Episode 4.0: The Abominable Bride (alias The Special)

[Arcadia]

I have felt that Sherlock taking a very premeditated leap into the falls was a cleansing metaphor.  He has freed himself of Moriarty and now he's just washing it all away.  He is absolutely delighted to be "bathed" in the falls.  He knows he's "dreaming," and he is able to enjoy the ride.  

 

There is an old myth about dreaming of falling - that if you land you're actually dead.  Somehow Sherlock isn't exactly falling - he's flying in a way.

Oh, that's good, that makes sense. And he appears to be controlling his descent to some extent, doesn't he? And he's happy. Happy to be returning to his right mind and getting on with his work? Yeah, okay. Thanks!!

 

 

Well, he's high as kite too.

[Arcadia]

Oops, my computer's wonky this morning, I almost missed seeing this. I love your long posts, Toby, they give me so much to chew on!
 

I should probably read that article you linked, Arcadia, before I comment on it, but I have a feeling it would be bad for my blood pressure, so you know what, I won't. :P

You can read the first four pages, they're all compliments. :P
 

 

I think that article had a real point when it said:
 
Gone are the days when Sherlock was a grounded series about a man who sometimes seemed to be able to make supernatural deductions but which always had a logical explanation. Now he seems to be some sort of supreme being – it is almost a science-fiction series. This is the trouble with the success of the show – it is now being run as though it is elaborate Fan Fiction.

 
Why science fiction series? They did get that the time travel in The Abominable Bride wasn't real, yes? Or do they mean Sherlock's mental powers? Geez, those were beyond realistic right from the start. He's a superhero and always has been - just a very, very classy one.

 

Oddly enough, lately I've also been thinking it reminds me of a sci fi show. Let's see, why am I thinking that ....
 
Okay, it's not that Sherlok IS sci fi, but it evokes the spirit of sci fi, or at least the kind of sci fi I like; the quirky geek as hero; imaginative graphics; explorations of the dark side of human nature; poking fun at conventions; omniscient villains ... stuff like that. Stuff I love! So the article may have meant it as criticism, but I apparently took it as a compliment... :D
 

... When I first saw The Empty Hearse, though, one of my first responses was "did they let a bunch of fan fic writers loose on their script?" Series 3 was just so full of things I never thought I'd see the Sherlock characters do or say. It felt as if not just one but a whole line of borders had been crossed. I wasn't happy at first. But what would we have the team do? Churn out five repeats of series 1 until they run out of ideas with static characters being served a new problem each weak, like any other series? This isn't Mission Impossible. Or a regular crime show. There are a gazillion of those anyway.
 
Now it seems everything is possible. Sherlock could retire, keep bees, get married, go to the moon...

Exactly! I've never thought of this show as an adaptation, anyway, except possibly the first episode. Maybe Hounds. The closest word I can think of to describe it is "homage." I didn't even know fan fiction existed until I started following this show, but now that I do, I think this series certainly fits the description.
 

 

As for Arcadia's question about Holmes jumping into the Falls, all I know for sure is that was how he supposedly was going to "wake up." Otherwise, I don't know either. He was really smiling broadly during that jump! What does that mean?

 
I don't really have a solid theory on this yet either. What I know is that if you fall and / or die in a dream, you almost always wake up. Sherlock finally decided to wake up and join the real world again, so he willed his mind to do something that would take him there. Maybe he's smiling because it's a relief to just let go and not be driven to go deeper and deeper into his subconscious any more, desperately trying to solve The Final Problem. Because this is what I think was going on. ...
 
Sherlock has had a rough time lately, and way back in A Study in Pink, I got the impression that he has a death wish. Maybe Mind Palace Moriary represents that: Why wake up? Why go back at all? Why not just lie back and die, or go insane, stay on drugs and escape the mess of living, feeling, failing and hurting for good? And then John shows up, all no-nonsense and practical, with his gun just like at the end of the first episode, pointing out that life isn't all that horrid because he's there and he's got Sherlock's back. Now enough fooling around, time to wake up, Sherlock, we have work to do.

