shallowness (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shallowness) wrote2017-01-20 07:48 am
shallowness) wrote2017-01-20 07:48 am
Only several days after everyone else has weighed in
Sherlock - 4.3 The Final Problem
I thought this had some brilliant scenes and moments, but I would have liked even more Holmes family Gothic psycho/melodrama and less of the Crystal Maze and I am torn about the whole girl in the plane being Eurus (I don’t care how they pronounced it, I’m not spelling it Euros.) This is all of a piece with the other two episodes, and the ending – well, I found Mary’s voiceover too sugary, and it was interesting that we had them rebuild the flat in montage. I’m not sure if that all makes it less final than it appeared?
Lots of Mycroft this episode, and lots of reason to harangue him – I thought that it was Eurus who had come to his touch and his reaching for his umbrella was predictable of him and so of course there wasn’t a bullet in gun. But yes, in assuming Eurus was safe in Sherringford, he’d been stupid, in giving her treats. A Stradivarius is one (expensive) thing, but MORIARTY for stopping three terrorist attacks when the meet would probably lead to several others was extremely stupid. Lying to and ‘managing’ his family – well, his parents dealt with that, and they were right.
On the other hand, I enjoyed the running Lady Bracknell/acting gag, I gave a mental smile at wee!Mycroft being chubby and I realised he was needling Sherlock to shoot him instead of John well before Sherlock explained that’s what he was doing, although I assumed he had a bulletproof vest on, but Sherlock decided to have a meltdown and change the rules anyway.
Sherlock and John seemed back to being big pals, very little awkwardness, perhaps because they had a shared anger at Mycroft and Eurus. Something that wasn’t quite linked to the previous episode was that Eurus allegedly programmed everyone she talked to – but not her brothers, it was suggested. However, what about John? I get that she didn’t kill him, she just tranqed him because she wanted him to provide emotional context for the experiments/challenges for Sherlock – although, once again, the big cliffhanger is weasled out of - but it seemed like a wasted opportunity.
Well, apart from ‘the final problem’ which felt like one final rug pull, in that the opening scene we’d seen was not real, but rather Eurus’s dream/Sherlock’s imagining. Perhaps she was programming him, after all. I should be used to it after the last episode and all of Sherlock’s memory palaces and hallucination of the Victorian era (oh, Moffat and Gatiss will be congratulating themselves that the Abominable Bride told us the puppeteer was female). But I wasn’t, and although emotionally, it was the little sister who wanted her brother to play with her, who wanted the connection he had with others, and so destroyed it (Redbeard/the friend) out of pique, reaching out for her brother, and that was affecting, said little sister did lie and manipulate and destroy and threaten to destroy and kill and kill and kill. So, it was right that she was back in prison (but the same prison!?) and that Sherlock reconnected with her, I guess.
Where did all this ‘she won’t talk’ stuff come from after Sherlock had come for her? Sure, they wanted the violin duet and it was effective, but I didn’t understand why she’d decide to be quiet after that.
Sian Brooke’s performance seems better taken in the context of all the other shades of E, we saw. E got to be the most affectless, for creepy value. The moment where she greeted and almost danced with Moriarty was the best, especially because they played on the reflection of the glass that would earlier/later be missing. We had the other two siblings performing so-so accents, perhaps in homage to Eurus in the last episode.
I also think it should be noted that Sherlock was surprisingly brilliant at talking to ‘the girl on the plane’. Normally he’s never that good with children, or anyone. But at the time I supposed it was fitting into the ‘good man’ theory pounded out by Mary and built up to in the episode. In hindsight, it was because he was talking to his sister.
The big problem with this episode was that it felt like there was a lot of exposition, as if they wanted to prove they’d seeded much of this since always.
Anyway, in the Crystal Maze series of challenges, I did howl at the ‘soldiers’ to remember that the Governor had been brainwashed by Eurus and she would likely shoot his wife anyway. It was also unsurprising that Eurus killed the three brothers, but a bit of a surprise that Molly was only emotionally lacerated. (Am I really critiquing the show for not going as dark as my imaginitaion would have?) The threat of blowing up her flat and then laughing it off was legitimately clever, because after blowing up Sherlock’s flat (let’s not dwell on the image of John and Sherlock leaping out of the window, because, unlike the BBC promo department, I didn’t think much of it), no wonder they believed she could/would do it.
MOLLY. MY HEART. That would be the most excruciating scene right there (because to be honest, I thought Eurus had made Sherlock kill his dog called Redbeard and he’d repressed it, so while what turned out to have happened, with the child proto-John figure was horrible it wasn’t as horrible as I’d imagined.)
Presumably they saved Molly because they knew that was a red line for me? Also having just pretended to herself for a few seconds that Sherlock wasn’t lying when he said he loved her (although I think he platonically cares for her enough not to want her dead) and having to admit her feelings, killing her would be beyond mean. BUT she appeared in the final montage, turning up at the rebuilt flat looking quite cheery, but we didn’t get Sherlock apologising or explaining what had happened. Even if it had been in his own special way, I needed that and Molly deserved it on screen.
I have to admit I sighed in disappointment when Moriarty turned up, despite Scott’s admirable vamping. Thing is, I’d considered he could have been Eurus’s Christmas treat, but it was only when I saw the ‘five years ago’ that I went ‘Oh, a flashback. That’s fine’, because I’m over him. I don’t think the recordings added much, there was plenty of drama without them between Eurus, Sherlock, Mycroft and John.
GREG!
Mrs H hoovering and pointing towards the kettle (the memory of Mrs H’s awesome from last episode made we wish we’d had more of it in this).
So, Sherlock and John were put through the emotional wringer, and we had proof that Sherlock’s heart well and truly beats. I don’t even know what to make of his mother saying he was the grown up one. At times, I was right there with them, at others, I wasn’t, which is true of all three episodes.
