Boton

I love this episode, and I love what it does in the entire trajectory of the series. With the multiple mysteries to solve, it's like getting several episodes worth of cases all at once, while keeping a consistent character development arc within. That's really important in the first season, because shows like this have to rely on the mystery/cases to keep the viewer going during the first season while they build up the characters. By the time Sherlock is standing on the deck of the pool with the gun pointing to the explosives, I feel like I've really traveled far enough with him and John to believe that they could exchange a look and know that they were willing to die to get rid of Moriarty.

I agree with Miss Dee. I haven't been watching Elementary long, but I do like the idea of a lifelong non-romantic partnership. And I do love that bit from "The Three Garridebs," but any modern adaptation that uses it has to be careful to only use it once -- you can't have Holmes spouting off his concern in every episode. But one careful admission of affection near the end could work wonders.

I'd hold it against them. Maybe I'm being a traditionalist, but if Holmes and Watson hook up, this stops being a Holmesian story and starts being a police procedural with a protagonist who has a lot of quirks and an unusual first name. (A criticism that's already been made of Elementary.) For me, the entire point of Holmes-template shows is that Sherlock Holmes eschews more typical types of human expression in order to focus on the Work. He doesn't form enduring romantic relationships, and I don't want to ever see any incarnation of Sherlock Holmes do so except as a one-off exception that proves the rule.

Yes, rereader2 is right. Plus, Sherlock needed to clear out the Appledore vaults; the only way to permanently keep him from blackmailing John, Mary, Janine, Mycroft, and tons of other people high and low across several other countries was to eliminate the information. Sadly for CAM, the information resided in his head. Sherlock cleaned out the Appledore vaults, plain and simple.

It means the same guy who was hired to do the Elementary title card and could think of nothing original after seeing Sherlock was also in charge of naming the new peripheral characters?

Yes, and I'm glad to see both Elementary and Sherlock having taken a run at this tale, because the idea of the pips in the mail is very compelling, but the KKK angle makes it a bit challenging to navigate in the modern world. I thought this take on it was relatively clever. No, no toy company would have gotten away with selling small beads as toys since they could be easily swallowed, but there was just enough mystery in this particular case to keep me entertained. But I do agree that Kitty can leave any time. Even with a tortured back story, she is still reading as a spoiled teenage brat, and I don't really find that amusing. But I do agree with whoever said that JLM knocked it out of the park with the delivery of the line about Kitty having been "taken by a man."

I think it's a great question. For me, it comes down to how much of the Holmes/Watson back story or expectation they want to bring into the new incarnation. For example, I loved House, but it took me absolutely forever to understand that House and Wilson were Holmes and Watson. Once I did, so much fell into place: the recreational drug use before House's injury, the misanthropy and genius, the epic friendship, the odd and endearing way women seem to fall at Wilson's feet (echoing John "Three Continents" Watson). It all suddenly made sense. I think, with Elementary, the more they want to play with these elements -- stretching one to be more extreme, minimizing another to make it nearly disappear -- the more they have to use the names to help you understand the template.

You know, I totally disagree about BBC Sherlock, but I appreciate this point. I just started watching Elementary, and one of the things that fascinates me about this whole Sherlock Holmes story template is experimenting with what you can change and what must stay the same to actually have a Holmesian story rather than just a police procedural. It seems Elementary might be riding the line, but it is just enough inside of it that I recognize that I'm watching a Sherlock Holmes story even if the main character were not named Sherlock Holmes. One of the things I quite enjoyed about this episode was the fragility that seems apparent in Miller's portrayal of Holmes. Even without having yet seen the previous two seasons in their entirety, I sense that this is a Holmes that has metaphorically fallen off the tightrope and doesn't want to do so again. Very different from BBC Sherlock, who I don't think has yet had a dramatic failure that he needs to incorporate into his psyche.