 

Okay, this makes sense to me too. And I think that's certainly what Moriarty represented in HLV; giving up, dying, as a way out of your problems. So I guess he represents that here, too.

 

Yay, another mystery solved! (As much as they ever can be. ) Next question!

[Inge l-w]

Dear TOBY, please don't let the side down! It's "gist", not jist, you wouldn't want the forum tho think that we're direct descendants of Arminius (Hermann to us), so controversial in Caesar's De Bello Gallico!

Also, Sherlock's leap into the void was taken directly from the poignant end of Crouching Tiger, Flying Dragon: a deliberate dig at the competition's Joan Watson Lucy Liu? But there, as the dear professor would have said, she never landed, ergo, not died! Petty fogging, magpying and trying to steal the competition's past triumphs? It's just not on! Definitely not cricket, although Mr Moffat, being a Scots, like Inspector McKenzie, might only know about golf, (it's unsporting to hit a sitting ball).

[Van Buren Supernova]

The consequences of missing this thread for a couple of day... uhm.

I agree with some of you, and disagree with some of you.

Laterz.

[T.o.b.y]

Oops, my computer's wonky this morning, I almost missed seeing this. I love your long posts, Toby, they give me so much to chew on!

 

Thank you! I am glad my writing is occasionally readable, even if I do misspell words. (What bugs me much more is that sometimes an entire word will go missing. I think I've typed it, but when I read the post later it turns out I only thought it. My mind is faster than my fingers at least, even if it's a bit slow compared to some other people's.)

 

It's a bit silly I suppose, to think so much about this crazy episode and to analyze it to any great extent, but what the heck, it's fun and I will continue to do so until I grow tired of it (which probably won't happen for a while). I don't suppose that the audience is necessarily meant to waste any great amount of time or thought on Sherlock, but we certainly are rewarded when we do. It's a show that really lets you engage with it.

 

By the way, I don't see anything weird or unrealistic / "sci fi" about Sherlock's imagination. My brain can do this kind of thing, and I don't need drugs to become completely immersed in some fantasy. Of course I do not solve crimes or achieve any other useful or astonishing results when I am daydreaming, but I can go into "a sort of trance", as John put it, too, and I get very irritated when disturbed.

 

Sherlock is really a very fascinating combination of a dreamer and a logician. I hope we get to see inside the Mind Palace again in the future. It's a wonderful place.

 

[sfmpco]

Gatiss, Moffat, Vertue and Abbington are filming a discussion on TAB today.

 

https://twitter.com/Sherlock221B/status/692014527479701504

[J.P.]

TOBY:

By the way, I don't see anything weird or unrealistic / "sci fi" about Sherlock's imagination. My brain can do this kind of thing, and I don't need drugs to become completely immersed in some fantasy. Of course I do not solve crimes or achieve any other useful or astonishing results when I am daydreaming, but I can go into "a sort of trance", as John put it,

 

Once I incidentally solved a mystery in a daydream trance!

[Inge l-w]

Filming a discussion so soon? Trying to undo some of the damage, doubtlessly; "damage control", as the American marketing experts would call it, but they should remember, like their favourite victim's *ahem* hero's I meant to say, it was entirely self-inflicted!

[jadpdr]

You mean they will try to explain why the suffrage movement was moved forward by two years or that they deemed it necessary for the murderous 'Monstrous regiment' to be dressed in KKK 'silly hats' , only in purple?

[Arcadia]

I seriously doubt if they'll explain anything. :p

[sfmpco]

Someone on Twitter had the idea to suggest to Abbington regarding this taping that perhaps she would reveal why Mary's pregnancy was fake, and Abbington was a bit taken aback by that suggestion.  Probably the same person asked that who also believes BC's marriage is all a sham.

