Having just rewatched it, I'm of the impression that the entire point of involving Sherlock at all was to crack that email. The way it plays to me is this: Irene to Moriarty: I've found something potentially compromising! Moriarty to himself: Aha! This is something of vital importance to that thing Mycroft is doing! Irene to Moriarty: Can you crack it! Moriarty in extreme frustration and upside down: No! But I know who can! And that is the reason behind the entire entanglement of Sherlock. Which takes a full year, start to finish, which stretches credulity a bit, as does neither Irene or Moriarty cracking it, but that's the only thing that makes sense to me from the episode.
As for the timeline, this time I watched it with special attention to timeline. Irene dies and leaves Sherlock phone on Christmas. Comes back from dead on New Year's, then there's the whole CIA break-in. When Sherlock finds Irene in his bed, though, it is months later. He says he took a safe deposit box "months ago," there's Irene's comment about six months, and the Christmas decorations are completely down. It's sloppy, since Sherlock refers to increased pressure, which we assume is the CIA break in, but must actually be a new threat that has flushed Irene out of hiding. But yes, months have indeed passed, during which time Sherlock has had the phone.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2012-01-03 01:03 am (UTC)Irene to Moriarty: I've found something potentially compromising!
Moriarty to himself: Aha! This is something of vital importance to that thing Mycroft is doing!
Irene to Moriarty: Can you crack it!
Moriarty in extreme frustration and upside down: No! But I know who can!
And that is the reason behind the entire entanglement of Sherlock. Which takes a full year, start to finish, which stretches credulity a bit, as does neither Irene or Moriarty cracking it, but that's the only thing that makes sense to me from the episode.
As for the timeline, this time I watched it with special attention to timeline. Irene dies and leaves Sherlock phone on Christmas. Comes back from dead on New Year's, then there's the whole CIA break-in. When Sherlock finds Irene in his bed, though, it is months later. He says he took a safe deposit box "months ago," there's Irene's comment about six months, and the Christmas decorations are completely down. It's sloppy, since Sherlock refers to increased pressure, which we assume is the CIA break in, but must actually be a new threat that has flushed Irene out of hiding. But yes, months have indeed passed, during which time Sherlock has had the phone.