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I'm casually doing yet another rewatch, this time backwards. I often do this with shows that I want to analyze rather than just be entertained by, because it seems to highlight character development for me. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to have a thread to talk about themes that emerged and were developed throughout S3. I'll start with the theme of Sherlock's understanding of and actual practice of friendship. Throughout S3, we see that Mycroft and Sherlock never had many friends, first by accident as children, then by being isolated by their intelligence, and later by choice. Mycroft has been the enforcer on this, as he emphasizes to Sherlock his disdain for forming any kind of attachment to anyone or anything and his feeling that this is a weakness, an attitude that Sherlock has adopted. But what do we see happen in S3? The Empty Hearse: Here, Sherlock's understanding of friendship is at its most infantile. In fact, I think the writers make him regress a little bit so we can see the trajectory develop, although it pleases me to instead imagine that two years getting the pulp beaten out of you by Moriarty's network while you're on solo mission could make anyone socially regress. But here he starts by thinking that everyone in his life will stay static. He's frankly amazed that John can't laugh off his reappearance. And even when he (quickly, to his credit) realizes that he's wrong, he thinks an apology is going to fix it. ("I said I'm sorry; isn't that what you're supposed to do?") Of course, he gets this attitude from his exposure to Mycroft. They say that siblings are people's first friends; while I don't know that Sherlock and Mycroft were ever "friends," there is a constancy to family that you don't get anywhere else. Sherlock can disappear off the grid for months or years, and when he comes back his relationship with Mycroft will still be the same prickly, contentious thing it ever has been. He expects that his friendship with John will be the same. The Sign of Three: So by TSoT, he realizes that he has a completely different animal here in the form of his friendship with John, and he doesn't want to do this wrong. Luckily, being an honor attendant at a wedding is one of the best-scripted friendship roles in the entire world. What does your best friend (best man) do? He helps the groom with any planning, throws the stag night, reads the telegrams,makes the speech, and dances with the chief bridesmaid. It's all there in the book. We see a few wonderful flashes of genuine friendship, such as some of the wonderful speech quotes, the discussion with Mary about her pregnancy, and the composition of the first dance waltz, but otherwise, Sherlock is trying to be the best friend possible without having any organic understanding or practice of how that really works. He just knows that he's been informed that John considers him his best friend, and he's not going to muck this up. His Last Vow: Which sets us up so nicely for HLV. By this point, Sherlock doesn't need instructions. Certain friends you are willing to live and die for. John is one of those friends, and Sherlock is going to move heaven and earth to make sure that he's not hurt. It isn't just the idea of recovering from asystole and living "for" John, it's also the goodbye before the exile. This time, Sherlock is going to postpone John's grieving as long as possible by not admitting that he's off on a suicide mission. This time, he knows what his death would mean. (And I believe John knows full well the broad outlines of the danger, if not the specifics.) So this is a truly adult and evolved sense of friendship. Kind of fun to take the three episodes as one continuous "movie." What does everyone else see thematically?

The current discussion in the Subtext thread got me wondering just how many people are dissatisfied with some of the events in S3 - a vocal minority, or are we fans more divided on some issues than Moffat acknowledges? Therefore I put up this poll, to get a feeling of how our community here stands on these issues. I tried to pick the three most controversial points in each episode (and I freely admit I was reaching in Sign, which seems comparatively conflicting-interpretations-free) from a general feeling of what has been discussed round here. If I picked wrong, please tell me so in this thread! A special plea to the many registered forum users here who haven't yet joined us in posting: I made this poll anonymous, so not even us moderators can see who voted what. So please consider sharing your opinion by voting, even if you generally refrain from doing so. The more people vote, the more representative the result will be. Thank you .