Episode 2.1, "A Scandal In Belgravia"

[sittything]

Is the wall/smiley not shot up in ASIB?  It doesn't look like it is to me.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Smiley is presumably still there -- unless Mrs. Hudson got the wallpaper repaired and then Sherlock shot it up again later!

 

[sittything]

Oh, I didn't mean that the smiley was gone, just that the bullet holes seem to be MIA.

[J.P.]

Outside of the universe - they built the whole interior from scratch, the smilie isn't identical. It also looks like someone tried to remove the paint from the velours by brushing it (which might be in- or out-universe)  ;) And there is stuff hanging all across the wall, probably to cover the differences.

[sittything]

But... but... continuity!!

[J.P.]

Hush, cittything, it's all good... 

 

Well, they underestimate us frequently... 

[Inge l-w]

Dear J.P. , you don't say! They underestimate their fan base constantly. Take a peek at what the discussion has been lately in the Christmas Special thread and you will get an eyeful!

[Arcadia]

I went looking for screen shots to see if I could find one that showed the bullet holes -- (no luck, sorry!) -- and all I have to say is: man oh man, this is a beautiful episode. Almost every shot is just drop dead gorgeous. That is all.

[sittything]

I think I only noticed bc I watched TGG and ASIB back to back.

[J.P.]

I can provide some screencaps tomorrow. I did a research for the damn wallpaper/mirror/picture thing I put on my wall. But it's midnight - again. Have to go.

[Arcadia]

 

Oh my lord. The details one finds when looking for nice screenshots. Look at this:

 

 

This is from the Christmas scene where Sherlock, after having played the violin sits down at his laptop while everybody else says hello to each other. When John looks over his shoulder, we see the screen briefly. And what is Sherlock doing? Editing John's blog, apparently! :D

 

.... That's the blog entry that John made right after Scotland Yard found the dead airline passenger in the trunk of a car, and according to the only remaining comment (posted later by John), there were actually so many comments posted that his blog crashed and he had to delete them.  Is it possible that Sherlock is simply posting one of the many comments?  Hmm, doesn't look like it, does it?....

 

  

Nope, not commenting.  Editing for sure.  ....That sounds very much like Sherlock is trying to disguise the details of the case.  But why?  At that point, he apparently knows nothing about "The Flight of the Dead" (other than overhearing Mycroft say "Bond Air is go").  Did Mycroft perhaps ask Sherlock to disguise the details without telling him why?

  

So there's an entire subplot that we know very little about.  Why else would Sherlock have changed the name of the city?  Does he already know something about the first flight of the dead (the one that already crashed)?  If so, did he deduce it and realize that security issues were involved?  Or did Mycroft warn him, with or without filling him in?

 

It's hard to believe that he knows much at this point -- because if he did, why wouldn't he extrapolate and realize what's going on with preparations for the next flight?  So I'm back to Mycroft gave him a cryptic warning.  But wouldn't even that make him awfully suspicious of anything involving airplanes?  Or has Irene's presence turned him into a complete idiot?  (Come to think of it, don't answer that last question.)

Here's what I think ... I think he's "editing" in such a way as to make it crash and wipe out all the comments, which, I think we can safely assume, were all having a laugh at his expense. (Because he couldn't solve the case.) ;)

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Most interesting theory Arcadia.  I could see that as a plausibility especially were Sherlock's weird ego.

[Carol the Dabbler]

... I think he's "editing" in such a way as to make it crash and wipe out all the comments, which, I think we can safely assume, were all having a laugh at his expense. (Because he couldn't solve the case.) ;)

Plausible -- and I'd love to see those vanished comments!  But if that's all he's doing, why did he change the name of the city from Madrid to Dusseldorf?  Or maybe John did that?  But if so, again, why?

 

[Arcadia]

Plausible -- and I'd love to see those vanished comments!  But if that's all he's doing, why did he change the name of the city from Madrid to Dusseldorf?  Or maybe John did that?  But if so, again, why?

Because John got it wrong? Lestrade said the plane crashed in Dusseldorf, so the question is, why would John have written Madrid?

[Arcadia]

It occurs to me that my comments on the "Scandal" sequence, above, do not take into account Lestrade's little scene:

 

A young police officer brings a mobile phone over to Detective Inspector Carter.

POLICE OFFICER: Sir. Phone call for you.

CARTER (taking the phone and speaking into it): Carter.

(Lestrade is at the other end of the line, sitting in his car in Baker Street.)

LESTRADE: Have you heard of Sherlock Holmes?

CARTER: Who?

LESTRADE: Well, you’re about to meet him now. This is your case. It’s entirely up to you. This is just friendly advice, but give Sherlock five minutes on your crime scene and listen to everything that he has to say. And as far as possible, try not to punch him.

 

That conversation occurs just as John arrives at the "crime" scene.  Note that Lestrade seems to think that Sherlock has gone with John (admittedly, "about to meet him" could refer to the Skype connection, but it's hard to punch someone over the internet).  And he's apparently been so busy at Baker Street (presumably questioning the driver) that he's just now had a chance to phone Carter.

 

So apparently once Sherlock was satisfied that the driver has told him everything he knew that might be useful, he phoned Lestrade, told him that he and John were about to depart for the "crime" scene, and suggested that he come to Baker Street to question the driver.  Then John departed and Sherlock went back to bed.

 

But I'm still wondering why Lestrade went to Baker Street in the first place.  He explicitly says this is Carter's case -- so why didn't he just tell Sherlock to have the driver drop by Carter's office as soon as he's up to it?  Or if Lestrade is trying to help Carter by questioning the driver himself, why didn't he at least tell Carter that he had done so?

