I know that there is already a lot of meta about the explenation of season four and what I will tell you isn’t a new thought. I just want to give you another proof for it.
I am talking about the explenation that season four happens inside Sherlock’s head when he is on the plane.
I say that Sherlock relives his relationship to John with a better end for their relationship.
1:
Here we can see Sherlock’s and John’s first meeting in real life.
And here it is inside Sherlock’s mind palace.
2:
Here is The Reichenbach Fall in real life.
And here it is inside Sherlock’s mind palace.
We know exactly that TAB happens inside Sherlock’s head. This isn’t something new, but the really interesting stuff comes now.
3:
Here we see John being upset about Sherlock because someone “died”.
And here we see John being upset about Sherlock because someone “died”.
The only difference is that instead of Sherlock Mary died. Why she and not Sherlock? Sherlock tries to make everything right he didn’t the first time. Probably Sherlock got that prententing to be dead wasn’t the best idea. Furthermore, Mary just appeared because John needed someone else when Sherlock was gone. That Sherlock isn’t gone means that Mary can leave.
Why John is upset? He was upset the first time and because of that he should be upset the second time.
4:
Here we see Sherlock risking his life to save John.
About what is TLD? Sherlock is risking his life to save John. You see the similarity, don’t you?
5:
And here we see Sherlock saving John again but this time without really risking his own life.
Oh, and what does he at the end of TFP? He saves John.
Why TSoT and HLV aren’t there? TSoT just happened because Mary was there. Mary died and, in Sherlock’s version, nothing has to happen about this. HLV just happened because of Mary, too. He wanted Magnussen to forget/delet every information about Mary and then he killed him because he didn’t want to forget. Furthermore, Sherlock thinks that the incidents which happens during these two episodes are kind of bad for his relationship with John. At least, he has to leave John because he killed Magnussen.
Everybody is upset about Mary’s message at the end of TFP but when we think about the fact that everything happens in Sherlock’s head, that is just his dream. He wants to stay with John in Bakerstreet and wants to solve cases with him.
Then there is the fact that John’s daughter is always away. Sherlock just wanted to have John and a little baby would be annoying. Furthermore, Sherlock could think that John and Mary have many friends. I mean, John came to the drug-house to save a friend’s son, why shouldn’t there be more friends?
The last point is about all the needless drama. Let’s quote John in TSoT.
“You are not a puzzle solver, you never have been.You are a drama queen”
I think that says enough, doesn’t it? Sherlock needs the drama so he invents drama inside his head.
I would be happy to hear your thoughts about that and please tell me whether this theory already exists. I haven’t read it and because of that I hope that it doesn’t but I haven’t read all metas.
@morethansherlocked: This is a great meta. And yes, your theory basically exists. It is called EMP or extended mind palace theory. There are lots of posts about this. Your meta is a lovely addition because you demonstrate the parallels very well. And we even get a hint in the show that this is exactly what Sherlock does: “So you told yourself a better story.”
A wonderful meta @morethansherlocked . And about the much hated monologue at the end of TFP …. it is actually nothing else than a reflection of what Sherlock himself said in other scenes prior to the end of TFP.
During the domestic scene in HLV:
SHERLOCK: You were a doctor who went to war. You’re a man who couldn’t stay in the suburbs for more than a month without storming a crack den and beating up a junkie. (that would be Mary’s ‘the doctor who never came home from the war’)
SHERLOCK: Your best friend is a sociopath who solves crimes as an alternative to getting high. That’s me, by the way. Hello. (and this is of course Mary’s ‘the junkie who solves crimes to get high’)
At the beginning of TFP it is John who says:
JOHN: Well, don’t worry. There’s a place for people like you – the desperate, the terrified, the ones with nowhere else to run. MYCROFT: What place? JOHN: Two two one B Baker Street.
This, of course, is Mary’s ‘there is a last refuge for the desperate, the unloved, the persecuted.
There is a final court of appeal for everyone. When life gets too strange, too impossible …
too frightening, there is always one last hope.
When all else fails …
there are two men sitting arguing in a scruffy
flat
… like they’ve always been there
… and they always will.’
The dialogue in TFP happens between John and Mycroft, but because this takes place inside Sherlock’s head it is actually Sherlock who is thinking it. The whole monologue isn’t Mary’s but Sherlock’s. Recycled thoughts …. nothing new under the sun! (X) :)))
I especially like the idea of TAB beginning just like ASiP as evidence that the plane is the start of Sherlock’s hallucination of “a better story” (better to his self-loathing mind, anyway) and that everything that happens after Sherlock supposedly wakes up and leaves the plane is all still part of that dream. Opening TAB with John’s narration actually constitutes a Framing Device, a film technique that sort of presents a story within a story, like the grandpa’s story in The Princess Bride does (and like ACD’s stories do with Watson as narrator). But normally, opening a film with narration means that you also end it with the same narration, which didn’t happen in TAB. Then there’s the weird coincidence that TFP actually does end with a narration – Mary’s narration – even though it didn’t open with one. So with TAB and TFP combined we have the complete set of opening and closing narrations, suggesting it is one story, start to finish. A true story within a story (except with a switch in who was telling that story).
Also I’m glad you mention Sherlock possibly still being on the plane (i feel like most of the time i obsess about other starting points like sherlock’s shooting or the beginning of HLV). Because Sherlock still being on the plane fits the Inception parallel very well (maybe too well, really), since the climactic dream-journey in Inception took place entirely on a single plane journey. In Inception, they ended up being in the dream (essentially, on the plane) for like…a really long time. 10 years? or something, since they went so many dream levels down.
Plus, if S5 opened with Sherlock waking up in the plane, just as he did in TAB, no explanation would be needed for what just happened. It would be immediately clear to the audience (maybe even casuals who were at least paying the minimum amount of attention) without needing to be explained. Sherlock waking up in the same spot, in the same way as he did in TAB (perhaps with Mary still pregnant and everyone back in those same outfits) would make it very clear. Besides, we arguably already have one false-waking on the plane – the first TAB plane scene, which i showed a while back can be proven to be part of the dream by a chain of cause and effect that ends in the obviously very dream-like graveyard scene (zombie corpse) that leads on to the waterfall where Sherlock says “oh right, still NOT awake, am i?”. So if we have one false-waking, then why not two?? 🙂 Anyway, I shall digress and shut up and go to bed :):) Great meta!
And yes, I know the British drive on the right side of the car, (I would know too, I’m from Australia) but for the sake of replicating the original image, I’ll just leave it as is. Sorry Layton, (and Luke especially)
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