Episode 1.2, "The Blind Banker"

[sittything]

 

I love how you notice small new things with each rewatch of Sherlock episodes. When Sherlock and John are going through the crates of books, Sherlock keeps putting his matching pairs on a pile on John's desk and John silently keeps moving them to another pile. Just a very recognizable, realistic little scene - the same inevitably happens when my husband and I sort through stuff together.

 

I did notice that and liked it.  Although that's usually the part where I'm tearing my hair out yelling "Alphabetize!  Both of you alphabetize one of the men's collections, and then start reading off titles to find your matches.  Don't do it randomly!"

 

 

OMG... YES!!!!  Drives me crazy, that scene. 

[sfmpco]

Well, Sherlock has a photographic memory so perhaps alphabetizing would be a great strain...?

[Boton]

Well, Sherlock has a photographic memory so perhaps alphabetizing would be a great strain...?

 

 

Well, so do I (or at least an eidetic one), and alphabetizing is the way to go.   :P   Sorry Sherlock -- you're being lazy and impatient.  

[sfmpco]

Surely there's a method to his madness and for whatever reason, it eventually worked.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Does anybody know, by the way, whether Thompson will be back as a writer in series 4? I know absolutely nothing about him, but so far, I've really liked his Sherlock scripts.

 

I have no idea -- though I would definitely welcome back the man who wrote "The Reichenbach Fall."  But while attempting to answer your question, I discovered that (according to Wikipedia), Thompson was born in 1967 and his first career was teaching mathematics at Tiffin School.  As I mentioned recently on another thread, Jonny Lee Miller (born in 1972) "attended Tiffin School as a child."  With Thompson being five years older, Miller may well have been one of his early students!

 

I love how you notice small new things with each rewatch of Sherlock episodes. When Sherlock and John are going through the crates of books, Sherlock keeps putting his matching pairs on a pile on John's desk and John silently keeps moving them to another pile. Just a very recognizable, realistic little scene - the same inevitably happens when my husband and I sort through stuff together.

Can you explain how you know that Sherlock has located matching pairs of books? That had never occurred to me, since what he's doing looks so random to me. I've always thought he was just messing up John's nice orderly stacks.

 

... that's usually the part where I'm tearing my hair out yelling "Alphabetize!  Both of you alphabetize one of the men's collections, and then start reading off titles to find your matches.  Don't do it randomly!"

 

Apparently Sherlock doesn't listen to either of us!

 

I think how Sherlock goes about checking those books gives us a lot of insight into how his mind works, and he's not really a methodical thinker. Like Carol has pointed out, his deductions are often based just as much on intuition as on logic. Sherlock would never have taken the time to alphabetize and compare the two collections. If that was all he wanted, he'd have left the entire work to John. He was flipping through pages seemingly at random, looking for something to give him a brain wave. Which even worked, eventually, when he got the right book from the German tourists.

 

Flattery will get you nowhere, T.o.b.y -- I still think he's acting like an idiot in that scene.  ;)   That random flipping drives me nuts, but you have an interesting point.  I'll endeavor to bear that in mind the next time I watch this episode.  (It may beat screaming at the television.)

[Arcadia]

It drives me nuts too, but I figure he's employing the same superpower that allowed him to deduce the waiter was an expectant father in TEH. :p

[SherlockedCAMPer]

 

Does anybody know, by the way, whether Thompson will be back as a writer in series 4? I know absolutely nothing about him, but so far, I've really liked his Sherlock scripts.

I have no idea -- though I would definitely welcome back the man who wrote "The Reichenbach Fall." But while attempting to answer your question, I discovered that (according to Wikipedia), Thompson was born in 1967 and his first career was teaching mathematics at Tiffin School. As I mentioned recently on another thread, Jonny Lee Miller (born in 1972) "attended Tiffin School as a child." With Thompson being five years older, Miller may well have been one of his early students!

I love how you notice small new things with each rewatch of Sherlock episodes. When Sherlock and John are going through the crates of books, Sherlock keeps putting his matching pairs on a pile on John's desk and John silently keeps moving them to another pile. Just a very recognizable, realistic little scene - the same inevitably happens when my husband and I sort through stuff together.

