Amph Sherlock - new BBC series from Steven Moffat

I also prefer humanitarian villains.

 

Is the above an oxymoron?

 

Err, the entire point of the Reichenbach plot is that of course there's no such thing as the key code, Moriarty just led Sherlock to believe there was because he knew Sherlock wanted everything to be super clever...


So I agree that while Magnusson was great, I definitely don't want to see the same thing over and over. I think Moriarty and Magnusson are different enough in affectation that it was fine. But I would also like to see a variety of intelligent characters.

Which is yet another reason I'd love for Irene to come back. I think she's very well crafted in this show as someone who is brilliant in all the ways Sherlock is deficient. Rather than being a dark version of himself, it's much more of a yin and yan relationship. Yes, she's very observant and clever and willing to be ruthless. But she's also extremely emotionally intelligent and managed to both outsmart Sherlock and force him to develop an understanding of something foreign to him in order to ultimately "win". We saw a really different side of Sherlock there and I think Irene is absolutely the major love/hate relationship the show and the character could use to bring new challenges into the mix.

And again, it's why I think it's possible she could be connected to what I'm going to assume will be Moriarty's videos and schemes to be employed posthumously. As I said, the person doing this is someone who is both willing and eager to mess with Sherlock but also by their timing clearly also doesn't want him to go off on some mission where he'll likely die. Fits the bill to me. Besides, because no one besides Sherlock knows Irene is alive, even if at some point he did realize it was her, how would he be able to "solve" the case? If he did, he'd expose her as alive (something that would then get her killed by her enemies). And in a way, I could see that being the sort of twisted test she'd put to him. By saving her in Karachi, he revealed a major weakness to her, and one that only she knows about. There's two things Irene seems to love: having leverage and Sherlock Holmes. I think it could make for a fantastically complicated story full of impossible choices.

I also think there are numerous ways they could make it Moran/someone else in Moriarty's network and still have it be different from the Moriarty dynamic. I just think they absolutely have to have Irene back and I could see all kinds of really impossible situations she'd be able to put him in which would fit into this story (and ultimately also result in him probably getting a pardon and official status to keep him in London and working with the Met, something that I theorized they'd need to do in this series that didn't wind up being needed because he hasn't worked with the Met again yet).

 

So who wants to explain the after credits scene to me?

 

I presume the "Miss me?" bit is part of one of a sequence of recordings and plans Moriarty made to be put into effect at some point after he died if Sherlock somehow survived Moriarty's schemes. It will be how the writers both get Andrew Scott back in the show and don't have to almost definitely jump the shark by having Moriarty alive.

 

Yeah, but what was the medieval footage about?

 

Uh, did it really air like that in some places? Because I know there was actually a transmission error in an episode of Game of Thrones last year for one of the US time zones where somehow the credit music started playing before the credits rolled for some people. Which was weird. It started playing at the totally incorrect time over the last 30 seconds or so of the episode.

No it was just Moriarty looking into the camera and saying, "Miss me?" If what I assume is some promo for another show is genuinely what some people saw I'm guessing someone had an encoding/uploading error.

 

Okay. Because I was thinking that maybe next season is about Moriarty's origins....in the medieval era...somehow...THIS SHOW IS SUDDENLY FANTASY.

 

That would have been very confusing, yes

 

Yeah ... I got that version as well!

Medieval Moriarty ... it was very bizarre ... and I was left wondering if Moffat and Gatiss were leaving us with some Sherlockian puzzle to solve.

 

What, erm, medium were you using to view the episode?

 

There was an initial download release with the wrong 2 seconds at the end. The source I don't know, nor how it happened, but it was quickly replaced with the proper version.

Errr... Apparently.

 

Well, I watched it last night. not really sure how I feel about it. The plot with Mary was great, though I can't say the twist was really a surprise. The frisking, or lack thereof, was a bit of a problem for me, but what bugged me more was that Sherlock really thought Magnusson had the letters with him at Baker Street, Sherlock got played a little too easily there. More than anything, I'm troubled by Sherlock having no other solution but to shoot Magnusson at the end. That seems a bit lazy by the writers to me.

As for Moriarity, I would have a big problem if he was really back, regardless of which version of Sherlock's fake death was true, I don't see how Moriarity could have gotten off the rooftop without Sherlock knowing it.

Lastly, I caught the brother reference, too. I got the impression the other brother was dead, Mycroft said something along the lines of "losing him", didn't he?

 

"I am not given to outbursts of brotherly compassion. You know what happened to the other one."

Sort of cryptic but IA it sounds like the other brother (or could even be a sister) is dead. You never know with Moffat and his mind games though.

Personally I'm hoping it's nothing more than some sort of tragic story from the Holmes Siblings' childhood and that said sibling is long dead and gone and not some sort of wacky plot point like "Moriarty is the third Holmes child" (because yes I've already seen that speculation). I liked how the Redbeard reference in The Sign of Three was just a personal comment from Mycroft to Sherlock and not some sort of coded message or "deeper" hint like the fandom was scrambling to piece together last week.

 

Personally, I took it as a joke.

 

In what way would that be funny?

 

It could well be a joke, it made me snort. But then again, few of these sorts of lines go nowhere on this show.

 

I suspect the sibling as a childhood tragedy as well, possibly as part of the reason Mycroft does try to protect his brother (his pressure point). I wouldbn't be surprised if there was more to the Redbeard reference, perhaps tied to tat sibling.

If, on the other hand, Moriarity is that sibling, I will be pretty darned peeved.

 

I doubt it…though I could see Sherlock, Moriarty, and Mycroft knowing the entire time they are all brothers. And just acting totally surprised no one else knew...

 

I think that's just a glitch in the video - the audio is from the little Moriarty post-credits snippet, but the video is presumably a promo for the new Musketeers show.

So no, nothing medieval.

 

...pleased to discover that the 'Memory Palace' has a basis in fact:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci

 

It's used all the time in The Mentalist.

 

That memory was not retrievable in my brain because I have never seen that show