A List of Everything that is Odd about ‘The Six Thatchers’
And I have to say I’ve read better fan fics on ao3. Gosh, if this had been something on ao3, I’d have stopped reading by the time they made John cheat on Mary. My comment would have been something like: John is hopelessly OOC. Mary’s characterisation is great, but why would you kill her off?
But since, by some unfortunate events, this happens to be the first episode of series 4, here are a few things which were referenced/out of place/ or just plain odd.
Our doctor said you were clean.
A few hours ago, Sherlock was having a Vicotrian Mind Palace trip. We worried for a year that he might have OD-ed. How does this qualify as clean? Or rather did Sherlock Holmes tip some poor government doctor off to fake his results? Is this some weird AU?
Only those within this room, code names Antarctica, Langdale, Porlock and Love, will ever know the whole truth
Langdale is a reference to Langdale Pike from ‘Three Gables’. In the story he is a curator of scandals for some paper, and gives Sherlock Holmes the real name of a rich, famous, beautiful and industrious woman whose actions happen to affect one of Holmes clients. He lets her off the hook after making sure she’d come up for the travel expenses for his client, whose biggest dream is to see the world.
Porlock. Fred Porlock. ‘The Valley of Fear’. First, Porlock warns Holmes in an encrypted message about one of Moriarty’s plans (against a Mr Douglas), but then becomes too afraid of his master. Aaaaaand. On top of it, the story has Douglas faking his own death, who back in America, had brought a gang (the Valley of Fear) to justice, and is busy trying to save his life once the criminals get released again. Douglas dies in the end, even though Holmes warned him. And good old Holmes blames Moriarty once more. (Although who knows. Maybe Douglas just faked his death again?)
There was once a merchant, in the famous market at Baghdad.
The fable of the Appointment in Samarra, a.k.a “You can’t cheat death”. But then Mycroft lets us know that Sherlock wrote an AU where the merchant flees to Sumatra and escapes death. If we are talking about symbolism, then what does that stand for? (Also, don’t forget Sherlock’s vow, his promise he’d help Mary to escape. Maybe he did. Maybe he did not and Mary still escaped?)
But when they opened up his lungs…sand.
The drown man whose lungs were full of sand: no idea what that might be about. I can’t even come up with a scenario where that would be a possible cause of death. Maybe he inhaled water mixed with (river?) sand?
Come back! It’s the wrong thumb.
The severed thumb aka ‘The Engineer’s Thumb’. The only interesting thing about this story is that the criminals manage to flee and a house burns down. I’m not sure if this qualifies as foreshadowing (the burning house from the trailer, anyone?)
The case is called The Duplicate Man on John’s blog. We already had a reference to A Case of Identity last series (man plays the suitor for his step-daughter), so I’m not sure what this could be.
Dimmock, look in the lymph nodes.
And the above also goes for the guy with ink in his lymph nodes. What?
There is a ACD but extended canon story with the title of 'The Canary Trainer’, which is basically an early Adlock fan fic set after Holmes fakes his death at the Reichenbach falls.
The heart medication you’re taking is known to cause bouts of amnesia.
Not a clue. But since in the episode the case features on John’s blog: why have they really stopped updating the real one? Or why haven’t they at least deleted the Six Thatchers from it?
You can’t arrest a jellyfish.
The one with the jellyfish aka The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane. It was the jellyfish. What a surprise.
Sherlock’s phone. I couldn’t help noticing that Sherlock works a LOT during the first part of the story. We have him solving cases for Dimmock, Hopkins, Lestrade. On top of his private ones. Maybe he is anxious to give whatever Moriarty has set up for him to come his way. Maybe Mofftiss are trying to mirror the ‘That just sort of happened.’ bit with the Sydney opera house serviettes from The Sign of Three.
The really uncomfortable bit with John and the woman on the bus. To everyone who say John is not wearing his wedding ring when we see his right hand combing though his hair: it’s because it’s on his left. When we get the whole bit later in the story, it is there (or just look at the 2 days promo pic). Of course, why they couldn’t flip the shot so that we see his left hand (Martin Freeman is left handed, I’m sure he could have done the shot with his left hand) is beyond me.
