Karie

I got my shipment notification e-mail earlier today! Yay! I'm looking forward to a series 3 re-watch this week!

If I'm remember correctly, the US dvds will be released day after tomorrow. Hopefully they won't take too long to get here. I've been keeping myself from watching any of season 3 again since a few days after HLV aired, because I want to do a full season re-watch when the dvds get here, and I didn't want to be burned out on them by then. Of course, I woke up this morning and my tv (which is less than 2 years old) decided it was a good day to die (on Walking Dead day? Oh, h*ll no!!!) So I had to make a trip to Best Buy to get a new one. Got it all hooked up so I'm all set for tonight and the arrival of my new dvds. I'm really interested to see how my perspective on the season changes now that a.) I have seen it in its entirety, and b.) I've distanced myself from the episodes for several weeks.

I agree, at least about the Molly bit. However, there are quite a few people out there who see something deeper there as far as Sherlock is concerned (I know, because I was recently attacked by a couple of them on tumblr. ). To each his own, I guess. (That was in lieu of a shrugging smiley, since I couldn't find one.)

T.o.b.y, I agree 100%!!

Wanted to express my thoughts on Moffat's recent comments regarding Sherlock and Molly... This is how I am interpreting that: Molly has decided that, while she will always have a soft spot in her heart for Sherlock, she's not interested in winding up with him anymore. She's realized that he's not really the type of man she wants to settle down with. I think the reason she broke up with Tom was not because she wanted Sherlock more, but because she finally saw what everyone else did in TEH... that Tom was a stand-in for Sherlock. When she let go of Sherlock, she realized that she needed to let go of the stand-in, too, and go another way entirely. I think finally realizing she didn't want to be with Sherlock is what made her comfortable enough with him to slap him and be so blunt with him in HLV. If this turns out to be true, then good for her! Here's hoping that new direction leads her to a certain Silver Fox detective we all know and love.

One thing that really gets me about that whole "surgery" bit... Mary's shot was in a very, very dangerous location. To not cause serious (even fatal) harm, would have been a very, very lucky break. But the thing is... no matter how precise she was, or what knowledge she may have had about anatomy, she still couldn't have known that she wouldn't kill him. I've had my hands inside enough chest and abdominal cavities to tell you that no one's anatomy is identical to anyone else's. Organs are smaller or larger in different people, things are off a bit in their location. I've been standing over patients in the OR where the surgeon outright admitted that he was having a slow time finding his way around, because the anatomy was far from "text book". So no matter how "precise" she tried to be, and no matter how much knowledge she had, she had to have known that there was always a chance that he would die. And she still pulled the trigger, even knowing that. She took that big of a risk with Sherlock's life. I still can't forgive her for that. I haven't watched the episode in a couple of weeks. I didn't want to burn out on it before my dvds came. Maybe I'll have a fresh perspective when I finally get to watch it on the big screen, but I'm not holding out any hope that Mary's character will be salvaged for me. As it stands, I still want her gone as soon as possible. I'm also feeling very wary about watching The Empty Hearse and The Sign of Three again. I loved Mary in the first two episodes, and particularly in TSoT (and I just loved that episode so much by itself), and I'm afraid my enjoyment will be compromised now that I've seen His Last Vow. Kind of like how my enjoyment of TRF is not the same after having seen TEH. Funny, I never got the impression that John's main source of anger was Mary shooting Sherlock. It seemed to me that he was mostly upset that she had lied to him about who she was and gone so far as to even marry him under an assumed name. That and finding out she was not, as he had thought, finally a "nice, normal" person for him to love. Speaking of which... someone brought up a good point on tumblr the other day. Because Mary married John under false pretenses and while she was committing identity fraud, their marriage is not actually valid. I wonder if that will ever be brought up? I doubt it. I guess the whole "Is Mary Watson good enough for you?" bit underlined the fact that John doesn't seem to care that Mary Watson is not Mary Watson and not his wife.

