and the heart, it will not be denied

Ahhh, that's better.

Finally adjusted my style sheet to have functioning links once again. (shakes fist at photobucket, kisses imgur)

Also packed up the majority of my icons, since I'm going back to a free account (I'm just not around enough to justify paying for icons I never have occasion to use anymore.) It's sad....feels like permanently closing the door on an era.

It's just so sad that twitter and tumblr so thoroughly gutted LJ - it's just so hard to have real conversations on either of those, not like we all used to have here on LJ. Fandom has never been the same.

Well...I may be around from time to time (but let's be real, without anyone to have conversations *with*, it's unlikely I'll be around much).

So, I guess it's so long, and thanks for all the fish.

~flippet

For S7E8 - 'Severance'.

So - of course - but.  There's usually one line, or post/reply in the Tom & Lorenzo recaps that kind of encapsulates the ep for me, helps me understand what Weiner's getting at.  (I can be a little thick sometimes, so I appreciate anything that holds my hand toward understanding.)

And this time, it's this reply (replying to a question about the waitress's name, 'Di', being on-the-nose ('Die').

jdens Nancy Aronson • 2 days ago

I don't think 'speculating about Don's death' was the reason her name was described as 'on-the-nose'. Death is a heavy presence in the episode, and the alternative realities--the other possible versions of themselves that every featured character faces is framed for the viewer by the death of Rachel and her life well-lived. It is heavy on Don's mind, and the character named Di talks cryptically about death, ergo 'on the nose'.

The characters are in Purgatory.  A purgatory largely of their own making.  No one has really changed, no one has learned anything, it seems.  Like the earring (of Megan's?) that Don found under the bed, and like Peggy's brooch pin on her date (both circles) - everyone is going in circles.  They are all on their own 'Carousel', to bring it all back to the beginning, except this isn't nostalgia, it's just something they can't seem to escape from.*

Except for Rachel.  She got off the merry-go-round.  She's escaped the purgatory of this repetitive life that Don and everyone seem mired in.  She had a good life - but she's 'severed' her connection to earthly existence, and now she's 'free'.

Normally, the belief goes - you die, *then* you enter Purgatory.  But this episode underscores that death can be an escape *from* the purgatory of life.  Like Joan in the mirror (or the fur girls, etc - mirrors featured heavily as well) - those 'alternative realities' are an illusion.  You remain who and what you actually are (like the shopgirl unzipping Joan's dress, just like Jaguar Herb did), but you can only see that vision in the mirror.

But the mirrors are covered in Rachel's home.  The illusions no longer exist - no longer for her, but her apartment, during shiva, is also a place where the illusions are 'on pause' for everyone else in that space too.  There's nothing left to be except who and what you are - you can't see the false reflections that you've believed in and clung to.  This is why those scenes had more of a 'real' feel to them than the more 'dreamlike' feel of the rest of the episode.


I'm going to rewatch with this in mind, then I'll probaby adjust some of my thoughts accordingly, especially about Rachel.

* Someone in the TLo thread pointed out that the first girl in the fur coat that Don was 'casting' is Andie MacDowell's daughter (Rainey Qualley) - Andie MacDowell of course famous for the movie Groundhog Day, where you're cursed to just keep living the same day over, and over, and over again, until you get it 'right'.

Such a subtle commentary. Weiner is a genius.  Truly.

Hm.  I just don't know.

I have quite simply never bought that Joan is/would be attracted to Mycroft.  Certainly not in any relationshippy way.

Not only does he ooze deviousness (which, honestly, ought to put her detective hackles up), but I've just never bought that she wouldn't know or care how much it would bother Sherlock, or worse, would know, and would just steamroller ahead anyway.  (You may say that she wasn't steamrollering, that she basically told Mycroft 'wait' - except she's clearly slept with him on multiple occasions - I don't care if there's no formal arrangement, that's steamrollering right along.)

I just...after the first season, and naming a bee after her and all - I felt that she had a pretty good grasp of how important she was to Sherlock.  Whether she should be or not - perhaps he's developed an unhealthy attachment to her, using her as a crutch, because she *was* there as his sober companion and helped him very much.  She would still know/see that, or should, but I can't think she'd be so cruel as to ignore that, and hurt him so directly by taking up with his brother - who she *knows* he has issues with.

Sherlock even mentioned the 'certain intimacy' that they had - apparently Sherlock's the only one who feels it/is trying to honor it.  (Although she's not wrong that he has invaded her privacy....at the same time, she hasn't been forthcoming to him, in respect of that supposed intimacy.)

I also thought the heroin stuff was a little too 'easy' this ep, too. He's super-duper aware of his sobriety and the threats to it at the moment, with Alistair and all...he's making conscious *decisions* to move toward the drugs, and I am just having a hard time with that part of it.  Unconscious, maybe.  Because he's emotionally raw.  But he *knows* he's raw, and in danger, and I just don't see him doing that *consciously*, the way he did.

