XistentialAngst's Blog, page 22
January 5, 2017
Two markets
The merchant sees Death at a market, flees to Samarra, and Death is there, waiting. Taking TST at face value, Mary first met death at a market:
But escaped, and Death found her in another city (London). And Death wasn’t Ajay anymore, it was Mrs. Norbury. Hmm.
And actually, Mary-–and John, and Sherlock––went to a market before the one in Morocco. Met death there too, in a way.
Toby the bloodhound leads them here on the scent of blood from the smashed Thatcher bust, but it’s a dead end. As Mary says, if you were wounded and you knew you were leaving a trail, where would you go?
Two market scenes in an episode built around a tale in which there’s very specifically one pivotal market scene…fishy, right? Especially when the first market scene seems to have absolutely no point whatsoever.
For Mary, Ajay was Death. Except… HE escaped HER at the first market. So…let’s flip their roles. Death is a woman in the original, right? Love how that worked out.
Mary is Death, and Ajay is the merchant. He escapes her (unknowingly on both their parts, but still) at the London market and flees to another city, where they meet again, and he’s killed….by a random police officer? Who happened upon four people with guns and chose to shoot Ajay, with no context, not even a moment’s thought?
Fishy. Again.
If Ajay was right about Mary betraying AGRA, she had more than enough motive to kill him. Death found Ajay in Morocco, and his merchant story was completed.
Mary’s merchant story started in Morocco, but her Death isn’t Ajay.
OK, so here’s something worth discussing. This sequence of events in T6T seems fairly random , but must have a deeper meaning:
1. Sherlock notes blood from one of the scenes where a Thatcher statue was broken. The blood belonged to the culprit (AJ.)
2. Sherlock gets a bloodhound to track that blood. John and Mary go with him (and the babu).
3. Toby leads them to a London market, but because there’s lots of blood there (at the butcher shop), Toby can’t continue to track the blood scent.
So this scene, narratively, has a few little points of interest. One: Sherlock and the dog. It’s cute and it perhaps sets-up Sherlock’s connection to Redbeard, to be disclosed later. Two: It shows Mary taking John’s place and John not liking it. And three: it provides a moment of humor in the show. But still – seems like it isn’t that important.
But why the market and the blood?Is it a mirror /metaphor for something else? When I watched it I had that feeling this means something subtexturally, but I haven’t seen any discussion of that until this post.
It’s an interesting thought that AJ met Death at a London market, got away, and was later killed at a different market. But I wouldn’t call the place where AJ was kliled a “market”. It was more like a private home in Morocco, wasn’t it? Or was it a shop?
Anyway, if it was a market, and the parallel held true, than Death would have to be the same person in both place. Not the policemen then. Did Mary klil AJ in Morrocco? If so, does that mean she was also tracking him the night be broke that statue in London? If so, AJ didn’t seem to know it, because he acted surprised when Sherlock mentioned Mary. Hmmm. We don’t really have any evidence to support this idea , at least not yet.
But what is the purpose of the whole blood/market thing then? The “hiding a tree in a forest” idea. Is it a metaphor/mirror for something else. Any thoughts?
heimishtheidealhusband:
beejohnlocked:
loudest-subtext-in-tv:
...
I totally had to do this manip *need a deep breath* WELCOME JOHNLOCK !!!!
The aesthetic on this is so fucking on point but what box is john standing on lol
mary’s coffin?
Oh my god
It got better oh my god
sidryan:
skulls-and-tea:
hiatus got us too practiced at analysis, we generated a years’ worth of...
hiatus got us too practiced at analysis, we generated a years’ worth of meta in three days
Yiup. Like a shot of pure opiate. MANIC TIME.
miadifferent:
On the BBFC rating
just for reference the rating for:
ASiB:
Contains moderate...
On the BBFC ratingjust for reference the rating for:
ASiB:
Contains moderate sex references, violence and threat. (12)
London Spy:
strong sex, sex references, drug references, strong language (15)
Love, Acually:
Contains sex scenes and strong language (15)
The jellyfish though
God, I love all the meta that’s crossed my dash the past few days. I hated T6T on first viewing (Redeemed Mary? No way!). But I’ve found my way back out of that hell thanks to the fandom. At least until Sunday.
Anywho, speaking of the three big theories: JOHN’S ALIBI, EMP, or MARY’S PLAN, I keep coming back to the damned jellyfish. The first time this was brought to my attention was in a post by @waitingforgarridebs here (x). And I’m gonna repost some of it because I need to focus on one part.
THE JELLYFISH DIALOG
Earlier in T6T, just before John discovers the 59 missed calls that indicate Mary is in labor, we have this dialog.
<<FOR SOME REASON I CAN’T POST GIFS RIGHT NOW. SORRY. LOOK HERE>>
The floating text on screen says “…We could never have know there was a potential assassin lurking close by. As assassin who turned out to be…”
John: “A jellyfish.”
Sherlock: “I know.”
John: “You can’t arrest a jellyfish.”
Sherlock: “We tried.”
