How would you fix "His Last Vow"?

[T.o.b.y]

He holds a baby to look for clues? This I have to see!   :D  At arm's length, I assume!

 

No, not at arms length. It was the nurse who was holding it, Holmes only did the examining. But he's very sweet about it, actually, in his own way:

 

"Then he smiled, and his eyes came back to the baby. On its chubby neck there was this small puckered mark. Without speaking, Holmes examined it with care. Finally he shook one of the dimpled fists which waved in front of him.

“Good-bye, little man. You have made a strange start in life."

 

Ever since we learned that John and Mary will have a baby, I've been wanting a scene where Sherlock gives it that formal English handshake. That mental image just cracks me up.

[joanneta1]

Certainly NOT!

"What about the other child, Mr Ferguson," asked Holmes. ""Might we make the acquaintance of the baby?"

...but none the less it was certainly at the window that Holmes was fixing his concentrated attention. Then he smiled and his eyes came back to the baby. On its chubby neck there was this small puckered mark. Without speaking, Holmes examined it with care. Finally, he shook one of the dimpled fists which waved in front of him. "Goodbye, little man. You have made a strange start in life"

It might also interest you that it is in this story that we are introduced to the giant rat of Sumatra (of TEH fame).

[joanneta1]

Ferguson took it in his arms, so the transfer is from Ferguson to Holmes. Sorry, Toby, there is an overlap here, but the whole text has the nurse only at the beginning and the end of the scene, when he wants to have a word with her.

[T.o.b.y]

Ferguson took it in his arms, so the transfer is from Ferguson to Holmes. Sorry, Toby, there is an overlap here, but the whole text has the nurse only at the beginning and the end of the scene, when he wants to have a word with her.

 

Oh, yes, you are right, the nurse hands the baby to the father. But then the text just says that Holmes "examines" it, not that he actually holds it in his own arms - seems to me the baby remained in the arms of Mr Ferguson.

 

Anyway. I love that little scene, and I love how Holmes shakes an infant's hand and talks to it as if it could understand him. No strange noises and cooing for him, thank you very much, yet he's still affectionate, in his own way...

 

 

[sfmpco]

There will be a baby, and Sherlock will somehow have a close encounter with her.  And all our hearts will pitter-pat a little faster, because even if he is uncomfortable at all with babies, we know he would give his life to protect her.

[Caya]

Well, certainly not mine. I wish no ill on a hapless infant, but if there's one thing I want to see less than the happy crime-solving trio of Sherlock/John/Mary, it's the happy family sitcom of Sherlock/John/Mary/baby daughter *shudder*. That's not the Sherlock I came on board for.

[sfmpco]

Not saying that he will have to, but I am saying that he WOULD.  If anyone tried to harm any of the Watsons, he would be out for blood.

[Caya]

That for sure. And probably in an ugly way. That scene in Scandal after he saw Mrs. Hudson's bruises comes to mind.

[sfmpco]

That for sure. And probably in an ugly way. That scene in Scandal after he saw Mrs. Hudson's bruises comes to mind.

 

Exactly!

 

"And just how many times did he fall out the window?"

"I don't know, Detective Inspector.  I lost count."

[T.o.b.y]

Not saying that he will have to, but I am saying that he WOULD.  If anyone tried to harm any of the Watsons, he would be out for blood.

 

Would be? I'd say that point has already been proven... Look at what happened to Magnussen.

 

Speaking of whom, I will never believe that Doyle really meant to insinuate that Holmes killed Milverton himself. That's pretty far fetched, if you ask me. But it's still a valid interpretation of the original story. I mean, I fully understand why Moffat and Gatiss got the idea. And while we don't know that Holmes ever killed someone in the Doyle stories (if he did, Watson would hardly have published the fact, now, would he), Holmes states quite clearly that under certain circumstances, he would be willing and able to commit murder. Not only does he show sympathy for the killer in The Devil's Foot and other stories, but there's also this direct threat in "The Three Garridebs":

 

  "If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive."

 

Magnussen was ready to get John killed, that's for sure. And I'd count the fire as attempted murder, too. "I had people standing by"? Oh yeah, sure he did. To take a video. John could have already been dead by the time Sherlock and Mary got there, and nobody else had made so much as an attempt to get him out by that time.

