Making sense of The Abominable Bride
So I was watching TAB and I couldn’t help but notice a series of mirrors running through it. This meta is going to deal with the “main plot” bit of the episode - the johnlock aspect, although inherently tied in, merits another post.
The first obvious similarity is that Emilia Ricoletti blew her brains out but was seemingly alive. We can therefore read Jim for Emilia - whatever plot TAB had seemed to revolve around that parallel. But the one thing that comes very clearly out of this episode is that Emilia Ricoletti is dead. Equally -
Ghosts do not exist, neither in our universe or the Sherlock one. What is being carried out is Emilia’s legacy being carried out by others masquerading as her. It’s not unreasonable to suggest that Emilia herself masterminded this. Therefore, we can infer that Jim has left a legacy behind (did you miss me?) to be fulfilled by others.
Who are these others who are carrying out Jim’s legacy?
Mary is implicated in the TAB plot in two ways. First of all she is a member of the suffragist movement (yes I find this entire mirror to be in bad taste but let’s continue). Secondly, her first appearance in the episode. You were meant to think that Mary was the abominable bride from the title of the episode. She takes off the veil - surprise! It’s actually Mary. Hmmm.
Here, again, there are two features of interest. (Sorry. I had to.) We know that he’s working with Mary from him sending Mary to watch Sherlock and John. We also know that he says “we have to let them win”. This was Mycroft’s attitude with ASiB and seems to be his attitude regarding Moriarty in general as it is generally accepted that he is under Moriarty’s dead thumb. Mycroft acting for Moriarty in TBB was also hinted at here when Mary received a telegram signed simply M - reminding us of the assassination of General Shan often assumed to be directly Moriarty but only ever signed M.
This one screamed at me from the screen. Obviously she was involved with the Ricoletti murders, which is implication in itself. But I think we’ll be seeing a lot more from the maid in series 4 and 5 (though presumably not as a maid?). The first thing we hear about her is that she is awful at her job. She is not only “impudent”, she also can’t do anything that she was hired to do. So why did John hire her?
Oh wait. He didn’t. Mary did.
They really labour this point as well, with emphasis on the whole I will have a word with my wife to have a word with you stuff. So Mary hired this maid because she’s in league with her. She should probably learn some skills for this deception.
Believed to be Jim’s sister. Also featured in the Ricoletti murders. What’s more notable than Janine’s presence is the absence of two of the most prominent female characters (excluding Mrs. Hudson): Irene Adler and Sally Donovan. If your plot is it’s the women why not feature The Woman? And is there any more slighted and annoyed woman than Sally in Sherlock? The answer: neither is working for Jim (any longer, in the case of the presumed dead Irene). Their exclusion means that we can presume any inclusion is important.
See above - her inclusion when others were excluded is interesting. I wouldn’t put it past Mofftiss to have given her a name starting with M just for the laughs. Which makes us look at her early relationship with Jim from a new angle. But that’s for another meta.
The Three Garridebs Parallel
If you aren’t familiar with the story and theory around the Three Garridebs, I would recommend a quick google from here, but brief summary: John gets shot, Sherlock is pretty freaking upset, they’re in love. Okay, good. So where does this come in?
The Ricoletti brides go around carrying on the legacy of Emilia Ricoletti. One of the things that Ricoletti herself planned was the murder of Eustace. (Interestingly, they met before in America: this could have been thrown in to explain the KKK references but is also another continent matched up with experience with women - is it a stretch to read Three Continents Watson and his international reputation?) Will they go as far as to kill John as Eustace is killed? I hope not (because seriously Sherlock planned to overdose on that plane because he couldn’t deal with six months without John).
This also has the implication that it could be Mary who shoots John. This is backed up by the part of the episode that still doesn’t make sense to me - why did Louisa call Sherlock to prevent her own murder? I think that this is Sherlock’s brain calling back to the big unsolved mystery of HLV - why did Mary call the ambulance when she shot Sherlock?
But aren’t there two Moriartys?
Maybe. At least, it’s certainly a viable theory. In ACD canon, Moriarty’s brother was also called James Moriarty. Could they be twins? Yes. Could one of them be Richard Brook (Reichenbach)? Yes. So when Sherlock said that Moriarty is dead, he wasn’t wrong. But Moriarty is also alive.
At the start of the episode, Watson had a secret twin theory. Holmes rubbished it - it’s never twins, he said. And perhaps he’s right, although I find the whole similar corpse nonsense a bit nonsensical. But for the first time ever in Sherlock, Sherlock himself admitted John’s intelligence twice. He described him as pretty damn smart in the gay waterfall scene and then when he was digging he said that John was always right, it’s boring - e.g. I’m annoyed because John worked it out? Maybe.
And this ties in to Doctor Who. To any non-Whovians, google the Zygons. They appeared in 2013 under Moffat after a LONG hiatus. (No. Like Really Long.) They shape shift into another version of you so there are two Clara’s running around. Anyway, they got integrated into life on earth by means of a treaty, and the keeper of this treaty is called Osgood. There were two Osgoods (one human, one Zygon - both identical) but one is now dead. We don’t know which one, and it doesn’t matter. She is still Osgood.
Do Osgood and Jim have parallels?
Maybe, yeah. And this is reinforced by the fact that there were no Zygons in series 8, despite the fact that that was the natural place for a follow up to the special between series 7 and 8. The Zygons took an extended hiatus until series 9 for no apparent reason. Is it unreasonable to suggest that as TAB was supposed to be 1/1/15 but got moved to 16 the Zygons did too?
Emilia Ricoletti is a mirror for Jim. They’re both dead.
Watson’s twin theory regarding Jim is potentially correct.
Mary, Mycroft, Janine, Molly and the maid are all working with Jim, carrying out his legacy.
Mary may end up being the one shooting John - in any case, we’re getting Garridebs.
