Phoenix_Torn Talks TV

Instead of clogging up everyone's dash, I decided to make a secondary blog to house my thoughts on TV, Movies, probably comics...whatever. So this is me dissecting the the things I love into tiny pieces. Will probably include Sherlock, Hannibal, Game of Thrones, Supernatural, various X-men related things. This will also be full of spoilers and I apologize in advance.

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

Anyone want to explain to me what’s going on with all the script pieces? I clearly missed a new development.

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

Okay, I’m ranting again.

Here’s today’s thing that I can’t seem to get over.

Eurus is basically magic. Fine. Heightened reality. Whatever. It’s lazy writing to make her so powerful that she can so easily manipulate the entire prison, but if that’s what we’re doing, sure. I’m not happy about it but might be able to accept it IF they made that the rule and followed through. They don’t.

They tell us specifically that anyone who spends any bit of time with Eurus will be manipulated by her. When Sherlock goes to her cell, they show us a line on the floor he shouldn’t cross (ignoring the phantom glass for this rant). Then John warns Sherlock that he’s in danger. He uses Vatican Cameos and we’re supposed to be afraid. Sherlock ignores it and walks closer…and nothing happens. 

Sure, she captures them, but that’s because she’s brainwashed the staff of the facility, not because she’s done anything to Sherlock. She’s convinced the staff to do all this. Why give us Vatican cameos to just ignore it? If they’re making Eurus out to be so much more intelligent than Mycroft or Sherlock, why not have her manipulate Sherlock to take out Mycroft and John? Hell, you could have made it a fake out of Sherlock turning on Mycroft and John, while actually heading the warning and thinking his way out of it.

Then we have John. John spent time in therapy with Eurus. She should have been able to control/manipulate John through the back half of the series, but she doesn’t. There is no evidence that she has done anything to john or with john at all. If mycroft and Sherlock are immune because of intelligence or family connection or whatnot, fine, but John shouldn’t be.

If you’re going to set up your bad guy as something, follow through. Use it. For god sake, write something interesting with it. A surprising reveal that Mycroft was somehow manipulated to bring Sherlock and John to the Island would have been a good moment. Show us that she’s in charge instead of telling us “oh, by the way she can manipulate anyone she comes in contact with”. Hell, she spent the day with Sherlock, pretending to be Faith Smith, which almost lead to Sherlock dying and she doesn’t even bring it up to him. She tells John instead.

Eurus is a disappointing villain because they didn’t know how to use her and didn’t define what she was or what she was capable of. Instead, her motivations, plan (?), and capabilities changed to fit whatever the script apparently needed…and also ended when the script needed to end.

I frustrates me to no end because I feel like if done carefully, this character could have been chilling and heartbreaking. Instead, she creates jarring plot holes.

[abusingtheprivliege]

I was actually really hoping that Eurus was Moriarty all along, and Jim really was an actor she paid/manipulated to do it. In the Great Game Moriarty disguises him/themself with other people’s voices on the phone. Moriarty even says himself that no one ever gets to him.

Imagine if all along Sherlock had been playing her game. The game of his secret hidden twin (because why bring up again and again that it’s never twins and then not invert it and give Sherlock a twin?) Eurus, the spider at the centre of the web. She never left the island because she didn’t need to. She had access to government technology, the elite criminals who couldn’t be locked up in “normal” prisons, as well as frequent visits from her big brother who practically is the British Government. She could have been this amazing criminal mastermind - an awesome villain for Sherlock to face.

Especially if Mary was her Moran, helping to burn the heart out of Sherlock.

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

Exactly! There were so many ways to make it good and powerful, but what they did seemed so half-assed. And the twins thing! There was no pay off. It’s never twins...except that one time it was triplets. Why do we keep saying it if it isn’t going to mean anything?!?!  and toting this as the “last season” or “an ending” it basically established Moriarty as unimportant.  For 3 season and a special they’ve built up Moriarty as “the final problem” (if not actually, metaphorically) and then in the actual Final Problem he isn’t at all important. He isn’t quite portrayed Eurus’s pawn and he’s not portrayed as the Moriarty we love. He becomes a nothinf.  A joke. A fan-service moment. And that’s an aggravating thing to do to the guy who has been your main villain and a shadow over the entire series.

Imagine if Moriary was Eurus’s Moran? If they were in this together, if there was an explained, thought out, interesting connection between the two of them. Even that would have been interesting. But the explanation of “5 minutes with Moriarty caused all this” isn’t an emotional or story driven pay-off.

