Jolie's thoughts on
The problem of Thor Bridge (Sherlock & Co. podcast)
(Hear me gush about the show in general.)
So this is one of my favourite original ACD cases, in spite of the somewhat anticlimactic solution. And I wasn’t disappointed by this version. I love it when Holmes does his dramatic recreations of the crimes. You can imagine how I squeaked with delight at how Sherlock hijacked the police press conference in this episode!
The "time is against us" aspect of the original that adds extra pressure and suspense was rendered perfectly in the morgue scene. "On behalf of the Federal Republic of Brazil, I'd like to see the body." YES!
Sherlock really gets extra points for cool lines in this one. "Watson, I was hoping that when I said 'The game is on'…"
Sherlock speaking Cornish, Portuguese and every other language under the sun is lovely, too.
"Would you like to hold hands and talk about your emotions?" 🥺
"I like you as you are, Watson." 🥺🥺
MARIANA: Where are your shoes?
JOHN: Where are my shoes?
SHERLOCK: What time is it? Seven thirty. Probably in the North Sea.
MARIANA: Oh. OK.
The sheer unflappability of this woman. She’s brilliant.
More, please!
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Thor Bridge pt 3
Back to the Gold King again.
But first we have to go and see the young governess who he claims thinks she can fix him.
I had expected from all that we had heard to see a beautiful woman, but I can never forget the effect which Miss Dunbar produced upon me. It was no wonder that even the masterful millionaire had found in her something more powerful than himself—something which could control and guide him.
Watson, rein it in, she's been a victim of sexual harassment from her employer and she's now in jail for allegedly murdering his wife. There is a time and a place for your horniness, now is not it. But, I suppose, at least you are consistent.
"After seeing you, I am prepared to accept Mr. Gibson's statement both as to the influence which you had over him and as to the innocence of your relations with him."
I really hope that this is because of an indent on the little finger of her left hand and a shiny patch on the inside of her elbow, because if this is just because she's pretty, Holmes, then I am disappoint.
"I would not wish to wrong her, but she loved so vividly in a physical sense that she could hardly understand the mental, and even spiritual, tie which held her husband to me, or imagine that it was only my desire to influence his power to good ends which kept me under his roof."
Oh boy, she's really believing the nonsense, huh? Sure, you have a mental and spiritual bond. I'm sure his intentions are entirely chaste. Yup, yuhuh.
"I can see now that I was wrong. Nothing could justify me in remaining where I was a cause of unhappiness, and yet it is certain that the unhappiness would have remained even if I had left the house.”
Which means the only thing gained by you staying was your own unhappiness. So that was pointless. But yes, you should absolutely have left and not tried to use your married employer's crush on you to manipulate his actions. Like, I get that you were trying to do something good, and I understand you're a victim in all of this, but that was still a bad idea.
"I saw no reason for such secrecy, but I did as she asked, accepting the appointment. She asked me to destroy her note and I burned it in the schoolroom grate."
Oh boy. Always keep the receipts. You were being framed so hard.
"Never did I realize till that moment how this poor creature hated me. She was like a mad woman—indeed, I think she was a mad woman, subtly mad with the deep power of deception which insane people may have. How else could she have met me with unconcern every day and yet had so raging a hatred of me in her heart?"
Yeah, little weird that the person we have been repeatedly assured was incredibly emotional and open about her emotions somehow managed to smother them to that extent on a daily basis until this point. Almost like there was some catalyst for her outburst (or this is a lie).
“Mr. Gibson is a very strong, self-contained man. I do not think that he would ever show his emotions on the surface. But I, who knew him so well, could see that he was deeply concerned.”
The more you talk about him, the more I think you were taken in by him. You're being very nice about the man...
“It could only have been at meal-time, or else at the hours when I would be in the schoolroom with the children.”
So... almost any time of day then?
It was as well for him that I did so, for he took little care for his own safety when his mind was once absorbed by a problem, so that more than once my revolver had been a good friend in need. I reminded him of the fact.
I mean, you killed a dog that one time. But usually he sort of... hits people himself? This feels like revisionist history. Holmes once bent a poker back to being straight.
“Do you know, Watson,” said he, “I believe your revolver is going to have a very intimate connection with the mystery which we are investigating.”
“My dear Holmes, you are joking.”
Is Holmes about to throw Watson's revolver into a river?
“It all depends upon the behaviour of Dr. Watson's revolver,” said my friend. “Here it is. Now, officer, can you give me ten yards of string?”
The village shop provided a ball of stout twine.
