Episode 4.0: The Abominable Bride (alias The Special)

[Cumbercowley]

I haven't seen it twice yet but I am certainly going to.

 

I thought it was brilliant I found the whole premise of it being all inside his mind palace a little unrealistic and unnecessary, but I did make a fun Christmas romp. I don't like using the word romp because it is so overused but it was, a fun Christmas romp. 

 

It worked as a good bond between series 3 and 4 and acted as a good bond between the two but after watching it, it just felt a little pointless as it is probably only about half an hour in modern day time from start to finish. 

 

I didn't really notice a change in Sherlock's character I don't know weather that was deliberate but his costume was superb. Martin Freeman was fantastic once again proving that he can be the comedy character. I didn't really get what was going on with Molly Hooper so I guess when I watch it again I will have to pay close attention to her scenes.

 

The plot was great and is definitely the most scary Sherlock episode yet. 

[Cumbercowley]

Oh, and after watching I now don't think Moriarty is dead, it just dropped to many hints.

[Inge l-w]

Lovely conversation and all, I enjoyed every contribution, but a new Endeavour (Young Morse) is about to start and so I bid all you ladies and gentlemen adieu, for some serious crime-solving that won't offend my reason or my logic!

Oh, and by the way, both TV daily.com and Radio Times have rather mixed reviews, the flak will keeping coming, one TV magazine actually called it a Comic Relief episode! And good news for all of us who ordered the DVD: because it has received 49 reviews already, and they are as much a delight to read as this page here, giving it three stars at Amazon.co.uk, the price has dropped by about three pounds!

[sfmpco]

I am not convinced that Sherlock is unaware that Dr. Hooper (the only time she has been officially called "doctor") is not actually female in disguise but that he chooses to keep her secret and not acknowledge it just as she has kept his secrets.  He must not give her away, but her conversation with John afterwards is a bit heartbreaking:

 

“Oh isn’t he observant now that Daddy’s gone.”
John turns back to her.  “I’m certain, in some ways, just as Holmes is, quite blind in others.”
“Really?”
“Yes.  Really. Amazing.  What one has to do to get ahead in a man’s world.”

 

Of course, this is all in Sherlock's mind palace and Sherlock is playing all the parts, all the voices.  Nothing escapes him, not even her longing to be recognized for who she really is by him - this is an idea locked in his mind palace!!  HE KNOWS. And then just look at the end how lovingly and tenderly the she is lit and framed when she is standing near him and their simple, quiet acknowledgement of each other.  She is beautiful, and he SEES her because he's the one telling the narrative in his mind palace.  Janine is there too, but Janine doesn't step forward to him.  Only Molly comes to face him, and it's interposed with the real life slaps she had given him.  But here she's framed in quiet, gentle beauty.

 

All right, that's only part of the analysis of what I'm working on.  So much more to say.  So much.

[sherlocklitleminx]

thought It was brilliant. Shame we have to wait a long time before next one

[Schlauer Fuchs]

Only wanted to mention in case someone hasn't noticed yet: The DVD will be released on January 11, and at least in Germany, TAB is available on Amazon Instant Video for 8,99€. So no need to wait anymore if you've got an account there.

[Inge l-w]

Please, don't forget that the basically misogynist duo have made Molly an accessory both before and after the fact in the Victorian murders, to take the limelight off Mary the Assassin, perhaps? Beautiful or not, the dear doctor would hang (shades of TGG) along with Janine and the rest of them for plotting and helping the terminally ill wife carry out the murder of Sir Eustace.

[bedelia1984]

 Beautiful or not, the dear doctor would hang (shades of TGG) along with Janine and the rest of them for plotting and helping the terminally ill wife carry out the murder of Sir Eustace.

 

Given this, thank goodness it all only happens in his Mind Palace. In his defence, I suppose as Sherlock must see himself as a killer too, he may think they're in good company? I think this is also as part of #sherlockfeminism- gate, going to have to be put down to what happens when the protagonist, as a genius, ought to be smarter than the people writing for him, but for human reasons it hasn't quite turned out that way.

 

 

 

 

Of course, this is all in Sherlock's mind palace and Sherlock is playing all the parts, all the voices.  Nothing escapes him, not even her longing to be recognized for who she really is by him - this is an idea locked in his mind palace!!  HE KNOWS. And then just look at the end how lovingly and tenderly the she is lit and framed when she is standing near him and their simple, quiet acknowledgement of each other.  She is beautiful, and he SEES her because he's the one telling the narrative in his mind palace.  Janine is there too, but Janine doesn't step forward to him.  Only Molly comes to face him, and it's interposed with the real life slaps she had given him.  But here she's framed in quiet, gentle beauty.