 

Having watched this episode not too far back ... I'm wondering why you think Lestrade was at Baker Street that day? I interpreted the scene as Sherlock (or perhaps more likely John) having called Lestrade and asked him to call Carter and make the introductions, so to speak. So Lestrade could have been anywhere.

[sfmpco]

Outside of the universe - they built the whole interior from scratch, the smilie isn't identical. It also looks like someone tried to remove the paint from the velours by brushing it (which might be in- or out-universe)  ;) And there is stuff hanging all across the wall, probably to cover the differences.

 

I do know that the set storage area was flooded a couple of times between series.  We don't know what was ruined and had to be rebuilt.  

[Carol the Dabbler]

Plausible -- and I'd love to see those vanished comments!  But if that's all he's doing, why did he change the name of the city from Madrid to Dusseldorf?  Or maybe John did that?  But if so, again, why?

Because John got it wrong? Lestrade said the plane crashed in Dusseldorf, so the question is, why would John have written Madrid?

Good point, Lestrade does say that. Perhaps the question is, why did Lestrade say Dusseldorf? (I can't imagine that John would just accidentally type Madrid if he meant Dusseldorf!) Of course, all we really know from comparing the screencap to John's online blog is that the name has been changed.

 

How about this: The crash really was near Madrid but the cover story said Dusseldorf (there are mountains near both cities, so the actual site may not have been obvious). Or perhaps the crash was supposed to be near Madrid but They changed their minds (or else the drone malfunctioned). In any case, Sherlock somehow knows about the original plans and therefore sees John's "Dusseldorf" as an error, so he fixes it -- and John later corrects it back to Dusseldorf.

 

... I'm wondering why you think Lestrade was at Baker Street that day? I interpreted the scene as Sherlock (or perhaps more likely John) having called Lestrade and asked him to call Carter and make the introductions, so to speak. So Lestrade could have been anywhere.

Sorry, he was sitting in a car in front of #221, as confirmed by Ariane DeVere's transcript. Yeah, I didn't notice that either, till something brought it to my attention.

 

Of course Ariane DeVere is only human, so I have double checked.  KissThemGoodbye.net has three screencaps of Lestrade in the car, which I shall call #1, #2, and #3.  My evidence is based on #3, since it has a pretty good reflection of whatever's across the street from the car:

 

 

That reflection does not match up with anything on Sherlock's side of the street, but take a look at this photo of the other side of the street that Alex took in May of 2013:

 

 

Bear in mind that the reflection in the car window is a mirror image, and compare that to the area to the right of the red Rumbelow's signs above.  Note the windows, the style of the wrought-iron balcony railings, and the placement of the door.  And note that there are little square things beside the door in both pictures.  So yeah, I'm comfortable saying that Greg's car was sitting in front of #221.

 

[Boton]

Wow, Carol.  That's an impressive piece of deduction.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yes indeed, but the deducing was done by Ms. DeVere -- she saw AND she observed.  I merely confirmed what she had posted.

 

[Arcadia]

Great googly moogly. You're know you're obsessed when .... :D
 
Okay, I'll grant that Lestrade is sitting someplace that looks exactly like Baker Street. However, I'm not convinced we are supposed to notice that! I think it's meant to be a generic street, because that's the simpler explanation. Occam's Razor and all that.
 
And I further deduce ... you're saying the reflection is of the opposite side of the street from 221? And yet the architecture is virtually identical to that of the 221 side. Ergo, there may be many other buildings in that part of London with identical architecture, and Lestrade could be sitting in front of one of them.
 
Or, if the reflection is of the same side of the street, then he can't be sitting in front of 221B, since 221B's balcony has ornate railings, not the straight railings seen in the reflection. Also, 221's door doesn't have the little square things on either side.
 
And since I'm balancing on Occam's Razor, I still think John just got it wrong when he wrote Madrid. :P
 
Gauntlet thrown! Your turn!   (Why does Darth have bats flying out of his hood?)

[Shadow Dweller]

Rewatched the Speedy's Cafe scene again, it seems even more likely that there's something more beside a test to John's ability to lie. Whether he would be proved to be good or bad at such endeavour, the fact still stand that he lie to Sherlock and thus marking him both as somewhat gullible, untrustworthy to some degree and does not understand Sherlock as much as an ideal companion would be. In light of relationship, placing the responsibility to tell Sherlock about Irene Adler's fate is Mycroft's way to simultaneously push Sherlock & John closer and apart at the same time. In his good-natured way, John forgot that Sherlock did not like to be told what to do (or what to believe).

[Carol the Dabbler]

True.  But in John's defense, he did start to tell him what he took to be the truth -- until Sherlock basically dismissed him -- because Sherlock already knew what John was about to say.  So the scene is another case of the Holmes brothers playing games with John.  I'm not sure whose morals are being tested there!

 

[Shadow Dweller]

Steadfast companion he might be but John is out of his league when standing between the Holmes brothers (and their interactions give us endless little tidbits to dissect & speculate with) :lol: I am curious about how Mary would fare when facing mummy Holmes' boys' machinations. ^^

[SherlockedCAMPer]

That would be interesting to see down the road in S4 or beyond.

[J.P.]

We never see Mary and Mycroft interacting, do we?

 

BTW, I have FINALLY got the meaning of Sherlock's sock index remark. His strange behaviour as he came home was looking for signs that the flat was searched for drugs. Not the first time, apparently. I think it is so sad - this lack of trust. And it forebodes the worst thing John ever done to Sherlock - the drug bust in HLV. The longer I think about it the more I want to grab Mycroft's umbrella and whack the hell out of him, his helpers and finally John.