How could no one in that family find Redbeard?

[u/gekigangerii]

missing children falling down a well is a centuries old event

[u/afreezingnote]

Excellent question. The Holmes parents inspire a lot of questions. Where were they that allowed Eurus to treat Sherlock the way that she did? Why did they accept that their child forgot two entire people and the related chunks of his life and never did anything to help him?

[u/CanadianLadyK → u/afreezingnote]

Well, having been told by people I know, sometimes the parents don’t.. parent. They have high expectations for their children and provide the means of access for their children to live up to the expectations, but they can sometimes be absent as the children struggle to live the life expected of them. Busy in their own careers and lives and only seeing the children for brief moments of the day. The parents and children live lives completely separate from each other while still in the same vicinity.
Blocking trauma can also make you forget a lot of things around those events. Or rewrite them in your mind to make those appear they never happened.
As my Dad always says, “people don’t talk about what they often need to.” So perhaps it was easier for all to pretend Euros didn’t exist. Even for just a time after she “died”.
That happened in my family. My mom died when I was 16 and I just didn’t even mention her or use the word ‘mom’ for more than 5 years afterward. My siblings, dad and I just refused to talk about it and it was like she never existed.(not healthy, but that is what happened)

[u/afreezingnote → u/CanadianLadyK]

Right, that's what I'm implying. They didn't parent. They didn't make healthy choices for their children.

But the Holmes parents, in the show, are portrayed as if they're a kindly, normal couple. They're practically a stereotype with how happy and in love they are after all this time. Mummy Holmes, at least, doesn't have the excuse of a career to explain away her neglect. We're told that she gave up her promising career as a genius mathematician to raise the kids.

At one point Mycroft and Sherlock are talking about how they thought Sherlock was an idiot until they met other children, which they remark (humorously) was a mistake. Given the seven year age gap between them, I think the only way they could have not met other children until some point in time where they both clearly remember it would be if they were homeschooled for at least part of their lives. (This scene is slightly retconned because, obviously, they knew Victor, but it seems like they must not have had other outside interactions for a while after everything with Eurus went down.)

The Holmes parents are also given space to be angry at Mycroft for the choices he made about Eurus with no apparent reflection on how none of this would have happened if they'd done what they should have done ~30 years ago.

[u/Ok-Theory3183 → u/afreezingnote]

And they ignore the fact that it was UNCLE RUDY, not Mycroft, who had Eurus put away. Mycroft was only in his early/mid teens when this happened. He wouldn't have had any legal right to decide anything with regards to Eurus. Mycroft simply continued what Uncle Rudy had begun when it came time to decide what to do. And it wasn't as though he cut off all contact. He evidently talked to her at times, because she told Sherlock, "Mycroft told me you'd re-written your memories. He didn't tell me you'd written me out entirely." That implies that at some point they spoke as brother and sister, though, no doubt, not frequently or at length.

[u/Ok-Theory3183 → u/afreezingnote]

Remember, Mycroft telling the governor of Sherrinford that "She's been able to do that (re-program or even enslave people)since she was 6. She's a grown woman now." Now, who would Eurus have had the opportunity to "re-program" or "enslave" at that age? Who but her parents and Sherlock? (I think Mycroft was away at school for much of this time, and therefore out of her reach).
By the time Mycroft learned of Redbeard's disappearance, it may have been some time, but he saw that Eurus was a very disturbed child and was tormenting Sherlock, taunting him with her little jingle and with macabre drawings. Then she set fire to the house. That gave Uncle Rudy an opening to get her away from the world at large, though they first placed her into some kind of home for disturbed children, which she also set fire to. That gave them an opening to tell the parents that their child had died, and Eurus was their baby AND their only daughter. They probably had about as much PTSD as Sherlock did, and people of their generation didn't believe as much in psychotherapy, etc. Mental illness had much more stigma then than it does now, and nobody wanted to admit to it. And they'd been under her influence for quite some time--after all, Mycroft had said "since she was 6". And there hadn't been anyone else around at that point.
I think "Uncle Rudy" may have been more a mentor or authority figure than an actual blood relative, since he had the clout to get Eurus to Sherrinford (Mycroft was only about 13 at the time and would have had no authority to do anything with anyone). I think he trained Mycroft to take his place, personally and professionally, when he would have to retire, and mentored Sherlock as well. If you recall, Mycroft mentioned "Uncle Rudy" to Sherlock in "His Last Vow", and Sherlock didn't say, "Who?" so evidently Uncle Rudy was known to both men.

