Episode 4.3 "The Final Problem"

[Doe]

 

From Tumblr

 

fangirlhani

Deleted shot from TFP of Sherlock after he smashes the coffin. He’s a real mess here when compared to the actual shot they included afterward. Though he was visibly shaking in that one as well. Makes me wonder exactly how long he sat there when John finally thought it was safe to get him to talk again. And if this is not enough proof of how much Molly means to Sherlock, I don’t know what does. Hats off to Benedict’s performance.

 

Realy. The performance  is perfect!

 

I saw Benedict and Martin are look like tired in the Final Problem.

 

Correct me If I am wrong.

[Carol the Dabbler]

01:23

 

Molly's phone is closed.

 

What do you mean?

[Arcadia]

Looks like maybe the welcome screen is on, instead of whatever screen you get when you're actually in the middle of a conversation.

[Arcadia]

 

 

From Tumblr

 

fangirlhani

Deleted shot from TFP of Sherlock after he smashes the coffin. He’s a real mess here when compared to the actual shot they included afterward. Though he was visibly shaking in that one as well. Makes me wonder exactly how long he sat there when John finally thought it was safe to get him to talk again. And if this is not enough proof of how much Molly means to Sherlock, I don’t know what does. Hats off to Benedict’s performance.

 

Realy. The performance  is perfect!

 

I saw Benedict and Martin are look like tired in the Final Problem.

 

Correct me If I am wrong.

 

Yes, I thought that too ... looked like they weren't getting enough sleep.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

They had a fair amount of night shots towards the end. I remember Benedict's birthday had been night shots so that could explain the whole tired thing.

[Doe]

Looks like maybe the welcome screen is on, instead of whatever screen you get when you're actually in the middle of a conversation.

possible

[Carol the Dabbler]

I can get to just about any screen while I'm on my phone. And if a call comes in while I'm on some other screen, I think it stays there (depending on how I pick up). So it's possible for Molly's phone to show something beside the "phone" screen when she's on the phone.

[J.P.]

This!

http://ivyblossom.tumblr.com/post/160663543815/a-missing-scene

 

ivyblossom

A Missing Scene

So: Sherlock’s key formative experience is a memory he suppressed about not being able to solve a riddle, which resulted in the death of his best friend. 

When this exact scenario repeats itself, Sherlock significantly does not use his prodigious brain to solve the riddle; he changes the game and uses everything he’s learned about sentiment and human emotion to solve his sister instead. He appeals to the small girl in Eurus and catches her off-guard, convinces her to call it off, and saves John. He solves it in the end not with his brain, but with his heart.

It should be a terribly fraught moment, then, when John emerges from that well, when the pain of Sherlock’s childhood would have resurfaced. His long-held desire to deduce his friend out of that well is finally satisfied in that moment. 

Sherlock has spend decades pushing himself to solve crimes as if solving the right one will save that boy, his best friend. But here it is now: a real resolution. Sherlock has finally done it, he solved his ur riddle. It should be fraught with Sherlock’s buried emotions; his secret drivers, the depth of his loneliness and fear of loss and failure, finally conquered. In that moment John would be both himself, someone Sherlock loves beyond reason, and a stand-in for his beloved, innocent, and murdered childhood best friend.

Sherlock should have cried. He should have held John tight and cried, and John should have absolved him. In that moment John would have the power to forgive him and thank him, something his predecessor couldn’t. This is the moment Sherlock has been after his whole life, without even knowing it.

But we don’t get that scene. We see what is possibly the aftermath of it, with John wrapped in a blanket and Sherlock dazed by the enormity of it all as Eurus is carted away. But you can’t convince me that it didn’t happen. It had to have happened.

 

[T.o.b.y]

 

This!

http://ivyblossom.tumblr.com/post/160663543815/a-missing-scene

 

 

 

ivyblossom

 

 

 

A Missing Scene

 

So: Sherlock’s key formative experience is a memory he suppressed about not being able to solve a riddle, which resulted in the death of his best friend.

