Perfumes in BBC Sherlock
We know that Sherlock has an acute sense of smell and has written an analyis of perfumes for his blog but it is still curious how often they are mentioned in the show.
THoB
SHERLOCK: Mmm: ‘Kasbah Nights.’ Pretty racy for first thing on a Monday morning, wouldn’t you agree? I’ve written a little blog on the identification of perfumes. It’s on the website – you should look it up.
Sherlock in a bad mood, craving cigarettes (and maybe other things), using his excellent sense of smell and knowledge of perfumes to deduce Mrs Hudson’s romantic adventures in a less than nice way. There is no real perfume of this name. However, there is a 1992 Avon scent called “Casbah” and a 2012 Robert Piguet fragrance of the same name. Side note: there are casbahs in Morocco, the place Mary escapes to in TST.
TSoT
JOHN: I’ve smelled eighteen different perfumes …
No idea if it is usual to smell so many perfumes for a wedding but I wonder if Mary chose Clair de la Lune here or something different. And if the perfume testing was Sherlock’s idea like everything else about the wedding planning.
SHERLOCK: Perfume. GAIL: Chanel. CHARLOTTE: Chanel. TESSA: Chanel. ROBYN: Chanel. VICKY: Estée Lauder.
This is Sherlock in his MP council chamber aka the I dated a ghost chatroom, trying to find a common denominator for all women concerned. Here we get real perfume brands.
So far we have learnt that Sherlock uses perfumes for deduction purposes. Nothing dramatic until we get to
HLV
In this episode perfumes take on a highly symbolic meaning, driving the narrative and characterisation forwards.
MAGNUSSEN: Claire de la Lune? A bit young for you, isn’t it?
This is an interesting callback to Mrs Hudson’s Kasbah Nights. Sure, Magnussen is far more cruel and disparaging than Sherlock but there is still a parallel between these men who seem to have an excellent sense of smell and use it as a weapon towards women.
Later in the car Lady Smallwood uses it an instant before thinking of Sherlock as the only person to help her and sending the driver to Baker Street. So there is, again, a clear association between Sherlock and female perfumes.
And then of course there is the decisive moment in CAM tower, Sherlock making his fatal error:
SHERLOCK: Perfume – not Janine’s. Prada Dior Claire-de-la-lune SHERLOCK: Why do I know it? JOHN: Mary wears it. SHERLOCK: No, not Mary. Somebody else.
It is interesting that he instantly associates Lady Smallwood with the scent. Of course she is his client, but Sherlock has probably met her only once whereas Mary has been around him for nearly a year. Of course this is necessary for the plot twist but still this is one of many moments in which Sherlock fails because of his inability to see Mary for what she is. He has difficulty deducing her - in HLV, in TAB, and in TST.
TAB
HOLMES: All of this is, of course, perfectly evident from your perfume. WATSON: Her perfume? HOLMES: Yes, her perfume, which brings insight to me and disaster to you.
This time Sherlock draws the correct conclusions - this is Mary Watson and she is furious because John left her behind and now does not even recognise her scent. Interesting how his mind turns a fatal failure into a triumph of deduction. In TAB he tells himself a better story.
