Sherlock - could someone please explain the plot of 'Scandal..'?

[allaflutter]

Yes, I'm embarassed to be slow (I like to think it's the heat!), but the desire to know is stronger
I've watched the 'Scandal in Belgravia' yesterday, missed it the first time round, and didn't have a problem with other episodes, but I'm just baffled. They really talk TOO fast for normal human beings, especially in this weather - you need to rewind many times which is no guarantee either !
Anyway, I understand 'the woman' aspect almost, but please explain to me the plane plot. I don't get it why aer they furiuos with Sherlock for solving the code, and what WAS their original plan? WTF were these drugged(?) people on the plabe - surely they wre not dead? And what was the hiker's connectoin to it all (I understand how he got killed). As far as the woman, did they or did they not want her to work for them - and if not why on earth did they let her make Holmes to undo the code?Grrr, I've been dwelling on it all day.
Thank you!

[Allthingspretty]

The way I understand it the people are definitly dead
The plot was that people would think tjey had killed people on the plane when they blew up the.plane. The woman learnt this via a man who procured her domantrix service

[allaflutter]

thank you - but why would they (what, the English Ministry?) want to kill them, and what the plot was all about? and also didn't he say 'but no one would be dead - isn't that neat'?

[Chubfuddler]

They were dead bodies. There are links to all the cases Sherlock so quickly dismissed as "boring" in the rapid segment but at the beginning - missing dead bodies etc. basically there was a terrorist plot to blow up that flight, security services got wind of it, but rather than be seen to foil the plot they decided (not clear to me why) to fill the plane with dead bodies and let the terrorists "succeed"
But nobody would die.

I did not understand what that had to do with the dead hiker. Or why the woman ended up nearly being murdered at the end (was it the terrorists who had attempted the plane bombing and that was why Sherlock rescued her - because he had ruined the plan? Actually that clearly is the answer and I've answered myself as I've typed that bit). Dead hiker a mystery though.

[allaflutter]

I know how she found out - that part they kept making mre than clear, ha. But that man an 'enemy' wasn't he, so they should have been pleased about Holmes deciphering it?

[Earthworms]

They wanted it to succeed so the security services could prove to government and public that the terrorist threat was real. ( and secure more funding for themselves I guess)

[Chubfuddler]

Please can someone explain the hiker and the boomerang.

[ShowOfHands]

If terrorists thought they'd succeeded in blowing up a plane of people, they'd consider it mission accomplished. If they were foiled, they'd move on and begin a new plot and chances are that this time round the British Government and secret services wouldn't foil it in time and they'd kill a plane load of actual people.

The bloke wasn't an enemy, he was just somebody who worked for the government with a smug, big head who'd bragged to the dominatrix. She therefore had info about the plot, they needed it back and Sherlock accidently deciphered it and ruined the whole thing.

[allaflutter]

ah right! thanks Chub - I've answered before seing your pst. That makes sense of course - to fill the plane with dead bodies so no one needs to die. Mind you, would the terrorists blow it up once they ve realised that it was a setup?
I didn't see the very beginning and then they did show it really fast in the end but I didn't catch the drift.
Yes, that's another thing - why was she in Karacjhi at all - that was just silly, as if a woman of her job and pampered existance would be dabbling in war zones. I assume she did go to America after all.

[allaflutter]

thanks Show! Yes I've understood already about the dead bodies - that was quite clever really.
the last paragraph clears it at last. So they've sent Holmes to her while hoping that she would never show him that info (from their guy), but she did - it was a risk on their part though, that Homes could see it and even out of curiousity for himself could 'read'..

[RimmersLustMonster]

I don't think Mycroft and his cronies knew she had that email. Adler is working for Moriarty- or more precisely, trying to use his network to secure benefits for herself. It's she who phones him in the resolution to the pool standoff at the start of the episode, and once Sherlock has deciphered the email for her she passes that information to Moriarty by phone (thats him in the sunglasses). My interpretation is that Moriarty is ultimately responsible for the terrorist plot to blow up the plane (consulting criminal, after all), and in passing on the information to him she foils the attempt to deflect the attack by filling the plane with (previously deceased) bodies.
Mycroft's anger at Sherlock is because in deciphering the email to impress Adler, without showing what he would consider due respect to the sensitive nature of the contents, he has put national security at risk. He's also embarrassed because Sherlock is his little brother. The braggart who showed it to Adler is not a threat because without Sherlock's intervention she would not have been able to understand its contents. The plane would then have taken off, exploded and the terrorist cell would have "succeeded".
Had Sherlock not cracked the code on the Blackberry, Adler would have been able to demand anything she wished from the British Government- this is what Sherlock meant by "everything you've worked for". Her involvement with Moriarty helped her to achieve this, but she blew it by falling in love with Sherlock and making her PIN code so guessable.

(Incidentally, Sherlock has got a lot better at cracking codes since The Blind Banker when he had to have Sarah Sawyer's help to start him off...)

