![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Okay, let's get this torture fest over with and complete my review!
"Welcome to the Final Problem." Hey, I love you, Jim, but you're interfering with my favorite theory here. I've grown fond of the idea that, if events in this episode weren't real, it was because it happened in John's mind. There are a lot of things about that idea that make sense. The ep isn't as clever - like John's mind compared to Sherlock's. And in the previous episode John had been shot - maybe what we see here is just his unconscious mind trying to make sense of his fake therapist's declaration that she's Sherlock's sister.
Anyway, the problem with the mention of the Final Problem: If John isn't aware that Jim had threatened Sherlock with "Your friends will die if you don't!", there's no reason for John's mind to connect his potential dying here with the Final Problem. ...Although... maybe Sherlock at least told John that the Final Problem meant staying alive, then this can still make sense.
I like so many things about the idea that it's all in John's mind. For example that it makes the Cliffhanger Copout (seriously, they can't keep setting up good drama only to then not write it) of John only getting shot with a tranquilizer go away.
Wouldn't it be risky to do what Mycroft calls monitoring? Couldn't these trigger words trigger the real memories?
Eurus burning downSkyfall Musgrave is only one of many things in this episode that remind people of movies. Is this Mofftiss being Bond fans or John's mind employing tons of movies to put together the story of Eurus?
Heh, the return of Uncle Rudy! Nice, this does not interfere with the theory that TFP happens in John's mind - John was there when the uncle was mentioned before.
But speaking of things interfering with that theory: Where has John heard of Sherrinford? Or is he still somewhat conscious and includes things he hears into his dream? Hm, that would work with finalproblem's theory that Sherrinford is the codename for the secretly alive Mary. Maybe Mycroft said something about having Sherrinford informed about her husband's emergency. Or John remembers the word. Part of finalproblem's theory is that John was in on Mary's faked death, but due to being a bad secret keeper had his memories of the fakery erased with TD12.
Huh, 3 of 3! I know, it's common with "bloody hell" and "what the hell" and such, but I'm pretty sure there's something to hell having been mentioned in every episode this season. You know, with Mary's "go to hell", later Sherlock referencing that and now Mycroft, although in a different context.
The patience grenade, hahahaha. I am the patience grenade. I waited and waited for Mofftiss to tie up the loose threads, but they didn't and I exploded. This episode is also a patience grenade: we wait for a secret 4th episode/mini ep/next season to make sense of WTF happened in TFP.
Looks like Mycroft is an idiot (after all he's familiar with that device): waiting for the drone to land. It looks like the grenade only activated after that. And good for them too, because John moved his fucking head.
Huh, the lyrics of The Number of the Beast, the song Mrs. Hudson listens to: There's another hell reference. All the lines about wondering if this is real, such as "Was all this for real, or just some kind of hell?"! I like how it doesn't just fit with Sherlock's corrupted memories, but better with the idea that things in this episode aren't real. But then there are also lines that fit with Eurus (if Sherrinford is hell, then she's the devil) and her power to possess people, so to speak.
I'm still bothered by how fine they were after that explosion. Blowing up 221B is a big deal, especially if they're inside, so there should be some sort of fallout. And because I'm so over the lack of consequences, I prefer the idea that John is just dreaming this whole thing - we know how dreams tend to not make sense.
Jeez, what's with the endless pan around the boat? 360° would have been enough, stop turning, I'm getting dizzy!
Heh, Sherrinford's glassy office reminds me of the CTU. Who wouldn't love to work in a fish tank?! ô_o
Interesting detail brought to my attention by finalproblem: the guy at the radio seems to be doubling as a doctor or something - on one of his screens someone's brain (Telling us that this is all in someone's head?) is being monitored.
Did Sir Edwin have that beard last time we saw him?
Oh, Eurus taught Sherlock the violin? Didn't catch that the first time.
