Episode 2.1, "A Scandal In Belgravia"

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I thought Sherlock came up with that name in canon.

 

Doing the re-watch now on my comp and don't remember if I posted this before, but Irene reminds me of Princess Leia only in a black dress, gloves and darker hair without the buns over the ears.

 

 

Eta: that is when she's at Battersea with John.

[Inge l-w]

THIS discussion is fabulous!

Sherlock Holmes refers to Mrs Norton, nee Adler, as The Woman in the first Strand Magazine short story, so it's ACD canon.

The Speckled Blonde, Navel Treatment, The Geek Interpreter are puns on actual ACD short stories, the story of the Aluminium Crutch is referenced to in the Reigate Squire, where the famous shooting the wall with A VR logo is first mentioned.

The same way their mirror had pups in TGG, so Irene's fur coat belongs to Mary in TEH, the same way Dr Watson wears the same brown cardigan as Richard Brook in TRF, I believe props tend to get handed around a lot.

The Flight of the Dead, Mycroft's impressive project, is not adequately explained in Sherlock's rapid-fire deduction, because you cannot know which flight it is simply by seat allocation, there are several large companies using or owning 747 Jumbo jets. This is another Moffat plothole, whether out of tiredness, because he was juggling the Dr Who Christmas Special and Sherlock at the time of writing or out of his general sloppiness, it's anybody's guess.

The "Dear me, Mr Holmes, dear me" message was sent ostensibly by Moriarty to Sherlock himself in The Valley of Fear, not to Mycroft.

For the Coventry conundrum, you will have to go back into Imitation Game territory. It has long been held that the authorities (Menzies at MI 5) knew about the air strike but did not warn the civilians, all the better to justify the later raids on Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Bremen, Dresden above all. Still, after the war, Sir Arthur Harris , the Chief Air Marshall, did not receive even a baronetcy, while the other Chiefs of staff became Earls and Barons, so there is a cosmic justice after all!

[J.P.]

 

Hi, J.P.  If I'm calculating the time zones correctly, you've already posted since your surgery, so I take it that things went just fine.  Best wishes for a speedy convalescence!

 

 

Yep-p. Alive. Not kicking yet, but don't even need painkillers, so no - no drugs attached to me. :P

 

 

You don't have to continue feeling sorry for Sherlock regarding Mycroft's "How would you know?" gibe -- Sherlock got even with him using the identical line in "Empty Hearse," when Mycroft said he wasn't lonely.

 

I don't feel sorry for him, I just noticed how strong it seemed to hit him. As much as CAM mentioning Readbeard. Plus - it was really nasty for Mycroft saying something like that in presence of John and Harry.

[Inge l-w]

Schnelle Besserung, J.P.!

Absolutely no comment on what Mr Moffat wrote in that script for Mr Gatiss to perform, or his other actors/toys, because I shall then upset dear Toby, and I would rather not. My views on Mr Moffat have been adequately expressed in other posts, if you have the patience to go through my content, you will spot them, after all you excel in research, like the Polish location on Mycroft's computer you made!

[J.P.]

I know your opinion, Inge :D

 

Well, the Polish location, it would be a shame if I didn't recognize it. The pretty distinctive shape was permanently etched in my visual cortex during my school years.

 

Well, at least the discovery made me the woman who baffled Mark G.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Yep-p. Alive. Not kicking yet, but don't even need painkillers, so no - no drugs attached to me.

Ah. I thought you have those fancy adjustable drug system that Sherlock had in HLV.

(I don't mean to sound disappointed! :lol:)

P.S. I put some of your quote in color, otherwise have to break this post because of quote quota (!?)

 

 

Loved the remark about John writing a lot. Of course it MUST have been about Sherlock if it's a lot. But I suppose the impression might come from the fact that John is writing so slowly.

 

Not sure how realistic it is, but I like the way he types.

And also, maybe Sherlock knows John's blog was empty before he met him.

 

 

As the car guy comes to 221B Mrs Hudson yells at the "boys", as if they were upstairs. Johnlockers rejoice! :P

 

Oh my. Now that could be a sub-text. Good catch.

