#to him mentioned aforementioned killer at the scene of the crime in this episode

[sylvies-kablooie]

rewatching s2 ep3. mobius is so funny. i get that it's his job to have major historical points memorized but the enthusiasm he brings to the table is so endearing. why does he remember the most prolific serial killer of the era he winds up in. he thinks of hot air balloons and audibly says "yes!" because he cannot keep his excitement in. mobius m mobius ilysm

[meetmeatthecoda]

Now that I’ve had some time to cry & mourn & actually think about that horrendous excuse for television... I have... some thoughts.

Firstly, the pace of that episode was insane. I mean, the season itself felt like we were slowly & tortuously hacking our way through a tangled rain forest, trying desperately to see the forest for the trees, but instead stuck cutting vines & branches down one by one... until we got to that finale, which felt comparatively like finally cutting away all the dense foliage only to immediately fall off a fucking cliff. You could just tell they were using the least amount of dialogue they could to move through so many weird emotions at fucking breakneck speed. I mean there was... the brief aftermath in Latvia, the 4 second plane ride to re-introduce Red’s illness after how many eps, Liz’s 3 second long recuperation, the awkward attempt at humor with the helium followed by a crash landing into solemnity at Red’s talk with Cooper, the abrupt & unsatisfying discussion with Red & Liz where he makes his rEqUESt, all the different “heartfelt” one-on-ones with Liz’s people, the fucking forced af “romance” with K**nler, the shoe-horned “chance meeting” with Beth Ryker, the most Agnes has ever talked in the history of ever, the weirdly morbid & fucking heartbreaking walk in the park, the choppy restaurant scene, to the unmentionable... end event. It went all over the place, which is very unlike TBL imo, which usually seems to stick to a theme or emotional center for an entire episode, whether blacklister or mythology driven. I think it was painfully clear how poor their planning was (when they have literally no excuse bc they knew this was coming the whole season???) & just how much shit they were trying to squeeze into one episode.

Secondly - & this may seem obvious, but I think it’s worth talking about anyway - Liz should have gotten her answers. And I’m not just saying this as a Lizzington shipper (I mean, mostly I am, but there are other reasons also!) Primarily, I think bc... literally everyone expected them. Not just bc they were advertised (it’s certainly not the first time they’ve delighted in false advertising in promos when it comes to the all-important AnSwErS) but bc THEY MADE SURE EVERYONE KNEW BEFOREHAND THAT IT WAS MEGAN’S LAST EP. It might have been mildly acceptable to play coy for yet another season finale IF she was coming back in some capacity later to eventually wrap things up, but - given that they fucking slammed the door on that possibility - THEY SHOULD HAVE GIVEN US ANSWERS. I don’t think anyone considered the possibility that they would KILL her & NOT give us answers bc it makes no fucking sense. Additionally, Liz should have gotten her answers simply bc SHE!! DESERVED!! THEM!! They’re literally the thing she’s been fighting for for eight seasons & she fucking died without them? WTF??? But, most importantly to us Lizzington shippers, Liz not getting her answers ruined the park fantasy. I think we all imagined (BC IT WAS MEGAN’S LAST EP) that Red & Liz would finally talk & Red would give her the answers she wanted. I think we all expected from the (misleading) promo that he would make some sense out of the potentially jumbled memories/visions (?) from 8.21 &, most importantly, there would be SOME KIND OF EMOTIONAL TURNING POINT, SOME CATHARSIS, AN UNDERSTANDING & RENEWED LOVE BETWEEN THEM DRIVEN BY THE AFOREMENTIONED REVELATIONS (& LOVE OF WHATEVER KIND, MIND YOU, WE WEREN’T PICKY, JUST SOMETHING FOUNDED ON RECONCILIATION & PEACE.) But - bc they denied us that - Liz was still in the dark & waiting on answers for the entire ep, unable to forgive or reconnect with her true feelings for Red (whatever you believe them to be) & this made her reaction to Red’s rEqUeSt ring very hollow & detached, the whole park bench conversation stilted & awkward (on Liz’s end) & - THE WORST PART - it made the whole park fantasy feel FALSE. It cheapened it. Like she was just indulging him, letting him walk with her & play with Agnes & enjoy one more day of life before she indifferently killed him. The one thing we expected to get, should have gotten, & THOUGHT WE WOULD HAVE NO MATTER WHAT ELSE HAPPENED IN THE FINALE was ruined. With the assisted suicide talk beforehand, the almost begrudging acceptance from Liz, the obvious morbid mindset from Red, the song in the background, the context of it all. It put an awful spin we completely didn’t expect on what should have been our beautiful Lizzington park fantasy. And I think that may be the part that hurts the most - the fact that I can only look at gifs of that scene - bc the music & dialogue & context completely undermine what Liz’s fantasy should have been, that she got for just one afternoon, when she was supposed to be happy & at peace with Red & Agnes.

