Peace 47

ScarJo did a great job with everything and really has comedic chops in knowing how to do a line reading or pull an expression for maximum effect, which I think did help some of the weaker sketches. As noted upthread, those weaker still came off relatively well, and I think having a pro hosting is a reason why. She is also looking amazing these days. I mean, she's always looked great, but she was really stunning when she came out for the monologue. What I liked about the dog sketch was that after the humans kept going, "No, you don't really believe that," Beck had a killer delivery of "I absolutely do." Haha. There was a lot going on in that Olive Garden sketch: the casual racial microaggressions of the director, the wacky directions the actors had to go in (with the height thing and the pasta face thing). I kind of felt like it was a little cheap to go for the orgasm jokes with everything else going on (like they really wanted to cover their bases), but sex will reliably get a big laugh, and so they went with the best chance to really sell the sketch. Mansplaining feminism was good. I feel like this may be more of a liberal enclave problem because where I live, I recently encountered both men and women in a forum adamantly asserting that microaggressions don't even exist anymore at all: that there is absolute equality for those who want it in corporate America. I kind of wish mansplaining feminists were my biggest problem, lol. I posted before some other people were discussing how she is a somewhat forgettable host. I kind of disagree in that there are some potential classics in her work: chandeliers, the Black Widow trailer sketch (but that really needs the original music, which online versions no longer have, for max effect).

Nice to see that Leslie and Kyle are still "together." Was Bill Clinton white chocolate? I was away from my TV at that point and couldn't see clearly, but if so, that's hilarious. I liked "Elizabeth Warren" grilling on Colin on being a full cast member when he only appears in 10 minutes of the show. Very meta considering how many characters Kate does. I thought that monologue was really kind of mean, and Alec was a good sport for all of those many unrelenting digs at his looks. For a 17-time host, I thought they could have come up with something a little more special. I'm just going to be repeating what everyone is saying about Melissa, but she's a comedic virtuoso. It's amazing what she does with that impression, and I died when Spicie showed off the bangle and the shoes while the QVC info flashed. Great stuff.

I listen to "I Grieve" from time to time, and I generally think of the scene in which it was used when I do so (Sydney returning to SD-6 only to be facing Sloane and Sark after thinking that she had delivered Sloane to Sark so that Sark could kill him). That scene still stands out to me, even though I haven't watched the show in quite awhile. Other songs from the show made their way into my iTunes library (that Sarah McLachlin song, "Dirty Little Secret" comes to mind), but I kind of divorced the songs from their scene meaning after so many years. I also bought the S1 and S2 soundtracks back in the day, and those pop up on my iTunes shuffle every so often. I do enjoy Michael Giacchino as a composer quite a bit. I have a strong dislike for the show finale, but I was always sorry that they never released a S5 soundtrack because the theme that he composed for the finale was really beautiful, and I'd like to be able to listen to it.

Nevermind. Question already answered!

One last thing that made me sad about this episode is that I know everybody watches this show for different reasons, but I just have always really enjoyed how the characters of John and Sherlock played off of each other, whether they were giggling over silliness in Buckingham Palace, or bickering in 221B over hiding Sherlock's cigarettes, or going on the run while handcuffed together--I always found their interactions quite compelling, but this episode, they didn't have much of a chance to bounce off of each other, one-on-one. I mean, it's clear that they were pretty much rock-solid after last week's cathartic breakdown in that they weren't at odds, but they were a triad with Mycroft for most of the episode and being brutally psychologically tortured, so, you know, not quite the opportunity for some nice, funny or compelling teamwork moments of "just the two of them against the rest of the world."

