#that most reviewers jump to believe that mary has been lying this whole time

[theaterofthemind]

so i don’t normally feel comfortable rating books that are supposed to challenge your way of thinking but i am going to say that while the story isn’t necessarily a page turner you can’t put down it is an interesting (although difficult) read that you do want to keep reading

that being said the rest of this is going to be a discussion containing spoilers

so the major question. did mary do it?

i want the answer to be no. i find the character change to be abrupt and it’s easy to believe that she only admits to doing it because she’s challenged in group therapy about her love for her mother and how the other girls in group therapy who love their mothers and profess that they would take the wrap for their mothers (and mary is very obviously looking for the love of a mother) and only then when she admits that she loves her mom she confesses that she did it

but that challenge in therapy is also what made me challenge my thinking about the book.

mary says she didn’t do and the question is posed.

so what? so what if mary did do it?

there are so many important topics to grapple with in the book. abuse. not dealing with emotions especially in response to grief. insufficient treatment of mental illness. racism in the justice system. children falling through the cracks in school systems. the justice system not being equipped to deal with children. and the consequences of life after incarceration. and it’s important to examine those topics in both cases of mary’s guilt or innocence.

in the case of mary’s innocence everything she went through is a terrible grave failing of america and it’s treatment of children specifically black children and it’s a grave unforgivable miscarriage of justice but it’s almost easy to dismiss. mary was mistreated and while horrible she still turned out relatively well so there’s no rush to assess the systems that led to her situation

but in the case of mary’s guilt we have to examine these systems more closely.  how much is a child who doesn’t know better yet, who is ill equipped to deal with both her own and her mother’s emotions, really at fault? what good does it do to incarcerate that child? to leave them to be further abused by the justice system?

we have to ask ourselves could mary have been saved if anyone had looked into why she was so quiet? would she have been diagnosed sooner and gotten help? would people have been better at asserting that her diagnoses were incorrect or simply convenient fixes? would she have been given the help she needed? do we as a society have to share some of the blame?

and finally we have to ask does she deserve to the be thrown out into the world with nothing? and have her child taken from her? because of something she did as a child?

there are people who are convinced in the book of mary’s innocence and people who are convinced of mary’s guilt and those people let their convictions determine how they’ll treat mary but i imagine tiffany d jackson wants us to be more like claire in response to the challenge of so what if mary did (or didn’t) do it? and assert that it doesn’t matter as long as she’s taking steps forward.

of course i do have other questions about whether mary was willingly given to her mother or stolen. i have questions about if something did happen to mary’s bother. i have questions about the poisoning of her mother’s boyfriend and when she poured bleach in the coffee of her group leader’s cup is it because she’s poisoned someone before or because she learned from her mother.  if mary did shove pills down the baby’s throat is it because that’s what her mother did to her to make her ‘‘good’‘?   is it because she used to give her mother pills on a bad day? i also have questions about how mary got the necklace, pieces of which were found in the baby’s throat? were the experts right in saying that mary on her medication was too weak to cause the injuries? did she know better?

but i think those are questions and their answers (or the implications of those answers) are something we’re supposed to grapple with

[andydona-chan]

Realization

Ok, so this one has been sitting in my documents for some time because I didn’t know how to continue it... Until I re-read it and noticed I really don’t have to, you all know the endgame of this fanfics, and maybe I can get a better idea of how to make a second part with your precious feedback, cause I really need it, so from the old documents but for a lovely ship, I present this:

Read it at AO3

*****

Sherlock sat in silence on the bed at the hotel he was currently staying at, with the explosion at Baker Street he was virtually homeless at the moment, and honestly he was tired and he needed to sleep after what they had been through that day. However he couldn’t, or more likely, he wouldn’t. Sherlock just knew that the nightmares would make it impossible for him to rest, not only that, his ever working mind will still be running thoughts in his head, processing every detail and making conclusions about what had happened at Sherrinford.

He smiled sadly just remembering how John had offered his house, told him he could stay until Baker Street was restored, but he had instead told him that Mrs. Hudson needed it more than him, that she would be more grateful and she would be also willing to help him with Rosie while they worked on rebuilding his flat.

Mycroft had also offered his house, a really surprising gesture, and though Sherlock would have no trouble staying at his brother’s house, with all the space and rooms, he felt that he didn’t belong there; and as much as he wanted to just sit here trying to not think, it was also something he couldn’t leave for later

He needed to think about a lot of things, many of them concerning his sister and the things she had put him through that day without worrying that his brother would listen or record it. Good lord, he didn’t want him to worry anymore! So he had declined, warning his brother that if their parents were to know that they were both staying at the same house, they wouldn’t waste time waiting for an invitation and soon they’ll find themselves in a very awkward and difficult family reunion at his house.

Mycroft wasn’t ready yet to tell them what had happened to Eurus, and neither Sherlock; and though it was a matter of time that they started asking questions about the explosion at 221B, at least that way they could buy time until things had settled down into a more normal state, if they ever went back to normal

So, he took off his shoes, his coat and jacket and unbuttoned his t-shirt, climbing onto the bed and sitting in a lotus position with his head against the headboard Sherlock closed his eyes putting his hands together in front of him as he always did and entered his mind palace, this time not looking for information, but to sort the day’s events.

He recalled the day Moriarty’s video had paralyzed the entire city, his face in every screen saying ‘Did you miss me?’ By then he had already know that he wasn’t behind the event at all. In fact if he were to look at it properly, his mind had given him a lot of clues in that self-induced hallucination of the Victorian era. Even with his ghost present, Moriarty hadn’t been the real master mind behind it; it had been a woman, all along. And just as Eurus had proved, it had been for context, emotional context; something, he suspected, he could only provide given his tendency of sentimental attachment. Not that he thought it was wrong anymore, he had already started to see the benefits of it.

With an ever present sadness he remembered Mary, her case hadn’t even been connected to what had happened at all, her past had just caught up to her and that was it. However, to think that John had encountered Eurus at that time and had actually established communication with her was worrisome, because that meant Eurus had been free and watching them for too long. Time she had used to gather information, time he had lost glued to his phone and not paying enough attention to his best friend to notice what he was doing.

Then Mary had died and he had felt that loss more than he was willing to admit. And in between that he had also missed a lot of things, that part of himself that was grieving had pulled him into the numbing pleasures of the drugs, when he knew fully well that he could have faked it. He only had to convince John, and his best friend could be trusted to see but not to observe.

Oh, how sentiment could blind your mind! He had to admit that Mycroft had some points, caring too much was a disadvantage, but only because your mind focus on the thing you most care about than on the whole scene, and he had to remember that for his job he needed to look at everything, details were important, background was important. He had been seeing everything so blurred since John had shouted at him while still holding Mary’s dead body that night, it was like walking with a fishbowl full of water on his head.

He mentally slapped himself, a flash image of Molly doing so passing through his memory; he should have kept his mind clear. Sherlock sighed, opening his eyes to the darkened room; he was now slumped over the mattress, when had that happened? Maybe he was more tired than he had initially thought.

He adjusted himself until he was lying on his back, and once again reviewed his memories. He had to admit that his sister was so clever it was almost scary, almost. She had managed to come to his flat and pretend to be someone else, they had spent a whole night together, just walking and talking, some of the things they had talked about he couldn’t even remember, he had showed her so much about himself that it wasn’t a surprise that she had managed to trick him into her trap.

He had practically given away all his weaknesses without even noticing. Although he had to admit she had a lot to do with his lack of confidence when trying to make friends, or the way he treated them, and maybe, just maybe, if things had happened in a different way he could have treated people in a really different way. Women were usually more sentimental, more emotional, and Eurus had wanted to understand that, he was the most emotional of the three, and it was probably out of her female nature that his sister had tried to get his attention, to learn about it.

It wasn’t the best way, but then again the Holmes siblings mind worked like no other, especially hers. Eurus had asked him to choose someone to kill a man, and to be quite honest he had trouble choosing one. Mycroft wasn’t really one to do things himself, he always had done things through other people, still Sherlock had wanted to believe that he could do that to help him, he was wrong; but John, he could count on him, he had meant it when he had assured to Mycroft that John was family, although the last thing he wanted was to put another weight on his shoulders right now, even with what they had been through, and what he had learned thanks to him.

Talking about knowing what was good and what was wrong, it had also been a task when they had to choose a guilty man out of three brothers, their sense of justice was very similar, but the experiment had been clear for him then. Eurus had tested their reactions - especially his reactions to their reactions - to different emotions; in that first room they had to make a sacrifice and for that they had to show specific emotions fear, trust, courage and empathy. Taking from that, the second room had been about justice, their moral, resistance; intelligence and anger were tested there. In the third room…

Sherlock found himself unable to start with the things that had happened in that room, suddenly he had to sit up, his breathing was fast and he felt anger boiling in him, he was trembling.

With a jump he stood up and started pacing, trying to calm down, there had been something about that one test that he still couldn’t get over.

‘Damn it, Holmes, you are flesh and blood. You have feelings. You have ... you must have ... impulses.’

“Shut up!” he said out loud, as if to silence the voice inside his head. It was true that he had been in frequent communication with The Woman, what had happened between them had been interesting, but not lasting. There had been of course many emotions mixed up there that had actually thrown him out of his way, but it wasn’t something that currently affected him, and in his mind it was obvious that John would refer to her since she was the only one he had seen who had been able to pull his emotions - impulses - almost to the surface, however she wasn’t the only one, there was someone else, a woman who had always been able to see through him, to really see him.

Molly Hooper…

‘She’s out there...  she likes you, and she’s alive. And do you have the faintest idea how lucky you are?’

But she had come near to not being alive… or so Eurus had wanted him to believe. Sherlock sighed loudly again while passing his hands through his hair, there were bruises on the skin of his hands, a reminder of what that experience had make him do, his hands had hurt afterwards, but he hadn’t had time to check, and he had hoped there wouldn’t be any evidence of it, but they were very visible by now. His own words as he deduced who the coffin in that room was for resonated in his head.

“Well, allowing for the entirely pointless courtesy of headroom, I’d say this coffin is intended for someone of about five foot four. Makes it more likely to be a woman.”

“Not a child?”

“A child’s coffin would be more expensive. This is in the lower price range, although still best available in that bracket.”

Of course it would be a cheap coffin, Molly would never buy something bigger or better, they had discussed it over on the phone one night, it had been silly actually, he was bored and wanted to know what her thoughts on that matter were, or what her choice would be given the case.

“A lonely night on Google” Not lonely if he considered who had actually talked to him about the subject, who else would he choose to talk about something like that?

“This is a practical and informed choice. Balance of probability suggests that this is for an unmarried woman distant from her close relatives. That much is suggested by the economy of choice. Acquainted with the process of death but unsentimental about the necessity of disposal. Also, the lining of the coffin…” Plain white but shiny, it’s feminine and delicate; something that a woman with simplicity on her mind would choose for herself if it was the last thing she would lie on.

“...Look at the coffin. Unmarried, practical about death, alone.”

Once again John’s voice broke into the scene reminding him of just how much an important matter this was. “Trust me, Sherlock: it’s gone before you know it. Before you know it.”

Letting his arms fall to his sides Sherlock had to admit defeat, he dropped himself heavily over the bed; his sister had really hit the nail on the head. ‘I don’t want it to end. Not like this’ the words appeared in his mind like they had done the night he had met Eurus, and just like then he erased them from the air in front of him, another sting of pain reminded him that John had gone through that reality. Molly Hooper meant a lot to him, so much more than anyone could really tell. She had helped him countless times, not only with experiments and autopsies, she had helped him fake his death, he had trusted her with his life, it was a secret, but it had been important at the time, she had done it, and she hadn’t asked anything in return.

He knew that she liked him, it was unmistakable, her body language, the invitations to go out for coffee, her smile… An image of her dressed up in a black dress a few Christmas ago made his stomach contract. He did not deserve her, how had she been able to forgive him after what he did that day, after what he had did more than once? It was something different that he had not really understood in the moment, his need to apologize and the guilt he had felt for making her feel that way, but she had left that behind and stayed firmly in her position as his friend, because whenever he went back to her she would be waiting for him

‘What do you need?’

Sherlock had noticed her attempts to move over him, to make a life, only to fail miserably, more than once because something he had said. He remembered Tom, that man she had gone with to John’s weeding, he had been her fiancé, someone she could’ve relied on, someone who could have make her happy, but she had called it off… Why? He wasn’t quite sure.