Thirdly, (anyone still there? lolz) the whole “plot” of this episode was fucking nonsensical. Chiefly - & many other people have pointed this out before now - Red would never ask Liz to kill him. I simply call bullshit. No matter how hard they tried to justify it (& boyyyyy, did they try) Red has never wanted Liz to be a killer, criminal, or have to live a life like him. He has canonically said as much. I could maybe buy the whole “taking over his empire” thing as the seasons progressed, but asking Liz to live with the guilt (however slight or delayed) of killing him, after everything they’ve been through together, after she told him she loves him (seasons ago, but the feelings are still there, albeit buried deep)? And thereby launching her (& by extension Agnes) directly into harm’s way as the “new” Concierge of Crime (?), without him there to guide her from the shadows? No way. Bullshit. Also - & @iwouldlovetoeatyourtoast mentioned this first, I believe - the whole idea of it was stupid anyway bc Liz has spent the entire season chasing him, has repeatedly gotten opportunities to take the big shot, & has always been unable to kill him. It wasn’t even an engaging tWiSt to throw in at the very end bc - even when she agreed to do it - we all knew it wouldn’t happen, also bc Megan was the one leaving & not James. So, it wasn’t a surprise when she broke down at the end & said she couldn’t, so wtf was the point?

Fourthly (almost to the end, god this feels good) & this was a huge tell imo - everyone was OOC. Now you might say that’s the bitterness talking & you might be right... but you fucking try & tell me that 1) Red all of a sudden decides he’s ready for death after how long of not accepting it or mentioning it & absolutely must be killed by Liz & no one else within the next 24-48 hours 2) Liz would willingly go along with that for even a second 3) Dembe wouldn’t try his damnedest to talk Red out of assisted suicide in general & especially coercing Liz into doing it 4) Ressler would be the one to fucking figure it out & hightail it out of bed AFTER BEING ON DEATH’S DOOR WITH A BUSTED LUNG & SEPSIS FFS 5) Wolf Man Van Dyke would even know where to find Liz on a random fucking street corner outside a random fucking restaurant 6) Red wouldn’t see him behind Liz taking aim 7) THERE WOULDN’T BE A DECLARATION OF FEELINGS/LOVE CONFESSION BETWEEN RED & LIZ IN THE 14 MILLION OBVIOUS PLACES THERE COULD HAVE BEEN *PRIMARILY AFTER SHE SAYS “I CAN’T DO IT, I DON’T WANT TO” I MEAN, HELLO????? WTF, WHY WASN’T THERE AN “BC I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU TOO, LIZZIE” LIKE HOW HARD WOULD THAT HAVE BEEN, IT WAS THE PERFECT PLACE, THE LAST CHANCE, & WE FUCKING DESERVED ITTTTTTTTTTT *ahem* & lastly, & most importantly, & I’m definitely going to cry typing this... 8) if you fucking try to tell me that Red would allow himself to be pulled away from Lizzie’s dead body for a second time by Dembe or anyone else (especially when it was only the stupid task force arriving???) without simply crossing the street to load his gun with trembling fingers, pull the trigger, & join her... you’re fucking crazy.

