How would you fix "His Last Vow"?

[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.

 

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

 

Perhaps, yes, or run from them.

 

I mean, Magnussen is not Mary's primary problem, is he. She didn't change her identity because of him. Somewhere out there, somebody, or probably a whole group of somebodies, is after her, and I suspect Magnussen is a small fish as far as Mary is concerned, compared to them.

 

I'm still hoping so much that Mary will turn out to be the modern version of Birdy Edwards and we'll get an adaptation of The Valley of Fear in series 4. That would be so goddamn cool if they did it right.

 

When Sherlock turns to John at the end and says tell Mary she is safe now, I keep thinking it should be for now. If she's really unlucky, then Magnussen has already shared information on her - traded it for more valuable information on someone more important, who knows. But even if he kept his mouth shut, if he could find her out, then others can as well. Sherlock will have to stick around for a while if he takes his last vow seriously. I don't see how John and his family will be truly safe any time soon - there should be material there for at least two seasons to come.

 

[sfmpco]

Oh no, Mary is not safe.  But... at least she has a gun and knows how to use it.

[joanneta1]

My ongoing rant about HLV must now include two further points:

In the special edition, there is an absolutely marvellous Magnussen scene which was deleted, obviously due to time restrictions, but in it he tells Sherlock exactly what his ownership of him would be, the same way he owns Lady Smallwood when he licks her face. It is absolutely brilliant, and should have put Sherlock on his guard even more during the climax of the episode.

The second I have briefly mentioned before, but it really irks me, as I consider it a lapse of attention to detail by the scriptwriter:

Sherlock and John are routinely searched when Magnussen comes to Holmes's flat, it is well-nigh impossible that his bodyguards neglected their duties at a much more important meeting, when the pair visit him in his lair. The only thing that comes to mind is "you are slipping" once again, or has success gone to their heads so much that such details do not bother them any longer?

Just a thought!

[sfmpco]

My ongoing rant about HLV must now include two further points:

In the special edition, there is an absolutely marvellous Magnussen scene which was deleted, obviously due to time restrictions, but in it he tells Sherlock exactly what his ownership of him would be, the same way he owns Lady Smallwood when he licks her face. It is absolutely brilliant, and should have put Sherlock on his guard even more during the climax of the episode.

The second I have briefly mentioned before, but it really irks me, as I consider it a lapse of attention to detail by the scriptwriter:

Sherlock and John are routinely searched when Magnussen comes to Holmes's flat, it is well-nigh impossible that his bodyguards neglected their duties at a much more important meeting, when the pair visit him in his lair. The only thing that comes to mind is "you are slipping" once again, or has success gone to their heads so much that such details do not bother them any longer?

Just a thought!

 

A lot of people have mentioned the fact that John and Sherlock were not searched when arriving at Appledore.  Of course, if they had been searched, the gun would have been found and confiscated.  So... my guess is that Moffat just had to leave that part out... because he needed Sherlock to have the gun.  It's a bit of a cheat.

 

I too like the Magnussen scene, but the problem, I suspect, is that it's too similar to Mary's hospital scene.  Then there's Janine's hospital scene when he's at least lucid, so that's 3 hospital scenes, and they had to cut one.  Mary's scene was far more important plot-wise than Magnussen's creepy, somewhat sexual scene against a heavily sedated Sherlock.

 

Also mentioned in the deleted Magnussen scene was the single red rose from "W" - The Woman.  Maybe they decided against having that in the episode because Irene was not coming back into the series, and they didn't want to put in any hints that she might.  

[joanneta1]

Hi, smpfco. You think it's a bit of a cheat, I think that they are getting too overconfident and complacent about the whole thing. If it is such a strain on their faculties, a reason that ACD didn't like writing Holmes potboilers and killed him off at one point, then they should simply cease and desist, rather than inflict shoddy quality work on a bunch of very dedicated fans. They must surely possess the Annotated Sherlock Holmes volumes, and the creator of HLV said in one of the commentaries that whatever they like out there is up for grabs, but one has to draw the line somewhere! The single red rose is such a lovely reminder, just like her sovereign on his watch chain in a "cobwebbed" incarnation!