But he had made sure to show that he was grateful for the help she had lend him, she was an intelligent woman and her work with him had made things easier more times than he could remember. After Mary’s death Sherlock had needed to talk to someone, at first just to know how John was doing, and Molly had visited Baker Street with Rosie many times, sometimes to leave her with Mrs. Hudson, others to have some tea.

It was a few days after Mary’s video had arrived that he had talked to her about his plan, he had told her everything, and he had said that it was necessary to be real for John to pay attention. That day she had accepted, reluctantly, to help him, she had agreed to take and ambulance and the equipment to test him two weeks later, she had also promised that she would be very angry at him that day, she already was… He felt confusion at hearing it, why would she act that way right now? The plan still had some weeks to fully develop.

She worried too much it would seem, because she was lonely, and she was distant from her own family. It was clear now, she only had them, and of course she will worry about him, he was the man she loved! At that point he was the one putting his life in danger, he was the one dying! This time it wasn’t fake, she could keep that he was alive as a secret, but she couldn’t duel with a real death, (a fact he had known the day Mycroft had sent him to that 4 minute mission and why he had completely avoided telling her about) not another one so soon, and especially not after Mary…

Again Sherlock had to run his hands over his hair, this time his fingers pulling a little bit at it, he needed to react, the tiredness was pulling at him, he could feel his eyes dropping with sleep, but it wasn’t the time yet, so he needed to feel something real, pain would do for now. It occurred to him then that maybe Molly had been already really stressed about what was going on around her, with this family of hers that she didn’t know how to approach properly, she had been busy with Rosie, worried about John and working hard every day, and he had made her think about the state she was going to find him after his plan was complete, something she had also done professionally on a moving vehicle. Wow, that woman was so strong!

He had been at the hospital for at least two weeks before going back to Baker Street, and there she was again, still angry, busy and worried, but still there. She had been there through some episodes of withdrawal, his bad humor and his anxiety. And what had he given her in return? Nothing. It was suddenly obvious that a single ‘thank you’ and a kiss on the cheek were not enough anymore, not for someone who had done so much for him.

Suddenly it was clear why it was inconceivable that Molly Hooper would think that on the day of her death he would put her in that tiny cheap coffin! When Eurus plan had been revealed in that room he had known that this would hurt Molly, however in the midst of her life being in danger he thought it was best to have her heart broken than not beating at all.

It had been a surprise for him when she had asked him to say the words first, something unexpected given the circumstances. She had asked him to say it like he meant it. At first his mind had gone blank; he had to make sure he had heard her right, and then ask himself what he could do to make it sound like the truth, a part of him told him to just do it, she was in danger, if she wanted to hear him, he would say it, it was easy, or so he had thought when he asked her to do just that, but how? The answer hadn’t been difficult to find, really. They were friends that much was clear to him, and he truly loved his friends. The real shock came when he really thought about their kind of friendship, a flash of all the things they had shared through the years, the things she had done for him, the moments and experiences, the laughs and the discoveries made, the way it felt so natural to have a long a really entertained conversation with her, it wasn’t the kind of friendship he had with John, Wiggins or even with Irene, he had realized it then, because just as she had said it, it was true, he really did felt love for her, no need to fake it.

‘Also, your loss would break my heart…’

Something really out of character of Mycroft the moment he had said it, but very on point in this case, losing Molly Hooper would break him. Not only his life would be emptier, his job would lack something she could only provide, she would not only miss her silly jokes and colorful jumpers, her sharp mind and her dexterity at her job, his heart ached at the sole idea. Trust him to feel lonely if he didn’t have Molly Hooper in his life, because for some time now John had had a life apart from him, with Mary and now only with Rosie, and thought Mrs. Hudson was good company sometimes Sherlock found himself feeling lonely. In a way he was like Molly, unmarried, practical about death and alone, he rolled his eyes, they had so much in common.

That’s how he knew, because moments after the call had been disconnected and he had been unable to talk to her a bit more, he had actually pictured it. He saw it when taking the lid of the coffin, her name written in the plaque just above the very same words that she most wanted to hear from him, he placed it over the wooden box that would hold the body of this great woman…

He saw her, her deathly pale face, still so beautiful, her eyes, those warm brown eyes, closed forever to the world she had found fascinating, her lips, now lacking color and the smile he had always loved, her small delicate hands yet skillful in her profession, and strong when he had needed her help, his heart beating painfully for her while she laid there, now unable to know what he was feeling for her, the words carved on a plaque that she would never read, he could picture a single tear dripping down her cheek as the light closed over her - a tear fallen from his own eyes…

No. She deserved flowers, a nice chapel, a place full of people that loved her, a long and fulfilling life to be remembered for, a long speech about her a nice, big and comfortable looking coffin lined with silk and a big plaque with the words ‘She was loved infinitely, by family and friends, she was the one that mattered the most at the end’; and he would be standing beside her, probably sad, but happy to have been part of her life. No! And he had lost it then, his patience, his poker face, his self-control, all lost because he couldn’t let that happen, he would not burry Molly Hooper in that cheap bloody coffin! He will not lose her!

He was angry at Eurus for making him do that, now that he had already understood how much it affected him, hurting the people he loved; hurting John Watson had been awful, and knowing that he could have done more for Mary had hurt him too. It wasn’t fair that he had been manipulated to hurt the one person in this world - out of his own family - that loved him unconditionally and deserved so much more from him, because she thought he was better than that!

‘She taught me to be the man she already thought I was. Get yourself a piece of that.’

All those words, all those emotions, all the things in life she did not have, and all just because she loved him… He had never wanted to be the one to stop all those things for her; he would’ve liked for her to move on and have her life, and be loved and be happy! And what have he done? He had insulted her appearance more than once; he had told her of off her choices, he had actually suggested she stopped dating at all…

When had he fallen in love with her? Because his jealousy had no other justification, maybe he had told himself that he needed her, but what for? Just because that way she would have more free time, what was that about? Wasn’t she entitled to have her own time and entertainment? She had the right to have friends and spend time with them and have fun and met someone and have a real family. Why then, was he so stubborn about her? He supposed unconsciously he had always known, but it was easier to think it was for his benefit, that it was also fun for her and that she was spending time with him, her friend.

But she knew him more than anyone, even more than John himself! She had saved his life, had helped him and proved to be more reliable than anyone, she had helped him solve countless cases, and they had joked and laughed and talked about more things that he could remember. She had always been there, was it really so hard for him to be there for her? She wasn’t asking for much, apparently, his heart already belonged to her.

He knew what he was coming back to, after that, Molly was going to be angry and sad, and probably won’t be happy to work with him as she always did. But that would be because she thought he was pretending, faking it for a case as he had done with the drugs, or with Janine… How could he convince her? Sending her a message? No, it was easier to discard or delete without even reading it. What about a phone call? She was probably not going to answer or would block his number.

The problem now was that he had broken the trust between them more than once; she had no reason to believe him, not after how abruptly that last call had ended. His mind brought the picture of Eurus face at that moment, he had to admit that she seemed almost as shocked as John and Mycroft had been.

“All those complicated little emotions. I lost count.”

For a moment he wondered himself how many emotions had been showed during that phone call: confusion, fear, trust, desperation, pain, realization, courage, surprise, truth, anger, love…

He wondered how much John and Mycroft’s opinion of him had changed, it would be really difficult to look at them next time Molly or his feelings were part of the conversation, it was something else to expect in the coming days. But they didn’t matter right now, he needed to talk to her, explain things, and put an end to the endless feeling that something was missing, he needed to feel complete again. He huffed in sarcastic annoyance, it was a curious feeling, because she hadn’t gone anywhere, but that last conversation had cut the connection between them and he could barely tolerate it, he had to do something about it.

Working quickly to not waste any more time Sherlock put on his shoes, grabbed his coat and exited the room, maybe this wasn’t the best idea at the moment, it was really early in the morning and he hadn’t sleep one bit, but that had never really stopped him before…

 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

I really don’t remember if I have already posted this, but since I couldn’t find it here I guess I didn’t... It’s only been checked for grammar with Word, so please forgive any mistakes, I really hope you enjoy it

[stahlop]

Once Upon a Time 1x19 “The Return” Review

Reviews 1x01 1x02 1x03 1x04 1x05 1x06 1x07 1x08 1x09 1x10 1x11 1x12 1x13 1x14 1x15 1x16 1x17 1x18

So I’ll admit, the first time this aired I totally bought into August being Baelfire. I mean, despite August asking if they even look alike, yes, they do look like they could be the same person (except that August has blue eyes and Bae doesn’t). Shout out to Robert Carlyle for actually making me cry every single time I watch this because his speech to August is just heartbreaking. It’s even worse when you know August isn’t Bae. Also, because I forgot it last week, Cora’s name means maiden, but can also be derived from the Spanish word corazon which means heart.

Summary: Bae tries to find a way for he and his father to be together without him being the Dark One. Gold grows suspicious of August and what he is doing in town after he catches him in his office. Regina realizes that Gold set her up when Kathryn returns.

Opening: August riding his motorcycle (this is the first time we’ve seen a Storybrooke character in the opener).

Character Observations:

Rumplestiltskin/Gold:

This is Rumplestiltskin soon after he changed originally. He still sounds a little bit like coward Rumplestiltskin, but with just a hint of joking/giddy Rumplestiltskin. He is still doing everything in the name of his son. We are seeing that even though he is the Dark One, he still has his humanity. He still has something worth keeping his humanity for. Even if it that means he turns someone into a snail and crushes him for accidentally hurting Bae’s leg. Bae, of course, just wants his papa. He doesn’t want this demon masquerading as his father. Rumplestiltskin says he wants more power to protect Bae. Bae counters with if he didn’t have power he wouldn’t need to protect him. Rumplestiltskin explains that he can’t get rid of the power. Bae wonders if he’s tried. Rumplestiltskin shows him the dagger and explains how the only way to get rid of it would be for someone else to kill him and take the power for themselves, just like he did. But he does say he’ll look for other ways to appease Bae. Bae pushes and asks if he could get rid of the power without harm to either of them would he do it. Rumplestiltskin says it’s not possible. He wants to know why Bae isn’t happy with the fact that he can conjure up anything his heart desires. All Bae wants is his father. All Rumplestiltskin wants is Bae’s happiness. He says he will do it if Bae finds a way to rid him of the darkness.  They shake on it. We next see Rumple go off to do some business, which it turns out is killing their mute maid. We see a little of the Rumplestiltskin that we’ve seen in the future when he quips about the maid being able to draw a picture of the dagger. Rumplestiltskin is spinning. He is just spinning plain wool so he hasn’t figured out the spinning into gold yet. Bae says he has found a way to take them to a place without magic. Rumplestiltskin is scared. He says he’ll be powerless and weak. Bae says he’ll be just like everyone else and they’d be happy. Bae reminds him of their deal. Bae takes him into the woods and shows him the bean. It turns into a portal when he throws it. Rumplestiltskin is freaking the eff out. Bae falls in and Rumplestiltskin tries to pull him out. He can’t go through with it and he doesn’t want Bae to go either. Bae calls him a coward and says he’s breaking their deal. Bae falls through. Rumplestiltskin realizes that Bae is gone and starts digging in the spot the portal just was to try to be with him. Too late buddy, you missed your chance. This is probably the most human we’ve seen Rumplestiltskin as the Dark One. He’s been pretty callous about everything and doing things in the name of Bae’s happiness, but the real human emotion comes out when he realizes that everything he’s been doing for his son has now been lost and his own cowardice and weakness is what will make his son unhappy. Rumplestiltskin calls on the Blue Fairy. He wants to know how to get to Bae. She tells him he missed his chance, that was the last bean. He accuses her of lying and lying about lying. He lists off other ways he could possibly travel. Blue shoots them all down except for curse. She warns Rumplestiltskin that it is too high a price to pay and he doesn’t have the ability. He says he has all the time in the world to figure out the curse and how to find his son. He tries to attack the Blue Fairy when she tells him he drove his son away. So now we know now how Rumplestiltskin essentially lost his humanity and let the darkness take over. He was too scared to lose his power and lost his son because of it.