The Thatcher case and the explosion. If you hit a car, usually, there is no explosion. Unless you want there to be an explosion. But even then, staging the whole thing can be difficult. Besides, who came up with the idea that cars are airtight, or that corpses don’t smell? Although, I have the feeling the latter one might be an honest mistake.
Mrs H. Since when are we calling Mrs Hudson Mrs H? I know it’s in the books. But that seems like a rather deliberate change in the show…
The client with the badly removed tattoo. I’m not sure what this was supposed to be about. The Red-Headed League. How did I miss this? Also there is a far-fetched parallel to John, maybe (the tattoo man’s wife left him, just like Mary leaves John, in a way).
- So, what’s this all about, then?
- Having fun.
- Fun?
- While I can.
And I’m tempted to say that’s foreshadowing. Sherlock honestly thinks something is coming, and he is not sure he’ll be able to have fun afterwards.
Toby the dog. The Sign of Four. Mary Morstan’s origin story. In the book Toby is not a bloodhound.
The hacker. It really happened. Twice, I know of. Last year a British teenager was accused of getting is hands on some CIA e-mails. And they speculated he wouldn’t get charged in the end, because of the case of Gary McKinnon who had hacked US military computers back in 2002. But thanks to the British government, his actions didn’t have any major consequences.
Ajay. Last series, we were made to believe Sherlock spent one and a half years as some sort of agent fighting Moriarty’s network. He is supposed to be a professional. I get finding the memory stick in the bust makes him emotional. But why would he tell that stranger Mary’s real name? And later, why would he tell Lestrade of all people that the guy who almost shot him used to work with Mary?
The memory stick. Even a memory stick with a metal case has plastic parts. And those busts had to be put into an oven to harden. Do you know what happens to a memory stick in an oven? And if for some reason physical rules do not apply in the Sherlockverse, then what happened to the chain the memory stick was attached to? That seems like a bit of an unnecessary mistake.
I also don’t get how that memory stick insurance is supposed to work. There were four of them, i.e. four memory sticks. One of them could have easily fallen into the wrong hands.
The hideout below the church. Before Sherlock meets Mary in that church, he already told John. Who told him to plant a tracer inside it.
The American passport. It says it was issued mid October 2014. Do you know what happened mid October 2014? According to John’s blog, that was a few weeks (maybe a month?) after Sherlock got shot in HLV. Maybe Mary thought she’d need to be on the run again. Maybe Mofftiss just f*cked up.
The Culverton Smith poster at the bus stop.
E at the bus stop. I really don’t trust her. John meeting her is not a coincidence, I think.
The question of all questions: Did John cheat on Mary? I don’t know. I do think he was slightly tempted to, but odds are he didn’t in the end. Because a) as half the fandom has already pointed out before me, it would be ooc. Also, if you are married to an ex-super agent, and your best friend can read you date going by your clothing, then I don’t think you’d really go through with it. Or else Sherlock and Mary would have noticed (of course, them knowing about it would give the story a slightly different turn).
Mary takes the bullet. And Lestrade finally learns who really shot Sherlock Holmes a few months ago (was that supposed to happen?).
Sherinford. What does Sherinford have to do with “13th”?
Norbury. That is a reference to The Man with the Twisted Lip, which is basically a case of a man having the day job of a professional beggar to make money for his family.
Mary’s message. “When I’m gone. If I’m gone”. Mary makes that correction every time. Does it matter? The latter one could be read as a condition. Of not necessarily being dead. I don’t know.
Death waits for us all in Samarra. But can Samarra be avoided?
Why does the episode close with Sherlock asking if Samarra can be avoided? He is not talking about himself. Maybe he isn’t even talking about John.
Of course, the post credit snippet is on this list. We have Mary swearing eternal friendship to him a few scenes earlier. She is asking him to ‘save John’ in her message she recorded on the run. Before she knew Sherlock would find her. So why the sudden change in tone?
Some have noted that Hell is an actual place in Norway. I think that wasn’t quite what Mary had in mind. But there is not much I can offer as an alternative. At least, Hell would give us a glimmer of hope (and yes, I want that on a T-shirt).
If anything, re-watching that mess of an episode made me realise how much I want Mary to be alive again.
