Sherlock of Oz

by Poppy67

My opinion/ ramblings on the current direction of BBC's Sherlock Series 3

Sherlock of Oz (Spoilers for Series 3 BBC's Sherlock Holmes)

Spoilers if you have not watched the 1st two episodes of the 3rd series of BBC's Sherlock

I am one of those people still resisting opening up a Tumblr account and my sisters on Facebook could care less about BBC's Sherlock much less my opinions on it. I NEED somewhere to put my thoughts. I am asking for the indulgence of anyone who opens up this "story" and reads. This is a rant...not a story (Sorry.)

I have a few disclaimers to begin with

I am a fan of BBC's Sherlock

I have not seen nor have any knowledge of Episode 3 of BBC's Sherlock "His last Vow."

I do not claim any rights to BBC's Sherlock

Spoilers if you have not watched the 1st two episodes of the 3rd series of BBC's Sherlock

If I am totally incorrect in my theories, I am perfectly 100% fine with that

These theories and words are my own

After watching the first episode of BBC's Sherlock, "The Empty Hearst," I must admit friends, I was devastated. I am unfortunately a very linear thinking person. I've been sustaining myself these last 2 years by reading glorious fan-fiction. I have been in absolute heaven with the stories you all have been churning out – your Tumblrs that I have been reading – your beautiful fan-art etc... Thank you all for that.

I was anticipating a continuation to "The Reichenbach Fall" I was looking forward to being sent on a journey and for all the mysteries to be explained and tied up neatly with a bow. I blame myself for thinking this way. I was able to come to a final enjoyment of The Empty Hearst (TEH )by reading tons and tons of Meta provided by some outstanding Tumblrs. Once again, thank you.

After watching "The Sign of Three" (TSOT), I sat wondering what had possibly happened to this amazing show. I didn't need Tumblr this time around to assist me in understanding and enjoying the narrative. I like TSOT, but I found I did not like this final series as a whole (2 episodes.)

Finally, after much lost sleep (I don't think I need to be embarrassed about saying that because if you are reading this, you are an ardent fan of BBC's Sherlock as well, and may have lost sleep of your own) and after days of contemplation, I now see that I was too caught up in wanting the same when the writers were giving me something totally different.

I haven't been watching the 3rd series of BBC's Sherlock; I have been watching Sherlock in "Oz." I am basing this opinion and thoughts on the 1st two episodes as well as the recently released trailer for "His Last Vow."

I believe Sherlock Holmes jumped from the roof of St. Barts Hospital.

I believe Mycroft and Sherlock figured out Moriarty and found a way to defeat him. I believe Sherlock recorded the entire conversation with Moriarty and by leaving his phone behind before he jumped; he was able to leave behind a record to clear his name. "This phone call is my note. That's what people do isn't it…leave a note."

I believe Sherlock was surprised on the roof-top by Moriarty killing himself and he had to jump in order to save his friends. I do believe that Moriarty killing himself was an option both brothers figured out, but I don't believe they knew he would pull a gun in front of Sherlock and kill himself at that moment.

I believe Sherlock survived the fall by using that brain of his to determine that at that height he could with injuries survive a fall. If you are going to jump off a 4 story building, where better to jump than from a hospital. In real life, St. Barts is a teaching hospital that does not handle acute emergency care (please correct me if I am incorrect on this,) but BBC's Sherlock is fiction.

I believe Sherlock Holmes is in a coma.

I believe "The Empty Hearst" and "The Sign of Three" are happening in "that funny-little brain" of Sherlock Holmes.

I believe Sherlock's Mind Palace has suffered damage from his fall and he is off making up a life he never had…

1. GREG: He can't remember Greg's name. In "The Hounds of the Baskerville" Sherlock did not know Lestrade's first name. I believe once he learned it – he would not forget it. He has called Greg, Graham, Gavin, Geoff, sincerely and been corrected, yet he still can't remember properly from one meeting to the next. This is not Sherlock Holmes.

2. DEDUCTIONS: Sherlock's powers of deductions are off-line. These 2 episodes have had him confused, questioning himself, getting deductions wrong initially. In "TSOT" he was drunk, but at other times he has just not got the deduction correct on the first go round. I'd have to re-watch to say specifically and wish I wrote them down but if you do watch, perhaps you will see as well. In "TEH" he didn't immediately notice that the train car was missing. In "TSOT" he didn't deduce how Private Bainbridge was injured and didn't realize until Major Shalto was in danger.