Which makes the whole Gold plot line in this episode even sadder. We first see him in his shop helping Henry pick out a gift for Mary Margaret now that she’s been cleared of murder charges. He catches August snooping in the back and becomes suspicious. Next Gold and Regina are talking and Regina mentions that Gold broke their deal. He mentions that he's only ever broken one deal in his life and this was not it. Regina says Kathryn was supposed to be murdered and Mary Margaret get the blame. Gold says murder seems so much worse in this world. You can’t just turn them into a snail and step on them (which we see him do later in a flashback). Gold clarifies that she said something tragic was to happen to her and kidnapping is tragic. Regina counters that the intent was clear. They continue to argue about intent until Gold says please to shut her up. Regina realizes that Gold is setting her up to take the fall. She doesn’t understand because they’ve been in  this from the beginning. He created the curse for her (nope, he created the curse for him, you were just a pawn). Gold tells her to figure it out. Gold goes to Mary Margaret’s welcome home party, which I thought was weird, but then I remembered that he was her lawyer. But he’s basically just skulking in the background. Gold asks Emma if it’s hard to let Henry go back to Regina. She says it’s the hardest things she’s had to do. You can see Gold sympathizing. Emma non-sequiturs into asking him if he was behind Kathryn’s kidnapping due to his ‘working some magic’ quip. He wants to know if she thinks he’s working for or against Regina. Emma isn’t sure. Then he asks about August. He doesn’t believe that’s his real name and he was poking around his shop. Emma says she trusts him more than she trusts Gold. Well who does trust Gold? He breaks into August’s room at Granny’s and finds a drawing of the dagger. Gold follows August to the nunnery. He talks to Mother Superior, who has either been told by August to tell Gold his story, or is breaking some kind of breach of confidence by telling Gold August’s story of him finding his father but is too ashamed to reach out to him. Gold was not expecting that August is possibly Bae coming to find him. Gold goes to speak to Dr. Hopper. Tells him an abbreviated history of him and Bae. Thinks that August might be Bae, but also thinks he might be seeing what he wants to see. He isn’t sure that August might not be there to kill him. Dr. Hopper says to just be honest; Gold doesn’t do honesty well. Gold finds August at his cabin and he calls him Papa. Gold apologizes and wants forgiveness. They hug and Gold finally seems to have found peace. They go and dig up the dagger and Gold gives it to August for safe keeping. This whole scene is so heartbreaking once you know that August isn’t Bae. We finally see the human side of Gold and it was toward the wrong person. August immediately tries to use the dagger on Gold, who then realizes that August isn’t Bae. That he would know the dagger wouldn’t work here because Bae came here to get away from magic. Gold takes the dagger back and wants to know how August knows about it. He says he’s heard things. Gold says no one here knows and August says no one here remembers. August says he’s dying and needed magic. He doesn’t think Emma will believe in time. Gold tells him to keep trying, maybe Gold will get something out of it. I loved seeing this vulnerable side of Gold, even if it ended up being with the wrong person.

Bae: He wants his papa to not be the Dark One anymore. He doesn’t like what its made him become. And the fact that Rumplestiltskin is justifying everything he does because he wants to protect Bae makes him feel even worse. He witnesses his father turn someone into a snail and squash him because Bae wasn’t watching where he was going. His father also kills the mute maid because she possibly heard them talking about the Dark One Dagger and what it can do. No one wants to play with Bae because of who his father is. Bae is miserable. Is it any wonder when Morraine tells him about Reul Ghorm that he jumps at the chance to find her? So Bae gets Rumplestiltskin to make a deal with him that if he does find a way to remove his power without either of them getting hurt he’ll do it. Rumplestiltskin reluctantly agrees because he doesn’t believe there is any way Bae will find this way. He does so rather quickly though. Reul Ghorm, or the Blue Fairy, has a magic bean, the last magic bean, that she gives to Bae. It will take them to a land without magic. Bae jumps at the chance. Bae tells his papa that he’s found a way, a bean to take them to the land without magic. Rumplestiltskin doesn’t want to be powerless and weak again. Bae reminds him he’ll be just like everyone else. He also reminds him of their deal. Bae opens the portal. Rumplestiltskin is too scared to go through. Bae calls him a coward and goes through without his papa. Bae is definitely the braver of the two and he doesn’t have any powers. Hopefully, we’ll get to actually meet a grown-up Bae.

August: He pissed me off in this episode. We still don’t know what’s going on with his leg. I had suspicions when I initially watched this series, but this episode showed me that we can’t always trust where the writers may take us.  He wakes up with leg pain. He is falling all over his room. He makes a phone call (on a rotary phone) to someone saying they need to accelerate the plan. I’m assuming he’s talking to Henry because he’s with him in the next scene. Henry isn’t sure how sneaking into Gold’s shop will help Emma believe, but he goes along with it. Henry distracts Gold in the front while August checks out the back room. Gold catches him, because August isn’t stealthy in the least. August tries to play it off that he thought the door was a back entrance, but Gold isn’t buying it in the least. August is speaking to Mother Superior (Blue Fairy). We don’t know what they are talking about, but Blue tells Gold. Gold later finds August at his cabin and says he knows who he is. August calls him Papa. And this is where I really start to dislike August. Because, as he says later, he wanted to Gold to work for the reunion and not trust his own eyes. You can definitely see that August does have some compunction about the ploy he’s got going with Gold when Gold apologizes and asks for forgiveness. Gold gives him the dagger to destroy it because he knows that’s what Bae would want to do with it. August is in shock that it was this easy to get the dagger from him. Then he shows his hand and tries to control Gold with it. That tips off Gold because he knows Bae would never use the dagger against him and would know there is no magic here for the dagger to work. August also lets Gold know that no one here remembers the dagger, letting Gold know that August is really from the EF. August says he’s sick and dying and needs magic and he didn’t think he’d live long enough for Emma to start to believe and break the curse. Gold wants him to keep trying.  August is shocked that Gold let him live. He was definitely expecting to be dead after his confrontation with Gold.

Sydney: I would feel sorry for him if he hadn’t brought on his obsession with Regina himself. Unfortunately, his obsession has carried over in the curse which means he is now taking the blame for Kathryn’s abduction, tampering with evidence, and planting evidence in Emma and Mary Margaret’s apartment. Says he did it for the story and that he would be the hero and get his job back with this huge scoop. Plus get a book and movie deal out of the whole thing. His face shows conflict over the confession, especially when Regina keeps telling him to add things. He’s like a child who has been taught the correct things to stay

Emma: She is mainly working on figuring out what happened to Kathryn. She tells Emma that she remembers the car accident and that she woke up in a basement and was drugged. Then she randomly woke up in a field and walked until she got to town and was found. Kathryn doesn’t understand why people thought she was dead. Emma explains about the heart and the obviously tampered DNA. At the welcome home party for Mary Margaret, Emma says she has a lot of friends. Mary Margaret comments that it didn’t feel like that yesterday. Emma goes to take Henry home and David is at the door. Mary Margaret doesn’t want to see him. Emma gets him to take Henry home. Emma accuses Gold of kidnapping Kathryn based on his magic comment. Gold wants to know if he’s supposed to be working with or against Regina. Emma says possibly diagonally. Emma talks to Sidney and shows him the bug. He pretends he doesn’t know anything about it. He continues to defend Regina; Emma realizes he’s in love with Regina. Later on, Regina brings in Sidney to confess to Emma that he’s behind everything with Kathryn. Emma talks to Regina and basically accuses her of making Sidney confess to something he didn’t do to cover for her. Emma understands that Regina runs the game, but she’s going to start playing a different game (finally!). She will not let Regina talk and tells her that because Regina tried to take away someone she loved (Mary Margaret), she’s going to take away someone Regina loves, Henry. While I’m glad Emma is finally starting to fight back, I don’t like the way she worded this. I know Emma loves Henry, but fighting for custody of him should be because she feels she is capable of caring for him, not because Regina tried to frame Mary Margaret for murder.

Blue Fairy/Mother Superior: I feel like we aren’t getting the whole story here. The Blue Fairy aka Reul Ghorm aka Blue Star, is supposed to be the oldest magic, even older than the Dark One. So why can’t she defeat him? Why does she covertly try to subvert his power by giving Bae a magic bean to send him to a land without magic. And, if this wasn’t the intent, if she just merely wanted to help out Bae, why would she give up the last bean to him? I feel like the Blue Fairy is not entirely truthful. The Blue Fairy says that Bae is the part of Rumplestiltskin that keeps him human. Later on, when Rumplestiltskin calls her to find Bae, she tells him that he drove Bae away when he accuses her of taking his son. He also says she’s lying about the bean and lying about lying. There does seem to be something off about her.

As Mother Superior, she is either working with August to bring Gold to him, or she’s betraying August’s confidence by telling Gold everything. I’m going to go with August wanting her to tell Gold what was going on so he would think August was Bae. As Mother Superior she just always seems very angry. I’ve yet to see her in a good mood.

Regina: She realizes that Gold is trying to pin Kathryn’s kidnapping and the framing of Mary Margaret on her. She doesn’t understand why because she and Gold have been in this (the curse) from the very beginning. She obviously does not know about Bae and his ulterior motives. Regina gets Sidney to take the fall for everything. Emma is pissed beyond all hell that she did that to Sidney. Regina now needs to ready herself for Emma trying to take Henry away from her.

David: He’s conflicted because his wife is back, but he wants to be with Mary Margaret, who doesn’t want to be with him. He apologizes for everything with Kathryn, but she says it was okay because neither of them were ‘it’ for each other. He tries to see Mary Margaret at her welcome home party, but she’s still pissed at him for not believing in her.

Questions:

Why do Rumplestiltskin and Bae live so simply still? Rumplestiltskin says he can conjure anything, why hasn’t he conjured them a nicer house?

Why is August at Mary Margaret’s welcome home party? Did Emma invite him? Has Mary Margaret even met him?

Where did August get such a detailed drawing of the Dark One Dagger? It couldn’t be from the book because Henry said Gold wasn’t in there.

Was that really the last portal bean? What happened to the rest of them? The Blue Fairy said they were lost to them.

Why would the Blue Fairy give away the last magic bean to a young boy? Or was it because his father was the Dark One and she wanted to get rid of the threat?

Emma is transported to our world by a magic tree. Did Blue not know about that then with Rumplestiltskin, or was she simply refusing him access to the land without magic to teach him a lesson?

We know from 1x02, The Thing You Love Most, that Rumplestiltskin created the curse. But he obviously didn’t have anything he loved the most to sacrifice (he thought Belle was dead at that point). So did he use Regina, fuel her hatred, just to get her to enact his curse for him? We still haven’t seen how she went from sweet, young Regina to magic wielding, Evil Queen. Did Rumplestiltskin help her achieve all that?

Why is Rumplestiltskin so sure that Bae is still alive in current day? Has he had a vision?

Observations:

The ball Gold has in his hands when talking with Henry in the shop is the same ball Bae is playing with when we first see him.

Rumplestiltskin created a truce in the Ogres-war, stopped the war, and brought the children home.

Morraine is the same girl that was taken away from the village in Desperate Souls.

Henry gets Mary Margaret a bell for getting out of jail.

Everyone asking if Gold was there for the rent was hilarious.

The different ways Rumplestiltskin names to get to the land without magic are: realm jumper (possibly what Jefferson is), time-turner, mage, and curse.

I guess we now know why Gold hates the nuns so much. He blames them (as fairies) for Bae leaving him.

It seems everything that Rumplestiltskin does from this point on is to help him get to the land without magic to find Bae.

Another great episode! We still don’t know who August is, but for those who haven’t seen it yet, I’m sure you have some good guesses. August and Gold’s confrontation was some great work from both actors. Emma is finally going after Regina by trying to take Henry away. I’d think at this point that Emma would have more people on her side than Regina would, but we don’t know who else Regina has influence over. Also, I’d think Emma would need her own place before petitioning for custody because there is absolutely no privacy for Henry at the loft. But I guess we’ll see in the next few episodes. Season 1 is almost over!!!

Please leave comments and reblog! Let me know if you’d like to be tagged in future reviews.

@searchingwardrobes @thisonesatellite @justbecauseyoubelievesomething @laschatzi @profdanglaisstuff @mariakov81

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Deeper Still Redux: ‘The Lying Detective’ Clustermeta Update

Alrighty, so now that we are rapidly approaching The Lying Detective (the episode I have been looking forward to the most), I’ve decided I would “BRIEFLY” (HA!) update what I think is going to happen in the next episode now that we have one episode under our belt.

I’m going to be writing this meta assuming you have read Deeper Still and the tiny addition Pocketed Drugs. Please read those first, and then come back to this one. 

I wrote Deeper Still on a whim one hot afternoon during setlock and it ended up being a 7 hour crack clustermeta based solely on what I was seeing on my dash for 2 weeks straight relating to S4E2.

I may have been a TEENY BIT buzzed when I wrote it.

This is the episode I have been looking most forward to, because I think it will be one of the most powerful episodes in canon. Already it’s looking to be dark and whumpy, and HOPEFULLY a bit of relationship building in there as well, since episode two of every season is the one that focuses on John and Sherlock’s changes in their relationship (and early keywords for this episode hinted at this one being a romance episode), and I just LOVE having my heart ripped out and stomped on several times and then put back into my chest.