What is this show's obsession with trying to connect Sherlock to sex? If it's trying to show how annoying it can be being asexual in a world of sexual people, it's doing it right! Speaking of sexual people: John doesn't understand asexuality and only recently tried to pair up Sherlock and Irene. Sherlock plays Irene's theme here and now Eurus is shipping it too. Or it's still just John shipping them, if this is all happening in his mind.
Whoa, I didn't realize before (I suspect that was because around that point I just started having a disappointment-induced cry) that John said "Vatican Camoes" and Sherlock ignored it. You don't "in a minute" that!
I wish Sherlock would stop looking so orange.
Man, they're really drawing out the relevation why John invoked Vatican Cameos.
So you're telling me that someone standing in front of a pane of nonexistent glass wouldn't notice that the glass is not there?
How much do I love that Jim made a Star Wars reference?!
Ugh, the return of the spinning cut. So many great ways to cut from one scene to another and they bring back that monster! On the other hand it is interesting that it happens with John. They used that transition in 4x00, the episode that happened in Sherlock's mind. Now they use it here, but not several times - only once, when we're seeing John!
Jim taking out the earphones just before the lyrics get to "love" is breaking my heart a bit.
"I wrote my own version of the Nativity when I was a child. The Hungry Donkey. It was a bit gory. But if you're gonna put a baby in a manger, you're asking for trouble." Oh, you. ♥
"So am I under arrest again?" asks Jim and I'm assuming when we saw Mycroft release him in 2x02, it was the first time he was arrested. So this flashback should be set between 2x02 & 03. I had assumed that Jim learned some information that's important for his Fall plan, but the discussion of Redbeard could only have had entertainment value, since Jim already knew that Sherlock is emotional. "But we both know that's not quite true." said Jim in 1x03 and promised to burn the heart out of Sherlock. So from that point of view I'm pretty disappointed in the Eurus/Jim scene.
"How do you want me?" Unf.
Let me give you another of my many reasons why I hope that the events of this episode aren't real: I can't handle the idea that Mycroft made such a huge mistake as putting 2 dangerous and dangerously clever people together and not even watch them. By the way, this still fits perfectly with the idea that John's mind is just putting together a story: Mycroft had told John that he'd made the mistake to give Jim important info about Sherlock. So maybe John's mind is just elaborating on that now.
Oh god, Eurus and Jim at the glass is so sexy!
Gah, if I knew if this is real, I'd know if Jim really had a brother.
Jim's role in this was pointless as fuck. That wasn't his plot, it was Eurus's. Which I find very disappointing, as they had it "advertised" as his plan. Seriously, a few videos is all we get? I was hoping for something clever he had set up, a whole plot that he himself planned and that would be executed by his people.
And how was the Fall supposed to work with Eurus's plan?!? Was Jim just fucking her over? Or was Eurus's plan just a backup for Jim, in case Sherlock (and John too) made it out of the Fall alive?
Phew, the relief! It's just the Governor's wife - I thought it was Mrs. Hudson (she likes to wear purple).
I love Mycroft showing feelings!
Would such a high-security prison really have windows that can be shot through?
"She's literally taken over the asylum, we have more to worry about than her choice of color scheme." Does that feel sorta meta to anyone else? Mofftiss have taken over the asylum and if this ep is for real, we have to worry.
Isn't cute how Sherlock sounds way nicer when he's talking to the girl on the plane. That voice in combination with a plane makes me think of Cabin Pressure, hee.
John brings up Irene again. He so ships Sherlock and her.
"Dead center of town" hehe. Oh, Molly.
There are only 2 reasons why I'd be sad if this episode turned out to be not real: all the feels Mycroft gives me with his, and Sherlock apparently realizing that it's not necessarily bad to have emotions. By the way, what is up with the recycling of ideas in this ep? We didn't need Eurus to show what Sherlock would have been like without a heart - they already had Jim for that. Then there's the Flight of the Dead redux. And another one coming up.
Sooo... so far Eurus has committed mindfuckery not just in the tasks, but also their results. You can't rely on her - so if there's no guarantee that they get to save the girl on the plane, why should they continue this game? Just out of desperate hope?