I could (and probably will) rant about the confusing characterization of Mary throughout season 3 and 4, but I agree. If we found out Mary was working for Eurus (or anyone really) I would have less questions.

This season could have absolutely worked if they had used what they had already built and worked the new character around it. Instead, they seem to only focus on Eurus and forget about he last 3 season.

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

Okay, I’m ranting again.

Here’s today’s thing that I can’t seem to get over.

Eurus is basically magic. Fine. Heightened reality. Whatever. It’s lazy writing to make her so powerful that she can so easily manipulate the entire prison, but if that’s what we’re doing, sure. I’m not happy about it but might be able to accept it IF they made that the rule and followed through. They don’t.

They tell us specifically that anyone who spends any bit of time with Eurus will be manipulated by her. When Sherlock goes to her cell, they show us a line on the floor he shouldn’t cross (ignoring the phantom glass for this rant). Then John warns Sherlock that he’s in danger. He uses Vatican Cameos and we’re supposed to be afraid. Sherlock ignores it and walks closer...and nothing happens. 

Sure, she captures them, but that’s because she’s brainwashed the staff of the facility, not because she’s done anything to Sherlock. She’s convinced the staff to do all this. Why give us Vatican cameos to just ignore it? If they’re making Eurus out to be so much more intelligent than Mycroft or Sherlock, why not have her manipulate Sherlock to take out Mycroft and John? Hell, you could have made it a fake out of Sherlock turning on Mycroft and John, while actually heading the warning and thinking his way out of it.

Then we have John. John spent time in therapy with Eurus. She should have been able to control/manipulate John through the back half of the series, but she doesn’t. There is no evidence that she has done anything to john or with john at all. If mycroft and Sherlock are immune because of intelligence or family connection or whatnot, fine, but John shouldn’t be.

If you’re going to set up your bad guy as something, follow through. Use it. For god sake, write something interesting with it. A surprising reveal that Mycroft was somehow manipulated to bring Sherlock and John to the Island would have been a good moment. Show us that she’s in charge instead of telling us “oh, by the way she can manipulate anyone she comes in contact with”. Hell, she spent the day with Sherlock, pretending to be Faith Smith, which almost lead to Sherlock dying and she doesn’t even bring it up to him. She tells John instead.

Eurus is a disappointing villain because they didn’t know how to use her and didn’t define what she was or what she was capable of. Instead, her motivations, plan (?), and capabilities changed to fit whatever the script apparently needed...and also ended when the script needed to end.

I frustrates me to no end because I feel like if done carefully, this character could have been chilling and heartbreaking. Instead, she creates jarring plot holes.

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

Random Theory with no backing at all #19

Since John doesn’t seem to have many friends and we’ve seen Molly, Lestrade, and Mrs Hudson around, Rosie must be staying with Mike Stamford. By the time Rosie is 4 she looks at Mike as a surrogate dad because John continues to sporadically forget she exists.

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

Random Theory with no backing at all #18

Eurus wasn’t really on the bus. The bus scene is actually the past memory of how John met Mary that has been distorted. 

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

Random Theory with no backing at all #17

Mofatiss will go full on Fairy Tale with the ending of Sherlock. Sherlock (the dragon slayer) will wake John Watson (his damsel in distress) with I love you and true love’s kiss.

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

Random Theory with no backing at all #16

Stella Hopkins and Lestrade actually had a very nice date involving Chinese food and handcuffs. Small talk in the office is a little bit awkward.

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

Random Theory with no backing at all #15

The timeline of season 4 is completely out of order. Thinking about it makes my head want to explode. 

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

I really have to say though, Sian Brooke is kind of amazing and I want her to be in all the things. Whatever I feel about this season of Sherlock I’m just kind of glad I now know who this actress is.

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

Random Theory with no backing at all #14

In Episode 4 Moriarty will show up with nearly the same introduction as in TFP but instead of “I Want to Break Free” he’s playing “Don’t Stop Me Now” ...so we know it’s different.

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

So...how did Eurus lock up Mycroft in her cell when her cell didn’t have any glass?

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

Random Theory with no backing at all #13

Johnlock is already canon. During the hug scene is TLD they actually reveal their feelings for each other and leads to a kiss that the audience doesn’t see because it fades to black. It’s not acknowledged because everyone’s memories are a mess because of the memory altering drug/Eurus. 

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

If Moffatis isn’t actually planning anything else, then they might just HATE the fandom.