I don't know, I found this season really depressing, and the final episode especially so. I know we have to have Martin on some growth arc where he opens up a little more, and I did love the line in a previous episode about having a family -- Louisa, James Henry, and Ruth. But this episode just seemed like piling on to me. I'm always frustrated by Louisa; ever since the episode a few seasons back where she had a pouty fit because Martin made fish for dinner (you know, the temerity of actually picking up fresh food and cooking it and all....). And this season was no different. She gets into a snit because he fails to live up to her expectations at a job that someone new to town could have told you he would not do well (handing out sports awards at the school). And by the end, in this episode, he's doing everything he can to save her life and their marriage, including performing surgery through an episode of his blood phobia, just so he could take care of her. And she is still treating him like he kicked her puppy. I hope the final season brings Louisa around more than I want to see changes with Martin.

That was such a good interview, and then it seemed that every single publication that excerpted part of it for a quickie celebrity news item failed to read the context of any of the Qs and As, and most of them summarized his thoughts in exactly the opposite way I think they were meant from reading the original, very complete and nuanced interview. Aargh!

You have a point, Peace 47, and I would amend my earlier comment to say that I don't necessarily think that the two are going to seamlessly become three (that is Sherlock and John aren't going to effortlessly add Mary). I do like that she turned out to be a highly-trained assassin, on some level, because it took her out of the tropes of either being the wife jealous of the partnership or the pregnant little house mouse. The woman has skills of her own, Unfortunately, her skillset doesn't give her an incredible amount of nuance in her approach. Basically, she's solved most of the problems of her facade cracking with a gun, and it remains to be seen if she'll ultimately be damaging to Sherlock and John or not. I do agree with your point about shooting Sherlock and leaving him with a mortal wound. The more I view and think about this relationship, the more I'm bothered by a shot to the liver (which is where it has to be, IMHO). Why a large, blood-filled organ that's relatively fragile? If I were a crack shot really able to surgically make a shot that would incapacitate someone and put on a good show about my "seriousness" in attempting to kill them, I might have gone for kidney region or even upper lobe of lung. That shot was about an inch or an inch and a half to the right of midline. Maybe she didn't really care all that much if she killed him or not. I do think this was a little comic effect and meant to be more expository of John than Mary. Somehow, my head canon fills in the back story that John and Mary come back from their "Sex Holiday" (as Sherlock calls it on John's blog), and it's John who immediately gets bored. "It's all well and good that Sherlock Holmes is sitting over there in his dressing gown waiting for some international case to come in, but I just spent my day lancing boils on arses!" Maybe even a little grousing that he (John) used to be complimented on his blog a lot, but apparently he's no Sherlock because he hasn't heard anything. I think that both John and Mary both thought that their marriage would make them fundamentally different people. One of the tragedies of HLV is that we proved that their marriage intensifies their basic personalities, rather than changing them.

House is interesting to me because it is all about chasing zebras; in fact, I guess the working title was "Chasing Zebras, Circling the Drain." The reference, for those who haven't read it, is a joke: "What does a medical student think of when he hears hoof beats? Zebras." That is, they think of the rarest thing that fits the facts (zebras), not the most likely (horses). House's entire job is hunting zebras. I get very weary of the medical shows that are all about the horses. I tire of (fictional) pneumonia and domestic abuse and breast cancer. Bring on the pheos, bring on amyloidosis, bring on something that is hard to diagnose. I loved House for this -- the "what-done-it" kept me guessing until the end, unlike most shows where I had the COTW figured out 10 minutes in.

So, one of my continual fascinations is the evolution of James Wilson. I love Robert Sean Leonard as an actor, and I initially was very displeased with the seeming passiveness of the character. I thought he was fascinating to watch but would be annoying as heck to know, since I'm always rubbed the wrong way by people who need to be needed so desperately. Ultimately, though, I became taken with the fact that his addiction, if you like, is the mirror image of House's. If House will ignore the patient to solve the puzzle, Wilson will ignore the need to be objective to prove to whoever it is that he cares. He cares so darn much that, in "Wilson," he's willing to donate part of his own liver to a patient turned not-so-great friend who can't even get Wilson's name right. (Hence the name of the thread.) I finally decided that this is why Wilson chose oncology; it is where he is most likely to have the most people who feed his need for need (so to speak) on a daily basis. The patients who are battling their cancers will need him to hold their hands and talk to them for weeks or months or years, possibly culminating in their deaths as he holds their hands. The ones who are or who become healthy will disappear. Just like his friendships; someone like House needs him forever, and those that are healthy enough will walk away. (Amber being the exception of course).

