Sherlock: BBC vs PBS versions – The Blind Banker

[Below are rough notes.  I will update it with pictures and extra notes once I finish with The Great Game. spelling and grammatical errors are bound to be found. To see my write-up for Study in Pink, click here]

Continuing with my Sherlock: BBC vs PBS series, This article deals with The Blind Banker.

Watch The Blind Banker on PBS.org until February 28. 

Sherlock and John head to Van Coon’s place

After Sherlock and John walk out of the bank, they take a cab ride to Van Coon’s apartment.

Interrupting Sebastian’s lunch

After leaving the crime scene of Van Coon’s murder, Sherlock and John make a surprise meeting with Sebastian, eho is trying to eat lunch.

Restaurant. Sebastian eating with some friends

Sebastian: He’s left trying to sort of cut his hair with a fork, which of course can never be done.

Sherlock and John come in and Sherlock talks directly to Sebastian.

Sherlock: It was a threat, that’s what the graffiti meant.

Sebastian: I’m kind of in a meeting. Can you make an appointment with my secretary?

Sherlock: I don’t think this can wait. Sorry, Sebastian. One of your traders, someone who worked in your office, was killed.

Sebastian: What?

John: Van Coon. The police are at his flat.

Sebatian: Killed?!

Sherlock Sorry to intterfer wit heverone’s digestion. Still want to make an appointment? Would maybe nine o’clock at SCotland Yard suit?

Cut to the three of them talking in the men’s bathroom.

Sebatian: Harrow, Oxford… very bright guy. Worked in Asia for a while, so…

John: You gave him the Hong Kong accounts?

Sebatian: Lost 5 million in a single morning, made it all back a week later. Nerves of steel, Eddie had.

John: Who’d want to kill him?

Sebatian: We all make enemies.

John: You don’t all end up with a bullet through your temple.

Sebatian’s mobile phone rings.

Sebatian: Not usually. Excuse me.

He looks at his phone.

Sebatian: It’s my chairman. Police have been on to him. Apparently they’re telling him it was a suicide.

Sherlock: Well, they got it wrong Sebastian. He was murdered.

Sebatian: Well, I’m afraid they don’t see it like that.

Sherlock: So?

Sebastian: And neither does my boss. I hired you to do a job. Don;t get sidetracked.

Sebastian walks out of the bathroom.

John: I thought bankers were supposed to be heartless bastards.

Cut to Lukis running frantically.

Sherlock and John visit Scotland Yard.

Sherlock shows an online article about Lukis who was killed the night before and they head to Scotland Yard.

Sherlock: Brian Lukis, freelance journalist, murdered in his flat. Doors locked from the inside.

John: You’ve got to admit, it’s simliar. Both men killed by someone who can walk through solid walls.

Sherlock: Inspector, do you seriously believe that Eddie Van Coon was just another city suicide? 9sighs) you have seen the ballistics report, I suppose? And the shot that killed him. Was it fired from his own gun?

Dimmock: No.

Sherlock: No. So this investigation might move a bit quicker if you were to take my word as gospel. I’ve just handed you a murder inquiry. Five minutes in his flat.

Meanwhile, back at the museum…

After Sherlock and Raz leave John holding the spray paint and confronting the community officer, Andy (Su Lin Yao’s co-worker at the museum) talks with his supervisor.

Young man: Sher was right in the middle of an important piece of restoration. Why would she suddenly resign.

Supervisor: Family problems. She said so in her letter.

Andy: But she doesn’t have a family. She came to this country on her own.

Supervisor: Andy!

Andy: Look, thoise teapots, those ceramics. They’ve become her obsession. She’s been working on restoring them for weeks. I can’t believe that she would just… abandon them.

Supervisor: Perhaps she was getting a bit of unwanted attention?

John finds some clues

While Sherlock and John hunt for cipher clues around London, John comes across a brickwall, full of the yellow ciphers. He runs back to find Sherlock.

John: Answer your phone. I’ve been calling you. I found it.

Sherlock follows John back to the brick wall, which now has no ciphers.

John: It’s been painted over.

Sherlock looks around with his flashlight. John is baffled by the missing ciphers.

John: I don’t understand. It was here (pointing at the wall). Ten minutes ago. I saw it. A whole load of graffiti.

Sherlock: Someone doesn’t want me to see it.

