Musings on Episode 3

welovethebeekeeper:

My intention has always been to speculate on the plot of each episode using information gleaned at setlock. I did that for episode 1. Decided that ep 2 was self explanatory [Sherlock is ill, faces his demons, talks things out with an apparition, evil Smith is evil, some jiggery pokery went on in the 1970′s, John looks BAMF and sexy, they go out on the redo date which is a nice bookend to Angelo’s, and they are hit with news that leads us into ep 3; the darkest, most angst ridden fuckery we have ever experienced] I even tried to make a good guess of ep 3. But I can’t come up with enough awful, sick, horrific, heartbreaking shit from the evidence we have from setlock. In fact ep 3 setlock looked like a holiday, a romantic get away, John looking especially fine, maybe a few sightseeing tours via helicopter, with some flashbacks to childhood and thoughts of pretty little girls in pig tails dancing in fairy circles. [Sherlock’s real MP musings right there folks] So here are the facts I’ve been working with, just to see if anyone can shed some light on how the plot to this episode may go down. [Yes, my mind has just gone there too…please let our men have sex and soon. I admit that I really am here to watch two men fuck, well…..among other things]

Facts we have from setlock 4:3.

Coastal locations

A fort
Goons/private security force/mercenaries with guns, running through the fort, around the exterior of the fort 
Caves - both natural, under the fort, and one built in the studio
A beach
A helicopter - Benedict filmed sitting in it, Andrew filmed outside it with body guards
A meeting on the beach between Moriarty and unnamed man
Fishermen - 2 of which are in several scenes. Another elderly fisherman on beach with John and they are frogmarched away. 
A boat. Either in the mist or on fire. John and Sherlock on board. John with gun. Sherlock jumps from roof of cabin to the deck
A derelict and isolated manor farm house
Young Sherlock and young Mycroft
Mr Holmes
Sherlock at a castle with a 3-4 year old blonde girl
House near beach with interior filming, primarily with Benedict but maybe also Loo
There is an emotional scene between Sherlock and Mycroft
Eos on set and therefore violin

Taking out the conjecture and the hints via tweets from cast and crew, if we look at the evidence, what does it tell us?

The Fort: as seen in the trailer, it looks more like a garrison than a home, the private army are in residence, armed and vigilant. The fort is on an island, so good visibility and defence position. There are caves under the island. There is a scene/scenes that were important enough to build the cave interior in the studio. A helicopter cannot land on the fort/island. It would have to land on the near by beach. No principle actors were noted at the fort location. Two supporting actors, the fishermen were reported in scenes at the fort.

The Beach: a helicopter was filmed taking off and landing. Both Sherlock and Moriarty were seen in or near the helicopter being filmed. A meeting takes place between Moriarty and an unknown man. John and an elderly fisherman are captured, they put their hands up and are taken away.

The Boat: Sherlock, John and the two fishermen are on the boat. John pulls his gun on the fishermen. Sherlock jumps down off the cabin roof onto the deck. There is either an engine fire resulting in smoke or a very heavy fog. 

The house in Ogmore: Interiors were shot. From the estate agent’s website we could see the room that was filmed; a kitchen/family room at the back of the house. Modern, well appointed. Setlockers reported Benedict and Loo were there.

The Castle: Sherlock with a small blonde girl dancing circles around him.

The isolated manor farm: Benedict and Martin filming. Kept private.

Eos/Violin: Eos was only present for 4:3, so the violin makes it’s appearance in 4:3. Precedence dictates that Sherlock’s deepest emotions are vented via his music. We know that the series has some effect on how Mrs Hudson regards Mycroft, can presume her anger is on behalf of Sherlock? The violin is used in connection with Sherlock’s emotions towards Mycroft [TGG, ASiB] and John [ASiB, TSOT] In TRF Moriarty names the three people Sherlock is closet to in the world; John, Mrs H and Lestrade, however we can argue that the list would also include Mycroft. 4 people, 4 strings. One broken. 

Young actors: Again keeping in with the theme of a breakdown or severance of the relationship between Mycroft and Sherlock, a flashback to childhood events could be used as background information. Tim Carlton is in this episode but he would be too old to play the younger Mr Holmes, to match the age of the child actors playing his sons. [Could Benedict play his father as a younger man?] With the clue given to us being the name of Sherrinford we are led to consider another brother [Baring Gould speculation] Sherlock’s alternative persona [Doyle’s original name for the character] or a huge fix and the writers have their own idea of who or what Sherrinford is. 

To be honest I saw more evidence for The Three Thatchers and The Lying Detective to be dark and heartbreaking, so there MUST be huge amounts of plot not evident for episode 3. Which leads me to conclude that their security and privacy measures worked very well for the final episode. Input welcome.