There’s a headless nun, Archie
I’ve been thinking about the endless file of code words and metaphors that we’re dealing with in Sherlock. As could have been suspected, it became even worse in BBC Dracula. At John’s wedding in TSoT we have Sherlock promising little Archie that if he solves the case with the murder at the wedding, there’s a ”headless nun” in it for him.
On the surface, this seems to refer to Archie’s macabre fascination with gory crime pictures, well in line with the photos of ’beheadings’ he seems to expect from Sherlock ‘as a treat’ in the beginning of the reception:
(Continued under the cut)
But who is actually this new little character in TSoT? Archie, who doesn’t like being the ring bearer at John’s wedding, appears to bond with Sherlock about crime solving. He seems to be a socially reserved little boy, but at the wedding reception he has no problem throwing himself at Sherlock, and later after Sherlock’s speech he loudly presents his theory in front of all the adult guests.
Several of Archie’s traits in TSoT make him appear as a Sherlock mirror: he is fascinated with crime solving and thinks the maggots consuming a corpse’s eye are “cool”. He doesn’t seem to like social gatherings, he doesn’t actually want to perform at John’s wedding and he can be seen as stubborn and childish (of course; Archie is a child). But he’s also something else, I think. I once wrote a meta viewing Archie as a representation of Cupido (X), and I still stand by this idea. :)
Another incarnation of Cupido and the match-maker’s role is, I believe, Angelo in ASiP, who insists on putting a romantic candle on Sherlock’s and John’s dinner table at his restaurant.
In the Unaired PILOT version, Sherlock and Angelo have a secret code word: “Headless Nun”. When Sherlock says it and splashes a glass of white wine in his own face, Angelo pretends to throw him out of the restaurant for being drunk.
“Angelo, headless nun!”
In the Pilot this code word apparently means that Sherlock and Angelo are supposed to start play-acting together in front of the criminal so Sherlock can solve the case. And in TSoT Sherlock (supposedly) did solve the case too, but we never knew whether Archie got his ‘treat’ from Sherlock or not. On the whole, this code word seems grabbed out of thin air in BBC Sherlock. Until we hit BBC Dracula six years later...
In BBC Dracula’s first episode, Rules of the Beast, there’s actually a scene with a headless nun in it! It happens after Jonathan Harker (a John mirror in my opinion) has invited Dracula into the convent where he’s being treated after his devastating stay in the Count’s castle. Dracula decapitates the Mother Superior of the convent, and then unleashes a pack of wolves onto the nuns to kill them. I’m not gonna show pictures from this horror, because it’s gory, but I think it’s noticeable that in the next episode, Blood Vessel, a similar imagery appears: a decapitated, white dove on the deck of the ship.
Which I believe, in traditional (biblical) symbolism, would mean that peace is not restored (and the ship/ark will not reach the shore this time).
In TEH Mr Szikora is trying to sell a porn horror film, called “Holy Horrida Bella” (Holy Horrible War) to John, which allegedly has “a nun with a lot of holes in her habit”. This is the point where John suspects that the guy is actually Sherlock in disguise trying to play another joke on him.
The picture is a bit blurry, but if I’m not mistaken, the text also says “The best of the sex and violence in a convent movie” or something similar. And above the title it says “Restored full uncensored version”. But there’s no habit-clad nun, as far as I can see.
In the whole series of BBC Dracula there’s another, strong and ongoing, nun theme. Religion seems pitched against Dracula in the form of 19th century nuns, armed with stakes. Naked and drenched in blood he stands before them like the ‘beast’ against the Christian Virtue. One of the main characters, Sister Agatha, is a nun living in a convent in Budapest. She is “struggling with faith”, at the same time as she’s fascinated with Dracula and tries to defeat him with logical methodology, figuring out his weak spots. Mofftiss have called her an “atheist nun” in interviews. She doesn’t manage to destroy Dracula, though, and it turns out she’s actually been bitten by him and is slowly dying from the contagion.
In the last episode “The Dark Compass”, which takes place in present time, Sister Agatha (Van Helsing) is substituted by the modern scientist Dr Zoe Van Helsing. Zoe is a descendant of Sister Agatha (not a straight descent though; Agatha was a nun after all ;) ). Zoe has very much the same narrative function as Agatha, but instead of being dressed as a nun, she very much resembles Buffy The Vampire Slayer (X).
(X). Buffy used to wear a red leather coat...
(X) ...while Zoe is sporting a rather similar green leather coat:
Agatha is a nun, Zoe is a dragon slayer. Both are dying. And in the end, they both merge into one character - ‘Zagatha’ in Mofftiss’ words.
The Atheist Nun becomes the Slayer, and she now has both Agatha’s and Dracula’s blood within her. But she doesn’t actually defeat the villain as one would have expected. Instead, they both ‘die’ in each other’s arms, caressed (but not burnt) by the sunlight and with each other’s blood running in their veins.
So, in summary, apart from a nun who ‘loses her head’, we have a vampire and his victim; a nun who becomes a Slayer. They end up embracing each other. I’m still not actually sure exactly what to make of all this, but I’m sure it’s the subtext that matters here, and I strongly suspect that it has to do with homophobia. Any suggestions? ;)
@ebaeschnbliah @raggedyblue @gosherlocked
