and Mrs. Hudson implying that Sherlock had imagined Faith completely. So, Faith = ghost.

Eurus tells John that she killed the real therapist. *Direct link to Mayfly Man* So, the meeting with the therapist is posthumous in the exact same way that Tessa’s date with the Mayfly Man was. Therapist = ghost, by the established rules of the show.

And finally, in TFP, Mycroft explains that Eurus did not actually die in the fire, even though she was assumed to be dead. So Eurus = ghost.

"We all have a past, Watson. Ghosts – they are the shadows that define our every sunny day.” This line from TAB is interesting in the context of what Mycroft says in TFP: “Every choice you ever made; every path you’ve ever taken – the man you are today ... is your memory of Eurus.” (It’s funny when you also remember that Sherlock said “I made me” in TAB; further proof that he invented Eurus, and that TFP is all in his head.)

...so basically, all the Eurus characters are ghosts except for E, and Mary is also a ghost, and this all ties back to the Mayfly Man, who was the original ghost on the show.

(Bonus):

Also, I don’t know if this was intentional, but there’s this connection:

Initially I thought it might just be to echo Mary, the other blonde with a red outfit, but Mary’s outfit is a bit different; only her coat is red, and she’s got a scarf, whereas these two are red from head to toe. Maybe it’s just to distinguish them as John mirrors, since red is one of John’s colors, and signifies emotion.

(Also, I wrote this kind of late at night, and it spiraled off into an examination of the other women who dated the Mayfly Man, and an attempt to draw parallels to Eurus’s characters. It got kind of messy, but if you want you can read it here. If someone feels up to doing some better analysis, please tag me.)

[just-sort-of-happened]

The Final Problem: Fear of The Devil, Your Feelings

Yesterday I was saying that maybe this episode is like a horror version of Sherlock in that it’s meant to be a nightmare for fans, it’s the anti-episode, it’s everything it shouldn’t be and we’re supposed to notice.  Today @marta-bee was talking about Uncle Rudy possibly being a reference to an anti-portrait.

This whole series has made a steady stream of references to the devil.  Notably in TST John and Mary discuss twice and through a mirror the difference between the devil and its spawn.  They also discuss movies The Omen and The Exorcist.

Anyway, there’s a funny little moment when John, Sherlock and Mycroft are discussing what to do about their uhm bomb problem when we cut to Mrs Hudson, vacuuming to, ‘the number of the beast’, by Iron Maiden,

Now...  Sure this is a funny little moment.  We already saw that she is a badass in TLD so this fits: she does unexpectedly cool things, right?  Except.  Except this is a very unusual song choice for Mrs Hudson.  

Now, technically Mrs Hudson can be into any song she wants to but.  The Number of the Beast came out in 1982 when she was 45.  (We open the show with a reference to 1982 and arguably this is around the time when Sherlock’s childhood flashbacks are occurring in TFP).  Now maybe she was a 45 year old metal head back then but there’s something odd about this song choice.  That’s why we laugh, it’s strange and we didn’t know she liked this type of music so we are amused. 

But, what was even the point of blowing up Baker Street?  To up the stakes, to start the game, to be the maguffin that gets it all going, sure, but also, maybe, to throw in this weird reference.  TST featured Margaret Thatcher, aka The Iron Lady, as someone who could provide some clues to Sherlock about Mary.  Villain-coded and devil-coded Mary.

“At one point in TST Sherlock is stopped in front of a shrine of pictures of a very bad woman: Thatcher.  He feels something is off but he’s not sure what.  He has extreme foreboding here, the camera work, the lighting, the way the other people disappear. This shrine of Thatcher is about Mary.  Mary is a very bad woman about whom he has a very bad feeling.  And something is missing from the shrine: the bust containing the AGRA flash drive.  So, Sherlock’s instincts tell him Mary is terrible and that he’s missing a piece of information about her: her secret agent past.”  

(italics added later) from this post.

