XistentialAngst's Blog, page 117
July 6, 2016
The MP Waterfall Scene is the key to the entire series
I know I’m risking being super repetitive, because I’ve been blogging about this scene all weekend, but honestly. It is So Important.
Up until that scene, MP John has been, frankly, pretty much of a dick to Sherlock. And Sherlock hasn’t been very kind to John, either. Their normal affectionate bickering has been replaced by anger, true irritation, a nagging exasperation with each other.
They’re fed up with not being able to let themselves be who they’re meant to be together. And as an old school Holmes Ian geek, it thrills me that Mofftiss made them this way in Victorian times. They are fed up with 150 years of repression, they are ready to be together.
But back to the Waterfall Scene.
Sherlock is trying to defeat Moriarty on his own. Again. And he’s losing. He’s getting choked, drowned in a waterfall, he’s about to go over the edge with Moriarty again, history repeating itself. Moriarty says it always comes down to the two of them…
And out steps John. Cool, calm, absolutely BAMF, but different than he’s been in Sherlock’s mind palace before. He’s softer, he’s smiling, affectionate. Everything is coming together in this moment for Sherlock, his acceptance of himself, his understanding of his and John’s relationship, it’s all coalescing.
“That’s not fair, there’s two of you,” says MP Moriarty.
“There’s always two of us. Don’t you read The Strand?” replies MP John.
This is Sherlock’s moment of epiphany. There are two of them. There have always been. And critically, Sherlock is realising that in John’s mind, it’s always been the two of them. John is the one who writes the stories in the Strand, John has always made it about both of them, and Sherlock’s always tried to keep himself separate. Alone is what protects me. This is Sherlock understanding that alone not only doesn’t protect him, but is actually destroying him.
And John handing him his deerstalker, his public persona, is the last vestige of his holding onto the idea that John needs him to be anything other than exactly who he is. Sherlock cedes control of the Moriarty situation to John, he allows John to kill his self loathing, his fear, his terror at being wrong, his fear of his own sexuality. All that goes over the cliff with Moriarty.
And Sherlock stays with John.
Because he understands fully, for the first time, that John will always be there for him, no matter what. And that’s why MP John is different in this scene, because Sherlock is seeing the Real John here. The John that cares, that never leaves him, that loves him beyond measure, that is his one fixed point in a changing age.
This is a huge moment for Mofftiss as writers, because this is the first complete divergence from ACD canon. This is the fix-it moment. It is the pivot point around which the entire series spins, and has from the beginning. This is the moment that Sherlock chooses not to be alone. He’s changed his own destiny, and Mofftiss has thus changed the whole trajectory of the Holmes/Watson stories.
This episode doesn’t end as ACD canon ends, with Sherlock alone, John gone. It ends with them sitting together, in their home, looking toward a future where they can be together.
constancecream:
constancecream:
[x][x]
Studio day, today!...
Studio day, today!
Wait! This is Sherlock and MYCROFT !!!
Thanks for the pic, Sue!
Awesome.
Ben filming with Martin or Andrew? And Martin/John apparently taken prisoner?
From what I’ve heard Benedict was most probably shooting scenes inside the cottage for the bigger part of yesterday’s filming. We can’t be quite sure with whom, but there are several clues.
Andrew is a possibility.
He was seen stepping off the helicopter later in the afternoon. The scenes inside the cottage which have been filmed in the morning could have followed this arrival scene, timeline wise. I’d carefully say possibly(?), but I don’t know how likely this assumption is. We saw him facing the older, balding actor in the dark suit, and having scenes with his goons. Meeting Sherlock in a fisherman’s cottage was probably not on his list that day. But who knows?
Martin is even less likely.
He was spotted in Cardiff around lunchtime, and was reportedly filming the last scene of the day. So he arrived too late in Southerndown to be filming scenes with Ben in the cottage. On the beach he was possibly shooting some sort of hostage scene? (Really, Mofftiss? Booooring,… Moriarty’s back and John is taken hostage? How original…) But again, these are mere speculations based on first impressions.
The only one who was on set AND was not being seen filming on the beach was Loo Brealey.
We know she was present in the morning when they were filming indoors. We know she was in costume as Molly Hooper.
We only saw her in the audience during the beach scenes in the afternoon/early evening.
As far as we know she hasn’t been involved in those scenes.
Why was she there in the first place?
I conclude that it was her who had scenes in the cottage with Benedict.
July 5, 2016
thesetison:
Setlock Recap, 7.5.16
Today we were back in Southerndown again. The first location we...
Setlock Recap, 7.5.16
Today we were back in Southerndown again. The first location we found was a cottage on Beach Road. They had lights set up outside and were doing interior filming, possibly in the kitchen. It’s unclear exactly who was filming here, but as Loo was on set today and not seen filming at today’s second location, it’s a pretty good guess that she was likely involved.
Arwel tweeted a picture of a stuffed mouse on a skateboard.
Martin was reportedly spotted in Cardiff Bay at lunchtime again today.
The second location for today was on the beach at Dunraven Bay (also referred to as Southerndown Beach and known to Doctor Who fans as Bad Wolf Bay). They filmed a helicopter landing on the beach, and several takes of Andrew Scott getting out of it. In the scene, he’s flanked by two men in suits, and he walks over and talks to another balding man in a suit, who is standing with an armed guard dressed similarly to those seen in Tenby last week. (There are several more pics of the scene, supporting actors, and crew in this flickr album.)
Loo came down to the beach for a bit–wearing the jumper she wore in TEH–but wasn’t seen filming anything here herself. She also gave us a picture of her view on her lunch break.
Later, Ben showed up at the beach for a brief bit of filming of him supposedly getting in and out of the helicopter.
Finally, Martin arrived at the beach for a scene where he and someone dressed like a fisherman apparently put their hands up in surrender.
Danny Hargreaves (special effects) teased us about something special he did today.
Benjamin Caron gave us a couple more beach pictures.
deducingbbcsherlock:
constancecream:
Interesting choice of costumes in today’s scenes:
Sherlock...
Interesting choice of costumes in today’s scenes:
Sherlock is wearing a white shirt, Moriarty is wearing the black one.
Quite the opposite from previous seasons.
Molly on the other hand is wearing her TEH jumper.
The same jumper she wore when accompanying Sherlock on a case. For the first and only time.
And finally John Watson in his date shoes from ASIB:
Curious.
Credits for the pics go to Beth Ellsmore on facebook, @LesleyChow_1 on twitter, and Leanne Roberts on flickr.
OH SHIT I don’t know what to freak out about more; Molly wearing her John/gay pride sweater or John wearing his fucking date shoes holy crappppppp
totheverybestoftimes:
If Moriarty being alive was the Big Reveal of this episode,
they would not...
If Moriarty being alive was the Big Reveal of this episode,
they would not have filmed it out in the open. During the filming for TAB, NO
ONE saw Andrew on set. We didn’t know he was going to be in the episode until
it aired. Same with the filming of HLV. They’ve done this before. They know how
to hide actors they don’t want seen. If they’re being careless about it now,
then I don’t doubt that it’s the biggest red herring of all time.
Moriarty will not be the be-all, end-all of this series.
There’s other things going on that we don’t know about. And THAT is where the
drama of this episode is going to lie; in the reveals that are actually
reveals, the ones that no one saw coming.
I do believe this is true. If the big climactic villain of S4 was to be Jim Moriarty, back in the flesh, we wouldn’t have seen it or been able to film it. So I have no doubt Jim appears in S4.E3 in some way, but he’s not the main point.
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