I like your whole post, agree with it, and want to take it on a bit of a tangent. I feel like this is symptomatic of everything (that I view as) wrong with this show: there are few real consequences, and when no action has consequences, and no decision affects any other, how are we to remain invested in what happens to these characters? I take issue with the cheap ending of the last episode when John appeared to be in danger. I don't recall if it was upthread or a review that I was reading last night that said Eurus specifically said in "The Lying Detective" that she was going to "put a hole" in John, and we saw a gunshot (not a tranquilizer gun) go off. But that was cheaply exited from at the top of this episode. Many in the thread last week were speculating about why there was a scene of Lady Smallwood trying to romantically connect with Mycroft. Was she a plant? Mycroft had obliquely talked to her about Eurus as far back as S3: how was she going to be important this episode? Well, she wasn't even mentioned. Eurus can exit and enter her ultra high security prison at will, apparently. Why did she ever bother going back once she was free? Why did she wait a year after planting the "Miss Me?" Moriarty video stunt to do anything else? (It was about a year in the show's time between that video and when Eurus showed up again.) How did Eurus knock out Sherlock, John and Mycroft at the prison and force her hypnotized prison staff to transport them all to the old family estate, and construct a set at the estate all within a matter of hours? How does she hypnotize people into doing awful things just by looking at/talking to them? I actually think that the writers do not want us to pay attention to any details but focus only on the very particular feelings that they try to invoke through the characters at any given moment. They just cut away or use a time jump every time that there would be an inconvenient emotion that they no longer want to address or logical inconsistency standing in the way of their next exploitation of a new emotion. This has been a problem since "The Empty Hearse" brushed off most of the heartfelt emotion and logical follow-through of "The Reichenbach Fall," but I feel like it was dialed up tenfold in this season. So yes, at the end of the episode, I was emotionally spent from having to watch Sherlock, John and Mycroft endure psychological torture from which there was no escape (and which their detective skills could not extricate themselves from--lovely for a detective show), but there's no consequence to this--it was an emotional set piece, meant to be forgotten. Everyone worried about Molly need not care: she showed up happy in the ending montage (still hopelessly in love with Sherlock, I'm sure). It's very disheartening.

That was another insult from the episode. "The Three Garridebs" offered a nice moment of epic friendship between Holmes and Watson in the stories, with Watson getting grazed by a bullet but saying that it was worth a thousand wounds to see the depth of Holmes' "love and loyalty" in reaction to Watson's injury. Instead, in this version, we drop two Garridebs off a cliff while poor Sherlock is psychologically tortured (after being pushed to the brink physically and mentally last week, after having his dearest friend cut him off the week before last). I'm grateful that this was the finale because I'm quite sure this show wouldn't let up until Sherlock was dead if they intended to keep going. Ugh.

I'm pretty sure that this is me tapping out on my heretofore passionate love for this show. That was a hot mess, and a hopelessly self-indulgent set piece that was psychologically torturous for most it. (There's a reason why I won't watch the Saw movies and wasn't expecting to have to sit through it here.) A grenade goes off in 221B, and John, Sherlock and Mycroft each escape without a scratch. (John and Sherlock doing so by jumping through closed second story-windows, mind you.) This grenade doesn't blast through the floor and take out Mrs. Hudson below, or even char Sherlock's leather chair, which he uprights and sits in at the end of the episode. The girl on the plane is a metaphor for Eurus's lost inner little girl, but she somehow hears Moriarty's voice terrifying her at the beginning of the episode. Why?? I hated the treatment of every woman in this episode. Molly was a sad sack who, despite being a competent physician (and who had the barest hints of a potential Lestrade relationship in prior episodes and was also engaged to someone else) cannot get over Sherlock at all, ever. Eurus is seriously deranged and experiences no emotions whatsoever at the beginning of the episode, not even the primal reaction of pain, but somehow a man (Sherlock) finally paying attention to her lets her break and sob into his arms. And she was terrifying on her own: why did we need her to invoke Moriarty to be truly scary? And finally, Mary, who has to make another DVD for her Time-Life video collection for John, was only ever there to bless Sherlock and John's co-parenting arrangement at the end while they go on solving crimes. I'd also complain about oddities from prior episodes that were never followed through on (Lady Smallwood/Mycroft jumps to mind immediately), but I'm too bitter about what happened in this episode to be bitter about what didn't. ETA: Victor was just Sherlock's friend, not another brother. Victor Trevor was a college friend of Sherlock's in the books.