THE JELLYFISH IN THE AQUARIUM
OK. So then later, in the aquarium, before Mary jumps in front of Sherlock and is shot, we see that behind Sherlock is… Jellyfish. (see pic here)
So we have a potential assassin lurking close by, an assassin who turned out to be – jellyfish, which were behind Sherlock at the aquarium. The assassin was behind Sherlock.
Then we have the gunshot at Mary’s chest looking like exit wound, not an entry wound. Yeah, I know. Sherlock is inventing the story of what happened in the aquarium to the details might be wonky. For example, Mary probably did not try to “leap in front of him”. So we can’t trust the way the wound loks. Yet in conjunction with the idea that the assassin was where the jellyfish were, behind her, an exit wound makes sense, so I think this visual is another clue. (see photo of her getting shot here)
I know this has all been said before. But what I’m getting at is this….
THE JELLYFISH THING POINTS HEAVILY TO “JOHN’S ALIBI” as the truth of what’s going on.
There’s no way the convo about the jellyfish assassin, and the jellyfish in the aquarium, are coincidence. They might as well have been talking about armadillos or pink elephants for all the likelihood that they’d appear again. The jellyfish can pretty much only mean one thing: an assassin was standing where the “jellyfish” are in the aquarium, that is, behind Mary, and the “jellyfish” was the assassin that shot Mary. Further, this entire story was invented because “you can’t arrest a jellyfish”. (i.e. as an alibi for said assassin).
Who would Sherlock Holmes bother protecting? The jellyfish can only be John.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
If this entire thing were EMP, then Sherlock is running through a “good Mary” scenario that ends in her death, John didn’t shoot Mary, thus there’s no reason for the whole jellyfish/alibi thing.
The only other explanation for why the jellyfish clue is in the episode is that it’s a complete red herring. But if it were a red herring, it’s an awfully subtle one. We’d have to assume the dads would think we’d come up with the John’s alibi theory in the first place and then tie the jellyfish to it to be misdirected away from something else. I’m doubtful about that.
And then there’s the scene photo that shows the post-it that says “John’s Alibi”
I still have some questions about the John’s alibi theory, but the more I think about it, the more it’s becoming the front contender.
Why do ppl hate T6T tho? I loved it. Is it just the ppl that like johnlock or no?
I think the visceral hatred reaction for T6T is the “redeemed Mary” aspect of it. Throughout the episode, Mary is constantly shown in the best possible light, her past as an assassin is minimized/romanticized, and she’s given a heroic, selfless death.
That’s completely inconsistent with her actions in HLV where she shot Sherlock in cold blood when he offered to help her (in fact she ‘murdered him’ since he died on the operating table and only super human effort brought him back). She threatened him again in the hospital, threatened him once again at the empty house, showed no remorse during the domestic at 221b after her reveal to John, Magnussen is gleeful hinting about how ‘bad’ she is, etc. So it feels very OOC and wrong to suddenly change the storyline and have her be this ex spy with a heart of gold who’d sacrifice herself for Sherlock. And I think that’s what pisses people off. They dislike Mary (and rightly so) and then to see her treated like that feels like a slap in the face. Of course, some people are more ambivilant about Mary or even like her, so they wouldn’t feel this way.
See that’s why I liked Mary. She went from being a wife/just another character to someone with a dark past. She never showed remorse and she made a pretty good villain. I wanted her to cause more trouble in series 4 and be evil. Let Mary be the antagonist.
So for her to suddenly do something entirely selfless seems… odd. It doesn’t match up to her evil past and seems like a very sudden change in character. I liked Mary because she was an antagonist.
Yes, I would totally love a scene-stealing, scenery-chewing evil!Mary ala Moriarty. It’s the redeemed/good!Mary I have a hard time swallowing.
January 4, 2017
handl0ck:
More About This Stairgaze ~~
~ just gazing at this...
More About This Stairgaze ~~
~ just gazing at this & basking in the subtleties of what they’re doing with this relationship to subvert the easy overused scripts of masculinity & feminity gave me like 6 ideas for metas to write
~ like for me this image is literally generative it opens doors it leads to new pathways
~ & i don’t think of words like “subverting scripts” while im basking though like its a visceral thing it feels like a soft cave somewhere where i can go & feel the permission to exist in my body as i want to literally this helps me w my gender dysphoria
~ reminds me of Kirk/Spock & Kirk/Spock/McCoy screencaps that i could and have stared at for hours bcs for me they have the ability to bring into being entire worlds~~suggested through body language~~where there’s possibilities for power negotiations that are incredibly loving & where we aren’t stuck in the same controlling bodyscripts for how we’re allowed to look & move & speak & exist as flesh
~ specifics include: ~~th overall more femmecoded person is taller ~~th overall more masccoded person likes wearing flowers ~~they can both be soft in similar ways & different ways ~~even while theres also kinksubtext ~~th space between ppl is just so poetic what can i sayy
~ i def agree w @just-sort-of-happened who commented on the staircase. that the shadow & the railing lead us to notice their eyegaze and also lead us up the stairs like this image is telling us how much they want to go upstairs together and that they’re meant to its lovely
The jellyfish though
God, I love all the meta that’s crossed my dash the past few days. I hated T6T on first viewing (Redeemed Mary? No way!). But I’ve found my way back out of that hell thanks to the fandom. At least until Sunday.