I read a very interesting article someone on tumblr wrote about the use of Sherlock's Mind Palace in this episode, and some things I didn't even notice regarding wardrobe whenever it's being utilized. Give it a read if you like! http://lizthirose.tumblr.com/post/74722283769/the-one-who-belongs-john-in-sherlocks-mind-palace

Maybe you just "misspoke" -- there are three mini-documentaries listed on the DVDs, but there are no audio commentaries. Near as I can tell, the Region 1 and Region 2 DVDs have (in the past) had the same content. The special goodies that we're getting here in the US are shorter min-documentaries that are being run following the PBS broadcasts of Series 3. They are apparently unique to PBS, and are not the same mini-docs that are on the DVDs. Are we all sufficiently confused yet? Yes, I meant to say commentaries, not documentaries! I should have checked into this before I bought them, but I'm hoping the season 1 dvds that I added to the cart with season 3 are the full cut and not the shortened PBS versions. If they're shortened, I'm going to be super upset!

Mangopony, I'm not sure yet. I'll let you know when I get them, but I doubt we'll get anything special that the UK didn't get.

I'm really disappointed that there will be no documentaries. I'm still waiting for my dvds to be released in the US. You know what would be really great? Some deleted scenes and gag reels, but something tells me there won't ever be anything like that.

Ooh, neat how they created that message by having the top poster start to peel off a bit, revealing one word on an older layer underneath. I should know this (I mean, how often do we see John with a car?), but what scene is that from? When John and Mary drive up to the crack den, and John goes and gets the tire lever out of the trunk.

Yeah, I basically have to not pay any attention to the medical failures in television shows. I work in the OR, so it's especially difficult for me to watch OR-themed shows and see how horribly wrong they get it. Grey's Anatomy is the closest I've seen to doing it right, and even they do things that make me want to throw a shoe at the screen. I've learned to just look the other way on that stuff most of the time. Sometimes it's harder than others, though. I recently started re-watching Nip/Tuck on Netflix, which I watched originally as it was airing and before I got into health care. Every single time they scrub and then walk into the OR with their masks down, only to reach up and tie them on after they've been gowned and gloved... let's just say it's an effort not to write a strongly worded letter to someone. Like you said, it's best to just put all that aside and suspend disbelief. Maybe one reason that John doesn't generally behave that way is that Sherlock does it for him -- though to such excess that John has the "Are you kidding me?" reaction. Then too, we don't often see John awakened at the crack of dawn -- and come to think of it, that's a bit odd, because in the original stories, Holmes was forever waking Watson at all hours. Speaking of which, I always assumed Sherlock slept little and was probably up hours before John, but when Mrs. Hudson brings him his morning tea in TSoT, she mentions that he's usually not up yet whenever she brings it in, indicating that he often sleeps in. Perhaps he's up at all hours when he's working a case, and then in the between-times he crashes and sleeps like a teenager. I think you've probably hit the nail on the head for the reasoning behind John's seeming distance in that scene, and it's pretty much what I was thinking as I was watching it. When it comes to Sherlock Holmes, I think John has probably reached his lifetime limit on heartbreak and has just had to shut a part of himself down in order to say goodbye again. Speaking of which, what do you guys think will happen in regards to Sherlock's exile in season 4? Do you think he will get an immediate pardon when the plane lands and he agrees to help deal with Moriarty, or do you think they'll keep the threat of exile hanging over his head all season if he doesn't solve the problem (or maybe even the threat of "You still have a plane waiting for you, this is just a stay of execution")? I think Sherlock needs to have a heart to heart with Mycroft and tell him straight up,"You know what, if you want to keep coming to me to help you stop these super genius villains, you're going to have to accept whatever methods I use to do it. If you are going to hold me to the every-man's set of laws, then don't come to me for help anymore."

