XistentialAngst's Blog, page 211
October 27, 2015
There's no place like home!
I was thinking about @inevitably-johnlocked’s amazing theory that The Abominable Bride will take place in ‘real time’ in Sherlock’s Mind Palace. And then @miadifferent’s response that it could take place in Sherlock’s mind palace WHILE HE IS UNCONSCIOUS just clinched things for me:
I think we’re going to get a WIZARD OF OZ type story. Many others have speculated about Sherlock DREAMING this Victorian reality and I’m definitely on board with that theory.
I mean, we’ve seen what Sherlock’s Mind Palace looks like during his ‘last 3 seconds of consciousness’ during His Last Vow. And, while there is SOME symbolism (Moriarty in a straight-jacket; Mary shooting Sherlock in her wedding dress), most things are relatively straightforward: Molly is still Molly as we recognise her, as is Anderson, and Mycroft is still a higher authority figure, telling Sherlock what to do.
My point is if Sherlock was CONSCIOUS in his Mind Palace while trying to solve the Moriarty mystery, then he wouldn’t waste time on metaphors and symbolism- everything would be AS IT IS. Moriarty would simply be Moriarty as we (and Sherlock) know him.
But if Sherlock is DREAMING, then he becomes OUR DOROTHY. Reality is skewed: Victorian London (specifically 1895) is OUR MUNCHKINLAND/OZ. Murky symbolism is able to creep in: the antagonist in Dorothy’s dream becomes a wicked witch riding a broomstick instead of an ordinary woman riding a bike. Similarly, in Sherlock’s dream, Moriarty now becomes a ghostly woman in white.
And, perhaps this is also partly why Mycroft is so far mysteriously absent? (Aside from the possible fat suit reveal…) How does Sherlock really view his brother? “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” comes to mind…
Sherlock’s Mind Palace dream, then, will give us insight into many aspects of Sherlock’s perspective: his love for John; his thoughts on Mary; just how much he knows (or does not know) about Moriarty’s survival, and Mycroft’s involvement.
And, all through the disguise of ‘going back’ to ACD canon which the casual viewer could easily dismiss as being a ‘one off special.’ We are being told a so-called ‘Victorian’ story via Sherlock’s own mind, and it’ll be our key to unlock the future of Sherlock, the MODERN series.
We’d better listen.
I can’t remember details from the wizard of Oz. But I think the point of a skewed reality is important. (Alice in Wonderland probably would be another example). Sherlock rearranges things he knows in his mind palace. But everything is taken from reality. Mary shooting him in her wedding dress is the combination of two actual incidents. But what (Victorian) incident could trigger a shift of his whole mind palace to the Victoriana?
And also: I believe Mofftiss that this is a one-off. We will go back once. And then never return. But this means, the narrative must include an explanation, why the Victorian mp won’t reappear in series 4 and 5.
Ah, okay this makes sense now… When Mia mentioned it on my post, I was a bit confused as to how the unconscious thing would work. I like the idea of the fantasy “wizard of oz” type thing, that’s actually really nifty. And I’m able to wrap my brain around it better now, thank you both!
I suppose you are right, WHY WOULD Sherlock use metaphors and such in his mind palace when modern palace served him well in the past? I think that’s the part ALL of us with our own mind palace theories are struggling with… THE WHY. It has to be a special circumstance the requires him to think in terms of 1895. Maybe he took a bad hit of…
HOLY SHIT. What if it’s drug induced? What if this isn’t taking place during the tarmac scene but during the missing months in HLV? Sherlock was surely drugged off his rocker. What if it’s an “Alice in Wonderland” type thing? Wasn’t there an opium-smoking caterpillar or something in that? I’m not super familiar with my fairytales, but surely someone can come up with something for that?
I mean… not gonna lie, I’m sticking to my tarmac scene theory, but drugs seems like a next logical choice, really, if we’re gonna go with the unconscious theory. Like, we knew he took drugs in the past, so really there was NO REASON for him to take them again in HLV other than he’s sad and depressed and to reinforce to us that he can easily go back on them. TPTB reintroduced the idea that Sherlock is once again taking drugs. After the gunshot and him almost dying again after the confrontation at Baker Street, what’s to say that he wasn’t prescribed some pretty strong morphine to keep him from doing a runner again?
I mean… those six months. Are still completely unaccounted for. And that would have been the only logical time he would have been on drugs after finding out about Mary. I was going to suggest it takes place while he’s drugged in the den, but he was surprised about Mary true self, and I think in the Special he knows Mary is a murdering psychopath, so my next logical timeframe was the six months. My only qualm with that is 6 months equalling the timeframe in the special, which we do not know yet. Do we? Perhaps we should start gathering information about the dates and years we have seen in setlock. We know 1894 and 1895 are confirmed years in the special. Six months in real time could easily equal several years in Sherlock’s mind palace, depending upon how often he is drugged up. I’m going to say maybe 2 months or so. I’m not sure how long a gunshot wound similar to Sherlock’s would take to heal, but it would need lots of meds to keep the pain down at the start, anyway.
