At the end of TAB –– after Sherlock has spent an entire episode plunging into his mind and subconscious –– he comes face to face with Moriarty at the Reichenbach falls. Instead of the story going the way it always has before, the ending changes. John shows up and saves John by stopping Moriarty. In Sherlock eyes, this was a sign to himself that he needed to open up to John about how much he loves him in order to defeat Moriarty returning. At the time we thought that the waterfall scene was going to be the future of the show, if not the immediate future, with the big reveal happening in series 4, but TAB was setting up much larger ambitions for the narrative of the show. It turns out that TAB was a general roadmap for where the series was going to go in series 4, with the waterfall ending being reserved for the future of the show.
Series 4 features doctored footage, memory altering drugs, interrupted noir films, and many other elements and details in its ridiculous James Bond globe trotting adventures, Hannibal Lecter psychosexual torment, and a Shutter Island murder prison, all in a desperate effort to obscure what’s really going on. That’s because series 4 is a narrative being told by John Watson. John is telling a story that is covering up the truth: the two biggest events being Mary’s “death” and himself being shot. But John can’t help but let things slip out; as much as he tries to wrangle the story together and present a clean plot, his own internal biases, beliefs, cultural references, and perspective betrays him, as John is visible in every aspect of series 4, just like how Sherlock is present in every imagined aspect of The Abominable Bride.
Sherlock’s dream and John’s story. Sherlock’s dream is a journey into his deepest fears and desires while chasing Moriarty’s ghost, which ends on a hopeful and optimistic note. John’s story is a dark mirror and denial of that vision where he is haunted by Mary’s ghost and is unable to escape the fate of the “Samarra” story –– in each episode, at every point, John can be seen mirroring the same scenarios that Sherlock devises in his dream, informing us of characterizations, themes, and plot points that can used to be uncover the true events behind what really happened in the unfiltered version of series 4. When comparing the timeline of TAB and series 4, a larger theme emerges and the driving narrative of the show becomes clear; Moriarty and Mary both faked their own deaths and are the villains, John is covering up the truth of what really went down after Moriarty’s return, and he ends the series 4 writing a fake happy ending as John and Sherlock’s relationship becomes frozen in time, guarded by Mary’s presence, and unable to progress. Series 4 is a false catharsis of plot threads, character arcs, and narrative goals, and we are currently at the crisis point in the overall story, as something terrible is being hidden by John’s happy ending. We still have not changed the ending of the story yet –– that will be what’s coming next.
The resolution that’s coming will be a version of the Reichenbach falls scene… but before John and Sherlock can get there, the truth of what really happened, and of what John and Sherlock really feel for each other, will have to burn away the lies and finally culminate in the realization that they both love each other and can defeat Mary and Moriarty together.
Just FYI in case anyone tries to find them, I’m making some of the TAB Timeline posts private for a bit because I’m going to go back and edit the earlier ones (before the length of them got out of hand) as well as adding some new posts to the series, so if you don’t see them it’s because they’re being updated.
“I felt that the society of
such a man would be to me a treasure beyond price; and this feeling I
frankly confided to him. It was at length arranged that we should live
together during my stay in the city; and as my worldly circumstances
were somewhat less embarrassed than his own, I was permitted to be at
the expense of renting, and furnishing in a style which suited the
rather fantastic gloom of our common temper, a time-eaten and grotesque
mansion, long deserted through superstitions into which we did not
inquire, and tottering to its fall in a retired and desolate portion of
the Faubourg St. Germain.
Had the routine of our life at this place been known to the world,
we should have been regarded as madmen—although, perhaps, as madmen of
a harmless nature. Our seclusion was perfect. We admitted no visitors.
Indeed the locality of our retirement had been carefully kept a secret
from my own former associates; and it had been many years since Dupin
had ceased to know or be known in Paris. We existed within ourselves
alone.
It was a freak of fancy in my friend (for what else shall I call
it?) to be enamored of the Night for her own sake; and into this
bizarrerie, as into all his others, I quietly fell; giving myself up to
his wild whims with a perfect abandon. The sable divinity would not
herself dwell with us always; but we could counterfeit her presence. At
the first dawn of the morning we closed all the messy shutters of our
old building; lighting a couple of tapers which, strongly perfumed, threw out only the ghastliest and feeblest of
rays. By the aid of these we then busied our souls in dreams—reading,
writing, or conversing, until warned by the clock of the advent of the
true Darkness. Then we sallied forth into the streets, arm in arm, continuing the topics of the day,
or roaming far and wide until a late hour, seeking, amid the wild lights
and shadows of the populous city, that infinity of mental excitement
which quiet observation can afford.
At such times I could not help remarking and admiring (although from
his rich ideality I had been prepared to expect it) a peculiar analytic
ability in Dupin. He seemed, too, to take an eager delight in its
exercise—if not exactly in its display—and did not hesitate to
confess the pleasure thus derived. He boasted to me, with a low
chuckling laugh, that most men, in respect to himself, wore windows in
their bosoms, and was wont to follow up such assertions by direct and very startling proofs of his
intimate knowledge of my own. His manner at these moments was frigid
and abstract; his eyes were vacant in expression; while his voice,
usually a rich tenor, rose into a treble which would have sounded petulantly but for the deliberateness and entire distinctness of the enunciation.” (Edgar Allan Poe, The Murders of the Rue Morgue)
——————
“It is simple enough as you explain it,” [Watson] said, smiling. “You remind me
of Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin. I had no idea that such individuals did
exist outside of stories.”
Sherlock Holmes rose and lit his pipe. “No doubt you think that you are
complimenting me in comparing me to Dupin,” he observed. “Now, in my
opinion, Dupin was a very inferior fellow.” (Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet)
oh my god Mary representing John’s inner voice in TLD is absolutely a hint for this…. that’s why we listen to this Mary voiceover in TST reading out the letter while the letter is superimposed like over John’s face…. John wrote the letter
Behold! An unabashed Mary = Margaret parallel.
Don’t you just love the essential importance of transitions in this show? It’s the creators using yet another way to tell us what they feel for those two women is exactly the same. And as you can see, it’s not exactly a pretty thought.
the entry door in s3 is now on the other side of the living room….. in s4 the entry door becomes the kitchen…………….. i’m screaming this is incredible….. everything is reversed like a mirror
Like a mirror. like, bizarro mirror world?
door’s definitely not there in mhr. This still bothers me.
HEY HELLO, I am once again paying utter disregard to copyright law and dropping rare scripts into the hands of the internet at large with the hopes that it will be accessible after Jeremy Paul’s ghost drives me to insanity and/or someone issues me a c&d ✌
I got extremely lucky with this one – there are a few of Jeremy Paul’s Granada scripts floating around, but they are, generally speaking, inaccessibly expensive. Which is to say this is not nearly as hard to find as Secret, but it’s hard to obtain anyway.
[If you are interested, you can find my transcription of Jeremy Paul’s The Secret of Sherlock Holmes here – this is the play commissioned to him by Jeremy Brett, which Brett performed with Edward Hardwicke in the late 80s!]