[sfmpco]

Hi, smpfco. You think it's a bit of a cheat, I think that they are getting too overconfident and complacent about the whole thing. If it is such a strain on their faculties, a reason that ACD didn't like writing Holmes potboilers and killed him off at one point, then they should simply cease and desist, rather than inflict shoddy quality work on a bunch of very dedicated fans. They must surely possess the Annotated Sherlock Holmes volumes, and the creator of HLV said in one of the commentaries that whatever they like out there is up for grabs, but one has to draw the line somewhere!

 

Unfortunately there aren't a ton of Q&A sessions after HLV to hear what their reasoning was behind this.  Rest assured they were not sloppy.  Nothing about the writing is sloppy which is why Moffat won an Emmy for that episode. Perhaps someone on the forum can pinpoint the creators addressing this single issue.

[joanneta1]

In the commentary, he does not address the gun issue at all, he is so taken by his son playing young Sherlock! But in the mind palace scene with Moriarty, he clearly says that Andrew Scott had to look like that because dead people cannot  look good. Go figure! And the increasing humanisation obviously has major drawbacks. Sherlock should have heeded his own advice, given in Scandal, "Sentiment is found on the losing side" .And, anyway, we know from his ability to deliver the Holmes deductions, that Benedict Cumberbatch has a first-rate brain for a normal human. Does he never question his lines or the threads? In the commentary to the Great Game he mentioned how his eye picked up on the day-to-day working of the morgue, while in Scandal he mentioned, partly answering Lara Puller's query about the password on the "camera phone" how he thought it was obvious the moment he held it in his hand at her flat.

[Shadow Dweller]

 

 

Could anyone direct me to transcript of that interview, please? I am confused here.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Ariane Deviere has commentary transcripts at her site. Sorry I don't have the link but it's on this forum in several threads.

[Arcadia]

 

Could anyone direct me to transcript of that interview, please? I am confused here.

Hi Shadow, I think everyone is referring to the commentaries on the DVDs, and the transcripts can be found at Ariane DeVere's livejournal, here. She's transcribed every episode plus a large part of the commentaries, and a few other tidbits. It's a fabulous resource and an amazing act of generosity on her part, well worth becoming acquainted with.

 

In the commentary to HLV Gatiss admits they have left some gaping holes, and implies that they are on purpose. A couple others (such as how did Mary get into CAM's office) they admit it just slowed the narrative down so they skipped over it. (She came in through the window, according to Moffat.) No explanation for the gun, though, I'm afraid.

 

So I tentatively agree with sfmpco... Moftiss know what they're doing. That doesn't necessarily mean we'll like it! -- but I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. But I understand your frustration with them; been there, done that! Come here and rant, it will do you good! :D

[Inge l-w]

Sorry, she is clearly seen leaving by the door of the inner sanctum, she may have used the roof to go down, but she leaves by the door!

I cannot bear to watch HLV as many times as all the others, mainly because of her shooting Sherlock and being indirectly responsible for his completely-out-of-character shooting of Magnussen. Like Zain and joanneta, I cannot work my mind around that!

[T.o.b.y]

My ongoing rant about HLV must now include two further points:

In the special edition, there is an absolutely marvellous Magnussen scene which was deleted, obviously due to time restrictions, but in it he tells Sherlock exactly what his ownership of him would be, the same way he owns Lady Smallwood when he licks her face. It is absolutely brilliant, and should have put Sherlock on his guard even more during the climax of the episode.

 

Well, I for one am glad they cut that scene. I find it induces nausea and I really don't relish barfing on my furniture. Somebody on the creative team seems to have a thing for Sherlock lying around helpless with a villain bending over him and saying something creepy (see the scene in the pilot where he's been drugged by the cabbie), but both times, they must have thought better of it, which I am truly grateful for. I like our hero to retain some last scraps of dignity, thank you very much, and Magnussen was plenty vile before.

 

 

Sherlock and John are routinely searched when Magnussen comes to Holmes's flat, it is well-nigh impossible that his bodyguards neglected their duties at a much more important meeting, when the pair visit him in his lair. The only thing that comes to mind is "you are slipping" once again, or has success gone to their heads so much that such details do not bother them any longer?

Just a thought!

 

A lot of people have mentioned the fact that John and Sherlock were not searched when arriving at Appledore.  Of course, if they had been searched, the gun would have been found and confiscated.  So... my guess is that Moffat just had to leave that part out... because he needed Sherlock to have the gun.  It's a bit of a cheat.