 

 

Wonder what causes the burning animosity Sherlock is displaying while the palace sequence. He's behaving like a 5 years old. The look he gives the guys who came to 221B and then Harry... He seems to be totally p****d  about about Mycroft's action. The nice John-Sherlock bonding interlude with pants, ashtray and visiting queen: I like Sherlock's baritone laugh. We don't hear him laughing much, do we?

 

 

I think that is the best laugh from him. Made note about the way he behaved (5 years old like you said), we have a lot of that in this episode. I like it, and wish he never grow up.

 

 

 

Hilarious fight scene - John punches Sherlock with his right hand! He really has issues with his temper - he's so easy to provoke!

What cracks me up more is just before John punched him the second time, Sherlock was trying to think of a compliment about John's first punch.

 

Now - Sherlock reaction to Irene's big entry. It doesn't have to be anyway connected with him being alarmed by sex. I probably would react exactly the same way if a woman greeted me in her Eve's costume.

 

The expressions of John's and Sherlock's faces! Gosh I could watch them in the loop for hours.

Agree. In quick succession he was also surprised that he had been caught; IA knew who he was and why he came.

 

Irene also uses drugs on her friends. :D

See.. John shouldn't protest so much.

It's....quite common :lol:

 

A factual error: I have read somewhere that boomerangs sold to tourists don't come back - surely for safety reasons. :P

Never actually heard of that.

BUt I guess the victim was a seasoned traveller, who probably into unique thing he could get abroad and wouldn't buy tourist version?

 

And now to the 007 allocation. Sherlock's deduction is brilliant, but does it make sense? It is a row of seat numbers. What for? I assume that you need a second half of the table to make it work, like names of the passengers... I can imagine that even if they actually didn't need boarding plan for dead people, they wanted to make the plan look real. But if yes, then how can you replace a jumbo without nobody noticing. If they were to fake the flight, there must have been the usual procedure of selling tickets, boarding... and then what? Hire David Copperfield to make one plane disappear and other pop out of...     

 

Oooh. (said in the best Sherlock manner)

 

One plane starts with living people, the other starts elsewhere; they change places in the clouds. Well, I never took time to think about the procedure before. But still, the allocation order alone makes no sense, beside to let Sherlock find out the particular aircraft and flight.

Plus they needed the whole plane of living people who would know about the trick, at least after their aircraft landed in the middle of nowhere.... And now it's even more ridiculous. If they had a plane full of living people, they must have put them all in a witness protection program. Because they are officially dead, even if  someone replaced their bodies.... Another Plothole/Fan pitfall? Or is it my brain that doesn't work yet?

The deduction makes sense to me, because I thought the purpose is indeed to distinguish that particular flight.

The flight that is targeted by terrorists. This assumption is based on terrorists, in their history, don't really care about who the victims are.

They set target, and go at it.

 

However, I also have a hard time understanding how does Mycroft chose the victims.

First guess is that he 'collected' dead bodies, and create a scenario that they board the flight. However, to pull this off he needs to collect people without close family I suppose, otherwise the family would question the purpose of them flying without informing, and like shown with the potential clients, they get suspicious and question things.

 

PS; "Because I took your pulse" scene. Holly Molly! His voice surely made her pregnant. With twins.

Yes, holly molly doodly indeed.

That scene gets me everytime.

 

 

PS2: there are two fantastic moments of Mycroft showing his emotions: after he receives the text from Jim, and when he yells at Sherlock in the plane. He also has a dragon face, and it's quite intimidating.

I thought Mycroft is full of emotion this episode.

His multiple angry face in Buckingham palace. Him being scolded at Baker Street. I love all.

 

Wish someone would collect all Mycroft's expressions.

 

Wish and you shall receive? Wish. Wish. Wish.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Carrying forward what you (I think) said in the thread for TGG, when we were discussing how many times Sherlock dropped that CIA agent out the window, I've settled on agreement with you.  Sherlock delivered an epic beat-down, and then he dropped the guy out the window for good measure for Lestrade to find.  Lestrade was just getting the story straight so his paperwork lined up OK, and the "official" story is now that an armed intruder clumsily fell out the window of 221B repeatedly, leaving Sherlock officially innocent. 