Ugh, this is like fanfic. I'm surprised that no "fuck or die" came up.
"This is where I get off." Goddammit, Jim, I love you so!
I like that Sherlock was gonna shoot himself. Feels like the right kind of response to this mindfuckery. I was surprised no one tried that earlier.
Calling the pilot "driver" - is that a common thing or a Cabin Pressure reference?
By the time the Redbeard truth comes, I was already twist-saturated and so I can't accept that revelation. And there we have another instance of reusage: The dog that was actually a person.
Oh, wait, actually 3 things that would be a pity to lose, if this ep wasn't real: Victor Trevor. I really, really like that they brought him up, yet I still can't accept him as Redbeard. I guess this is what mindfuckery does to you. Dammit, Mofftiss!
And here they're doing the "anyone" thing again, but with "no one".
And sort of a repeat of the book code.
"Love"? Does Eurus really care about Sherlock's love? Or just his attention?
God, this revelation is so stupid. Sure, it'll totally get you someone's love, when you do terrible things of which the person will disapprove. If she's so clever, why didn't she see how other people interacted and copied that? I despise Eurus so much.
Where the fuck is that well that no one managed to find it?!
Haha, Lestrade's look when Sherlock got his first name right!
"Good man" Way to shoehorn that in, trying to make it bookends. Totally not awkward at all.
I don't understand John's context line.
N'aw more Mummy and Daddy Holmes.
"Then he's very limited." We know that Mycroft is the smarter one, but this episode makes him look stupider. Which I think fits with this happening in John's mind - he likes Sherlock better than he likes Mycroft, so he's biased. And he's seen the former be clever more often than he has the latter, so it's possible that he considers Sherlock smarter.
"You were always the grown-up." Really? Is that so? Or is this just more bs indicating that this isn't real?
Wow, isn't it nice of the bull skull and the headphones to still be whole!
"Miss you" sounds like something someone alive would say!
Mary's monolog feels so pointless.
John, you're doing the smiley wrong! D:
Bit weird that 221B looks exactly the same as before it blew up, no?
WTF is up with acting as though this is the end? Didn't we hear from Mofftiss that there'd be an in-story reason? I don't see any!
This ep felt more like a special than a season finale. Probably because 4x00 was a trippy dream and 4x03 feels to me like one too. Which is probably the reason I started believing that nothing in this episode really happened. Also because I don't want the writing to really have gotten that bad. Not that I'm not used to nonsense from Moffat. While he can be an amazing writer, he can also be a pretty sloppy one who fails especially at resolving things that he had previously declared to be important*, I don't know if any of that rubbed off on Gatiss.
*
And one last thing about my pet theory: Would this dream warrant an entire episode? After all this wasn't a special to tide us over until the next season. It was a season finale! The only thing I can come up with to explain this problem away is that maybe Mofftiss thought it would be a great idea to match the outrage that ACD's Final Problem had created.
Huh, I hadn't intended this review to be an "it's all just in John's mind" theory fest, but it just happened. I've been fond of the idea that John is only dreaming it all and yesterday I began to completely subscribe to the idea that TFP isn't real in one way or other. So the more I checked the John theory against the episode, the more plausible it got and the more convinced I became. And if I'm wrong, it doesn't matter: until yesterday I was so fucking down because of the ep being such a disappointment, but since I started believing the theory, I'm okay again.
"Welcome to the Final Problem." Hey, I love you, Jim, but you're interfering with my favorite theory here. I've grown fond of the idea that, if events in this episode weren't real, it was because it happened in John's mind. There are a lot of things about that idea that make sense. The ep isn't as clever - like John's mind compared to Sherlock's. And in the previous episode John had been shot - maybe what we see here is just his unconscious mind trying to make sense of his fake therapist's declaration that she's Sherlock's sister.
Anyway, the problem with the mention of the Final Problem: If John isn't aware that Jim had threatened Sherlock with "Your friends will die if you don't!", there's no reason for John's mind to connect his potential dying here with the Final Problem. ...Although... maybe Sherlock at least told John that the Final Problem meant staying alive, then this can still make sense.