 

Yes, I suppose it is, but I don't find it terribly hard to explain in-universe. I think it's just Magnussen being so confident by that time that he simply doesn't bother to have them searched. Didn't they say they originally planned to have him sitting naked in his bath when the boys arrive? The very, very last thing he expected was Sherlock pulling a gun on him, and in front of witnesses, too. Even if he knew John had a weapon in his pocket, he would not in a million years have anticipated it would be used in this way.

 

Having them searched at Baker St was more a display of power than motivated by any real concern for his safety, anyway. By the time Sherlock comes to Appledore, Magnussen thinks that power has been established  beyond a doubt. Sherlock  could probably have walked in there with a flame thrower and Magnussen would not have batted an eyelash.

 

Hi, smpfco. You think it's a bit of a cheat, I think that they are getting too overconfident and complacent about the whole thing. If it is such a strain on their faculties, a reason that ACD didn't like writing Holmes potboilers and killed him off at one point, then they should simply cease and desist, rather than inflict shoddy quality work on a bunch of very dedicated fans.

 

Oh, I'd never call His Last Vow shoddy. It's beautifully written, in my opinion. A little confusing, yes. Certainly controversial - but that's not a bad thing. It took me some time to get used to this new style for Sherlock, but I certainly do not feel that the episode has been "inflicted" on me. Not at all. I like it better every time I see it.

 

And compared to some of the howlers good old Sir Arthur cooked up, I think Moffat and Gatiss' plots are pretty sophisticated...

[Arcadia]

Sorry, she is clearly seen leaving by the door of the inner sanctum, she may have used the roof to go down, but she leaves by the door!

I cannot bear to watch HLV as many times as all the others, mainly because of her shooting Sherlock and being indirectly responsible for his completely-out-of-character shooting of Magnussen. Like Zain and joanneta, I cannot work my mind around that!

Well, Moffat said the window, but he didn't say which window! :D She may have gone through several doors to get to it.

 

I couldn't work my mind around it either, that's why I came looking for this forum. For some reason I still love HLV, though, it's one of my favorites. But I would cheerfully strangle Moftiss for coming up with that ending.

[Arcadia]

Oh, I'd never call His Last Vow shoddy. It's beautifully written, in my opinion. A little confusing, yes. Certainly controversial - but that's not a bad thing. It took me some time to get used to this new style for Sherlock, but I certainly do not feel that the episode has been "inflicted" on me. Not at all. I like it better every time I see it.

"A little confusing..." Toby, you are the master of understatement! :lol: But I agree completely, once I got used to S3, I think they're beautiful episodes. You just have to watch them with your heart more than your mind, imo.

 

Moftiss DID warn us: it's a show about a man who's a detective, not a detective show.

[T.o.b.y]

Moftiss DID warn us: it's a show about a man who's a detective, not a detective show.

 

That's not a warning, in my mind. That's a promise, and I hope they will continue to honor it. There are plenty of detective series in the world already, but there's only one Sherlock, and I find the mysterious workings of his remarkable mind more interesting than any whodunnit there is.

 

[joanneta1]

That's what fan forums are for, Toby.

In real life a bodyguard is trained to protect his charge. There are several film versions of what their tasks are, and a rather good one with this title. There is no way, unless and if Magnussen himself had given his bodyguards orders not to search one of the most intelligent human beings he had ever encountered, that they would have neglected their duty.

In the commentary, they say that Benedict Cumberbatch kept trying to come up with different ways of doing away with the archvillain Sherlock hates, but they were eventually discarded for a more visually effective result. Effective certainly, pleasing definitely not. And the whole airstrip scene can be interpreted as a hurried way of creating one more cliffhanger for the viewing public.

Does anyone in this forum feel that the scripts of all three episodes of Season 3 are equal to the level of ASiP, The Great Game, A Scandal in Belgravia and The Reichenbach Fall?

And they don't have the excuse of the creator of our eponymous hero, since he had to deliver a story almost per month, while they take a leisurely year or two to mull things over, while we poor fans debate, speculate and get on each other's nerves occasionally!

[Arcadia]

Yup.
 
EDITED:

That "yup" was actually in response to Toby's post, but joanneta snuck in there ahead of me   --  but I'll keep the same answer! Yup, I think the scripts are as good. To me the HLV script is very much in keeping with ASiB; you never really know for sure what's going on, but you know there's a lot of emotion associated with it. TEH is a lark, I love the audacity of it. And TSo3 is just beautifully woven together, I still feel like I'm unravelling pieces of it.
 
