a bit of trouble too, i bet

He was so charming. So... human. It's bizarre because most people would say he was the most inhuman person they'd ever met. But he wasn't. - John H. Watson

[loudest-subtext-in-tv]

seriously is this episode real? I can’t stop thinking about how even aside from Johnlock everything is SO contrary to previous characterizations

- “Sherlock you were always the grown-up” after every other episode calls him a child? TSoT and T6T??? Mycroft says, “I’ll be mother” in ASiB? Mycroft was always characterized as an adult, Sherlock’s parents really came across as doting old parents in HLV… there was never the remotest hint of Sherlock being anything LIKE an adult, always a brat who had to have people around him act as parent figures.

LIKE??? This can’t be a real episode, can it?? They deliberately hammered in the opposite trait? It’s a defining trait??

- they go on and on in interviews about how the stories are about their relationship and the characters, and write every episode until TFP that way… then tell us it doesn’t matter who they are it’s all about the cases, in an episode which suddenly begins ignoring their relationship for the first time ever

we didn’t make those interviews or perspectives up, we *didn’t*, they went out of their way to make the distinction between focusing on character stuff versus cases, so… what the fuck is coming out of their mouths now? why the abrupt 180, and why laid on so thick?

- Three Garridebs??? Really? They love so much what it illustrates about the characters and even non-Johnlockers consider it a crucial moment in their relationship… and they just borrow the names?

- they had such a thoroughly extra character do the voiceover. they’ve said over and over, and even most casuals would agree, that the story is about the two of them. Why would Sherlock Holmes and John Watson need a third character to tell them who they are?

Why the fuck wouldn’t John do the voiceover as he’s the one who tells his and Sherlock’s story? He did the TAB voiceover! Watsons do voice overs, it’s literally their function to narrate. Mary was just a messy selfish interloper and the main character she married doesn’t even love her? Why this character??

WHY WOULD MARY SEND THAT DVD AT THAT TIME, AND HOW?

The voice over is cringeworthy. Honestly the whole ending was laid on so thick??

- Mary died with a big spurt of blood and flying backward??

- is the bleeding eyes John Locke and the absurd horror movie homage supposed to indicate this is the nightmare version with no Johnlock? is there some EMP alternate ending coming that will explain how weird this series has been?

This has got to be… some trick, like that freeze frame Clue ending thing. Like they’re trying to get us to argue over how that couldn’t be the ending because it’s so terrible, then air the real one? Are they going to make us pick our favorite ending or something?

They are doing a bunch of very bizarre 180s and it’s so difficult to process.

Because this so fucking weird either way. Either we’re suddenly in opposite land or they have another episode… I don’t know when the hell they *could* drop another episode, though. They showed this terrible version in theaters. Wouldn’t you save the theater event for your reveal?

So we’re in opposite land, then. But WHY?? HOW?? “Sherlock you were always the grown up” – THEY SAID HE NEEDED WINDING TWO EPISODES AGO??

my mind goes in circles

[delurkingdetective-deactivated2]

- Mycroft’s characterization is awful.  I still can’t get over the line “I won’t have blood on my hands” from a man who earlier in the episode talked about how many grenades he’d purchased.  There’s no way Mycroft isn’t responsible for the deaths of dozens, if not hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands (they joke about him starting wars) so his squeamishness about this stands out.

- Did never give us a reason for Mycroft allowing Moriarty of all people to visit Euros.  Maybe they’re keeping M-Theory in their back pocket for S5 but it’s unbelievable that Sherlock or John wouldn’t confront him about that – but I guess it’s similarly unbelievable to the way they haven’t confronted him about not warning them about Mary.

- I still don’t really understand how Sherlock forgot Euros?  What happened to Victor Trevor’s parents?  What happened to Sherlock’s parents?  How did this giant traumatic incident and the previous existence of a member of Sherlock’s family never come up again without dozens of people conspiring for some reason to keep it that way?

Any one of these things could be laziness, bad writing, casual cruelty towards fans and shippers, but ALL of them?

I have seen lists of problems with the episode on my dash and I bet if we compiled them we’d have 30+.  More if you include subjective things like, “The acting was suspiciously bad in this scene” or “The editing moved suspiciously fast”.

It just seems intentionally bad, but I can’t fathom why.

[loudest-subtext-in-tv]

Yeah I just woke up and I still think all this shit is weird. Mycroft not being able to make the rational choice to shoot the boss was out of character to me, too; he’s Mister Moral Calculus. It’s not like I think he’d enjoy murdering an innocent person, just that he’d be able to accept the situation required it. My husband was very surprised by it, too; when he watched it he said, “What? Wouldn’t Mycroft just do it?”