 

I like to imagine Lestrade kicked him (the agent) a couple of times for good measure, because no one lets anyone threaten Mrs. Hudson!

Yes please!

And John should contributed a few kicks as well.

How could anyone did that to Mrs. Hudson?

From the position of blood on his right ring and Mrs. Hudson's right cheek, he must had give her a backhand slap.

What a jerk..

 

 

.

 

I always assumed that Sherlock's involvement with Irene Adler came about from nothing more than Mycroft having him try to get the photos.  But I caught a line of Irene Adler's this time that made me think:  "Hello.  I think it's time, don't you?"   Are we to assume that she's speaking to Moriarty there?  Was Irene contacting the palace about the photos all just to get Sherlock to her?  All part of Moriarty's plan?

 

Without having any knowledge about the book, my impression is that IA had been paying attention to Sherlock for quite some time.

So she proposed/consulted Moriarty about how to make use of Holmes's brother, maybe with knowledge about Moriarty's connection to them as well. Maybe, she also had some knowledges about the great game they were playing at that time.

 

 

I ... seem to remember that, for legal reasons, TV shows aren't supposed to use the names of real products/real businesses. Like it's an endorsement, or something.

I guess so. And don't think that there is any airlines that want to be associated with 'Flight of The Dead'   XD 

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

My thoughts..

 

Again, my favourite episode of all. Have hard time choosing between this and TRF. 

SIB wins on one point; it's a feel good episode any time,

while TRF I always need time to get ready for Cumbersplat. 

 

- 5 twiddling caught; ashtray, phone 4X.

 

- Love the new addition of the opening credit. Sherlock's face when he was reaching for 221B door.

 

- The magic of sheet. Nobody actually upset that he was in sheet, except Mycroft. Nobody! 

The inspector who was soooo patient skyping with him, even the Equerry didn't mind. So what is your problem, Mycroft?

 

- John trying to peek on Irene's photos.

 

- Special soundtrack just for scenes with IA. Nice one as well.

 

- The level of John and Sherlock's communication at this point, continuity from TGG.

John understood that he needed to sound the fire alarm.

 

- F*cough CIA(?) agent.

He was so rude to women, wanted to do interior decoration with IA's brain and hit Mrs. Hudson. While threatening might work for Irene, Mrs. Hudson is totally harmless and I doubt she would need to be hit to comply.

That guy needs to be permanently sprayed with cleaning chemical on the face. Moron.

 

- The whole episode makes me laugh everytime, but also like little snippets; do you mind? follow on twitter, Lestrade is his own least irritating officer.

 

- What game did Molly actually think that Sherlock was playing with his 'girlfriend'? :lol:

 

- Thought the timeline was a bit off, with Bond Air planning takes a long time. However, there was multiple Bond Air and Mycroft did explain at the end that it take months and years in planning.

 

- Irene's phone has a folder titled 'Secret'  XD

 

- Sherlock never changed his ringtone, at least up to Karachi. 

 

Nitpicking:

- Sherlock is a sniffer. He sniffs everything. He knew Irene is in the flat by sniffing, he proved it again in HLV with perfumes and many other deductions.

But, he didn't show any signs of it at all when he entered the plane. Can you imagine how inside that plane smells like?

 

- Sherlock asked John to repeat 007, and only took notice at that moment. 

007 was already displayed in the original file that Irene showed him.

[J.P.]

Re: boomerang. Someone somewhere wrote a whole long text about it. If it's painted like the one we see in the film, it is a tourist gift... *goes to look for the source*
 

It's a whole thread. HERE

[jadpdr]

I think it is the most successful because it's the most mischievous! Everybody loves a scandal,whether they are honest enough to acknowledge it out loud or bemoan the drop in quality level and then secretly read or watch all the lurid details, of which this episode is chock-ful!

As for the sheet scene, it was lifted whole from the Jetemy Brett episode of The Master Blackmailer, and then was taken to improbable extremes. He twiddles the ashtray, the gun, the Zil spray after he blinds the American, his violin bow for Auld Lang Syne, her telephone several times, but who's counting?

My favourite scene is in the lab with Molly "Well, we all make mistakes", said the poor besotted pathologist, "Yes, they do, don't they?" comes the instant reply: women are an alien species to Sherlock, both in ACD and this version!