What totally blows, though, is - Joan never seems to realize the effect that her pulling away from him has on him.  This time, with the hiding drugs, previously with the secret letters to Jamie.  Every time, Joan's separating from Sherlock does a number on him.  Now, I'm not saying that she should be *responsible* for him, or curtail herself simply because Sherlock is weak - except...it's like she doesn't even notice, or care.  And I feel that she ought to notice, at the very least, and they should have some serious conversations.  But he avoids talking, and she avoids depth.  She pesters him, but it's all at the surface level.  She's not nearly as in-tune with him as she claims to be.  I feel like she doesn't *really* listen to him, until he unloads something serious in an attempt to keep her wandering attention.  To keep her close to him, because she's drifting away. :-(

Last season's Joan didn't seem like that kind of drifter - she seemed to be paying more attention.  She seemed to care more.  I miss that.

Okay, so I re-watched the last scene of Dead Clade Walking.

I may ramble here, but hey, that's the only me you get.

So, my new theory (which probably should have been obvious, but I'm a little thick), is that the skull that Sherlock's been fooling around with is essentially a stand-in for his own.  (Duh, right?)  So, since he really can't exorcise his own demons directly, he's giving it a whack by using a proxy.

Only....as he is coming to realize....you cannot achieve healing by proxy.  It has to be direct, or nothing.  One has to take one's own medicine.


Recall that earlier in the ep, Randy discusses his ex, and how she's a horrible influence on him, and he knows it - and Sherlock empathizes, bringing up his own relationship woes - but when asked directly whether he 'cut her out of his life', as was his recommendation for Randy, he evaded the question.

Drilling into the skull is his attempt to 'exorcise' his demons in the form of his new addiction - his inability to let Jamie go.  His thoughts are unhealthy, and must be 'drained'.  He knows it, but is trying to circumvent addressing things directly - *not* 'drilling into his own skull'.

So, he's about to go to work on the mounted skull one final time, and just as he's about to get started, Joan distracts him with the dinosaur remains.  He eagerly digs into them, forgetting not only the drill and skull, but also starting to tune Joan out.  This dino was a *survivor*, he says, and its remains deserve respect.  (There's a little bit of ....something then, between Joan and Sherlock - he starts getting vague on her when she asks him whether he feels good (about solving the case) - and it's like he had to be dragged back to that idea, like he'd been *completely* out of that space, and almost thought it odd that she'd think he *should* be there - and she says she 'knows what he's thinking', which seems to prompt a 'thank you' from him, and him giving her credit due.  He then gets playful about offering to extract the evil humors from HER skull, which she almost seems to sweetly consider, before turning him down.  And he pauses for a moment, watching her go, before turning back to opening his box (which he never does get to open).  I'm not quite sure what to make of that little interlude, so, any help would be appreciated.

Before Sherlock can open the box, there's a knock at the door - it's Randy.  As they enter the living room, Sherlock gives a quiet, regretful glance towards the mounted skull (which has carefully been in-frame the whole time) - he knows he won't be returning to finish his self-appointed task. He also knows why Randy's here (and it has more to do with that skull that first glance would indicate. The blocking is interesting here - Sherlock is positioned directly between the skull and Randy, not fully turned toward either of them.  Sherlock is dealing with the same situation, balanced on both sides of this equation.).  Randy has gotten high with his ex.  Sherlock seems resigned to this information, totally unsurprised.  But Randy has also kicked the girl out, and told her to never return.  (I don't think it's an accident that her name is Eve - the 'first woman', and lifegiver, juxtaposed against Sherlock's 'the woman'.)

As Randy explains that he's cut Eve out of his life, Sherlock is glancing toward the skull, and nodding - he understands that this is the right answer, the right thing to do.  (He could read this as a failure of his sponsorship, HIS failure, but then also a way to rectify and repair that sponsorship.)  He appears to be agreeing with Randy, but suddenly, the whole scene has become not about Randy at all, but all about Sherlock, and he is not unaware of that fact.  Sherlock interrupts Randy with 'do you want to go to a meeting?'

But - though it looks like Sherlock is just being a good sponsor, taking his sponsee under his wing (and he is), in truth, this meeting is more for Sherlock.  In that instant, he more deeply understood his own personal addiction, to maintaining connection with Jamie, which can only lead him down a dark, dangerous path, and he knew that *he* is the one who needs help, who needs to sit in a meeting and admit that he's an addict.  His sponsee, in 'failure', was still able to have the fortitude to change course and do the right, harsh, necessary thing.  Sherlock is at a similar crossroads, and now he is more fully aware.

So, here I am again, just talking to the wall, because I cannot seem to find a community of people anywhere who want to talk about Elementary without harping on either gender, or race.

I mean, I get it - those are your pet topics, fine.

