You told yourself a better story.
If you’ve read my post (Bringing TST and TLD Together) about the other two episodes, you’ll see that I believe that John shot Mary to protect Sherlock, and thus, a lot of what we have seen this season is John’s mind trying to cope with that.
Like many others, I believe that The Final Problem is John’s Abominable Bride.
John was upset, so he told himself a better story.
Euros accuses Sherlock of doing this exact thing in TFP, and this is also what Moriarty says that he did with The Hungry Donkey Christmas story. We also hear the same sentiment from Mycroft in TST, when he reminds Sherlock that he rewrote the Samarra story.
Euros shoots John at the end of TLD with a real bullet.
John sees the red gun image that’s been nagging at him. It’s his REAL memory of the aquarium trying to surface. He passes out.
Meanwhile, Sherlock deduces that the girl in his flat was real. We have the Miss Me message on the Faith note, so it’s only a matter of time before Sherlock finds John.
I propose that John is in the hospital for TFP (or on the floor bleeding), and the episode is his dream there. TFP is John’s TAB moment, which is why it isn’t as ordered as TAB. Sherlock’s mind is much tidier than John’s, right? As others have mentioned, John’s mind is filled with “crap telly” images, like the scenes from movies such as The Ring, It, Shutter Island, Silence of the Lambs, James Bond, etc. He also has all those pesky emotions in there, like love, guilt, and fear.
If we are dealing with John ‘s subconscious here, as was suggested by this awesome meta, we can see all kinds of manifestations of his inner mind in the story that is TFP.
This explains a number things we see in the episode:
Sherlock is almost too cool in this episode. And extremely polished in appearance. All signs of the drugs and the beating are erased here. John feels guilt about those things, so his dream version of Sherlock is perfect.
Euros is practically superhuman in terms of intelligence, which is how John views members of the Holmes family.
Mycroft is noticeably squeamish, which reflects John’s real life disdain for Mycroft’s various threats, intimidations, and lack of willingness to do “legwork.”
But Mycroft is also sentimental about his family, which is John’s mind noting how far Mycroft will go to protect his family.
Moriarty appears because he is the master villain (took Sherlock away) and an embodiment of sexuality too, right? He’s scary to John for these reasons.
Both Irene’s theme/sex and Molly/love are John’s fears about Sherlock’s feelings.
Sherlock would never ignore Vatican Cameos from John. This is another fear surfacing. Abandonment.
Mycroft’s speech seems to be how John views himself. A “stupid little man…a distraction…a scrap of ordinariness to impress…to dazzle with your cleverness.” But above all, someone Sherlock could replace. “You’ll find another.”
All of this is about internal conflict. We have John’s fear of his feelings for Sherlock and his guilt over killing Mary. As Euros says “Emotional context destroys you every time.”
Now let’s look at Euros’ tests:
Are they “all about Sherlock?” Sort of. In a way, but they are also about John’s choices and fears, a lot of which revolve around Sherlock.
Test 1: Kill the husband or kill the wife?
John had to make a choice in TST. Sherlock or Mary.
Euros says “Does it really make a difference killing the guilty or innocent? No.”
Even if Mary was guilty of bad things, it bothered John to kill her, so much so that he had to rewrite the story.
Test 2: Who loves Sherlock?
The coffin is for someone short, practical about death, and estranged from family. This describes John, but he can’t see that yet. His mind still jumps to Irene and Molly.
Test 3: Who does Sherlock love more?
John or Mycroft? John assumes Mycroft. And once that proves not to be the case, John still think’s he’s the better choice to die.
While John certainly has a massive mess going on in his head, it could be that we get to see some bits of dialogue from Sherlock breaking through into the dream. (Just as this piece by Marce points out.) Sherlock could be having a real Garridebs moment on the floor with John or by his hospital bed. Some of his statements in TFP may make sense in that context:
I’m going to find you. I am finding you.
I am lost without your love.
You just went the wrong way last time.
If you read my previous blogs, you know that I believe that Mary made comments at the aquarium. Things that were edited out by John’s mind in his attempt to tell himself a better story. Perhaps the disk at the end of TFP is part of that dialogue coming through. in my opinion, words like junkie, doctor who never came home from the war, and two men in a scruffy flat don’t sound kind. And could, “It took her just five minutes to do all of this to us.” be a reference to Mary instead of Euros?
So what does this mean for the story as a whole?
There is still much to resolve!
In my reading, Euros, or someone claiming to be her, actually exists. She has to be sorted out, or needs to exit in a way that leaves her as a future threat.
There are still unresolved issues with Mary’s death, John’s mental health, and that darn baby too.
Then there are the Moriarty issues. Someone sent those messages. Moriarty? Euros? Mary? We don’t know for sure.
What about all the weird little details? Will they be explained when these other issues are resolved?
And finally, Sherlock and John’s relationship needs sorted out. I hope they talk about everything. They both need to be honest, and that hug was a good first step.
Above all, I hope that however this happens, they do it in a way that retains all the character development these people have achieved over the years, because who they all are DOES matter.
Please tag anyone else wearing a tinfoil hat!
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