ANYWAY, this is just a “small” addition to that meta, updating some of my original theories with new info plus adding on some new theories based on evidence presented in T6T. I’ll separate it similarly, so you can follow along on the old post if you need to reference back. First though, I’m going to address T6T.

PART 1: What the Heck is Going On in T6T?

See Also:  Post-T6T: My Theories and Speculations || Things Bothering Me in T6T

Okay, so I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about this because other people have already taken this whole episode apart and analysed it to death – rather I will link to other meta that support my own readings, so I encourage you to check them out as well. 

That said, why bring it up at all in a meta about TLD? Because I think that the “hidden plot” will actually be uncovered either at the beginning or end of TLD (the “surprise” mentioned in reviews), OR will be the opener in TFP, as there is an excellent speculation that TFP will be the “reliable narrator” or “author god” version of events. There is a reason that Ben has said that all three episodes must be watched before coming to a conclusion about them (here and here): I think that all three stories are all one long narrative that ALL tie together in a beautiful bow at the end of TFP while also resolving the major plot holes of the series (not ALL of them; they need some left for the fifth season). I think that the next two episodes will directly link back into T6T, ergo my discussion about T6T here.

Here is what I am believing happened in T6T:

The end of the episode, where Sherlock is talking to Ella, is actually the beginning of the episode. This entire episode is an “Unreliable Narrator” story told by Sherlock as he comes up with a way to provide a believable story for Mary’s death. 

That said, I don’t think that this is “real Ella”. I believe that she is a mind-palace projection created by Sherlock as “Sherlock’s intuition” [SHERLOCK: Intuitions are not to be ignored, John. They represent data processed too fast for the conscious mind to comprehend. (x)], as Ella is someone who knows John and would be able to help understand John, while Sherlock’s MP self represents his “logic” and I think, in a way, his own heart. Bleh, I know it conflicts with the John = heart and Mycroft = logic totems of the MP characters, but I think in this case, I believe Sherlock thinks John is ‘too close’ to the situation, and he’s replacing Mycroft with himself because Big Brother can’t help him this time.

Also another idea: Sherlock represents his mind, and Ella represents his heart, ‘lo: Sherlock is allowing sentiment to rule his head, and let it guide him into doing what he intuits is right (again with the intuition)

The first scene of the episode, where they are doctoring the footage of Magnussen’s death, is foreshadowing the events of the episode, and proves that the entire episode is “doctored” to fit a narrative that is “okay for the public”.

Sherlock is telling a story that makes John sympathetic to Mary so that it takes all blame away from John and so he would have no reason to kill Mary. This is why Mary is disturbingly sweet to John, writes a letter like it was composed in Victorian era, and why Sherlock keeps reiterating that they were friends (so that her jumping in front of a bullet to save him was logical for her to do). I still think Mary is an unrepentant villain and that it will be proven by the end of TFP. Both upcoming episodes will feature snippets of info and show Mary as the psychopath she is.

The more lies you tell (only lies have detail), the harder it is to keep track of your story.  I think this is why there are a lot of inconsistencies, like the disappearing police officers at the end, the details of John’s flat being wrong, and the suddenly appearing police officers when confronting Ajay.

Unreliable Narrator “Proof” Meta:

Frame Story

Billy the Skull Has Lenses On

It’s a Fish Story

Fragmented Perceptions and The Stream of Consciousness of an Unreliable Narrator

one possible narrative

There are only four (or five) people who know what happened

Did they really…?

None of it is Real

The Physics of Mary jumping in front of Sherlock

The “Unreliable Narrator” Theory works in conjunction with “John’s Alibi” Theory. This is the belief that John actually killed Mary and Sherlock is creating a believable alibi to protect him, which was foreshadowed in ASiP.

I think the general fandom consensus is that John was oddly out of character in this episode.

Mark and Steven mentioned their headcanon for the ACD story The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton: Moffat: If you read [The Adventure Of] Charles Augustus Milverton, Dr. Watson in the opening paragraph tells you that he’s about to tell you a porkie. He says, ‘I even now must be very reticent.’ I think what Doyle is hinting at is that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson sat in Baker Street and said, ‘Right, we’re going to have to go and kill him, aren’t we? That’s the only way we can do this.’ So they break in, kill him, and then Dr. Watson writes up a version of the story that puts the murder [on someone else].  Gatiss: They’re hiding in their burglar masks behind the curtain, and this random woman comes and shoots Milverton in the face and then grinds her heel into his face. It’s odd, isn’t it? So I mean really, it’s just an extrapolation of saying, ‘Well, he probably did it, I think.’(x) This leads us to speculate, given that this is a tail-end to HLV, that they are using this headcanon for Season 4 – that John was actually the perpetrator in Mary’s death.

Norbury agreed to take the fall for the murder and was paid a nice sum of money to just “disappear”.

Norbury is a John Mirror

I think Lestrade is in on the Alibi, just like he knew / suspected about John in the pilot being the shooter.

Some Alibi Theories that I have latched onto.

John’s Rejected Alibis - All the cases listed in the episode are alibis that Sherlock was running concurrent simulations for to find the alibi that would work for John. This is how they came up with the Jellyfish Alibi. Note that I do NOT believe the death of Mary was premeditation – the simulations, I believe, run AFTER the death of Mary – Sherlock is coming up with these ON HIS OWN, and chooses the jellyfish one because it is the one that takes away the most blame from John.

The jellyfish though - John shot Mary from behind, in the shadows, foreshadowed both in ASiP (only firing when Sherlock was in direct danger) and by the jellyfish joke: You can’t arrest a Jellyfish.

Surprise! - More about the Jellyfish Assassin, and further proof that it could have been John.

Mary is acting out ‘a post- Reichenbach’ Sherlock - Mary is the one who actually took the shot. Sherlock is giving Mary the words he wanted to always say.

People do not change how they respond in crisis – John’s uncharacteristic way of dealing with Mary’s gunshot. He let her die.

John Didn’t Go Into Action – Further discussion about John’s inability to help Mary.

Did John kill Mary? (Yes. Yes, he probably did.)

John is actually working for MI5/6 to capture Mary / Moriarty and to protect Sherlock.

And Bus Stop Lady is his contact. John WAS going to throw out the paper, but SOMETHING ON IT made him second guess. 

But she’s also the same actress as in TLD, so this has me questioning if she is an agent or a twin.

But I also think that Sherlock and John have their own plan in the works, and Sherlock is the mystery texter.

Night Owl or Vampire? Confirming the Plan

John’s “cheating texts” ARE from Sherlock, but because they are part of Sherlock’s story

Cheating

John & Sherlock’s Plan: A Brief Meta

The Room in Morocco

AGRA is still one person. They are two aliases of Mary. I don’t doubt that Mary DID have a team of assassins that she betrayed. But I don’t think they were called AGRA.

The Six Thatchers busts are used as a ploy for Sherlock’s story, taking a story from John’s blog and changes details in it to fit his narrative. 

I think John’s reaction to Ajay’s torture is both "relatable” and he is suddenly realizing what Sherlock had gone through in his time away.

“Amo” will be used to prompt the “I love you” seen in the trailer. I do not believe that the trailer “I love you is genuine, but a deduction, and the keyword “Amo” is the answer.

Something went wrong, and now Sherlock is in danger.

Rewatch the aquarium scene!!

John is angry at Sherlock for going into danger without him

OR John is going on the mission alone, either per Sherlock or Mycroft’s instructions

Mary dead or alive? Right now, I think she’s dead, since I subscribe to the Jellyfish alibi. I think I’m torn because I love the jellyfish theory, but I REALLY want Mary to go down in a blaze of glory. HOWEVER, Amanda is cast for all three episodes, though that could mean anything from a major role to a flashbacks role. There is proof for both theories, though more for her having faked her death:

ALIVE:

Mary’s Death & The Last Act: A Brief Meta

We Haven’t Seen this Yet

Mary’s Trial Run (Meta)

Mary’s Death & Molly the Record Keeper: A Brief Meta

Mary at the Window

Mary isn’t dead.

Mary is paralysing Mycroft

Mary is Birdy Edwards

DEAD:

The Day, Mary Sent Sherlock to Hell

“Go To Hell, Sherlock” is both a clue and a threat. I’m wondering if this is where John goes while Sherlock takes care of business at home.

If she is dead, I think we will see her act out the missing chunks, such as what was really said in her miss me video AND what really happened at the aquarium.

Mary is the Other One?

“LONG BURIED SECRETS”

Amnesia

Baby Watson –  Possibly stillborn, though if she was, then why is Sherlock weaving her into his story? To make a softer narrative, perhaps. What has me thinking that she is no longer existent is the fact that the baby, as far as I know, was only cast for episode one. HOWEVER... given the nature of the kind of character that Smith is, I fear that he perhaps kills the baby.

The Letter – A coded message to Sherlock. Molly was the go between. Possibly reveals John’s plans with Mycroft? Sherlock read the letter in the car, so we can speculate that we will eventually find out what’s on it.

Bleh, I ain’t got no more. Don’t ask me to interconnect them into a story narrative. These are simply the theories I think are probable.

Either way, my big theory is the JOHN is the game master this season. He’s controlling the course of events, and Sherlock is doing what John has planned.

PART 2: Revisiting Deeper Still

Alright, here’s where I get into my updated theory on TLD. I’m just going to make this as brief as possible, following along with my original meta. Apologies for my free-thought meta, I’m too tired to edit it.

The Dying Detective: It Takes John Watson to Save a Life

I still believe that John Watson is the main character this episode. He will play a huge role in solving this episode’s case. However, I believe that we will see about 10 minutes of repeating events from T6T to see what really happened from John’s POV. Perhaps, if he has killed Mary, we will see that play out at the END of the episode (the shocking twist). Since we know John is away early in the episode, I think he was the one who “went to Hell” to track down Mary’s operatives and to keep up appearances of the estrangement between he and Sherlock. Honestly, I’m not really even sure where I’m going with this, just that I believe that John is on his own mission for Mycroft but may be double-bluffing and working with Sherlock without Myc’s knowledge.

We saw some MI6 filming, did we not for this episode? John and Sherlock were both seen at that setlock iirc, and I think that it has to do with John’s mission to save Sherlock.

I still think that Sherlock will be a damsel in distress for John, given how ill Sherlock actually looks. Perhaps this is why he returns at the request of Mycroft. Sherlock is becoming delusional and hallucinating, and John is the only doctor that Sherlock will allow to see him. 

NEW STUFF from the trailer, we know that Sherlock shoots at something or someone and that John and Sherlock are in a morgue and John punches Sherlock. 

Could Sherlock be shooting at John? What if this whole episode, as Sherlock gets more ill, he starts hallucinating John as Culverton and vice versa? Either way, it will be John who brings Sherlock out of it. I think and believe that Sherlock’s aimless wandering around London may tie into the Alibi Theory (there’s setlock photos of Sherlock throwing a gun into the river... is this John’s gun that was used to kill Mary?), discarding the gun in the Thames (calling back to the pilot) and trying to find John.

As for John in the morgue, I actually think it’s Sherlock hallucinating Culverton as John. There’s a reason they made them look similar this season.

There was filming for this episode at a children’s ward in the hospital. What if this is where Rosie dies? Also: I think that Culverton “runs” this hospital, and has done very unsavoury things here.

I really REALLY like Blind Theory, and I think it COULD explain Sherlock’s disorientation in the episode. Some of the hospital setlock supports the theory, plus there’s that REALLY trippy-but-beautiful looking clip of Sherlock in the trailer where his eyes are almost pinpricks. THAT ALL SAID, what if this is why John returns?

WILD SPECULATION: A “Virus in the Data”. Perhaps Sherlock knew subconsciously long ago something was wrong with him? An incubating virus? I previously speculated that Mary could have poisoned / drugged him in the hospital, and perhaps the chemical-laced paper is what activated it in T6T.

WILD SPECULATION: Sherlock has Melideliosis (highly contagious, so probably not. The meta I wrote was interesting, thought I would posit it here)

WILD SPECULATION: A callback to THoB with the drug Vancomycin Hydrochloride

Culverton is Connected to Every Season Somehow

A lot of my ongoing theories about Culverton still stand, mostly the ones listed below plus a few new additions:

We know that Culverton may possibly be based on Jimmy Savile and loosely modelled after Trump. We also know he is the most “disgusting villain they’ve ever had” (paraphrasing). With that info, I believe that Culverton has a public façade as a TV personality / philanthropist which is a front for his illicit drugging of patients, his support of conversion therapy (homophobia) and possible unspeakable acts against children.