Just an FYI, but the producers of the show themselves announced on the shows's Facebook and Twitter feeds that the Russian version of this episode (which is the same as the BFI screening version) had been leaked online, and that fans should not try to seek the episode out before the actual airing. That's got a lot of people speculating that the show is playing some kind of game with the audience, and that the real show that airs tomorrow will have a different ending or different scenes. I just can't imagine that this would be the case, but then neither can I imagine advertising that the episode had been leaked. It's all very odd. I guess fair warning on the spoilers previously posted, though.

I'm not sure what is going on with Moriarty in the finale, but I just read the post of someone else who was at the screening, and they said that there is no mention of twins anywhere in the episode (which blows my mind considering the comments about twins in the prior two episodes, and how Sherlock solved a case with triplets in "The Sign of Three"). Someone else said that Moriarty is still definitely dead. Not sure how Andrew Scott is appearing then, unless it is flashbacks. It doesn't sound like he plays a huge role, because people offering spoilers are not really talking about him.

Yes, 3 episodes and done. The actors and writers have been hemming and hawing a little about whether there will be a season 5. Someone (Moffat? Gatiss? Cumberbatch? I forget) said that this time, they felt that they had made something "very complete" or something that implied that they could be done, but then when they were actually cited in articles saying that S4 could be last, Moffat and Gatiss got all up and arms about how the press twist their words and they've made no such confirmation. Given that this show only comes back every 2-3 years, it's going to be a long wait, if it ever does come back. To clarify my prior post, that person offering spoilers mentioned that it wasn't ghost Mary we see again, but DVD Mary. Mary sure goes around leaving a lot of video messages for her friends and loved ones for after she is dead. Must have taken her hours. John: What are you doing in there, darling? Mary: Just planning for the eventuality of my imminent death!

Thanks, Pallas! There was a BFI screening in London of "The Final Problem", and enough spoilers are out and circulating on Twitter and Tumblr for those who care to seek them out (but also watch out for trolls posting false ones like jerks). Probably don't read my post further if you don't want discussion of very specific spoilers that I read on someone's blog whom I follow and who was also a reliable "setlocker" for filming info (but if you don't want spoilers why are you in this thread, then? ;-) ) The events of the actual episode that have leaked out don't sound like they would make for a terrible episode in and of themselves, but that person has also spoken to what does not happen in the episode, and it sounds like none of the wonkiness from TST or TLD is really explained and that it is as I feared: fans came up with a more clever show than what the writers did. John's note to Sherlock from TST is not addressed (minor point); everything that we've seen this season is real (so it doesn't sound like there is anything to the TD-12 drug, or the changing skull picture, or John seemingly acting out of character, like beating the living daylights out of his bff); Mary is really dead and there was nothing more to her death other than that she died as she lived--in a hail of bullets (rimshot), although I guess she has one final ghost scene. Apparently, a new character is introduced, and Sherlock cries over "what happened to her" (in the distant past? unclear) because she was someone that he cared about. And I guess the baby is just something that the show is stuck with because she's apparently still around as a fixture in the final scene. (Why they ever thought a baby in this show was a good idea is completely beyond me. I just don't understand the point or how this illuminates anything significant about either John or Sherlock.) Eurus is apparently Sherlock's younger sister, and so I think we might be able to assume that Andrew Scott is playing Moriarty's twin brother because there has to be a twin somewhere. And apparently the whole episode is dark, harrowing and quite dramatic. In any case, assuming that the spoilers are accurate, I find much of this really disappointing and the season as a whole to have been disjointed, bombastic and without any of the quiet charm from S1 or S2.