“It Is What It Is” by Kacey Musgraves

I think we're thinking too hard, So, put on your shoes and get in your car, Put it in drive and point it this way, We don't have to talk, You don't have to stay, But I ain't got no one sleeping with me, And you ain't got nowhere that you need to be, Maybe I love you, Maybe I'm just kind of bored, It is what it is 'Til it ain't anymore We've tried being apart, But the truth is, We are who we are, We're so much alike, It ain't a good thing, Too dumb to give up, Too stubborn to change But I ain't got no one sleeping with me, And you ain't got nowhere that you need to be, Maybe I love you, Maybe I'm just kind of bored, It is what it is 'Til it ain't anymore 'Til something better comes along, 'Til whatever we have is gone But I ain't got no one sleeping with me, And you ain't got nowhere that you need to be, Maybe I love you, Maybe I'm just kind of bored, It is what it is 'Til it ain't anymore Yeah, it is what it is 'Til it ain't anymore

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

Random Theory with no backing at all #12

Everyone wakes up from their mind palaces, fever dreams, and comas and realizes that the entire season wasn’t real. John looks at Mrs Hudson questioningly. “So does that mean you don’t really have an Aston Martin?” Mrs Hudson scrunches up her face. “No!” She pauses. “It’s a Ferrari” 

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

Random THeory with no backing at all #11

There is no 4th episode airing on Sunday. If they’re really copying clue then it will be on the DVD instead.

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

So...what did we ever find out about those twitter accounts?

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

Things I want answered

What was even going on with the plane trick/metaphor? 

Why would Molly ever talk to any of them ever again?

Where do all these Mary tapes keep coming from?

In a show supposedly set in the real world, why do we suddenly have secret island prisons?

Where does one get an unbrellaswordgun?

In a show supposedly set in the real world, how does Eurus basically have the power of mind control?

and how does Sherlock suddenly have the power to predict the future?

How did Eurus meet Culverton Smith to gain all that information in TLD?

What was Eurus’s plan exactly?

Why introduce a memory warping drug, have your protagonist have missing memories, and not have those two connected in some way?

How did John get out of the well by rope without having his feet unchained?

Why did Doctor John Watson not recognize human remains sooner?

Why was no one looking for poor Victor Trevor?

How did Eurus build a fake bunker identical to the real bunker on the family estate, that was flimsy enough to be kicked down by Sherlock but not flimsy enough to be blown over?

How does Mycroft still have a job?

What happened with Mycroft and Lady Smallwood?

Did he ever buy groceries?

What were Sherlock’s recurring dreams?

Did Sherlock get help for his drug problem? Or his health problems that Molly deduced cause by his drug problems?

Did anyone find that pearl?

How did Lestrade and Hopkin’s date go?

Where’s Anderson?

Did anyone catch those bank robbers from last season?

When Sherlock said he knew exactly what Moriarty was going to do next, it was a lie right? He didn’t know Moriarty was going to become a plot device, and scare tactic planned 5 years before that by a psychotic sister that Sherlock had blocked out all memories of, so that said sister could torture Sherlock because he had a friend as a child?

Why make a joke in the first episode that Sherlock was like a baby and then in the third episode say he’s always been the adult?

What friends has Rosie been staying with?

How did everyone survive the grenade at 221B? 

What is Mrs Hudson’s favourite heavy metal song?

Why the stress on Sherlock tweeting? It didn’t add anything to the series.

If the final problem was to burn the heart out of Sherlock, why wasn’t that addressed?

If no one knew redbeard/victor was stuck in a well, why was Sherlock hallucinating water imagery?

What was that movie Mycroft was watching at the beginning?

Why clowns?

What was this season actually about? 

to be continued…

[youwerereallycool]

I can answer for the plane trick: basically the little girl was a part of Eurus that dissociated. The part that never grew out of her childhood needs for inclusion and simply wanted to be saved by her family ( Sherlock in this case ). This was her plan all along: get a family and understanding. Since her cerebral side prevailed on the emotional one she didn’t care about doing it while killing ( Victor and the others ). I guess that in the end she broke down because she couldn’t get brain and emotivity together in a somehow functioning way ( here is where Sherlock suceeded ).

[phoenixtorntalkstv]

I get that to a point…but then I lose it again. I guess I used up so much of my suspension of disbelief on umbrella-sword-guns, secret island prisons, and nearly superpower levels of psychic manipulation, that I can’t get past it. I get the metaphor…but the show doesn’t play it out as a metaphor or a dream or something that can be ignored like that. Eurus has Sherlock (and John and Mycroft) talking to someone. That takes planning. Where did the kid voice come from? Did she kidnap someone? Is it pre-recorded? Did she record herself as a child for this very thing? Why would they let her do that? For me the “cured by a hug” thing is the most plausible part of this problem.