If you're asking if the PLOTS are as good ... maybe not. I don't think S3 is very plot driven, but I'm not sure any of the episodes are. Most of the show is pretty character driven, I'd say. To be honest, I can barely recite the plot of most of the episodes, but that's just me and the way my mind works. I'm not too focused on the "what", I'm too busy trying to figure out the how and the why and what do I feel about that!

[Boton]

That's what fan forums are for, Toby.

In real life a bodyguard is trained to protect his charge. There are several film versions of what their tasks are, and a rather good one with this title. There is no way, unless and if Magnussen himself had given his bodyguards orders not to search one of the most intelligent human beings he had ever encountered, that they would have neglected their duty.

In the commentary, they say that Benedict Cumberbatch kept trying to come up with different ways of doing away with the archvillain Sherlock hates, but they were eventually discarded for a more visually effective result. Effective certainly, pleasing definitely not. And the whole airstrip scene can be interpreted as a hurried way of creating one more cliffhanger for the viewing public.

Does anyone in this forum feel that the scripts of all three episodes of Season 3 are equal to the level of ASiP, The Great Game, A Scandal in Belgravia and The Reichenbach Fall?

And they don't have the excuse of the creator of our eponymous hero, since he had to deliver a story almost per month, while they take a leisurely year or two to mull things over, while we poor fans debate, speculate and get on each other's nerves occasionally!

 

Well, I do think that TEH is at least the equal of SiP, TGG, SiB, and TRF.  I think it is absolutely equal to TRF, since it is basically the second half of the story, and I think it was executed well.  I don't tend to get terribly hung up on how Sherlock lived; I'm fine with the fact that he did so.

 

I think SoT falls a bit behind, but it is still very high quality.

 

My own personal opinion of HLV is that it is the single best 90 minutes of television I've seen since the series finale of MASH.  (Which is entirely not the same thing, but it's a piece of television that has stayed with me for 30+ years).  I wouldn't change a line of dialogue, a bit of music, or a single cut of the thing.  One of the things that is terrifying to me about the CAM deleted scene is that I feel it would take away from the perfection of HLV.

 

Clearly, they filmed three (that we know of) hospital scenes meant to move the plot forward.  I think that losing the CAM visit was their best bet, because, not only did it repeat the Mary scene, but it also made the conflict with CAM too personal.  There is a sexual, rape-like quality to the actions and dialogue that would have made Sherlock well within his rights to shoot CAM between the eyes the next time he saw him, notwithstanding any threats and face-flicking of John, Mary, Janine, and Mycroft.  It moved CAM's concept of "ownership" of someone from a blackmail position just over the line to a sexual slavery position, and I don't think that was a good thing to do with either Sherlock's story arc or with the CAM character.  So I pretty much pretend it didn't happen.

 

I know that Cumberbatch really wanted Sherlock to be able to come up with a more elegant solution.  You know what?  Sometimes there isn't one.  And, for me, this is fiction and fantasy.  This is the place that you are allowed to acknowledge the part of yourself that agrees with Mary and thinks that people like CAM should be killed.  This is the place to cheer when your hero dispatches a villain who doesn't even directly kill anyone, but who has gained in money and power in the absence of personal moral limitations to the point where he has to be stopped, legally or extra-legally.  It's even the place to laugh hysterically when your hero drugs his own family to the gills on Christmas, and to cry when you see that blood seeping out of that bullet hole, but to still play the scene over and over again.  It is, for me, extraordinarily beautiful and cathartic.  Maybe that says more about my psychology than anything else, but it pushes the right buttons for me.

[joanneta1]

 

Moftiss DID warn us: it's a show about a man who's a detective, not a detective show.

 

That's not a warning, in my mind. That's a promise, and I hope they will continue to honor it. There are plenty of detective series in the world already, but there's only one Sherlock, and I find the mysterious workings of his remarkable mind more interesting than any whodunnit there is.

 

 

Remarkable mind as in "I have no back-up plan, everything has gone horribly wrong, my best friend is being pettily harassed under my own eyes, I am helpless to protect his former assassin of a wife, so I pull a gun out of thin air and shoot him dead"?

I second Arcadia in wanting to strangle the writer of this particular bit of arrant nonsense and agree with Zain that if he had tried, he could have found another way around the particular encounter.

