Sherlock - Series 4

[Jumpin' Jack]

Not sure what to think of the whole sister twist yet... but enjoyed Toby Jones as an utterly despicable person and Sherlock's unreliable mind

 

[Venom 1988]

To be honest, I expected Moriarty to pull a reverse Mrs. Doubtfire and reveal he was the sister in disguise.

I swear I was so sure that was going to happen while I was watching lol

 

[Enriquespy]

Me too! I was like, Whoa they made Moriarty so cute!!!

Also anyone wonders how the hell did

Spoiler

Sherlock failed to recognise his own sister?

 

[Dr.]

Also anyone wonders how the hell did

Spoiler

Sherlock failed to recognise his own sister?

Well...

Spoiler

We don’t yet know the circumstances by which the Holmes brothers became estranged from “Sherrinford.” Perhaps she was very young at the time; or perhaps she transitioned from male to female.

Also…

Spoiler

“Sherrinford” seems to be very adept at disguises. Watson didn’t recognize that his therapist and the woman he had a text “affair” with were one and the same.

 

[AlluAllu]

Did anyone spot the big twist? I have to say that I didn't and the episode called me out about it.

 

[Matt]

Me too! I was like, Whoa they made Moriarty so cute!!!

Also anyone wonders how the hell did

Spoiler

Sherlock failed to recognise his own sister?

Well, its pretty important to remember, Sherlock was using pretty heavily and therefore was pretty drugged up. He didn't seem terribly lucid during any of it (evidenced by the fact that even after it was revealed that he was right about Smith, Sherlock himself remained uncertain if Faith ever truly came to visit him or if it was a drug addled delusion). And the little bit of mental energy he did have seemed to be less about her and more about ****ing with Mycroft (a lot of thought had to go into that message he wrote).

But moreover...

Spoiler

As was stated, we don't know the exact circumstances surrounding her life or if Sherlock is even aware of his sister's existence. To understand why that may be the case, one should consider who Sherrinford is in Holmes lore. Sherrinford was not created by Arthur Conan Doyle. Rather he is more head canon of a writer from the 1960s that has been accepted within the Holmes fandom/by writers after his creation.

He stems from a faux-biography written by William Baring Gould in the 1960s. Gould created him to explain a discrepancy in Conan Doyle's backstory of Holmes. Holmes's backstory is that he and Mycroft were descended from the gentry class (minor semi-nobles who owned land that was profitable enough that they could simply live comfortably off of rental income). But in late 1800s/tun of the century England, it would've been customary (and as such, more or less mandatory) for the oldest son to take over the land/estate. Obviously, neither Mycroft or Sherlock were tending to the family estate. Therefore, Gould deducted that there must be a third Holmes brother who was the eldest managing the family estate.

This was furthered by the notion that, in that time period, the second brother of aristocratic families, who could not inherit family land and were not burdened by the expectation of managing the estate, were expected to accept a civil service position and work to further the family's reputation in the government. Obviously, this fits the bill of Mycroft. So Gould concluded that Mycroft was in fact the second Holmes son and Sherrinford (a name taken from Doyle's notes as a possible name for Sherlock) was created in the biography as the third, eldest Holmes son.

Though this is merely hand canon of one writer, most subsequent Holmes authors/screen writers have accepted his existence as a logical deduction. Never-the-less, Sherrinford has never played a major role in any prominent Holmes stories. He is just kind of acknowledged as existing and running the family estate.

My point is, if we accept Sherrinford's existence as canon (and clearly Gatiss and Moffat do), then its not totally illogical to conclude that she is the eldest child. Sherlock, the youngest, may have never interacted with her.


The big strike against her being older than her brothers is that Gatiss is 50, Cumberbach is 40, and the actress who is playing Euros, Sian Brooke, is 39.

That said, all look relatively in the same age range, so there is some wiggle room. The woman we saw flirting with Watson and Faith looked considerably younger than Mycroft. But the therapist did not. Euros seems to be good at disguising herself. So it is very possible that her youthful appearance is artificial and she is, in fact, the oldest of the Holmes siblings.

Alternatively, she could be a second sibling who left home before Sherlock was old enough to remember. That would be my guess, simply due to the large age gap between her and Gatiss.

Whatever the case, I think it is fair to assume, just as in the lore, Sherlock is the youngest sibling and as such may have never met her, or at the very least, did so at a very young age before his memory was developed enough to retain memories of her.

Another possibility is, of course, that a sex change occurred. Although her snide comment about everyone assuming brother makes me think that this is less likely.

At any rate, I am curious to see how this all ties in to Moriarty. The "miss me" hidden in the note suggests that Euros was behind Moriarty's resurgence. It would be a bit disappointing if the resurgence of Moriarty, a character who has loomed over the mythos of this show so heavily, were merely a decoy. I'd much prefer him to have had some pre-death collaboration in whatever Euros's endgame is and he is still an active player in the game from beyond the grave.

 

[Boom]

I basically need Toby Jones as The Penguin now. My life will be incomplete without it.

 

[Brian Braddock]

Thought exactly the same thing.

 

[antsman41]

I loved everything... how Smith was basically Trump ID meets OJ's ID with a few Killer's tossed in.

