How The Abominable Bride Foreshadowed and Can Be Used to Chronologically Decode Series 4, the larger narrative of the show, and what’s coming next.
Featured: See Looking Closer at TAB Timeline for in-depth look at individual comparisons. (first edition)
At the end of TAB –– after Sherlock has spent an entire episode plunging into his mind and subconscious –– he comes face to face with Moriarty at the Reichenbach falls. Instead of the story going the way it always has before, the ending changes. John shows up and saves John by stopping Moriarty. In Sherlock’s eyes, this was a sign to himself that he needed to open up to John about how much he loves him in order to defeat Moriarty returning. At the time we thought that the waterfall scene was going to be the future of the show, if not the immediate future, with the big reveal happening in series 4, but TAB was setting up much larger ambitions for the narrative of the show. It turns out that TAB was a general roadmap for where the series was going to go in series 4, with the waterfall ending being reserved for the endgame.
Series 4 features doctored footage, memory altering drugs, interrupted noir films, and a note left behind with a hidden message, along with many other elements and details in its ridiculous James Bond globe trotting adventures, Hannibal Lecter psychosexual torment, and a Shutter Island murder prison, all in a desperate effort to obscure the real story. That’s because series 4 is a narrative being told by John Watson, just like the original stories. John is telling a story that is covering up the truth: the two biggest events being Mary’s “death” and himself being shot. But John can’t help but let things slip out; as much as he tries to wrangle the story together and present a clean plot, his own internal biases, beliefs, cultural references, and perspective betrays him, as John is visible in every aspect of series 4, just like how Sherlock is present in every imagined aspect of The Abominable Bride.
Sherlock’s dream and John’s story. Sherlock’s dream is a journey into his deepest fears and desires while chasing Moriarty’s ghost, which ends on a hopeful and optimistic note. John’s story is a dark mirror and denial of that vision where he is haunted by Mary’s ghost and is seemingly unable to escape the fate of the “Samarra” story –– in each episode, at every point, John can be seen mirroring the same scenarios that Sherlock devises in his dream, informing us of characterizations, themes, and plot points that can used to be uncover the truth behind what really happened in the unfiltered events of series 4. When comparing the timeline of TAB and series 4, a larger theme emerges and the driving narrative of the show becomes clear; Moriarty and Mary both faked their own deaths and are the villains, John is covering up the truth of what really went down after Moriarty’s return, and he ends the series 4 writing a fake happy ending, with a sinister and self-hating subtext moving just underneath it, as John and Sherlock’s relationship becomes frozen in time, guarded by Mary’s presence and unable to progress. Series 4 is a false catharsis of plot threads, character arcs, and narrative goals, and we are currently at the crisis point in the overall story as something terrible is being hidden by John’s nightmare. The story is still the same and nothing has changed –– yet.
The resolution that’s coming will be a version of the Reichenbach falls scene… but before John and Sherlock can get there, the truth of what really happened, and of what John and Sherlock really feel for each other, will have to burn away the lies and finally culminate in the realization that they both love each other and can defeat Mary and Moriarty together.
Bonus: The author and the audience:
