Monday 25 January 2016


The significance of the heartbeat sound 
(mostly in A Scandal in Belgravia)
 (Sherlock Meta by Loudest Subtext In Television)

lindefishway asked:

hello!i love yor metas. can i ask you? during the series we can often hear some heartbeat. so...if s2 is from John's pov, does this mean that we hear his heart? a lot of it during sh+irene scenes. (I'm only on 56min, but I have already counted 46!+ don't forget music=heartbeat). Or are they belong to sh? it also a lot of it in s3 >.< what do you think? sorry for my english^^

Loudest Subtext In Television:

Thank you!

We get the heartbeat sound in the soundtrack a LOT starting from A Scandal in Belgravia forward. It might be in the soundtrack even before that, but I would need to rewatch.

The heartbeat sound is used for whatever character is on the screen. In ASiB we hear it for Sherlock, Irene, and John just off the top off my head, and possibly other people. It’s not exactly accurate to say that any episode is from any single character’s perspective, as they always jump around a bit. We get a lot of Sherlock’s perspective in all the episodes, for example, so we need to note the context and camera perspective every time.

 The heartbeat sound is used broadly to signify anything of significance, i.e. anything that would strike someone strongly. That makes it difficult to attribute special meaning to it in most circumstances. For example, Sherlock gets a heartbeat sometimes when he has an epiphany, Irene gets a heartbeat when Sherlock discovers her safe and her heart keeps pounding while he works out her code, there were heartbeats all over the place when the CIA had guns on people, the CIA guy’s heart beats a few times when Sherlock is telling Lestrade his (future) injuries over the phone, and so on.

The time we need to pay attention to the heartbeat is when there isn’t an obvious reason for it:

- In ASiB, Sherlock gets a few stray heartbeats over time when he’s deducing naked Irene and doesn’t know what she’s trying to pull… but also when he’s deducing familiar, comforting John – and then he gets three very close together. Why does Sherlock’s heart pound when he gives John a full body once-over?

- After John hauls Sherlock back to bed, John says he’ll be in the next room if Sherlock needs him. Sherlock says, “Why would I need you?” and John says, “No reason at all,” and shuts the door – and we get a huge heartbeat with the sound of the door closing. Both of them are on screen and it could apply to either or both of them: it’s either a blow to John that Sherlock doesn’t need him, or a blow to Sherlock that he needs John and John is leaving, or both.

- We get the heartbeat for John in moments that shouldn’t be anxious for him at all. Right after John figures out the text alert sound is Irene, Mycroft tells Sherlock he’s to stay away from Irene Adler. Sherlock says, “Will I?” and we get a big reaction shot of John with a heartbeat; he’s sitting, and behind Sherlock and Mycroft, so it’s not natural to cut to John and do this, but they did it.

- We get another heartbeat when Sherlock shuts his bedroom door in John’s face at Christmas, after John lets us know he’s been counting Irene’s texts and says, “Do you have a reply?” and tries to overhear Sherlock’s phone conversation.

- We get another out of place heartbeat from John after Sherlock says to Irene, “You’re rather good.” Why does that make John’s heart beat? A second later John gives them his hated middle name as a potential baby name. Hm.

- There is a HUGE heartbeat for John when Sherlock rattles off the first part of the Bond Air code and Sherlock looks at him. Oh, John. Those deductions really get your blood pumping, eh?

- We get a heartbeat for Mycroft after hanging up with Sherlock: Irene doesn’t matter to Mycroft, Mycroft is bothered that Sherlock is concerned about Irene Adler. We get another one at the morgue from Mycroft’s camera perspective when Mycroft is looking at Sherlock’s back before opening the door to go talk to him. We get another heartbeat for both of the Holmes brothers when Mycroft says, “Well. You barely knew her.”

- We also get a big heartbeat when Sherlock is casually talking about the hiker deduction and we see the hiker representing John’s heart. The hiker isn’t dead yet, so it seems to be a nod to the symbolism.

Worth noting: we don’t get a heartbeat when Irene kisses Sherlock on the cheek, and we don’t get a heartbeat when she tells Sherlock she’ll make him beg for mercy twice, even though we get other heartbeats in the same scene. (Some scenes are devoid of music and heartbeats both.) He stares her down so she doesn’t stab him with a syringe, but he’s apparently exactly as calm as he looks.

No comments:

Post a Comment