Trufax:

[amalnahurriyeh]

It is possible to experience watching The Reichenbach Fall viscerally, and by viscerally I mean my actual stomach hurts. At least I didn't cry this time? Wait, I'm crying now, it's apparently a delayed fucking reaction.

Anyway, Leigh and I rewatched both serieses this week. If you don't follow me on tumblr, my random thoughts as we did so are:

here: ASIP & TBB
here: TGG
here and here: THoB
here: TRF

I didn't write any notes on Tumblr for ASiB because I was too busy being in love with Irene Adler.


...OK, seriously, I just changed my icon from my default to the one of Sherlock on the couch and now I'm crying again. Changing it to Molly...there, not crying, just thinking about how I need a better Molly icon.

Comments

[applegnat]

You might have caught this already: in the ep just before TBB, he calls the dead woman in pink, Jennifer Wilson, "clever" -- "Jennifer Wilson, running all those lovers; she was clever. She was leaving a message." I paraphrase. [He says this to JW right after JW has that great line: "Use your imagination." / "I don't have to."

[applegnat]

Both times, very specifically used for doomed women trying to escape death. I feel sure he's used it for Irene as well. Does anyone else in the series get to be clever, in his eyes? I don't know. It's an interesting question.

[abrae]

I was talking about that last shot in TRF with different people - general consensus was that it was gratuitous, and I thought so at first. BUT, BUT. So, if you have a passing knowledge of canon, you know he's still alive (also, S3), and so, to my mind, that last scene is entirely for affect. He's seen John, he knows by John's body language (!!!!!!!!!) how much his death has affected John. God, he's saying goodbye, I think. And so I kind of love it now. I didn't before, but now I kind of do.

And Martin Martin Martin. KILLS me every. fucking. time.

Just my $.02. With grapes. ;)

[frayadjacent]

You know, I think TGG is still my favorite episode. I love how John & Sherlock's relationship develops in that ep, from John having a "who the fuck is this person" moment when Sherlock is so excited about the cases (god I love that scene when John yells at Sherlock, to no avail, and then tries to distract himself with the newspaper) to that holy shit moment at the pool. Well, that entire pool scene is amazing. The John & Sherlock (or John/Sherlock, if you like) parts, the Moriarty parts, the Sherlock himself parts. So good.

I keep meaning to rewatch but haven't gotten to it yet. Maybe when S3 is closer to airing.

[amalnahurriyeh]

Yes, Soo Lin Yao and Jennifer Wilson are both clever, but doomed. I was listening for it in the rest of the episodes, and the clearest place was in Reichenbach, but I can't remember without a transcript if Sherlock himself says it: John tells him not to be clever at Moriarty's trial (Sherlock fails at that), and then Moriarty uses the term a lot in the rooftop scene. Which, again, implies that to be clever is to be doomed. Somehow. IDK. I need to think more.

[amalnahurriyeh]

There's a huge chunk of the fandom (I think) that isn't familiar enough with ACD canon to get that the episode title is a spoiler, so probably they needed the shot to get those viewers up to speed with the rest of us. It's a little gratuitous, but mostly, for me, as a viewer, it recements the way I'm feeling about Sherlock in that moment, stops all of my emotional energy from being drained away on John and keeps it tautly pulled between the two of them. Frankly, as weak as it is, it also keeps the episode from ending on the crushing note it would if it ended with John walking away from the grave--it's a signal that There Will Be More, you know.

This was my first post on Sherlock ever. My feels about Martin in that scene. I just can't.

[amalnahurriyeh]

TGG is basically a perfect episode. It's so tightly done from start to finish, and there's all this emotional whiplash in it. Guh, the pool scene. Just, just guh.

I had forgotten how emotionally different the first and second serieses are. John and Sherlock really are still feeling each other out in the first series, but they're absolutely a unit by the second. It changes the whole dynamic.

The rewatch was Leigh's idea. I'm quite grateful to her. :)

[frayadjacent]

It's true, they really have cemented their dynamic in S2, and I feel like that pool scene and TGG in general played a big role in that.