I agree that John Watson is about as unlikely to have a well-balanced life as is Sherlock, especially given the revelation that, psychologically, he's attracted to danger and dangerous individuals. But I do think Mary is here to stay and as part of the team. For one thing, I just hope that is the case since, as they said in one of the extras, she's the rare spouse who isn't cast in a show as a "third wheel" that disrupts the primary (for the show) friendship. Mary wants the boys to get together, and we've seen her encourage that. I kind of expect her to do the same, even going so far as being OK with John crashing at 221B when necessary for a case. Second, I don't think we're done with Mary because I don't think A.G.R.A. are her initials. It obviously calls back to the treasure of Agra in "The Sign of Four," but I expect the show to make a lot more of the reference. So I think Mary gets more to do and maybe becomes a character along the lines of Mycroft; that is, has a few projects of her own that wind up intersecting with John and Sherlock. Also, they absolutely cannot let Mycroft say "you know what happened to the other one [brother]" without the other shoe that drops being Sherrinford.

Starting this topic in the hopes that we can use it to clarify some of the differences language between British English and other languages, especially since show is so popular in many countries and closed captioning often leaves a lot to be desired. Besides, who doesn't love a good discussion of whether you should truly call a "tyre lever" a "tire iron?" My question for those who'd like to weigh in: I'm American and watching (obsessing over) "His Last Vow." There is that line toward the beginning where they've hauled Sherlock from the crack house and he's fighting with Mycroft in his flat, and he says, "Brother mine, don't appal me when I'm high." (Closed captioning has "appal" with one "l," which I gather is an acceptable spelling of "appall.") My question is whether "appal(l)" in British English has a secondary meaning of something closer to "taunt." I would hear "appall" as meaning "shock" or "horrify," but the context would put it somewhere closer to "Dude, don't give me shit when I'm high." Thoughts?

My God. I just watched this episode last night, and I am completely wrung out. (In the best possible way.) TV like this has been going on under my nose, and I didn't know about it! The shooting scene was at once the most metaphoric and the most accurate depiction of losing consciousness I've ever seen. Sherlock running down the spiral stairs of his mind palace as he swirls into darkness, finding his inner torment and craziness, and then slowly pulling himself back out as he wills his heart to beat -- all just gave me chills. And the layers that were exposed on the characters. I am a Sherlock Holmes virgin (a condition I am rectifying immediately), but I was so taken by Sherlock's casual descent back into his drug habit (for a case? not for a case? does it matter?) and the mirroring darkness in all the supporting cast: Watson is our lovable Watson, except he truly has a thing for "high-functioning sociopaths." Sweet Mary is an international spy that will shoot a man in cold blood. Mrs. Hudson is not your housekeeper, but she IS a (former?) exotic dancer and typist for a drug ring. And even buttoned-up Mycroft loves his little brother so much that's his only "pressure point," but he'll also send him on a mission that will get him killed in six months. Seriously, guys, I don't know how to deal with this. Season 4 happens in 2016???? WTF? If I volunteered to fly to England and cook and keep house for the writers and producers so they could work without distraction, do you think that would help? :-)

No kidding. I consider my kitchen to be a cleaner version of a bathroom. It's a private space that essential activities take place in, but I'm going to need some privacy and some quiet to concentrate if you want me to get anything done in there. I can't have an audience.