Also, the twist was great. Hoping she is using Moriarty's legacy or was a partner instead of pure sibling rivalry revenge.

 

[scarlet-witch]

I loved this last episode minus the Mary scenes. I thought I was rid of her, so seeing her taking up screen time again was unfortunate.

Toby Jones was a great villain.

Re: The sister, I'm wondering if she's supposed to be older than both Mycroft and Sherlock? If she was Mycroft's older sister, and she did something that got her sent away before Sherlock was old enough to remember her, that could be why he didn't recognize her.

 

[Silvermoon]

Regarding the brother being a sister and confusion about Mycroft talking about Sherrinford.

On some other message boards...and tumblr... some have pointed out Sherlock's own line in this episode "Why do people always stop counting at three?"

So could there even be yet a 4th Holmes?

 

[Brian Braddock]

I loved everything... how Smith was basically Trump ID meets OJ's ID with a few Killer's tossed in.

Also, the twist was great. Hoping she is using Moriarty's legacy or was a partner instead of pure sibling rivalry revenge.

Unsure how familiar you are with Jimmy Saville, but he was definately based on him, only minus the tracksuit and instead of being a sex offender he was a serial killer.

There were too many nods for it not to be.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...y-savile-paedophile-cihld-abuse-a7516911.html

 

[antsman41]

Unsure how familiar you are with Jimmy Saville, but he was definately based on him, only minus the tracksuit and instead of being a sex offender he was a serial killer.

There were too many nods for it not to be.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...y-savile-paedophile-cihld-abuse-a7516911.html

Ahh... I had heard of him before but didn't remember.

 

[scarlet-witch]

There's this dialogue from His Last Vow that's interesting now after learning Euros means "the east wind"

Dr. John Watson: The game is over.

Sherlock Holmes: The game is never over, John. But there may be some new players now. That's OK, the East Wind takes us all in the end.

Dr. John Watson: What's that?

Sherlock Holmes: It's a story my brother told me when we were kids. The East Wind is a terrifying force that lays waste to all in its path. It seeks out the unworthy and plucks them from the earth. That was generally me

Dr. John Watson: Nice.

Sherlock Holmes: He's a rubbish big brother.

 

[The Shape]

Did anyone spot the big twist? I have to say that I didn't and the episode called me out about it.

I didn't catch onto the whole sister angle until that was revealed, but:

Spoiler

I did not think that Sherlock imagined Faith coming to his apartment, nor did I think that the woman who showed up was actually Faith. I did think it was the psychiatrist in disguise after a certain point, although the reasoning wasn't clear, of course.

 

[BestGirl]

After Faith showed up to the morgue I realized that fakeFaith and E were the same person, but I didn't connect them to the psychiatrist (though I should have, what with that accent).

Overall, I enjoyed the episode. The first half was a little manic for me and Sherlock's drug hallucinations just dragged on and on but I appreciated the Euros reveal. She has potential to be a truly terrifying foe.

 

[NotNickFury]

So apparently tonight's episode has already been leaked online, and the producers are aware.

 

[antsman41]

I'm not finding it in the usual places, hmm.

 

[Enriquespy]

The whole

Spoiler

Moriarty flashback was kind of a D**k move, but I loved it nontheless, what a way to pull the rug under our feet.

Great episode, sweet satisfying ending. I could live with this being the last one. it's a great sendoff to the series.

 

[Ozbridge]

So apparently tonight's episode has already been leaked online, and the producers are aware.

Yes it was leaked about 1 day and a half before the real episode airs. I don't know whether any SHH members are on Tumblr but I am and there was a bunch of fans concluding that leaked the episode was fake (as if BBC agreed to film and edit a whole episode just to mess with a few people who watched the leak).

I think that Moffat really oversold the episode, he keeps saying it's his favorite Sherlock episode, maybe even more than A Scandal in Belgravia. I think it's just ok (I even find if underwhelming after hearing Moffat said that it was groundbreaking, etc). The emotion at the end is quite right but the first 2/3 is quite tedious to watch. Definitely not on the level of Scandal in Belgravia.

 

[Orba]

I think I will need to watch that montage at the end more slowly. There is a bit with a blackboard with the stick men on it, when I first saw it the first thing to jump to my mind was the code from Basil Rathbone's 'Sherlock Holmes And The Secret Weapon'. I can't help but wonder what stories the other parts of the montage were from.

 

[Ozbridge]

I think I will need to watch that montage at the end more slowly. There is a bit with a blackboard with the stick men on it, when I first saw it the first thing to jump to my mind was the code from Basil Rathbone's 'Sherlock Holmes And The Secret Weapon'. I can't help but wonder what stories the other parts of the montage were from.

That's from The Adventure of the Dancing Men.

 

[Orba]

Great episode, sweet satisfying ending. I could live with this being the last one. it's a great sendoff to the series.

Yeah, if that was to end up as the final episode I think it would work well (I thought it nice that the final shot had them coming out of 'Rathbone Place'), it felt like it was if not an end then at least an ending.

 

[Snow Queen]

I did not like this season one bit. Thought the writing was a mess. Oh well.

 

[antsman41]

I don't know what some are you are saying... that episode was wonderful.