 

 

 

 I really liked the framing of this scene especially because in the middle of the group, Molly came the closest to him. And as you say, the lighting is lovely (which I think is about Louise's due, as in her other scene, she is a man after all). I'm likely to see chemistry with these two regardless of reality,but to me the moment where she comes in has it in spades. And, on reflection, I like the use of her last name, and the fact she's doing  a 'man's' job because both aspects speak to Sherlock viewing her as an equal, which demonstrates how their relationship has developed.

[BlackButterfly]

I agree Inge that morality does seem to have gone a little out of the window in the shspesh however the actual murders took place 100 ish years ago . Sherlock was attempting to solve the puzzle and used the people he knew as characters for the construct.One assumes the real criminals are long dead.

It is ACD canon though , that when Sherlock sympathised with a murderess, he let her go with the '... I see no crime here line.. " a bit like Mary in HLV I suppose.

 

By the by , I think that the crime was real and happened and was historically famous. That Sherlock knew of it..the mp victorian paper clippings were real..and it was perhaps in the book of historic cases he studied in TRF with the man that fake hanged himself...and that Moriarty , consultant criminal , also knew of it and based his..plan to take Sherlock down with him..on it .

Thus the I.O.U was stolen from the brides You....

Probably Sherlock missed it because he was worrying about the earth going around the sun or maybe something else John said distracted him....

[BlackButterfly]

Sorry ..double post.

[sfmpco]

thought It was brilliant. Shame we have to wait a long time before next one

 

Likely only a year (which is better than a 2-year wait!!)

[sherlocklitleminx]

still a long time

 

I laughed when they showed Mycroft fat did anyone else?

[sfmpco]

still a long time

 

I laughed when they showed Mycroft fat did anyone else?

 

Well, Gatiss did say we'd be seeing more of him in the special.  LOL!!!

[Boton]

I've seen it three times now, and I'll be seeing it in the theater on Tuesday.  A few thoughts before I jump into the actual discussion:

 

• I've changed my mind: sex really does bother Sherlock.  When he's musing on his failings, it's on all the women that he's noticed in some way and had to "categorize" into something that doesn't scare him.  Molly is "one of the boys," literally; Mrs. Hudson is a plot device; Irene is a memory preserved as a photograph.  Janine is the one standing there, holding him accountable for keeping the women in his life at arm's length when they could be standing beside him, helping him:  an entire room full of potential "brides."  Even John is busy asking him why he insists on being alone and calling him out on the fact that he noticed Mrs. Carmichael (which means he noticed the pilot/stewardess/MI 5 agent/whatever she was in real life).
• He may be having trouble with keeping his drug use under control, but he finally realizes he can fight his demons as long as he has his closest friend (with absolutely no competition whatsoever) John by his side.  Awesome bromantic subplot.
• Speaking of, thank heavens they toned the S/J subtext down.  I'm not going to say it's gone entirely, but I don't think they are using that to play with the audience any longer.
• MF stole the show for me.  His Watson/John was nuanced and lively, and he didn't lose any of his sparkle even when switching back and forth between eras.
• Am I the only one who wants to give Mycroft a hug?  "I'll always be there for you."  Sniffle.
• I almost feel like Moffat spent the last two years reading a bunch of really angsty fan fiction about the tarmac scene and decided he'd had enough.  Tear jerking near-declaration of love, you say?  Nah, the guy was high the whole time; we were lucky he actually did remember his own name.

Things I'm not sure about, but they're growing on me:

• Some of the bits were just a touch repetitive, as if Moffat (I always blame Moffat, even if Gatiss is equally complicit) wanted to take everything that people liked and debated about previous episodes and repeat them in case you weren't sure you got the point the first 1507 viewings.  Mind palace, check.  Horrible self-recrimination and low self-worth, check. Still not telling us about how he survived the fall, check.
• Although there were about a million in-universe explanations and justifications for it, I'm not 100% sold on BC's portrayal of Victorian Holmes.  Yes, this is how his drug-addled mind hopes he would act in another era, but to me, it lacked just a bit of the sparkle and sass I like about the modern Sherlock.  I even felt that there was a bit of a barrier between him and Watson in places.  Like I said, it's growing on me, but I really want my curly-haired smart-aleck back for S4.

