XistentialAngst's Blog, page 155

cupidford:sussexbound:sherlock-series:Sherlock IV, Episode...

cupidford:

sussexbound:

sherlock-series:

Sherlock IV, Episode I filming, 28/04/2016

Hello everyone,

here are the close ups of the scene in the tunnel you’ve definitely seen before and some of my observations:

The car is not aligned with the curb (that was noted of course). However, it is also not on it even partially (so, not a driving accident, more like someone stopped it not caring about proper parking).

Sherlock is in the driver’s seat.

Everyone is wearing summer clothes. You can see Sherlock is in the suit and John’s shirt collar is visible on one of the pictures. Mary also was in rather light summer dress. This is consistent with Mary having a 6 (at most 7) months’ belly (meaning that timeline is August-September during HLV). This confuses me a bit, because I (and I think I was not alone in this) assumed that John hadn’t communicated with Mary in between him finding out she had shot Sherlock and Christmas, let alone going on cases together.

What about the baby? Well, I also saw a bundle (and you can see everyone looking at Mary’s lap) and have two versions regarding it. Version 1: there is a baby, just not John and Mary’s (why not? It can be anything plot-related). 2. Moffat and Gatiss are playing with us. Before you scoff, I urge those who have been around season 3 filming remember filming at Barts and I need to say no more. They definitely know they are being watched and being watched very closely. So I would advise not to take everything you see at a face value.

The phone! This is interesting. The entire scene Sherlock is looking at something on the phone. To me it looks like a woman (?) holding the child’s hand child, but it’s difficult to tell for sure.Looks like there is an emblem on a blazer

Finally, the guy in the taxi. Have no idea who he is.

Ok, that was me, now it’s all up to you. Fire away!

PS: I will post other pictures from 26/04 and 28/04, of course, but after the 5th of May. Deadlines at work, unfortunately, do not resolve themselves.

Mary has the new Season 4 curly hair here, so I’m assuming this takes place sometime in the same timeline as the days of filming with the dog. She didn’t have curly hair like that at any point in Season 3.

This is either a dream, like the dog scenes (as some people have conjectured), or this takes place in the few weeks following the tarmac in TAB. I can’t see her belly at all in any of the pics, so I can’t speak to it’s size.

Just to clarify for the last photo - this was someone standing in for Martin while they were setting up the camera. I think the OP left before Martin got into the cab that night, so the photos don’t include him.

I think (hope) this is the birth scene, which has been speculated before. For one thing, not that many events would cause them to stop in the middle of a tunnel like that (I suppose a guy with a bomb on the phone telling them to stop could account for it or another case-related reason. But ‘it’s crowning’ might do it too. :-) )

Also, as I posted before, as a writer, I’d want Sherlock present at the birth and this kind of scene is one way to get him there. If this is the scene where baby Watson is born, I imagine this scene will be as johnlock-y as you can imagine, with Sherlock and John together delivering his child.

Questions:

* Mary’s hair is at least somewhat longer here than it was at the tarmac, where she was visibly pregnant. It could possibly have grown this much in 2 months? (7 mos to 9 mos)

* Sherlock on the phone – could he be talking to a doctor or watching a video on how to give birth? (Maybe not, since John IS a doctor)

* I doubt this was filmed to ‘fool’ setlockers. Between Ben, Martin, and Amanda, that’s a huge amount of expense and difficult schedule coordination just for a bluff. Not to mention the crew, getting permissions to block that tunnel, etc. etc.

In TAB Mary initially dresses in all black which looks somewhat extravagant. Was she trying to look more like Sherlock?

I mean, maybe, but I think the visual parallel to her in HLV in the black assassin gear and her unveiling/turning around is the strongest visual thing for me!

softejohn:(x)

softejohn:

(x) 

captain-liddy:Just to be clear, I’m not saying that Mary Morstan is homophobic, and I’m not saying...

captain-liddy:

Just to be clear, I’m not saying that Mary Morstan is homophobic, and I’m not saying she shot Sherlock because he’s gay. I’m saying that her presence in the original stories was representative of the homophobia faced by the characters and the author himself. Mary was introduced to forestall the accusations that devastated and ultimately ended the life of Arthur Conan Doyle’s friend Oscar Wilde, among many other innocent people. 

Moffat and Gatiss have done something really interesting by turning this character from a mere romantic obstacle to the most deadly adversary the series has ever featured. They took this symbol of homophobia and heteronormativity, dressed her up in cute little outfits, gave her a cute little singsong voice, and made her a cruel bully. Then they actually put a gun in her hand. This is what that homophobic cultural toxicity does. It sneaks in calling itself safety and family values. It undermines people. It humiliates people. It separates people who want to be together. And it kills people. It’s gotta go. And they’re not going to let it stand.

Love this! Yes, she is very symbolic of homophobia in a way.

