How I learned to stop worrying and embrace the spoilers (contains spoilers, surprisingly)

Before you start reading, please be aware that this post contains officially sanctioned (i.e. released by the producers) spoilers for Sherlock S3. I'll hide them behind links and won’t use spoilery names in the post but my comments may still give something away, so I'll put warnings on those parts.

Dear readers,

As part of my blog renewal, I was thinking of doing some sort of Fangirl Friday thing (though the name is shamelessly stolen from AccioLacquer), but that makes about as much sense as Casual Friday in an office where everyone dresses casually all week, because when am I not fangirling? When I’m writing scathing reviews of stuff that smells funny or ranting about something, I guess. But that’s not enough to fill the other 6 days of the week, so I’m introducing Fantabulous Fangirl Flailing Friday, where I go off the geek deep end. It’s like all my other fangirl posts, but worse. Rather like introducing Casual Friday in a casual-dressing office, which I can only imagine would deteriorate into No Pants Friday pretty quickly (and I’m using pants in the British sense here) – something I could only appreciate if I were working with Sherlock Holmes.

It may surprise you to hear that someone as fangirlish as me hates spoilers, but I do. I don’t want to see photos from the production set, I don’t want to hear what new characters will be joining the next season of a show, I don’t want to know that somebody is going to die* or that a film has a happy (or unhappy) ending or that there is this epic fight scene between X and Y because all that gives away too much for me. I didn’t want to hear whom Benedict Cumberbatch was playing in Star Trek and I definitely didn’t want to know who the new Doctor was going to be.

That’s a bit of a problem unless you’re willing to stay offline for a few months. I do occasionally avoid Twitter and blogs/news sites that might inadvertently spoil me if I’m a week or two behind on a TV show, but even then it’s pretty hard to avoid. 

Can you guess where this post is heading? (IOU by LynBDesigns, 4 coats (opaque in 2-3), no top coat)

When I heard the producers were getting ready to announce Sherlock’s new nemesis for Season 3, I unsubscribed from all relevant twitter channels and stayed off fan sites – only to stumble upon the picture on a seemingly “harmless” blog four days later. I was so annoyed I decided to take a different approach: Since it was unrealistic to hold out till December or so both with Sherlock and Doctor Who, I would embrace the official spoilers (or previews, I guess, what with them being official and all) and watch them on my terms. I’m much happier with that, but if you’re not, I suggest you stop reading now and just click on one of the photos for a picture gallery of my manis in this post.

Warning: fangirling and spoilers beyond this point.

IOU bottle shot

Still with me? Oh, so many announcements in such a short time! That new villain? I can sort of see building up the character from that Sherlock Holmes story to a season-long villain, though it will require some changes. But given how they have managed to rework other stories into a plot that is both very Sherlockian and completely surprising, I don’t doubt that the team will manage to blow our minds. Now, the actor? PERFECT. Just look at him! Like his brother, he looks like he’s born to play a crook, but I suspect (or hope) that, like his brother, he does better at greyscales that at stark black and white. That said, I don’t really know much about him, so we’ll see, but I’m quite optimistic.

Non-spoilery version: Somebody thought they owed Sherlock something. Unfortunately, he took them up on it. Which is why we're where we are now.

Next up, the teaser video for season 3. (If you haven’t seen it, go watch it now so you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t want to see it, go look at the pictures again.) Not at all as spoilery as I feared, it’s just enough to whet my appetite (like I haven’t been drooling at the mouth for over a year). My mind spins stories from each of those first scenes, but they mainly involve shrieks and fainting and mildly raised eyebrows and maybe a well-placed fist in the face. But that final one. When he walks into the restaurant. There is anticipation on his face and then, in the last shot, I swear you see his heart breaking. And I’m afraid it’s not because of Watson’s moustache. [Though come on, that moustache? That has to go, John. Very few people can pull off a moustache without a beard to go with it. Not even Benedict.] 

I may be drifting into fan fiction territory here, but what I see in that scene is John in a fancy restaurant – not alone, the table is set for two and the carelessly folded cloth napkin on the left suggests they have already eaten, but Mary has excused herself for a moment – looking through the dessert menu, wondering when to ask the question, checking his inside pocket to make sure the ring is still there (what has it got in its pocketses?). And Sherlock sees his hopes crumble, and something inside of him dies. I don’t normally say this but OH GOD THE FEELS!

See that up there? That’s why I don’t do spoilers. My mind grabs them and runs and I work myself into a state. I’m not saying I can deduce the plot from spoilers (thank goodness!), and let’s face it, that look of Sherlock’s is probably mild disappointment rather than heartbreak, but now I have to live with this alternate (but maybe, just maybe, accurate) reality in my head for the next half year or so.

"IOU" by LynBDesigns, four layers, matte

If you need a pick-me-up after this drama, why not find out how he survived that thing he was owed? (Spoilers, but not really. Except for whom Benedict Cumberbatch plays in Star Trek.)   

On to happier things next Friday: the new Doctor (and a slew of Doctor Who-related polishes). For now, let me wallow in my Sherlock feels.

Come back tomorrow if convenient (if inconvenient, come anyway)

S.

*The only exception to this rule is A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones). I consider it only fair to pass on the warning I got along with the first book: People are going to die. A lot. I won’t tell my friends who, but I will tell them it’s people they can’t imagine could die because then where would the plot be? But they do die. A lot. It's traumatic even once you know that because you don't know who. Not pretty at all. (Spoilers, duh).

Polishes ring finger: LynBDesigns Eloquent Dust and Quoth the Raven, OPI Innie Minnie Mighty Bow, Essie Marshmallow