Those are the initial thoughts, subject to change on repeated viewing and subject to alteration as we discuss this for the next 12-18 months!

[Slithytove]

Morality went out of the window in HLV, when John decided he did not need to know who Mary had murdered or why, and when Sherlock shot an unarmed man in the head.  The Bride saw a return, I'd say, to the morality of ACD's Holmes, who felt no need to have people arrested if he thought the murders they had committed were justified.  If the victims were sufficiently nasty, Holmes occasionally let killers escape, so I don't think he would have been handing over either Molly or Sir Eustace's wife to the hangman.

 

 

[Arcadia]

Vulture loved it: http://www.vulture.com/2016/01/sherlock-recap-season-4-episode-1.html?mid=facebook_nymag

[Van Buren Supernova]

Mary and John's relationship in the Victorian world was quite a caricature of their real one. I think Sherlock's analysis is pretty accurate there. And pretty funny, too.

Sherlock started to play the violin with the theme he wrote for their wedding when John and Mary started quarrelling. (When it failed, he got frustrated and yes, it’s funny)

 

I thought it is really nice of him. He shows this multiple times already, that he cares about their relationship and put a lot of efforts to help them maintain it, because he wants John to be happy above all. Beside above, everything in HLV, notable ones are; when he reminded Mary of her wedding picture projection (the happy bride that he sees, and happy wife wedded to John) at Leinster Garden and of course, shooting Magnussen.

 

 

I've frequently said that I'd like to see Molly and Sherlock become friends, and this is part of what I mean by that ... for him to acknowledge that she's a woman and that there's nothing scary or icky or silly about that. Because the Special hasn't changed my mind about Sherlock's attitude towards women ... I still think he thinks they are all those things, and I'd like to see him outgrow that.

I thought he doesn’t see women as scary, icky or silly. I think he sees them as something he should keep distance from, because they have capability to distract him, to make him uses his heart instead of brain, and that is the last thing he wants. He associated them with his own vulnerability (I strongly believe Thank you for the final confirmation applies more to him by himself).

 

Those, in very weird way, is the highest regards for women, in my opinion. Something he shouldn’t touch, because they are powerful enough to wreck his mind. Yes, it can be associated with something negative too, like drugs. But Sherlock is an individual with very high distinctive way of thinking. I would say he never sees something as purely negative, he always embraces and acknowledges the purpose of the bad. Nothing is purely bad.

 

About your Mary theory: possible backstory, Mycroft sent her to keep an eye on John in Sherlock's absence and in the process they fell in love? Someone has probably already written that fanfic!

That is not an impossible idea. That means eventhough he is an overbearing brother, he is a very good one.

 

Am I the only one who wants to give Mycroft a hug? "I'll always be there for you." Sniffle.

No you are not. I think he looks very tormented in the plane scene.

 

I have one big fat question about Mycroft, pun fully intended, why did he say It is my fault? or something along that line for Sherlock’s OD.

Did he do something that cause Redbeard’s death? Did he introduce drug to Sherlock? Did he do something to the other brother? Or did he just always blames himself because he is their big brother and he is supposed to be the smartest one and able to guide them (but consider himself fail).

 

I would say this is very interesting. Mycroft might have backstory as much as Sherlock about what made him. We can spend a year discussing this.

 

Does he see Mycroft as greedy in some way? If so, what does he feel Mycroft is gobbling up - the respect, the power, the attention? Mummy & Daddy's love? It just made me wonder why Sherlock would imagine him in this way.

My guess is that he despises Mycroft not wanting to do legwork. His brother has all the brilliance and ability to solve complicated case more than him, but he wouldn't get his a** up?

However, which brings me to question. Does Mycroft (especially in modern era) purposely does that? So that Sherlcok excels in something more than him. Nah..I don't think so. It's more likely that Mycroft enjoy thinking without the doing part.

 

It's very clear to me in the Special, that Sherlock asks about Mycroft's diet everytime he is cornered or pissed at him. Is it the only pressure point he knows that his brother has?

I alsways see Sherlock as someone who has great ability to read others, but not about himself and impact that he has on people. I would believe that it doesn't cross Sherlock's mind that he is Mycroft's pressure point.

 

 

Regarding multiple comment about chauvinism:

What I notice here is all men are basically treating the women quite badly (including John and bit of Lestrade, but he is merely clueless), except the Holmes brothers. Interesting that they are the gentlemen. I think they are.

