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Sherlock | A Study in Pink | Scene Breakdown | Scene 10

  • Jun 13
  • 11 min read


We always find here that things are better with example. And just like all these rules apply to the larger narrative, in this case, the July 2010 Sherlock episode "A Study in Pink," it's also supposed to work for every scene. Every scene should have a Story Circle. Every scene should be concise.


So, let's continue to look at Sherlock: A Study in Pink. Every scene, in intricate, to show how this is done at such a high level of expertise. Continuing on to Scene 10, we have given Watson a taste of the euphoria of what it is to ride with Sherlock, let's now make him alone again.


So much of writing is COMPARE and CONTRAST. We have seen Watson sad, and we have seen Watson happy. Now we will see him sad again, and that resulting sadness sinks so much farther now that we've seen him elated.



A lesson we haven't delved into, yet, is WAVEFORM theory. This is the general theory that there is a set pattern to the way stories go is patterned the same way as a waveform: up and down, up and down, over and over. One scene positive, one scene negative. This is almost a misnomer, because it implies that entire scenes should be positive or negative, when really scenes are the trasitions between the two states.


Remember when we talked about inverted triangles? How the end of a scene should be the point of the whole scene? Imagine at that point, at the end, things are either happy or sad. Good or bad. Right or wrong. Then we start the next scene in that state, and spend the scene transitioning to the opposite.


So the last scene started with elation, Sherlock and Watson teaming up to investigate a body for the first time, but it ended up sad, with Sherlock abandoning Watson. This scene starts in that state, with Watson abandoned, and we have to find a way to end on a positive note.


This is also one of the more pivotal and memorable scenes in the episode, if not the entire series, and it is a scene that works very well on its own. While all tools are being used here, pay particular example to Rule of Threes and its liberal use. It is pervasive in this scene and is used not only to prove points to us the viewer, but also to the characters within the scene.



We start with Watson limping out of the crime scene, and special attention is paid to this. This is a REMIND that will soon reach its apex/ climax: the limp gets worse the sadder he is, the more alone he is. Outside he's confronted with SALLY DONOVAN, the first of two four-corner oppositions in this scene that occupy the same argument: Watson should stay away from Sherlock Holmes.


Sally takes the position that Sherlock is dangerous, a sociopath even, and pityingly directs Watson to the main street where he can catch a cab.


On his way limping up to main street, Watson passes by a payphone that, as he passes it, starts to ring. Watson doesn't seem to make much of it, and as he passes, it ceases. This is the first of a very quick Rule of Threes.


Watson tries to hail a cab, it doesn't stop for him, and nearby, another phone starts to ring. he notices this one, and someone else picks it up, only for the line to be dead.


And then, finally, from a private phone box, a third phone rings. Watson looks at it, considers, then answers. We just from that Rule of Threes straight to a second Rule of Threes. Instead of greeting the man on the other end of the telephone tells him to "Look at the camera on the building opposite you." Watson does, and the camera moves to look at the wall, unable to see anything. The voice tells him to clock another camera, the same occurs, and then a third, the same. Watson asks how the person on the line is doing that, and instead of answering, the man tells him to get in the black limousine that just pulled up.


So this is interesting, because we have two back-to-back Rules of Threes, followed by the limo pulling up on que, and those three things in quick succession form their own Rule of Threes, Three displays of Mycroft's reach and power.


Yes I won't bury the lead here, the person on the other end of the line is Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's brother, but we aren't supposed to know that yet. This is the first of three scenes involving him here in the latter half of the script, and we're supposed to suspect that he is Moriarty. The writers are very much playing on what the average viewer will know and what they will not know about Sherlock's lore. The average person, until this show, knew about Moriarty, and the average person did not know about Mycroft. For the sake of this analysis, let's not pretend we don't know what's happening.


It's interesting to pay attention to what's happening here. Because the same things that are convincing Watson in-universe are the things that are convincing us: Rule of Threes. Watson notices the pattern of the ringing phones the same reason we do, repetition. He is convinced at the power of the voice on the other end of the line the same reason we are: repetition. It's even punctuated with Mycroft making clear to us and to Watson that he's proven his point: "I would make some sort of threat, but I’m sure your situation is quite clear to you."