[T.o.b.y]

Does anyone in this forum feel that the scripts of all three episodes of Season 3 are equal to the level of ASiP, The Great Game, A Scandal in Belgravia and The Reichenbach Fall?

 

I think His Last Vow is the most similar to A Scandal in Belgravia. I was not surprised to find that they were written by the same person. It has similar themes, too: Sensitive information on others used for personal power, never trust a woman you love, sentiment is a disadvantage.

 

The Reichenbach Fall is beautiful, but it has a major flaw in that it promises more than the viewer eventually gets in The Empty Hearse and both episodes together leave me feeling sort of betrayed - a lot like I fancy John feels.

 

The Great Game belongs to the first series, and well, I still think that one is the best and they'll never be this good again, so no, I don't think series 3 is equal to it, but then, neither is series 2, if you ask me. And A Study in Pink is a masterpiece.

 

Oh what the heck, I love all 9 episodes, actually. They are all lovely in their own way.

 

[T.o.b.y]

I know that Cumberbatch really wanted Sherlock to be able to come up with a more elegant solution.  You know what?  Sometimes there isn't one.  And, for me, this is fiction and fantasy.  This is the place that you are allowed to acknowledge the part of yourself that agrees with Mary and thinks that people like CAM should be killed.  This is the place to cheer when your hero dispatches a villain who doesn't even directly kill anyone, but who has gained in money and power in the absence of personal moral limitations to the point where he has to be stopped, legally or extra-legally.  It's even the place to laugh hysterically when your hero drugs his own family to the gills on Christmas, and to cry when you see that blood seeping out of that bullet hole, but to still play the scene over and over again.  It is, for me, extraordinarily beautiful and cathartic.  Maybe that says more about my psychology than anything else, but it pushes the right buttons for me.

 

Oh Boton, I wish I could express myself like you can. Yes, exactly. This.

 

 

Remarkable mind as in "I have no back-up plan, everything has gone horribly wrong, my best friend is being pettily harassed under my own eyes, I am helpless to protect his former assassin of a wife, so I pull a gun out of thin air and shoot him dead"?

 

No, more as in: "Everything has gone horribly wrong. First I did not see that Mary was hiding her true identity because I let sentiment cloud my judgment, then I underestimated Magnussen because I did not expect anybody to have similarly remarkable mental powers as myself. There is only one way now to rid the world of this viper and protect my friends, and I am the only one who can do it, because I am not an ordinary human being. I am not bound by the law, like my brother, or by responsibility to a family, like John. I am a high-functioning sociopath, I can and will kill people without remorse if need be. I'll do it out in the open, and I'll go to jail for it and eventually be killed myself somewhere in exile, but that doesn't matter, it's worth it, so let him do what he likes John, because I swear, these are his last moments on earth."

 

Something like that. Perhaps I'm just romanticizing away, though. Perhaps Moffat and Gatiss are right, and all he was really thinking was "deduce this, bitch." :lol:

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I like your last part about Moftiss. A great bit of laughter.

[Boton]

 

 

 

No, more as in: "Everything has gone horribly wrong. First I did not see that Mary was hiding her true identity because I let sentiment cloud my judgment, then I underestimated Magnussen because I did not expect anybody to have similarly remarkable mental powers as myself. There is only one way now to rid the world of this viper and protect my friends, and I am the only one who can do it, because I am not an ordinary human being. I am not bound by the law, like my brother, or by responsibility to a family, like John. I am a high-functioning sociopath, I can and will kill people without remorse if need be. I'll do it out in the open, and I'll go to jail for it and eventually be killed myself somewhere in exile, but that doesn't matter, it's worth it, so let him do what he likes John, because I swear, these are his last moments on earth."

 

Something like that. Perhaps I'm just romanticizing away, though. Perhaps Moffat and Gatiss are right, and all he was really thinking was "deduce this, bitch." :lol:

 

 

I'm pretty sure that "deduce this, bitch" is shorthand for your entire first paragraph.   :D

[Carol the Dabbler]

In the ... mind palace scene with Moriarty, he clearly says that Andrew Scott had to look like that because dead people cannot  look good. Go figure!

 

If you're criticizing that because a] we're not seeing the real Moriarty and/or b] dead people can't talk either, I will simply say that c] this whole sequence is apparently in Sherlock's mind palace, and if Sherlock's subconscious thinks this is how a dead Moriarty would look and talk, then that's how it is in the mind palace.  It doesn't have to be real-world logical.  But I may be missing your point.