It felt like a "keeping our options open" series/season finale to me too, but if they are renewed, I'd like to see them use this to wipe some of the slate clean. Continue with the Boris disease subplot, at least enough to provide continuity, but then really focus on the hospital and foundation. Let Evan really become a mover in the Hamptons community in addition to with HankMed. Let Hank continue to do the lighthearted COTW, but maybe interject a few more complex cases since they now have a hospital at their disposal; maybe use Jeremiah in this way, since his background is in research. I'm 100% against Paige having a baby, because babies (on television, that is) sideline female characters or turn them into impossible Wonder Women. Either the character is pinned to the schedule of the child actor (thus reducing plot possibilities), the character talks about the baby all the time, or the character proceeds like nothing has happened and every viewer remarks on the impossibility. With Paige and Evan, you just know we'd have to suffer through the obligatory "Evan spends sleepless night after baby cries for 10 hours" and "Evan is left with baby and can't figure out diaper" subplot before we just sideline Paige in domestic bliss with no desires other than maternal ones. That's not all that fun for me to watch, frankly, and it has already happened to Divya to an extent. ETA: Also, with something like 20% of women between 40-44 making it to that age without ever giving birth, it would be nice to see a few more female characters whose story arc doesn't end in motherhood.

I had a student (college age) tell me that she didn't have a signature, meaning that she didn't know cursive. I told her she needed to sort that shit out before she got her first paycheck that she wanted to endorse. (I might have been more diplomatic than that.) I also once figured out a math problem longhand in front of my class, then was kind of ashamed and apologized that I still borrow and carry physically in the problem instead of in my head. Turns out the class was amazed that I could do math longhand at all. Topic? Yeah, I don't think this show should be taken as representative of anything about homeschooling in general at all. It is representative only of the Duggars' twisted believe that too much outside knowledge sends you directly to hell.

This is the saddest part to me. All of the Duggar girls have basically been living their entire lives in suspended animation, being told that their lives aren't valid and treasured until they get married and start having babies. This is 20+ years of pent-up demand from someone who was constantly told that eating out wasn't possible without a passle of siblings in tow and a three-figure tab, that a MacBook is the gateway to the internet and therefore to hell, that any desire to be pretty or decorate a room or explore an interest was somehow tied to vanity and selfishness. Now, all those natural desires are unleashed in one big celebratory moment. Think of what you did with your first paycheck from your first job, then multiply that feeling by about a million, and that's what the Duggar girls are feeling.

Commenting in the possibly vain hope that producers monitor this thread. I think the show has a good initial concept, but I'm going to get bored in just a few more episodes, because I know how it goes: Day 1: Meet. Either make veiled acknowledgement of the awkwardness of meeting a naked stranger, or ignore it completely. Exude optimism. Reach camp site and have some sort of discussion about whether shelter or fire is the priority. Night 1: Fail to sleep because either shelter or fire was inadequate. Day 2: Struggle with fire. Discuss dehydration. Make sure to use the term "keep hydrated" instead of "dammit, I want a drink of something!" Day 4: Fail to die from dehydration. Day 4-20: Sit like lumps. Eat grubs, crabs, or something with the caloric content of an apple. If actual animal is caught, skewer and cook the thing whole instead of making rudimentary attempt to behead/pluck/gut whatever it is. Unless its a snake. Dramatically peel any snake, but then fail to use resulting skin as cord, lashing, foot binding, etc. Have discussion about "needing protein," as if the absence of carbs or vitamins isn't an equal problem as far as energy and health. Day 20: Rally miraculously. Prepare for extraction. Day 21. Fail to starve to death. Reach extraction. Anyway, I would love to see something more complex than the PSR scoring. On one of the PBS House reality shows (Frontier House, I think), they had the "settlers" reach their new settlement and prepare for winter, even though they would not be spending the winter there. They were then scored on how likely it was they would starve during winter. (I think all of them would have, except one couple without kids who probably would have lived on grit and determination.) I'd love something like that. Drop these people in the middle of nowhere, but score them on the progress they make toward sustaining life long term. All of these participants are exclusively playing the 21-day game, and it shows.

I don't know if Divya is overall dumb, but she certainly was dumb about this. She just stood there taking Abuela's word for not being able to leave the country, as if, were that true, it would mean that Divya and Sashi also couldn't leave the house. Also, this seemed to hang on Abuela registering Sashi for an Argentinian passport -- can a grandmother actually do that there, and if so, does it make her a citizen of Argentina? Does that citizenship override U.S. citizenship? And for crying out loud, Boris brought them in on a private plane, and he's an expert at getting what he wants. Even if this whole torturous set-up is actually true, all Divya really has to do is run out the door with Sashi (because I don't think Abuela would actually harm the baby or Divya), and run straight to Boris. Boris simply walks them onto the tarmac and into the plane, and if they are questioned (Did Abuela say by customs? Wouldn't that be immigration, or did I mishear?), simply say, "Sashi and her mother are U.S. citizens. Here are their U.S. passports. Now please let us board." He'd get his way.