[Arcadia]

Magnussen was ready to get John killed, that's for sure. And I'd count the fire as attempted murder, too. "I had people standing by"? Oh yeah, sure he did. To take a video. John could have already been dead by the time Sherlock and Mary got there, and nobody else had made so much as an attempt to get him out by that time.

All good points. But, in all fairness to Magnussen (I can't believe I just said that! Eww, where's the brain bleach!) his people would have known Sherlock was about to arrive. John still could have been badly burned, though.

[T.o.b.y]

All good points. But, in all fairness to Magnussen (I can't believe I just said that! Eww, where's the brain bleach!) his people would have known Sherlock was about to arrive. John still could have been badly burned, though.

 

That plus exposure to the fumes could have killed him before Sherlock got there, or even after he was rescued.

 

[Arcadia]

True dat.

 

It occurs to me they could have dragged Magnussen's sorry behind into court for his assault on John alone. Still, I guess that means he would have exposed Mary. Drat the woman! :D

[Carol the Dabbler]

... Holmes states quite clearly that under certain circumstances, he would be willing and able to commit murder. Not only does he show sympathy for the killer in The Devil's Foot and other stories, but there's also this direct threat in "The Three Garridebs":

 

"If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive."

And as someone recently pointed out, he shooed the snake back into the other room in "Speckled Band" -- which he must have suspected would result in the stepfather's death.  Not exactly murder, but something like negligent homicide at least.

 

[sfmpco]

As Moffat pointed out, you can't really take someone to court for licking your face, weeing in your fireplace, eating your olive, dipping dirty fingers into your drinking glass and flicking the excess into your food, or even for flicking your face.  It's petty.  The bonfire thing... well, they'd have to prove it, wouldn't they?

[Zain]

If Sherlock had been wired, they'd have proof that John was put into the bonfire by Magnussen. A running recording program on the notebook would have been just as efficient in case they were afraid the bodyguards would find out.

 

There were countless possibilities how to charge Magnussen. The question is whether he could have wriggled his way out of it. Since Mycroft was working against Magnussen later on, I think it would have been sufficient to have witness testimonies and a recording in which Magnussen admits his involvement in the bonfire incident and the blackmailing.

However, it is not a desire for justice which brought Sherlock and John to Appledore. Therefore, they did not go for that option.

[sfmpco]

I still think there's more to that bonfire that just finding a pressure point on Sherlock.  It's the audio in TEH that is most interesting to me when we see Magnussen reviewing it in his mind palace - Mary's screams of "John!  John!  John!"  It seems odd to me that they always focused on that ... as if CAM was testing her pressure points as well.  Certainly he was sending her some underhanded "you don't fool me" telegram at the wedding reception.  He orchestrated the skip code to her to try to draw her out.  

[Zain]

I still think there's more to that bonfire that just finding a pressure point on Sherlock.  It's the audio in TEH that is most interesting to me when we see Magnussen reviewing it in his mind palace - Mary's screams of "John!  John!  John!"  It seems odd to me that they always focused on that ... as if CAM was testing her pressure points as well.  Certainly he was sending her some underhanded "you don't fool me" telegram at the wedding reception.  He orchestrated the skip code to her to try to draw her out.  

 

What do you then imagine that he found out about Mary if he was testing her as well?

 

I understand your argument, but I struggle with the answer to this question. After all, the only thing that the bonfire incident proved (from Mary's side) was that she was unwilling to risk her identity being revealed to him even if John's life was in danger. Instead, she seeks Sherlock's help and therefore wastes valuable time. It's not like she needed him to "decipher" the message.

 

To me, it seems more satisfying to argue from the director's and writer's perspective. I can see their motivation in Magnussen's message to Mary, but not so much Magnussen's motivation. I'll try to express this as concisely as possible:

 

If Magnussen's singular motivation, as stated by him at Appledore, was to determine how far Sherlock would go for John Watson, then kidnapping John makes sense. However, there it ends. It would have been far easier to directly send a message to Sherlock instead of going through Mary. There was no certainty that she would seek out Sherlock's help. If she had not, Sherlock would not have noticed that John was missing, therefore his weakness could not have been tested. I fully agree with you that Mary's involvement is odd, as you see.

