Took advantage of the weekend snow-in to finally (finally!) rewatch TAB. Jotted down some things that stood out to me the second time around. (Steering clear of the larger TJLC things, as those have been pretty thoroughly covered by others on here.)
-While MP John and Mary argue in the 221B sitting room (after Sherlock reveals Mary's identity), Sherlock plays their wedding music on his violin. It's a mournful contrast-- when Sherlock plays that in TSoT, it marks the beginning of what he expects will be a happy marriage. When he plays it here, it's against the backdrop of John and Mary's now-strained relationship.
- I'd thought the first real clue to TAB being inside Sherlock's head was the "he"/"she" pronoun switch in the morgue, but I realized on the second viewing that Sherlock actually explains what's going on ten minutes into the episode, with his "the stage is set" line. Introducing Victorian London, showing John and Sherlock's first meeting and fast-forwarding to the 'present', that was all Sherlock's MP 'setting the stage' for his exploration of the Ricoletti/Moriarty case: "Sometimes to solve a case we must first solve another…I shall have to go deep." "Deep into what?" "Myself." This exchange literally lays the plot of the episode out for us.
-"Please give her some lines, she's perfectly capable of starving us." Loveee this.
-That dramatic music when Molly first enters the morgue…she basically gets her own drumroll. And then she bosses Anderson around and orders him to get back to work. What a bamf.
-This exchange between MP Sherlock and Mycroft at the Diogenes:
SH: No need to worry [about his heart], Watson, there is only a large cavity where that organ should reside.
MH: It’s a family trait.
SH: Oh, I wasn't being critical.
I feel like this might be Sherlock being envious of Mycroft's (perceived) ability to not feel, and working through a lifetime of being told by Mycroft that 'caring is not an advantage' and that one shouldn't get 'involved.'
And this:
JW: You're gambling with your own life.
MH: Why not? It's so much more exciting than gambling with others.
Definitely think MP Mycroft is channeling Sherlock's feelings about himself. Sherlock is only too willing to gamble with his own life, to do whatever necessary to escape boredom and the crushing weight of his own mind. (As we see clearly in ASiP with the pills.)
-When Sherlock says "There are no ghosts in this world - save those we make for ourselves,” the frame goes dark around him for a moment as a shadow passes over the train compartment. There's no question that Sherlock is deeply haunted by his own ghosts.
-In the stakeout scene, John saying "man to man" and Sherlock looking alarmed reminded me of the part in TSoT when John calls Sherlock "mate" and then makes a face. Another instance of this show making it clear that they are not "bros" and their relationship does not fit society's idea of a typical male friendship.
-The way Sherlock's eyes glow during the entirety of the stakeout scene, and especially when he says "pass me your revolver" -- aghhhh. The INTENSITY of that stare. I don't think we've ever seen an expression like that on Sherlock's face before.
-John sounds SO SOFT when he says "I write all that, Holmes, and the readers lap it up, but I do not believe it."
-"Where do you pick up these extraordinary expressions?" Used by both MP Sherlock and MP Mycroft the second time they're at the Diogenes. More hints that's we're not really in Victorian London…
-MP Mycroft scolds Sherlock about the fact that he's high before we, the audience, even realize that he's high. THEY TALK ABOUT THE LIST:
MH: You're in deep, Sherlock, deeper than you ever intended to be. Have you made a list?
SH: Of what?
MH: Everything. We will need a list.
And then Sherlock procures the list from his pocket, but doesn't hand it over because he's "not finished yet." So he can't regain consciousness yet because he's not done solving the case. (But is he also not done with the list itself -- as in, maybe he plans to take more drugs than he has already? Or the drugs haven't reached their full effect yet?)
-MP Moriarty saying that Sherlock's apartments "smell so…manly." A comment on Sherlock not being traditionally masculine? A reminder to a Victorian-era Sherlock that his sexuality could get him hanged? (This also reminds me a bit of that HLV deleted scene where CAM lewdly tells Sherlock that he has a woman's hands.)
-"You have a surprisingly comfortable bed." The beat after "bed" and the way that sentence hangs in the air, nghhhhhh.
-"You chose to come here." "That's not true, you know that's not true." - Moriarty taunting Sherlock with the reminder that, yes, he is here because Sherlock's subconscious has brought him here, and Sherlock can't keep Moriarty out of his head.
-I like how Sherlock's mind conjures up a confrontation with Moriarty that is infinitely more sexual than that fantasy scene on the roof in TEH. Also, Andrew Scott's drawl may be the best thing to have happened to this world.
-When Moriarty whispers "it's on the tip of my tongue, it's on the tip of my tongue," there's a shot of Sherlock mouthing the words -- similar to the "morphine or cocaine?" moment on the jet.
-MP John getting upset about the cocaine use: "I'm happy to play the fool for you, I will run around behind you like some half-wit making you look clever if that's what you need -- " So not only are the show's creators (and Martin) committed to making John Watson a far more intelligent and competent character than he is often portrayed to be, but they've gone one step further to suggest that the John Watson of the original ACD canon may be deliberately misrepresenting himself in his stories, making himself the dumb sidekick in order to allow Sherlock to be the hero.
-"I could never resist a gong." please tone it down Sherlock good lord
-"The women I…we…have lied to" Didn't really notice the "I" and the Janine flashbacks the first time around. I'd like to think this means that Sherlock feels genuinely sorry for how he's treated her and the other women he's crossed paths with.
-Oh my god, Sherlock looks so pitiful when pleads with John to help him dig up Ricoletti's grave. The way he says "this is *important* to me" breaks my heart, I am so so relieved that was all MP and that John doesn't really abandon him there.
-In case anyone missed it, the red-letter code in the episode credits spells out "ecliptic obliquity"
I haven’t had a dream with Mr. Cumberbatch in it for a long time. They are always awesome dreams, by which I mean that he is nice, and caring, and supportive of me during the whole thing. So, eventually I started binge watching stuff with him in it, trying to trigger a dream (because I needed that emotional support, even if only in sleep). Nothing. At all.
And last night, after finally getting to watch the Special, I had a dream! He was there almost the whole time, just as friendly and supportive and sweet as ever! And I woke up puffy-eyed (cuz I apparently cried in my sleep, happy tears) and feeling happy. And not anxious about anything.
I hear a lot about how having Sherlock wear the color green throughout the special is screaming Gay-- and that’s cool-- but I thought I’d offer another perspective:
Green-- is the color of Healing. And it seems to me, that a lot of TAB is dedicated to Sherlock finding Healing-- in his own mind.
Green is the color of Faery, too.
Faery = Otherworlds. The place in-between- worlds.
