may i have your take on ‘Redbeard’ ? so now we all know that Redbeard refers to Sherlock’s dog. Why did Mycroft bring it up in TSOT. Is there a back story or another anecdote? If so what does it mean for Sherlock? What was CAM implying when he said Redbeard in HLV? Also have you noticed that in HLV the first person CAM ‘read’ the red ‘pressure point’ line blinking like it’s searching but when CAM ‘read’ Sherlock there’s an unending list before CAM says Redbeard then Sherlock’s face. What’s up?

Spoilers!

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I think Sherlock must have been tremendously affected that that youthful experience many of us have of losing a beloved pet.  I think it’s meant to be implied that he named the dog (he wanted to be a pirate as a boy, after all), indicating possibly that it was His Dog.  And that Sherlock, and perhaps Mycroft, both came away from his loss with the message, “You shouldn’t love things, because you’ll lose them.”  And ‘Redbeard’ has become shorthand between them for that lesson.

Also, Sherlock’s list wasn’t endless.  It was actually six items repeated on scroll:

Irene Adler

James Moriarty

Hounds of Baskerville

Redbeard

Opium

John Watson

Of those, by the end CAM has dismissed the likelihood of any of them having a useful influence over Sherlock except for John.  I suspect CAM repeated ‘Redbeard’ either because it surprised him, or just to see what Sherlock’s reaction would be.  (But mostly what it succeeded in doing was making Sherlock realize CAM must have access to information outside the bounds of his house—too bad he guessed ‘Google Glass’ instead of ‘memory palace.’)