 

This means that Magnussen consciously decided to include Mary if one were to argue in favour of an "in-story motivated action." Therefore, he must have a goal in mind, for example to test her, as you suggested. This goal must also be more important to him than to gauge Sherlock's reaction, otherwise he would not take the chance that she avoids Sherlock and ruins his original plan.

However, the only thing he can learn from Mary's reaction is also whether John is her "weakness" or not. The hypothesis therefore would be as following: Magnussen used the bonfire incident to test at the same time whether John was Sherlock's and Mary's weakness alike.

There it gets very confusing, because if Magnussen had tested Mary to prove that John was Mary's weakness, he would have actually hoped to see her NOT seek out Sherlock. Which makes the "test Sherlock at the same time" impossible.

 

Magnussen cannot have had the two goals in mind at the same time as they exclude each other: If Mary's first priority was John, Sherlock would not have been involved. If Mary had helped John on her own, then he could not have tested Sherlock's weakness with the bonfire accident.

 

Logic dictates that Magnussen did not test both at the same time, unless the writers made a grave logical error.

That, however, does not answer why Mary was texted by Magnussen, when he himself does not profit from her involvement. It rather endangers his actual goal (testing Sherlock). I simply conclude that there IS no character motivation behind her inclusion. Rather, the writers wanted to introduce her and the danger theme which is connected to her. It is a far less satisfying conclusion, but I cannot see any logical character motivation behind her involvement in the bonfire incident.

However, maybe you see something I overlooked. Do you have an idea in mind what Magnussen could have been looking for in Mary's reaction if it wasn't her feelings for John?

[sfmpco]

I'm never married (okay, SOMETIMES I'm married to them) to the ideas I put forth on here.  But CAM does specifically taunt her in the wedding telegrams with information we have yet to fully understand.  Will this be revealed in S4?  Yes, I think so.

[T.o.b.y]

 

 If Mary's first priority was John, Sherlock would not have been involved.

 

Why not? Even if Mary knew right away from the message where John was - and that is not a given, not everybody has a mental map of London like Sherlock - she still had no way of knowing what kind of trouble he was in. Mary might be a good shot and all, but that doesn't mean she thinks she can take on a whole group of kidnappers in a direct confrontation. And what good would it do her or John to get there quick if she wouldn't be able to help him once she arrived? The first message said nothing about a fire or a time limit, by the way. It just said "save John Watson" and the location.

 

It makes perfect sense that Mary would get herself some backup of her own, and who better qualified to help her than Sherlock? The police would only ask awkward questions.

 

Why did Magnussen contact Mary - twice, if we count the wedding telegram? Well, I suppose he thought he might find her useful. A CIA trained assassin is a powerful tool. He probably did not expect her to show up with her gun at his own apartment. Magnussen's weakness is chronically underestimating his enemies.

 

I love the fire scene. I think it's interesting to see how Sherlock and Mary behave there. I wonder whether Mary is still playing a part - the screaming, distracted "normal wife" - because she knows Sherlock will handle it all and, or whether she is really beside herself. Mary is so hard to read at this point. But oh well, we've only known her for one season. We'll get to understand her better, I am sure... in time.

 

 

[Boton]

 

 

 

Why did Magnussen contact Mary - twice, if we count the wedding telegram? Well, I suppose he thought he might find her useful. A CIA trained assassin is a powerful tool. He probably did not expect her to show up with her gun at his own apartment. Magnussen's weakness is chronically underestimating his enemies.

 

I love the fire scene. I think it's interesting to see how Sherlock and Mary behave there. I wonder whether Mary is still playing a part - the screaming, distracted "normal wife" - because she knows Sherlock will handle it all and, or whether she is really beside herself. Mary is so hard to read at this point. But oh well, we've only known her for one season. We'll get to understand her better, I am sure... in time.

 

 

 

 

I tend to think that Magnussen conducts fishing expeditions more than he conducts experiments.  So, I think putting John in the fire tests who has John as a pressure point:  Mary, Sherlock, both, neither.  After all, fire exposes our priorities, right?  I think that Magnussen discovered that John is a pressure point for both Mary and Sherlock, but I'm not sure that Magnussen had a concrete theory going in.  I think he pretty much just gathers dirt and then waits for a chance to use it.