Apparently “Business Killer” is like “Kitchen Nightmares”, so I don’t even know where to begin. I still think that Business Killer exposes the problems of businesses / business owners. Where CAM had info and used it for blackmail, I think Culverton just fucking does it – he just exposes the shit out of people and essentially kills a business. BUT they seem to be promoting him as a philanthropist, so what if on the surface he exposes bad businesses, and it looks good to the public? But he’s SO SO much worse in private.

While I do think the military theories I posited in my original post are off the plate, I do still think Culverton is interconnected with the Mary / CAM / Moriarty triangle, possibly a a Dear Jim, possibly still is developing his own “treatment” for his patients. I think he still has ties to Baskerville and the HOUND drug. CAM obviously had blackmail material on him, which got him into trouble in the past. And Mary was one of his nurses, which is how they met.

I think that Culverton’s nasty arse is part of a scandal at the hospital he runs. 

I still think John knows of Culverton Smith and what he does. The person Sherlock is talking to in the trailer (the “this monster” line) will be either Lestrade or his brother, not John. THOUGH I am wondering if the “enlighten me” bit directly follows that, so perhaps John knows OF Smith but not the extent of his evil.

Mary is Why Sherlock is Infected in the First Place

Alive or dead, Mary wants Sherlock DEAD, but not before burning his heart. I think somehow Sherlock felt John was going to be hurt, and ended up being poisoned.

BLEH, Mary ‘dying’ really put a kink in my original theory, so most of it is void now. I don’t think any of it is really valid anymore.

Meh, I’ll just throw a theory out there so I can check it off if it does happen, though I know it won’t: Sherlock was already drugged, when Mary made him sniff the paper. What if that’s what started his illness? Long acting-agent, remains dormant? Or he’s suffering side-effects from that? OR, if she is alive, what if the paper that Sherlock is carrying around was laced with ricin?

I do still think, though, that Mary was the one who gave Sherlock drugs on the tarmac, and that they were probably laced with something if they gave him a gay Victorian fever dream.

The Lady in Red Conundrum

Alright, so I’m going to concede and say that all my previous guestimations on her have been debunked with the leak that the LiR is actually Faith Smith, Culverton’s daughter. Who also is played by the same actress who was ‘E’ in T6T.  Which is interesting. Twins maybe? (one works for Myc and the other is the woman we see in this ep)? I’m guessing, if this is the case, that she and John have not met (we never have seen John with the Lady in Red, have we?) But I don’t think her intentions are wholly good, either; some speculate that it is her in the background when John is punching Sherlock.  

Why is she seen hanging around Sherlock? Apparently she comes to Sherlock with a case early in the episode, but why does she then follow him around the whole time? I still really believe that she is a projection / hallucination Sherlock is having trying to cope with the foulness of what Culverton’s actions are this episode.

And we can all laugh at how silly my Sixth Sense theory was. Wow. :/ Okay, well, the WHOLE thing isn’t completely stupid...

[...] it’s the hallucinations aspect of it all that interests me. She is a physical manifestation of the LiR that Sherlock hallucinates, and they’re so real that his mind fills in the logical gaps (the rain), kind of like it did in TAB; there’s theories going around that this woman is the same as the one in Miskin (but not confirmed), so Sherlock does have a basis to establish a voice and a mannerism set for her to create a “ghost” to help him solve the case. The Baskerville drug dealt with hallucinations, and I think it’s coming back in this episode.

As I said above, I don’t much think there’s going to be a callback to Baskerville, but whatever Sherlock is poisoned with, I think they cause hallucinations and fuck up his mind palace.

Additional Thoughts on TLD

I mentioned the paper above, but I noticed on my old meta that I also suggest that this is a “list”, one that he either received from John (the letter) or one he acquired and needs to get to John so John can save him (possibly foreshadowed in TAB when Sherlock made lists for Myc, but now he gives them to John. John is a medical man, and a very good doctor, and would know how to save Sherlock.

For some reason I mentioned the bus stop and fish and chips on my old post. Now that we ALMOST know for sure that ‘E’ / Bus Stop Lady is also the Lady in Red, perhaps it’s Sherlock piecing together the clues of John’s mission? The bus stop is so significant in T6T that I think something important happens here in TLD as well. And he’s eating, which seems to be a pretty common theme this season already... (food = sex metaphor... Sherlock’s allowing the indulgences). Anyway.

I really truly believe that the love confession will happen this episode. Sherlock’s guards are down, and he’s terrified he won’t survive this time. I think, when they’re alone and Sherlock is scared, this will be when Sherlock confesses. He can’t die this time without John knowing. To what capacity it progresses, I think it will be at least a hug and forehead kiss from John. AHH I just read my original description, and I love it: 

The extremely suggestive lighting from the bridge and London Eye shots makes me more certain than ever about this. Throw in the medical aspect of it, where John’s time to shine bright for Sherlock finally comes into full swing and we may get full confessions yet. Sherlock may feel like he might actually want to confess his feelings if he is does believe he is dying. Plus, gems from canon like “Quick man, if you love me…!” would be something Mofftiss would not miss their chance at pulling into the modern era.

I think, given that we know the description now for TFP the episode will end in Sherlock and John “going away” for a bit to heal mentally after the torment of this episode. I suspect Sherlock will be a wreck the whole time and I feel like their rift will be fully healed by the time the episode ends, especially now that we know it will pretty much be the two of them against the world for TFP.

Molly’s Role, forgot to mention, is one of two possibilities:

John’s go-between. She is his trusted go between just as Sherlock trusted her in TRF. Her “Anyone” speech was actually a coded message.

If Mary is alive, Molly is being coerced to make Sherlock believe John is mad at him. The letter is NOT from John but from Mary pretending to be John.

PART 3: Receipts for TLD

Here is a list of my own TLD-related meta, taken from my S4 Receipts Masterpost.

So What if in S4…

Sherlock in TLD 

A Theory About Culverton and Sherlock’s Drug Use

Aren’t Sherlock and John Both Technically Detectives?

John Punching Sherlock: Why Does he Do it?

What’s Going on in the Russian TLD Trailer?

Is That John?

John or Culverton?

H.O.U.N.D. and the Unrelated Drug

Melideliosis

UMQRA and the Vignère Cipher

The Stubble and the Swoop

Sherlock Faking?

Will Sherlock Tell John He’s Faking?

Will Sherlock Lie to John Again?

Sick Sherlock? 

Mentally Ill, Or Back on Drugs?

Dying Detective Headcanon #1

Why is he Faking Being Poisoned?

Sherlock Drugged With a Hallucinogen 

What if Dying Detective and Garridebs are in the Same Ep? 

The Nurses

Are the Nurses John’s Girlfriends?

There’s a Male Nurse, Plus Culverton

The Scene With The Nurses: Pointing to Sherrinford?

UNCONFIRMED for TLD:

Sherlock’s Deerstalker in the Czech Trailer?

What is Garridebs?

What is Three Garridebs (Part 2)

Didn’t We Already Have Garridebs?

Why Is Garridebs so Important?

Wait, Has it Been Confirmed?

Johnlock, Garridebs and S4

Why Will Garridebs Happen in S4?

They Won’t Permanently Kill John…

What’s the Worst Case for 3G?

‘Vatican Cameos’ and ‘East Wind’

Reverse Garridebs?

John Will Die

Billy Wiggins’ Role in Sherlock S4

OTHER PEOPLE’S TLD META

The Lying Detective: What You Need to Know

Drugs and Tea Culverton and AGRA

The Lying Detective Speculation

Isn’t Lestrade a Detective?

Sherlock Filming By the Thames

Who is Culverton Smith

Just how Evil is Culverton Smith?

Culverton Will Kill Sherlock’s Business (Blind Sherlock Theory)

“Quick Man, If You Love Me!”

Why “Estranged”?

“Estranged”

Possible Plot of TLD Pieced Together with Setlock

Culverton Smith and Trump

The Dying Detective 

It’s All Gone Dark 

The Blind Illustrator

More About Blind Sherlock Theory

Blind Sherlock / Rapunzul Parallel

First Impressions

Circles in the Czech Trailer

Manchurian Candidate?

Czech Trailer Setlock Breakdown

Conversion Disorder?

Hallucinations

The Scopolamine Theory

The 7% Solution and TLD

Mind Palace Gone Awry

PART 4: FINAL WORD & THANK YOU 

Oy, that turned out a lot longer than anticipated. I wasn’t even going to cover T6T. It was just supposed to be a quick recap of my old TLD Setlock meta, and I got this monster instead, as is my M.O., apparently. I sat down at 6:30 PM on Friday and it is now 2:30 in the morning on Saturday and I just ran with it. 

I know a lot of theories contradict each other in this post, and quite frankly, that’s because I can’t set my heart on just one theory, because as of right now I can honestly see the narrative going in any direction.

Also, I’m not discrediting everything I mentioned in my first meta; this one is just a more refined one based one info we already have and all neatly packaged up here.

Anyway. Thank you all very much for taking the time out to read through this whole thing! This is the episode I was most looking forward to, probably BECAUSE I spent so much time writing the original one. And Episode 2 of each season is usually my fave. I’m wary because of the apparent dark theme for this one, but we’ll see. The early keyword of “Romance” for this episode gives me hope, and the “Amo = Love” keyword from T6T will surely carry over into this one.

Cheers, everyone!

TAGS:

@marcespot @beejohnlocked @shawleyleres @yorkiepug​ @coloringthegreyscale​ @shervival21st​ @shylockgnomes​ @twocandles​ @benaddictmindpalace​ @mollydobby​

Because y’all talk meta with me. :)

[paperlacejane]

In the light of Season 4 of BBC Sherlock,

I’m going to post my archived reaction to S3 and the Victorian Christmas Special, and some thoughts about the state of things. Completely unwanted and unrequested, but I want to share.

I also feel I should say that there is some positivity amongst the torrent of negativity.

I initially wrote the reaction to The Abominable Bride for my own personal catharsis. I considered posting it, tailored it as a review of the episode, even, but ultimately decided that I didn’t want to spread the negativity. If people were still enjoying it, then I didn't want to spoil it (I'm a sensitive type, and seeing negativity can easily harsh my buzz, so I didn't want to do that with anyone.)

I also still didn't want to believe where the show was heading. But now, given S4, I feel it's inescapable. Right now, I feel like I'm jumping out of the wood-work now to say: "SORRY GUYS, I KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO END BADLY." But I also really do want to make a point about the direction that the series took with S3 and the hideous Christmas special. [There were some considerable insulting blips along the way before that, but S3 (my main problem is His Last Vow) and TAB were so concentrated in their shitness, that I feel I need to single them out.]

I just want to point out that this wasn't a sudden thing. I feel like I need to say this, because a lot of people I'm seeing have been saying: "how did it go so wrong, you fucked up, this season was horrible" as if there weren't signs before this. People much more eloquent (and concise/pithy) than me have highlighted some of the questionable shit that has cropped up in Sherlock. I'm not going to write out all those points here. What I focus on are the glaring bits that offended me the most, that jarred the hardest, that really hurt -- and which appear to have been dialed up to 11 for this last series/season. I haven't read any (?? I think?) critiques of The Abominable Bride, so I can't say whether people have commented similar. I hope they have. (I had read over a couple of positive ones before writing this, on the IMDB page for that episode. This 'review' was what I was going to submit as a review on that page, because I was frustrated with the positivity, but I decided it was too-ranty and too downer-like for there.)

Very very few people are going to see this, let alone read this. But I just want to let out something that I’ve felt for a long time. That the signs of the fall were there, and that the writers, the actors, they've been screwing with us for ages, and that they've been wronging us in more ways than the no-johnlock queerbaiting-turned-queerbashing thing (which is a huge WRONG.)

So, this is my cathartic rant from however many years ago. I titled it, because Evernote wanted me to title it, "Notes on The Abominable Bride and the Questionable Direction of BBC's Sherlock" (the original title, I recall was: "what the actual fuck," or similar.)

In two words? Truly repugnant.

There is an aggressive amount of sarcasm at several points in the following paragraphs. Just, be warned. It should be obvious, and I've switched some of it out for easier reading with fewer double-negatives, but.

Given the era that Conan Doyle's stories were written, sexism is evident. Even within the character of Sherlock Holmes. He is quite gynophobic in the original stories, I have no illusions there. And yet he still respects women. He respects them when they're intelligent, when they're clever -- and those are not 'masculine' traits. He defends women, and threatens righteous violence against people who prey on them - one of my favourite moments is when he literally goes to get his riding crop to whip a man who has been manipulating and catfishing his own daughter. But still, there is sexism in Sherlock Holmes.

