(Wow, I'm still talking about this episode, and today there's another one! I don't feel ready for a new infusion of canon! Also, this comment lost focus more or less right away, surprise surprise, but now I've typed it so I might as well hit post.)
First things first, here's the fic. The author was originally going to make it longer, so you may see some references to it being a WIP, but the ending it does have is just about perfect (and the story is quite long as it is).
I'm reading Mycroft through a few different lenses, none of which are giving me a very favorable portrait of him right now, and it's difficult for me to make very coherent statements about him. His bowing-to-authority qualities really came out in this episode, and while he's on the right side, he seems to me to have given up a lot of moral independence to get where he is. To put it in slightly cutesy form, Mycroft fears England will fall if Irene goes public; Sherlock fears England will fall if Mrs. Hudson leaves Baker Street. It's a matter of where your loyalties lie. The story reveals that Irene has information that poses a genuine security risk, but that's not what they use to get Sherlock on the case--Mycroft thinks the best piece of information to share is about the young female person*, that that is adequate reason to enlist Sherlock's help. But that isn't what convinces Sherlock to help at all. He helps because he's interested. (He seems very interested in the power dynamics at play--see the way he rolls the word "dominatrix" over his tongue, or how thrilled he looks when saying "Power! It's a power play! Oh, that is interesting!" or however that line goes.) Anyway, Mycroft dictates action based on an arbitrary authority, see--not the Bond-flight plan, but the threat of a royal scandal--whereas Sherlock won't even put on his trousers for that kind of authority, and chooses his cases based on his own sense of values.
And Sherlock's values are a bit not good, but they're his. He's preserved his moral independence even though some people would say he's just amoral. Mycroft is edging toward not being able to make moral choices, only procedural and expedient ones.
*Apropos of nothing much, I love the cloud of anonymity around the royal family in this episode. Like, of course I'm thinking of Kate Middleton, but they steered carefully clear of her--maybe it's one of the Duke of York's girls, maybe it's someone I've barely heard of because I'm not a royal watcher. And who *does* Harry (is that his name?) work for? Who's the smoker--the Queen, Prince Charles...? Anyway, I don't know what the writers' reasons were for doing it that way, but they managed to make a story that suggested a titillating scandal without making it too distasteful by associating it with a particular real person, and I thought it was very artfully done. Just a craft appreciation note, I guess.
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Date: 2012-01-08 11:48 pm (UTC)First things first, here's the fic. The author was originally going to make it longer, so you may see some references to it being a WIP, but the ending it does have is just about perfect (and the story is quite long as it is).
I'm reading Mycroft through a few different lenses, none of which are giving me a very favorable portrait of him right now, and it's difficult for me to make very coherent statements about him. His bowing-to-authority qualities really came out in this episode, and while he's on the right side, he seems to me to have given up a lot of moral independence to get where he is. To put it in slightly cutesy form, Mycroft fears England will fall if Irene goes public; Sherlock fears England will fall if Mrs. Hudson leaves Baker Street. It's a matter of where your loyalties lie. The story reveals that Irene has information that poses a genuine security risk, but that's not what they use to get Sherlock on the case--Mycroft thinks the best piece of information to share is about the young female person*, that that is adequate reason to enlist Sherlock's help. But that isn't what convinces Sherlock to help at all. He helps because he's interested. (He seems very interested in the power dynamics at play--see the way he rolls the word "dominatrix" over his tongue, or how thrilled he looks when saying "Power! It's a power play! Oh, that is interesting!" or however that line goes.) Anyway, Mycroft dictates action based on an arbitrary authority, see--not the Bond-flight plan, but the threat of a royal scandal--whereas Sherlock won't even put on his trousers for that kind of authority, and chooses his cases based on his own sense of values.
And Sherlock's values are a bit not good, but they're his. He's preserved his moral independence even though some people would say he's just amoral. Mycroft is edging toward not being able to make moral choices, only procedural and expedient ones.
*Apropos of nothing much, I love the cloud of anonymity around the royal family in this episode. Like, of course I'm thinking of Kate Middleton, but they steered carefully clear of her--maybe it's one of the Duke of York's girls, maybe it's someone I've barely heard of because I'm not a royal watcher. And who *does* Harry (is that his name?) work for? Who's the smoker--the Queen, Prince Charles...? Anyway, I don't know what the writers' reasons were for doing it that way, but they managed to make a story that suggested a titillating scandal without making it too distasteful by associating it with a particular real person, and I thought it was very artfully done. Just a craft appreciation note, I guess.
[I HIT THE COMMENT LENGTH LIMIT, WILL BE BACK WITH SECOND HALF OF THIS COMMENT]