Part of that is probably the doctor thing. When you're a doctor, you only get so long to speak to each patient and you don't have time to let them talk all around the houses when you need to find out what the specific problem is with them so John will be used to having to get to the point of something, cutting a potentially long ramble down to the essential and relevant factors. He's probably more polite about it usually, though. That's certainly true. I work with doctors and I see a lot of them behaving that way (and worse) on a daily basis. It's just that John has never come off that way before. He was always the one to give Sherlock the "Are you kidding me??" looks whenever he would be particularly blunt with a client. I suppose it could just be age and the experience of the last couple of years that have hardened him. Or he could have been channeling Sherlock subconsciously because he missed him. I found it particularly telling when he said,"I haven't seen him in ages!" and Mary pointed out that it had only been a month. Clearly, in John's mind, that's about 25 days too long.

Well, he did say it wasn't "agreeing" with him, and Sherlock mentioned that he needed low tar and still smoked "like a beginner". If he only smokes very rarely, it would make sense that his tolerance is much lower.

I have never seen the unaired pilot! Where do I find it? Check your inbox.

Welcome, dancingsiberians! That's certainly an interesting idea, but I got very hung up on the highlighted part. Sherlock is going to save John's baby while the doctor freaks out? The same Sherlock who had to ask what to do while a man bled out on the floor, and had to be instructed to hold pressure on the wound, is going to perform a Cesarean on someone by himself? If they did something like that, I would find it well beyond the realm of belief for me, personally. I like that Sherlock, in all his amazing intelligence, doesn't actually know everything. I prefer him to still be human, and not a superhero. I am a little bit jealous that you get to watch the episodes from the beginning now, while it's all over for the rest of us. I do hope you'll come back and comment in each thread as you watch season 3.

There might be an easier way to do it, but I tend to be a little slow with these things myself, and I've taken to just cutting everything but the part I want to reply to first, and then after replying to that, hitting the quote box and pasting the rest, and again cutting all but what I want to reply to, and so on until I've replied to each point individually. I tend to agree on this. I don't know if there will ever be a sexual/romantic relationship there on the show (or even an explicit statement that one is desired by either one of them), but I do think the connection between them goes beyond friendship. But, I also think it goes beyond sex or romance. I think they are soulmates. And I think that true soulmates don't have to be in a romantic or sexual relationship, I think it's just about finding the other half of yourself... the person who completes you and makes you better in every way. And I think they definitely do that for each other. Re: Janine... I think you're right in that he didn't fancy her. I think for Sherlock, in order for him to involve himself enough with someone to bother with a sexual relationship, he would have to have more than just a physical attraction to them. Janine is funny, smart, and interesting, and while I think he appreciated and understood her on a certain level, I don't think he found her "special" enough to get that involved with her. But I do think that they could have been friends, and I think, when she points that out to him at the end, he realizes that and feels a sort of loss at having thrown away that opportunity. I think they both sort of understood each other. She understood that he was a good guy who could be kind of an ass sometimes, and she respected that he didn't hide that. (At least, as I saw it.) I think he also understood that she was the kind of girl who didn't put on airs, was impulsive and a little wild, and didn't mind going after what she wanted without worrying what anyone else thought. And I think that's something that Sherlock can admire and respect. It really is too bad that we will probably never see her again. I think she could have made an interesting secondary character and it would have been a nice opportunity to give Sherlock a female friend who could match him snark for snark, and without her being too smitten with him and allowing him to walk all over her. Lost opportunity.

Nice parallel there, could be what happened. But I tend to doubt it, since it's not easy to fake a bullet wound to the head. The fake blood is plausible. The fake gunshot I'm not so sure about. Assuming that the noise we heard was real, then the gun was indeed loaded. I don't believe that a cap would be loud enough, and a blank bullet can cause serious injury -- shooting yourself in the mouth with one would be sheer stupidity, because the impact of the just wadding at such close range into such soft tissue would be likely to kill you. Moftiss borrow only from the best! Both of those subplots were fairly direct from the Conan Doyle stories ("Charles Augustus Milverton" and "Man with a Twisted Lip" respectively). On the other hand, maybe John is naturally like that, but simply doesn't look it in comparison to Sherlock. I suspect that John has a lot of Sherlock's traits, which is one reason he's able to understand his friend's quirks (and also one big reason why he's often so annoyed by them). It's just that Sherlock can exhibit those traits in such an extreme way that John pales by comparison. That's an excellent point, and I think you might be on to something! It makes me want to go back and watch all previous episodes and pay close attention to John's reactions to situations.