Or we can all just say Sherlock is the biggest dork ever and was like “Oh, just this one time, I’m going to my historical mind palace!” Hah hah.
I’m interested to see if anyone can extend the drug idea into why his mind palace is so out there.
And as for the one-off, I think it will be called back to if future episodes, but in what context, I don’t know. That’s kind of why I have the Garridebs idea in there, where we have to see how Sherlock thinks he acts when John is hurt as opposed to how he really is when John’s dying.
God, this whole thing just… it’s SO interesting to me. I can’t wait until TAB!
Ever since the dream and mind palace theories started I thought it was probably happening right after Mary shot Sherlock? As you pointed out IJ, Sherlock already has drugs in his system, then he gets gravely injured by Mary and then he’s hopped up on drugs in the hospital so I felt like this could definitely be a “fever dream” as someone called it. Like, his brain on a total LSD trip. And did we ever figure out what TPTB meant with “brainbows”???
So maybe all this happens in those few days after he gets shot and before he confronts Mary at Leinster Gardens? Might also go along with the scene that happens after Janine leaves his room and he goes into his mind palace to think about Mary (with the “Liar” deduction, him asking “Mary Watson, who are you?” and then the focus on Mary firing the gun.)
But somehow all this sounds much too easy and simple so idk.
@inevitably-johnlocked yeah, the month before Christmas could be the time for a drug induced mp shift.
Another possibility: the few days after shooting Magnussen and the tarmac scene. No idea, if Sherlock had access to drugs though. In his desperation over making all these mistakes with Magnussen he could also destroy his mindpalace by himself. And to bring the idea of burning down 221b to rebuild it back, he could set his mind palace on fire.
As the episode starts with John as a narrator, I imagine for all mp scenarios, that Sherlock only slowly realizes the mp by noticing things that are off. But perhaps he doesn’t realize the mp until he “wakes up”.
There’s a problem with this theory, narratively speaking. If Sherlock is dreaming, then you’d expect the entire story to be from his POV. But supposedly John is narrating it and also we’ve seen some scenes in which Sherlock is not present (Mrs. Hudson and Mary for example). As a writer, it would be inconsistent to have this entire thing be ‘in his head’ and yet have other points-of-view. So. I dunno.
John: What's going on?
Sherlock: The stage is set. The curtain rises. My cheekbones are on point, my buttcheeks are clenched, we're ready to begin. We all have a past, actually now that i think about it, that is the quintessential dilemma of humanity. we all have ghosts, memories that haunt us. We have done things we can't let go, we have loved and lost, done weird buttstuff in dark alleys, lost our childhood pets; those are the shadows that define now every sunny day. Every great cause has martyrs, every war has suicide missions. And make no mistake, this is war, we're at war with ourselves and the authorities and the weird screaming woman over there. your moustache is at war with the illustrator, I'm at war with my love for you. Nobody made me. I made me. Oh Watson.
Inception siren: DOOT DOOT
John:
John:
John: Nevermind just... wear the fucking hat.
October 24, 2015
OMGGGGGG I HAD A MIGRAINE WHAT DID I MISSS WE HAVE AN AIR DATE OMGGG WE HAVE A TITLE WOOOAHHHH I can't process :O the abominable bride ahhh did I miss the meta storm on that my dash looks suspiciously calm what is going on
Here’s the official announcement here.
And they basically meta’d in the panel here.
And why release them simultaneously…
And the twitter posts about the panel here.
And now you are all caught up :D Did i miss anything, Friends?
October 19, 2015
Has anyone seen "Hamlet" in the theatres yet? I've got tickets for Nov 2. Can't wait! If you went, how was it?
October 18, 2015
October 7, 2015
October 2, 2015
thescienceofjohnlock:
pandashurley:
mis4nthropy:
bigfatbeckoni...
CHOKED ON MY FOOD
IT GOT SO MUCH BETTER
September 25, 2015
National Theatre Live: Hamlet (Barbican) trailer
WHOO! A new trailer for “Hamlet”. AWESOME. Can’t wait to see it here on Nov 2.
September 21, 2015
scienceofdeductionfan:
Cumberbaby photos! Christopher!!...
Cumberbaby photos! Christopher!! CCC
Love the one where he’s making a face at the baby in the stroller. Baby is getting big already!
benedictdaily:
Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter attend...
Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter attend the Burberry Prorsum show during London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2016/17 on September 21, 2015 in London, England. (x)
So cute!
XistentialAngst's Blog
- XistentialAngst's profile
- 15 followers