We're then inside the car with Watson and a woman the script identifies as Andrea, although we never get her real name in dialog. Watson asks her three questions on this trip: What is your name? Is that your real name? And: Is there any point in asking where we're going? (Fake name given, no, and no, by the way.)


There are three instances with this woman in the episode. You're shocked I know, three. One here, one when transitioning from this scene to the next when Watson hits on her, and one at the end of the episode when he tries again and she doesn't remember him, rejecting him through indifference. All we're setting up through this is that Watson is a ladies man, a recurring aspect of his character throughout much of media adapting Holmes. The writers are making judicious use of time here, using scenes that otherwise would have been silent (Watson rides alone in car) in order to get things done. We're using every second of time here. Could these scenes be cut? Yes. A scene of Watson being driven could be cut, and scenes of Watson flirting that don't amount to anything in this episode could be cut, but stacking them both makes them more useful.


We're brought to an out-of-use warehouse as Watson walks to the center of a large empty room where a single figure is waiting for him, leaning on a cane. Again, not burying the lead here, this is meant to be ominous and viewer is meant to think this is Moriarty. It's Mycroft, and we're going to be referring to him as such for the ease of discussion. The script cleverly refers to him simply as "M."


Watson mocks him for the theatrics with the payphones as he approaches, and Mycroft offers him a chair, saying his leg must be killing him. He explains the theatrics of saying he is "avoiding the attention of Sherlock Holmes," continuing the misdirection of who he is.


Mycroft interrogates Watson, asking him about his relationship to Sherlock: how they met, how long they have known each other. The banter is very back and forth, it is not Mycroft asking questions and Watson answering, it is Watson responding with questions of his own. This creates a back and forth to the power dynamic where neither feels like they have the upper hand over the other. Then Mycroft says that he is the "closest thing to a friend Sherlock has: an enemy." While in-character for this version of Mycroft, this also continues the misdirection to convince the viewers that this is Moriarty.


Watson's phone chimes, and he checks it. It's Sherlock, asking him to come home if convenient. Then another, telling him to come anyway even if inconvenient, and a third alerting him that it may be dangerous. Again, three texts.


Here Sherlock is forming the final part of the FOUR CORNER OPPOSITION for this scene. At the top of the chart are WANTS WATSON AND SHERLOCK TOGETHER and WANTS THEM APART. Along the side is CONCERNED FOR SHERLOCK and UNCONCERNED FOR SHERLOCK. Mycroft wants them apart and is concerned for Sherlock, Donovan wants the same but is unconcerned for him / more concerned for Watson. Watson and Sherlock both fall under the "wants them to be together" heading, and while Watson is concerned with his new friend, Sherlock is unconcerned with the danger posed to him. We have our four-corner opposition for the scene, the forces internal and external pulling Watson to-and-from Sherlock before he makes his choice.


That is what this scene is about. Sherlock has abandoned him, and now people are coming out of the woodwork to tell him he should steer clear. He is being presented with an litany of evidence that he should, likely, leave, and when he choses not to at the end of the scene, it will be a sticking point: he is now on Sherlock's team, he's made his choice regardless of the evidence presented to him.


Mycroft offers Watson money to spy on Sherlock, passing information on to him. He phrases it in Rule of Three: " (1)Nothing indiscreet, (2)nothing you’d feel uncomfortable with. Just ... (3) tell me what he’s up to." Pay attention to this... this is how people talk, not just in fiction, but in the real world. You will be amazed at how much it happens. We, as humans, speak in Rule of Threes.


Watson refuses, the dialog back-and forth taking the form of more Rule of Threes until Mycroft gains the upper hand: 1) Watson: No, Mycroft: I haven’t mentioned a figure. 2) Don't bother, You’re very loyal, very quickly. 3) No I’m not. I’m just not interested, “Trust issues” it says here.


This stops Watson cold. It is a REMIND of the same phrase his therapist used in the cold open of the episode. "Have you decided to trust Sherlock Holmes?" That is the question of the episode, the main Rule of Three for the episode. The first was posed in the first scene, now it is being reprised at almost the exact middle of the episode's runtime, and it will return in Act 3 when Watson is again abandoned by Sherlock.