Well Watson's revolver is definitely going to be thrown somewhere.
Watson, why do you trust him with your things?
At the words he raised the pistol to his head, and then let go his grip. In an instant it had been whisked away by the weight of the stone, had struck with a sharp crack against the parapet, and had vanished over the side into the water.
🤣😂🤣
Bye bye, revolver!
You will also find beside it the revolver, string and weight with which this vindictive woman attempted to disguise her own crime and to fasten a charge of murder upon an innocent victim.
So the wife committed suicide to frame the governess for her death because she was jealous about her abusive husband? That's... utterly nonsensical of her.
Should have killed the governess and framed the husband (I mean, no, she shouldn't have, but it would have been a better plan).
Oh god. Oh no. Oh fuck me no. This is going to end with Miss Dunbar marrying the Gold King in order to fix him, isn't it? Isn't it?
I hate everything about that.
No doubt she blamed this innocent lady for all those harsh dealings and unkind words with which her husband tried to repel her too demonstrative affection. Her first resolution was to end her own life. Her second was to do it in such a way as to involve her victim in a fate which was worse far than any sudden death could be.
So the guy abuses his possibly already mentally ill wife to a point where she considers suicide the only way out? And she blames the other woman completely and not her husband. And Miss Dunbar isn't exactly blameless, using the guy's crush on her to her own ends, however altruistic they may be.
Just a whole lot of nope.
"Well, Watson, we have helped a remarkable woman, and also a formidable man. Should they in the future join their forces, as seems not unlikely, the financial world may find that Mr. Neil Gibson has learned something in that schoolroom of sorrow where our earthly lessons are taught.”
Just no. Just no... That poor woman. And yeah, what she did sucked. But what the actual fuck. Fuck everyone, honestly. None of this ended well. I hate it all.
Happily ever after because the love of a good (~British~) woman will change him and make everything from now on sunflowers and daisy chains. And no thought to the children who lost their mother or the fact that abusive partners can't just be 'fixed' and he's absolutely going to abuse his next partner when she doesn't live up to his standards. They're just going to be in this horrific manipulative relationship and the children are going to be trapped with them.
No thank you. This is not what I ordered.
But I did appreciate Watson's revolver taking a bath. Nice moment of comedy in amongst all the nonsense.
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Some, and not the least interesting, were complete failures, and as such will hardly bear narrating, since no final explanation is forthcoming. A problem without a solution may interest the student, but can hardly fail to annoy the casual reader.
Among these unfinished tales is that of Mr. James Phillimore, who, stepping back into his own house to get his umbrella, was never more seen in this world. No less remarkable is that of the cutter Alicia, which sailed one spring morning into a small patch of mist from where she never again emerged, nor was anything further ever heard of herself and her crew.
The casual reader may not be interested, but I know a place who’d love to hear these stories, Watson—are you familiar with The Magnus Institute, London?
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Thor Bridge
Most Holmes stories are "The Adventure of X". "The Problem of Thor Bridge", published in 1922 and forming part of the Case-book collection, is one of the exceptions. Others include "The Five Orange Pips", which is the full title.
This was originally published in two parts in The Strand, with a recap of the plot before the second part.
Cox & Co. was founded in 1758 as a military logistics company, getting money and other supplies to troops in India. Later Cox & Kings, the Indian company is now the process of liquidation after going bust in 2020, while the British arm is now a travel agent under the Abercrombie & Kent group.
The Family Herald was a weekly periodical that ran from 1843 to 1940.
The United States had 45 states in 1900; Utah had joined in 1896 and Oklahoma would be next in 1907. New Mexico and Arizona were the other two non-states at this time in the lower 48.
Senators were elected by state legislatures until 1912.
The city of Winchester is the county town of Hampshire and has been inhabited since before the Romans turned up. Traditionally seen as the capital of the old kingdom of Wessex - there was in fact no fixed capital, but it still was of major importance. Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles takes place in a fictionalised "Wintonchester".
Winchester today hosts a Crown Court that sits in session all year round. HM Prison Winchester, built between 1846 and 1850, is still an active prison, although today male only. One of its most notable inmates was serial killer Rosemary West, who was held there during her trial.
Claridge's is a famous five-star hotel in Mayfair, frequented by celebrities and royals.
At the time, the British definition of "billion" was a million million i.e. a modern trillion. A milliard was the term for a thousand million, but we now use the US definition.
Brazil had gained its independence in 1825, three years after declaring it. It had ousted its monarchy in 1889 and become a republic after a coup.
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