But there's MORE to Elementary than just those two things!  And I would like a chance to talk about those other things once in a while, without the conversation (such as it is) constantly being dragged back around to those two things.


Like with this most recent ep, Dead Clade Walking.

What interests me most about the ep is something that no one has touched on (because they're too busy screeching that it ought to be All About Joan).


Sherlock's got that skull out, and is constantly trying to come back to it with the drill, studying up on medieval methods of excising 'evil humours'.

But what struck me most is - he kept touching his own skull...scanning with his fingertips, as if trying to find just the right spot.

Why would he need to do that?  He could see and touch the mounted skull at any point, and he didn't seem to be in any danger of performing a trephination on his own skull.....perhaps.  Maybe not literally, or - maybe just 'not yet'.


It would seem to say to me that - Sherlock's not 'all right'.  Whether he knows it himself yet or not, I don't know.

Is his recent topic of study somewhat subconscious?  Does he sense that he's 'off' somehow - whether psychologically/emotionally, or physically, and that has quietly led him to dig into the 'evil humour' theory of disease/abnormal behavior?

Or is it just a demonstration of....here's what I *would* do to help myself, to ease my own mind, if I were living in prehistoric times (like the dinos of the A plot), and felt full-to-bursting with things I cannot name or describe, or perhaps simply don't want to examine too closely.

Maybe he is also a 'dead clade walking' - a brilliant mind, that has somehow survived and is now alone in the world.  Is he also on the verge of 'extinction'?  And...which way will it go?

Prevent a 'prehistoric extinction event' with prehistoric methods of medicine and science?



Anyway.  I would *love* to find others who might like to talk about this, who might have ideas on it (or other aspects of the show)....I do better with other ideas to bounce off of.

Meta ramblings on The Marchioness - don't click if you don't want spoilers!

(Also, godivagrrl, I thought I'd leave this thread open - let me know if you'd rather it was closed, or alternatively, you can 'screen' your comments.)

Hey, guys...

Just wondering if anyone is actually reading the Elementary meta that I post here.

Since no one ever responds, I'm wondering if LJ is the place for it anymore.

I have some meta that I posted in other places - but it occurred to me that if anyone is reading and appreciating anything here, you would have missed it.

If you'd like me to repost it here for you, or direct you to it, just let me know.


Otherwise.....maybe I'll just close up the meta shop here.  Meta discussion isn't much fun if I'm only talking to myself. :-(

So, here are some initial thoughts on the episode.

I thought it was amazing. Made me cry real, actual tears at the end.

Jeez, writers and actors!! Why ya gotta?

This show is too, too good. There were about fifty different layers in all of that. Holy cow.

I mean Sherlock. SHERLOCK. Being so abused, and yet still reaching out. He is such a beautiful soul. Heartbreaking.

And that whole conversation between him and Joan about being in love with Abigail...wow, the layers in that. That was only a conversation about Abigail on the surface. So much of it was actually about Jamie Moriarty. *shivers*

I am seeing this already, but I'll be interested to see if they reveal it even more blatantly - if we see Sherlock doubting himself, because....he is attracted to murderers. Personally attracted. Romantically attracted. He makes connections with them that he finds difficult to make with 'normal' people. Obviously, something in them, and something in him, 'recognizes' each other. Which can be a terrifying thought - even when you already know it (as he most certainly does, since he was willing to murder Moran without a backward glance.)

And yet - he still has that tenderness that they couldn't beat out of him. Which is going to win out? I really think that *that* will be a question that needs answering, forming a major season arc at some point in the future.



The final scene was so heartbreaking, too. It wasn't just Sherlock beating the crap out of that bag - it was the flailing nature of his strikes. He looked for all the world like a small boy, trying his level best to keep himself from getting pummeled.

On Step Nine:

Someone commented on Sherlock's 'fat-shaming' remarks.  Response:

I didn't see the fat remarks as 'fat-shaming', exactly, although I fully understand how it sounds that way.

And Sherlock *is* being an asshole with the remarks, I won't absolve him for that.


But what it is, for him, in context, is - he is going back to London. He left London in utter disgrace. He's not sure what he's going to find there, and how the people he used to know will treat him. And most importantly for these remarks - he knows that Mycroft is in London, and he is deeply dreading the thought of accidentally running into him. Those subconscious fears are exiting his mouth in the 'fat' comments. It's not exactly that Sherlock has an aversion to fat people. It's that he has an aversion to Mycroft, and he's projecting one of Mycroft's salient traits (one that has always been a sore spot between brothers) onto potential random strangers.



Remember too, that Sherlock has an aversion to flying, because he 'sees too much', and can't turn off his brain. They didn't address this directly in Step Nine, but it stands to reason that Sherlock is also rather nervous about having to get on a plane to go back to London, which includes sitting next to strangers, and so he is bundling all of his current fears up into one handy scapegoat.