[J.P.]

Re: collecting dead people.

They were stealing bodies for a longer time and 2 of the cases Sherlock declined as boring. (the girls and the I-know-human-ash-guy) They were cooled somewhere and waited for their time. So the smell shouldn't be that bad. The planes always smell of something. :P I see a bigger problem with staging the flight for the terrorists. You need living people to board a plane. Were they all agents?

The code - it is good for deciphering a flight, but I wonder what it is supposed to be? It is a sequence, but it is not a natural order of seats. I would say, it is the order how seats in a common flight were booked in a time period, but does anybody needs such a thing? It's enough to know who's sitting where. And if it was about the Flight of the Dead, it was even more superfluous, as nobody would see such details after an explosion, even if the bodies were just dumped on the floor. So what the sequence was about? Still don't understand.

 

 

And John should contributed a few kicks as well.
How could anyone did that to Mrs. Hudson?

Well, the more important question is: how she knew where the phone were?

 

 

- Sherlock never changed his ringtone, at least up to Karachi.

 

Well, maybe he didn't know how to do it :D

 

 

- Sherlock asked John to repeat 007, and only took notice at that moment. 

007 was already displayed in the original file that Irene showed him.

 

It was the sound of 007 as Johns says it, that made Sherlock connect it to Bond Air he heard from Mycroft.

 

 

- 5 twiddling caught; ashtray, phone 4X.

 

+ the cleaning chemical spray bin

+ the gun after the safe opening

 

 

John understood that he needed to sound the fire alarm.

He might been told to do it before they entered IA's house.

 

 

- Special soundtrack just for scenes with IA. Nice one as well.

 

And it was beautifully woven into the music of the last scene of ASIB.

 

 

- Love the new addition of the opening credit. Sherlock's face when he was reaching for 221B door.

 

The picture with his shadow in the door's glas should be made into those adhesive door covers - you know what I mean?

 

 

- Sherlock is a sniffer. He sniffs everything.

 

In German "Sniffer" is a colloquial word for "Detective" :D

 

 

I thought Mycroft is full of emotion this episode.
His multiple angry face in Buckingham palace. Him being scolded at Baker Street. I love all.

 

Some of his angry faces were actually hilarious (put your clothes on!) but in the plane he's scary... I mean Mark is scary as Mycroft.

 

PS: Am I the only one who hates John's gigantic watch?

[Carol the Dabbler]

Loved the remark about John writing a lot. Of course it MUST have been about Sherlock if it's a lot. But I suppose the impression might come from the fact that John is writing so slowly.

 

Not sure how realistic it is, but I like the way he types.

Judging by the scenes where John is typing his blog and we see the text appear, presumably in realtime -- his entire keyboard must consist of macro keys, because each keystroke generates roughly one entire word. He should market that!

 

John understood that he needed to sound the fire alarm.

 

- Sherlock never changed his ringtone, at least up to Karachi.

 

As J.P. already said, Sherlock presumably told John about sounding the fire alarm before they got to Irene's place. Not only does that make sense, it's also canon-complient: In the original story, Holmes gives Watson a smoke bomb which he is to pitch in through an open window when Holmes gives the signal. I think he also told Watson to shout, "Fire, fire!"

 

In addition to that, ah, distinctive text-alert tone for Irene's messages, Sherlock presumably has a regular text-alert tone as well, for everybody else's.  So why didn't he change Irene's tone?  Maybe he just didn't bother, because he never expected to hear from her again.  Or maybe -- knowing that she was likely to run into trouble -- he wanted to make damn sure he didn't miss any messages from her.  Or maybe he's just a sentimental slob!

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

Re: boomerang. Someone somewhere wrote a whole long text about it. If it's painted like the one we see in the film, it is a tourist gift... *goes to look for the source*

 

It's a whole thread. HERE

 

How I'm glad this forum has simple signature for users. It's hard to find content among those user's signature, esp when reading it in mobile mode.

However I didn't find actual source, just a statement of an user?

 

Anyway, curiosity gets the best of me. I asked my Oz friend about it, and he doesn't aware of that.