I thought this had some brilliant scenes and moments, but I would have liked even more Holmes family Gothic psycho/melodrama and less of the Crystal Maze and I am torn about the whole girl in the plane being Eurus (I don’t care how they pronounced it, I’m not spelling it Euros.) This is all of a piece with the other two episodes, and the ending – well, I found Mary’s voiceover too sugary, and it was interesting that we had them rebuild the flat in montage. I’m not sure if that all makes it less final than it appeared?
Lots of Mycroft this episode, and lots of reason to harangue him – I thought that it was Eurus who had come to his touch and his reaching for his umbrella was predictable of him and so of course there wasn’t a bullet in gun. But yes, in assuming Eurus was safe in Sherringford, he’d been stupid, in giving her treats. A Stradivarius is one (expensive) thing, but MORIARTY for stopping three terrorist attacks when the meet would probably lead to several others was extremely stupid. Lying to and ‘managing’ his family – well, his parents dealt with that, and they were right.
On the other hand, I enjoyed the running Lady Bracknell/acting gag, I gave a mental smile at wee!Mycroft being chubby and I realised he was needling Sherlock to shoot him instead of John well before Sherlock explained that’s what he was doing, although I assumed he had a bulletproof vest on, but Sherlock decided to have a meltdown and change the rules anyway.
Sherlock and John seemed back to being big pals, very little awkwardness, perhaps because they had a shared anger at Mycroft and Eurus. Something that wasn’t quite linked to the previous episode was that Eurus allegedly programmed everyone she talked to – but not her brothers, it was suggested. However, what about John? I get that she didn’t kill him, she just tranqed him because she wanted him to provide emotional context for the experiments/challenges for Sherlock – although, once again, the big cliffhanger is weasled out of - but it seemed like a wasted opportunity.
Well, apart from ‘the final problem’ which felt like one final rug pull, in that the opening scene we’d seen was not real, but rather Eurus’s dream/Sherlock’s imagining. Perhaps she was programming him, after all. I should be used to it after the last episode and all of Sherlock’s memory palaces and hallucination of the Victorian era (oh, Moffat and Gatiss will be congratulating themselves that the Abominable Bride told us the puppeteer was female). But I wasn’t, and although emotionally, it was the little sister who wanted her brother to play with her, who wanted the connection he had with others, and so destroyed it (Redbeard/the friend) out of pique, reaching out for her brother, and that was affecting, said little sister did lie and manipulate and destroy and threaten to destroy and kill and kill and kill. So, it was right that she was back in prison (but the same prison!?) and that Sherlock reconnected with her, I guess.
Where did all this ‘she won’t talk’ stuff come from after Sherlock had come for her? Sure, they wanted the violin duet and it was effective, but I didn’t understand why she’d decide to be quiet after that.
Sian Brooke’s performance seems better taken in the context of all the other shades of E, we saw. E got to be the most affectless, for creepy value. The moment where she greeted and almost danced with Moriarty was the best, especially because they played on the reflection of the glass that would earlier/later be missing. We had the other two siblings performing so-so accents, perhaps in homage to Eurus in the last episode.
I also think it should be noted that Sherlock was surprisingly brilliant at talking to ‘the girl on the plane’. Normally he’s never that good with children, or anyone. But at the time I supposed it was fitting into the ‘good man’ theory pounded out by Mary and built up to in the episode. In hindsight, it was because he was talking to his sister.
The big problem with this episode was that it felt like there was a lot of exposition, as if they wanted to prove they’d seeded much of this since always.
Anyway, in the Crystal Maze series of challenges, I did howl at the ‘soldiers’ to remember that the Governor had been brainwashed by Eurus and she would likely shoot his wife anyway. It was also unsurprising that Eurus killed the three brothers, but a bit of a surprise that Molly was only emotionally lacerated. (Am I really critiquing the show for not going as dark as my imaginitaion would have?) The threat of blowing up her flat and then laughing it off was legitimately clever, because after blowing up Sherlock’s flat (let’s not dwell on the image of John and Sherlock leaping out of the window, because, unlike the BBC promo department, I didn’t think much of it), no wonder they believed she could/would do it.
MOLLY. MY HEART. That would be the most excruciating scene right there (because to be honest, I thought Eurus had made Sherlock kill his dog called Redbeard and he’d repressed it, so while what turned out to have happened, with the child proto-John figure was horrible it wasn’t as horrible as I’d imagined.)
Presumably they saved Molly because they knew that was a red line for me? Also having just pretended to herself for a few seconds that Sherlock wasn’t lying when he said he loved her (although I think he platonically cares for her enough not to want her dead) and having to admit her feelings, killing her would be beyond mean. BUT she appeared in the final montage, turning up at the rebuilt flat looking quite cheery, but we didn’t get Sherlock apologising or explaining what had happened. Even if it had been in his own special way, I needed that and Molly deserved it on screen.
I have to admit I sighed in disappointment when Moriarty turned up, despite Scott’s admirable vamping. Thing is, I’d considered he could have been Eurus’s Christmas treat, but it was only when I saw the ‘five years ago’ that I went ‘Oh, a flashback. That’s fine’, because I’m over him. I don’t think the recordings added much, there was plenty of drama without them between Eurus, Sherlock, Mycroft and John.
GREG!
Mrs H hoovering and pointing towards the kettle (the memory of Mrs H’s awesome from last episode made we wish we’d had more of it in this).
So, Sherlock and John were put through the emotional wringer, and we had proof that Sherlock’s heart well and truly beats. I don’t even know what to make of his mother saying he was the grown up one. At times, I was right there with them, at others, I wasn’t, which is true of all three episodes.