h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"MI5 can't gain access to a phone? Really?"

Maybe they should've called in the News Of The World...

She could have asked him to solve the code straight away, yes, but at that point he has no reason to do it.

The whole reason for the runaround was to make Sherlock want to solve it. He thinks he is protecting her by working it out. So she has to be seen it be in danger - faking her death, saying she is 'in hiding', wanting the phone back - it's all part of the game.


Geggs

Which is of course a

The one thing that does strike me as a bit of a plothole, though, is that Adler must have known the approximate date of the 'event' in order to turn up at 221B and get Sherlock solve the code with one day to spare, after playing with him for about a year.


Geggs

I'm sure he enjoyed every minute

#39: "Oh, and was the American agent much better after a few hours, or was it weeks? There was a lot of missing time in that ep. Sherlock has the phone for 6 months, Adler said."

Okay fair enough - there was an indeterminate time gap in the "storyline" between the scene where the agent was thrown out of the window and the scene where Adler appears in Sherlocks bed.

>>She could have asked him to solve the code straight away, yes, but at that point he has no reason to do it.

Very well, but why did she allow all that other critical information to leave her possession? She could easily have stored the code on another phone right at the start, and used that one instead, thus preventing the possibility of losing everything.

I realise this might seem like a petty quibble, but throughout the show I felt a bit baffled as to why she so casually allowed such a valuable item to leave her hands. After all, there's nothing stopping the phone just getting lost, or destroyed (especially since it's packed with explosives).

"After all, there's nothing stopping the phone just getting lost, or destroyed (especially since it's packed with explosives)."

I think that's kind of the point though. The fact it's packed with explosives means that anyone trying to force the info out of the thing will lose it as well, so even with the phone out of her possession she's still in control.

>>with the phone out of her possession she's still in control.

But if someone does accidentally or purposefully destroy it, she's lost it all. Why take that risk?

Because she really isn't the sort of person to look at a situation, think "ooh, that's a bit risky, I'd best avoid it."

Also possibly because there were enough people with vested interests in the information of the phone to ensure that it would not go missing.

And anyway, she's given it Sherlock, in the form of a puzzle - the mystery 4 character unlocking code - knowing that he will not let the phone go until he's solved it.

The only risk is whether he will work out the code, and so she had to be pretty confident that he wouldn't.


Geggs

>>she had to be pretty confident that he wouldn't [crack the phone code]

It shouldn't be that difficult to find the lock code if you are Sherlock.

Sure.

"It shouldn't be that difficult to find the lock code if you are Sherlock."

I suppose like Dr Spock, his mind goes out of whack when love is on the menu.

All these episodes are "adaptions" of the original books I suppose. So maybe Arthur Conan Doyle has to take some blame?

Sherlock would to be trying to work out the code based on his deductions from what he knows about her. But he doesn't know much, as illustrated by the question marks next to her when he first meets her.

That was a neat little moment actually. He looks at her, and it's just question marks. He looks at Watson and can read him easily, so he clearly isn't losing his powers. He then looks back to her, and its question marks again. So it's her - he just can't read her at all.

But anyhoo, when he finally does crack the code it is because of the two bits of data she can't fake. Her pulse rate and pupil dilation.


Geggs

Cats' pupils dilate just before they pounce, which is a valuable thing to know if the cat is just about to pounce on your hand.

>>So maybe Arthur Conan Doyle has to take some blame?

We certainly have Conan Doyle to blame for Sherlock's ludicrouse deductions from shreds of evidence. There are hundreds of possible explanations for these details, but somehow he thinks there is only one. Dr Watson is carrying a cane of a type only found in Afghanistan, so Holmes deduces that he has been in Afghanistan, rather than that he bought it in a jumble sale.

Just using one observation would be foolish and Sherlock Holmes doesn't just use one fact in isolation to make deductions..He uses several 'observations' about a person or situation.

He puts several things together... like a puzzle. Deducing everything about someone from the cut of their lapel is purely the province of clumsy parodies.

We've just seen the Scandal in Belgravia episode (brilliant) but the recording stopped before the end credits started. Sherlock had just smiled to himself about Mrs Adler's escape and turned away from the window. So all the ends were wrapped up - just wondered if we missed anything other than a 'next week' teaser.

Mol

No, that was the end.



Goodbye Mr Holmes.

*oooh*

When I say run...run!

the woman....THE Woman....


End.