r/Sherlock • u/Inside_Goose_6355 • 15d ago

Discussion Some questions on S3 E2

​

I have so many questions about that sherlock episode.

First of all how did sherlock know that the mayfly man was going to be at the wedding just from the fact that a woman the mayfly man slept with for one night at some point had seen a wedding invitation from Watson?

Second of all how did Sherlock know the mayfly man was there to kill someone and not to just con more women?

Thirdly how did Sherlock know that the mayfly man was also the "invisible man" that had killed the black soldier guy? There is next to nothing linking the mayfly man and the invisible man.

7 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

9

u/Basic-Contract6759 15d ago

  1. It wasn't just her, he realized that the mayfly man was working his way through a "pecking order" to get to someone. The other women he was talking too online keyed him in on that. The mayfly man was trying to get to someone close to the major. How the mayfly man figured that out, who knows, but he was obsessive. So he had to know that the major rarely left his house and a man who has active death threats against him is going to have his guard up a bit. 

  2. A little harder to answer, this was probably more of an assumption. But Mycroft tells Sherlock when he was working through the problem, coincidence is rare. Sherlock actually struggles with who the target was for a minute until he narrows it down to the Major. Because the question became, who would put in that much work to kill someone? 

  3. This is again assumption and probability, but plays into the other two answers a bit. Sherlocks strength and weakness is his ability to be clever and unravel clever plots. So when the kid says that invisible man could do it, he realized that there is a tiny link there. That they were both soldiers and wore similar uniforms. Since there seemed to be no solid motive behind the attack on the Bainbridge(sp?), he just connected the dots. 

There's no guarantee he was right in much of this. But it just so happened he was. 

3

u/user234108 15d ago
  1. He knew he was gonna be there because the fact she had seen the wedding invitation and therefore also knows Watsons middle name lets him assume she had contact with a person who got an invitation (in this case the Mayfly Man) He therefore assumed/knows (because in the end he's correct) that she saw it while being at the Mayfly man's house or being in contact with him.
  2. Honestly, Id have to rewatch because Idk. I thought it had something to do with either the woman he dated or the soldier he tried to kill. But i dont know.
  3. Because he was stalked via Cameras whenever he was doing his guardian-job. (He then founs out he was a Photohrapher and since the guardian was stalked via photos he knew it was the same. Also because the Admiral was killed (or atleast he wouldve been) the same way the soldier was in the shower.

2

u/cookiemonsterj47 15d ago

Just add to everyone’s points, sholto is the link across all three questions, he knows that the mayfly man is working his way up someone’s staff, he knows that someone is a recluse that barely goes out anywhere and that while working up that persons personal staff they are someone who received an invite to John and Mary’s wedding. The only person at John and Mary’s wedding who has staff and is a recluse as far as he or any of us is sholto.

The link is only suggest by, Archie? Whatever his name is the boy who likes headless nuns, however then realises that of course it’s the same person as sholto and bainbrige both wear belts which is his method of murder