sfmpco

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oh hang on... if it wasn't Anthea, then it makes more sense that Irene set up a ruse to make John think Mycroft wanted to see him by the same type of girl and car, and then the whole text message makes sense that Irene would have sent it. Okay, now onto solving the other things in this episode.

I always thought it was Irene since John met her and not Moriarty. But it's possible that Moriarty somehow helped her. I never really thought of that. Either way, then Mycroft knows that Irene was never dead because he'd have known what the assistant was up to. And Sherlock realized something was up because he immediately followed. If Mycroft wasn't involved, why did Irene reach out to the assistant? And why would the assistant help without informing Mycroft?

Well, Janine DID have a job to go to. Still although she may have been in one of Sherlock's shirts, and although he kissed her as if they were in some sort of relationship, it wasn't anything physical, and she would have been trying to make it physical if she were sharing his bed and dressing in only his shirt. Well, when do you think she spent the night? She clearly came out of Sherlock's bedroom in the morning so I suppose she had been there all night. And like Fox said, she was hardly sleeping on the floor

Okay, so back to the topic... there are still things in this episode I don't quite get - like after John had been dropped off at that location my Mycroft's assistant to meet Irene, who did the assistant text to "You're right. He think's it's Mycroft." Was it Irene? Or Moriarty?

Well, Janine DID have a job to go to. Still although she may have been in one of Sherlock's shirts, and although he kissed her as if they were in some sort of relationship, it wasn't anything physical, and she would have been trying to make it physical if she were sharing his bed and dressing in only his shirt.

Well....until Janine came along anyway. But then, Irene did it in a more cheeky way then Sherlock trying to seduce her for information that's true. Hmm... well, it may be implied that they would have shared a bed, but it would be hard to share a bed in a platonic way, especially when Janine was definitely interested in him, but Sherlock clearly says in the hospital that no sex had happened because he was waiting for marriage, so it makes me think they didn't share a bed. After all, what warm blooded woman could be in bed with Sherlock for untold amount of time without being ready to have her ovaries explode? Not hormonally realistic. She would have jumped his bones. So perhaps she had John's old room. I still say Irene was the only one who was ever in his bed.

Another interesting thing is that he says, almost as a challenge, "I never beg for mercy," and when she determinedly restates, "twice," - keep it mind that it is she who later is the one to beg for mercy - twice.

Just finished watching this episode for the 4th or 5th time. I told another Sherlock fan that I was missing some of the dialogue, and she suggested watching it with subtitles. It helped in some places but the subtitles were obviously inaccurate in others. I think this episode really shows a growth spurt in Sherlock's emotional character, and we see that Mycroft, as emotionally distant as he tries to be, has genuine concern for his little brother, afraid that Sherlock will relapse into drugs again after Irene's supposed death. Testing Sherlock's emotional stability with a cigarette was like tempting an alcoholic with a glass of wine. One cigarette had the potential to put him back into a downward spiral of addiction, so Mycroft already had John and Mrs. Hudson search the apartment from top to bottom for any type of drug paraphernalia. Sherlock is Mycroft's "pressure point." As for Irene Adler, I don't think there was any kind of true love but a certain infatuation on both sides, an infatuation that opened up Sherlock ever so slightly. Clearly he had very caring feelings towards Mrs. Hudson after he freed her, and he cared enough for John not to let him be shot. So in this episode he saves the lives of two people close to him. With Irene Adler presenting herself completely naked, it catches him off guard to the point where he stumbles over his own words and can't get a reading on her. Did he save Irene in Karachi? Absolutely he did. This is part of his lack of response to John's telling him that Irene was tucked away in witness protection in the USA. He knew John was lying and didn't call him out on it. He let John carry on with the lie and let him off the hook by letting it slide. What were Mycroft's words to John just before? "It would take Sherlock Holmes to fool me, and I don't think he was there, do you?" Might not be entirely accurate in quote but pretty close. At any rate, the whole point was that Sherlock has everyone fooled. One thing Irene has on every other woman - she can claim she was in Sherlock's bed. And leave at that.

But how would her shooting CAM have implicated John IF Sherlock had never come on them? And if John had a gun on him, the ballistics wouldn't have matched anyhow so John would have been off the hook. Thank goodness it wasn't John that came across her and CAM and that she would have had to make a choice to shoot John or CAM. I don't think she could have ever shot John. Sherlock was a little more disposable, but she didn't shoot to kill. Of course Sherlock rips the bandaid off her old festering past when he tricks her into confessing in front of John. He needs everything out in the open because despite her past, he cares about her because she is married to the one person he has truly befriended. When he says at the end "Give my love to Mary" it was such a statement of transformation... not only because he had obviously totally forgiven her but that he had bonded enough with Mary and John that he could even voice an expression of love or even admit love. This is character growth. Touching.

And I should also point out that if Mary is trying to get to CAM through Janine, she should have tried to dissuade John from having Sherlock as his best man or not had Janine there at all. So in a sense, she got careless in bringing Janine to the wedding knowing that Sherlock can't shut down the constant flow of information he filters...unless her bringing Janine along was a ploy to get Sherlock more involved. Was Mary already in the room and saw Sherlock being buzzed up before she knocked Janine out? She had to have been right there due to the quickness with which Sherlock arrived. She has had the gun on CAM for a bit (probably threatening him) before Sherlock arrived, and after she shoots Sherlock and knocks CAM out, she makes a clean getaway - and not through the front door. After the shot was fired, surely John would have run in straightaway. Yet there was a five-minute gap between when Mary called for an ambulance and when John called for an ambulance. So why did she only knock CAM out and not just shoot him after she shot Sherlock? She didn't believe there was anything Sherlock could do to help her. She didn't want him interfering in her desperate mission. But she didn't complete it. Perhaps shooting Sherlock was enough to pull her out of that downward spiral and pistol whipping CAM was out of frustration and anger over Sherlock's appearance and what she had to do. But why she felt he couldn't help her and that she had to resort to such a drastic measure... i don't know. Glad I found a place to think these things out.

I have only been watching SHERLOCK for 2-3 weeks, but I am so so so so addicted to it. Haven't had this happen for a looooooooooooong time with any TV show. I have seen all the episodes at least 2X and just love pouring over them. So brilliantly written. So witty. Love the direction, love the editing, love the music. I don't know why I never heard of this show before now. Very late coming into the phenomenon, but very glad I'm up to date. I'm sure everything has been discussed to the minutia. Hopefully I can add something new and thought-provoking. Can't wait to see how things develop in S4.

It's becoming more clear to me that I have to keep going back and watching the episodes to find the threads of clues that I have completely missed the first time around. And for Mary to use Janine as a Maid of Honor would mean that it wasn't something that happened overnight because you wouldn't ask a casual acquaintance to be a MoH. CAM would certainly have wanted to know all about all the people surrounding his people. Who are they and what are they up to? Which then begs the question of surely Sherlock would have known already who was working in CAM's offices, so why didn't he pick up on this very odd coincidence that CAM's top assistant just happened to be Mary's MoH? That he should be able to get so close to someone he despises so easily should have got him thinking.

Well I think it begs the question of whether or not Mary's friendship with her maid of honor was genuine or if she used her to get to CAM. Because how else did she get past security to CAM's offices?

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but when Sherlock reads the telegrams, one of them says - "Oodles of love and heaps of good wishes from CAM. Wish your family could have seen this." CAM - Charles Augustus Magnussen. Seriously. Look how Mary reacts to it. THIS is the first clue that she knows her double life has been found out - which leads to her confrontation with CAM in "His Last Vow." Did anyone catch that? Or did everyone already catch that and I'm way behind the times?