A very, very, very late comment on season four.

Considering a recent bout of writer's block that I wound up diagnosing as "Centipede's Dilemma," my thoughts wandered on to the subject of mind palaces . . . and mind prisons. It's funny what the brain can do, the tricks it can play . . . and yet . . . and yet . . . .

Season four of Sherlock. 

I don't like to mention how satisfied with it I was, in deference to those who found the Bond/comic book/abusive Watson/insert complaint here too wrong for their taste. It was a season running full tilt at everything it was running at, and such intensity was bound to be problematic for some. There's a reason that I will always prefer the wild shots of Sherlock to the consistent procedurals of Elementary, so ya pays yer money, ya takes yer chances.

Mary Morstan Watson as fleeing superspy, not a problem. Mrs. Hudson's Aston Martin . . . well, that does make sense in light of her husband's drug cartel, etc. John Watson cheating on his wife and savagely beating his frustrating friend? Ouch. But there's always been a lot of violence under the surface there, and his fidelity to anyone other than Sherlock has never had a proper measure taken.

But Eurus. Not Eurus herself. I love her, the concept of her, the portrayal of her.

But the fact that Sherlock Holmes, after developing mind palace techniques, pharmacological mind exploration techniques, and every other brain-work enhancer he could, somehow was still blocking a sister who burned the house down and killed his best friend, driving him to become who he would one day become.

Something that influential in the life of a man who was constantly driven to seek out every answer, find out every truth, completely ignored.

While it works in the story of that one episode, it does ring of the biggest curse of episodic television . . . the reset. The Sherlock Holmes who was tripping in the Victorian period with Moriarty as a bride and Molly Hooper pretending to be a man didn't once come up with a clear image of a little girl whom he had spent years with?  The Sherlock Holmes whose near-death experience took him to the place inside where he holds a crazy Moriarty in a cage . . . that's his secret place?

Four seasons and a Christmas special built with Eurus hiding in the shadows would have been an amazing thing, to have that final reveal click all those pieces into place. And yet such bits as Redbeard and "the other one," while used to build Eurus, were plainly not put there to foreshadow her. Too bad.

Ah, well. Probably picking nits that others have spotted long ago, but in considering that marvelous brain locking off a whole wing of the mind palace is about as silly as . . . well, I'll be nice to Nicol Williamson Holmes as there are those who are fond of that tale. So I'll just end here with this:

May you remember all your siblings and your Moriartys be few, a blessing that I hold for Sherlock Holmes as well.