Episode 3.2, "The Sign of Three"

[Arcadia]

Overall. I really luv S3 in general, altho I can't exactly pinpoint why. Well, I do know the acting blows me away, for one thing.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yeah, there's a bunch of that for sure!  I think I'm still even more impressed by the acting in "Reichenbach," though.

 

[T.o.b.y]

Speaking of wonderment, I wonder whether Moftiss noticed all that?  It could be intentional foreshadowing, or it could simply be that there's so much detail in both episodes that some of it's bound to overlap (especially if you watch them often enough!).

 

I suppose it's partly intentional (like "the right time to die") and partly just my brain seeing things. Although... what do we say about coincidences?

 

[Arcadia]

Yeah, there's a bunch of that for sure! I think I'm still even more impressed by the acting in "Reichenbach," though.

Also a favorite! Possibly THE favorite. (Well, depending on the mood I'm in, sometimes I prefer something happier.) But S3 has so much variety, it's really fun to watch Cumberbatch in particular get put through all his paces.

[Carol the Dabbler]

OK, I've finally declared my official favorite Series 3 episode (mostly because I was tired of having "Empty Hearse" show up under my avatar as a default).  I like "Sign of Three" for several reasons:

 

1.  It's got some lovely moments (I could just about have picked it for The Waltz alone).

 

2.  It's got some very funny moments (and they aren't just funny -- most of them serve a dramatic function as well).

 

3.  It doesn't have any really dreadful moments.  (Though I still have serious doubts that one could actually stab somebody with a skewer without them noticing.)

 

4.  It's neatly constructed.  We can see how the flashbacks fit in.

 

So basically, it's no worse than the other two episodes, and preferable to them in some ways.  I'm still having trouble rating these three episodes on an absolute scale, or against S1 and S2, but at least I've decided that I like "Sign" the best of the three.  For now.

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

  I found the article below on the internet. It gives some interesting information relating to stab wounds and the human body and how it reacts to injuries.

 

 

 

http://www.lowtechcombat.com/2010/02/can-you-be-stabbed-with-knife-and-not.html

[Carol the Dabbler]

Thanks for that link, Fox.  That's good information.

 

It seems like those people who didn't know they'd been stabbed had a couple of factors in common.  Either

 

1] they felt the impact but thought they'd merely been punched -- and/or

 

2] they were so adrenalized and distracted that they didn't notice anything at the time.

 

Point 2] doesn't apply to either the guardsman or Sholto, but point 1] might, if the photographer acted like he'd accidentally bumped them fairly hard.  We don't see anything of that sort, but then we don't see the actual events, merely Sherlock's mental reconstruction of them.

 

I'm still skeptical about the belt controlling the bleeding that completely and for that long, though, especially in the absence of adrenalization.

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

I'm not a doctor.....but if the wound is small enough....like a deep puncture....they don't bleed readily.....or mine never have....having stepped on nails and stuff bare foot around my grandparent's farm even a ham bone that took a neat round chunk out of my foot.......and a tight belt might very well act as a pressure bandage....but that's just my layman's opinion.

[T.o.b.y]

I have to admit that even though I am a medical person, I don't particularly care whether it would work in real life or not. I suppose it might. But the world of Sherlock has its own laws, anyway. It's like our own, but... not quite the same.

 

I like the case on the "poetic" level. It seems like a metaphor for something. I can't quite figure out what, exactly, but I like it anyway.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Wounds like the ones Fox described probably didn't hit a major blood vessel.  Considering how copiously Bainbridge bled, he wasn't so lucky, which means, yes, the belt is the only explanation.  I suppose it could have worked, as Fox says, like a pressure bandage IF the wound was directly under it, which is where Sherlock assumed it was.  That means of course that that Small had to push his weapon through not only several inches of Bainbridge himself, plus his uniform jacket and undershirt, but through the heavy belt too -- without Bainbridge noticing.  Maybe Small pretended to stumble, so that he fell hard against Bainbridge's back -- that could mask the force needed, but would surely make precision far more difficult as well.

 

The dialog amuses me, by the way, when John listens to Sherlock's scenario, nods sagely, then provides the summary.  Freeman does it so earnestly that I can't possibly doubt the explanation -- or at least it never occurred to me that the whole death-threat scenario in "Blind Banker" was full of holes until I read a parody.

 

[Caya]

Our old GP managed to give injections in a way that the needle never hurt. I once asked him about it, and he claimed that he briefly just touched the skin with the needle, and while the nerves were still busy reporting "touch", he pushed the needle in and the nerves couldn't switch to "ouch" quickly enough. Could be he just wanted a nosy teen to shut up, but maybe there really is a trick to it if you time it just right.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Interesting.  I have noticed that injections sometime hurt and sometimes don't, but always chalked that up to them sometimes hitting a nerve.

 

Maybe Small took lessons from your old doctor?

 

[Redbeard]

Sign of Three is just so good from beginning to end.  I found it a really wonderful, humourous, "feel-good" episode.  Well, right up until the very end. 