There are some really wild theories circulating about what is going on in this episode (and the last episode). It's kind of exciting. So the drug that was referenced in this episode that was later dropped as a plot point: it was called TD-12. Someone on Tumblr figured out that this is probably a reference to "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot," an original canon story ("T" for The, "D" for Devil and "12" for 12 inches in a foot). That story involves poisoning, and so maybe TD-12 is a clue that this drug actually is going to remain important. TD-12 was mentioned by Culverton to compromise memories, not just replace them, so that leads us to the altered reality theories (the sister is just a plant and the memories of her are false ones; Mary is the real sister; Mary's not dead; the baby actually is or doesn't even exist ... weird, wild stuff). And that either Sherlock or John or both are only intermittently experiencing reality (explaining the changing skull picture, why there was such a weird reaction to John's blog, etc.) Tangentially related, I noticed upthread that it was weird how the pretty severe beating John gave Sherlock seemed a bit odd in terms of how it was intercut with a scene between Greg and John (where John seems a little out of it when looking at his bruised hand and relaying the story). Other people noticed that he punched Sherlock with his right hand, even though John is left-handed (but Martin has definitely done some right-handed things on the show, so this doesn't entirely convince me). There has been such a feeling of something being off these past couple of episodes that it would be great if it all comes together.

Well, in fairness to the show, they have had the implication of a wayward sibling included in the show since S3 in 2014, and so it's not like they pulled the concept out of thin air for this season. (And they even implied she was "bad" since Mycroft is "good" and apparently at odds with her in "His Last Vow.") And the William Baring-Gould fan fiction Sherlock Holmes story from the 1960s had the third brother, so it's been part of some pastiches and is not entirely out of left field (same thing with Sherlock's first name being William--that came from Baring-Gould, too). It's not so shocking that the brother in this story would turn out to be a sister: I remember people speculating about that right after the "other one" reference in "His Last Vow." It is quite "soap opera" though.

I swear my captioning for the episode said "Eurus," for whatever that is worth. That's probably still a masculine form? Lady Smallwood I think has the backstory on Eurus, since Mycroft talked to her about "the other one" in "His Last Vow." Someone posted a screencap on another site of Mycroft's notebook, which was under "Alicia" Smallwood's business card. It seemed to list Sherlock's bolt holes from "His Last Vow," including the clock face and Elizabeth Tower. I wonder if that will mean anything. Nothing from Mycroft's notebook in "The Abominable Bride" has really paid off in-story yet.

Mycroft said that he "wasn't prone to outbursts of brotherly compassion--you remember what happened to the other one" to a government person (I think Lady Smallwood herself) in a conversation where Sherlock was not present. (That line implies that Mycroft took a very hard line with Eurus.) We don't really know what Sherlock knows: he keeps a whole lot of things (even his birthday) very close to his vest.

Is there any chance that Eurus isn't the real Eurus? As in, someone has been set up to impersonate the third sibling, who may have disappeared as a child under mysterious circumstances? I don't really think that is likely, but I thought I would just toss it out. It sounds a little X-Files, actually, when I write it out. I saw on a notice for "The Final Problem" that Andrew Scott was third billed for this last episode, which may mean that his part is not small. Moffat and Gatiss have repeatedly said since S2 that Moriarty was dead. Characters within the show have also said in 2 different episodes (TAB and TST) that Moriarty was definitely dead when the question came up. I tended to believe that he was dead as a result. If it is true that Moriarty is dead, and if Andrew Scott does have a big part, that would further solidify hunches that Scott is playing Moriarty's twin brother, as we speculated upthread when he was seen filming last year (bolstered by the twin references in TAB and TST). Given all the emphasis on Moriarty and on Mary last season and this season, I find it hard to believe that both Moriarty and Mary are dead, though, you know? They both keep coming up post mortem in a way that keeps them in all discussions about what may happen (Moriarty obviously more than Mary because she's not been dead long). It's almost anticlimactic for this final showdown (called the freakin' "Final Problem") not to involve the "real" Moriarty, whether that is the Moriarty we once knew, Mary or Eurus. For the first time, I do have doubt that the Moriarty we knew actually died on the roof in S2.

