sherlock60 | Canon Discussion Post: Black Peter

Welcome back, everyone! Let's have some canon Sherlock Holmes discussion, shall we? What did you all think of Black Peter? 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!

- You've got to feel for Stanley Hopkins, who wants to do a good job as a detective and invariably tries hard, but struggles against his own inexperience and inadequacies. And all the while, his idol and really, rival, is always right there over his shoulder, waiting to correct him when he's wrong. Of course, Hopkins should know better than to argue a point against Sherlock Holmes. The pupil disappoints the master, and a humble man is made even humbler.

- Sherlock Holmes is a relatively famous person in London at this time. More importantly his address is. So color me skeptical that the sailors he lured to visit were not at least dubious about one "Captain Basil" of 221b Baker Street. But let's put that aside. Is the Captain Basil persona used up now? Seems like that cover has been blown. How many alternate lives has Sherlock Holmes lived? Watson knows of "at least five" refuges where he can change his personality via disguise. Seems like there must be more that are still secret. There must be much of this system he's devised that is still secret. I'd love to find out more.

- One question I think of frequently: how much does Watson actually know about what's going on at any given time? I have a theory it's a lot more than he lets on. He often claims to be out of the loop of Holmes' reasoning and developments and simply waits to find out more. By casting himself as the man who only gets information when it is freely given, he makes for a better narrator for the story, but a much less useful partner for detective work. I think he's often more informed than he says, but finds that giving himself the simple observer role in the writing makes the exposition in the literary adaptation just so much easier to convey.

- It's always sort of nice when the murder victim is someone no one minds being dead. Still important to investigate, of course. Justice must always be done. But mourning needn't be.

- A somewhat disgusting crime scene logistical question: if Peter Carey was run through with a harpoon and pinned to the wall, how exactly did his blood get everywhere all over the other walls? That had to be one quick motion to impale him, and any blood that came from that blow would have gone in one direction only, out from that wall. So what's the deal with all the blood?

- "My address and that of Watson will be somewhere in Norway." - So. Norway. Uh, what? What's that about, this spontaneously announced extended joint venture to Scandinavia? Does Holmes plan on investigating Neligan's father or his death? If not, what's the purpose, then? Was Watson aware of this trip or is it a surprise to him too? He still has his practice to think of. Given the chronology ala Baring-Gould, it seems impossible this trip ever took place, at least not at this time. So what happened to the plan?

Comment away, and join us next Sunday for The Norwood Builder!