Episode 3.3, "His Last Vow"

[sherlockandjohn]

The person who informed John that Mrs. Hudson had been shot surely ought to have directed him towards a hospital. Ah, well, this is pointless Let's just say that John was too absorbed with the news to actually think about where to go.

[jesskayding]

 

I prefer to think of John as trusting. Probably a bit too trusting for his own good sometimes, but hardly dense. Just not paranoid. Though paranoia could be a useful survival trait, considering the crowd he runs with.

I like that, but then I remember his therapist said he had "trust issues." Although to be honest I am not sure what she is referring to. He mistrusts Mycroft from the moment he sees him, but who doesn't?

 

 

He didn't trust his therapist, per was reading her writing upside down... And he wasn't doing the things she advised him per he didn't believe it would help, or maybe he felt she didn't truly understand/listen to him.:

 

Ella: How's your blog going?

 

Dr John Watson: Yeah, good. Very good.

 

Ella: You haven't written a word, have you?

 

Dr John Watson: You just wrote, "still has trust issues".

 

Ella: And you read my writing upside down. You see what I mean? John, you're a soldier. It's going to take you a while to adjust to civilian life. And writing a blog about everything that happens to you will honestly help you.

 

Dr John Watson: Nothing happens to me.

[Carol the Dabbler]

OK, good interpretation, Jess.  Ella thinks John has general "trust issues" -- because she's picking up on his distrust of her.  He's clearly selective about who he trusts.  As Arcadia says, he does not trust Mycroft for some strange reason!  But why does he trust Sherlock?  Why does anybody trust anybody they've just met?  Must be some sort of rapport thing.

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

  Sherlock is looking for an associate. John, as a doctor...an army doctor would be more then qualified. He's used to combat situations. Beyond the people, shops, and cars, London is a battle field don't you know. And he is a doctor if someone.....Sherlock?...gets hurt there is on the spot triage.

[jesskayding]

I don't know, if someone gives me a complete rundown of my life, then I look them up & they're talking about the science of deduction, then in 1 day the main detective is seeking his advise on a string of mystery suicides that's front lining the papers. I'd be intrigued.

 

By the way he doesn't trust him right away, he questions him throughout & unlike Sherlock, he didn't move in immediately & he didn't even have very much to move.... So don't see the immediate trust... That was just Mycroft's take on their situation. Although he's never wrong, supposedly...

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Oh Mycroft can be very wrong.....but good luck on getting him to ever admit to that.

[sherlockandjohn]

I don't know, if someone gives me a complete rundown of my life, then I look them up & they're talking about the science of deduction, then in 1 day the main detective is seeking his advise on a string of mystery suicides that's front lining the papers. I'd be intrigued.

 

 

I think that's precisely what makes John trust Sherlock (to a large degree) from day one.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Right.  John knows Sherlock is the real deal -- whatever that may mean -- so he trusts him in certain areas.  But where he does trust him -- mostly where John is out of his depth and/or totally out of his bailiwick -- he trusts him all the way.

 

[T.o.b.y]

Oooh, I love pictures from this series. Here's yet another good one - I know the image of the weapon-wielding bride has been used time and again before, but I still like it...

 

[Bendydoodle Cantaloupe]

OK, good interpretation, Jess.  Ella thinks John has general "trust issues" -- because she's picking up on his distrust of her.  He's clearly selective about who he trusts.  As Arcadia says, he does not trust Mycroft for some strange reason!

 

"For some strange reason"? Hey, I wouldn't trust a man who calls me via a public telephone and then forces me to get in a mysterious black car that pulls up out of nowhere.

[T.o.b.y]

Well, I disagree about Mycroft seeing him as a little boy.  He never does.  The mind palace sequences are all Sherlock's view of himself.  Therefore, you can't change perspectives. That's what's called "the law of first mention." That's why the young Sherlock at the end is ALSO Sherlock's perspective - because that's how he feels about himself - the younger brother... but the younger self is crying and scared and looking to the older brother for help while the older Sherlock has sort of gone into shock over what he's done.

 

Yes, in the mind palace, it is clearly Sherlock's point of view the whole time. But at the end, don't we first see Mycroft looking at Sherlock and then the image of Sherlock as a little boy and then Mycroft again "oh Sherlock, what have you done now?" (or something like that)? It always seemed to me as if it were supposed to be Mycroft's perspective there.

