History NightmareFuel / Sherlock

* Boomerang. Just the fact that losing sight of a boomerang led to a man's death.

* Moriarty's ([[spoiler:"Richard Brook's"]]) telling of the "tale of Sir Boast-a-Lot." The bad, gritty, home video-like visuals, Moriarty's [[SlasherSmile creepy grin]] throughout, that fact that such a horrifying metaphor is [[spoiler:being disguised as a ''children's program']]... Sherlock is visibly unnerved as he watches the recording on a cab's TV. [[spoiler:Oh, and the cabbie is Moriarty.]]

* Kidnapped children are nightmarish by definition, but Moriarty's not content with that. He [[spoiler: locks the terrified brother and sister alone in a dark factory, where they will starve to death unless they eat the chocolates he has left for them. [[CompleteMonster The wrappers are painted with mercury]]]].

* Moriarty breaking into 221B while Sherlock and John are out and recording his whispered observations on a shaky video camera, then posting the whole thing to John's blog? [[StalkerWithACrush Very]] [[ParanoiaFuel creepy]]. The fact that he did it ''while Mrs. Hudson was home''? HEAPING BUCKETS OF NIGHTMARE FUEL.

*** Metatextually, this is definitely a case of NothingIsScarier, and it is definitely a {{justified}} example of it - it makes sense that Watson wouldn't want to talk about it, and the fact that he doesn't want to talk about it makes it ''scarier to us''.

--->'''Jim''': Why does anyone DO anything? ''Because I'm '''bored'''.

--->'''Jim''': Why does anyone DO anything? ''Because I'm "bored"''.

--->'''Jim''': Why does anyone DO anything? ''Because I'm ''bored''''.

--->'''Sherlock:''' People have died.\\
'''Jim:''' That's what people ''DO''!

-->'''Sherlock:''' People have died.
-->'''Jim:''' That's what people ''DO''!

** Not to mention that it's totally unnerving to see three characters in particular who normally have nerves of steel -- the sociopathic detective, the war veteran and the DI from Scotland Yard -- totally freaked out over something that doesn't technically exist.

* The RoomFullOfCrazy at the end. [[spoiler: Moriarty scratched Sherlock's name all over his cell. Judging from the one he wrote on the one way glass, he knew that Mycroft was watching. Either he did it to freak out Mycroft or he now has [[DepravedHomosexual a very creepy]] [[VillainousCrush thing for Sherlock]]. Probably both. ''Mycroft lets him go''.]]

* The whole fandom is glad that ''The Hounds of Baskerville'' wasn't written by StevenMoffat. We wouldn't have survived.

*** The little boy who, incidentally, is Moffat's son. Brr. "Okay, kiddo, act scared for Daddy." Brr.

** I missed this on my first viewing, but look closely at Sherlock when[[spoiler: the paramedics (real or not) turn his body over. He was lying on his right side, and yet there's a lot of blood at his LEFT ear, from where it seems to have splattered or flowed down over his eyes.]] Think about that for a moment, and the implications are as clear as they are horrible...
** And it gets even better. This level of [[spoiler:realistic and utterly gruesome]] detail must have come from [[spoiler:Molly. She's a forensic pathologist, after all, it's what she does for a living. She probably "decorated" him herself, even. She has/had a major crush on him, and the more realistic she makes his "death" look, the more she is guaranteing she'll NEVER see him again... And that she'll have lots of guilt whenever she runs into their mutual friends]]...

[[AC:The Great Game]]

AC:Blogs/Other

AC:A Study in Pink

AC:The Blind Banker
* When Holmes and Watson find the Golem for the first time. The guy is freakishly large and all you see of him is his shadow, lurking behind a corner in an underground tunnel. And then you get a vague shot of him running to his car in the creepiest way possible, magnified by that freaking shadow.
** [[TheSlenderManMythos That shadow...Did anyone else immediately think Slender Man?]]

AC:The Great Game

** In particular: "Hello, sexy." The dissonance between those words and the fact that the woman was sobbing is ''horrifying.'' Also "this stupid bitch is reading it out."