3. ANDERSON: Anderson is now not a more than competent Forensic scientist, he is a bedraggled shell of his former self now leading a "Sherlock lives" fan club. In "The Reichenbach Fall" we learned that Sherlock respected Anderson's forensic abilities. We actually knew he respected Anderson from the very first episode "A Study in Pink" when he said Anderson wouldn't work with him. In Reichenbach, Sherlock specifically called for Anderson's help. I think he has carried some animosity into his coma about Anderson because I believe he thought Anderson could figure out the truth instead of him being influenced by Donovan. I think he still has respect in Anderson's abilities which is why after the last theory in TEH, he had Anderson remain skeptical and not believing of the truth of how he survived when it was Sherlock himself telling him the story. I think that was Sherlock having some fun in his mind by making Anderson out to be an idiot, which he knows he isn't. Sherlock has also called Anderson by a proper name –Phillip. I am not convinced this is Anderson's first name. I think Sherlock has never used Anderson's proper name if he even knows what it is.

4. SALLY: Sally Donovan has only been seen in "The Sign of Three" and she has only been seen as what she actually is…a hell of a competent Sergeant of New Scotland Yard. Sherlock respects Sally Donovan. Sally followed the clues and put forth a convincing case. I think Sherlock is proud of her and if he were awake he would relish telling her to her face what a fool she has been. :-)

5. MYCROFT: Mycroft has been featured very prominently in "The Empty Hearst" and "The Sign of Three." For us the viewers, he has been very prominent on our screens which in all past episodes is very unusual. This makes a lot of sense that Mycroft would be featured so heavily as I believe he along with John takes up most of Sherlock's Mind Palace.

Mycroft has been seen just as he is to Sherlock in "real" life. Just as Anderson imagines Sherlock as James Bond, Sherlock knows his brother to be "M." Mycroft is his superior in every way. He respects his brother, he loves his brother, and in TEH, he was finally able to get the upper hand on his brother. He got to out deduce the great Mycroft Holmes, and wear a funny hat as well. He got a chance to debunk Mycroft's core belief "Caring is not an advantage" which we later heard from Sherlock as "Alone is what I have. Alone protects me." Now in his jumbled mind palace, Sherlock can tell Mycroft that that belief leads to isolation and loneliness, which he knows he doesn't have to suffer with any longer because through his friendship with John he can see he has friends and he would jump off St. Barts roof time and time again to protect them.

Also, in TEH & TSOT he and Mycroft are close. They have each called one another to just talk. In "A Scandal in Belgravia" Mycroft answered the phone on Christmas day as if a call was highly unusual between the two. He and Mycroft played a children's game, which made me think there was something very deep going on, but as there is a few years age difference and Mycroft is Mycroft, I simply think Sherlock is doing something he never got to do with Mycroft when he was young, and that is play a simple children's game. We know Sherlock likes to play games as he and John have played Cluedo and whatever other games they have in 221B. Mycroft is everything he is in real life magnified (intelligent/competent/wise) with a few extras thrown in (game-playing and an avid exerciser with a Treadmill/Cycle/Elliptical machine ready to use) Just for fun, Sherlock has Mycroft rub his tummy which is his subconscious still calling Mycroft fat. Finally, in a phone conversation in TSOT, apropos of nothing, Mycroft asked Sherlock to remember Red-beard. Sherlock immediately became agitated and yelled "I am not a child!" I think Mycroft is at that moment sitting at Sherlock's bed-side in his hospital room talking to his little brother and reminding him how when he was a child all Sherlock wanted to become was a Pirate and how he wanted Mycroft, the re-head, to play the villan Red-beard. I think Mycroft is also reminding his little brother how he sometimes indulged him or offering regrets the times he was asked and he refused. Mycroft is trying everything he can to help his brother, so, he is saying things (memories – upsetting things – chastising him - anything) to get Sherlock to wake up out of this coma.

6. PARENTS That couple in TEH are NOT Sherlock and Mycroft's parents. They are, but they are so wholly the antithesis of the parents who birthed Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes. A few of the Tumblr's I've been reading have noticed – Mum is dressed very similarly to Sherlock and Dad is dressed exactly like John. I think Sherlock knows Mummy to be very demonstrative because she raised him and his brother, and I think he doesn't know his father too well at all. His father is a hazy memory in his mind palace, possibly because he passed away when Sherlock was a child, so he has dad very passive, agreeable and mimicking Mummy's words. I don't want to be offensive here, but there is a class difference between Sherlock & Mycroft and the Mummy and Daddy sitting on Sherlock's sofa. Mycroft is so wealthy he is living in what appears to be a mansion and he is supplementing Sherlock's rent (I believe), they wear hundreds of pound suits, but Mummy and Daddy had to catch the coach into London, they're sons have been living in London for years and years, and the parents are acting as if this is their first time visiting. They almost missed their coach because they were looking for a Lottery ticket. The parents of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes had to take a coach? Mycroft sends government BMWs/Mercedes (I don't know cars) to escort John and Sherlock for talks, surely this lovely sweet couple would have a son who would fly them down or handle the train fare for them, if they live far away or send a car to pick them up if they live a bit closer. No, these sweet, befuddled, loving parents are a figment of Sherlock's imagination.