But I have never felt so attacked and demeaned as a woman by a Sherlock Holmes story as I have while watching this episode of BBC Sherlock. Whose idea was it to dress feminists in purple KKK hoods? To have them adopt KKK methods? To have pretty much all the women of the series thrown into a cultish vendetta club who specialised in systematic terror and serial murder? Oh, bravo. I don't care if it was all in Sherlock's head, or supposed to be justified within the narrative, or if it's supposed to be 'real'. Why would they put that on screen? Why would they make those links, create those parallels? And who thought having Steven Moffat tackle the topic of women and sexism was a good idea?

The only truly respectable life-like woman I have seen in this series is Sarah - a simple doctor, everyday but exceptional, who was clever and held her own. And yet she was disappeared. To be replaced by vindictive hags, insipid would-be love-interests, charicature land-ladies, and a woman who shot and technically killed the most-loved literary character of all time - who we're supposed to have forgiven because she "didn't mean to kill him," because her killshot was supposedly "surgery." The writers of this series would do well to remember that this isn't Doctor Who. It's not a science-magical world where the audience is obliged to grudgingly swallow down all the unlikely and downright absurd rationalisations that are thrown at us. If you use that sort of bullshit logic for a story which is supposed to be more-or-less realistic, it just looks exceedingly lazy -- even lazier than it does in Doctor Who. Not only that, It's fantastically cheap, and, at least personally, your audience ends up feeling cheated.

It also looks immoral in the extreme. How is it that all the characters -- John and Mycroft particularly (a pragmatic but emotional man who is supposedly devoted to Sherlock, as well as Sherlock's own brother who tenderly takes care of him every time he ODs) -- how are they supposed to have forgiven Mary too? I could, maybe, believe that Sherlock's self-esteem is so low that he might try to rationalise Mary's actions away in order to not rock the boat and not lose the people that he thinks of as his friends. But why in fuck's name are John and Mycroft believing that crock of shit? Even if it were "surgery," you're telling me that they can both just let the bare fact that she shot Sherlock slide? No visceral rejection of a person who could do that to someone you care about? No wish to see them pay, or be brought to justice? They're not repulsed by her actions in any way? They still trust her, when that's what she's capable of? When "I'll shoot Sherlock in the chest and maybe/probably he'll die," is a perfectly acceptable risk for her to take? (I say 'probably' because he flat-lined. And if it weren't a TV show, everyone has a good chance of dying if shot near point-blank in the fucking chest.)

Sherlock may be portrayed unsympathetically in this series, particularly in this latest episode, but he's no Magnussen. I wasn't torn up when Sherlock shot him in the face -- there was common decency on Sherlock's side, which goes a surprisingly long way. Magnussen was a blackmailing creep who had a penchant for sexual intimidation and degradation after all. But Mary shot Sherlock. Sherlock still equals 'good guy.' Let me break that down for you: A deceiving unrepentant liar and serial killer shoots good guy in chest for no good reason except so that she can go on lying. But not only are Mycroft and John letting that slide with little to absolutely no fuss, they're then letting Mary make smarmy little snide comments about Sherlock and joking about the lacking security of MI5 (and yeah, of course Mary can hack Mi5 instantaneously on an iPhone. Why not! Who cares about believability when you have the opportunity for 'witty' banter?) Mary is all-round a despicable character who somehow gets away with being a piece of shit because... She's sassy? The result is that she is a bad guy who gets no repercussions for her actions, and appears as shallow as a shower to boot. (I'm reminded forcibly of River Song.) The whole thing makes all of the main characters appear void of all human feeling, all basic human reasoning. They have no principles. Given that the show's main characters are meant to be crime-solvers, justice-dealers, law-and-order types, and "the British Government," you'd think there'd at least be some sense of moral rectitude abounding. And yet, no. There's a difference between "just enough of an arsehole to be worth liking," and just plain old arsehole. There's also a difference between morally grey and morally bankrupt. I feel increasingly under the impression that the writers don't know the difference.

On a related note: the true Sherlock Holmes was never, ever a sociopath (the term "sociopath" hasn't been used by any respected psychiatric authority since the 1960s - Sherlock would know that, even if the writers don't.) He has been sexist, but he has never been devoid of moral feeling. He has occassionally been devoid of tact, and often focused on fact over feelings, which are clearly very very different things. It's often remarked that as a character Sherlock Holmes is admirable, but that it's hard to like him. That's never stopped me before. That is, it's never stopped me with the original stories. Even within other adaptations, I have a great deal of affection for him and the stories he inhabits. With this series, they've done a good job of twisting that affection into disdain and disappointment.  

Oh! And whose idea was it to harass a historically asexual/non-sexual character on his orientation? That was an added touch of pure ignorance - and that amidst the existing pool of unreason, it must have been the audience's birthday! Then, of course, they couldn't possibly forget to lean on the fact that Sherlock kept Irene Adler's photo in the stories! I mean, it's a given that he should be harassed for being non-sexual and non-romantic, but of ~course, if he were actually interested in sex and romance, he's obviously secretly definitely, ~definitely straight. Never mind that he also kept a bust and picture of Goethe. Nevermind that he has a picture of Poe in his bedroom. Nevermind that Irene was (in the original stories) a woman who just barely outwitted him, who ~just got away. Forget that it's perfectly conceivable that he might admire her resourcefulness and cunning -- they're just the things that as a character he always admires -- no, he obviously kept her picture because he wants to fuck her. Of course! God forbid a man admire and wish to remember a woman and not want to fuck her. Never mind all other evidence that he's content being a non-sexual non-romantic creature. Never mind respecting his orientation as valid. Never mind that Watson explicitly states that Holmes wasn't interested in Irene romantically/sexually, nevermind that he was willing witness at her wedding-- Oh, but they've found a solution for that as well! Watson was lying! Of course he was! How convenient for them!

I cannot adequately express just how disgusting it is that they are trying to suggest, in this same scene, that this particular interpretation/incarnation of the character of Sherlock Holmes is somehow the secretly ultra-accurate portrait of the 'real' Sherlock Holmes. They literally state that the original stories are glossed-over for the good of Dr Watson's reading public of the time. How narcissistic and power-hungry (and delusional) do you have to be to say that your adaptation is somehow a more 'real' or 'accurate' portrayal? "Oh, he's arguably one of the best-loved characters of all time? Well ours is more accurate and better and we have mobile phones!" The original Holmes is an icon, a simple character who is at the same time exceedingly complex, he's paradoxical and he's wonderful. He stands the test of time. And there was once a time when I would have defended this BBC portrayal of Sherlock as the most accurate adaptation I've seen - a rougher, younger Sherlock, but tactfully brought into the real and present day. Not anymore. They've ended up exaggerating Sherlock's flaws so that they consume his entire character - the drug-use/-addiction, the tactlessness. Then they have all the other characters hate on him, slap him, mock him because of the exaggerated character traits that once accented Sherlock Holmes, and that the audience once loved so much. I just feel like the entire series is being geared towards people hating Sherlock Holmes, hating this series. I don't understand what the intent is for making these narrative choices.

You cannot put your characters into situations, have them graphically violated and manipulated and slander them in-text, and then give a small throw-away line as if to forgive all trespasses. Audience engagement doesn't work like that. You're working towards your audience feeling violated. Offended. And we're given no justice, no closure. And rest assured: we remember everything. Why are there no repercussions? Why is there so much that doesn't add up, why is so much skated over, if this is meant to be the accurate depiction of the 'real' Sherlock Holmes and his world?

I don't trust the writers of this series. I don't trust them to give me closure, to take me on a journey or tell me a story that doesn't rankle in the wrong way -  that doesn't violate reasonable sensibilities and then shrug off the trespass in the following moment. I feel like I should be slapping the creators with a glove and screaming "I demand satisfaction!" Because this latest instalment (the latest two instalments) have done little more than alienate and aggravate me. Even to the point that I'm ashamed of having once been a fan of this series. Even saying that I ask myself: am I over-reacting here? But I reason with myself, and I still feel it's true. It's become a series that I truly don't even recognise anymore. It feels warped. And I don't know how they can turn it back into a story about Sherlock making the transition from great man to good one. I'm not convinced that they have an idea of what a good man is, given what they're letting their characters get away with.

Moral relativity is a thing, but surely it's not just me that thinks the BBC Sherlock bar for "good" or "acceptable" is severely and unrepentantly low. Like I said: there's a difference between morally grey and morally bankrupt. There's not even any in-depth critique about actions, no reasonable discussion - everything's allowed, everything's thrown under the rug of "I'm a sociopath! He's a sociopath! She's a sociopath! Everyone's a sociopath!" Not only is that boring in the extreme to watch, it's so unsubtle that it's infuriating. There's no examination of what someone's shitty remark or action means. There's no weight to any interaction. It's pointless banter. It's flimsy. And when anything goes, then by what basis can they be solving crimes and catching 'bad guys'?

The vision for the series feels shot to shit. It feels like the series' universe has become an absolute fiction, devoid of any consequences, lacking in insight, depth, and subtlety, and populated almost exclusively by characters who drive me to be empty of any sympathetic feeling. I know that it's perfectly possible to write hateful characters who are never-the-less engaging, who inspire sympathy and empathy. But this series does neither. Look at the characters on paper and they become nothing. They're empty. I struggle to find instances of cogent speech that reflect some semblance of a fleshed out character beneath the flaking veneer. It's like they're just spouting words, but the words themselves have lost all meaning. And even when I find a moment that seems like it rings true and clear to the character that's speaking (Mycroft asking Sherlock if he'd made a list of narcotics used was the first that came to mind), that poignant moment is directly contradicted by their actions in a multitude of ways (your brother's killer is sitting right next to you, and you don't mind). That's a man who loves his baby brother (emotional reasoning) who is fine with his brother's flippant murderer a) still breathing, b) un-punished, c) being all sassy and nonchalant about Sherlock's drug abuse, and d) hacking into government restricted records in front of 'The British Government'. THAT SHOULD TRIGGER A FUCKING EMOTIONAL REACTION. It results in the portrayal of an inconceivable level of self-deception and compartmentalisation that reasonable men with moral feeling wouldn't stand. The characters don't feel solid. There's no integrity to them. You examine their reasoning, their internal logic, their actions, and they crumble to pieces. That, or they're so two-dimensional that they don't stand up to scrutiny anyway. It's all contradictions -- but they don't make a beautiful paradox, they make a jumble of nonsense tropes.

Beyond my perverse observation of how... wrong they seem, how much they betray how they're straying from the vision of the first and even the second series, these last episodes have simply served to make me disinterested in practically every single character. This is a truly impressive feat when they were once among my most-loved. I feel so fucking jaded. But all of the crap is just piling up to the point where I'm literally just stepping away from this series. I'm figuratively and literally throwing my hands up and saying: you know what? Fuck off. I have a feeling it may be like a car-crash for me for the next few episodes -- "don't wanna look but you can't turn away" -- but I don't see how they could bring the series back from this. I can't be the only person that's feeling seriously, seriously wronged by this episode. I can't be. Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me. Burn me thrice? Fuck. Off. I'm off to watch something that doesn't make me want to throw up and claw my own face off .

So yeah.

After quietly “breaking up” with the show -- think in the style of Jon Snow bitterly saying: “My Watch is Ended“ -- I semi-waited for S4. I say semi-waited because I wasn’t going to watch it. But I was still hopeful, at least a little bit, on the behalf of the people that I followed on here, that I met in real life, that still had hope for the series. I thought to myself: “maybe. maybe it won’t be shit. maybe they’ll explain what the fuck why the fuck how the fuck.“

As we've found, and as I've mentioned, from what I have seen from my tumblr feed tonight, it went about as well as I expected.

I still haven't seen S4. The last episode I watched was TAB. But from what I've seen on here, it's been a clusterfuck of queer-coded villains, and copious dashings of even bigger plotholes than before, logical blackholes, more morally reprehensible crap -- and so many inconsistencies, it'll make your head spin worse than the hammed-up cinematography.