* [[YourMileageMayVary YMMV]], but one could almost say that Sherlock HIMSELF was working towards nightmare fuel in ''The Great Game.'' Especially at the very end with the [[spoiler:little boy being held hostage]], the fact that Sherlock is GRINNING through much of this scene and does a nice little moment of swagger and egotistical pleasure before finally [[spoiler:giving the answer that saves the child's life]].
** Doubly horrific when you remember that [[spoiler: the previous victim had died--and so did eleven other people.]]
* The moment at the end of ''The Great Game'' when [[spoiler:Moriarty]] gave the first real flash of what he really is--with just a single word at the end of a four-word sentence--made this troper physically jerk back from the TV (and mentally gold-star the actor).

AC:A Scandal in Belgravia
* YourMileageMayVary but Irene stabbing Sherlock with a hypodermic needle that causes him to collapse, completely weak and helpless on her bedroom floor, eventually becoming a delirious babbling mess [[hottip:*: That was apparently so 'hilarious' that it deserved to be filmed, thanks Lestrade]]. She then tells John to see that Sherlock doesn't ''choke on his own vomit''. With Irene being half-naked while whipping Sherlock with a riding crop and John not seeming all that concerned, the scene is played more for FetishFuel. But just think of how it must feel to be drugged against your will, your body basically paralysed and unable to speak; to say ''no''.

** Even more horrifying, Sherlock's objection is not that ''torturing people is horrible and wrong,'' but that to torture Irene would simply prove ineffectual as there are likely two pass-codes. The Holmes brothers have a lack of empathy that is often PlayedForLaughs or otherwise causes offence to those around them but no real harm, but here they're discussing whether or not they're going to torture Irene and decide not to for ''practical reasons only.''
* The [[spoiler:plane full of corpses. Oh God.]]

-->'''Jim:''' SAY THAT AGAIN!! ... Say that again, and know that if you're lying to me, I will ''find'' you, and I will ssssskiiiinnnnn you...
** ... His face. Holy crap. And he probably very literally would skin someone.

AC:The Hounds of Baskerville

** Especially when you take into account that all four of them- Sherlock, John, Henry and Lestrade - they are all [[spoiler:seeing ''something a little different.'' They're all presumably seeing an enormous black dog with huge teeth and red eyes, but the details are totally subjective.]] They're all seeing whatever scares the hell out of each of them individually.
** In a similar way, the sequence with John locked up in the lab [[spoiler:works on the premise that what was scaring John the most was not just in his own mind- it ''was'' his own mind.]] This whole episode is fuelled by the psychology of fear and that's what makes it great.
** Not to mention that it's totally unnerving to see three characters in particular who normally have nerves of steel- the sociopathic detective, the war veteran and the DI from Scotland Yard- totally freaked out over something that doesn't technically exist.

* The whole fandom being glad that ''The Hounds of Baskerville'' wasn't written by StevenMoffat. We wouldn't have survived.

* The information they find on [[spoiler:the H.O.U.N.D hallucinogen using the Major's password.]] We never get details, but the photographs and snatches of headlines like "blood-brain" "severe frontal lobe damage" "gross cranial trauma" and "multiple homicide" projected across Sherlock's face are incredibly creepy. [[spoiler:and then in retrospect we find out our heroes have all been hanging out in a mist full of this stuff.]]
* YMMV, but Dr Stapleton telling John she agrees with him that she has very little compassion (toward her own ''daughter''), and that sometimes she hates herself. That she's so matter-of-fact and emotionless when she says it is positively chilling.

* The death of Henry Knight's father. His traumatised memories of the event are bad enough, as we hear his father screaming as he's mauled, [[spoiler: but the reality is actually even worse worse. A man wearing a creepy gas mask with red lenses and VaderBreath brutally battering Mr Knight to death, then slowly turning and staring at young Henry]].

AC:The Reichenbach Fall

* When Moriarty smirkingly asks a young female police officer to fish into his pocket for a mint and put it on his tongue at his trial. The way he does it takes his character into the new and terrifying implications of his also potentially being a ''sex offender.''

