Sherlock/Recap/S02/E01 A Scandal in Belgravia: Difference between revisions

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* [[Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male]]: Irene stabs Sherlock with a hypodermic and beats him around the face with a riding crop. The scene is played out as if it's just [[Fetish Fuel]] and Irene is never called out on it. John doesn't seem too worried about Sherlock when he walks in or angry at Irene for what she's just done to his best friend. And we later find out that Lestrade found Sherlock being drugged against his will so hilarious that he filmed it on his phone.

** One thing that a lot of people don't seem to notice is the power play that is going on in that scene. Irene could have easily waited for Sherlock to pass out and simply ripped the phone out of his hand. However, as a dominatrix, dominance is her greatest asset, and she wanted to be "The woman who beat [him.]" She wanted to get the phone, but she wanted the Great and Arrogant Sherlock Holmes to bend to her will and '''give''' her the phone (power exchange like that is a big part of a BDSM situation.) Sherlock is notoriously stubborn (refusing to get dressed when visiting Buckingham Palace, for example) so breaking his will, even under the influence of a sedative, is probably a great accomplishment for her. It wasn't supposed to be Fetish Fuel as much as it was Irene making Sherlock her bitch (although it could be, for some.) Lara Pulver did some research on the world of a dominatrix and Steven Moffat got an earful from fetish groups after a bungled bondage scene in ''Coupling,'' so the whole "power exchange" part of the scene could have been a case of [[Shown Their Work]].

* [[And Starring]]: Lara Pulver as Irene Adler gets this distinction in the closing credits.

* [[Destination Defenestration]]: The fate of {{spoiler|the American [[Mook]] who threatened to shoot John and beat up Mrs Hudson}}. Multiple times over, if Sherlock is to be believed.

* [[Did You Actually Believe?]]: {{spoiler|Subverted when Sherlock proves Irene's infatuation with him was real.}}

** {{spoiler|No, you can get returning dinky little boomerangs. It's doubtful that they'd give you anything more than a bad bruise but they do return. Sort of.}}

** {{spoiler|If you slow down the episode enough, the boomerang actually hits him more in the throat or the side of the neck. It makes death-by-dinky-little-boomerang (which looks a little more like wood instead of thin plastic) more believable, but creates a plothole when Irene said he had a "bashed-in head."}}

* [[Faking the Dead]]: {{spoiler|Irene Adler. Twice.}}

* [[Fridge Brilliance]]: At first it seems like the writers goofed with the phones. How does Sherlock receive a text from Irene's phone if she's given it to him? {{spoiler|Except she never gave him the right phone in the first place!}}

* [[Fridge Logic]]: Plenty, since the story moves so quickly that you'll probably miss the following:

** At the end of the episode, Irene is let go despite the fact that {{spoiler|she has just committed high treason.}}

* [[Moral Guardians]]: The Daily Mail newspaper protested Irene Adler's nakedness...by printing large images of it.

* [[Mysterious Middle Initial]]: John H. Watson finally reveals his [[Mythology Gag|much-speculated upon middle name]]: Hamish.

** The title itself is a reference to the original story "A Scandal in Bohemia". The early minutes of the episode go through a proper [[Hurricane of Puns]] over the names of many of the original stories: The Geek Interpreter, The Speckled Blonde, The Navel Treatment...

*** The blog post about the case of the dead guy who was supposed to be dead somewhere else is entitled "[[Sherlock Holmes Baffled]]", the title of the very first Sherlock Holmes movie, even if it was [[In Name Only]].

** At Buckingham palace, the government official tells John that his employer likes his blog, "particularly the one about the aluminium crutch". In the stories, [[Noodle Incident|one of Holmes' early cases]] before he met Watson revolved around an aluminium crutch.

** Sherlock's remark that "I'm used to mystery at one end of my cases, both is too much work," is lifted straight from "The Illustrious Client".

** Many of the details of Sherlock and John's first meeting with Irene Adler ( {{spoiler|the priest disguise, the fire alarm ruse, "Goodnight Mr. Sherlock Holmes"}}) are the the same as they were in the original story.

** "Vatican cameos" is a reference to a throwaway line in ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' about a case Holmes had worked on.

** The bit where {{spoiler|Moriarty scores a victory, and announces it with a cryptic, gloating message saying "Dear me, Mr Holmes, dear me"}} is directly from ''The Valley of Fear''.

** Sherlock's remark that "the wheel turns...nothing is ever new" is reminiscent of Holmes saying "There is nothing new under the sun. It has all been done before" in ''A Study in Scarlet''.

* [[Naked First Impression]]: Irene's 'battle dress' renders the [[Sherlock Scan]] useless… {{spoiler|until he figures out the password to her safe from her measurements}}.

* [[No Sell]]: Irene, being naked, can't be "read" by Sherlock, and he in turn is resistant to her full-court press of seduction. {{spoiler|Still, her naked body does make an impression on him, and if the viewer watches closely, he does manage to insult her while he's explaining the crime.}}

* [[Not So Harmless]] / [[Tranquil Fury]]: Sherlock, upon realising that 221B has been broken into and the Americans have {{spoiler|kidnapped and beaten Mrs Hudson}}.

* [[Orwellian Retcon]]: To Watson's blog. That brief final post before they leave for the swimming pool, and all those replies by Harry and Sarah wondering what had happened to them? Well, since ''nothing'' happened to them, that post and its comments never existed.

* [[Pet the Dog]]: Sherlock ''apologises'' for once. To Molly Hooper, of all people.

* [[Precision F-Strike|Precision S Strike]]: Mycroft calls John on Christmas Eve, after Sherlock has just left him to return home to Baker Street. There's a cryptic conversation about John and Mrs Hudson not being able to "find anything" in any of the usual places, and "it looks like he's clean". John then asks if Sherlock "took the cigarette". When Mycroft says he did, John's response is "... ''Shit."'' It's the only instance of the word in the series so far, and a standout line from a character who managed to ''not'' swear even when he found a human head in his fridge.

* [[Please Put Some Clothes On]]: Firstly to Sherlock from Mycroft's men (politely) and Mycroft himself (not so politely). Secondly to Irene from John.