In conclusion, bc this has gone on long enough, this was just... a hasty, sloppy, rushed, unprepared, careless ending on all fronts, no matter how hard they tried to convince us it was totally-100%-on-purpose-of-course-why-do-you-ask? (And I’m not even touching on the Redarina bait bc fuck that shit.) Like, did anyone else feel like when Red was telling Dembe that he was sure & this was what he wanted & really he’s positive so please stop asking, and when he was explaining things to Liz in almost too much detail, and when he was telling Harold this was absolutely necessary... that it was really the writers trying to convince us? It just felt so sudden & forced & heavy-handed & absurdly preventable & at the same time ridiculously unstoppable... I mean, look, whatever drama clearly went on behind the scenes? I think we can all agree that they did a terrible, awful, shit-tastic job on all fronts. And it’s just such a shame that that’s how it ended 💔

[alltingfinns]

A Scandal in Belgravia

So I’m back on this.

The swoosh on some sped up footage in the previously, don’t remember noticing that.

This episode’s start gets so much funnier if you read some of the fic written between this and the previous episode.

Silly song now becomes more dramatic in TRF.

What did Irene offer Jim to get him so riled up? If it’s the plot plane plan that would explain why Sherlock is needed alive. But his emotional reaction... maybe he’s already been trying to get it on his own. Indicates possibly that Jim has been looking for a way to get to Mycroft.

“You’re typing a lot.”

This montage is nicely done.

Arguing about the blog.

The pouncing on the title.

He’s so hurt. He knows ash!

“We do watch the news.”

“You said boring and switched the channel.”

First time where “people” = John.

And the hat.

“It’s time.” I never thought about the waiting period.

Ehh, Hudson called up to the next floor so John’s room? Boys?

Ha cool, a SAAB. An old one too. I’d guess a 900 model from the early nineties.

Lestrade probably makes these calls a lot.

I get Sherlock’s confusion, he’s just in a sheet it’d make sense for him to be humiliated.

Their silent conversation + John’s acceptance of the absurdity.

That was a pretty long look on Sherlock’s lap and then asking about pants.

The Swedish subtitles on Netflix just referred to John as ”kronans gosse” I love it!

John took the queen liking his blog as a point in their argument.

I always like looking at John during the sheet bit.

Mycroft and John conversing in subtext that you need to remember their original conversation from a whole series/three episodes ago. And people think johnlock is too subtextual.

They made “the woman” a work title clearly to explain why Sherlock would refer to her that way. A bit harder to work in the context from ACD canon. It would be weird if Sherlock in modern times went “a credit to your gender” for defeating him.

Sherlock’s reaction Mycroft’s veiled assertion settles the question, I think. He’s making a “damn, he’s got me there” face. Mainly because John’s presence, if we considers his previous statement. If it were just him and Mycroft he’d just say “just because I haven’t done it doesn’t mean I can’t understand it!”

Btw, in case you think my typing speed is phenomenal I am hitting pause when something gets really interesting to me.

The parallel of checking the pictures have the “obvious” reading of romantic set up. But Sherlock is still learning details of a case he has been given so another reading is that while he’s targeting her she’s targeting him.

My reading is backed up by Sherlock’s immediate demeanor. His interest in her didn’t really appear until he found out she didn’t ask for anything. Blackmailers are a dime a dozen, but someone making a point of threat against the reputation of the BRF without asking for direct compensation? That’s someone with a plan and someone who can give him the kick he feeds of from casework.

John getting the last word in only for Sherlock to get the laterer word in.

Pinching an ashtray from the aforementioned BRF, whom himself mentioned as his first client with a navy, just to make John laugh? Some things are priceless but for everything else there’s MasterCard.

Okay, I had to back up a bit but: I don’t know who’s getting these pictures for Irene, but the last one that makes her smile is focused on John. She sees Sherlock more naked in the pictures where he’s fully clothed in the back of a cab than when he was in just a sheet on the pavement.