So, I'm so sorry for the people that had such high hopes, and who were deceived and let down in a big way. I -- and all of us, I think -- know that in the greater scheme of things, one TV show that went to shit, as TV shows are prone to do, isn’t so horrible a thing. But this show meant a huge amount to me. It meant an enormous amount to many, many others. I think of the creative fan-community, so many hours making gorgeously complex filthy brilliant heartwarming heartbreaking fic (so so much better than what we received)... to have what spawned that creative storm of brilliance and engaging life-affirming work -- life-consuming and life-ruining (in the good way) in equal measure -- to have what brought these works about go so bad, it actually hurts. It hurts less for me now, because I'm much further away from it than I was a couple of years ago. But it still stinks. And if it hurts me, I can't imagine how much that'd suck to have the show you spent so long making intensive work around go down the gurgler. The fandom and the general community that surrounded this show, for the most part, were way beyond what it ended up deserving.

In further efforts to legitimise my (our) frustration and disappointment, I'll reiterate that engagement in fiction is a huge part of our modern lives. We care about what happens to these characters and these stories. It matters, for one thing, because representation matters (be that queer, female, moral). Media fucking matters. It mirrors and exaggerates reality, and they ended up giving us a steaming pile of bullshit. (In a positive metaphor, this bullshit may still be used as effective manure from which better works can spring. Just be careful handling it.)

But, I have to say, given the backlash, I am also giddy. Because people aren't standing for it.

People are still making up theories to excuse where the show has gone, and what they've done, but at this point it really is super-keen denial, which some have realised even as they speak it. But the denial, the desperate “surely this is a trick” reaction, while sweet in its idealism, is also really sad. Because I don't think 'The Show' is gonna come back from this. I don't think they can get away with what they have been putting on the screens anymore. How can they? I can't forgive them. And after S4? I'm getting the impression that most of the world who gave the slightest of shits about BBC Sherlock can't forgive them either.

But lastly, I just want to say: okay, it hurts now. It really hurts. I remember that I was going through some horrible shit when they first started fucking up this show. Really shit timing, Show. I don't remember much from that time, just snippets, because that's how the brain copes. But I remember saying to my sister in a fit of desperate honesty: "all the therapy things I read, they say you're meant to hold onto the little things that makes life worth living, that you live for, that you want to see and experience more of... But BBC Sherlock was that for me, and it can't be that for me anymore?" I remember so clearly it being a question because I was fucking lost and BBC Sherlock was my refuge, anchor, thing that I could cling to as a source of enjoyment and escape and engagement. And it disappeared, nonsensically. There was no beauty to the unravelling, it just turned to crap on me. So if I sound like I'm being overly dramatic, trust that it’s coming from a real place, of just... complete disillusionment and disappointment. And to be not only without that refuge, but to have it turn into something grotesque that appalled me on a number of levels... that was just insult to injury.

“Breaking up with the show“ actually felt like a real-life relationship breakdown. Recently, I remember reblogging that post by alecslightvood:

one of the saddest things is when a show you invested so much of your time into and became emotionally attached to seriously fucks up and you are no longer captivated by it whether it’s because of illogical plots with zero substance, ooc characters, sexist writing or because the show kills off and treats minorities horrendously, and all you have left is this bitterness at how things turned out because something that once made you happy now leaves you emotionally and mentally drained.

and I remember tagging it: "it feels like being betrayed, the mixture of heartbreak frustration and disbelief, 'why are you doing this?', 'you're not who I fell in love with', 'you're not who I thought you were', 'you're not who I'd hoped you'd be', BBC Sherlock, I'm looking at you." Because my god, that descriptor fits Sherlock to a tee. I don't know what show they were talking about (the original post is gone,) but god that fits Sherlock so well.

I’m glad I jumped ship when I did (I actually mistyped “shit” there, guys, Freudian slip,) because honestly, I’m so so sorry for you guys that stuck it out. I had some closet hope for your wishes and genius plots (the ones you wove, not theirs) to come together in a beautiful climax that would justify everything. That would have been glorious.

But as it is. You are allowed to dump this show. You are certainly not alone. And I highly recommend it. The reason I’m pleased with this shows catastrophic fall (hah,) amidst the outrage and frustration, is because to be rid of it is freeing. To be rid of the quietly-but-growing-louder queer-baiting queer-bashing woman-hating show that does everything it can to insult the majority of those minorities who watch it, that insults the intelligence of its viewers with stupidity while screaming that it's the best... That's a good thing.

[solarprophecy]

The Lying Detective

Holy fuck. That was simultaneously the funniest and the most heart-wrenching episode of Sherlock EVER.

I’m still basically incoherent, but here are some of my initial thoughts (spoilers under the cut, obviously):

I think Mofftiss did a brilliant job moving some key pieces into play for johnlock...while keeping the surface reading of the show apparently heteronormative enough that viewers who don’t want to see johnlock can still believe that’s not where it’s going.

For example, in the het reading Sherlock saving Irene suggests he loves her, and John’s suggestion that his pal go and hit that is totally one manly dude being his bro’s loyal wingman etc etc. And Sherlock denying that he and Irene have trysts, and saying he doesn’t want to, can be interpreted (again on the surface reading) as Sherlock is het but married to his work.

BUT listen to the things John is shouting at Sherlock: “You bloody moron, she’s out there, she likes you and she’s alive, and do you have the first idea how lucky you are ... trust you to fall for a sociopath... That chance doesn’t last forever; it’s gone before you know it” etc. Christ, John, listen to the words coming out of your mouth. You’re talking about your own feelings. You’re talking about yourself. Sherlock is alive, he faked his death, he’s here now, and John has been given a second chance. He needs to take that before it’s too late. And I think he’ll realize this next ep.

omg poor smoll Sherlock feeling guilty that Mary saved his life because he doesn’t think it was worth saving *cries*

When does this episode take place i.e. what day is Sherlock’s bday? If they’re following their usual pattern of having show time correspond somewhat with real time, his bday could totally be Jan 6...

Still not sure if this is real or not, but the current info about John cheating is that he had an emotional but not physical affair. That’s still awful but not quite as bad as the physical (in my opinion). Not to mention you could argue Sherlock saving Irene and occasionally replying to her texts even though he doesn’t want to is a parallel (as, indeed, Sherlock says himself). i.e. however wrong this is, they are somewhat equally wrong. This is a relief to me because I don’t think johnlock can/should happen unless John and Sherlock are equally good/bad, equally problematic, know each other’s flaws, etc. This keeps them on fairly level ground imho.

and speaking of the affair, isn’t it interesting that the one person John was seriously tempted by, and who he absolutely loved texting...turned out to be Sherlock’s sister. John definitely loves super-intelligent rule-breakers with [apparent] sociopathic tendencies...

Interesting that Sherlock says “Isn’t that right, Mary?” to the apparently empty flat on their way out for cake. Sure, he could just be doing it because he saw John talking to imaginary Mary...or could this be a clue that she’s not actually dead?

there’s a clear time jump between THE HUG™ and John & Sherlock going out for cake, and yet it’s also clearly the same day (they’re wearing the same clothes and still talking about Sherlock’s birthday as if it’s that day). I wonder what happened between those 2 things? I do not subscribe to any of the theories that John & Sherlock are already together and the audience just doesn’t know about it yet, so I don’t think they had sex or anything...but I would love to know how the hug ended, how they looked at each other after, what if anything was said, etc.

John crying right before the hug, and seeing actual tears dripping from his eyes onto his shirt...that fucking killed me. Martin Freeman is amazing.

to me it sounds like Sherrinford is supposed to be in a loony bin or under house arrest somewhere (you know what happened to the Other One, Mycroft seems to have regular calls with her). It will be interesting to hear how she slipped her chains and went about fucking shit up. Alternatively, Mycroft’s calls could indicate he was in on whatever her plan is—either willingly or because she has him over a barrel somehow. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

Sherlock spelling FUCK OFF by the route he was taking—OMFG I died laughing.

I LOVED every single fucking thing in the whole episode with Hudders, but the whole handcuffing Sherlock, getting the Speedy’s boys to toss hi in the boot and dragging his ass to John via high-speed car chase...holy shit. BEST THING EVER I WAS CACKLING

I’m sure I’ve forgotten half the things I want to say, but this list is long enough to be getting on with. In conclusion EEEEEEEE

Also...I have a feeling all the casual reviewers whining about how Sherlock has totally lost the plot, and the writers and actors are just phoning it in now, are going to be doing some serious backpedaling, starting with this ep :DDDDD

[annazverina]

The Six Thatchers (Spoilers)

I haven’t been on Tumblr in forever because I really didn’t see any real purpose on here. But I decided to come back and give my review on the Series 4 premiere of Sherlock. I’m in a little bit of a rush to get this up, so if something doesn’t make sense or if I get a plot point incorrect, sorry about that! I do not have time to rewatch a 90 minute episode. 

Sherlock is my favorite TV show. My mom showed it to me last fall and I instantly fell in love within the first few minutes. After that I went on a binge and I thoroughly enjoyed each episode. 

My mom and I went to see TAB in theaters and we had a lot of fun being in the same theater with two hundred other Sherlock fans. We’re going back to the theater to see The Final Problem in two weeks. 

Let’s talk about The Six Thatchers. By the way, this entire review contains spoilers. 

There were many enjoyable parts, but most of those were towards the beginning when it felt more like Sherlock from the first series. The first scene includes a childish argument between Sherlock and Mycroft, which was quite enjoyable to watch. Gatiss provided plenty of humor during the first half before it turned to the ‘Dark Side.’

Let’s talk about the characters. 

Sherlock was pretty much the same person to me. The same consulting detective who sucks at social skills. Obviously there was some character development in him, but I was satisfied. 

John Watson... I was very dissappointed with his character. It didn’t feel like I was watching the same person. Both he and Sherlock made vows, and they both broke them. Sherlock couldn’t control Mary jumping in front of a bullet to save him. However, John chose to text that other woman, he chose to break that vow, and it’s disappointing to see him that way. 

Mary Morestan, who we find out is actually named Rosamund, the same name as her daughter. I always liked Mary. The kind woman who we see in TEH. However, I hate Rosamund, the assassin. I hate how she lied to everyone. I’m glad she got to live a somewhat normal life when she met John and they were living happily ever after. Of course Sherlock had to rise from the dead and screw everything up, but that’s just him. She died protecting Sherlock, which I kind of predicted. I live in the US, so I had to avoid any Sherlock related social media for six hours. During that time, Amanda Abbington posted on Twitter a photo of herself captioned “RIP Mary Morestan.” I had a feeling Mary was going to die, and I’m kind of glad she’s gone. 

Mycroft, Mrs. Hudson, Lestrade, and Molly haven’t changed. They’re the same people we remember. 

THE EPISODE ITSELF

Towards the beginning it felt like the same Sherlock I remember binge-watching in 2015. There was light humor, and it started with Lestrade inviting Sherlock and John on a case. The case wound up with Sherlock trying to figure out why people were busting heads of Margaret Thatcher, which ultimately led to Mary.

Like I said before, I already knew Mary would die, but that doesn’t change how I feel about the episode. The whole story felt rushed and I disliked the action scenes. They don’t feel like they belong in a story about a detective and his partner. At this point it doesn’t feel like a detective and assistant story. Sherlock is now estranged from John and has nobody. 

Towards the end of the episode Mycroft makes a phone call and mentions Sherrinford. Is “the other one” also known as the third Holmes brother real? That’d be cool to see. I’ve read rumors about Tom Hiddleston portraying Sherrinford but for all I know it could be someone completely different. 

At this point I just want to watch the last two episodes to finish the story. The creators have been building up this story for the past six years and I can’t wait to see how it ends. I’m well aware that if there’s a fifth season, it’ll be a while before we get it. I just hope they don’t end it on a cliff hanger. Based on the content in the trailer, I believe The Lying Detective and The Final Problem will be much better than TST (T6T? I like that better!) I’ll be back next week to review The Lying Detective. 

[stahlop]

Once Upon a Time 1x17 “Hat Trick” Review

Reviews 1x01 1x02 1x03 1x04 1x05 1x06 1x07 1x08 1x09 1x10 1x11 1x12 1x13 1x14 1x15 1x16

Have I ever voiced my opinion on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and how much I love it? And not only do I love it, but I love most alternative versions of it as well (The Looking Glass Wars book series, the Alice version the SyFy channel put out, not the awful Johnny Depp version), so this episode is definitely up my alley.  Especially because it introduced me to Sebastian Stan!! (And I’ve only seen the first Captain America and really know very little about the rest of the Marvel Universe). And fun fact, Jennifer Morrison and Sebastian Stan started dating sometime after this episode, but then broke up a year later. So on with the actual review.

Summary: While looking for an escaped Mary Margaret, Emma finds herself kidnapped in the home of an eccentric man who claims to believe in the curse. In the EF, the Evil Queen tasks a man with a special hat to help her retrieve something from Wonderland.