Yeah, but is it? Mary made a choice to get away from that lifestyle for whatever reason, and only got pulled back into it because CAM was blackmailing her. She went on that adventure with Sherlock in TEH, but only because John was in danger and she went with Sherlock to save him. I don't think (or at least, we've been given no indication) that she has gone with them on any other outings since Sherlock has been back. And with a baby on the way, is she going to be running off with them for crime fighting? This is all kind of a moot point I'm making, since I don't expect her to survive season 4 (though I am wrong on quite a few occasions). But I just wonder if we will see any other scenes depicting John running off and not being satisfied with a "normal" life. I think it's the action and adventure he needs... sitting at home with a wife who just happens to be a former assassin might not be enough. (I realize we did have Mary going with John to the crack house, but that seemed more about making sure he stayed out of trouble, and she didn't leave the car. I don't see her sitting outside crime scenes with a baby seat in the back.)

To bring up something I don't think has been discussed yet... Did anyone else notice John channeling Sherlock in that first scene with Isaac's mom? He didn't think to let her in the door until Mary told him, he couldn't be arsed to remember who, exactly, Isaac was (he thought it was her husband), he cut right to the point of "no, WHERE is he, what's the address?" when she was trying to explain the situation. I thought this was very interesting that John, when Sherlock is not around and he's been missing that lifestyle, becomes more like Sherlock himself. I think they were obviously trying to display that "domestic" life is no longer suiting him. I wonder if we will see more of this again soon? Especially with Moriarty back in the picture (or someone pretending to be him, possibly), John may not be content to sit home changing diapers and sterilizing bottles while Sherlock is out running around London playing cat and mouse. It was also interesting to me that he was having dreams of Afghanistan again. I guess they could have just not mentioned it, but I got the feeling that he hadn't thought of that in a while. Maybe the casual lifestyle is making him long subconsciously for the war.

I'd love it if they occasionally brought back those unaired pilot jeans!

He got a special award (I don't remember what it was called) at the Critic's Choice Awards last night in Los Angeles. SAG awards are Saturday. Is he nominated? When are the BAFTAS? And is he nominated? What?! That was on my tv last night and I changed the channel! If I'd known he would be there I would have kept watching. Oh well, hooray for YouTube!

thank you and thank you! Oh dear... I hate her a lot, I was in shock when I saw her, I'm in shock!! when I saw her with Sherlock..I was so upset and so jealous. Finally I thought: ¨ hey b... don't touch him, you're not good enough for Sherlock. It was hard to keep seeing that chapter... was like a pain in the neck. And after that I went to my mind palace to take a breath and she disappeared. was crazy hahahaha Oh, I'm with you! I don't think I will ever consider anyone good enough for Sherlock. Which is why I'd like him to stay single. Others may disagree! I'm with you guys 110%. More Lestrade!!!!

You're shallow? You've obviously never heard me wax poetic about the column of Benedict's throat. That's something else I'd love in season 4, if we're just totally embracing the shallow now. More sexy, unbuttoned shirts to show off the throat! I was so pleased by the addition of that lovely green one this season.

Welcome, cumberholmes! No worries, you didn't go overboard! Everyone is entitled to their opinion and that's why we're here, after all! My reaction to Janine is kind of funny. I started off violently hating her in TSOT, and liked her more and more every time I watched it. Same for HLV. Hated all that stuff in the apartment on the first go, but become more and more amused with it with each re-watch. I particularly loved John's reactions to those moments. Martin's facial expressions are absolutely amazing!