My take on the ending of A SCANDAL IN BELGRAVIA

[rj_anderson]

On the comment thread for "A Scandal in Belgravia" at Mark Watches, I just found this comment written by Indigo Sto Helit, and it is so well written and so exactly what I think myself that I'm going to repost it here:

I had kind of a different interpretation of the end of "Belgravia". I felt like Irene lost one conflict, but won another.

Ultimately, it seemed to me that there were two struggles going on between Mycroft and Irene. One was for the photos, and the Holmes brothers outwitted her on that. But the other one was for Sherlock himself. All his life, Sherlock has had Mycroft as his older brother, his role model. Mycroft is successful, powerful, and poised. There's no way Sherlock doesn't look up to him on some level. And Mycroft's lifestyle is very clear from the clues Moffat gives us. He says "caring is a disadvantage", he sees his own little brother as nothing more than a tool to solve a case... Mycroft is unemotional, aloof, and arrogant, and Sherlock is attempting to imitate him.

But then comes Irene Adler, whose power comes from relationships. It's all there in her catchphrase: "I know what he likes." She has unquestionable mastery over human emotion, and she uses that mastery brilliantly to her advantage, exploiting Sherlock to make him give her the information about the plane so she can send it to Mycroft. So when Sherlock says, "Sentiment is a chemical defect found on the losing side", he's mocking himself more than Irene. He's aware that she's influenced him intensely throughout the episode, and he's reminding himself of the Mycroftian values he's always lived by.

And then comes the ending scene. Though it's no advantage to him, though it might be more judicious to let her die, Sherlock travels all the way to the Middle East to rescue Irene from terrorists. This isn't a moment of weakness for her. It's a moment of triumph. She's lost her blackmail material, but she's won Sherlock's loyalties, and if I had to choose just one of those, I know which one I'd walk away with.

I think his encounter with Miss Adler has greatly changed Sherlock, and I can't wait to see how it affects him in the future.

As I said in my reply to the above comment, it's not like I didn't find some aspects of this episode problematic -- indeed there are parts of it, including parts of Irene's characterization and behaviour, that I had definite problems with. But I am not inclined to jump on the "STEVEN MOFFAT IS SUCH A SEXIST PIG LOOK WHAT HE DID TO IRENE" bandwagon, either.

(That being said, I'm really looking forward to HOUND, as I think it will be much less nerve-wracking.)