I remember seeing a lot of similar SIB boomerangs in tourist market, there were also specialized boomerang shops where they sell all sorts of boomerang, some very nice artistic pattern design with matte finish (looks more professional than the shinny ones indeed).

Might have a chance to go there again in couple of months, will try to buy both versions if available and report back should we are all still here for discussion.

Know few places where noone should be at risk of being harmed, hope I come out alive too.

 

Re: collecting dead people.

They were stealing bodies for a longer time and 2 of the cases Sherlock declined as boring. (the girls and the I-know-human-ash-guy) They were cooled somewhere and waited for their time. So the smell shouldn't be that bad. The planes always smell of something. :P I see a bigger problem with staging the flight for the terrorists. You need living people to board a plane. Were they all agents?

The code - it is good for deciphering a flight, but I wonder what it is supposed to be? It is a sequence, but it is not a natural order of seats. I would say, it is the order how seats in a common flight were booked in a time period, but does anybody needs such a thing? It's enough to know who's sitting where. And if it was about the Flight of the Dead, it was even more superfluous, as nobody would see such details after an explosion, even if the bodies were just dumped on the floor. So what the sequence was about? Still don't understand.

 

For the girls and I-know-human-ash guy :lol: I suspect that was the previous Bond Air project. The same one that supposed to carry the guy in the car boot.

That makes me wonder, where is the person in-charge to drive the body in the car boot and how did Mycroft overlooked the missing passenger.

(More important point, this guy, this guy might know ash better than Sherlock!! Is it even possible? )

 

I want to believe the freezing but all the bodies looked very well 'thawed' in the plane, but I can't offer better explanations. Mycroft and co also have to know about the terrorist's bomb capacity. Otherwise there are always chances that the victims could still be identified.

 

- 5 twiddling caught; ashtray, phone 4X.

 

+ the cleaning chemical spray bin

+ the gun after the safe opening

How could I possibly miss that? Now nothing can topple this episode as the best.

 

- Special soundtrack just for scenes with IA. Nice one as well.

 

And it was beautifully woven into the music of the last scene of ASIB.

I really love the music when Sherlock entered the apartment and rescued Mrs. Hudson.

They use it in HLV Mind Palace as well.

And the jump at TRF.

Three best scenes in my opinion. Can't remember if they use it somewhere else.

 

 

The picture with his shadow in the door's glas should be made into those adhesive door covers - you know what I mean?

Of course!

 

In German "Sniffer" is a colloquial word for "Detective" :D

Thanks. Didn't know that. Nice.

 

 

Judging by the scenes where John is typing his blog and we see the text appear, presumably in realtime -- his entire keyboard must consist of macro keys, because each keystroke generates roughly one entire word. He should market that!

Good catch! Could it be auto correct/auto complete all the time?

 

As J.P. already said, Sherlock presumably told John about sounding the fire alarm before they got to Irene's place. Not only does that make sense, it's also canon-complient: In the original story, Holmes gives Watson a smoke bomb which he is to pitch in through an open window when Holmes gives the signal. I think he also told Watson to shout, "Fire, fire!"

 

In addition to that, ah, distinctive text-alert tone for Irene's messages, Sherlock presumably has a regular text-alert tone as well, for everybody else's.  So why didn't he change Irene's tone?  Maybe he just didn't bother, because he never expected to hear from her again.  Or maybe -- knowing that she was likely to run into trouble -- he wanted to make damn sure he didn't miss any messages from her.  Or maybe he's just a sentimental slob!

Nice reference from the books then. Should get to them soon, after a hundred other things that I should do. Argh.

 

It makes sense that the ringtone was special from Irene, something unique to alert him.

I like that Sherlock is just a sentimental slob :lol:

Maybe he still have it until now!

 

[sittything]

 

 

PS2: there are two fantastic moments of Mycroft showing his emotions: after he receives the text from Jim, and when he yells at Sherlock in the plane. He also has a dragon face, and it's quite intimidating.

I thought Mycroft is full of emotion this episode.

His multiple angry face in Buckingham palace. Him being scolded at Baker Street. I love all.

 

Wish someone would collect all Mycroft's expressions.