 

I think it amazing that for a character so above emotion that Benedict gets to play so many really juicy scenes.  It is incredible.

 

Can I just say, I really love what I call the "Not You" scene.  Only Benedict could make someone saying Not You over and over again so utterly entertaining and humourous.   I look for moments in my life when I can point to someone with a dramatic flourish and say "Not you!"   It has presented itself surprisingly often.   lol. 

[T.o.b.y]

Can I just say, I really love what I call the "Not You" scene. 

 

Oh yeah, me too. I had been yelling at Sherlock for three and a half series to stop listening to his brother and I was so happy when he finally did.

 

And it really is a "feel good" episode, just the right thing to watch after a hard, unsatisfying day. I love the ending, too. It's the only possible way this episode could have ended for me.

 

My favorite bit (at the moment - I bet something else will strike me more when I watch it the next time) is when Sherlock's eye catches the empty chair by the fireplace and his face twitches. Such a brief scene and yet so touching.

 

[Caya]

 

(source)

[Carol the Dabbler]

 

 

Well, I guess Sherlock didn't actually miss much, then!

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

I just had to repost that whole thing on Facebook...it was just to cool and funny.

[sherlockandjohn]

The Sign of Three was initially my favorite of s3, and I still adore Sherlock's speech - the whole of it! TEH grew on me, and is now my favorite. Overall, though, it's still Reichenbach.

 

Anyway, dropped in here because I've been discussing HLV today and yesterday, and now I need a break

 

Best parts of the episode for me are the most heart-warming ones: John asking Sherlock to be best man, and Sherlock praising John during his speech. There's also a point in which the speech turns really funny that I love to pieces; "part two," as Sherlock calls it. This is Sherlock in his element. So much of the episode feels strange to me, so unlike Sherlock, that I'm happy to get a piece of the Sherlock I know; the socially disastrous, yet amusing, genius. I love sentimental Sherlock, too, though. It's great when seen in context. This part of the story is such a gem, because it's the one time Sherlock and John openly (and without a bomb threatening them, or one of them having died) speak of how they feel about each other.

[T.o.b.y]

Yes... that whole speech is glorious. And it may be heartwarming as a whole, but it has plenty of Sherlockian howlers in it. Like that parallel between marriage and murder.

 

I just love the part where Sherlock realizes everyone is crying and can't quite fathom why. I also cheer every time Sherlock finally, finally throws Mycroft out of his mind palace. I hope that was a permanent expulsion.

[sherlockandjohn]

Oh yes. That's a time when Mycroft gets on my nerves, and he doesn't often with me - but that whole "narrow it down, narrow it down" ramble got me annoyed. Come to think of it, he also annoys me with his "you always were so stupid" in HLV. Ugh. I think Sherlock was right. "He was a rubbish big brother." But at other times I like Mycroft's character a lot, and I think he's invaluable to the show, and to insight into Sherlock's character.

[Pamela]

Oh yes. That's a time when Mycroft gets on my nerves, and he doesn't often with me - but that whole "narrow it down, narrow it down" ramble got me annoyed. Come to think of it, he also annoys me with his "you always were so stupid" in HLV. Ugh. I think Sherlock was right. "He was a rubbish big brother." But at other times I like Mycroft's character a lot, and I think he's invaluable to the show, and to insight into Sherlock's character.

I can't believe I'm actually defending Mycroft, but at that point, it was actually good advice, though, wasn't it?  I actually believe it was Sherlock himself who knew that he had to do that, it was just Mycroft's image and voice helping his thought process along.  The target really did need to be narrowed down.

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

 

I actually believe it was Sherlock himself who knew that he had to do that, it was just Mycroft's image and voice helping his thought process along. 

 

  Okay, I'm going to disagree here a little bit, may be playing the devil's advocate but.....sometimes these "inner voices" can be, at least in my experience, actually thoughts and opinions expressed by someone other then myself. Yes, like in Sherlock's mind palace, they are somewhat imprinted on the memory but still not part of one's own. If I am making myself clear on that?

 

 And the image and demand that Sherlock "narrow it down" seemed to becomibg more of a distraction then a help after awhile. Sherlock's telling Mycroft to get out. "Not you, not you!" was the need to shut this voice off so that Sherlock could begin to concentrate. To focus on the problem...yes he did need to narrow it down but Mycroft was becoming a hindrance and a liability.

[T.o.b.y]

Mycroft's "voice" was telling Sherlock to narrow down the potential killer. Sherlock wasn't getting anywhere with that, so he decided to abandon that approach and narrow down the victim instead - focus on saving the life instead of finding the criminal.

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Okay.....that's one way to clarify it. Thanks, T.o.b.y.

[T.o.b.y]

You're very welcome.

 

I was just thinking, I wonder what Sherlock's behavior looked like from the perspective of the wedding guests, who did not know what he was thinking. It must have been very absurd.