Can you explain how you know that Sherlock has located matching pairs of books? That had never occurred to me, since what he's doing looks so random to me. I've always thought he was just messing up John's nice orderly stacks.

.

Look at how Sherlock grabs the books he only opens 1 when he has a pair before passing the pair into John.

[Tunguska]

You see him matching books a few times. A book with vivid green lettering by Ian Banks, and a book called Freak Economics or something.

 

The scene is quite brief. For all we know, the books are already apphabetized by their previous owners. And to be honest, Sherlock never seemed particularly organized to me. His flat is a mess, he flails around crime scenes and runs off on any train of thought that occurs to him. It's a very realistic portrayal, I believe - all the geniuses I know are more or less chaotic in their actions, house keeping, and/or conversations. Too many thoughts and ideas popping up and a mind brilliant enough to keep track of things without organizing them, it seems.

[Arcadia]

You see him matching books a few times. A book with vivid green lettering by Ian Banks, and a book called Freak Economics or something.

 

The scene is quite brief. For all we know, the books are already apphabetized by their previous owners. And to be honest, Sherlock never seemed particularly organized to me. His flat is a mess, he flails around crime scenes and runs off on any train of thought that occurs to him. It's a very realistic portrayal, I believe - all the geniuses I know are more or less chaotic in their actions, house keeping, and/or conversations. Too many thoughts and ideas popping up and a mind brilliant enough to keep track of things without organizing them, it seems.

It only seems chaotic to those who don't do it that way!! I drove my office assistant crazy with my "unique" way of organizing, but it worked for me, I always knew exactly where everything was and how it related to everything else. And you should see the way I take notes! They look more like drawings than notes. Yet I can find the information I need from them effortlessly. It's just different, that's all. I notice Sherlock usually achieves the desired results in the end; doing things by a particular system just for the sake of the system would make no sense to him, I bet. (It doesn't to me, and I'm not even a genius!)

[Carol the Dabbler]

Look at how Sherlock grabs the books he only opens 1 when he has a pair before passing the pair into John.

 

You see him matching books a few times. A book with vivid green lettering by Ian Banks, and a book called Freak Economics or something.

That explains why I never noticed him matching up pairs of books -- because that's nothing like what I would call matching. If he grabs two, opens one, then puts both down on John's table -- that sounds more like what I would call random, at least in the case of the unopened book. Even if Van Coon and/or Lukis had alphabetized their bookcases, I doubt that the police completely preserved their order when they boxed up the books.

 

It only seems chaotic to those who don't do it that way!! I drove my office assistant crazy with my "unique" way of organizing, but it worked for me, I always knew exactly where everything was....

I've got my own system too, and I'm sure Sherlock does as well when it comes to his own things. But the way he's handling Van Coon and Lukis's books looks more like impatience to me. I like what T.o.b.y suggested, he's randomly searching for inspiration (but nothing clicks till he sees the tourists with their guide books).

 

[Arcadia]

Which brings up a point ... why didn't he or John see the guidebooks in the Van Coon/Lukis piles? I mean, it was supposed to be a book each one owned, right? So why didn't they find it?

[Carol the Dabbler]

Because they didn't alphabetize!!!!   :D

 

[sfmpco]

This is what happens when people don't have their books/DVDs, etc., alphabetized in the first place.  Ooops.  My OCD is showing.

[Carol the Dabbler]

But even if you do alphabetize, you always get into questions like:
 

- Do I alphabetize my books by title or by author?  ("By author" seems like a no-brainer -- but then what do you do with anthologies and reference works?)

 
- Do I alphabetize my DVDs by title or by star?   ("By title" seems like a no-brainer this time -- but do you really want to separate your Michael J. Fox collection, the individual names of which you'll never remember?)  (And besides, do you really want The Hobbit under H, but LotR under L?)

 

[sfmpco]

Well, I did have all my DVDs alphabetized by title, but if I had one particular actor I was following for a bit, I might have their films grouped separately, but in alphabetical order of course, or sometimes even in order of the year they came out...because.  Sometimes there are multiple releases of a certain film (older ones specifically), and I might collect all the different versions.  Oi.  Must try to avoid that with SHERLOCK, but I don't know if I can.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Oh, right -- chronologically is good too!