Mary is a Femme Fatale

deducingbbcsherlock:

inevitably-johnlocked:

johnlockheartor:

inevitably-johnlocked:

femme fatale

1:  a seductive woman who lures men into dangerous or compromising situations

2:  a woman who attracts men by an aura of charm and mystery

I’m noticing some commentary arguing against Mary being a villain going around, and instead of commenting on every post with the same copy pasted text because I feel very strongly about this for painful personal reasons, here’s my all-around post for it. I’m honestly just stating how I see her character; this has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Johnlock (in fact, I actually think she’s good for Johnlock, but I digress). 

Some info is copy pasted from both this post (Mary x John is a Not Good Relationship) and this post (Mary is not a Nice Person).

Here are the facts:

Mary is Possessive
Mary is Cruel
Emotionally Abusive to Both Sherlock and John
She Forced John to Propose to Her

Mary Meant to Kill Sherlock and Returned to Finish the Job

She Would Have Killed John at Leinster Gardens
Sherlock is Terrified of Her and Thinks She Will Attempt to Murder Him Again
She belittles both Sherlock and John inside and outside the mind palace

There are clues that she’s been involved since TBB or at least in TGG

Even before we found out about Mary, she was suspicious (not mine)

Mofftiss DELIBERATELY released promo photos that made her look like a femme fatale: (here), (here), (here), (here), and (here)

TAB tells us in the first five minutes what Sherlock really thinks of Mary:

Also: Sherlock believes Mary murdered him:

MYCROFT: You saw the whole room when you entered it. What was directly behind you when you were murdered?
YOUNG SHERLOCK (sounding petulant): I’ve not been murdered yet.
MYCROFT (leaning down to him): Balance of probability, little brother.

Look, I absolutely LOVE Mary; she’s an interestingly complex character. But the narrative arc supports her being a villain. She absolutely murdered Sherlock and is absolutely not nice. The only reason people sympathise with her is because she’s “cute” and “funny”: This is a common technique psychopaths and emotional abusers use to gain people’s trust. Please trust me on this one.

Finally: My ‘the mary problem’ tag on my blog.

MARY LITERALLY KILLED THE MAIN CHARACTER OF THE SERIES. THIS IS A FACT. Sherlock died. A common storytelling method is for the villain to kill the main hero. Mary is THE SAME CHARACTER WHO CONVINCED THE HERO THAT SHE WAS HIS FRIEND. THE SAME FRIEND WHO PLANNED HER WEDDING EVEN THOUGH HE WAS PINING HARD FOR HER FIANCE, AND THEN SHE LATER BELITTLED AND MOCKED HIM. The same friend that HER HUSBAND GRIEVED OVER FOR TWO YEARS. And the only reason given for her to shoot Sherlock was because SHE DIDN’T WANT JOHN TO KNOW ABOUT HER PAST, even after Sherlock offered to help her. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t scream “loving housewife” to me.

One of the biggest arguments I see is the one that Sherlock himself brought up: if she really wanted to kill Sherlock, she would have shot him in the head. 

Here’s the thing: She did not shoot Sherlock in the head because she knew John would have come after her immediately; a chest shot guarantees a slow (and VERY PAINFUL) death and it guarantees a worried John taking care to save a life. She knows John would not want to risk Sherlock dying again if there was a chance he could be saved, ergo, John acts to save his life.

MARY KNOWS WHAT SHERLOCK’S DEATH DID TO JOHN. AND SHE USES THAT TO HER ADVANTAGE.

Please rewatch the season with these ideas in mind. To downgrade her character to a “sweet housewife just looking to forget her past” after all this excellent character building within which she never once showed true remorse and love for any of the main cast is frankly insulting to her character. 

Look, if she was really going to “change”, she would not still have her assassin’s gear five years on that STILL FITS HER LIKE A GLOVE. Sorry.

THE SHOW HAS NEVER BEEN ABOUT THE CASES. IT’S NEVER GOING TO END WITH MARY, JOHN AND SHERLOCK. IT’S ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT SHERLOCK AND JOHN’S RELATIONSHIP. IT’S ALWAYS BEEN JUST THE TWO OF THEM.

Mary is not staying. They’re building her up to be something more. And yeah, I’m actually glad about that. I love her character as a villain and I love Amanda’s portrayal of her, and it’s insulting to the brilliant writing of Mofftiss to assume that she’s just being delegated to a housewife role.

I’m not looking to change anyone’s minds, I’m just stating how I see her character, and where her arc is heading. I think it’s a great arc for her, and I look forward to where it’s going in S4.

Her hair and dress in the proposal scene and exactly like a femme fatale  in a 1940′s film noir.

Ah yes, how could I forget about this too. It’s no coincidence that our first view of her face is one of a film noire lady, face constantly shadowed and everything.

Brilliant post. Speaking of 40s’ film noir ladies, don’t forget The Woman in Green, a Rathbone film Mofftiss paid tribute to in TRF. It stars a hypnotist who tries to get Holmes to jump off a roof. We first meet her in a restaurant:

Aaaaaand later learn she was working for Moriarty all along.

I don’t think Mofftiss is done paying tribute to this film, tbh.

Still water runs deep II: The villains

thepineapplering:

As some of you know, I’ve written about water before. It has been a very elusive subject, because its meaning is not as direct and simple as the alcoholic Drink Code I wrote in july. 

