The Lying Detective
Well, I don't get to use this icon much. And although I didn't win hands down, I think I won enough this evening to justify it.
I'm going to jot down a few thoughts here ahead of The Final Problem on Sunday.
I notice that a lot of reviews of The Lying Detective say it's preposterous that Sherlock wouldn't recognise his own sister. They assume that he knows his sister. So far, there is no evidence that he does.
Mycroft has been referring to "the Other One" and more recently "Sherrinford" (whom we have assumed to be the same person) for the past three episodes. But as far as I know Sherlock has made only one remark that relates to her, though it's not clear whether he knew that:
"It's a story my brother told me when we were kids. The East Wind - this terrifying force that lays waste to all in its path. It seeks out the unworthy and plucks them from the Earth. That was generally me."
While Sherlock was talking to the woman later revealed to be Euros as he clung to the railing on the Embankment, he had a flashback to what seemed to be a childhood holiday on the beach, featuring two children (one in red wellington boots) and the dog Redbeard - he also remembered this when Mary slipped him some of Vastra's soporific paper in The Six Thatchers. I'm assuming that was the last time Sherlock saw his sister, and Something Bad Happened which his memory has buried.
I am very, very, relieved that my worst fear has not been realised, so far at any rate; Jim Moriarty has not yet returned from the dead and announced that he is the Other One.
And yet I still harbour a wild hope that I was right from the very beginning; after A Study in Pink I was certain that Moriarty would turn out to be a woman. When Jeff Hope said "There's others out there just like you, except you're just a man, and they're so much more than that" - when Sherlock responded to John's revelation that Harry was short for Harriet with "Sister! There's always something!" [ie something that he got wrong] - I was quite sure that the big thing he'd missed was that Moriarty was a woman. And the male Moriarty we got was so disappointing, in every respect, that I kept hoping he was just a front for the real, female Moriarty. So maybe... when the girl on the bus first targeted John, I assumed she was an agent of Moriarty's, but now I hope that she's so much more... at the very least, an equal partner, if not the power behind mad Jim (who was presumably the "mutual friend" who she says put her in touch with Culverton Smith).
Presumably the Moffat-haters would object to this, and say that the evil version of Sherlock being female is the same thing as the female version of Sherlock being evil. But as long as she's an impressive villain - say, at least half as interesting as Magnussen - I'll be happy. This series has a distinct shortage of female villains. Unless you count The Abominable Bride, which... er... I don't, I can remember only two; the Chinese circus boss in The Blind Banker, who was as embarrassing as most of the rest of that episode, and Vivien Norbury. I liked Norbury. I thought she was one of the best things in The Six Thatchers; it was a pity she had so little screen-time, but it was dictated by the fact that she was supposed to be near-invisible, like a receptionist (or a cabbie). I haven't yet ruled out the possibility that Smallwood is Amo after all, and Norbury loyally sacrificed herself to save a beloved mistress, but it wouldn't reduce my respect for either of them. (Basically the more screen-time Lindsay Duncan gets, in whatever capacity, the better.) But, yeah, female super-villains. Bring 'em on.
When I said bring 'em on, however, I did not mean "female super-villains who are as boring as Moriarty". What a waste of a potentially fascinating character.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.
I'm going to jot down a few thoughts here ahead of The Final Problem on Sunday.
I notice that a lot of reviews of The Lying Detective say it's preposterous that Sherlock wouldn't recognise his own sister. They assume that he knows his sister. So far, there is no evidence that he does.
Mycroft has been referring to "the Other One" and more recently "Sherrinford" (whom we have assumed to be the same person) for the past three episodes. But as far as I know Sherlock has made only one remark that relates to her, though it's not clear whether he knew that:
"It's a story my brother told me when we were kids. The East Wind - this terrifying force that lays waste to all in its path. It seeks out the unworthy and plucks them from the Earth. That was generally me."
While Sherlock was talking to the woman later revealed to be Euros as he clung to the railing on the Embankment, he had a flashback to what seemed to be a childhood holiday on the beach, featuring two children (one in red wellington boots) and the dog Redbeard - he also remembered this when Mary slipped him some of Vastra's soporific paper in The Six Thatchers. I'm assuming that was the last time Sherlock saw his sister, and Something Bad Happened which his memory has buried.
I am very, very, relieved that my worst fear has not been realised, so far at any rate; Jim Moriarty has not yet returned from the dead and announced that he is the Other One.
And yet I still harbour a wild hope that I was right from the very beginning; after A Study in Pink I was certain that Moriarty would turn out to be a woman. When Jeff Hope said "There's others out there just like you, except you're just a man, and they're so much more than that" - when Sherlock responded to John's revelation that Harry was short for Harriet with "Sister! There's always something!" [ie something that he got wrong] - I was quite sure that the big thing he'd missed was that Moriarty was a woman. And the male Moriarty we got was so disappointing, in every respect, that I kept hoping he was just a front for the real, female Moriarty. So maybe... when the girl on the bus first targeted John, I assumed she was an agent of Moriarty's, but now I hope that she's so much more... at the very least, an equal partner, if not the power behind mad Jim (who was presumably the "mutual friend" who she says put her in touch with Culverton Smith).
Presumably the Moffat-haters would object to this, and say that the evil version of Sherlock being female is the same thing as the female version of Sherlock being evil. But as long as she's an impressive villain - say, at least half as interesting as Magnussen - I'll be happy. This series has a distinct shortage of female villains. Unless you count The Abominable Bride, which... er... I don't, I can remember only two; the Chinese circus boss in The Blind Banker, who was as embarrassing as most of the rest of that episode, and Vivien Norbury. I liked Norbury. I thought she was one of the best things in The Six Thatchers; it was a pity she had so little screen-time, but it was dictated by the fact that she was supposed to be near-invisible, like a receptionist (or a cabbie). I haven't yet ruled out the possibility that Smallwood is Amo after all, and Norbury loyally sacrificed herself to save a beloved mistress, but it wouldn't reduce my respect for either of them. (Basically the more screen-time Lindsay Duncan gets, in whatever capacity, the better.) But, yeah, female super-villains. Bring 'em on.
When I said bring 'em on, however, I did not mean "female super-villains who are as boring as Moriarty". What a waste of a potentially fascinating character.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.