** The series itself never tells us what happened between John leaving the apartment for Sarah's and Sherlock arriving at the pool some hours later. John later blogged a basic outline- he was bundled into a car and knocked unconscious- but most of the details are missing. It was clearly extremely traumatic for him; in terms of his blog, he posts that [[http://www.johnwatsonblog.co.uk/blog/01may he took some time away from guns and bombs and maniacs]] after that incident. In the actual series itself, the effect that being Moriarty's hostage had on him is hinted at earlier than the trial. When John intercepts Jim's text on Sherlock's phone, and tries to bring it to Sherlock's attention, he looks like he's about to pass out. Not a reaction we've come to expect from someone who developed a hand tremor because he ''missed being in constant danger.'' It's highly implied that there are some details of his hostage experience prior to Sherlock appearing that he's unwilling to share, because they are really, ''really bad.''

-->'''Moriarty:''' Ok. Let me give you a little extra incentive...your friends will DIE if you don't.

** And after that, "Pleeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaase?"
* [[YourMilageMayVary YMMV]], but this troper found Moriarty [[spoiler: [[AteHisGun suddenly pulling a gun on himself]], and the [[SlasherSmile psychotic grin]] on his face as he lay in a puddle of his own blood]] incredibly unnerving.

** There's also something absolutely ''chilling'' about his words to Sherlock when he arrives on the roof about "staying alive" and "All my life I've been looking for a distraction." Because he freaking ''means it.'' He's not thrilled that he thinks he's beaten Sherlock Holmes. He's ''suicidal'' because he thinks he's beaten Sherlock Holmes. As Sally Donovan pointed out in ''A Study in Pink,'' psychopaths get bored. They tend to commit suicide in prison because of it. Jim's realising that he could [[spoiler: commit suicide to solve the problem of "staying alive" ''and'' scupper Sherlock's chances of beating him]] makes perfect, horrible sense.

* [[spoiler:Fake death]] or not, John witnessed [[spoiler:his best friend fall from a building and saw his head smashed in on the ground, blood pooling everywhere, felt his non-existent pulse and saw the lifeless eyes on Sherlock's 'dead' face]]. This troper has been fortunate enough to never have to experience being around a dead body, let alone the body of someone she loves, so just having to imagine what John was going through after that is horrifying. It doesn't matter how many dead bodies John has seen in his life, which no doubt is a lot, this was someone he cared passionately about. It wouldn't be surprising if Series 3 mirrored Series 1's opening by showing us John reliving that moment in a nightmare.

* The kidnapper in ''A Study In Pink''. Just because [[spoiler: you took the wrong cab]] you're going to be '''forced to kill yourself'''.
** There's something that's simply... off about him. His body language is utterly creepy and he even sneaks into the flat '''with a police group and Sherlock still in there'''.

* In ''Belgravia,'' Mycroft threatens to have Irene ''tortured'' for the password to the phone: "You have a pass-code to open this. I deeply regret to say that we have people who can extract it from you..."
** Even more horrifying, Sherlock's objection is not that ''torturing people is horrible and wrong,'' but that to torture Irene would simply prove ineffectual as there are likely two pass-codes. The Holmes brothers have a lack of empathy that is often PlayedForLaughs or otherwise causes offence to those around them but no real harm, but here they're discussing whether or not they're going to torture Irene and decide not to for ''practical reasons only.''
* All those poor people in ''The Great Game''. The palpable fear. The sobbing breaths. The things they were [[spoiler: forced to say. The laser sight trained on them. ''The little boy.'']]
** In particular: "Hello, sexy." The dissonance between those words and the fact that the woman was sobbing is ''horrifying.'' Also "this stupid bitch is reading it out."
** This: [[spoiler: "I can stop John Watson too...". It's the only time John has any difficulty calmly relaying what he's being told to say. The other hostages knew they were in danger and made much more obscure references to the consequences of Sherlock not solving the puzzle, things like "I'm going to be so naughty" or "I can soon stop that"--but Moriarty forces John to relay the threat using his ''own name.'' A completely chilling thing to force a hostage to say.]]

* In ''A Scandal in Belgravia''- the [[spoiler:plane full of corpses. Oh God.]]
* In a scene in ''A Scandal in Belgravia'' that mood whiplashes so fast your head will spin:

-->'''Jim:''' SAY THAT AGAIN!! ... Say that again, and know that if you're lying to me, I will ''find'' you, and I will ssssskiiiinnnnn you...