Martin DID say in that S4 interview, “It’s not like you’re watching Saw.” I mean, I guess maybe he just thought it was a funny thing to say? But we never got “26 pages of dialogue” and so many other things.

And yeah, Victor Trevor’s parents? A child was missing and no one checked the well? Sherlock was running about looking and didn’t hear Victor yelling?

This doesn’t even feel like something Moffat or Gatiss would write. Even if they weren’t doing Johnlock, it’s just so bad compared to their other writing.

All I can figure is that ACD’s “The Final Problem” killed off Holmes and the story is known for causing an outrage that turned ACD’s fans against him. They eventually hassled him into retconning it and bringing Holmes back.

This TFP ended in such a way as to be a total finale for the show itself, not just the series. Maybe they wanted everyone angry and arguing about the ending as an homage to ACD and Clue, so that when the gay ending is released everyone – the whole audience, not just us – is relieved and grateful.

If that’s the case – and it feels like a very big if – I would *try* to forgive them for underestimating how hurt we would be, because from their perspective they probably thought we’d see what was going on with the bleeding John Locke and Garridebs left hanging, Sherlock being called an adult, picking up on the Clue strategy, saying it doesn’t matter who they are and all that matters is the cases, still putting in things like Oscar Wilde and Queen, etc. We just found that stuff hurtful, but… would they really be downright *malicious* to us?

I mean, maybe. They defend Johnlockers in some interviews and then bash them when asked about whether it’ll happen on the show, so. It just seems over the top to go out of their way to be malicious; they could have just as easily gotten their point across not by wasting Garridebs, but by using it in a totally platonic way. That would definitely make me think they’re never going there, especially after all the build-up of their relationship this series; if it didn’t happen then, when there was no obstacle to a romantic relationship left, then it wouldn’t seem to be happening.

And there’s that whole ACD story The Lost Special thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Special?wprov=sfsi1

And people always stop after three in TLD. Maybe they genuinely thought we’d just get it?

They have said, too, that they want to make things a surprise to as many people as possible. Maybe this was a way of making it a surprise even to us, and they didn’t really gauge just how hurt we’d feel or how shitty other people would be to us in the interim.

This really did not feel like the culmination of some years-long plan like they said S4 was. TFP felt very slapdash. Even if we consider the Victor Trevor reveal was planned, their plan was to resolve Sherlock’s fear of sentiment and intimacy and then do nothing with it?

It also drives me crazy that so much of TFP fits beautifully with EMP. It would have fit perfectly for Sherlock to wake up soon after embracing Euros.

But honestly I don’t know what to think anymore. If there’s a Johnlock episode, it would have been a big enough deal to simply air it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Doesn’t mean they’re not doing some bigger stunt, though.

I just feel very tired. I can’t square even the non-Johnlock stuff and I don’t know what to do with any of it.

[marcespot]

ALL. OF. THIS.

[mal-icious-creature]

“Insane wish fulfillment.”

reducing john watson to nothing more than a sidekick who’s conveniently stupid and helpless whenever needed

reducing molly hooper (AN ADULT WOMAN) to a desperate girl with a crush she cannot get over and which defines her as a character

making sherlock holmes forgive his psychopath sister with a hug after she killed his childhood best friend, threatened all his loved ones’ lives more than once, apparently raped a person and killed them too, and almost made sherlock kill himself

screwing up the whole potential of mary morstan’s character by first making her a deadly assassin who shoots (AND KILLS) the main protagonist before “redeeming” her so that in the end she’s only a sweet little housewife just happy to be out of the way

queer coding and explicitly making every single one of their villains non-straight but not making any of their protagonists openly queer………. gay people are evil rapists and psychopaths, alright

queerbaiting the hell out of your loyal fanbase with 7 years worth of subtext and gay jokes that weren’t supposed to be jokes but in the end were

feel free to add more.

[so-charming-so-human-blog]

so what they are saying is gatiss and moffat created a mediocre detective show with massive lost potential while their fans managed to create one of the most multi layered and beautiful love stories of all time.

