Sherlock’s mind palace
Apart from it being a masterpiece of montage, this scene is so emotionally disturbing. Yes, he’s stunning, absolutely beautiful, showed in the middle of the rawness of the process of deducing. His uniqueness, being special, above everything ordinary, above average human potential shows here. You can’t look away – it’s hypnotising, but at the same time you want to because it’s so distressing to see him like possessed by this genius, by his brain, by this monster inside him. Living beast, feeding on all these tiniest associations, subtle hints, directions, words, slogans, images, tiniest bits of the whole wide universe ever surrounding him until these scraps form final solution. But before it comes to this the whole “ritual” looks almost painfully ecstatic, like he’s on high, beside himself, barely managing, being on the edge, and at the same time nothing could tear him away he’s exactly where he wants to be, belonging, complete, ABSOLUTE. It’s like one step too far and he snaps – done, swallowed by madness, turned into machine on the loop until he burns and turns into ashes along with his brain. You can feel that burden of his MIND, how his brain is a separate living being, forcing him to feed it all the time, taking control, driving away everything else but the purest intellect. Devouring him as a person, as a human entity, while fed. This scene shows so intensely the genius, Sherlock’s greatest asset that is his greatest tragedy. This scene shows how this blessing of his is also his curse threatening his humanity, stability, emotional well-being. It shows how he stands on the edge of abyss all the time and one step too far and he’s falling.
See, that’s interesting, because I don’t read him that way at all. To me, he’s completely in control, expertly channeling his own abilities. Look at his face: he’s serene, as precise and in control as the conductor of an orchestra.
He’s not a separate entity from his mind. He’s said before, he IS his mind. If anything, it’s his body he lives separate from. Sherlock’s never had any difficulty managing his mind except when he doesn’t have something to keep him busy.
People forget: in ACD (because in BBC, we have absolutely no idea when, how often, or why he did drugs, or even what kind), Holmes never did drugs to run away from his mind. He did them to stimulate himself when he had nothing else to keep him occupied. This is what he lives for. When his mind is at its most active is when he’s most entirely in his element, when everything in his world is most organized and at his mercy.