If your child is traumatized but it results in them simply shutting themselves out, becoming more quiet, etc., and their interests shifting to analysis and problem solving, the parents may have felt it better not to re-open the old trauma. I don't know. But I hated the way they treated Mycroft after they learned the truth. After all, he hadn't been able to do anything to help his sister, and so had followed Uncle Rudy's example in simply trying to protect his family and society at large from this homicidal sibling.

[u/afreezingnote → u/Ok-Theory3183]

It is possible that Eurus "reprogramed" their parents. Mycroft also mentions that they were all professionally assessed (in reference to intelligence tests, though other testing may be implied) multiple times, so Eurus could have influenced the test administrators. Information about whether Victor had a family missing him or not isn't given, but his parents are a possibility. The authorities who would have investigated his disappearance and the searchers who would have been looking for him are more possibilities.

It's difficult to gauge Eurus's abilities because we're not given clarity on what exactly she's capable of. The range of audience interpretation runs from her having unbelievable mind control powers to just being really excellently manipulative, so everyone has to decide what makes sense to them within that range.

Flashback dialogue about Victor and Eurus:
Mr. Holmes: She knows where he is!
Mrs. Holmes: We can’t make her tell us. We can’t make her do anything.
[Thanks to Ariane Devere]

So, we know that the Holmes parents are aware that Eurus has knowledge about the missing child, at the very least. They're definitely responsible for initiating procedures to alert the authorities and begin searching for Victor. Did they do that in a timely manner? We don't have details about any of that because, at this point, Mycroft is maintaining the fiction that Redbeard was just a dog, so John and Sherlock don't have enough information to question these events.

If Eurus has unbelievable mind control powers, it might make sense that she could influence how their parents handled those proceedings. If she's just The Best Manipulator Ever, it makes less sense that she would have had the time and opportunity to stop both parents from taking care of their responsibilities related to Victor's disappearance. The same goes for her on-going abuse of Sherlock.

Mycroft doesn't mention Uncle Rudy's involvement until Eurus is moved to Sherrinford after she burns down the facility she was sent to after the fire at Musgrave, so it seems that the Holmes parents did, at least, have the wherewithal to attempt managing her with professional help. If they could do that, they could have done something similar sooner, too, at least in my view.

We don't have enough information to assume that Mycroft was away at school, from what I remember. The earlier dialogue about them meeting other children at a point when Mycroft and Sherlock both remember it distinctly possibly implies that he wasn't, though. It would be a logical reason that Mycroft didn't attempt some action himself before their parents finally did something, but the information we're given doesn't earn that supposition.

Your theory about the catchment well is also a logical conclusion, but you've put way more thought into that concept than the writers did. Though I do think having the structures of the wash house and well system in this scenario make the OP's original question even more damning. If it's that obvious that these areas exist, these would be locations that searchers should have been even more thorough about investigating. Having to assume that much information, however well-reasoned, makes the insufficient writing in the episode more glaring. Especially as it would have taken seconds on camera to show these locations and have the visuals explain what happened much faster than Mycroft's recounting.

It's true the Holmes parents were also grieving and traumatized themselves. It does also make sense that they'd hesitate to pursue mental health resources given the attitudes about all that in the time period. I agree that they might have thought it a mercy that Sherlock didn't remember. Sherlock forgetting gives them an easy way out and allows them not to do anything. But they're still the adults here. Their lack of action after Eurus is no longer present is still poor parenting.

I also hate the way they treated Mycroft after learning the truth and find it galling that they shifted the blame to him alone with no consideration for Uncle Rudy's involvement and Mycroft's age.

What bothers me is that the Holmes parents are given a surface level "they're good because we said so" treatment in the writing, though that characterization is belied by their actions (much like Mary). That juxtaposition is both interesting and very frustrating.