[T.o.b.y]

Someone on Twitter had the idea to suggest to Abbington regarding this taping that perhaps she would reveal why Mary's pregnancy was fake, and Abbington was a bit taken aback by that suggestion.  Probably the same person asked that who also believes BC's marriage is all a sham.

 

Why do people think actors know anything special about their characters anyway? Until they filmed His Last Vow, Ms Abbington wasn't even told Mary is an assassin. If people feel the need to pester anyone with questions about the characters' secrets or future development, it would make much more sense to go to the writers. Not that they'd reveal anything...

 

And why on earth would Mary fake a pregnancy? What good would that do her? And why is this a more plausible scenario than that a married woman has a baby?

[sfmpco]

Well, we know John and Mary have seen the scan.  She's hardly faking it.  Ridiculous notion.  There are definitely some conspiracy theories out there about the show that are practically worthy of the X-Files.  Good grief.

[Inge l-w]

Good grief! The creators are giving an interview about the Abominable episode to explain the inexplicable and all the p(l)otholes in its path, while ITV aired a perfectly exquisite four-part series of Endeavour, no fuss, no hype, just efficiently and beautifully done! Luckily, it was in collaboration with PBS, so the American members will eventually watch British TV that has not lost all sense of measure!

[Arcadia]

You've seen the interview, Inge? What was their explanation? Better still, is there a video, and if there is, where can we view it? I always get a kick out of the interviews.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Probably the same person asked that who also believes BC's marriage is all a sham.

What..someone thinks that? He/she has too much free time? I can think of one hundred better conspiracy theories.

[sfmpco]

 

Probably the same person asked that who also believes BC's marriage is all a sham.

What..someone thinks that? He/she has too much free time? I can think of one hundred better conspiracy theories.

 

 

 

if you want, I will privately send you a link to such nonsense.

[Van Buren Supernova]

if you want, I will privately send you a link to such nonsense.

I am curious of what is going through the head, but maybe not, I get easily frustated with nonsense. But thank you for offering.

[Inge l-w]

Dear Arcadia, it was on in the paid section of one of the British TV channels, round table discussion, I believe BBC Drama will air it in February for free, and as you surmised, it was a good old beating around the bush! Maybe Netflix or PBS will show it in the States. But I did enjoy seeing squirm a bit in the Q&A (about five questions were allowed) section! Serve him right, the mastermind behind the Abominable episode!

[sfmpco]

I have 3 extra pristine copies of the TAB Radio Times that I will give away - but only in the USA.  Just pay for shipping (approx. $14).  Let me know if you are interested via a PM.  First come, first serve.  

[sfmpco]

How many of you who saw TAB in the cinema got one of these?  My cinema didn't carry them.  I saw NONE.  I had to get one off of Ebay.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sherlock-The-Abominable-Bride-Regal-Fathom-Events-souvenir-ticket-3-D-Cumberb-/141887372850?&_trksid=p2056016.m2516.l5255

[Amber§]

Oh!! Neither my cinema got those tickets! What a pity! :(

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I didn't do that cinema chain as the 1 nearest me has a history of blasting their sound.

[Arcadia]

Dear Arcadia, it was on in the paid section of one of the British TV channels, round table discussion, I believe BBC Drama will air it in February for free, and as you surmised, it was a good old beating around the bush! Maybe Netflix or PBS will show it in the States. But I did enjoy seeing squirm a bit in the Q&A (about five questions were allowed) section! Serve him right, the mastermind behind the Abominable episode!

Got it, thanks! Maybe it will show up on Yo*T*be, hopefully sooner rather than later.... ;)

[Arcadia]

Stumbled across this review of TAB, I think this is one reviewer who really "got" what the episode is about. I particularly like her summary at the end (possibly because that's what I got out of it too. ;) )

 

I can't believe we've stopped talking about this episode already, but I guess there's neither enough mystery to solve nor enough clues to the future to keep us speculating --- ???? Or maybe you've all just been too busy, like me! I've been meaning to rewatch it for days now but the dang real world keeps interfering.........