selenak

What I foresee is controversy around one particular plot point. Me, as opposed to it seems many a watcher who saw both Sherlock and Elementary, I actually liked A Scandal in Belgravia (more than the first three episodes Sherlock put together, as it happens), see my my review at the time, but the reason why I'm okay with the one particular trait the otherwise very different versions of Irene Adler share is that a) it's impossible to make sense of Moriarty going through some effort in this show to keep Holmes alive otherwise, when it really would be far, far easier to either order his death or let him be killed by third parties, and b) I don't think I read complaints about Moriarty's emotions re: Holmes before when Moriarty was male.

But then of course I'm biased because, see last week's review, Irene-as-Moriarty was the twist I'd been hoping for, and as both our heroes and our villain could testify, being able to say smugly "hah! I was right!" is a pleasure not to be underestimated. And it really fits well with this particular show and its genderbending take. I was not pleased when it seemed we'd get Irene-as-victim instead though still hoping and then increasingly certain it was a red herring/trick. If I wanted to complain, than that we got the birthmark thing as a trigger of revelation instead of the already established (but only mentioned in one sentence in this episode) circumstance that would be impossible to explain if Irene had NOT been planning to fake her own death a long time ahead: the blood. You can store that amount of blood over weeks and weeks, a little at a time, but you can't take it from a person in one go without killing him/her, which, if Irene had truly been kidnapped, would have had to happen, and really, not just Holmes but Watson, Gregson and Bell should have seen that. (It wouldn't necessarily have implied Irene was in cahoots with Moriarty, let alone that she was Moriarty, because she could have faked her death for her own, Moriarty-unrelated reasons, but it would certainly have made nonsense out of the kidnapping and brainwashing story.)

However, I'm too happy about most of everything else in the episode to mind. Incidentally, it occurs to me that as a foreigner, I have no way of telling how good or bad Natalie Dormer's American accent was, but given that "Irene Adler" was a persona Moriarty invented specifically for Holmes' benefit, it doesn't matter. (It also explains why they cast a British actress for the part while keeping Irene American.) Speaking of Natalie Dormer, I thought she was good, both in the flashbacks and in present day, charming and steely enough to sell both the woman-Sherlock-fell-in-love-with and the Evil Overlady. As for her having developed some genuine emotion in return, aka the point which is bound to produce controversy? As I said: no matter how much into mindgames she is, it would be impossible to explain why she went through all the bother of not killing him and actively keeping him alive otherwise, especially since she'd already beaten him, so finding out whether she could wasn't even a question anymore. Since I like my supervillains to have a motivation other than "I need someone to give my gloating speech to" for keeping the hero alive, I'm good with it. As it was Joan who figured out a way to trap Irene/Moriarty via combination of her need (that she shares with Sherlock) to be the smartest person in the room, err, world and some genuine if twisted attachment, I'm better. It made Moriarty's defeat not the result of having been beaten by Holmes, but by Watson, whom she fatally underestimated. (BTW: btw, remember ye early days of the show when Holmes tried to take credit for the entire solving of the case and only remembered to admit he had help when Watson was havling none of it? How far we've come. Here, in the final showdown, he's not even tempted to ambiguous phrasing. "She solved you." )

Holmes' lowest point in the finale: lashing out at Watson and trying to pull the "I'm dissappointed in you, and this after I remained clean!" card. Psychologically plausible for him to do in this particular state, but low. Holmes' best moment: consistently remembering and mentioning the three innocent people who died in the course of the finale. See, this is one of the reasons why he's my current (as far as post-Jeremy Brett incarnations go) favourite Holmes, and it's one of the reasons why Moriarty/Irene is wrong when she says they see the same things, and that the puzzle/game perspective is the only difference between them. She may see it as a game, and everyone else only as pawns. But to Holmes, no matter how obsessed or raging he is, they are people.

My favourite Watson moment in the finale: her conversation with Gregson ending with her saying to Gregson that if she believed Holmes was a danger to himself or others in the investigation, she'd tell him. And Gregson trusts her to do that. I believed both Joan and Gregson, and it hit my soft spot for "relationships that are great not because the people in question would put each other above ethics but because they'd put ethics first and that's why they respect each other".

Favourite Holmes-and-Watson scene: the ending, of course. I love and adore we're ending the season on the rooftop with the bees (insert usual glee about Elementary using Holmes' bee expertise through the season), with Holmes revealing he named the new species after Watson, and in a mirror to their mid-season turning point where Holmes remained with a waiting (for, as it happens, the untrustworthy ex, but not really) Watson in the tag scene, here Watson remains with a waiting Holmes. Only this time they're not waiting for a reminder of the past but for something new being born. Which they do in the same companiable silence, just sitting next to each other under the sky instead of some waiting room, enjoying the day. It's the perfect way to wrap the season up.

Trivia: Moriarty's supervillain scheme involving the Greece versus Macedonia issue and the Dinar versus Euro currency question made me grin in approval, simply because it proves the scriptwriting team actually reads news unrelated to the US. Also, it's sufficiently Napoleon-of-Crime-like.