More parallels. This is really about their similarities. Could still be considered romantic foreshadowing “they’re made of the same cloth” type.

Ah yes, punch me.

That little dialogue snippet about “punch me” usually being subtext is what got me to first watch this show.

In general I have a lot of issues with how they handled Irene. But I especially don’t think I get the nudity in this scene. It reveals to Sherlock immediately that his ruse was all in vain since she either a) knew he was coming anyway or b) usually greet priests in distress while stark naked and might therefor just be stark raving.

Unflappable John Watson. Oh dear, my flat mate who I just beat up is sitting in front of a naked dominatrix with his vicar collar between her teeth. “I’ve missed something, haven’t I?”

He doesn’t like being a third wheel either. “I had tea too! Just so you know. In case you thought Sherlock got tea at the palace by himself. I was there too. The tea was lovely. Just the right temperature.”

Dammit.

Now I want tea.

Wait wait wait! When did John put his “date” shoes on? Only time it makes sense is when Sherlock was looking through his disguises. (He definitively wouldn’t wear them to traipse around the muddy crime scene.) Maybe they’re part of his “battle uniform”? Also obviously Sherlock can only “deduce” date because he knows what shoes John wears on dates. This isn’t really clothed people are easier to deduce.

How is he not deducing the heck out of her make up and ear piercing? Is it because she’s acting so extraordinary that her indicators become harder to contextualise?

Or is that whole thing just a plot hole?

And her comes her actual opening chess move. Nudity and banter was just setting up the pieces.

“Somebody loves you.” She pressed John’s big red “DO NOT PRESS” button right away. Later she says Jim told her how to play the Holmes brothers, but he definitively gave some pointers on John as well.

There’s something about John’s facial movements when Irene says he knows exactly where to look. Hard to compare with the sheet scene because of the different angles. But yeah, John is bi.

“You do borrow my laptop” with such an angry glare.

Wait are Irene’s shoes those shoes that are expensive because they’re red on the bottom? (I do not care enough to google their names.)

And it’s when John starts to smile that Sherlock does his verbal keysmash. Officially Ben said it was because Irene was paying attention to John instead of him, but she does that a number of times previously and has had quite a moment of getting cosy at John. But up until then John has been a bit standoffish. Of course you can only take so much of a pretty lady flirting with you before your smile reflex gets activated. Also he whips his head immediately at Sherlock in medical concern for his friend and Sherlock can speak clearly again.

Sherlock thinks he knows her game now as he makes his move getting her to confirm that the pictures are in the room.

Imagine the egg on his face if John hadn’t managed the smoke alarm in time.

“Amazing how fire exposes our priorities” should be part of a collection of lines that are only said once but thematically repeated throughout the show.

Some would argue maybe “I really hope you don’t have a baby in there” could be added but I don’t think it could be considered as repeated enough thematically.

Sherlock being his usual demanding self about turning off the fire alarm. The fool! Doesn’t he know how hard fire alarms are to turn off? (Maybe just a problem for me...)

Okay sure, easy enough with a gun, but impractical as a long term solution.

Umm, excuse me why does he go “no disrespect but you were clearly born in the 80s” in an episode from 2012? The most she’d be is 32, so clearly she looks at most like that then. Why would she be insulted by that? Also he earlier called a dude unhealthy, stupid and with bad breath in front of him without clarifying level of respect. So basically he’s needling her by adding that. That’s the most positive spin it can get.

John apologising for not stopping /forewarning about a whole bunch of trained killers sweeping in? That is diehard loyalty.

She’s staring hard at him as fire exposes his priority.

She actually does give him a clue by looking down the moment he looks at her. Never thought of that.

He heard something click wrong, looked at her for additional clue so she looks to the side ���get out of the way”.

I love that John’s priority is medically inclined in the action scene, checking the vital signs of the guy that got shot.

