After the surrealistic ending of BBC Sherlockâs fourth series in 2017, many of us might have asked ourselves: is it even possible to construct a coherent plot line out of this mess? Is it possible to trace some ârealâ, believable story arc for the show; a narrative where things would still make logical sense? Or is the whole show rather a sort of abstract work of art, where everything is to be read metaphorically? Strangely enough, I think both. :)
One of the things that donât exactly behave normally in BBC Sherlock is time. And this is not limited to S4, but can be found all over the show. We see people perform things that would be highly questionable, or even wouldnât be physically possible, to do in our real world, considering the time it would take. Like Sherlock and John climbing over rooftops and still arriving in time to shortcut a taxi in ASiP. Or Moriarty in TRF, arriving to have a chat with Sherlock at 221B from having been in custody at The Old Bailey (at least 15 minutes apart with car, according to the maps), basically within the time it takes for Sherlockâs kettle to boil.
Or Mary showing up in the top apartment of a sky scraper in HLV, knocking out people and wreaking havoc, within the time it takes for John and Sherlock to ascend there with the only elevator. Or Sherlock, when Mary shoots him, having three seconds of consciousness left, and yet heâs able to notice how many minutes it takes for John to get there and call the ambulance. It really doesnât add up, does it?
We also see and hear these specific elements (along with other, similar examples that I wonât bore you with now) being repeated again and again in the show, in a seemingly haphazardly and meaningless manner. In TSoT we see a sequence from Sherlockâs best man speech where he and John are chased over rooftops by Cupid a short man with a blow pipe. A rooftop is also where Sherlock chooses to meet Moriarty in TRF, and consequently then uses for his fake suicide.Â
Apparently Sherlock had predicted the exact method of Moriartyâs blackmail from start. But if he knew beforehand, why even put himself in this situation? Couldnât he thus prevent it? Or is he some kind of oracle that can predict but not interfere with the course of the events? And who was he really planning to con here - Moriarty or John? From the angle they were standing, Jim would have seen the whole theatre from above, had he not opted for a sudden - supposedly unpredicted - suicide on the rooftop. Logic fails when time is twisted here, I believe.
The boiling kettle is mentioned by John in another not too dissimilar context in THoB (thanks for the transcripts, Ariane De Vere X), when Sherlock and John are trying to fake their way into Baskervilleâs military facility:
SHERLOCK: Whatâs the matter?
JOHN: Weâll get caught.
SHERLOCK: No we wonât â well, not just yet.
JOHN: Caught in five minutes. âOh, hi, we just thought weâd come and have a wander round your top secret weapons base.â âReally? Great! Come in â kettleâs just boiled.â Thatâs if we donât get shot.
John is ironic here of course, ridiculing the idea that the military would immediately welcome their intrusion by offering them tea. But this is exactly what Sherlock absurdly does with his arch enemy the very next episode. He even uses precisely the same words: âKettleâs just boiledâ to greet Moriarty. Itâs almost as if he would aim to fulfill Johnâs ironic âprophecyâ, isnât it?
If it was strange in HLVÂ how an unconscious Sherlock could know how long it took for John to find him after he was shot, itâs even weirder in TSTÂ to see Mary perform a long speech after being shot. And the way she throws herself in front of the bullet after it has been fired is physically impossible. In real life with a real time frame, she wouldnât have the time to move, because no human being can move faster than a bullet.
In the show we can also see scenes shifting forwards and backwards in time, where later events are superimposed over former events without any explanation. Like in HLV when John and Mary are being welcomed as Christmas guests at Sherlockâs parentsâ house, shown before the trio had even attempted to sort out the horrible event when Mary had tried to kill their son (which they actually didnât sort out - they were interrupted by Sherlockâs second heart failure).Â
And in S4 we have these inexplicable âjumpsâ in time where big chunks that would be explanatory for the story line are simply skipped over. What happened, for example, in TST after Mary had ordered John to âpull overâ - did she give birth in the car? Or was little Rosie born on the sidewalk in the middle of London? Or was this just another labour pain after which they could continue to the hospital? We donât get to know, because suddenly itâs time for the baby shower. Or in TFP, John and Sherlock jump out of an exploding 221B Baker Street in London, but next moment theyâre suddenly hijacking a fisher boat out at sea, perfectly unharmed. How did they even get there? And what happened in between? We never get to know.