When this exact scenario repeats itself, Sherlock significantly does not use his prodigious brain to solve the riddle; he changes the game and uses everything he’s learned about sentiment and human emotion to solve his sister instead. He appeals to the small girl in Eurus and catches her off-guard, convinces her to call it off, and saves John. He solves it in the end not with his brain, but with his heart.

It should be a terribly fraught moment, then, when John emerges from that well, when the pain of Sherlock’s childhood would have resurfaced. His long-held desire to deduce his friend out of that well is finally satisfied in that moment.

Sherlock has spend decades pushing himself to solve crimes as if solving the right one will save that boy, his best friend. But here it is now: a real resolution. Sherlock has finally done it, he solved his ur riddle. It should be fraught with Sherlock’s buried emotions; his secret drivers, the depth of his loneliness and fear of loss and failure, finally conquered. In that moment John would be both himself, someone Sherlock loves beyond reason, and a stand-in for his beloved, innocent, and murdered childhood best friend.

Sherlock should have cried. He should have held John tight and cried, and John should have absolved him. In that moment John would have the power to forgive him and thank him, something his predecessor couldn’t. This is the moment Sherlock has been after his whole life, without even knowing it.

But we don’t get that scene. We see what is possibly the aftermath of it, with John wrapped in a blanket and Sherlock dazed by the enormity of it all as Eurus is carted away. But you can’t convince me that it didn’t happen. It had to have happened.

Thanks, J.P.

 

Yes, isn't it interesting (and maybe a bit disappointing) that they didn't show that moment when John got out of the well?

 

In a way, though, it's good because now we can speculate on it. Personally, I think it was outwardly insignificant. Sherlock already knew at that point that he had rescued John, he knew it when he met Eurus in her room and his emotions had already surfaced there. Solved problems don't interest him much so he was probably more focused on Eurus being still deranged and needing to go back to Sherrinford than John who was alive and well.

 

John was probably very crusty and laconic, cause I think that's just his way. I doubt he said thank you, I think he said, what the hell took you so long?

[J.P.]

But in every "normal" movie they would have shown this scene. Because it was actually the point of the whole story. ;)

[SherlockedCAMPer]

But in every "normal" movie they would have shown this scene. Because it was actually the point of the whole story. ;)

And we all know that Sherlock ain't...er...isn't normal. Not even close. Especially since we use words such as insane to describe ourselves.

[Arcadia]

And I don't even agree that he would have been in tears, or reduced to hugging John, or anything like that. I think he would have been more like he was at the end of HLV. (Whatever that was. Stoic? Quietly resigned? High? :p)

[T.o.b.y]

I wonder how exactly John was freed anyway because weren't his feet chained down? I mean, where was the key? Did Eurus have it? Neither she nor Sherlock looked wet so even if she did, they didn't climb in to help him. Did they just throw the key down and let him sort it out somehow while drowning?

 

Or did Eurus just say when asked for the key: "I lost it... I don't play fair. That's why you boys never wanted to include me, now I remember" and John had to stay alive somehow until Lestrade showed up with a professional rescue team?

 

In that case, I think the scene would have been kind of funny, Sherlock, while waiting, probably shouting "you okay?" into the well at intervals, John gurgling and cursing everybody with the name of Holmes and Eurus giggling.

[Carol the Dabbler]

And that, in a nutshell, is the Moftiss technique: Write your hero into a corner with no apparent means of escape, then in the next scene/episode show him in the clear. When other characters (and/or real-life fans) ask how he did it, just look smug and do a lot of hand-waving.

[T.o.b.y]

Well... I guess it just wasn't important for the story how exactly John got out, only that he was rescued. That's okay with me, I don't mind, caring more about poetry than practical details myself. But I love to speculate and let my imagination fill in the blanks.

 

However it went, I don't think it was very dramatic or involved any great display of emotion.

 

Sherlock isn't a hugger anyway. The few times we saw him hug people it was very deliberate even when it was genuine.

[J.P.]

Dunno. I think it's possible Sherlock would crack and fall into pieces at that moment. The childhood trauma resurfacing and hitting with it's whole power. A massive flashback - and those are killers. I don't need them hugging or so, but there should be something.