“Observant?” “Flattered?” Honestly he shouldn’t be so surprised by the first bit as it was obvious some kind of observation + deduction got Sherlock the code.

As usual Sherlock gives zero fucks about gun safety. I feel John at some point is going to tie him down and lecture him about it. “We do not scratch our heads with the barrel of a gun, and we don’t call for the police by shooting in the air!”

You know if you’re knocking him out cold regardless, you don’t need him to drop the phone first. You just wanted the beating to be literal.

“He’ll be fine. I’ve used it on loads of my friends.” Yeah no, tell the doctor what chemical knockout drug you just put in a former drug addict!!

I wonder how much of dream Adler is actual Adler speaking to a drugged out Sherlock.

Could be nothing with the only real part being “hush now, returning your coat”. Would make sense for a dreaming brain to jumble the two cases together.

Start of series 2 we get to see Sherlock’s bedroom while John’s remain a mystery after 4 series.

John is not on the top of his game this episode. “What woman?”

And so it begins.

Mycroft does not have “shut up Hudson” privilege.

That whole phone noise discussion is punctuated with embarrassment.

Ah the gaping jaw that set the sails for the lestrolly ship.

“Christmas is canceled!” I love when John banters with Sherlock.

Sherlock is mean to Molly, but to be fair she kind of blundered a bit with the others and Sherlock complaining about John being away was clearly something he told in confidence. Telling Greg and John that their loved ones are betraying the trust put in them is general misanthropy, but Sherlock probably feels justified in needling Molly about a crush that he figures none of them know anyway.

Oh John’s look there. Greg clearly knows too what is coming but John has the recognition factor.

“Oh shit. It was me. Still me? She still has a thing for me?”

For a sort of dramatic moment it still has one of John’s absolutely funniest facial journeys. “Wait, you apologised? You know what an apology is? Are you feeling well?”

Obviously Irene’s text signal gets a lot of funny moments, but nothing will beat the timing of this one. And now I am imagining Jim with a pair of binoculars sitting across the street and telling Irene “now, send it now, it’ll be fucking priceless!”

And Greg “wait really?” When you’re not sure what your consultant can do to surprise you next.

I believe I made a post about it earlier but Jeanette’s boyfriend just said he’s been keeping track up till 57 on text messages that his platonic flat mate gets where the signal is a woman moaning.

“Do you ever reply?”

Jeanette starts working on her break up speech about then, I believe.

Molly nervously gulps a drink. Now Molly is everyone’s favorite John mirror. Medical professional with a crush on Sherlock, and whose favored type of outfit involves knitwear. John usually takes a drink at emotionally difficult times. Is this Molly handling her rejection, or showing what John is doing/will do without showing John?

Mycroft. If they passed a new law why would Sherlock know about it before you?

“How did Sherlock recognize her from... not-her-face?”

Mycroft answers with a smile and leaving the room.

“I got plans”

“No” I know you. If it’s a date you’ve probably bungled it already. Regardless if it is or isn’t you’ll still prioritize my brother because you always do.

John really goes for the superconfident strategy when dating, huh? “I always thought I was great.”

“I’ll even walk your dog!”

“I don’t have a dog!”

“No, because that was the last one...”

Always thought you were a great boyfriend, huh?

When even your landlady who got out of her marriage through execution thinks you bungled it, you probably bungled it.

Think I’ll break here and continue the rest of the episode tomorrow.

[irraydiance]

A rant on B: The Beginning. Honestly, it was disappointing. Spoilers ahead.

I wanted to like this show. I did. It started off as a crime drama mixed with some supernatural and sci-fi elements, genres right up my alley. It wasn’t one of those vapid fanservice shows and even had a varied cast of characters; the promotional image and trailers showed three very different “main” characters: a returning veteran investigator (Keith), a mysterious, superpowered pretty boy (Koku), and the young/rookie female investigator (Lily).

