Our anniversary rewatch continues, and yesterday my brother and I finished season 2 of 'Sherlock'. Well, it's still my least favourite, although I would not say that it was bad. It was simply very difficult to say something new on three most iconic subjects of the original ACD works - Irene Adler, the Hound of Baskerville and Moriarty. And although the characters and actors were great, the James-Bond-style plot was not my thing. 'The Reichenbach Fall' is still the best of the three, and the disappoitment with Moriarty was recompensed with the great acting of Cumberbatch, Freeman, Gatiss and Brealey. 'The Hounds of Baskerville' failed to scare and lost the charm of the original novel, but it was inevitable in the modern setting. On the other hand, the constant presence of Sherlock Holmes in this episode saved the day - hats off to Benedict Cumberbatch once more. 'A Scandal in Belgravia' had many interesting ideas, but the details ruined everything, and I still can't stand Irene Adler (so I was very happy to kill her off in my own fanfic - after all, as Steven Moffat put it, it's what fanfiction is for).
And now we are waiting for pleasures and pains of season 3...
During the scene in trf when Sherlock and John is stuck for a bit between the iron gate or wtv the name is, how the fuck did they manage to help John climb that? Like, all I’m imagining is Sherlock being “I’ll be here to catch your short ass” and John trying to balance on the thin and hard iron nagging at Sherlock, all the while still handcuffed.
I still believe. You wanna know why? Because I can’t believe that THIS should be the way things turn out.
I can’t confirm anything, because I’m just one obsessed and trustful TJLCer, but here are some facts about what happened the last days:
(If you do not want to believe anymore or get hurt in case I am wrong - because, like I said, I’m not able to confirm anything and I don’t want to make any of you even sadder than they already are if I’m wrong -, please stop reading here. If there will be actual truth to it, you won’t miss anything even if you do not read this post.)
First: I am aware that many people have stopped believing now. Second: I still think this is a conspiracy. Why? We have many interesting coincidences gathered in here:
Steven says that the whole Molly-”I love you”-scene was ... just for fun? (Well, he shrugged his shoulders, like there was no actual reason for it.) I think it’s cruel to phrase it that way, but ... it is what it is.
Mark has just magically disappeared without statement since Sunday.
People have complimented Benjamin Caron on Twitter for The Final Problem. (Read this post to see his ambiguous reaction to it.) Even though there seems to be no hate, he has shut his Twitter account down without explanation.
Just one word: dymm.
If you google Sherlock on yahoo, you get this result.
The whole “Apple Tree Yard” thing. Look here. Now I have to say that I searched for it as soon as the idea was spread and got ... several different descriptions of the series within a short ammount of time. I was really confused by that. At first, there was something about a Doctor Watson meeting a stranger and psychotic events that pushed them together somehow. Then, there was something about a book that the mini-series should be based on and NOTHING about a Doctor Watson or the stranger AT ALL, but someone called CARMICHAEL. I’m not a native English speaker, but I don’t think that this is just an ordinary name. Given the fact that many tumblr-users mentioned that there was sometimes no description available and that the website just crashed several times, combined with those two names given, I think it’s suspicious. I could be reading too much into things, but I can’t help it.
The Final Problem itself. And the whole last scene of it with the blackboard hinting at rick rolling.
The additional score of The Final Problem.
The fact that The Final Problem destroyed everything that TST and TLD were building up to. “It doesn’t matter who you really are.”
The hilarious leaking thing. (TWICE. WITHIN A DAY.) Them not caring about it. And the BBC even made a touchy broadcast about it.
Their quotes being low as ever and them not actually caring about it.
(Just have to scream it out here: HAVE THEY GONE INSANE?)
I could be totally wrong and reading way too much into things. It is very likely. But I am a conspirator. And I will go down as one.
Before rewatching 'The Reichenbach Fall' I've asked myself why, despite all its flaws, I never considered this episode as bad or even weak. Probably because the suspense and the characters create the decent story even when the plot works against them, and probably because the whole 'Sherlock is a fraud' idea is one of the best parts of the show. But also because precisely after this episode I've started to like 'Sherlock' (and no, I'm not too slow - it just previous five episodes were not too good). Why was that? Well, probably because I saw in Sherlock in this episode something that would play such an important role later in the series. I saw him as a real man who was special not because of his intellect but because of his unique place in the world that surrounds him. In fact 'The Reichenbach Fall' is the first episode of 'Sherlock' where symbolism defeats the plot without tearing apart the narrative. Sherlock becomes the Übermensch but doesn't lose his humanity - his friends and family help him to maintain it. Like Steven Moffat said, Sherlock is never going to be 'one of us', and this episode proves that he is not doomed because of it. There is light and there is hope. Sherlock turns The Fall into The Flying - and defeats not his enemy, but his older self.
Recently I've realized that 'The Final Problem' is the only closing episode of 'Sherlock' which I enjoy. I dislike 'His Last Vow', find 'The Reichenbach Fall' anticlimactic and get tired of 'The Great Game'.