[Carol the Dabbler]

OK, I restrained myself as long as I could!  I've read only the first four pages of this thread so far, but will reply to them before I forget what parts I wanted to comment on.
 
Also, it's so wonderful to see so many familiar names posting again: Banshee, Bubu, Schlauer Fuchs, Sacker, and parv.  (And if I missed anyone in my mad dash to read everything, please forgive me!)
 

Sherlock said he took the drugs in order to help him solve the mystery... At least that's how I remember it. But it went so quickly that I'm not sure I got it right.

 
Did he say that?  I'm pretty sure he's said in the past (or maybe it was Jeremy Brett's Holmes, or Conan Doyle's) that he uses the drugs when he's bored.  I need to listen more closely next time, but if he actually said it helped him solve the case -- well, I was going to say I think that was bad judgment on their part -- but just now it occurs to me that maybe it was the drugs talking!  (It's always easy to justify counterproductive behavior while one is engaged in it.)
 

Why is Sherlock convinced that the overdose and resulting "investigations" helped him prove Moriarty's death? After all, there is (unlike in Emilia's case) still no corpse as final proof. And while somenone could spill blood on the curtains to help Emilia fake her suicide, that couldn't have worked the same way for Moriarty - since he was outside with a person as observant as Sherlock around... Of course there are some parallels, but the fact that Emilia really is dead doesn't mean Moriarty has to be, too, does it?

 
I don't think it was so much that he proved Moriarty was really dead (he seemed perfectly certain of that all along).  It was more that the similar case helped him realize that Moriarty's "reappearance" could have been someone else (or even several someones) posing as Moriarty.  Which I think any of us could have told him all along, considering how amateurish that GIF was.  (My take on the live shot at the very end is that it was basically Andrew Scott talking to us fans.  It wasn't presented as anything that the characters saw on television.)
 

:lol: Just wait until a certain lovely lady on the internet has done a transcript of this... We'll have a field day!

 
I keep checking!  (And we think we've got it bad, just trying to figure things out.  At least we aren't going to all the trouble of writing the whole thing down!)
 

I loved that Sherlock's version of John told Molly that he noticed more than Sherlock does- it was pretty mind-bending, because it is actually Sherlock admitting that he notices more than he outwardly seems to notice.

 
Or Sherlock admitting that John may notice some things that he himself does not.  I take it as a reference to Conan Doyle's Holmes saying that Watson is the expert on "the fair sex."
 

You know what REALLY worries me?
 

That apparently Sherlock IS an addict. At least until in S4 we find out that it's all John's dream. :P

 

 
No, I don't think he's an addict as such.  He seems to make conscious decisions to use drugs under certain conditions.  That could still be addictive behavior (like the people who can quit smoking just fine till they're in a situation where they're accustomed to smoking), but then again maybe not.
 

BTW, is there any way to get rid of the voting at the top of the page? My vote isn't there: to overloaded to know it yet.

 
Sorry, I don't believe there's any way to hide the poll.  I know it's a bit of a nuisance, but the two of us can just keep scrolling past it!
 

I adored the conversation between Watson and Sherlock waiting for the ghost/spectre.

 
Did anyone besides me take that as a "borrowing" from "The Speckled Band"?
 

Oh, and congrats to everyone who guessed right about the story taking place in Sherlock's mind palace! I've forgotten who you are, but you called it!

 
I may have been the first, she said modestly. 
 

4. The part that throws all of this off, or course, is when it turns out to be Moriarty beneath the veil, instead of the murdered man's wife. At that point I could just about throw up my hands in despair.

 
My take on that particular bit was that the mind-palace Sherlock was hallucinating, somewhat like the real one did at Dewar's Hollow.
 

I thought the ceremony of the women is a unnecessary and doesn't make sense, it's not a cult. But, it's explained. He likes it to be dramatic, and it's his mind, he can presents it anyway he wants.
(And hearing many real stories about how women lives back then, their motive is not really a stretch).

Yeah, I think we can write that up as Sherlock's idea of dramatic effect.

[sfmpco]

Remember how Sherlock gasped a little in shock when Mary was revealed NOT to be Lady Smallwood and she pointed the gun at him in HLV?  He had that same gasp when he thought the bride at the end was Lady Carmichael but it was Moriarty.  The same shock to his system, the same mistake twice.  All goes back to HLV.