I like so many things about the idea that it's all in John's mind. For example that it makes the Cliffhanger Copout (seriously, they can't keep setting up good drama only to then not write it) of John only getting shot with a tranquilizer go away.
Wouldn't it be risky to do what Mycroft calls monitoring? Couldn't these trigger words trigger the real memories?
Eurus burning down
Heh, the return of Uncle Rudy! Nice, this does not interfere with the theory that TFP happens in John's mind - John was there when the uncle was mentioned before.
But speaking of things interfering with that theory: Where has John heard of Sherrinford? Or is he still somewhat conscious and includes things he hears into his dream? Hm, that would work with finalproblem's theory that Sherrinford is the codename for the secretly alive Mary. Maybe Mycroft said something about having Sherrinford informed about her husband's emergency. Or John remembers the word. Part of finalproblem's theory is that John was in on Mary's faked death, but due to being a bad secret keeper had his memories of the fakery erased with TD12.
Huh, 3 of 3! I know, it's common with "bloody hell" and "what the hell" and such, but I'm pretty sure there's something to hell having been mentioned in every episode this season. You know, with Mary's "go to hell", later Sherlock referencing that and now Mycroft, although in a different context.
The patience grenade, hahahaha. I am the patience grenade. I waited and waited for Mofftiss to tie up the loose threads, but they didn't and I exploded. This episode is also a patience grenade: we wait for a secret 4th episode/mini ep/next season to make sense of WTF happened in TFP.
Looks like Mycroft is an idiot (after all he's familiar with that device): waiting for the drone to land. It looks like the grenade only activated after that. And good for them too, because John moved his fucking head.
Huh, the lyrics of The Number of the Beast, the song Mrs. Hudson listens to: There's another hell reference. All the lines about wondering if this is real, such as "Was all this for real, or just some kind of hell?"! I like how it doesn't just fit with Sherlock's corrupted memories, but better with the idea that things in this episode aren't real. But then there are also lines that fit with Eurus (if Sherrinford is hell, then she's the devil) and her power to possess people, so to speak.
I'm still bothered by how fine they were after that explosion. Blowing up 221B is a big deal, especially if they're inside, so there should be some sort of fallout. And because I'm so over the lack of consequences, I prefer the idea that John is just dreaming this whole thing - we know how dreams tend to not make sense.
Jeez, what's with the endless pan around the boat? 360° would have been enough, stop turning, I'm getting dizzy!
Heh, Sherrinford's glassy office reminds me of the CTU. Who wouldn't love to work in a fish tank?! ô_o
Interesting detail brought to my attention by finalproblem: the guy at the radio seems to be doubling as a doctor or something - on one of his screens someone's brain (Telling us that this is all in someone's head?) is being monitored.
Did Sir Edwin have that beard last time we saw him?
Oh, Eurus taught Sherlock the violin? Didn't catch that the first time.
What is this show's obsession with trying to connect Sherlock to sex? If it's trying to show how annoying it can be being asexual in a world of sexual people, it's doing it right! Speaking of sexual people: John doesn't understand asexuality and only recently tried to pair up Sherlock and Irene. Sherlock plays Irene's theme here and now Eurus is shipping it too. Or it's still just John shipping them, if this is all happening in his mind.
Whoa, I didn't realize before (I suspect that was because around that point I just started having a disappointment-induced cry) that John said "Vatican Camoes" and Sherlock ignored it. You don't "in a minute" that!
I wish Sherlock would stop looking so orange.
Man, they're really drawing out the relevation why John invoked Vatican Cameos.
So you're telling me that someone standing in front of a pane of nonexistent glass wouldn't notice that the glass is not there?
How much do I love that Jim made a Star Wars reference?!
Ugh, the return of the spinning cut. So many great ways to cut from one scene to another and they bring back that monster! On the other hand it is interesting that it happens with John. They used that transition in 4x00, the episode that happened in Sherlock's mind. Now they use it here, but not several times - only once, when we're seeing John!