 

[sfmpco]

In general, however, a home book collection should be alphabetized or at the very least grouped in subject matter.

[Arcadia]

Alphabetize? Are u peeple nutz?!?!?!? Dewey decimal!!!!!!  Yeesh.

 

I have my books organized by genre, so there. (Okay, okay, then alpha by author, then chrono.) It's never occurred to me to organize my DVDs, isn't that what that little storage space under the TV is for?

[sfmpco]

Well,  I've only got a handful of books anymore, so it doesn't matter.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

My books are grouped by subject, then author more or less following Dewey while not in Dewey order. CDs are group by artist & in chronological order. DVDs have no rhyme I reason except series are grouped together.

[Carol the Dabbler]

In general, however, a home book collection should be alphabetized or at the very least grouped in subject matter.

 

Until the police come and box it up, anyway.

 

It's never occurred to me to organize my DVDs, isn't that what that little storage space under the TV is for?

Your DVDs actually fit in there? Ours used to, but they've now taken over the slots where our LPs used to be, plus a couple of boxes. We really need to get an actual DVD "bookcase" -- and then we will definitely alphabetize (by movie / program) -- with a few exceptions (e.g., we may end up putting our Hobbit / LotR collection under "T" for Tolkien).

 

[Arcadia]

To be honest, I only own about 30 DVDs. Hundreds of VHS tapes, tho. And no, they aren't alphabetized! But they are organized. :P

[sfmpco]

Well, when I realized I was moving and had to condense, I threw out all the DVD boxes and put the DVDs into sleeves.  I had about 130+ and now have even more.  Now I have to sort them and put Ben's stuff in one place.

[joanneta1]

Well, Sherlock has a photographic memory so perhaps alphabetizing would be a great strain...?

Hi, I tried to wade through the whole discussion, but nobody seems to discuss the money angle. He gets 25,000 pounds from the bank for solving their dilemma. Who will get the nine million from the sale of the pin? By rights, it is the product of a crime and after being cleared by the police it should be returned to the Chinese government, but a newspaper headline shows "Who wants to be a million-hair?" , and Sherlock has a peculiarly Cheshire Cat smile on his face after she hands him the pin. Even his ten per cent of finder's fee would come to another 90,000 pounds, so, perhaps with the high-profile case earnings at the beginning of the Fall, he is well-off from his work and not dependent on Mycroft or any trust fund, as I found in another discussion thread. Any ideas on the matter of finances?

[sfmpco]

 

Well, Sherlock has a photographic memory so perhaps alphabetizing would be a great strain...?

Hi, I tried to wade through the whole discussion, but nobody seems to discuss the money angle. He gets 25,000 pounds from the bank for solving their dilemma. Who will get the nine million from the sale of the pin? By rights, it is the product of a crime and after being cleared by the police it should be returned to the Chinese government, but a newspaper headline shows "Who wants to be a million-hair?" , and Sherlock has a peculiarly Cheshire Cat smile on his face after she hands him the pin. Even his ten per cent of finder's fee would come to another 90,000 pounds, so, perhaps with the high-profile case earnings at the beginning of the Fall, he is well-off from his work and not dependent on Mycroft or any trust fund, as I found in another discussion thread. Any ideas on the matter of finances?

 

 

Hmmm... I've seen a couple of double posts on the forum today, so perhaps there is a glitch?

 

Anyhow, I think that when John joins forces with Sherlock and starts the blog that things begin to improve for Sherlock.  Of course, the case in TBB was through an old university acquaintance.  By the beginning of TRF, however, we see that he is doing a lot of high profile cases.  Henry Knight in HOB and the Royal Family in ASIB were obviously not without means to pay him well.  

 

And then there was the gambling reference in HLV which was how he got the Leinster Gardens property.  He may not be getting paid by Scotland Yard, but he's doing much better financially by TBB.  He also had to have enough money to move into 221B without a roommate anyhow as he had clearly done so.