I think that this is good reasoning for Eurus's actions in this episode. I think that she is connected to Moriarty in some way (whether she is the current incarnation of Moriarty (like Dread Pirate Roberts) in picking up his mantle after Original Flavor Moriarty died, or whether original Moriarty isn't dead and is pulling her strings, or what have you). Moriarty previously said that he would "burn the heart out of" Sherlock. Per "His Last Vow," Sherlock's "pressure point" is John, and Mrs. Hudson tearfully told John in this very episode that John is the one who matters most to Sherlock. There's definitely some consideration in hurting Sherlock by targeting John like this. When Eurus had the gun on John, she called John, "it" instead of "he" when she was referring to him in the third person. That reminded me of when Moriarty used to speak derisively of John: calling him a "touchingly loyal pet" and such. By the way, it's funny that none of us are posting, "What happened to John!?!?" at the end. I guess that we all assume that he didn't die.

That was Billy Wiggins. He first appeared in "His Last Vow" as a junkie who hung with Sherlock when Sherlock was using. (He called Sherlock by Sherlock's alias, "Shezza.") He's just someone in Sherlock's orbit and a "friend" in some sense of the word.

Sorry for so many posts by me, but there are people who believe that both last episode and this episode are taking place in some altered reality/ dream/ alibi story. One weird thing last week was that the skull painting in the far right of this picture that I am linking was actually glowing at some points when it never had before. Take a look (although there is some nsfw language at the top of the blog, so beware) at this cap from the episode last night: the skull painting is now pitch black. I wasn't so convinced that all the oddities were not just production errors/ loose writing, but this has to mean something, doesn't it?

I would love for this to be true, mostly for the ego boost that I wouldn't have been wrong for side-eyeing Mary for 3 years, but on the other hand, I would have to continue to call whiplash on this character, as I did last week: she's good; she's bad; she's redeemed; she's .... bad again? I don't know. One thing that may tie Mary and Eurus together is that when Sherlock first deduced Mary in "The Empty Hearse," he saw the word "guardian" in addition to "liar." That was never explained. Was she a guardian of Eurus in some capacity (protecting her so that Eurus and Mary were dark reflections of Sherlock and John)? Also, I corrected one thing on my post above: in TAB, Mind Palace Victorian John asked Sherlock what "made him" need to always be alone, Sherlock said that he made himself this way, and that is when the echo of the children laughing and him asking about Redbeard happened. The glass shattered after that and tore Sherlock back to the case. I misremembered. Might have gotten some of Culverton's memory drug in me.

Ah, a call for my useless episode knowledge. Redbeard was first mentioned in "The Sign of Three" when Sherlock called Mycroft for what appeared to be some moral support (in connection with giving the best man speech). Mycroft warns Sherlock not to get emotionally involved in John's wedding or John's life and cautions Sherlock to "Remember Redbeard." Sherlock responds that he is not a child anymore. After Sherlock is shot in the next episode, he uses an image of a dog he calls Redbeard to calm himself down and keep himself from going into shock. It seems like Redbeard is a positive memory for him. In "The Abominable Bride," Sherlock is in his mind palace stakeout with John, John asks him what made him this way, and that triggers another memory for Sherlock: children laughing, and he asks very quietly, "Redbeard?" before the case (glass shattering) distracts him from pursuing that any further. At the end of the episode, Mycroft's notebook has the word "Redbeard" written in it. This episode and season, we've seen two children and the Redbeard dog in the flashback, I think. I don't really have any sense of where they are going with this, though, but you have some good thoughts there. So confusing about what Lestrade knew and when he knew it. Sherlock mentioned to Lestrade last episode that Mary knew international assassin Ajay, but Mary's secret life was supposed to be all hush-hush. That's what Magnussen died for. But now we have characters telling Lestrade things he didn't know like it was old news. You can hand wave and say that Lestrade is Mycroft's inside man at the police, so he was trusted to know things. Basically I'm not sure if anything is important or just not airtight writing.