Mycroft takes out the notebook of Watson's therapist, showing just how far his reach and influence goes. He begins reading from it, each line rattling Watson more and more until he snaps: "Just who the hell are you?" He then tells Mycroft he's done with this, begins to walk away, and Mycroft calls Watson back.


It's at this point we should note, it's my opinion that Mycroft was intentionally rattling Watson here, testing not only his resolve but his theory about Watson's intermittent tremor in his hand, which we will now address. This isn't totally supported by the text. It could just be that Mycroft is, in fact, an asshole. I like the interpretation that both he and Sherlock, detective brothers, came to the same hypothesis that Watson's ailments were psychosomatic and chose different methods to test that theory, and that this was just Mycroft's.


Mycroft calls Watson back not directly, but by making a statement that intrigues him. "I imagine people have already warned you to stay away from him. But I can see from your left hand, that isn’t going to happen." This calls back, again, to Sally Donovan earlier in the scene.


Watson turns back and Mycroft inspects his hand, finally landing on: "Remarkable." When Watson asks what he means by that, he again answers indirectly. "Most people blunder round this city, and all they see are streets and shops and cars. But when you walk with Sherlock Holmes, you see the battlefield."


Watson asks again what's wrong with his hand, to which Mycroft reveals that his therapist believes it is a post-traumatic stress response to his time in the war, that he's haunted by his memories of it. THIS IS THE FIRST PAYOFF OF THE HAND TREMOR. We set it up in the first scene, we have reminded of it, and now we get the explanation. It's also the PAYOFF for Watson's PTSD dreams that started the episode. Mycroft delivers the payoff line: "[Your therapist has] it the wrong way round. You’re under stress right now, but your hand is perfectly steady. You’re not haunted by the war, Dr. Watson - you miss it. Welcome back."


This is also a REMIND of the same deduction Sherlock made of Watson at the end of Act 1, saying he was a military doctor that had seen much danger, then asking if he wanted to see more. "Oh, God yes" he said at the time.


Mycroft exists the scene with a very direct statement of this scene's purpose: "Time to choose a side," he says. Watson looks at his steady hand a smiles as Mycroft's female associate returns and says she's to take him home and asks him for the address: Watson gives his home address not as his apartment, but as 221B Baker Street, the flat he and Sherlock now share together.


While the choice is never stated, THIS is the choice Watson is making, signified by the very literal question of "Where is your home?" When faced with that question, he responds "with Sherlock" rather than "in the life I had before." He has made his choice. He further cements this by saying "I have to stop off 'somewhere else' first."


The "somewhere else" is the home we saw him in at the start of the episode. Just a day after meeting Sherlock and his former home has been downgraded from "home" to "someplace else" even in his casual conversation.


We then make one last cut to seeing what he needed at his old apartment, and here we are at EXACTLY the half-way minute of the episode. Watson steps in and gets not his clothes, not his toothbrush, nothing except he goes to the desk we last saw his sitting at, opens the drawer we saw his gun in in the opening, and takes out the gun and puts it under his shirt.


The writers are drawing express attention to the gun here, using the theory of Cheov's Gun very literally. The writing makes it clear that Watson went back for the gun because Sherlock warned him of danger, even at the expense of logic. He doesn't take any other belongings? No, because the gun cannot seem incidental. The writers need the audience to know, above all else, where that gun is, and it's placement here is not accidental: it was in the first scene, it is at the exact middle of the runtime, and it will be in the second-to-last scene. Setup, remind, payoff.


In addition to having its own internal setups, reminds, and payoffs, this scene continues several important episode-long Three's. It pays off the PTSD and the Hand Tremor, it reminds about the gun, three pivotal elements of the episode's story.


And, as promised, though starting the episode sad as handover from the last scene, Watson ends the episode smiling down at his hand and making a positive choice for the future.


 

See? This is how it's done. All tools used. Perfectly balanced. And as the viewer, you're none the wiser. It seems like magic, it seems like it just happened. It seems fresh and original, but it's done using the same tools of the trade that have existed for a hundred years. Join us soon for Scene Eleven!


 

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