For me, the biggest problem with this show is that it decided it wanted to be both a suspense/crime drama and a supernatural battle series but the two stories just didn’t mesh well at all and were tied together so loosely they might as well have been two different series entirely.

The crime drama half (Keith’s side) of the story was more interesting and what the show should have stuck to being. It had mystery and suspense (particularly the earlier episodes in trying to figure out who assaulted Brandon) as we followed Keith in his quest to find his sister’s killer all the while unraveling a national conspiracy.

The supernatural/sci-fi stuff with Koku and his demihuman pals felt so tacked on in comparison. All that stuff about recreating the gods and the child super soldiers was like Ergo Proxy meets Terror in Resonance, but more convoluted and with worse execution.

I feel like they should have kept Koku but removed a huge chunk of his side of the story along with a lot of the characters in his tale, and worked him into Keith’s story more cohesively. I don’t mind sci-fi elements, but a lot of Koku’s story really screwed up the tone and pacing of the show. The show would’ve been a lot more enjoyable if there was a more concrete, overarching idea that connected both Koku and Keith’s stories.

I would have preferred the show having one focused story involving the three principal characters outlined in the trailers/promotional images: Keith, Koku, and Lily.

In the first episode, the audience meets Koku as he gets to Lily’s house while she rushes by him on her way to work. When Lily gets to work, she’s introduced to Keith, a genius former investigator returning to the force after toiling in the archives division for years.

So after a setup like that, I thought these three would be intertwined quite closely, like, Keith is the grizzled vet tortured by some unsolved case that he has a personal connection with and is trying to track down the elusive “Killer ‘B’”, who is actually Koku, who happens to work for Lily’s dad and knows Lily, who is Keith’s subordinate. Lily would have made a perfect audience surrogate as she’d be in the interesting position of trying to catch “Killer ‘B’”, but also knowing him as Koku.

It’s not an original idea by any means but it still would’ve been a helluva lot better than the clusterfuck we got.

The scene where Lily finally finds Keith and Koku at the restaurant made me circle back to my initial assumptions about the show. It really should have been about these three characters. You would think that Koku and Lily would have more of a connection to each other in the story because he works for her father, but they don’t. So what was the point of having them know each other then? The fact that they're familiar with one another was ultimately inconsequential, especially when they have all of one interaction outside of the aforementioned scene, and when Lily finally finds out Koku is Killer B, the show never deals with the consequences.

It’s like the writers didn’t know what they had in front of them. They had a perfectly interesting plot thread hanging there but instead chose to introduce a whole glut of other characters for Koku’s story. The show just tried to do too much with too little room (12 episodes). Sometimes less is more. In this case, I mean shrinking the cast and polishing one story rather than splitting it into two very different stories with more underdeveloped characters.

Speaking of characters, yeah, they were sadly pretty flat in this show.

Keith was the most interesting character, which isn’t saying much in a show filled with characters that felt like they were only there to fill roles for a plot rather than have personalities and develop. He was the most sympathetic, but I didn’t particularly like or dislike him. Also, I was rolling my eyes at the final episode confrontation between him and Gilbert because the writers tossed the idiot ball straight into Keith’s hands there. He could have just shot Gilbert in the leg or hand, or knocked the gun out of his hand before he could even try shooting Lily when she entered the room. Instead, they had Keith hesitate for what felt like forever before finally shooting Gilbert in the head as if that was the only place he could’ve conceivably been shot.

Lily was okay. Her persistence with people could be seen as grating at times, but she was always attempting to further the investigation and kept the show moving, which I appreciated. Even though she had to be rescued at the end, the development that led her into the situation made sense considering her job.

Koku... I wanted to like Koku, I really did. His character had a good foundation to build upon.

...But god, the kid just kept going on and on about Yuna and I honestly couldn’t have given less of a shit. Yuna was a pink-haired living MacGuffin who served no purpose in the story except to get rescued. Maybe if Koku was motivated by something more interesting, I’d have liked him. Hell, I would’ve even preferred him being a brooding edgelord/pseudo-Batman ripoff instead of the glorified one-note protagonist he turned out to be.