Now, if you thought that the Moriarty element in TFP was silly well, it was.  We saw a flashback and then, apparently, Eures had gotten him to film a series of uhm video clips for her to taunt Sherlock with 5 years later?  Okay.  The thing is Moriarty has been coded as satan I think since their conversation at Baker Street after the court case in TRF.  He has an apple, he owes him a fall, this is symbolism about Sherlock being like Eve and eating the apple of the tree of knowledge and being ejected from Eden.  In TAB Sherlock explicitly states that he’s waiting for the devil when he’s awaiting for Moriarty.  But, no, in fact, Mrs Hudson tells that to Lestrade about why Sherlock is just sitting in his flat for days on end.  

Magnussen also has been called the devil in HLV by Sherlock.  He tells John he made, ‘a deal with the devil’.

All of the villains of Sherlock are connected to water (see @thepineapplering‘s meta here.)  Water is connected to, among other things, emotions via four elements symbolism.

We see Sherlock running from his emotions as early as TGG when he talks about not knowing the solar system.  (He's ironically trying to actually talk about his feelings to John when the latter storms out.  Ironically, he saves a child later on via his obscure astronomical knowledge).  Well, no, we see this retroactively via ASiB when he seems to emotionally skewer the woman for having feelings, however slight.  The solar system and sentiment are both things that others see as basic knowledge (”primary school stuff” associates it to early childhood, even) and that Sherlock has told himself he, ‘deleted’, because he has no use for them.  

So Sherlock’s personal villains, his demons, his devils lurking beneath are emotions.  That’s why all villains are associated to water.

In TFP Eures is literally on a island, she’s isolated and yet trapped by water, surrounded by water.  Isolated and surrounded by feelings, trapped by feelings.  

Now, let’s look at the lyrics to Iron Maiden’s, ‘the number of the beast’, 

“Left alone, my mind was blank. I needed time to think to get the memories from my mind.

What did I see, can I believe, That what I saw that night was real And not just fantasy.

Just what I saw, in my old dreams, Were they reflections of my warped mind Staring back at me.

Cause in my dreams, it's always there, The evil face that twists my mind and brings Me to despair.

Six-six-six the number of the beast. Hell and fire was spawned to be released.

Torches blazed and sacred chants were praised, As they start to cry, hands held to the sky. In the night, the fires burning bright, The ritual has begun, Satan's work is done.

Six-six-six the number of the beast. Sacrifice is going on tonight.

I'm coming back, I will return, And I'll possess your body and I'll make you burn. I have the fire, I have the force.”

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So, here we can see that this song that Mrs Hudson so innocently and hilariously is listing to is about a man’s visions and nightmares.  From his own deepest fears, from his own psyche.  He questions what he sees, what he sees is the face of the devil and the mark 666.

We’ve seen that TFP doesn’t make a lot of sense plot-wise and that everyone seems out of character.  I mean The EMP warriors have been hammering out meta about this series being fake from day one, so I got nothing special to add to the idea that, ‘it was all a dream’, or, ‘it was all in his head’.  But I do want to say that the devil imagery, the references to the devil, to a nightmare of the devil, that’s of your own making, to water/villians/emotions, all of this does go back to the idea that we’re in Sherlock’s psyche.

There is no sister but rather this is Sherlock’s most isolated essence.  An essence that is lonely and wants to have a friend.  But also one who’s, ‘killed’, said friends before.  Meaning he’s both evil Eures and vulnerable, sad Eures.  He’s a contradiction.  He wants to get close to people and he wants to also bury his feelings in a well.  He’s specifically afraid to get as close to John as he wants to be.  But, he’s now even more afraid that if he pushes him away he will drive him away like he has already done in the past.  

This is his emotional turning point, this is why the theme of, ‘emotional context’, is brought up again and again by Eures in seemingly disjointed ways.  If you don’t face your fears, and face your emotions The Three Garridebs will die.  The romance will die if you don’t dare face it.  The friend in the well cannot wait forever.  You can push your feelings down but eventually they will die.  That person will stop loving you..  Your chance to love like John so adamantly insists at the end of TLD maybe be gone before you realise it.  

Sherlock loved someone before and then he buried that.  (I think that’s Sebastian from TBB).  Now he sees himself doing the same thing to John. He needs to rescue his feelings for John from the well.  The well of his own fear and indifference.  The well full of feelings.  His horror is emotions.  This is his nightmare where nothing is more frightening than emotions.  