** ... His face. Holy crap. And he probably very literally would skin someone.

** Those bloody '''flood lights'''. NothingIsScarier indeed.
** The whole fandom being glad that ''The Hounds of Baskerville'' wasn't written by StevenMoffat. We wouldn't have survived.
** Sherlock's [[spoiler: hallucination of Moriarty.]]
** The information they find on [[spoiler:the H.O.U.N.D hallucinogen using the Major's password.]] We never get details, but the photographs and snatches of headlines like "blood-brain" "severe frontal lobe damage" "gross cranial trauma" and "multiple homicide" projected across Sherlock's face are incredibly creepy. [[spoiler:and then in retrospect we find out our heroes have all been hanging out in a mist full of this stuff.]]
** YMMV, but Dr Stapleton telling John she agrees with him that she has very little compassion (toward her own ''daughter''), and that sometimes she hates herself. That she's so matter-of-fact and emotionless when she says it is positively chilling.
** The RoomFullOfCrazy at the end. [[spoiler: Moriarty scratched Sherlock's name all over his cell. Judging from the one he wrote on the one way glass, he knew that Mycroft was watching. Either he did it to freak out Mycroft or he now has [[DepravedHomosexual a very creepy]] [[VillainousCrush thing for Sherlock]]. Probably both. ''Mycroft lets him go''.]]

* Moriarty breaking into 221B while Sherlock and John are out and recording his whispered observations on a shaky video camera, then posting the whole thing to John's blog? [[StalkerWithACrush Very]] [[ParanoiaFuel creepy]]. The fact that he did it ''while Mrs. Hudson was home''? HEAPING BUCKETS OF NIGHTMARE FUEL.

* And after that, "Pleeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaase?"

* When Moriarty smirkingly asks a young female police officer to fish into his pocket for a mint and put it on his tongue at his trial. The way he does it takes his character into the new and terrifying implications of his also potentially being a ''sex offender.''
* When Moriarty's team offers no defence at his trial, he looks up at John in the gallery and smirks. John is visibly upset by this. Sherlock described his standoff with Moriarty as "five minutes... I pointed a gun at him, he tried to blow me up." But for ''John,'' the ordeal went for ''hours''. He was knocked unconscious, unarmed, totally unable to defend himself, and he was the one actually wearing the bomb. He has impressive nerves, and considerable loyalty to Sherlock, to bring himself to be in court at all.
** The series itself never tells us what happened between John leaving the apartment for Sarah's and Sherlock arriving at the pool some hours later. John later blogged a basic outline- he was bundled into a car and knocked unconscious- but most of the details are missing. It was clearly extremely traumatic for him; in terms of his blog, he posts that [[http://www.johnwatsonblog.co.uk/blog/01may he took some time away from guns and bombs and maniacs]] after that incident. In the actual series itself, the effect that being Moriarty's hostage had on him is hinted at earlier than the trial. When John intercepts Jim's text on Sherlock's phone, and tries to bring it to Sherlock's attention, he looks like he's about to pass out. Not a reaction we've come to expect from someone who developed a hand tremor because he ''missed being in constant danger.'' It's highly implied that there are some details of his hostage experience prior to Sherlock appearing that he's unwilling to share, because they are really, ''really bad.''

* Sherlock's chilling re-enactment of the kidnapping of the children. "Help us" glowing eerily on the wall. Sherlock's silhouette at the door, hand held like a gun. The details of the boy on tip-toe with a ''gun to his head.'' The little girl being grabbed around the neck. [[spoiler:Holy ''shit,'' no wonder they thought he did it.]]
* [[spoiler:Fake death]] or not, John witnessed [[spoiler:his best friend fall from a building and saw his head smashed in on the ground, blood pooling everywhere, felt his non-existent pulse and saw the lifeless eyes on Sherlock's 'dead' face]]. This troper has been fortunate enough to never have to experience being around a dead body, let alone the body of someone she loves, so just having to imagine what John was going through after that is horrifying. It doesn't matter how many dead bodies John has seen in his life, which no doubt is a lot, this was someone he cared passionately about. It wouldn't be surprising if Series 3 mirrored Series 1's opening by showing us John reliving that moment in a nightmare.