I wanted to strangle him (or the writers) every time he mentioned Yuna. Koku could have been more, he could have been better than what he was, but no, it was just Yuna this, Yuna that. Good god, he was more entertaining in the one minute of getting chewed out by Lily when she confronted him and Keith than he ever was shouting GIVE YUNA BACK for an entire episode.

Part of me wished they’d killed Yuna off for real after she got stabbed just so Koku would change, even a little, maybe be forced to interact with others -- even a tired revenge story would have been more interesting than retrieving Yuna but that was sadly not in the cards. By the end, I was rolling my eyes every time the two of them showed up. I just couldn’t have cared less about them.

I cared more about Kirisame in that short flashback than either of them. He “died” like a true bro. Were I not so deflated by the show, I would’ve been interested in seeing what Kirisame’s plans are if they ever really commit to doing a second season.

All in all, there was a lot of wasted potential with this series. A real shame, because it had good production values (that Netflix money).

Also, the ED theme composed by Marty Friedman was great.

[waitedforgarridebs]

A Very Long Game Indeed

Or: Why “the game” really might be over soon

Can you actually believe the BBC at the moment? Like??? They write a summary for TFP, being all super mysterious, "SOMEONE has been playing a very long game indeed", and then imagine the thought process that followed this genius line… (x)

"What picture could we possibly put in that article... I mean, we write about Sherlock and John facing their greatest challenge ever, so we could use a picture of them being all action-y, or for click-bait reasons we could put a picture of Moriarty or even Mary there, but nah...

"Let's put up a picture of Mycroft, just below a headline that says “The Final Problem”. It's not like we really mention him in the summary... like, it’s implied by the “someone”, but shhh, that's a secret, don't tell the audience… yet."

Below the cut some ramblings on Mycroft in S4, and especially in TST – just because this was a very beautiful journey of Mycroft’s facial expressions.

Moftiss are slowly beginning to show their hand there…

NOTE, 17.05.2017: This post has been written directly after TST aired. I’ll update my theory according to everything that happened in TLD and TFP shortly, because I have a couple of things to say... (just took me a while to get used to this... whatever this series was) - I’ll put the links here under the “Read More” as soon as I’ve finished those posts!

In the meantime, please do enjoy the post in its current version! 

At the beginning of the episode Sherlock gets off the hook regarding the murder of Magnussen, because, Moriarty is back, and Sherlock is the only one who can deal with this problem; so it’s a lot more useful to have him here, fighting the dragons, instead of sending him to a suicide mission in Eastern Europe as a punishment for shooting someone’s brains out.

However, those brains had belonged to someone who was in a way quite “famous”, so in order to avoid too many questions, let’s tweak some video footage, shall we? Much more convenient than going through all the trouble of issuing an official pardon.

"Anything some baddie like James Moriarty can do, we can do better"?

I bet someone knows the record keeper...

But joking aside, it’s kind of disturbing, isn’t it? That your own government is not only able to, but also willing to use the same methods that those bad bad criminals use, and this furthermore not in order to keep the people save, but to cover up, not a peccadillo, but a case of cold-blooded murder? A murder which happened in front of a dozen witnesses? And then they blame it on some random NPC, “some over-eager squaddie with an itchy trigger finger”, because it serves the greater good more when this genius detective / murderer is hunting down a ghost?

That doesn’t make me, a random NPC, feel very safe; you?

Anyway, Sherlock is now back on terra firma, #ohwhatabeautifulmorning, and what a beautiful morning indeed, because “the game” is on again.

“The game”, what “game” ...

The... Great Game?

The missing last pip had been haunting Sherlock even inside his gay fever dream (x), so of course this is what Moriarty is doing. The game never had been finished, and now Moriarty’s #back, and of course he’s got something lined up.