Sherlock then grabs John’s head with both hands.

John: Sherlock, what are you doing?

Sherlock: Ssh! John, concentrate. I need you to concentrate. Close your eyes.

John: What? Why? Why? What are you doing?

Sherlock lowers his hands around John’s arms and begins to turn both him and John around.

Sherlock: I need you to maximise your visual memory. Try to picture what you saw. Can you picture it?

John: Yeah.

Sherlock: Can you remember it?

John: Yes, definately.

Sherlock: Cna you remember the pattern?

John: Yes.

Sherlock: How much can you rembmer it?

John: Look, don’t worry.

Sherlock: Because the average human memory on visual matters is only 62% accurate.

John: Well, don’t worry, I remember all of it.

Sherlock: Really?

John: Well at least I would, if I could get to my pockets. I took a photograph.

Sherlock lets John go, and John reaches into his jacket pocket, pulls out his mobile, presses a button to pull up the picture of the ciphered wall and shows it to Sherlock.

Imporatnce — Somewhat. Explains where Sherlock got those pictures of the wall ciphers from. Also shows how quickly the gang works since they got rid of the ciphers within 10 minutes of John spotting them.

Meeting Molly at Bart’s

Cafeteria. Sherlock sneaks up on Molly who’s deciding what to get from the hospital’s cafeteria.

Sherlock: What are you thinking? Pork or Pasta?

Molly (startled): Oh, it’s you.

Sherlock: I suppose it’s never going to trouble Egon Ronay, is it? I’d stick with the pasta.

Importance — Minor. Just a little bit more of Sherlock and Molly. Also caused me to google Egon Ronay.

Sherlock and John invistigate what was smuggled

John and Sherlock return to 221B after the morgue.

Sherlock: Not just a criminal orginasation. It’s a cult. Her brother was corrupted by one of its leaders.

John: Soo Lin said the name.

Sherlock: Yes, Shan. General Shan.

John: We’re still no closer to finding him.

Sherlock: Wrong! We’ve gotr almost all we need to know. She gave us most of the missing pieces. Why did he need to visit his sister? Why did he need her expertise?

John: She worked at the museum.

Sherlock: Exactly

John: An expert in antiquities. Of course, I see.

Sherlock: Valuable anitiquities, John. Ancient Chinese relics purchased on the black market. China’s home to a thousand treasures hidden after Mao’s revolution.

John: The Black Lotus is selling them.

Cut to the guys looking online at antiques that were aquired by the museum

Sherlock: Check for the dates…. here! (points to something on the screen) John, “arrived from China four days ago”. Anonymous. The vendor doesn’t give his name. “Two undiscovered treasures fromn the East.”

John: One in Lukis’s suitcase and one in Van Coon’s.

Sherlock (typing into a serach engine): Antiquities… sold at auction. (results pop up) Look, here’s another one. Arrived from China a month ago. Chinese ceramic statue sold for £400,000.

John: Look, a month before that, Chinese paiting, half a million.

Sherlock: All of them from an anonymous source. They’re steealing them back in China and one by one feeding them into Britain.

John (comparing Van Coon’s and Lukis’s calendars): Every single auction coincides with Lukis or Van Coon travelling to China.

Sherlock: So what if one of them got greedy when they were in China? What if one of them stole something?

John: That’s why Zhi Zhu’s come.

Mrs. Hudson (knocking at the door) Sorry, are we collecting for charity, Sherlock?

Sherlock: What?

Mrs. Hudson: A young man’s outside with crates of books.

Police carry in boxes of books.

Sherlock and John back at 221B

After briefly meeting with the inspector, Sherlock and John discuss what the imporatnce of the hairpin was:

Sherlock pours John a cup of tea (?)

John: So, nine million.

Sherlock: Million.

John: Million, yes. Nine million for jade pin dragon den black tramway.

Sherlock: An instruction to all their London operatives. A message. What they were trying to reclaim.

John: What, a jade pin?

Sherlock: Worth nine million pounds. Bring it to the Tramway, their London hideout.

John: Hang on. A hiarpin worth nine million pounds?

Sherlock: Apaarently

John: Why so much?

Sherlock: Depends who owned it. (and takes a sip from his cup.)

Imporantace – Somewhat. Now that they know it was a hairpin that was worth 9 million, the mystery is why?