7. MRS. HUDSON: Mrs. Hudson, or Hudders as Sherlock has nick-named her, hasn't let (rented out) 221B from whatever time John left 221B until Sherlock returned. HOW could she possibly afford not to rent out such a prime apartment? I think she was only able to give Sherlock and John a discount because as I stated earlier, I think Mycroft helps out. Mrs. Hudson in Sherlock's mind twitters and bounces around like an overly happy sprite. She gives out sound advice with tea and biscuits and he misses her terribly.

8. MARY: I believe Sherlock gets on with Mary, because she is just the type of woman Sherlock wishes for John. Sherlock has conjured up the perfect girl-friend. John is a Doctor and Mary is a Nurse. I think the deductions Sherlock has made about Mary are just the sort of things a nurse would go on and on about while they are sitting with a patient. She lets him know that she is a cat lover, that she is an only child, she works part-time, she reads him the Guardian paper and complains about politicians and being short-sighted etc... From these talks I think the only thing Sherlock has deduced on his own is that Mary is clever. It helps that he has made her kind, & accepting of Sherlock immediately. She can figure out clues, she's not hysterical in the face of danger, she runs toward danger as she did regarding to jumping onto the back of a moto-bike with Sherlock racing to the bon-fire and with refusing to listen to her husband tell her to stay seated when he and Sherlock went racing off to help Major Shalto. I believe Sherlock is providing Mary with some dialogue as well. Who would think to tell Sherlock that they will "talk John round" when they first meet him? Who would tell Sherlock on their wedding day that "neither of them were the first."

What woman would openly encourage her fiancé to make time for his medical practice, time for her, and time to solve crimes with Sherlock Holmes? Mary is the uber John – "VERY loyal, as Mycroft would say, VERY quickly." Even-though Sherlock has "deduced" some rather upsetting things about Mary (Liar/Disillusioned) he sees no need to dig deeper. In TSOT he spent how much time going over Mary's friend's background and not working on cases to help out with the wedding, but Mary's background doesn't interest him in the least. This is NOT Sherlock Holmes.

9. JOHN:In the previous series I've come to believe that for Sherlock, John is everything that is good and great. While Sherlock is in his coma, he is remembering his friend with amazing clarity and loads of affection. He is remembering John as someone who was so down as to be nothing before he met Sherlock. He hopes John has been in a sort of stasis like himself while he is in his coma which is where the statement "What life…I've been away" comes from. Sherlock knows he can't have John to himself, so he has given John all that he can think of which will make him happy. He has been able to engineer both of them telling each other they love one another. He has helped John get past the hurdle of short-term girl-friends and given him a cute, funny, kind, smart girlfriend who has stuck around long enough to become his wife. Sherlock has also given John the ultimate dream for someone like John, of a baby on the way. If he had time, he probably would have provided the white-picket fence as well. Sherlock provides just enough peril to keep John keen. He has created a bomb easily defused by simply turning off a switch. This may be a truth as far as bombs are concerned, but in the majority of movies and tv shows defusing a bomb is a bit more scary and nerve-wracking than clicking off the off/on switch. Finally Sherlock has provided John with his very own private medical practice so John doesn't have to worry about locum work or losing his job when he goes chasing crime with Sherlock.

I believe Sherlock is in a coma and that Molly, Greg, Mycroft, Mrs. Hudson, and John have all been visiting and sitting by his bed-side.

I believe Mary is his nurse and that she talks to him and shares with him that she is being black-mailed. I believe Sherlock has heard John and Mary speaking softly to one another while she is on her shift. Sherlock has gotten it into his mind that Mary is perfect for John, and that he won't be needed in John's life anymore. Sherlock is forgetting while he is in his coma that John has crap luck with women and Mary will be just another failed relationship when they do not have a hospital prone Sherlock to talk around during Mary's shift.

For me to believe anything other than the core of what I've written would mean that I would have to stop watching BBC's Sherlock, a program that I absolutely love. I am not happy that this major decision of quitting the show is hinging on the outcome of Episode 3 "His Last Vow."

Thanks to anyone who actually read this!