 

Wish and you shall receive? Wish. Wish. Wish.

 

 

 

May not be all, but I'll see what I can do for this ep.  

[sittything]

I should also add this might take a couple days b/c I'm trying a new method which hopefully gives better quality gifs.  

 

 

 

[sittything]

Oh forget all that... ain't nobody got time for Gimp right now.  

 

Back to crap gifs... lol

[Carol the Dabbler]

The picture with his shadow in the door's glass should be made into those adhesive door covers - you know what I mean?

Of course!

 

You mean something you can attach to your own door or window glass to make it look like this? I'm amazed that it doesn't seem to be available already -- J.P., there's your next project! (Note: Such things seem to be called "window film," and they apparently adhere by static or something, rather than actual adhesive, so you can move them.)

 

Judging by the scenes where John is typing his blog and we see the text appear, presumably in realtime -- his entire keyboard must consist of macro keys, because each keystroke generates roughly one entire word. He should market that!

Good catch! Could it be auto correct/auto complete all the time?

 

Good point about auto-complete.  If John has trained his well, it could work almost like what we see in episodes.  Not quite, though -- doesn't auto-complete require an extra keystroke to confirm?  Or is there such a thing as auto-auto-complete?

[sittything]

OK, I might be a lying liar who lies... suddenly my blu-ray is not working on my laptop and Netflix streaming quality is rubbish.   :comp:

 

ETA:  And on that note... g'night... ;)  

[Shadow Dweller]

One question keep niggling on my mind, why Mycroft let Sherlock keep Irene's phone for months. Why didn't he try to break the password himself? It is not like he cannot conceal from 'cousin across the pond' that he have it on hand.

[Inge l-w]

Dear Shadow Dweller, Mycroft was not there at the Christmas party, and all Sherlock's friends do not necessarily trust him, so he may not have known beforehand that Irene had handed Sherlock her phone. Mr Moffat also does not wrap up his stories as nicely as Mr Gatiss.

As for his shadow on the door just before the confrontation with the Americans, like the sheet scene, it was lifted whole from another Jeremy Brett episode, called the Eligible Bachelor, where he locks himself out and his bouts of insomnia force Mrs Hudson to wait up for him until early morning. Once she opens the door, he kneels in front of her. It is a lovely scene!

[Shadow Dweller]

Trust matter very little here and we know that 221B is bugged.

[Inge l-w]

Mycroft never says so, and when Sherlock says "dust is eloquent" in TRF, he is searching for Moriarty's cameras.

Here's the second shot: Mrs Hudson knew how to keep him in place, right after giving him his keys he says: "Thank you, Mrs Hudson? Is that a look of reproach?"

And I have got a serious hunch that if anyone threatened HIS Mrs Hudson, there would not have been corporeal violence, he would have drawn out his gun, handed him over to his underworld connections, and the offending party would shortly thereafter have been floating face-down in the Thames or any other conveniently close body of water

[Shadow Dweller]

=_=;; You are not making any sense at all.

[Inge l-w]

Dear Shadow Dweller,

Since I am in education, I have developed the skin of a rhinoceros when it comes to arguments and the patience of ( almost) a saint when it comes to explaining things as many times as required for them to stick in my students' minds.

We are never shown a bit of Mycroft's bugging, and in TRF, as I stated above, Sherlock is clearly looking for Moriarty's cameras.

The sheet scene was lifted whole from the Granada Jetemy Brett series The Master Blackmailer, possibly you could pop over to the Jetemy Brett thread, where I have posted another photo.

As for the two last ones, they come directly from The Eligible Bachelor, in direct connection to Sherlock putting his hand up on the glass door before he faces the Americans. Are we on the same page, now? :^_^

[Shadow Dweller]

We never given a direct evidence that the aforementioned camera belong to Moriarty.

 

It seems that your education failed to drum in the importance to keep focus and not meandering left and right. To speak in your language, you tend to dress an argument with nonsensical babble that inevitably form the bulk of the post while I tend to cut and discard the excessive puff in order to get to the crux of the matter. In the saying of an old detective series Dragnet, "Just the facts, ma'am".This is BBC section, please keep in topic as best as you can and pay attention to what really asked.