the bbc sherlock series by the dr who 'bloke' and starring tim from the office

Enjoyed this a lot, until what happened at the end. I really don't get the obsession with someone who is, to those that have read the books, such a minor character.

the fancy house is on the outskirts of my countryside idyll.

its a very (in)famous house round here.

i know the man who made the spiral staircase that was featured a few times.

'sherlock is actually a girl's name'

moriarty.gif was also a nice touch.

Looks like bobbins to me...

Watched this with my dad, who is head of hearing, so we had the subtitles on - it was like the show was GIFing itself as it went along

Could have done without the voiceover saying "remember to keep watching after the adverts.

Thought the MAJOR spoiler from halfway through was very, very well done and I'd like to see exactly where it's been flagged before other than what they mention.

AMERICANS - AVOID THIS SPOILER AT ALL COSTS

'Adverts', I meant 'end credits'.

I'm not sure whether the mention of the Sussex Downs and beekeeping means he ends up with Janine after all.

Yes. But I like 'head of hearing' anyway...

The only way to get out of that typo was to write "no I meant my dad is hard", but then I thought, no.

Anyway, that was fun, but the end to the Magnus stuff was a bit disappointing.

Bottom bit of that spiral staircase looked like Dougal from Magic Roundabout

man ilx does not care about this episode

A little difficult to discuss without spoilers, I think.

Yeah, I think that's the problem - spoiler #1 pretty much ruins the series for anyone and spoiler #2 would upset some people.

ruins the series for anyone

idk what this spoiler is yet but lol

Spoiler 1 was a bit obvious and Spoiler 2 was kind of "ah well, okay I guess"

What I mean is the spoiler is REALLY a BFD and affects both episodes from this series in a huge way.

Like if you knew Darth Vader was Luke's father before you saw Star Wars (or A New Hope if you're that way inclined) for the first time. <homerleavesthecinema.gif>

This episode almost made up for the previous two, for me.

still sad that the reveal wasn't that Magnuson was a terminator. the mind palace visualization stuff was a little too obvious after they spent time with Sherlock going through his own.

Was it suggesting that if an individual employed by the police and/or the state was to shoot another individual (albeit one who was a bit creepy and who was blackmailing others), this might be sanctioned by the UK government?

Daily Mail was upset about the programme's left-wing bias, in today's paper.

Is that thing about magnetic swipe cards and smartphones true IRL? Cos I keep them together like that basically.

So the end credits thing: not some swashbuckling Renaissance-period action thing??

http://members.questline.com/Article.aspx?articleID=17783&accountID=1285&nl=10213

this says no to the mag strip thing

Regarding the end spoiler: it was just animated gif, right? (Unless you count the post-credit scene, but I take that was more of a meta gag, not something diegetic.) So it could be anyone behind it, not necessarily the person in the gif? Of course the Rules of Drama would require for it to be him, but OTOH Sherlock has occasionally managed to bend those rules in an interesting way, so I hope they're doing it with this reveal too. (Or at least I'm hoping that, if it really is him, the explanation won't revert to some "identical brother" or "he just faked it" silliness.)

Also, while I mostly enjoyed this episode, I thought the way they defeated Magnussen felt a bit too easy, since the writers' and the actor had done a nice job in making him a memorably icky villain. For a supposed mastermind, he was pretty stupid in revealing the secret of his secret vaults to Sherlock and Watson, right? I mean, after that he was fair game for anyone who wanted him dead; even if he was sure Sherlock and Watson wouldn't kill him, they could've simply tipåed off someone who would be willing to do it, and based on what Magnussen's actions, there probably wouldn't have been a shortage of candidates.

In fact, I was pretty sure the twist at the end was gonna be that Mycroft's men were actually gonna shoot Magnussen, since it seemed Sherlock wanted to make it clear Mycroft would learn his secret by shouting it out loud. But now I don't quite get it: what was the point of Sherlock shouting it, if it wasn't for Mycroft's benefit?

"tipåed" = "tipped"

just watched. enjoyed.

Elliot Gould's Marlowe.

Just sayin...

i agree all of tuomas's objections , which makes me feel weird

well, Magnussen's (*cough* Milverton's) murder in the original story wasn't super-exciting either.

When does this show in the US? I want to talk about it but don't want to spoil

i think it premieres in the us on sunday. i will say i thought this episode was pretty great and the thing at the end i don't think you can (or they would) do w/o it actually being real though i do think their explanation is going to be a cheat for sure judging by how they handled it last time.

I did like how the end was a homage to a scene in Tinker Tailor

Same plane

need mycroft and sherlock to meet in a wimpy

Do we really need to totally avoid spoilers in this thread? People were talking pretty freely about the previous two episodes as soon as they'd aired. Personally I avoid this thread until I've seen the latest episode, I was kinda assuming everyone does the same. Are there people reading this who haven't yet seen "His Final Vow"?

What did the episode title a refer to, btw? What was the "final vow"? In the previous two the title was dropped in the dialogue, but it was less clear in this one... Or did I miss it?

It was from last week - at the wedding he says that thing about how he's never made a vow, and never will again, but he's making this one to protect John and Mary. Or something like like that. Can't remember if he actually says "final vow"

Also one of the final Holmes stories is "His Last Bow" which this ep pulls a few references from (Watson's final lines about an east wind coming, Holmes retiring to be a beekeeper in Sussex Downs)

Is that thing about magnetic swipe cards and smartphones true IRL? Cos I keep them together like that basically.

Don't think it's true but I did wipe a hotel keycard by putting it in my phone case which has a snap-shut magnetic catch, so, any "don't keep your hotel keycard in with your phone" instructions are probably for idiots like me

I'd hope credit cards are more robust than hotel cards which are designed to be wiped and restriped every day or two though but I don't know if that's technically possible

(this is probably not relevant to the show at all, haven't seen this episode yet. so I've also stopped reading several posts ago for spoiler fear)

nah, your phone would throw off a completely different type of radiation, not magnetic. might be a bit of an effect, although I would think sunspots would be about as likely to scramble your card. nice plot device, though.

I'm hoping we see more of Sherlock's homeless understudy

Has anyone noticed that the writers seem to be fond of the same material that's pretty popular on blogs documenting novel or secret architecture? I'd read about both unused train stations and that apartment facade hiding a train ventilation system before.

I dunno, I think of those things as London general knowledge really; I have never knowingly read a blog about novel or secret architecture (though I read the odd architecture blog here and there) and I knew something about both of those.

Actually, I'm not sure if the London one is real, but here's a similar setup in Brooklyn:
http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/brooklyn-vent.html

And here's a guide to possible future episode locales!
http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2005/11/london-topological.html

Ah, here we go, was this the one from the episode? http://www.urban75.org/london/leinster.html

yup.

It's really bugging me where I first heard about those facades, like a few months ago. Wee they in another film or documentary prog on UK telly?

Has anyone noticed that the writers seem to be fond of the same material that's pretty popular on blogs documenting novel or secret architecture? I'd read about both unused train stations and that apartment facade hiding a train ventilation system before.

Yes, I mean, people know about this stuff apart from on blogs but they are a mainstay of a certain set of British blogging

There's also a lot of texting, tweeting and blogging within the show itself. Not sure how I feel about this, seems to work within the show/be used interestingly?

kind of an accepted part of real life these days