Moriarty never had been “ordinary”. He wouldn’t just try to frighten Sherlock, no, no, he would never be that disappointing.  He's planned something, something long-term. Something that would take effect if he never made it off that rooftop alive. Posthumous revenge.

No, better than that - posthumous game.

Okay, what the hell is ^this face?

No, honestly. They could have shown any random face here, a frown on Lady Smallwood’s forehead, the disbelief on Sir Edwin’s face, a baffled Mrs Norbury, they could have actually focussed on the person who is currently speaking for all that I know, but no…

When Sherlock starts to obsess about Moriarty and “the game”, and basically any other time Moriarty is mentioned in this scene, Moftiss decided to focus on Mycroft’s face.

A lot.

What is that look on your face, sir?

Is that guilt? Fear? The realisation that you might have gone too far? That your own brother is getting himself in grave danger, and that there is nothing you can do, and even worse, that it is you who is responsible for this?

Let's do a quick recap, because so far, we really don't have any new evidence in that Moriarty case. Lady Smallwood points it out herself, we only have Sherlock's word, Sherlock says that Moriarty is back, Sherlock says that something is going to happen, and that he himself is the target, and furthermore that he is the only person able to deal with this.

But then, in the following months, nothing happens. The only thing that happens is Sherlock trying to be clever, he will know when Moriarty makes his move. And then ends up stumbling across a random, quite unrelated case of the Thatcher busts because of a "premonition", and I can tell you exactly why that was - repeating what I said last week:

Because, this has to be Moriarty - tut tut, he’s repeating himself.

In TGG, Moriarty decided to stage his crimes according to the blog entry “A Study in Pink”.

In TST, Sherlock will think that Moriarty just moved on to another blog entry, “The Six Thatchers” (x), and therefore that this case is related to Moriarty’s return - which, very likely, it won’t even be! It’s enough that Sherlock thinks they are related, so he’ll investigate away, and therefore will miss other stuff that will prove to be terribly important. 

(x)

Sherlock has lost himself in playing this game. He's blind to see what really has been going on for quite a while now. Even if he's been stumbling around the fringes of it for ages…

Sherlock knows that the government or respective secret services have the skill to do exactly what Moriarty's been doing all the time; even we, the audience, know that, just look at all the stuff Mycroft is doing whenever he was going all Orwell around John (x)!

Sherlock knows that Mycroft is working for his own and apparently even other governments (implied), offering his services to whoever's needing them, he now learns that Mycroft has been using freelancers like A.G.R.A. - even if Mycroft doesn't tell him that it was him who "wound them up", only that it was his "initiative" to stop using them, what an euphemism! - and isn't it very remarkable that the government seems to have exhaustive records of Moriarty's involvement in all the crimes committed by him at the very least during the last year of his life?

If they have all ^this knowledge and all the aforementioned skills, why was no one able to stop this man? Why did Sherlock Holmes have to fake his death only to then not succeed in stopping Moriarty from carrying out some weird posthumous game - years later (!) - something that threatens public security but apparently is only aimed at Sherlock? He is the target!?

And Moriarty chose the very moment Sherlock was being sent away to his death for his comeback because... why exactly?

In this whole episode, which was meant to explain how Moriarty can be back and what he is going to do next, we didn't see very much of him, or of cases that could be linked back to him. What we do have, apart from the whole Mary arc, is Sherlock obsessing over a ghost, and some Bond-esque spy drama that doesn't paint the government in a very good light.

They are unable to stop the most dangerous criminal the world has ever seen (even worse, apparently they have to rely on an "amateur" for this), and furthermore they are involved in a lot of very shady activities - hiring freelance killers to “save” hostages, doctoring security footage to cover up a murder…

And in the very centre of this, Mycroft Holmes. The most dangerous man we've ever met - and not Sherlock's problem right now.

But he will be. Soon enough.

Mark did promise us "a lot more Mycroft" in S4, after all. (x)

Read more about how Mycroft invented "Moriarty", Sherlock's nemesis, in my MYKEY-Code meta series (x).

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