Before I start I’d better point out that this episode of Sherlock has been widely criticized. There has been slutshaming, piles and piles of feminist critique (not unfounded at all) and general “Moffat can’t write women, he’s a sexist asshole”-hulabaloo.
As for Moffat and teh wimminz in his writing; that’s a topic that needs to be dealt with in a post of its own. Don’t fret, there will be one. Shortly. First, however, the matter at hand; A Scandal in Belgravia.
Please note that I haven’t read any of the Arthur Conan Doyle books, and is therefore completely unbiased when it comes to these characters.
The series begins with Mycroft (Mark Gatiss), quite forcibly asking his brother to help him retrieve some compromising photos of a member of the royal family, taken by a dominatrix to the rich and powerful: Irene Adler (Lara Pulver). No names are mentioned, but we do learn that the person in the photograph is a woman, so the mental leap to imagining Kate Middleton back-bound and ball-gagged isn’t far away; although I did replace her in my mind with Camilla – for my own amusement. What follows is a battle of wits between our very much asexual Sherlock and the hypersexual Adler – and I’m loving it to bits.
Finally Sherlock’s general belittling of all things non-Sherlock gets a good slap on the wrist from an equal. Despite my aversion to the “women using sex as a weapon”-trope, it actually works in this episode because of Sherlock’s complete disinterest in it.
Now, there have been opinions voiced saying that Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) fell in love with Adler. Which is – in my humble opinion – utter bullshit. Sure, he’s interested and intrigued by her – but not from any sort of lovelorn outlook, but because he regards her as an equal and I’d like to think that their respective sexes had absolutely nothing to do with it. They are two characters who regard themselves as being above pesky things like love and, would it occur, would never stoop to admitting it. The interest lies purely in the intellectual dueling. At least that’s the way I prefer to see it, because the other options are one of the two:
- Adler – a sexually empowered lesbian falls for Sherlock; a sad “gay women just haven’t met the right man yet”-stereotype.
- Sherlock having a sexual interest in Adler. (I know the previous season hinted to Sherlock being gay also, but to me – he’s asexual, and all the more lovely for it.)
I really, really don’t want either of those to be the case. It’s disrespectful to these characters.
It pained me so much that Adler was taken down as a mere pawn in Moriarty’s scheme and ends up being saved from beheading by Sherlock in the end. I don’t see how that scene was neccessary at all. It gave off a really bad vibe, and sure – it can be excused with “he wants to keep her alive for the sake of besting her once more”, but that wasn’t how it came across at all.
So, yes, a disappointing ending to an otherwise entertaining episode – an episode which I reckon bests the previous series in many ways.