 

Sorry, she is clearly seen leaving by the door of the inner sanctum, she may have used the roof to go down, but she leaves by the door!

I cannot bear to watch HLV as many times as all the others, mainly because of her shooting Sherlock and being indirectly responsible for his completely-out-of-character shooting of Magnussen. Like Zain and joanneta, I cannot work my mind around that!

 

Arcadia made a good point regarding your first sentence -- the window or roof access could have been anywhere on that floor or even the floor below.  But I'm kinda with you on HLV overall.  I can and do rewatch it, but it's just not as much fun as episodes 1 through 8.

 

... I don't find it terribly hard to explain in-universe. I think it's just Magnussen being so confident by that time that he simply doesn't bother to have them searched. Didn't they say they originally planned to have him sitting naked in his bath when the boys arrive? The very, very last thing he expected was Sherlock pulling a gun on him, and in front of witnesses, too. Even if he knew John had a weapon in his pocket, he would not in a million years have anticipated it would be used in this way.

 

Having them searched at Baker St was more a display of power than motivated by any real concern for his safety, anyway. By the time Sherlock comes to Appledore, Magnussen thinks that power has been established  beyond a doubt.

 

Thank you, T.o.b.y -- that may not be entirely logical by my standards, but it does hang together. It's consistent with the audacity of a man who would lick Lady Smallwood's face or pee in Sherlock's fireplace. He clearly believes that he has completely defanged Sherlock.

 

... they take a leisurely year or two to mull things over, while we poor fans debate, speculate and get on each other's nerves occasionally!

 

Occasionally -- but it's never dull around here!  :D

 

I second Arcadia in wanting to strangle the writer of this particular bit of arrant nonsense and agree with Zain that if he had tried, he could have found another way around the particular encounter.

True, but I think you're missing the point. Of course Moffat could have come up with another solution -- but that wasn't the story he was writing.  He had worked as hard as he could to make CAM utterly repulsive, and to paint Sherlock into a corner with only one way out.  So the reason he didn't come up with a more civilized solution is simply that he didn't want to.

 

I'm not super-keen on that myself, but I can accept it.  For one thing, it isn't actually unrealistic -- even in real life, as Boton says, sometimes there isn't a more elegant solution.  And it is a very dramatic climax.  And I really can do very nicely without more CAM.

 

[joanneta1]

 

I know that Cumberbatch really wanted Sherlock to be able to come up with a more elegant solution.  You know what?  Sometimes there isn't one.  And, for me, this is fiction and fantasy.  This is the place that you are allowed to acknowledge the part of yourself that agrees with Mary and thinks that people like CAM should be killed.  This is the place to cheer when your hero dispatches a villain who doesn't even directly kill anyone, but who has gained in money and power in the absence of personal moral limitations to the point where he has to be stopped, legally or extra-legally.  It's even the place to laugh hysterically when your hero drugs his own family to the gills on Christmas, and to cry when you see that blood seeping out of that bullet hole, but to still play the scene over and over again.  It is, for me, extraordinarily beautiful and cathartic.  Maybe that says more about my psychology than anything else, but it pushes the right buttons for me.

 

Oh Boton, I wish I could express myself like you can. Yes, exactly. This.

 

 

Remarkable mind as in "I have no back-up plan, everything has gone horribly wrong, my best friend is being pettily harassed under my own eyes, I am helpless to protect his former assassin of a wife, so I pull a gun out of thin air and shoot him dead"?

 

No, more as in: "Everything has gone horribly wrong. First I did not see that Mary was hiding her true identity because I let sentiment cloud my judgment, then I underestimated Magnussen because I did not expect anybody to have similarly remarkable mental powers as myself. There is only one way now to rid the world of this viper and protect my friends, and I am the only one who can do it, because I am not an ordinary human being. I am not bound by the law, like my brother, or by responsibility to a family, like John. I am a high-functioning sociopath, I can and will kill people without remorse if need be. I'll do it out in the open, and I'll go to jail for it and eventually be killed myself somewhere in exile, but that doesn't matter, it's worth it, so let him do what he likes John, because I swear, these are his last moments on earth."

 

Something like that. Perhaps I'm just romanticizing away, though. Perhaps Moffat and Gatiss are right, and all he was really thinking was "deduce this, bitch." :lol:

 

Basically, we are saying the same thing, only you manage it stylistically better