Episode 4.2 "The Lying Detective"

[Pamela]

In Sign of Three, when Sherlock was drunk. John's "Bachelor Party."

[J.P.]

Okay, but why? Was it him making the name sound like this?

[Pamela]

John and Sherlock were half passed out on the steps in the foyer of 221 and Mrs. H came out from her apartment and said something. Sherlock's brain couldn't come up with Mrs. Hudson and he said "Hudders."

[Arcadia]

It's a type of slang/street talk, but I can't remember the specifics. Like Wiggins calling Sherlock "Shezza." It's the same kind of thing.

[Pseudonym]

Yea, that's it, I was trying to figure out how to explain it. It's like when Sherlock says 'laters' or calls Mycroft 'blood.' 'Blood' in particular is London street slang, but yea, Shezza and Hudders fit into it too. 

[J.P.]

So it wasn't just slurring?

Because there a funny bit like this in TLD, when Sherlock says handbag and Wiggins' reaktion is like defending himself?

I was reading the subtitles and saw handbag until it dawned on me that it sounds like humbug.

 

BTW I absolutely loved how they shown Sherlock realizing the handbag was too heavy.

[Pseudonym]

No, it was definitely deliberate. I can't remember the handbag bit, but there is a phrase 'handbags at dawn' which normally has a little defensive motion with it. Is it when they're in the flat near the beginning?

[Arcadia]

Nope, not just slurring.
 

Yea, that's it, I was trying to figure out how to explain it. It's like when Sherlock says 'laters' or calls Mycroft 'blood.' 'Blood' in particular is London street slang, but yea, Shezza and Hudders fit into it too.

Interesting. Here, "blood" is also street slang, but mostly among young black men and it's spelled "blud." I wonder who came up with it first. And it amuses me that I actually know that; my brain stores the most useless information sometimes.

[Arcadia]

No, it was definitely deliberate. I can't remember the handbag bit, but there is a phrase 'handbags at dawn' which normally has a little defensive motion with it. Is it when they're in the flat near the beginning?

 

I don't remember it either. Time for a rewatch? And I like that sequence too, JP. I didn't get what he was doing the first time, but it looked cool either way.

 

[Pseudonym]

If I was from that part of London and I used it I'd probably spell it 'blud' too  ;)

 

There is a particular London accent that I absolutely hate, though it's not an accent so much as a way of speaking, 'street-slang' covers it well, and blood/blud falls into that. Which is why Sherlock saying it, with his oh-so-posh accent makes it pretty funny, especially since it's bound to irritate Mycroft. Which is always fun :D

[J.P.]

Well, what would we do without our transcript goddess.

FAITH: You’re my last hope.
SHERLOCK (turning to her and taking hold of the handles on both of the sliding doors): Really? That’s bad luck, isn’t it? Goodnight. Go away.
(He slides the doors closed. She shuts her eyes in despair. Sherlock turns back to the work surface nearby.)
WIGGINS: What’s bad luck?
SHERLOCK (exasperated, leaning his hands on the work surface and lowering his head): Stop talking. It makes me aware of your existence.
WIGGINS: I always ’ave bad luck. It’s congenital.
SHERLOCK (raising his head): Handbag.
WIGGINS: That’s not rude. Congenital: it just means ...
(Sherlock turns to the doors and slides them open.)
SHERLOCK: Handbag!

And now, reading it, I realize it could be something different than I thought, and that I don't understand it again.

 

[Pseudonym]

Oh yea, that's just Sherlock talking about the weight of Fake Faith's handbag - remember when he throws it at her, then stops it in midair and weighs it? The 'handbag' is when he realises it's too heavy and so may contain a gun. Wiggins is just wittering away in his own little conversation. 

[J.P.]

So he basically means that having bad luck is not rude but natural, being in the genes?

 

The word rude is confused me. I always though it only applies to someone being rude. Okay.

[Arcadia]

JP, I think the joke here is about the word "congenital."

 

WIGGINS: I always ’ave bad luck. It’s congenital.

SHERLOCK (raising his head): Handbag.

WIGGINS: That’s not rude. Congenital: it just means ...

(Sherlock turns to the doors and slides them open.)

SHERLOCK: Handbag!

 

Its sounds a bit like "genitals", which could be a bit rude to talk about in, er, polite company. In fact, I'm wondering if it's going to get past the spam filter.

 

Sherlock, meanwhile, is thinking about something else entirely and ignoring Wiggins. So "handbag" has nothing to do with what Billy says.

[Inge l-w]

It's really funny how Mrs Hudson went from 'semi-permanent' mute in HLV to the super-landlady of this episode.

But my point is something else: right at the end of the episode, when they are going for cake for Sherlock's birthday, we are shown a bird's eye view of the terraced house, and it DOES NOT have the wrought iron balcony. Probably filmed somewhere else where they simply attached the Speedy's awning to the building. In the scene inside the flat, the railings of the balcony can be seen through the windows, though!

If I had Irene's crop available and the directors were in easy reach, there might be GBH charges! What a whopping, huge continuity error! And the creators, who are supposedly more or less on set, let it fly right over their heads, not to mention the producer! Sloppy, sloppier, sloppiest!

[J.P.]

Dear Inge, continuity errors are everywhere, in every show and film.

 

If you have some spare minutes I would recommend to google (or look up at IMDB.com) for goofs in Gladiator. This will put Sherlock in a whole new perspective regarding this matter. :D

[Arcadia]

If you have some spare minutes I would recommend to google (or look up at IMDB.com) for goofs in Gladiator. This will put Sherlock in a whole new perspective regarding this matter. :D

 

I did, it was hilarious! "During the fight with the tigers, Maximus falls and rolls over, revealing Lycra shorts."

[J.P.]

So it worked, I suppose :D

[Inge l-w]

Dear J.P. , if you have ever watched SiB with commentary, back in the good old days, they were eagle-eyed enough to catch such a minor point as Sherlock not holding a sandwich in his hand right before they are called by Lestrade to explain the corpse in the boot of the car. By now, success has gone to their heads so much that the inconsistencies are beginning to grate.

And I have always thought The Gladiator an average re-make of The Fall of the Roman Empire, with its only redeeming feature being Robert Harris as Marcus Aurelius, while in the original it was Sir Alec Guinness.

[J.P.]

What Gladiator is or isn't was not my point.

 

Continuity errors are common state rather than exception. Gladiator proves how common, and what things you can actually oversee, if you don't pay attention to every split second. You can have a whole dolly crossing the screen in Platoon, together with the operator's white socks, and don't see it, until you discover it by chance, while looking for something else.

[Inge l-w]

Dear J.P. , above I wasn't discussing Gladiator, except in passing. I was discussing their attention to detail in S2 as opposed to S4.

[BLS_Pro]

BTW - I love the "Once More Unto The Breach" speech Sherlock gives.  Whenever he says "The Game is On" I imagine that is how he is feeling when he declares it, even if he doesn't show it. 

[Cumberbabe1996]

The plot of the episode reminds me of my script for Manimal (yes, exactly the one you're referring to.)

 

In it, Prof. Jonathan Chase has to stop a fellow colleague, Prof. Peter Olsen, from mutating people with the former's DNA to create transhumans. His teenage daughter Jessica Chase is good friends with Prof. Olsen's daughter Ashley, who is using her to get information for her father.

[Cumberbabe1996]

And yes, Benedict is in it, as the good doctor himself. After all BC tearing out of his clothes will make this movie very popular with women.

 

...What? He enjoyed the show as a kid. No, really: http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2014/07/10-best-moments-benedict-cumberbatchs-comic-con-debut

[Arcadia]

Oookayyyyy.....