sherlock60 | Canon Discussion Post: The Yellow Face

It's canon discussion time, everybody! What did you think about The Yellow Face? As always, I've written up a few of my own random thoughts and questions, which are behind the jump. Add your own in the comments!

No Granada discussion this week, but we'll have The Greek Interpreter to watch next week.

It was a long two minutes before Grant Munro broke the silence, and when his answer came it was one of which I love to think. He lifted the little child, kissed her, and then, still carrying her, he held his other hand out to his wife and turned towards the door.
"We can talk it over more comfortably at home," said he. "I am not a very good man, Effie, but I think that I am a better one than you have given me credit for being."
-- Grant Munro is one of my favorite characters in canon, and one of Watson's too, because he is so good-hearted. He embraces his wife and his newly adopted daughter, and after fearing the worst from this situation, makes it beautiful, bringing together their family in love. There is so much warmth at the end of this story.

"I was about to say that my friend and I have listened to a good many strange secrets in this room, and that we have had the good fortune to bring peace to many troubled souls. I trust that we may do as much for you."
- I don't have a case for them (or a time machine/dimensional warp hole to get there), but I wish I could consult with Holmes and Watson at Baker Street too, laying out my troubles in a chair by their fire.

- Sherlock Holmes is really off his game in this story. His whole theory of the case revolves around Effie's former husband, but he ignores the information about her child entirely. It's not unreasonable to think crime may be at the base of these events from Grant Munro's tale, but Holmes invests himself completely in his blackmail idea to the exclusion of any other possibilities. Why was he so willing to follow a speculative and contrived theory? Watson correctly calls it "all surmise". Isn't a good detective supposed to wait for all the facts? A working hypothesis is one thing, jumping blindly to a conclusion is another. Holmes seems uninterested in even finding more facts, favoring Munro's suggestion of immediate and illegal breaking and entering rather than attempting to gather any more data on the situation. He could have walked the three of them into a gun barrel for all he knew.