Anywho, speaking of the three big theories: JOHN’S ALIBI, EMP, or MARY’S PLAN, I keep coming back to the damned jellyfish. The first time this was brought to my attention was in a post by @waitingforgarridebs here (x). And I’m gonna repost some of it because I need to focus on one part.
THE JELLYFISH DIALOG
Earlier in T6T, just before John discovers the 59 missed calls that indicate Mary is in labor, we have this dialog.
<<FOR SOME REASON I CAN’T POST GIFS RIGHT NOW. SORRY. LOOK HERE>>
The floating text on screen says “…We could never have know there was a potential assassin lurking close by. As assassin who turned out to be…”
John: “A jellyfish.”
Sherlock: “I know.”
John: “You can’t arrest a jellyfish.”
Sherlock: “We tried.”
THE JELLYFISH IN THE AQUARIUM
OK. So then later, in the aquarium, before Mary jumps in front of Sherlock and is shot, we see that behind Sherlock is… Jellyfish. (see pic here)
So we have a potential assassin lurking close by, an assassin who turned out to be – jellyfish, which were behind Sherlock at the aquarium. The assassin was behind Sherlock.
Then we have the gunshot at Mary’s chest looking like exit wound, not an entry wound. Yeah, I know. Sherlock is inventing the story of what happened in the aquarium to the details might be wonky. For example, Mary probably did not try to “leap in front of him”. So we can’t trust the way the wound loks. Yet in conjunction with the idea that the assassin was where the jellyfish were, behind her, an exit wound makes sense, so I think this visual is another clue. (see photo of her getting shot here)
I know this has all been said before. But what I’m getting at is this….
THE JELLYFISH THING POINTS HEAVILY TO “JOHN’S ALIBI” as the truth of what’s going on.
There’s no way the convo about the jellyfish assassin, and the jellyfish in the aquarium, are coincidence. They might as well have been talking about armadillos or pink elephants for all the likelihood that they’d appear again. The jellyfish can pretty much only mean one thing: an assassin was standing where the “jellyfish” are in the aquarium, that is, behind Mary, and the “jellyfish” was the assassin that shot Mary. Further, this entire story was invented because “you can’t arrest a jellyfish”. (i.e. as an alibi for said assassin).
Who would Sherlock Holmes bother protecting? The jellyfish can only be John.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
If this entire thing were EMP, then Sherlock is running through a “good Mary” scenario that ends in her death, John didn’t shoot Mary, thus there’s no reason for the whole jellyfish/alibi thing.
The only other explanation for why the jellyfish clue is in the episode is that it’s a complete red herring. But if it were a red herring, it’s an awfully subtle one. We’d have to assume the dads would think we’d come up with the John’s alibi theory in the first place and then tie the jellyfish to it to be misdirected away from something else. I’m doubtful about that.
And then there’s the scene photo that shows the post-it that says “John’s Alibi”
I still have some questions about the John’s alibi theory, but the more I think about it, the more it’s becoming the front contender.
So TL;DR: Mark Gatiss just confirmed TJLC.
@shawleyleres @love-in-mind-palace @heimishtheidealhusband @inevitably-johnlocked @ifyouarelookingforbabynames @shag-me-senseless-watson
This pleases me so much.
I want FACTS, PICTURES AND WHITNESSES! Would you do this for me? Please?!
Here:
“Six years ago, you held the brief for foreign operations. Codename, Love.”Mycroft to Lady Smallwood, The Six Thatchers
BBC Sherlock came out in 2010, six years ago.[x]And here:
“The world is woven from billions of lives, every strand crossing every other. What we call premonition is just movement of the web. If you could attenuate to every strand of quivering data, the future would be entirely calculable. As inevitable as mathematics.”Sherlock, The Six Thatchers
TJLCers spend hours attenuating to every strand of quivering data in BBC Sherlock. We can’t be wrong about Johnlock. It’s as inevitable as mathematics.[x]
;)But honestly, so many brilliant quotes in T6T.
JOHNLOCK IS COMING!
Mm, and you forgot the shoutout to us in the episode with the phone number spelling JLC and “all the best secret societies have [acronyms]” right from Mark’s mouth himself.
Way to go ginger dad
victorianfantasywatson:
Oh my god, you Guys. They got us.
I knew they were going to try and pull...
Oh my god, you Guys. They got us.
I knew they were going to try and pull a Princess Bride moment, like when Buttercup marries Humperdinck. But we all knew way ahead of time that John married Mary. We know how the story goes. So I thought they couldn’t get us. We were prepared.
And then Mary jumped in front of that bullet and so many of us yelled, “NO! That’s wrong! You’re telling the story wrong! That doesn’t happen!”
Congratulations, Moftiss. Well played, sirs.
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