This is not how you construct a believable story, is it? All in all, time and space are being handled in a very sloppy manner in BBC Sherlock - actually from start, but increasingly so until it gets really absurd at the end of TFP. Which is a bit illogical in a story about a detective where the facts and details are supposedly essential to his crime solving. In this show one can get the impression that time is not a linear chain of events, and space is not even relevant. But maybe itâs all just a matter of perspective?
Not so long ago, I saw this post from 2014 on my dash (X), now with an addition by @sarahthecoat (X) which in turn linked to this very interesting meta by @impatient14 (X). The latter is about BBC Sherlock seen from a space-time continuum, a concept which I find truly mind-boggling and very fascinating - thanks for the link, @sarahthecoat! Hereâs Wikipediaâs representation of the space-time continuum (X):
This idea originates from Einsteinâs theory of relativity. The speed of light is constant. If space has three dimensions, time can be seen as the fourth dimension. In the representation above, space has been reduced to only two dimensions, leaving the third for time. The observer is placed at an event in Origo (O), the null point where all the time and space axes and the two âlight conesâ of future and past events meet. A signal with equal or less speed than light can travel from O to a position and time within the future light cone. Therefore itâs possible for event O to have a causal influence on this future event. The future light cone contains all the possible events that could be causally affected by O.
Likewise, a signal with equal or less speed than light could have travelled from a position and time within the past light cone to O. The past light cone contains all the possible events that could have had a causal influence on O.
But what has this to do with BBC Sherlock? Years ago, we had this really interesting discussion based on a meta by @gosherlocked about ill-treated children in BBC Sherlock (X), where we tried to explore what could be seen as ârealâ events in BBC Sherlock, and what could be seen as purely metaphorical representations. @ebaeschnbliah made a good point explaining how things only happening inside Sherlockâs head would still appear just as ârealâ to him, since every action from a person always starts from within their own brain. I think this idea of a âinner universeâ might also be consistent with space-time continuum: within the light cone of possible, future events even absurd things can occur, because in our fantasy everything is possible. So if Sherlock is setting up scenarios within his mind palace, separated from other peopleâs reality, he might get to absurd conclusions that appear very true to him. And to him the time-line might even seem logical and normal, even if it would appear twisted to an outside observer.
In light of more recent discussions around @sagestreetâs analyses of possible starting points for Sherlockâs extended mind-palace - EMP - (X), I felt inspired to try to apply @impatient14âs idea of the space-time continuum to my own view of this show.
As far as I can see (with my very limited understanding of the topic, because this âtimey-wimeyâ stuff is a bit confusing, and a far cry beyond my âevent horizonâ :D) the space-time continuum idea seems to correspond with EMP theory and also with a lot of other stuff weâve been discussing for the last few years after S4 aired.Â
However, when it comes to the observerâs point in the space-time continuum, the moment when Sherlock presumably enters his EMP and starts running scenarios of possible future events, I like to see things a bit differently. Iâm still inclined to hold on to the âpossibly-raggedy-theoryâ as @sagestreet calls it, which places this moment right after Johnâs wedding.Â
I have several arguments for this, and some of them involve Johnâs online blog, which we can all still find on the wayback-machine (X), and also in the mirrored version on tumblr (X). Iâll try to describe my view here, followed by an attempt at argumentation. It might be a bit much to read, but Iâll do my best to point out the main components, so please bear with me đ. But first of all I recommend you to read @impatient14 âs space-time meta (X).