[sfmpco]

No, they wouldn't change perspectives in the writing like that. That would be really bad form.  It is Sherlock's continued perspective of himself.  Inner, child Sherlock is frightened, scared, looking to big brother for help, just as little Sherlock in the mind palace looked to Mycroft for help.  Adult Sherlock has crossed way over the line and is in complete shock over what he's just done once he sinks to his knees with his hands raised in surrender.   

[T.o.b.y]

No, they wouldn't change perspectives in the writing like that. That would be really bad form.  It is Sherlock's continued perspective of himself.  Inner, child Sherlock is frightened, scared, looking to big brother for help, just as little Sherlock in the mind palace looked to Mycroft for help.  Adult Sherlock has crossed way over the line and is in complete shock over what he's just done once he sinks to his knees with his hands raised in surrender.   

 

Maybe this interpretation never occurred to me because I don't reckon Sherlock would be so very upset about shooting someone. On the other hand, he has voiced some astonishment in previous episodes at how calm both John and Irene Adler are after killing, so maybe it is a bigger deal for him than I thought.

 

Still, I suspect that if the image of the little boy is indeed supposed to reveal Sherlock's inner state behind his show of being a ruthless sociopath, he is still not necessarily crying over the murder of Magnussen, but rather the consequences that will have for him and the people he is close to. He's disappointed Mycroft, because he lost and his brother now has no choice but to have him arrested, and he's breaking his vow to John and Mary because he knows full well he will certainly not be able to "always be there" for them if he's in prison or exiled.

 

I just cannot imagine Sherlock feeling any remorse on behalf of the dead man directly. I think he loathed him, and he's not morally sensitive enough to be sorry he ended his life, I don't think. There is an element of "sociopath" or "psychopath" or whatever in Sherlock for real. As John says, he "doesn't feel things that way".

[Zain]

We had that question a few pages ago, already. I think we agreed that it is unclear, both readings are valid and possible.

To defend Toby's reading, though, once again:

 

 

 

At the end of HLV, we get to see Sherlock in child-form after Mycroft gets a close-up from the camera. To me, that seems to imply that this is his perspective, especially because we at first see child-Sherlock from Mycroft's direction, then the camera shifts to behind child-Sherlock, but not directly behind him, which would indicate that we are in the character's perspective. So it's more of an overview camera position, the camera "pulls back" to reveal the context of the scene:  That way we get to see the helicoptor for causality, it explains the tears that follow in the next shot. The audience is kept in that position when the camera switches to a close-up of child-Sherlock's face and the tears. Even then, the camera has a left angle, indicating audience, not introspection (a confrontational close-up would be better for introspection, I think. But my knowledge of camera work is far from adequate). Basically, I think that the camera viewpoint could indicate that it is Mycroft's perspective. But like anything else, this is very much up for debate.

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

No, they wouldn't change perspectives in the writing like that. That would be really bad form.  It is Sherlock's continued perspective of himself.  Inner, child Sherlock is frightened, scared, looking to big brother for help, just as little Sherlock in the mind palace looked to Mycroft for help.  Adult Sherlock has crossed way over the line and is in complete shock over what he's just done once he sinks to his knees with his hands raised in surrender.   

 

I wish I felt as much confidence about Moftiss's adherence to The Rules as you do.    Even though I do like your interpretation, I'm not entirely sure that's what they meant.  And if it is, then they definitely muddied the waters (for me, at least) by showing that closeup of Mycroft immediately before showing Child Sherlock.

 

Again -- boy, would I love to see the script!

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

I think Mofftiss may qualify as INTJ's in that they have no respect for authority, i.e. rules. They have no qualms about and do not hesitate in making up their own.

 

 But in saying that I too feel that Mycroft has a way of making Sherlock feel regressed. He always prided himself on his intellect. His ability to think his way out of any problem. But CAM alluded to the fact that he believed that he thought that Mycroft might be behind this whole computer thing. If that was to be true, and here Sherlock was thinking that the whole thing was his idea, that would be a shock to be sure. Sherlock being caught in the crossfire of another Big Brother scheme gone terribly wrong like Irene and her airplane code only this time there were no security codes to be deduced and broken. No physical vaults to be broken into as there had been a physical camera phone to hand over to Mycroft once Sherlock deduced Irene's heart.

 

I also feel that Sherlock is in shock about what he felt so strongly that he had to do in defense of John, Mary, Lady Smallwood, Janine and, in no small way, Mycroft. Someone posted a comment that they thought that Sherlock, by this time, may be suffering from PTSD. It would make sense if he was.

