So part of last night’s chit chat with @just-sort-of-happened and @hubblegleeflower involved talking about the dual nature of MP Mycroft. (Sorry guys I was too full of feels and cocktails to attribute properly; I know this observation about Mycroft wasn’t mine though.) There’s Mycroft the parody, the grotesque joke and manipulator, and soft, caring Mycroft.
There are twins EVERYWHERE, y’all. Molly Hooper, almost-dude, and lady conspirator. Let’s talk about mutton chop Lestrade (I’m refraining from too much comment here, but I thought they were going out of their way to make him look frumpy) vs. grave digger Lestrade (smoking hot and manly). Sherlock himself is doubled, I mean we’ve all noticed this but
He’s sharp as a tack. He’s a zen meditator. He’s masterful and in control and not
1895 MP John is doubled too, and what’s more, he knows it. Cheekily so.
I’m not 100% sure where to go with this but twins are all over tab, and the lesson here is that everyone contends with more than one self.
Except Ms. Mary. Sure, she wears modern clothes in the modern scenes and Victorian garb in the Victorian scenes, but she’s the same monolithic Mary Sue in all of them, a virtual superhero with exceptional values and skills. Ridiculously developed skills. She hacks MI5 with a smartphone as deftly as she turns up with the solution to the Bride problem (ha!) at exactly the right moment.
So where is Mary’s twin?
But also
and
Hers is a monstrous doubling, in part because she’s paired with monstrous figures, but also because there’s a plethora of them. Mary is prolific in her mirrors. One breaks, but there are always more ready to hand.
Smarter heads than mine will have other places to go with this but twins are all over tab; twins of numerous kinds, doubles and doppelgangers and subconscious others. John Watson is always right, and maybe we’ll see a literal secret twin in the future, but I for one hope that we’ll continue to work at this metaphorical level, and continue to see some of the uncanny themes developed in tab play out in Series 4 and 5. Mary’s gonna keep ‘em guessing.
My husband is three people. Sherlock – not only is it sometimes twins, occasionally it’s triplets (or multiples, as in the case of the brides).
This talk of twins also made me think of, ‘the other one’, possibly being Sherlock’s twin.
