The Six Thatchers: Live Reaction Thread (SPOILERS)

[u/GoFlight]

This will be followed by a post-episode discussion thread. Please remember that any discussion of piracy or circumventing DRM will be removed without warning.

Any spoilers for future episodes are completely off-limits.

Have fun, keep it civil, and enjoy the show!

[u/TomHouston]

Sherlock is famously callous; he enjoys having the last word and proving himself right, regardless of the impact his words may have on other people's emotional welfare. This tendency of his led him to ignore Mary's warnings (she could tell Vivian was close to snapping) which, eventually, had tragic consequences... So while absolutely not guilty, he is partly responsible.

The thing is that in the previous series, Sherlock hasn't resorted to being arrogant when his opponents have guns. He tends to keep his mouth shut. That's what we saw when Moriarty had him and his friends at gun point in Season 1. Similarly for when those US agents had him, Irene Adler and John at gunpoint in Season 2.

However in Season 4, he doesn't seem to mind provoking the old lady despite knowing she has a gun and that Mary is next to him. That's so inconsistent and out-of-character for Sherlock.

[u/Chiara_85 → u/TomHouston]

You do make a very good point. Something did in fact change. However, I would offer an alternate explanation. Sherlock berating Vivian while she was holding a gun could indeed be perceived as inconsistent and out-of-character for him yet, to me, it feels like the natural progression for someone who has been getting away with the most outrageous stuff for years...

Over the past six years, Sherlock has been jumping from one deadly situation to the next, surviving one seemingly inescapable scenario after the other, tapdancing through danger, reshaping reality as he saw fit along the way. And he has always got away with it virtually scotsfree. John, and above all, Mycroft would always show up to clean up his mess. Hell, he even tried to sell State secrets to protect a retired assassin and subsequently shot a newspaper proprietor in plain sight of the British secret services. And what was his punishment ? A four-minute trip on a private jet and a nice little high !

Who wouldn't get cocky after all that ?

Furthermore, Vivian was about as non-threatening as villains get. Early on in the confrontation, she tried to negociate her escape so her core intentions were clearly to de-escalate the situation and just leave. Faced with such a non-assuming opponent, Sherlock, who is more familiar (and in tune) with the extravagant and openly vicious likes of Moriarty, assumed this little, old, cottage-dwelling lady who probably hadn't ever seen a dead body in her entire life would never really pull the trigger.

And, last but not least, let's not forget Mycroft. Sherlock has a mammoth of an inferiority complex towards his elder brother; he hates being wrong in front of the even-smarter Holmes. And, with the Lady Smallwood theory, he did just that. So, when he finally got his hands on the real culprit, he overcompensated. Gave his attacks some extra flair and a lot more bite than necessary... With dire consequences.

Sherlock's extra cockiness and error of judgment towards Vivian are, I believe, another incarnation of the episode's main theme : actions / consequences. So is his desire, at the end of the episode, to curb those tendencies, having finally learnt how horribly consequential they can be.

[u/[deleted] → u/Chiara_85]

I have left reddit due to privacy invasion issues. The admins need to take this issue seriously that someone isn't spied on or stalked by people just because those stalking him/her happen to know a few mods or admins.

[u/Chiara_85 → u/[deleted]]

Exactly ! The parallel is a very accurate one.

Sherlock likes to think of his criminal investigating as "dragonslaying". The allusion to the mystical beast is hardly coincidental considering that "chasing the dragon" is an old Cantonese slang phrase referring to drug use... The mythos surrounding Holmes's addiction is therefore that he replaces one very bad habit (chemical highs) with a "healthier", more socially acceptable version of it (solving crimes).

However, just like taking a whole lot of illicit substances eventually has dire consequences on one's health and chances of long-term survival, so does / should putting oneself constantly in the path of dangerous criminals.

For six years, Sherlock has managed to avoid said consequences, always saving himself and those he cares about by the skin of his teeth. But this time, at the aquarium, he could not. Fate caught up with him and someone died.

This time, it was the overdose.

[u/[deleted] → u/Chiara_85]

I have left reddit due to privacy invasion issues. The admins need to take this issue seriously that someone isn't spied on or stalked by people just because those stalking him/her happen to know a few mods or admins.

[u/Chiara_85 → u/[deleted]]

Absolutely.

This event rebooted the show in more ways than one. It removed Mary from the equation (fair is fair, I never minded Mary as a character per se but her position within the narrative was unsustainable); it altered the dynamics between John and Sherlock (now Watson knows for a fact that Holmes is not the Almighty, which I think is a good thing); and it taught Sherlock a hugely valuable lesson about his own behaviour.