Oh, this was so frustrating! By the time Joe burned the truckload of Giants, Mr. Boton and I had sworn to not come back if there is a second season. There's fictionalizing history, and then there's creating an alternate timeline so implausible that the viewer can't get immersed in it. Yes, everyone got up the morning after the Super Bowl and spent as much time at the watercooler discussing the 1984 ad as the game (I presume -- I was in high school, and no one mentioned a thing about it). Because 1984 was a great piece of advertising. It didn't change the landscape of computing. It didn't vault Apple into dominance. It didn't inspire an immediate group of hipster rebel-wannabes who used Apple as their badge of coolness. As I've mentioned in other episode threads, at this point Apple has at least 10 more years of being the education computer, and PCs have a decade or more of being the standard for business (i.e., making money). Joe needs to grow up, take whatever it was we took in the 80s before Prozac (lithium?), and really have a vision. And the vision looks like this, Joe: build a portable computer that is the fastest, smallest thing you can build at the moment (like the Giant). Sell enough of it to make a huge profit. Make the next version smaller and faster and with more bells and whistles when the next chip comes out (286). Lather, rinse, repeat. This business plan will work for the next 30 years and will ultimately lead to tablets and smart phones and Siri and everything else, but you have to step your way through it. If you can't handle it, go stay in your observatory, where you will be neither Bill Gates nor Steve Jobs.

Cosign all the griping about this revisionist Apple history. Apple spent 20 years being the education computer. It was fine for K-12 and university, but before you graduated, you'd better darn well learn to use a PC, or no one would take you seriously in the business world. And everything was the business world in the 80s -- you wouldn't dare jeopardize your career by insisting on using an Apple because you loved the GUI interface. I know we are supposed to view Joe's speed and efficiency sales pitch as a step backward away from creativity, but that was exactly what sold computers in 1983. In 1983, EVERYTHING in the computer world was slick and exciting, because we really hadn't had personal computers for more than 5 years at best. People were starting to have the conversation about what a personal computer could really DO for you, and companies were scrambling to make the case that you could house your recipes or have your kids play educational games or something like that. In reality, the spreadsheet was the only (IMO) fully-formed application that had demonstrated usefulness. Many word processors still had limited font choices (even all caps instead of a true upper/lower case), DMPs meant that typing was still the best way to get a truly readable document, and the best graphics were in computer arcade games, not in your personal computer. Manufacturers had to make the case that a PC, which according to the episode was a $900 investment (and that's about right, if I remember correctly), was something more than a cool beige box that hooked to your TV and entertained you before you got back to business as usual. The Giant, with its speed, integrated screen, and true portability (as opposed to the 20 lb + "luggable" computers) had plenty of innovation without Cameron's OS slowing things down so you could have a chat with your machine.

Finally finished the season. I loved the end of the Rosa arc, even if "Don't Fear the Reaper" was a little on the nose. I'm with her -- better to be taken down in a rain of gunfire after a high speed chase than to die a slow death looking at cinderblock walls. My big problem was with Suzanne. I know that we've seen throughout the series that she has episodes of psychotic or near-psychotic breakdowns, such as when she overreacted at the birth of her sister. I also understand that her parents have struggled with this mental illness throughout her life, trying to grapple with something they probably didn't understand and may not have anticipated at the adoption. I also know that she has become more violent over time, as witnessed by her beating of Piper at the end of last season. But the final episode has Suzanne really breaking with reality in a way that I found too quick, in a way. It seemed like all of a sudden she was calling her lock "Lady Locksley" and speaking in rhymes and not answering the investigators' questions in a way that seemed like her medication had been discontinued or something. Prior to this, I've always found Suzanne to be on the edge, but at least lucid. This seemed to be a little too far out of character for me.