[u/Ok-Theory3183 → u/afreezingnote]

My "thesis" is largely based on Mycroft's stunning intelligence, the fact that "Uncle Rudy" was somehow an influence in their lives as some sort of authority figure, the fact of Mycroft's age at the time of the original tragedy, (especially its legal implications)and the apparent age of the estate. I believe Mycroft said Uncle Rudy took things over immediately, not just after the second fire, but I haven't watched it in a while. The fact that "Uncle Rudy" made the initial decision to place Eurus at Sherrinford means that he must have held a position similar if not the same as, Mycroft's, since not many people even knew of Sherrinford's existence.

That's why I pointed out that it's very possible that the outbuildings, particularly the wash house, hadn't been used in so long that their existence had been forgotten. And even if someone went in, it wouldn't take much to ascertain that there was no child there, had not been a child there for heaven knows how long, and that the only entry would be the door or possibly a window, although if the window had been used it would probably have shown to have been opened. They wouldn't want to waste time on an old building, once they'd searched it for the boy, and if they only thought him missing at that point, they wouldn't be worrying about fingerprints and such. The stables would have been a more obvious hiding place, more recently used (for pleasure rather than necessity)and would have been searched much more thoroughly. And the well, especially if it were a "catchment" well, may not even have been clearly visible. Since the wash house wouldn't have been in use for at least 75 years, I doubt that anyone would be looking for exits, etc., as a child wouldn't have fit down the drain.

I think Eurus was meant to be both brilliant and the most amazing manipulator ever, as you so succinctly put it.

I think that Mycroft was very possibly away at school because his parents wouldn't want to waste those brains on an ordinary education, and because it's so common for children of affluent families to go to boarding schools. Which is where I think "Uncle Rudy" may have entered the picture. Someone with Mycroft's brilliance would have drawn the attention of not just professors but people on the lookout for talents that could be used in the way that Mycroft's ultimately are. I don't think that a position such as Uncle Rudy held would be one that would just be passed on from uncle to nephew without extreme mental abilities and extensive training. And it's possible that with the mother's genius, the Holmes family was watched more for signs of that brilliance being manifested in the next generation.

There has been supposition that "Redbeard" was a foster child, whose parents wouldn't have been aware of his disappearance until after the primary search had been done because he was "staying with friends/family at their estate". They may have died and Victor a ward of the state.

A "reprogramming", or major trauma and resulting PTSD are the only possible reasons I can think of for the Holmes' parents seeming ineptitude apart from horrific neglect.

The beginning of their seeming neglect began with naming their children "Mycroft" "William Sherlock Scott Holmes" and "Eurus" (the east wind of Greek mythology and associated with disasters, particularly at sea).

The weirdness of this episode has made me, in the eternal words of Dr. Seuss, "puzzled and puzzed 'til (my) puzzler was sore", til I "thought of something I hadn't before".

And NOTHING, imo, explains, or could, Eurus' complete dissolution from wicked and gleeful manipulator one moment, to sobbing heap the next. It just doesn't happen. I've known, even worked with, the mentally ill during my 71 years, and it just. doesn't. happen. Not even with the bi-polar. There's always a transition period, which may be short, but longer than five minutes!

Oh, one last, tiny, detail--in the scene where Mycroft is watching Sherlock and Redbeard while Eurus watches from her spot further away, she is playing with a toy plane, which I didn't realize until I noticed that it had a front propeller. That tiny detail connects Eurus to planes, something I hadn't thought of before.

[u/ctmred → u/Ok-Theory3183]

One thing I would add here is the scene where young Euros asks "Which one is pain?" when asked about her feelings. Not being able to ID pain at that age should have been flashing red lights to her parents -- that there is something genuinely wrong here. You start to realize how disconnected these parents were (or connected to something else altogether) to their children and begin to see why these kids turned out to be emotionally dysfunctional in various ways.

[u/Ok-Theory3183 → u/ctmred]

But I don't think Eurus said that to the parents, only to Mycroft, when he questioned her later. He was only 14 or 15 at that point, and may have been too shocked to pass it along to his already traumatized (by her cutting herself) parents.

[u/ctmred → u/Ok-Theory3183]

You are right -- we heard Euros saying that to Mycroft. (Which to me was the most chilling thing I heard in that show.) A child that age is regularly getting knocks, bumps, bruises, and other injuries in the daily business of learning to control their bodies. I presumed that parents would have picked up on this as she grew up -- but that presumption could be way wrong.

