EMP/EDT - The incongruent scene in TAB

I’m still playing around mentally with the Extended Dream Time idea and had another thought. 

For clarity’s sake, the main problem that exists that the EDT idea helps solve is the utter appalling plot stuff that is HLV from Christmas on. There are so many problems with people being OOC, especially John and Mycroft (Mr. British Gov’t doesn’t wonder who shot his baby brother?). The biggest issue is, of course, the idea that the ultimate Sherlock protecter, John, forgives Mary and returns to her. Then we have Sherlock leaving John in Mary’s hands blithely to fly off to his death after having returned from the dead once already to protect John from Mary. Hugs at the tarmac “take care of him”. Seriously?

Not to rehash all that here. This recent meta by archipelagoarchaea explains the problem with HLV brilliantly. 

I don’t think EDT is the only possible solution to these problems in HLV. I think an equally likely scenario is that John, or possibly John and Mycroft, are plotting against Mary and we’re simply shown the ‘surface’ of their plan to keep Mary placated. However, that doesn’t explain all the problems in HLV and TAB, such as John’s lack of emotion on the tarmac and on the plane, or the general unlikely fizzle of the ‘drug overdose’.  It doesn’t explain some of the weird visual glitches like Mycroft’s tie reversing itself. Nevertheless, we won’t actually know what the writer’s have up their sleeves

until S4 airs.  So while it’s fun to play with different theories, and I’m quite fascinated by the idea of EDT, I’m not placing any bets. We haven’t been given all the facts. They may well surprise us with an option #3 that we don’t see yet.

The one thing I am sure of is that Moftiss are excellent writers. If WE see consistency and character problems, we can be sure they are well aware of them and have an arc in place that resolves them. We’re seeing the tip of the iceberg and it looks weird, but it will make sense when we see the whole thing.

Now to the new point! (finally)

One of the arguments against EDT is that the simplest solution is always the best, and that the writers always broadcast when we are in Mind Palace mode, in order to keep the lines clean. This was absolutely my thought when I first read about EMP after TAB aired. “No way! It’s too confusing!”

But there’s one problem. They did blur the lines and make things totally unclear already in TAB! TAB goes back and forth between the “present day reality” and “1895″. If they were ‘staying within the lines’ and keeping things sharp and clear–so that MP vs ‘not MP’ was obvious–then why did they insert a ‘present day’ sequence that is patently false?

In this ‘return to the present’ sequence there are a few things that tell us, with no room for doubt, that although Sherlock appears to have ‘woken up’ from 1895, just like in all the other ‘current day’ sequences, he is, in fact still asleep.

1. He wakes up in a hospital bed, off the plane. Then later on, he is still on the plane. So this sequence cannot possibly be real.

2. He’s attacked by a skeleton which, as creative as BBC Sherlock gets at times, is not a level of fantasy that can be ‘real’.

So if the writers always make MP clear, and always strive to remain obvious about what is and isn’t MP, why did they insert this patently dream sequence in the middle of supposedly ‘real’ sections of TAB? It certainly wasn’t necessary. And the whole grave/skeleton thing always felt like a throwaway to me, like it sort of fizzled in shock value. So what narrative purpose does this section serve?

Well, it could be a clue or set-up that, in fact, not everything that seems to be ‘real’ is ‘real’. Indeed, maybe none of it is. They have clearly established here that Sherlock isn’t always awake when he thinks he is, that they can and will play with the factual presentation of the show in that way, and thus they’ve made absolutely anything possible. (such as EDT)

Again, we have the problem with the dubious ‘drug overdose’ and other oddities in present day TAB that are either sloppy writing and bad prop work. Or: none of it is real.

But let’s look at this patently false current day section for more clues. What’s the first thing we see in this section? John standing over Sherlock in a hospital bed, checking his eyes with a penlight. On the surface, it’s John checking on Sherlock’s TAB ‘overdose’. But if Sherlock is really in a coma and has been since the domestic in 221B in HLV, then might this not be a bleedthrough from Sherlock’s actual reality? (In a hospital bed with John over him.)

Then there’s Sherlock digging a grave and being attacked by a skeleton of a bride. Others have pointed out what an apt metaphor this is for the way Sherlock has ‘dug his own grave’ with Mary. No argument here. But it’s also a pretty compelling allusion to death, which is something Sherlock is ‘struggling with’ if he’s actually in a coma and dreaming this whole thing.

Apologies in advance if others have covered this before and better. Please feel free to message me and I’ll insert any links you like!

I’d like to look at setlock and see what clues we’ve been given to EDT there. Hopefully later today.

XA