 

 Having to plan his own suicide. Planning to jump from a four or five story building is one thing....to actually have to do it is quite another. Then there were the people who had been shot and killed in front of him just for shaking his hand. Moriarty shooting himself. Then there is the two years of a running battle with Moriarty's minions. The torture he went through.

 

If he hadn't developed some measure of PTSD he's a stronger man then most.

 

[by the sea]

 

Yes, in the mind palace, it is clearly Sherlock's point of view the whole time. But at the end, don't we first see Mycroft looking at Sherlock and then the image of Sherlock as a little boy and then Mycroft again "oh Sherlock, what have you done now?" (or something like that)? It always seemed to me as if it were supposed to be Mycroft's perspective there.

 

 

 

Ah ... once more into the fray.  I agree with T.o.b.y. on this ... this part is purely Mycroft but you have to drop the "now" from his question ... "oh Sherlock, what have you done ? "  It sounds to me almost like a question asked in anguish, as we see his little brother ... this little boy ... caught in this terrible drama ... something with the potential to prevent even Mycroft from saving the day.  It strikes me as a tiny bit of insight into Mycroft's ... dare I say it ? ... humanity.

 

Debbie

[sfmpco]

I don't think Sherlock has any remorse about killing Magnussen, but I do think he feels shock that he has crossed that line, because now there are some really, really heavy consequences to face.  I certainly don't think he ever went to Appledor with the intention of killing Magnussen, even though he asked John to bring his gun.  That was more for protection in case they encountered any trouble.  Although I do believe that Sherlock has possibly killed before as part of his MI6 work, even possibly undercover for 2 years dismantling the Moriarty network, I think the Magnussen murder was on a whole different emotional level.  No, I don't think he regretted it, but I think there's a shock to his system that he even did it, and the fact that Mycroft and John witnessed that part of him... he knows he has just screwed up royally... and that scares him terribly.  John is absolutely horrified.  When you horrify your best friend with your behavior, that is never a good thing.  For all Sherlock knows, it might have just cost him his friendship with John.  Oh sure, he saved Mary, but John just witnessed pure murder just for the sake that Sherlock had lost that game.

 

Now, I'm going to go back to the idea that it is NOT Mycroft seeing him as a child.  IF we had seen from the inside of the helicopter Mycroft looking down on a child, that would have been one thing, but we are always on Sherlock's level with the young Sherlock.  That child represents the inner feelings of how Sherlock was struggling - also not something Mycroft could have pictured from the helicopter.  They specifically establish that it is Sherlock's view of himself in the mind palace so that the last scene with young Sherlock allows us to to again experience that.  You cannot change perspectives in the story although I do understand the confusion.

 

I think there is a lot of resistance to that being Sherlock's perspective at the end because people don't want Sherlock to have those feelings, but he does have those feelings.  We see those feelings buried in the child....feelings of always being slower on the deduction than Mycroft, feelings of being a disappointment, feelings of genuine happiness and love when remembering Redbeard, and at the end, feelings of being scared and looking up to older brother for help.  When the chips are really, really down, only Mycroft truly understand's Sherlock's gifts and history...things John will never be privy to, not even the things leaked to the press in TRF.  There are things that only Mycroft knows, and when there is trouble too big for Sherlock, Sherlock has no choice but to look to Mycroft for any help.  Sherlock knows after shooting Magnussen that he has backed himself into a corner and cannot get out...that's part of the shock.  He really didn't think through the personal, emotional consequences of cold-blooded murder.  Moriarty was right was he said that Sherlock's weakness was always trying to be clever, but there was no clever in cold-blooded murder.

 

Sherlock is working so hard on the plane not to cry.  It is likely after the shooting that he was taken into custody until that moment when he was being put on the private jet.  So he hadn't seen John or Mary at all.  He believes he is losing his friends to permanent separation, losing his country, losing his family.  He believes he is losing everything and is trying so hard to keep it together, but clearly the brevity he attempts to inject in his goodbye to John doesn't work its charm the way it once did.  It's an awkward goodbye.  It's only when he's on the plane that we know he's really struggling.  His eyes are too red not to have shed some tears in the privacy of the jet.  As Mycroft said to him earlier, "Your loss would break my heart."  That was the closest he could say to "I love you, brother," and although Sherlock sort of blew it off - literally and figuratively as he coughed up all that cigarette smoke, Mycroft's sentiment clearly hit the mark of Sherlock's heart... because Sherlock needs to lean on that remark in that moment of desperation and shock after shooting Magnussen.  Even Mycroft is terribly shocked at what has happened.   Although Mycroft says to his peers that he doesn't let brotherly sentiment get in the way of dealing with Sherlock, he does in fact let it get in the way.