 

I find Mary's screams genuine, and I think they exposed John as a different kind of pressure point for her.  I doubt that Mary, as a trained contract assassin, has had a lot of opportunities for romantic love in her life.  John is her exception, and she has said she will do anything to protect that.  In a weird way, I think John is very lucky (until S4 proves me wrong): he has the love of two people, Mary and Sherlock, who have had very few close attachments in their life and therefore know the value of love at a more visceral level.  Or at least that's my own head canon.

[Arcadia]

I still think there's more to that bonfire that just finding a pressure point on Sherlock. It's the audio in TEH that is most interesting to me when we see Magnussen reviewing it in his mind palace - Mary's screams of "John! John! John!" It seems odd to me that they always focused on that ... as if CAM was testing her pressure points as well. Certainly he was sending her some underhanded "you don't fool me" telegram at the wedding reception. He orchestrated the skip code to her to try to draw her out.

What do you then imagine that he found out about Mary if he was testing her as well?

 

I understand your argument, but I struggle with the answer to this question. After all, the only thing that the bonfire incident proved (from Mary's side) was that she was unwilling to risk her identity being revealed to him even if John's life was in danger. Instead, she seeks Sherlock's help and therefore wastes valuable time. It's not like she needed him to "decipher" the message.

 

To me, it seems more satisfying to argue from the director's and writer's perspective. I can see their motivation in Magnussen's message to Mary, but not so much Magnussen's motivation. I'll try to express this as concisely as possible.....

 

If Mary's first priority was John, Sherlock would not have been involved.

Why not? Even if Mary knew right away from the message where John was - and that is not a given, not everybody has a mental map of London like Sherlock - she still had no way of knowing what kind of trouble he was in. Mary might be a good shot and all, but that doesn't mean she thinks she can take on a whole group of kidnappers in a direct confrontation. And what good would it do her or John to get there quick if she wouldn't be able to help him once she arrived? The first message said nothing about a fire or a time limit, by the way. It just said "save John Watson" and the location....

 

This occurred to me while reading your posts, try this out:

 

1. CAM's trying to get leverage on Mycroft.

2. He knows about Mary's connection to John, John's to Sherlock, and so on up the ladder.

3. He knows John is Mary's pressure point, but he's not sure about Sherlock yet ... hence the test.

4. He uses Mary to get to Sherlock by texting her, but what we don't see is the rest of the message he sends her: "Take this to Sherlock Holmes or else." This ensures that Sherlock will respond and not assume the text is some crank call.

5. Mary does as she is told to avoid the blackmail. Sherlock to the rescue.  Mary is genuinely concerned but is constrained by the knowledge that CAM is watching; she can't do anything that might cause him to use his leverage on her.

 

It also occurred to me that something must have happened between the wedding and HLV that made Mary resolve to kill CAM -- (or whatever she was resolved to do -- I keep thinking if she meant to kill him he'd be dead long before Sherlock arrived, but hey. Nobody's perfect. :P )

 

I'm not married to any of this either, but that's what occurred to me. I think the truth is closer to what Zain said ... matter of convenience for the writers.

 

PS -- Boton, I didn't see your post before, but yeah, that works for me.

[T.o.b.y]

 

 I keep thinking if she meant to kill him he'd be dead long before Sherlock arrived

 

Oh, me too. Definitely. Mary must have either thought she could negotiate with Magnussen, or, more likely, she wanted information from him, for example what his sources were for the information he had on her.

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

... the only thing that the bonfire incident proved (from Mary's side) was that she was unwilling to risk her identity being revealed to him even if John's life was in danger. Instead, she seeks Sherlock's help and therefore wastes valuable time. It's not like she needed him to "decipher" the message.

... Even if Mary knew right away from the message where John was - and that is not a given, not everybody has a mental map of London like Sherlock - she still had no way of knowing what kind of trouble he was in.

I've always interpreted this more like T.o.b.y says -- Mary can decipher the skip code, but she does not understand the clear message. "Save John Watson" is pretty obvious, but she seems genuinely puzzled by the rest, and may not even understand that "James the Less" is a place, especially if Sherlock is correct that she's not actually from there.

[Arcadia]

 

I keep thinking if she meant to kill him he'd be dead long before Sherlock arrived

Oh, me too. Definitely. Mary must have either thought she could negotiate with Magnussen, or, more likely, she wanted information from him, for example what his sources were for the information he had on her.

 

So she could go after them too, you mean? :D