[the-7-percent-solution]

“Series 4 is the strongest one yet”- “Groundbreaking television” - “To hell with deferred pleasure”

[glassofgaytea]

ouch

[snussyeating]

i will literally never in a million years accept that a woman who concealed her identity and her entire past from her husband pretty much until she died and who literally tried to kill the main protagonist twice, is supposed to be the person who just Knows and understands john and sherlock better than anyone else alskdjflskdjflsdj

like this ending that should make me happy because john and sherlock are together as a unit and raising a child together, makes me want to vomit because mary is narrating it like she has some claim on them when she was literally

a fake and a murderer who literally never shared a moment of genuine affection with her husband and who literally was only able to be in john’s life to begin with because he thought the love of his life was dead

i’m

[kafkasbuggg]

Plot holes in S4

-Johns letter to Sherlock at the end of episode 1 -Gun used at the end of episode 3 was not a tranquilizer gun and made a gunshot? -Marys death was so unrealistic ,the fact she was able to jump in front of the gun in 0000000.1 secs? -They explained what actually happens if you get shot “it isn’t like the movies”,yet that’s exactly how they portrayed Mary’s death. -Molly talking to a lock screen at the “I love you “scene? like where’s the attention to detail at all. -John looking at Sherlock pointing a gun at himself and he just stands there? -John chained to the bottom of the well but able to get out with a rope? -Mary being able to magically send DVDs from the dead

Wow that was wild

I could probably go on tbh @citruspocket @love-in-mind-palace @quietlyprim @marcelock @skulls-and-tea @graceebooks

[trajektoria]

John’s .jpg blog

[warmth-and-constancy]

To be clear, I’m not discussing the theory that the BBC interfered because I want to absolve the showrunners of blame or because I’m clinging to a shred of false hope, but because it is literally the only thing in my mind that explains the abrupt shift in tone and content from TLD to TFP, as well as TFP’s own apparent self-awareness of its departure from romantic tropes.

[warmth-and-constancy]

I know this sounds insane, but there were major shake-ups at the BBC between October 2015 and March 2016, a window of time that included the release of TAB, S4 pre-production, and Moffat’s departure from Doctor Who. During this time, the interim Commissioner for Drama was someone who seems to have been a close follower of Ben Stephenson, though she left for ITV right around spring of 2016 (the current and apparently LGBT-friendly commissioner started on a permanent basis far too late – autumn 2016 – to be involved in S4 in any way). Perhaps more importantly, BBC’s Director of Television, Danny Cohen – who was Ben Stephenson’s boss – stepped down in October 2015 in response to Top Gear fall-out and other problems at the network and was replaced in the interim by a commissioner of mainly reality TV programs (Top Gear, The Voice, Strictly Come Dancing, etc.) who has since also left the position.

There was essentially nothing but executive turnover during the entire winter of 2015-16.

Like I said, I have no hard proof that an axing of the romantic plot line occurred during this same time period, but the inconsistency in who was in charge could have produced an environment in which such a thing could happen, and it is an explanation that would cover most – if not all – of the facts, including: the showrunners’ tepid response to the leaks and apparent lack of enthusiasm about the episode itself; the bizarre abandonment of what looked like a very earnest and genuinely emotional “romantic entanglement” thread just as soon as it had been set up; the tears at the TLD screening; and how everything we definitely saw in the show over the last seven years got tossed out the window at the end in what appears to be a sloppy and deliberately bad episode that does the opposite of everything the showrunners said they’d do and that directly references thwarted romance multiple times in what actually looks like a fairly petty manner, if you’re willing to consider this as a possibility.

Which I’m choosing to do, because I’d like to believe in a better world than one in which Mark Gatiss did this willingly.

[cumberbooze-deactivated20230616]

This actually seems like a good explanation of this atrocity. I’m more confused rather than upset. Why would two people who have penned LGBT+ media themselves, one of whom is openly gay and an LGBT+ rights activist, both of whom have shown immense enthusiasm about making this show (among many other things) suddenly completely ignore the narrative and give us the sloppiest season ever?

They had the perfect opportunity to make this groundbreaking. They had the perfect opportunity to really make history. And they decided to throw it away. It’s easy to put it down as the most elaborate queerbaiting scheme ever, but I’m inclined to think there’s more to it. Call me desperate, but this is just very, very unseemly of them. TFP seemed like it was written by some amateur writer who doesn’t know what he’s doing in under 24 hours. There’s something fishy going on here, and I hope to find out what.

I’m still putting my faith inS5.

[warmth-and-constancy]

This is just where I am. Apart from the S5 thing, because I don’t know how I feel about that yet. I understand if others can’t join me here, but this is both giving me a small measure of comfort and helping me piece together those great big gaps in the logic of it all. T6T and TLD together seem like Parts 1 and 2 of a semi-coherent plot (”John’s alibi”) and of an explicitly romantic character arc that were headed for resolution, tying up of loose ends, etc. in Part 3. Then Part 3 was thrown away and replaced, and the replacement is full of things that can be read as parting shots.