This episode reminded me a little bit of "His Last Vow" in terms of how enamored it was with time jumps or abrupt cuts (like Mrs. Hudson showing up at the therapist to start us off, then jumping back in time to the board meeting, then forward to Sherlock and Eurus chatting at 221B). One of the less obtrusive ones, though, that I've been thinking about, is when Greg is interviewing John at the police station, and they cut back to Sherlock and John at the hospital. John looks down at his bruised fists with some "disassociation" in his eyes and said that he really did punch Sherlock, and I thought that just seemed a little odd, like he was establishing a story. (It was just one more weirdness, like the emphasis on the blog that I mentioned, that left me feeling ajar.) Maybe it was just John just processing what he had actually done, but we also saw that it was wayyyy more violent than just some punches--John was kicking Sherlock by the end of it. He might have killed him. The way this show uses this kind of violence with no consequences vexes me. I'm going to be hung up on this like I was Mary shooting Sherlock. We're probably supposed to just believe that this demonstrates how close John (or Mary before) was pushed to the edge of breaking and the violence was just some lashing out, but I'm sitting there saying .... yikes, these people should be in jail. Also, John sat there with Greg and heard the news report about how Culverton was thinking of moving Sherlock to Culverton's favorite room (which Culverton had already said was the morgue), and John processed that--he looked thrown off by that. But he didn't do anything about it until he caught on to Sherlock's full plan through Mary's disk. Even if you are 99% sure that you are done with your bff forever because of their antics, if that 1% of doubt tweaks in you that they are actually in danger, wouldn't you go to them at the moment of the threat? Not being a good detective if you don't. And the way that John pouted and wouldn't examine Sherlock, and forcing Molly to do it. Not being a good doctor. So, I'm still not liking S4 John very much.

I think that is a good potential theory, oliverwendell. I just posted in the episode thread that I thought it was weird that the memory-altering drug plot point was dropped so unceremoniously midway through the episode, but maybe it comes up again next week as an explanation for Sherlock's compromised memories. I just had a theory occur to me: in "The Empty Hearse," Sherlock had a series of deductions about Mary (when he first met her) fly through his head. "Liar" was a big one. But also "guardian". Was she some kind of caretaker for Eurus at any point? It always seemed weird to me that the "guardian" deduction was never explained.

Eurus mentioned to John that a mutual friend of Culverton's and hers put them in touch, that person being implied to have been "Moriarty," given the whole "miss me" scrawled across the letter at the end. It's as though Moriarty manipulated Eurus and Sherlock coming together like this. Eurus is the secret sister and the third Holmes sibling, but I did wonder for a hot second if we were limited to just 3 Holmes siblings, after Sherlock said in this episode that people always stop looking after finding 3 of a thing. I thought that John's beating of Sherlock was way too excessive. I know John is loaded with man pain and all, and he was obviously too much a mess to be carrying on with life until he finally had that cathartic breakdown with Sherlock later on and let his mental image of Mary go, but that beating was so over the top, even Culverton the serial killer was like, "Yikes." I thought it was odd that they made a big deal at the beginning of the episode that the memory drug did not just cause amnesia, but also potentially alters existing memories, too, and then didn't really use that again. I mean, it did explain how the real Faith could be so blissfully ignorant and therefore give Eurus a wide berth to operate. But it was also mentioned that the drug could cause you to remember things incorrectly, and I was just waiting for that to mean something. I also thought it was odd that they made a big deal last week of Molly giving Sherlock a note to read from John (and it looked like Sherlock was reading it in the cab last episode), but then they never touched on what it said. We can guess, but it seemed weird to include an actual note when Molly effectively conveyed the message to buzz off and then never address it. Both Sherlock and John said, "It is what it is" at 221B, and then Eurus said the same thing to John at the therapist's office. Was that because she heard their 221B conversation, or just because she and Sherlock think alike?