 

Lady Carmichael is a pale reflection of Lady Smallwood.  Eustace of Lord Smallwood.  The letters written between Smallwood and the young girl hark to potential abuse of women in Victorian times.  

 

The whole thing about the orange pips is really about his guilt coming back to him over and over.  Sherlock is wrestling with his inner demons.

 

This episode is NOT just about him  using a Victorian case to solve how Moriarty could be alive.  No, it's also about reliving the events of HLV, trying to right the way he handled the case.

 

When Sherlock says, “We all have a past, Watson.  Ghosts.  They are the shadows that define our every sunny day.  Sir Eustace knows he’s a marked man.  There’s something more than murder he fears.  He believes he is to be dragged to hell by the risen corpse of the late Mrs. Ricoletti.”  - He's not just talking about Sir Eustace.  He's talking about himself, and it's not just Moriarty's ghost that haunts him.  

 

Sherlock got onto that plane as a marked man - he had 6 months to live.    The MI6 mission will drag him to hell, and the ghost of Moriarty in his mind palace will accompany him.  There was something more than death that he feared, something more than the guilt of his own sins.  Once the Moriarty issue appeared, he was afraid he would be dragged to hell by the risen corpse of Moriarty.  He had already been in hell with Moriarty once before when he was shot in HLV, and it wasn't good.  

 

Still so much more I have to say...

[Van Buren Supernova]

When Sherlock says, “We all have a past, Watson.  Ghosts.  They are the shadows that define our every sunny day.  Sir Eustace knows he’s a marked man.  There’s something more than murder he fears.  He believes he is to be dragged to hell by the risen corpse of the late Mrs. Ricoletti.”  - He's not just talking about Sir Eustace.  He's talking about himself, and it's not just Moriarty's ghost that haunts him.  

 

Sherlock got onto that plane as a marked man - he had 6 months to live.    The MI6 mission will drag him to hell, and the ghost of Moriarty in his mind palace will accompany him.  There was something more than death that he feared, something more than the guilt of his own sins.  Once the Moriarty issue appeared, he was afraid he would be dragged to hell by the risen corpse of Moriarty.  He had already been in hell with Moriarty once before when he was shot in HLV, and it wasn't good.

Right.

I was on to multiple plot holes and nitpicking but then again, it's his Mind Palace and he can get away with that.

 

I thought above is well put. Everything about the special is deep deep inside him; his fear, his failure, weakness, his fall. But above all the negative, he is able to recognize the good things in some way; friendship, John and Lestrade.

Anyone feel touched that Lestrade did the grave digging with him?

 

 

 

Likely only a year (which is better than a 2-year wait!!)

Promise?

Please promise!

 

 

Small things:

- Love BC's forehead lines. Never botox-ing, everyone.

- MI5 security sucks. :lol:

- Mrs. Hudson is perfectly capable of starving Sherlock.

- From now on I will use this whenever I am trapped in unbearable social situation "I have never been so impatiently waiting to be attacked by murderous ghost", and I will ask anyone outside the house out loud (don't have landlady) why there is someone in my sitting room, what he/she wants instead of asking myself for annoying pop-in/persistent guests.

XD

 

Eta: John concludes Molly is a woman after he sort of peeking to see her behind in the morgue.

We are so busy I believe no one mentions Anderson. Anderson!

[sfmpco]

I was also going to mention that when Sherlock "wakes up" on the ledge at the Reichenbach Falls that his body is in the same position it was in when he was on the pavement after jumping from Bart's roof.  But instead of laying in blood he was laying in water.

[sfmpco]

 

I was on to multiple plot holes and nitpicking but then again, it's his Mind Palace and he can get away with that.

 

 

Exactly.  Dreams don't make complete sense (if any sense at all), and drug-induced trips should not be expected to hold together much better - except that they are from his mind palace.  

 

He kept saying he had to go deeper....which was likely when he took more drugs .  Deeper again?  More drugs until he was actually doing the drugs even in the Victorian times. 