I’m just…struggling to read TLD as intentional queerbaiting. It was beautifully, textually gay, full of genuine emotion from both lead actors and writing that was not just consistent with the romantic arc of the rest of the show but extremely consistent with it, including all those callbacks. What came after it feels very, very much like something that was hurriedly written and hurriedly staged. We said that it seemed like self-sabotage. Maybe it’s really just that simple.

[oxfordlunch]

How can the rest of the show be so delicate and understated emotionally and then this.

[mypocketscontainauniverse]

Maybe I’m just in denial

but unless there is some magical fourth episode to fix everything I think we should legitimately consider that the BBC squashed the idea of airing a gay romance.  Consider:

I’m going to assume that everything was on-track through S3 and TAB because really nothing but TJLC explains that part of the narrative

BBC has some serious funding issues now.  Sherlock is a massively successful show with an international following.  Sure, BBC may have been fully onboard when whey the show started with a pilot and two relatively low-profile actors, but things have changed.

Mark and Steven and Sue are being soldiers, and they are going down with this ship. So they wrote and produced a bizarre S4 that is fun (for the majority of the audience) on first go through but rapidly falls apart with any analysis.  They either get the show canceled or convince BBC to let them go back to telling their story

There was no foreshadowing of the content of The Final Problem…why the heck was that title such a spoiler that they had to release it late?

Mary’s totally implausible death and not even remotely explained character redemption

The combination of editing and transitions that will probably win awards combined with sloppy work like cameras in frame in TST and disappearing blood during the morgue scene in TLD

What is Sherlock’s recurring dream, or the content of the note from John? Eurus shoots John but it’s just a tranquilizer (and why)?

All the water and deep memories but Sherlock has no memory of what happened?

Also…just all of the plot?

So I am just going to believe for now that they are trying to tell us not to believe this is the story they wanted to tell.

Mark going on about warm paste and saying that “Sherlock” is the villain of S4 - and the victim of it’s own success

Mark apparently in tears about the hug during the TLD screening Q&A because it wasn’t the culmination he wanted

With Brexit and all the political and funding stuff maybe at comic con they still didn’t know that the story was going to have to change

Easter eggs for us about acronyms and drink code

I know people are angry about queerbaiting and the “who you are doesn’t matter”…but consider that they are just as angry as we are and lashed out.

Anyway thats enough ranting for now.  Maybe it is just queerbaiting, but this theory makes me just the tiniest bit less mad so I’m sticking with it for now.

[tigressthetiger-deactivated2017]

I literally had a moment in TST when I thought Moftiss was trying to imply that what happened to Charlie (died before he could come out) had happened to the show :/

[warmth-and-constancy]

If any of this is true, surely it’ll come out?

[drugsbust]

“it’s not a detective show, it’s a show about a detective”

“who you really are? it doesn’t matter. it’s all about the legend. the stories. the adventures.”

…………ok

[pearlrebs-deactivated20170202]

The greatest question in my mind in this moment, if this is it, what was Martin ever Doing. Why did he make those choices. Someone tell him.

[discosherlock-deactivated202509]

the worst thing is i dont know how to just stop loving sherlock. like the episode itself i can get over but the entire show and these characters and what theyve gone through and the happiness and the love they shouldve gotten, that they deserved, means so so much to me and i. cant just turn that off even when i feel so goddamn cheated

[bbcjohnlock]

I still feel like it was fake?? I’m still expecting something else to happen? ? I’m in shock?? 

[ofcowardiceandkings]

something feels really weird here something isnt. right .. im not sure if its my dying soul hoping for more but this feels weird still

[warmth-and-constancy]

I agree with you, this is not even the same show it was in the beginning. Not even in the beginning of this series! They’ve done something bizarre, truly, and I just can’t understand why.

[loudest-subtext-in-tv]

I mean… report back on whatever version is shown in theaters? That’s all I’ve got left.

TJLC aside, even, that episode was terrible. They didn’t even take advantage of Garridebs to illustrate their *friendship?*

[so-charming-so-human-blog]

why was everything so off throughout the whole series if it didn’t mean anything? 

[so-charming-so-human-blog]

it doesn’t matter who you are? THEN WHAT’S THE POINT

[so-charming-so-human-blog]

i feel so. empty. like. what’s the point then? the episode was about nothing. i don’t. why. i feel like it never even happened. when’s series 4 of sherlock coming out?