 

I'm still willing to entertain the idea of the Moriarty animated gif being a Mycroft hoax.  After all, Mycroft did have control of all those security cameras that incessantly followed/stalked John in ASIP.  It would be no problem for him to take control of the media.  No problem at all.

 

 

[sfmpco]

I think Mofftiss may qualify as INTJ's in that they have no respect for authority, i.e. rules. They have no qualms about and do not hesitate in making up their own.

 

 

If he hadn't developed some measure of PTSD he's a stronger man then most.

 

Oh, I think he's definitely a little PTSD, and I think we will see more of that as he allows his humanity to surface further in S4.

[Zain]

And that is a perfectly fine interpretation, sfmpco. Everybody has got the right to their own head canon. I prefer to see Sherlock as regretting the fact that he shot Magnussen, for example. And I rather hope he has got some plan to get Mary imprisoned. Otherwise HLV is a very sour episode for me, indeed.

 

 What Toby was expressing, and what I was attempting to express by analyzing the camera perspective: There's no RULE in any kind of writing, and there definitely is no rule that states "You must not confuse your audience by changing the perspective." Authors do, be it journalists (depicting both sides of a conflict), writers, even dramatists, and screen writers do, too. It's a tool of the trade, and wielded wisely, it can make a huge difference. Take Pride and Prejudice, for example. If there had not been a change in perspective, Austen could have never shown us the discussion between Mrs and Mr Bennett during the night (right at the start of the novel.) Or a more recent and equally well-known example, Harry Potter. There are three scenes which do not include Harry in any kind, which are not even retold to him: His arrival at Privet Drive, Snape's vow to Narcissa (mentioned, but the scene is never even dreamt by him), as well as the meeting with the Prime Minister. All of those are changes to the narrative situation.

 

Just like an author may step back to show more than just what's in front of a particular character, or step closer to fool the audience by only depicting part of what's happening, a screen writer can shift between the perspectives. The audience's only way to know if such a shift has occurred is to rely on the director, the camera man, the actors, and so on to mediate it to us, for example by a change of the camera angle.

 

It is completely fine to argue that the scene is a symbol of Sherlock's inner despair, but it is equally, and equally!, fine to argue the other way. If you do not like that interpretation, that is alright. I don't like the theory that Mary is a poor sod who is actually a tragic heroine and who only killed people that deserved it. Nonetheless I have to admit that the possibility is there, we simply do not know enough (though, if they portray her like that, I'll probably have a fit....).

[T.o.b.y]

To touch upon yet another scene in this episode that has caused a lot of disagreement:

 

 

Note that the handshake is clearly Sherlock's idea. I don't think it's entirely fair to John to claim his manner of saying good-bye was cold. He seems very helpless there, to me. Just the way he looks at Sherlock's outstretched hand as if to say, seriously? This is it?

[Carol the Dabbler]

When someone is trying desperately (but more or less successfully) to control their emotions, it's very easy for an onlooker to see them as cold and unemotional.

 

While I've never seen John as reserved in general, neither do I see him as terribly demonstrative.  Saying goodbye to his best friend (again!) without making (as he might see it) a real fool of himself must have called for a major stiff upper lip.

 

[Arcadia]

And I find something oddly intimate about this particular handshake. I can't define it, it just seemed like so much more than a "simple" handshake to me. I guess because of all the emotion in that scene.

 

And maybe something about the way the shot is framed too, because when I look at that picture above I feel very ... I don't know, it sort of breaks my heart. Again.

[Pamela]

On my first viewing of the airfield scene, I also thought, "what?  That's it?  He's leaving forever, and that's all there is?"

 

But on reflection, hey, they're dudes.  They've each already said exactly how they felt about each other.  That hasn't changed.  They've even hugged.  They don't need a repeat performance.

[sfmpco]

It's very possible that Sherlock has in fact, gone to his mind palace partly in shock to search for an answer, and what he finds is a young Sherlock crying for help.  It's just very possible that's a mind palace thing.  The only place previously young Sherlock appeared is the mind palace, so it stands to reason also that his appearance at the end is also mind palace.