The Sherlock Rabbit Hole

[westernredcedar]

I've been lost in Sherlock fandom again for a while, mostly thanks to bk7brokemybrain who hooked me up with some amazing meta about Season 3 and I fell down the rabbit hole and have yet to emerge out the far end. Gah, this damn show. It just can't stop making me want to think about it.

The meta I've most enjoyed has been the detailed work of loudest_subtext_in_television, and as of last night I believe I have read everything she has on her masterlist at her blog. (I really enjoy the super-meta of reading a blog about a TV show that has a blog as a major plot element.) I'm completely intrigued by her reading of the text of the show, including her fascinating analysis of A Study in Pink (oh,oh,oh her screen caps and thoughts on the scene at Angelo's in ASiP! YES! Bisexual John! Yes!) and The Blind Banker (who would have thought I'd be convinced to revisit TBB for anything other than dissecting the horrid race issues?), as well as the exuberant amount of writing she has done about Season 3. I have also been following the work of abrae, who has so much insight, especially into the use of framing and the language of film in how we can and should interpret the new season through this lens. Good stuff.

Last night I stayed up far too late reading arianedevere's transcript of The Sign of Three. Originally I just went in search of the exact text where Sherlock explains that he has taught John to dance, but then I ended up reading the whole thing.

The one epiphany I had while reading the transcript was one that is old news to others, I'm sure. It's that Sherlock reads a telegram from Magnussen (CAM) to Mary at the wedding. Oh! Oh oh! I missed this on my several watchings so far. (See, it's this sort of interwoven subtle clue that gives me hope that the deep relationship building identified by loudest_subtext might have some hope, at least partially, of being intentional on the part of the writers. Also, it makes me harken back to all the crazy predictions and text analysis of my early years in HP fandom...oh, evolving canon, you are so fun.)

Anyhoo, I don't have any added thoughts of my own, as the complexity and depth of the meta already being written far outshines any tiny thoughts I might have. I suspect I'll read another transcript tonight, and then I really, really want to try and write a plausible scene in which Sherlock teaches John to dance, alone at Baker St, because, holy shit...how would that even go down?

I get overwhelmed with UST just thinking about it.

Comments

[inkgeist.livejournal.com]

I'm not so sure a out the props, Sherlock, I would think, would have caught on to that. And there's no evidence he gave her the flashdrive but if she's starting over, why would she have all that info around? Now, I'll own that Magnussen doesn't trust computers, but a flashdrive seems safe enough, a condensed version of a hard copy....
This season was so weird.

[bk7brokemybrain.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think that flashdrive had anything to do with Magnussen. It only makes sense if it was Mary's little stash of info on herself. Agra referred to ACD canon, where Mary's father was stationed in India. So A.G.RA was purposefully written that way. I still think it was the only link Mary had to her old identity, maybe JPEGS of her old IDs and files from the CIA or whatever agency she worked for, her birth certificate, maybe family pictures etc. That was a gigantic thumbdrive, lol. If it was hidden information thrust upon her by Magnussen, she would have burned it herself.
The letters in his pocket I'm sure were a prop purely to snag Sherlock. Magnussen had no intention of selling the letters that day, but he made Sherlock believe he would by bringing them into town and showing them. Lady Smallwood's case was his entree into manipulating Sherlock Holmes, and thereafter Mycroft Holmes. He needed bait and he needed to perpetuate the myth of his vaults stuffed full of physical treasure.