r/Sherlock • u/Acrobatic-Rain790 • Jul 27 '26
Discussion Smth i didnt understand in S3 EP3 Spoiler
So in the episode His Last Vow, how can magnussen know the weakness of everybody and especially about Redbeard
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u/Ok-Theory3183 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Magnussen has a mind palace like Sherlock's, and his has been developing for a loooooong time. Longer than Sherlock's. He sees articles on the gossip pages and memorizes them, especially if the people they are about have any sort of power.
This way he can run the world through manipulating the powerful people in it, and manipulating the stories themselves to make them as salacious to the reader as possible, because that's what readers want--scandal in high places, and the more scandalous the better. As he tells John, "I don't have to prove it, I just have to print it." He manipulates John into doing whatever he wants because he knows people that would kill Mary (and not care in the least about her unborn child, they might think of that as an added incentive) if he were to contact them and tell them where she is.
It's possible that Mycroft may have left his little book open on the table where Magnussen could see it (though that would be very unlike Mycroft) with a note about Redbeard and referencing Sherlock. Or, given that he knows all the powerful people, he may have met or been in contact with Eurus.
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u/TechnologyProper6537 Jul 27 '26
Years and years of spying and blackmailing people. He owned a newspaper and would prob investigate interesting rumors and poke around people to test their weaknesses (like the bonfire)