[gerry]

Wasn't the childhood trauma resurfacing handled when Sherlock remembered Victor Trevor? That was one of the two moments in TFP that really moved me. I have repeatedly said how much I hate the end of TFP but watching John be rescued wasn't one of the ending scenes I thought was missing. I would have liked a scene of him verbally addressing remembering Victor Trevor and the trauma of him dying but we've already seen John almost dying and Sherlock saving him how many times over the course of the seasons? In none of the previous times were either of them that emotional after the rescue, only relief was displayed so why would this time be that much more dramatic?

[Arcadia]

I think Sherlock's reaction to learning about Victor came earlier, when John found the bones. He cried. But then he pulled himself together so he could solve the riddle. Maybe that's not a very realistic reaction, but it seems very Sherlocky to me, that he would be able to get past it so he could focus on the immediate problem. He's had years to practice suppressing his emotions, after all.

 

I don't know why, I didn't feel the need to see the mechanics of John's rescue; it was enough for me to know that Sherlock had solved the puzzle. And yeah, I just figured someone shinnied down the rope with a pair of bolt cutters. I guess I've watched too many 911 Rescue shows.

 

I still think maybe TFP should have been a two-hour episode, though. A more leisurely telling of the tale might have worked better, even if the extra time had just been spent on establishing the atmospherics a little better.

[J.P.]

They just could show that someone is ascending the well using the rope. Just a blink of a butt with a bolt cutter attached to it. :P

[Carol the Dabbler]

I still think maybe TFP should have been a two-hour episode, though.

 

Oh, please, no! :o I wouldn't mind an extra half-hour of most other episodes, but ninety minutes of this one was more than enough for me.

[Arcadia]

Well, it depends on how they used it. I was thinking it could have been used to explain the aftermath a little better, but you're probably right ... they would have just seen it as an opportunity to subject us to more mayhem.....

[Carol the Dabbler]

That would be my assumption, yes. They could have used the 90 minutes to show more aftermath and less mayhem -- but they didn't.

[T.o.b.y]

Well, they only had those 90 min basically to establish Eurus as a villain and display how and why she is dangerous. That was too bad, imo, because as a character, I think she is too big for just baddie of the day. Moriarty got two entire seasons, Magnussen got at least one, but Sherlock's own secret sister for crying out loud had to be crammed into the final moments of The Lying Detective and The Final Problem. Yes, I know we saw her aliases but that's not the same thing, really.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I still still don't understand why they introduced her at all. Well yes I do, because a third Holmes brother is an old fannish tradition. So of course they had to turn "him" into a female. And they have a nasty tendency to turn canonic female characters into quasi-villains.

 

When is a twist not a twist?

Answer: when it's always the same twist. *sigh* Are they really that predictable?

[Arcadia]

Well, they only had those 90 min basically to establish Eurus as a villain and display how and why she is dangerous. That was too bad, imo, because as a character, I think she is too big for just baddie of the day. Moriarty got two entire seasons, Magnussen got at least one, but Sherlock's own secret sister for crying out loud had to be crammed into the final moments of The Lying Detective and The Final Problem. Yes, I know we saw her aliases but that's not the same thing, really.

Yeah, exactly. It still feels to me like they collapsed their proposed seasons 4 & 5 into one season. In fact, John getting "shot" at the end of TLD would have made a perfect cliffhanger, wouldn't it? And left an entire season to deal with Eurus. Maybe they couldn't think of anything else to do with  her beyond what we saw.

 

I still still don't understand why they introduced her at all. Well yes I do, because a third Holmes brother is an old fannish tradition. So of course they had to turn "him" into a female. And they have a nasty tendency to turn canonic female characters into quasi-villains.

 

When is a twist not a twist?

Answer: when it's always the same twist. *sigh* Are they really that predictable?

 

Which canonic females are you referring to? Other than Irene, of course, but wasn't she a quasi-villain already? (I've never read Scandal, sorry.) I can't think of any other female villains in the show. Oh, wait, there's the ladies in TAB ... are they canon?