Jim taking out the earphones just before the lyrics get to "love" is breaking my heart a bit.
"I wrote my own version of the Nativity when I was a child. The Hungry Donkey. It was a bit gory. But if you're gonna put a baby in a manger, you're asking for trouble." Oh, you. ♥
"So am I under arrest again?" asks Jim and I'm assuming when we saw Mycroft release him in 2x02, it was the first time he was arrested. So this flashback should be set between 2x02 & 03. I had assumed that Jim learned some information that's important for his Fall plan, but the discussion of Redbeard could only have had entertainment value, since Jim already knew that Sherlock is emotional. "But we both know that's not quite true." said Jim in 1x03 and promised to burn the heart out of Sherlock. So from that point of view I'm pretty disappointed in the Eurus/Jim scene.
"How do you want me?" Unf.
Let me give you another of my many reasons why I hope that the events of this episode aren't real: I can't handle the idea that Mycroft made such a huge mistake as putting 2 dangerous and dangerously clever people together and not even watch them. By the way, this still fits perfectly with the idea that John's mind is just putting together a story: Mycroft had told John that he'd made the mistake to give Jim important info about Sherlock. So maybe John's mind is just elaborating on that now.
Oh god, Eurus and Jim at the glass is so sexy!
Gah, if I knew if this is real, I'd know if Jim really had a brother.
Jim's role in this was pointless as fuck. That wasn't his plot, it was Eurus's. Which I find very disappointing, as they had it "advertised" as his plan. Seriously, a few videos is all we get? I was hoping for something clever he had set up, a whole plot that he himself planned and that would be executed by his people.
And how was the Fall supposed to work with Eurus's plan?!? Was Jim just fucking her over? Or was Eurus's plan just a backup for Jim, in case Sherlock (and John too) made it out of the Fall alive?
Phew, the relief! It's just the Governor's wife - I thought it was Mrs. Hudson (she likes to wear purple).
I love Mycroft showing feelings!
Would such a high-security prison really have windows that can be shot through?
"She's literally taken over the asylum, we have more to worry about than her choice of color scheme." Does that feel sorta meta to anyone else? Mofftiss have taken over the asylum and if this ep is for real, we have to worry.
Isn't cute how Sherlock sounds way nicer when he's talking to the girl on the plane. That voice in combination with a plane makes me think of Cabin Pressure, hee.
John brings up Irene again. He so ships Sherlock and her.
"Dead center of town" hehe. Oh, Molly.
There are only 2 reasons why I'd be sad if this episode turned out to be not real: all the feels Mycroft gives me with his, and Sherlock apparently realizing that it's not necessarily bad to have emotions. By the way, what is up with the recycling of ideas in this ep? We didn't need Eurus to show what Sherlock would have been like without a heart - they already had Jim for that. Then there's the Flight of the Dead redux. And another one coming up.
Sooo... so far Eurus has committed mindfuckery not just in the tasks, but also their results. You can't rely on her - so if there's no guarantee that they get to save the girl on the plane, why should they continue this game? Just out of desperate hope?
Ugh, this is like fanfic. I'm surprised that no "fuck or die" came up.
"This is where I get off." Goddammit, Jim, I love you so!
I like that Sherlock was gonna shoot himself. Feels like the right kind of response to this mindfuckery. I was surprised no one tried that earlier.
Calling the pilot "driver" - is that a common thing or a Cabin Pressure reference?
By the time the Redbeard truth comes, I was already twist-saturated and so I can't accept that revelation. And there we have another instance of reusage: The dog that was actually a person.
Oh, wait, actually 3 things that would be a pity to lose, if this ep wasn't real: Victor Trevor. I really, really like that they brought him up, yet I still can't accept him as Redbeard. I guess this is what mindfuckery does to you. Dammit, Mofftiss!
And here they're doing the "anyone" thing again, but with "no one".
And sort of a repeat of the book code.
"Love"? Does Eurus really care about Sherlock's love? Or just his attention?