The first meta I wrote about water was this one about the H.O.U.N.D. deduction and how Sherlock had access to that sort of information out of the blue (tl;dr: he had access to it as a little child; also Henry Knight acts as a mirror to Sherlock, so childhood trauma=Redbeard). I said water represented “THE MIND” and yes, it holds for that specific scene. But the truth is water represents much more. It can be pure, it can be catartic, it can be destructive… It all depends on the nature of the water and how it relates to Sherlock and John specifically.

For months I had a theory that every water sightning was related to Moriarty and his plan to burn Sherlock’s heart. That’s not true, but there’s a pattern we can link directly to Moriarty: The villains he sends on Sherlock’s way are presented in the series with their face covered/obscured (common villain trope) AND linked to water in some way (this is the bit that ties them to Moriarty).

Let’s check this cool hypothesis, shall we? (Please remember M-Theory is the sand I build my tiny bucket castles)

Jim from IT / Moriarty (TGG)

Setting the link. The first time we see Moriarty his face not covered but his identity is. He uses John as a mask again at the pool, and shows his face as he speaks. And well, the pool gave us enough water for a lifetime.

Jeff Hope (ASIP).

Covered face, plus a rain scene (James Phillimore’s kidnapping scene blended with an image of Sherlock realising the killer was a cabbie). Ok, good.

Irene Adler (ASIB)

Not only we don’t get a clear visual of her face when we first see her, she is introduced as a sort of “resolution” to the pool cliffhanger.

Dr. Frankland (THOB)

“I only came to fix the tap”… I’ve always wondered why did Frankland bother to make contact with Sherlock and John to begin with, when he could just stay low and let their investigation slip away. More on this after the ‘read more’

Kitty Reily (TRF)

Is true the big bad guy in TRF is Moriarty, but he always acts through others. Kitty Reily is not a villain per se, but a tool serving his purposes. She is supposed to represent the whole press chasing after Sherlock.  Not only her face was blocked when we meet her, she is also using a facade.

Charles Augustus Magnussen (HLV)

The press again. The shark. Always sweaty. Disgusting. He navigates through other people’s secrets and benefits from them. The world is wet to his touch. So dangerous even Moriarty had to get rid of him sooner or later, via Mary or anyone else. 

Lord Moran (TEH)

We tend to forget this small villain; he wanted to blow the Parlament up and yet he’s not considered an important character. Well, because he isn’t. He doesn’t even interact with Sherlock, he is clearly not ‘sent his way’. If anything, Sherlock is the one meant to stop him. Definetely not the villain you would assign to the episode. But it has to be!! Well, now that you mention it, here’s the jewel to the crown:

BONUS TRACK: Mary Morstan (TEH)

You cant’ tell me you’re really surprised to find this bad girl in here. You know me better than that!! We have the classic villain’s blocked face and ALSO a black hat (!!!), PLUS she is re-introduced to us like Moriarty was. (hence the four screenshots). Not only does she reject the red wine (romance) offered by John, she chooses water.  I’ve linked Mary to water before (my Sinnerman meta); I mean really, this water theory is worth nothing but just to throw another bit of “Mary Morstan is EVIL” evidence at the huge pile we already have.

Ok, this is all very nice, but what about General Han? Jonathan Small? Westie’s brother in law? The other baddies from TGG? WHAT ABOUT THE FREAKING WATERS FAMILY?!? Did you forget about them?? Click so you can see how water proves to be oh so consistent (Also there’s another big fish in there;) and lots of pictures because who has the time to read)

Keep reading

Awesome meta.

merillock:(x)

merillock:

(x)

finalproblem:Most of the time I manage to talk myself out of posting speculation based on...

finalproblem:

Most of the time I manage to talk myself out of posting speculation based on Sherlock filming, but there’s always eventually something that breaks me…

So, spoilers below, but on the milder side since I’ll try to limit myself to the minimum info needed to make the point.

Keep reading

Yes! I like this explanation of the shark fin. Very plausible.

Important

slashscribe:

sherlock:

I’m know I’m new here (to this url anyway) but I just want to be as clear as I can early on of a few Sherlock-related things (that way you can know if you want to unfollow me or not due to any of these) that I stand by:

• Mary is a villain

• Johnlock is real

• so is tjlc

• John is bi

• Sherlock is gay

• Irene is gay

• everyone is gay. just kidding (not really)

• Mycroft is v caring and loves Sherlock

• Sherlock is not a dfp and loves dogs

• Moriarty is dead

• Watch TJLC Explained for all things you need to know

• Amanda Abbington (and Sophie Hunter) is great and I lov her

• The concept of Uncle Sherlock is #No

• I love John and Sherlock and I want them to be Happy™

that is all (for now) ♡

I’m so glad someone so Honorable has this url tbh ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

We hold these truths to be self-evident.

softsons:This has gone under the radar for too long and I’m...

softsons:

This has gone under the radar for too long and I’m fixing it, he literally called John his spouse on the day John got married to someone else