Now Eures is a woman.  Sherlock’s deepest emotional aspect is a woman.  Now my friends cringed after TAB when I said that the women in that episode represented Sherlock’s feelings but I really do think that’s one of the meanings of TAB.  Sherlock has always feared his emotions and preferred logic, the mind. The mind, the logical side, etc, has always been associated to the male aspect and to the east.  Feelings, intuition, water, circles, has always been associated to women and to the west.  Now, we have this contrast because Eures is, ‘the East Wind’, associated to being super intelligent, rational to a fault, to the point of being a full-on psycopath.  But, but, there’s also little-girl-lost Eures who will be magically cured by a single hug from Sherlock (see the hug from TLD).  His deepest self, his feelings, are armoured by this extreme reason, a cold calculating machine, a high-fucitininng sociopath.  But, under some very fragile walls lies a very lonely vulnerable, deeply emotional child.  (Remember his realising that the room he is trapped in his fake?  Those are the flimsy walls of his cold exterior, inside is a weeping child who doesn’t know how to be integrate their strong feelings of love and fear).  Remember how little Eures appears at Baker Street and implies she can’t differenciate beween her emotions after cutting herself?  This is meant to show us that she’s disturbed and like inhumanly cold, right?  Except that she’s not cutting up an animal (or other behaviours associated to childhood psychopathy) she’s hurting herself and trying to understand her many feelings.  She is confused by them but not lacking them.

Sherlock is Eures: lonely and trapped by her emotions and yet she can leave at any time.  Sherlock can be free at any time.  (Remember, ‘I want to break free’, by Queen playing as Moriarty got out of the helicopter and made a sexual joke?)  Moriarty represents Sherlock’s sex drive (remember he says he’s Mr Sex in TRF and is Sherlock’s id, in chains, in the basement, in HLV).  His sex drive/Moriarty wants to a) break free and b) visit Eures island of emotional isolation.  He needs to integrate his sexual and his emotional feelings, that’s why Moriarty and Eures must meet.  At Christmas.  A time when Sherlock and John try to talk about their emotions, year after year, it seems.

During 5 minutes at Christmas Sherlock’s sexual attraction and his feelings met for the first and only time, maybe.  Maybe it’s in ASiB?  Maybe it’s in HLV?  We can speculate as to which 5 minutes were most poignant and why but I think we can see that every once in a while, maybe on a special occasion like Christmas or a birthday (TLD hug) we can have a break through where emotion and attraction meet and you know, break free.

PS we saw a sort of villainous version of John in TLD via Culverton (with tons of deeply sexual overtones) from @warmth-and-constancy.  And then we see John go into the balcony at Sherrinford and just plain old look at the water.  We see him in relation to water just as we first see Culverton.  John, again, is being subtly coded as a villain.  But, why?  Because John is the person that Sherlock’s in love with.  He is the villain because he is making Sherlock face his deepest fear.  Sherlock is literally horrified of being in love, hence John and the water imagery.  

Eures literally is Samara Morgan from the Ring and from Appointment with Samarra.  Sherlock must inevitably face her, his inner fears, his deepest demons.  And Samara from the Ring becomes a supernatural monster because she was abused, neglected, left alone.  She died in a well.  This is Sherlock’s monstrous side (remember, ‘he’s our monster’, from TLD?).  A little child who just needed love but instead was isolated and alone.  This is Sherlock.  Literally being Samara and having an appointment with himself.  (Here I was talking about Appointment with Samarra vs Samara Morgan but with John as the little girl)

When he said he needed to go, ‘deeper into himself’, in TAB, well, he wasn’t kidding. 

Oh, one more thing, the reason that Mrs Hudson’s song struck me was because that scene is followed by one where a guy says he doesn’t know where Sherlock is and then we see those two fisherman on a boat.  The camera angle is very low and instead of cutting back and forth we get a (seemingly) continuous shot.  The effect is nauseating and discombobulating (suggestive of being a dream).  We also see this odd object on the wall that looks like a simplified devil logo: a face and horns,

But also I just realised it’s also a circle.  And a mirror.  So this is Sherlock’s greatest fear, greatest horror: feelings and introspection with regards to said feelings.  That’s the true devil, here, the true villain.