 

Do I believe he was high when he first stepped on the plane?  I don't know, but Mycroft believed it.  It's weird to think he was high while saying goodbye to John and Mary, but that's the thing with drug users/addicts.  They lay a foundation of lies that you walk onto like a carpet and never think aout it until that carpet is ripped out from under you.  Still, how sad to think he was high getting on the plane.  It is also sad to think that perhaps he had taken the extra drugs on board to perhaps fatally OD rather than face death on the MI6 mission.  I don't think of Sherlock as suicidal despite his flaws, but perhaps he really did feel his life was over and what was the point.  Certainly a week in solitary confinement had probably pushed his brain over the edge and he wasn't thinking clearly anyhow.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Gnarfff!! The browser just ate my almost-completed post, and autosave was no help in this case.  Actually, I think our plug-in touch pad (the one with all the extra "features") was to blame, so I've set it aside and am using the rather minimalistic one that's built into this laptop.  Anyhow, page 5:
 

I saw a screen capture of [...] Mrs. Hudson talking with Sherlock. Why did not she wear a hat at outdoor? I seems to recall that Victorian ladies always wear hat when they are outside of their house.

 
I assume you're talking about the scene where Holmes has just arrived in a carriage and she steps out of the door to greet him on the sidewalk in front of #221.  So she hasn't actually "gone out," she's merely stepped outside her front door for a moment.
 

Plump pudding.

(I'm not sure I get 'plump' right. But hey, what do you expect from non English hearing complicated English show for one time?)

 
In Mycroft's case, "plump" really is appropriate, but actually it's "plum" (though a typical plum pudding contains raisins rather than plums).
 

... for me, it's pretty clear that 2015 was the real world and 189...? was the mind palace/dream state [...] because Victorian Mycroft mentioned 'the virus in the data', which can't be a 125 year old saying. :D

 
... especially since the word "virus" (in the sense of a disease organism) was not used until 1898.
 

As for the purple color - the suffrage colors were white, green and purple.  White for purity, green for new life and purple for royalty, so the color of their robes would be correct.

 
Thank you for that info!  That would also explain why some of the robes in that scene were green (though I believe the great majority were purple).
 

I think what grates on people- on me anyway, in the Sherlock version is that there is a muddying of the waters between fighting for your rights and getting rid of disappointing husbands (which I don't think has ever been particularly high on the feminist agenda).

 
I won't say that it grates on me -- this is all inside Sherlock's mind palace, after all, and since he was never an abused wife, he has to use his imagination (and apparently his drugged imagination at that).  But yes, it does puzzle me.
 
However, are we ever told exactly how Messrs Ricoletti and Carmichael are supposed to have abused their wives?  I looked up Victorian divorce law yesterday, and it was based very heavily on infidelity.  In fact, a man could get a divorce simply by proving that his wife had been unfaithful.  A woman had to prove infidelity plus at least one other indignity.  Apparently a man could beat his wife within an inch of her life every day and she still couldn't get a divorce unless he was also unfaithful.  So it wouldn't surprise me if there were at least a few discreet murders in those days, and I'm not even sure I'd think the wife was in the wrong -- merely driven by circumstances to do something she would not otherwise have considered.

[Van Buren Supernova]

However, are we ever told exactly how Messrs Ricoletti and Carmichael are supposed to have abused their wives?

For Ricoletti, I suspect that he might have raped her.

It's shotgun wedding.

Beside that, maybe he used all kind of other ways to get her as well. Breaking up her past relationship, harm her family, blackmail, torture, all sort of things a rich man can get away with.

 

For Carmichael, from what we saw, in less than two minutes on the dining table, he delivered how many insults and degraded her wife in very patronizing ways. Multiple it with their years of marriage, with Carmichael being an intelligent woman, with not supportive society, I can perfectly see why she becomes murderous.

 

Like you say, it's probably the only way out.

[sfmpco]

Gnarfff!! The browser just ate my almost-completed post, and autosave was no help in this case.  Actually, I think our plug-in touch pad (the one with all the extra "features") was to blame, so I've set it aside and am using the rather minimalistic one that's built into this laptop.  Anyhow, another page:

 

 

However, are we ever told exactly how Messrs Ricoletti and Carmichael are supposed to have abused their wives?  I looked up Victorian divorce law yesterday, and it was based very heavily on infidelity.  In fact, a man could get a divorce simply by proving that his wife had been unfaithful.  A woman had to prove infidelity plus at least one other indignity.  Apparently a man could beat his wife within an inch of her life every day and she still couldn't get a divorce unless he was also unfaithful.  So it wouldn't surprise me if there were at least a few discreet murders in those days, and I'm not even sure I'd think the wife was in the wrong -- merely driven by circumstances to do something she would not otherwise have considered.

 

In those days also a woman had to marry very carefully because her inheritance went to her husband, not to her.  This was especially important to figure out a good marriage especially if you were wealthy.  Women were little more than chattel, even in 1895.