I agree with your thoughts on Mary, definitely - she's still awesome, just not awesome in the way I thought she was. So I was a little disappointed - not in her, but in the storytelling, because I LIKE ordinary-people-being-amazing much more than amazing-people-being-amazing.
I found Sherlock committing a murder not much of a stretch, actually. It reminded me of the Star Trek: TNG episode where Data actually reasons himself into almost committing a murder. Or the moral ambiguity of Agatha Christie's Curtain. When you take human emotions/gut/instinctive morality out of the picture, you can reach the point where logic dictates murder is the only reasonable answer. (It also raises a fascinating moral question - if Magnussen had been pointing a gun at John and Mary, no one would have questioned Sherlock shooting him to protect them. Just because the weapon was intangible, was it any less of a threat? Especially to someone like Sherlock, who DOESN'T see the world the way others do?)
So yeah, I loved the episode for how it made me think, and for showing us more of Sherlock's brain, and because JOHN oh my goodness he was awesome, and because while I am a little let down over Mary, she's still fantastic. And I like that we're getting to see more of Mycroft's character, as well. Oh, and more of the Holmes parents! They're awesome also! As for my thoughts on Moriarty ... well, I think that's a red herring to distract us from Mycroft's casual little mention of "remember the other one," referring to his brother. Another Holmes brother, this one immoral instead of amoral?
Whew. I have a fairly major blog post myself brewing from this episode.
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I found Sherlock committing a murder not much of a stretch, actually. It reminded me of the Star Trek: TNG episode where Data actually reasons himself into almost committing a murder. Or the moral ambiguity of Agatha Christie's Curtain. When you take human emotions/gut/instinctive morality out of the picture, you can reach the point where logic dictates murder is the only reasonable answer. (It also raises a fascinating moral question - if Magnussen had been pointing a gun at John and Mary, no one would have questioned Sherlock shooting him to protect them. Just because the weapon was intangible, was it any less of a threat? Especially to someone like Sherlock, who DOESN'T see the world the way others do?)
So yeah, I loved the episode for how it made me think, and for showing us more of Sherlock's brain, and because JOHN oh my goodness he was awesome, and because while I am a little let down over Mary, she's still fantastic. And I like that we're getting to see more of Mycroft's character, as well. Oh, and more of the Holmes parents! They're awesome also! As for my thoughts on Moriarty ... well, I think that's a red herring to distract us from Mycroft's casual little mention of "remember the other one," referring to his brother. Another Holmes brother, this one immoral instead of amoral?
Whew. I have a fairly major blog post myself brewing from this episode.