I love Scandal, I think it's my favourite episode of Sherlock so far. So so so good!

[allaflutter]

thank you Rimmers, I agree it was the most gripping of other episodes I've seen, partly because the emotional side of Sherlock was part of the plot, but also it as prob the most complex. OK, the fog has lifted! I must say I didm't recognise MOriarty sideways in glasses - I thought it was Mycroft which really confused me, plus I missed the bit about dead bodies. I did understand she was texting Moriarty at the pool, something at least.
Ok, still two points though - the hiker (?), and why did she end up in Karachi (still think that was silly, unlike the rest of plot, especially also Holmes ending up there saving her - ridiculus!)

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

I THINK (although I could very well be wrong) that the hiker wasn't really a contribution to the plot but was just a reference to an original Sherlock Holmes story where he works out that someone killed mysteriously was killed by a boomerang.

Re: Karachi, I thought she was just there, unconnectedly to the Scandal plot, because her life and work were all about being in danger and dangerous places.

Disclaimer: I haven't watched this episode for well over a year so this is all from my rubbish memory.

[ShowOfHands]

Yes, I assume the hiker is nothing to do with anything, it's just a reference to a Sherlock story. They reference tons of them at various points. It was an interesting little conundrum and served to show Irene Adler's cognitive skills.

And why wouldn't she be in Karachi? She is involved in a lot of stuff, particularly around terrorism so it seems. And does it not make sense that Holmes would not only keep an eye on her but also be interested in similar stuff to her. There might be all sorts of reasons why she was there and why he followed her. It's up to us to fill in the blanks.

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

I thought he followed her because he'd previously, basically, destroyed all possibility she had of making her information pay (the info she had about the faked plane crash, from her client).
He felt it necessary to make reparation of some kind. And he was a little bit in love with her, in his own way, and cared about her safety.

[MrsGeologist]

I thought the plane crash was so the terrorists were unaware that they were being monitored. If the bombing didn't happen, they'd know there was a leak somewhere, so would alter their actions (find the leak and kill them maybe) and then the secret services would be unable to prevent further plots, because they wouldn't know what the terrorists were up to.

[AltogetherAndrews]

Yeah, there is a reference to Coventry, where if they had stopped the bombing, the Germans would have known that the codes had been cracked. You never reveal that you have broken a code unless you have to, because the enemy would then change their codes, and you wont know what is going to happen next. So basically they don't want the plane bombing stopped, because that would reveal that they have infiltrated the terrorist cell. So the bombing continues, but no one actually dies, and the terrorist cell continues with its plans, unaware that the British secret services know who they are and what they are up to. Presumably this is because the secret services are hoping to eventually catch their leader.

The Karachi bit, and the boomerang are references to the original stories, which were full of fanciful endings, and exotic racist characters and settings.

[allaflutter]

Show, I don't think she's involved in terrorism - she didn't even know that the info she had was to do with that. I think it's too fanciful to send her htere (wasn't the case in the book - nor did he save her there as I remember). She's fond of her job based in luxurious surroundings, and like to have power over clients, what's war zoneshave to do with it - her ahem skills would be hardly applicable there, and her g;lam looks especially would not last there. I think I'll see it as a blip in an otherwise good film.
Ok, hiker was just a reference - thanks.
I do get the Coventry refernce, just didn't see earlier who were these deda people and who killed them.
Are they going to do more of Sherlock?

[harrietspy]

Yes, I think there's a new series later this year. Have you seen the rest of this series? There were clues I noticed in Scandal 2nd time round that foreshadow the brilliant finale. Won't say more in case you haven't seen it.

[FrankellyMyDearIDontGiveADamn]

Sherlock Season 3 is still being filmed. They've done the first 2 episodes and are on a break while Martin Freeman does more Hobbit pick ups in New Zealand and Benedict Cumberbatch promotes Star Trek in the Far East. They'll start filming again in the next few weeks and the aim is to broadcast at Christmas/New Year.

[ShowOfHands]

I didn't mean she was actively involved in terrorism, but that she had no qualms with sharing information which related to it and procuring information from those people committed to preventing it. And some of the information she had she knew came from secret service, government officials and royalty. She was happy to give the information to people like Moriarty.

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

harrietspy, what clues did you pick up? I've seen them all, so you won't be spoilering me. Could you possibly PM me if you get a chance? I'd love to hear what you've picked up -because I'm too dim to have worked them out myself--

Hello Frankelly!

[harrietspy]

Have pmed you, clarice!

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

Thank you!

[FrankellyMyDearIDontGiveADamn]

Morning clarice

One thing is for sure on the "how did Sherlock do it?" front, Steven Moffatt has said that he has not seen anyone guess correctly so far, and that a vital clue in the third episode has been missed by everyone.

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

I think Moffat is lying about that. He has previous on misleading his viewers. [cynic]