Opening: Large mushrooms

New Characters: 

Jefferson/Mad Hatter: I will refer to Jefferson as the Mad Hatter in the EF storyline just for clarification purposes, because otherwise it will get too confusing.

In Storybrooke, Jefferson is a broken man. Regina has made it so that he’ll want for nothing, just like she promised his daughter in the EF, but he doesn’t have his daughter to share it with. Jefferson has a unique curse put upon him. He knows he and the town are cursed but until Emma made time start moving, was only able to observe it from his house above the town. Now that time is moving and things are changing, Jefferson is determined to have Emma work her ‘magic’ and make him another portal hat so he can take his daughter, Grace, and go back home. Now, from what we gather in the EF storyline, it seems Jefferson was not always a good man, so it makes sense that he will do something sinister like kidnap both Emma and Mary Margaret to get what he wants. He’s also pretty desperate. And as we know, desperate souls will do anything to get what they want when there’s nothing to lose. Eventually, Emma and Mary Margaret get the jump on him, but he disappears before Emma can arrest him or take him to the hospital for the amount of times he gets hit and beaten up on.

We find out much more about the Mad Hatter (though not mad yet) in the EF. He is apparently widowed with a little girl, Grace, who is his whole world. They make money by foraging for mushrooms and selling them at the market. We see that the Mad Hatter loves his daughter more than anything and would do anything to make it an easier life for her. From the conversation he has with the Evil Queen, he lost Grace’s mother due to what he used to do with the hat. He doesn’t want Grace to lose her father as well. He tells the Evil Queen that there is nothing more important than family. Unfortunately, he loses his resolve pretty quickly after Grace wants to buy a stuffed bunny at the market and the Mad Hatter can’t afford it. Grace says it’s fine because she just wants her father, but he can’t see that, he just sees what he can’t give her. So, even though Grace begs him not to (listen to your kid Mad Hatter), he sends her to the neighbors so he can work with the Evil Queen. He pulls out a large hat box. At the Evil Queen’s castle, the Mad Hatter brings out the hat and spins it, it creates a portal which he and the Evil Queen jump into together. They go to a doorway that looks like a looking glass. The Mad Hatter remind the Evil Queen of the rules that they both have to enter together and leave together. Same number in as out. He hates Wonderland. For what it’s worth, with the Evil Queen there, she and the Mad Hatter get through to the center of the maze pretty quickly, but of course are caught by the Queen of Heart’s guards right after Regina retrieves the box she is there for.  They manage to out maneuver and out magic the guards and head back to the door. Unfortunately, the Evil Queen’s father was in the box, and she makes him big again with a piece of mushroom. This means the Mad Hatter can’t go back though because there are now too many people. He is devastated when the Evil Queen and Henry, Sr. leave him behind. So devastated he doesn’t even try to run away when the guards come to capture him. He just lets them drag him to the Queen of Hearts. It’s a very creepy court with most people wearing masks and the Queen of Hearts wearing a veil over her face. She wants to know how the Mad Hatter got to Wonderland, he just wants to go back home to his daughter. She orders ‘Off with his head!’. Except in Wonderland, you don’t die when your head is cut off.  Freaky! The Queen’s right-hand man says if he wants to go home he needs to make another hat. And that’s how he becomes the Mad Hatter.

Character Observations:

Evil Queen/Regina: Well the Evil Queen certainly lives up to her name in this episode. She purposefully brings the Mad Hatter to Wonderland knowing full well if she gets what she came for that he won’t be able to come back because of the rules of the hat. And she manipulates him terribly to get what she wants. The Mad Hatter does not want to work for the Evil Queen again, but she puts doubt in his mind about Grace’s happiness. She disguises herself as a toy seller and deliberately won’t sell the Mad Hatter a stuffed bunny Grace wants, which makes him feel like he can’t provide for her well, regardless of Grace saying all that matters is him. But, at the same time, the Evil Queen is trying to get her family back, so we see her confliction when the Mad Hatter is begging her not to leave him there to get back to his Grace. She throws back his earlier statement that you don’t abandon family and also says if he really cared for Grace he never would have left her. I think someone is doth protesting a little too much.

Only a little bit with Regina this time. She is in cahoots with Gold and wanted Mary Margaret to escape. For what reason, we don’t know. She looked so happy when she didn’t see Emma’s car at the sheriff’s station and then absolutely shocked when Mary Margaret is just casually reading the newspaper in her cell.

Emma: She is desperate to find Mary Margaret before anyone finds out she is missing. Regardless of whether Mary Margaret is guilty or not she will be a fugitive of the law. Gold reminds her that Mary Margaret needs to be back in her cell by her arraignment the next morning, so Emma is now working on a timeline. When Gold calls her out for putting her job in jeopardy, Emma says she’d rather lose her job than with her friend. She is so distracted out in the woods searching for Mary Margaret that she accidentally makes Jefferson dive off the road so she doesn’t hit him. Of course she lies to him about why she’s out in the woods, but drives him home because now he’s limping. Emma seems quite impressed by his mansion and comments that he must have a large family, but he tells her it’s just him. Emma looks sad when he says it’s just him. Maybe that’s why she helps him inside and takes the tea he offers. Don’t take food from strangers, Emma! Because, of course, Emma gets drugged. She’s lucky, that Jefferson is shit with picking up after himself, because that drugged teacup is still on the carpet. So Emma uses her ex-con skills, breaks the teacup and uses a jagged piece to break her ties. That must have been some pretty flimsy duct tape there. She attempts to see if she can get out a window, but they don’t open. She finds Jefferson’s telescope and sees that it is pointed directly at the sheriff’s station, so he knew she was coming to the woods. She hears a noise and finds Jefferson sharpening a very large pair of scissors. Emma attempts to sneak out of the house, but hits a squeaky floor panel, and of course the room she decides to hide in holds an also kidnapped Mary Margaret. Seriously, with the amount of rooms this house has, what are the odds she ends up in the one that Mary Margaret is in? So this is the point where Mary Margaret decides to tell Emma about the key in her cell and while they’re distracted trying to figure out who put it there, Emma only looks one way out the door of the room, completely missing the fact that Jefferson is in the opposite hallway with a gun. Emma claims to have called backup (who the hell else works at the sheriff’s station?) but Jefferson knows she’s lying and makes her tie Mary Margaret back up. Emma threatens Jefferson if he hurts Mary Margaret and he says he was just protecting her from trying to cross the town line because of the curse. Emma is, understandably, confused and asks if he’s been reading Henry’s book. Now Jefferson is confused.  He thinks Emma is talking about the Evil Queen’s father, but she informs him that she’s talking about the mayor’s son. Jefferson is pissed off at Emma for ignoring the stories. He tells her she brought magic to Storybrooke and he wants her to get his hat to work again. Emma realizes he thinks he’s the Mad Hatter and they go into a debate about what kind of stories are real (they talk about the Civil War which is funny now because later on Sebastian Stan will be in Captain America: Civil War). He also says that people always want a magical solution to their problems but refuse to believe in magic. Jefferson tells Emma she’s arrogant to think that our world is the only world to exist and tells her about the infinite worlds that are out there. Emma is frustrated trying to make a hat for Jefferson. She wants to know what’s so cursed about his life. He explains about Grace/Paige. Emma thinks he should reach out to her but he doesn’t want her to hold the same burden he does. Emma tells him she knows what it’s like to feel like you’re losing your mind, but he’s not having it, he’s not crazy. Emma almost seems like she’s starting to believe him and mentions that if she believes then Mary Margaret is her mother. She says she’ll try to get the hat to work, but it’s just a distraction. Emma grabs the telescope and whacks Jefferson over the head and then goes to rescue Mary Margaret. Of course Jefferson isn’t down for the count yet. They fight and Mary Margaret shoves him out the window, where he promptly disappears. Emma gives Mary Margaret the keys to her bug to give her the choice whether to leave or not. She tells her she’s family and she can’t lose her (then she backtracks and calls her her friend instead). Emma goes to visit Henry and meets Paige. She asks Henry if she can look at the book and looks up the Mad Hatter’s story. She wants to keep the book for a little bit. Maybe this is her way of believing a little bit.

Mar Margaret: So she has escaped from her jail cell using the key that someone left for her. How does she think this is a good idea. Mary Margaret is a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them. Yes, she uses bad judgement sometimes (David), but all in all, the way Mary Margaret is under the curse, she would not take matters into her own hands. So she’s running around in the woods trying to escape.  She is apparently attacked by Jefferson and brought to his house where Emma finds her tied up. And, because they decide to talk about why Mary Margaret ran instead of paying attention while trying to escape, they are caught by Jefferson and Mary Margaret gets tied back up. Eventually, Emma escapes again and partially rescues Mary Margaret before Jefferson comes back to attack them again. Mary Margaret’s quick thinking has her hit Jefferson with a croquet mallet before using some cool ninja move to kick him out the window (prompting Emma to ask if she’s been taking kickboxing). Emma gives Mary Margaret the option to keep running, but she eventually decides to go face the music when Emma calls her family. Somehow, she ends up back in her cell before Regina gets to the sheriff’s station acting as though she’d been there all night.

Gold: He and Regina made some sort of deal that made him put the key in Mary Margaret’s bed. He seems to have a great distaste for Regina, and only made this deal to get something from her. We don’t know what the deal is or what anyone gets from it.

Questions:

Emma claims she called for back up to Jefferson. Where is there back up? Isn’t Emma the only person who works in the sheriff’s office?

Why is Emma only wearing a tank top and leather jacket? Mary Margaret is in a button up shirt, sweater and peacoat. It’s cold out there as it’s either still winter or closing in on spring (based on the Valentine’s Day episode). It’s not warm enough for tank tops, Emma.

If Jefferson has a clear shot of the sheriff's station from his house with the telescope, how has Emma never noticed the mansion before? It would have to be clear enough that no trees were in the way covering it for Jefferson to have two telescopes set up on two different places in town.

How did Jefferson get caught up in the curse if he was in Wonderland? Did the Evil Queen manage to get him out right before the curse hit?

This is another storyline that leaves a lot up to chance. Even if Jefferson seized and opportunity, how did he know Mary Margaret would come anywhere near his part of the woods? How did he know Emma would come searching there as well? Is there only one drivable road in the woods for Jefferson to have been waiting on? How did he know Emma would offer him a ride? How did Jefferson know she would come inside the house or drink the tea? How long would he have kept Emma and Mary Margaret to try and make the hat work?

Where did Jefferson go? Did the hat work or did he just manage to run off really fast before Emma and Mary Margaret could look out the window?

How did Mary Margaret make it back to the jail so fast? She didn’t even look out of breath when Regina arrived.

Observations:

At least one of the other doors in the hat goes to Oz.

The door to Wonderland has rules. Only the same amount of people who enter can leave. No more, no less.

The Evil Queen says she has a history with the Queen of Hearts.

The wall of boxes that the Evil Queen retrieves her father from looks very much like Regina’s wall of hearts in her crypt in Storybrooke.

Paige’s family in Storybrooke are the neighbors the Mad Hatter sent Grace to when he went off to Wonderland.

I’m thinking the reason the Queen of Hearts wears a veil is either because they haven’t cast the person in the role permanently yet, or they don’t want the audience to know who she is yet.

Jefferson has a scar around his neck from where his head was caught off in Wonderland.

Mary Margaret uses a croquet mallet to hit Jefferson. Croquet is the game the Queen of Hearts likes to play in the original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Although she uses flamingos for mallets.

There is a distinct sucking sound about the time Jefferson should land on the ground after Mary Margaret kicks him out the window.

The Storybrooke Daily Mirror headline reads: Heartless! School teacher jailed for murder charge.

Names:

Both Jefferson and Grace are named from the band Jefferson Airplane (later Starship) whose lead singer was named Grace Slick. They had a hit song called White Rabbit which references the mushrooms from Wonderland that make you grow bigger and smaller.

I liked this episode, even though we were introduced to a new character so late in the season. Hopefully, we’ll see more of Jefferson because he was kind of cool when he wasn’t drugging Emma or trying to shoot her.  Maybe he’ll have more chill once the curse is broken and he and Grace are reunited. I do wonder what Regina’s end game is with this whole Kathryn thing. Why give Mary Margaret a chance to escape when she obviously wants her locked away for a long time. Was it because she knows Mary Margaret can’t actually leave town? Emma seems to be having a bit more faith after everything, so hopefully she will start to believe soon.

Please leave comments and reblog!

@searchingwardrobes @thisonesatellite @justbecauseyoubelievesomething @laschatzi @profdanglaisstuff @mariakov81