God, this revelation is so stupid. Sure, it'll totally get you someone's love, when you do terrible things of which the person will disapprove. If she's so clever, why didn't she see how other people interacted and copied that? I despise Eurus so much.
Where the fuck is that well that no one managed to find it?!
Haha, Lestrade's look when Sherlock got his first name right!
"Good man" Way to shoehorn that in, trying to make it bookends. Totally not awkward at all.
I don't understand John's context line.
N'aw more Mummy and Daddy Holmes.
"Then he's very limited." We know that Mycroft is the smarter one, but this episode makes him look stupider. Which I think fits with this happening in John's mind - he likes Sherlock better than he likes Mycroft, so he's biased. And he's seen the former be clever more often than he has the latter, so it's possible that he considers Sherlock smarter.
"You were always the grown-up." Really? Is that so? Or is this just more bs indicating that this isn't real?
Wow, isn't it nice of the bull skull and the headphones to still be whole!
"Miss you" sounds like something someone alive would say!
Mary's monolog feels so pointless.
John, you're doing the smiley wrong! D:
Bit weird that 221B looks exactly the same as before it blew up, no?
WTF is up with acting as though this is the end? Didn't we hear from Mofftiss that there'd be an in-story reason? I don't see any!
This ep felt more like a special than a season finale. Probably because 4x00 was a trippy dream and 4x03 feels to me like one too. Which is probably the reason I started believing that nothing in this episode really happened. Also because I don't want the writing to really have gotten that bad. Not that I'm not used to nonsense from Moffat. While he can be an amazing writer, he can also be a pretty sloppy one who fails especially at resolving things that he had previously declared to be important*, I don't know if any of that rubbed off on Gatiss.
*
If there is something fans seem upset about with this episode it’s that there’s no resolving scene with Molly after that very effective devastating call to her while she’s in the kitchen. Did you consider doing one? Is it fair to leave her like that?→ Oh, you thought Molly mattered? Naaah! This is one of those things that had the perfect setup for some resolving drama - even stated in the episode as a big fucking deal - and here Moffat is again, treating it as though it doesn't matter. I can only hope this call didn't really happen, because then there truly wouldn't be a need to resolve it.
But that’s not how we leave her. People need to learn to face their televisions, we see her later on–
We see her skipping into the room but–
She gets over it! Surely at a certain point you have to figure out that after Sherlock escapes tells her, “I’m really sorry about that, it was a code, I thought your flat was about to blow up.” And she says, “Oh well that’s okay then, you bastard.” And then they go back to normal, that’s what people do. I can’t see why you’d have to play that out. She forgives him, of course, and our newly grown-up Sherlock is more careful with her feelings in the future. In the end of that scene, she’s a bit wounded by it all, but he’s absolutely devastated. He smashes up the coffin, he’s in pieces, he’s more upset than she is, and that’s a huge step in Sherlock’s development. The question is: Did Sherlock survive that scene? She probably had a drink and went and shagged someone, I dunno. Molly was fine.
There are no cliffhanging items left over, not that I can think of?→ Bullshit! BULL. SHIT.
No. There isn’t something we have to come back to address. Which is quite good for us. Because if we do come back, we can just start with a knock on the door and a new client, and they can go and investigate.
And one last thing about my pet theory: Would this dream warrant an entire episode? After all this wasn't a special to tide us over until the next season. It was a season finale! The only thing I can come up with to explain this problem away is that maybe Mofftiss thought it would be a great idea to match the outrage that ACD's Final Problem had created.
Huh, I hadn't intended this review to be an "it's all just in John's mind" theory fest, but it just happened. I've been fond of the idea that John is only dreaming it all and yesterday I began to completely subscribe to the idea that TFP isn't real in one way or other. So the more I checked the John theory against the episode, the more plausible it got and the more convinced I became. And if I'm wrong, it doesn't matter: until yesterday I was so fucking down because of the ep being such a disappointment, but since I started believing the theory, I'm okay again.
Leave a comment