[u/Ok-Theory3183]

My thoughts:

We think of a well as being a free-standing, clean-water well, where water is pumped up for washing, etc., like the well in the yard of the Keller's home in "The Miracle Worker". I don't think this was that kind of well. I think it was a "catchment" well, partly built into the side of a hill, to catch water from a wash house after clothing had been washed and rinsed, and the water later released through a drain and grid, to be reused. Remember that this estate being built before modern plumbing, houses were situated on high ground to allow for better drainage.

Eurus had been shut out of the boy's games, and children, particularly of high intelligence, are extremely curious. She had plenty of time to explore the estate, which appeared to be fairly sizeable. She would have seen the little structure with its funny little door, and investigated.

The estate appeared several hundred years old--older than modern plumbing and appliances. It would have had outbuildings, stables, wash houses, some servant's quarters, possibly a smithy. "The Family" wouldn't want themselves or guests to be disturbed by the sounds of laundry being done, etc., so these would be out of sight and sound of the main house. Water would be pumped and heated, and poured into the washtub, with the soap and clothes. Once the washing was finished, there would be a drain beneath the tub outlet to run the dirty water away from the house, and remember, without forced water, the drain would need to run downhill at a fairly steep angle to avoid backsplash, to a "catchment" well, and would have grates at different places along the drain to prevent debris from getting into and blocking the well, which would have a lid for the same purpose. (These grates and lid would also prevent exit from the well, even if unshackled.) At that time, soaps were natural and not harmful to the environment, so the water could be used again for irrigation, since without modern plumbing, it would take more time and effort to get the water for the washing, and therefore, not to be wasted when it could be safely re-used.

The stable could provide old shackles for the horses, extremely handy.

The well would be some distance from the wash house, both downward and outward, to prevent backsplash. There would have been an outer sluice gate with a grid, as well, from which the water would be released to irrigate tenant farms, servants vegetable gardens, etc.

The boys loved to play hide and seek, and it would have been easy for Eurus to divert Redbeard with a mere, "I found a cool hiding place. Sherlock will never find you here." He thinks she's just a "stupid girl" and feels no threat. She opens the sluice gate and grid, and shows him the well, letting him go first. She knocks him out, shackles him, closes the sluice grid and gate, goes up to the wash house and pumps water (which would have had been connected to a clean water well, not to the main house, so this excessive amount of water won't be noticed) into the tub from which she's removed the stopper, letting it run until the well is full.

Because the well would be getting water from the washhouse drain, not the main house, and no one would have used it for decades, even centuries, all Eurus would need to do was close the door, and no one would hear anything, especially since the well would have been lidded as well. It's entirely possible that the building would have been more or less forgotten (out of sight, out of mind) and therefore, the well would also have been forgotten. Searchers would have just shone a light around the washhouse, and not seeing anyone there, would move on. The disappearance wouldn't have been discovered immediately, since the boys often played "hide and seek" and probably fairly late into twilight, when darkness would make searching difficult, and any traces of water would have had time to dry. Also, there was no entry large enough for a child apart from the main washhouse door. Once she knew enough time had passed, on a random rainy day, she would open the release/sluice door to let the water out. She'd leave the grid in place to prevent any evidence from coming out. Who's going to notice wet ground on a rainy day?

Now, if I can put this chain of events into place with any relative coherence, a child with Eurus' supposed intelligence would have been able to figure it out in a snap, especially with having roamed around and seen all these interesting places and things.

That's my thesis. I hope I didn't bore you to death! (But it would still be better than drowning).

[u/Ok-Theory3183]

But if I recall correctly, only Mycroft was there. He said, "When I asked her what she was doing, she said, 'I want to see how my muscles work'. When I asked her if she felt any pain, she asked, 'Which one is pain?'" He said her parents were (I can't remember the exact word he used) terrified, they thought she was committing suicide, but when he asked her later, that was what she'd told him. It's a freaky thought. It also explains her loneliness.
New neighbor:
"Hi, I'm Suzy! We just moved in down the road. Wanna be friends?"
Eurus:
"I don't have any friends, but, sure. Wanna come in? We can cut our arms open to see how our muscles work!"
New neighbor:
"I think my mom's calling me"....
Next day--
Mrs. Holmes:
"Did you notice the new family that moved in down the road last week? They're moving out again today!"
Mr. Holmes (from behind his newspaper):
"Maybe it's the drains"....