Screenwriting, Lyrics, Art, and Investigation
I’m not quite sure what attracted me to this tale. It’s kind of obnoxious, lol. Something about the sheep looking like clouds in the river near the end of the story became evocative.
This piece began before the summer hiatus and transformed into a different image when I came back. Yes, I incorporated my cat’s furball into the art. The organic quality suited the sheep, I guess.
He’s a caretaker of Holmes, a bridge between reality and Sherlock’s head. Of course, a medical doctor would indeed always evaluate the state of their patient (even when he’s a friend). Does Watson go beyond a professional involvement, though? He can’t seem to stop saving Holmes.
Tidy, brave, prepared — Sherlock himself names these traits for Watson. He’s also courteous. When Holmes insults his fiancee, Watson restrains himself in a public restaurant with a lady. He approves of her wine toss in Sherlock’s face, and he later, when alone with him, punches Holmes in the nose. This Watson has a physicality controlled by good manners.
The two of them are like an old married couple, sniping and circling, knowing everything the other is thinking. Holmes is so erratic (these days we would say he’s on-spectrum) that Watson initially seems grounded and normal.
He’s not, though! His co-dependency with Holmes is possible because they’re both strange men. Watson is just better at socially hiding it. What would he do if he couldn’t roll his eyes at Holmes? He’s able to pretend he’s a regular bloke by showing exasperation with Sherlock. This isn’t the traditional sidekick role. Law’s Watson is an actual character with separate motivations.
He’s a Nine. The competitive spirit between him and RDJ’s Holmes, a Seven, is appropriate for these numbers. And Watson is very much someone who thinks as a Body Type. He enjoys the intellectual pursuit with Sherlock, but he prefers his profession — tending to the physical — and clues that require him to interact with them. He is a Nine who pushes the edges of his Enneagram: a little bit daring and reckless, a little bit angry and injudicious. He hates himself for it, but luckily he can blame it all on Holmes.
This episode of Moon Knight begins with a recap, followed by the credit roll. Let’s go!
ONE
The sound of screaming while a stream runs in a dark place. A woman, looking directly at the camera, tears up and forcefully says, “It’s all your fault!”
Cut to the hippo, Steven, and Mark, startling each other and screaming.
Cut to Mark screaming in Dr. Arthur’s office. His nose looks broken. Again, we hear Arthur speaking reason while Mark looks at the Egyptian artifacts placed around the office. He’s in a facility in Chicago and everything else is a fantasy he’s created. Mark says, “You’re not a doctor.”
Arthur seems briefly offended, and then defers to the patient. “Alright, retrace your steps. How did you come to be here?” (A question we would also like answered!) He mentions Mark’s last words about meeting a hippo. “Is that sense, or nonsense?” Mark looks shaken.
Continue reading “Asylum”One of my first character posts was a generic look at Sherlock Holmes. I’ve come a long way, lol. I assessed an unspecified Holmes as a Seven, and declared that RDJ would portray him well. Let’s dig in, though, and see what and who his Holmes is.
Downey’s Holmes really does dabble in it all. The drugs, the violin-plunking, the pugilism, the chaos — his Holmes tries everything. He even conducts, for research, a satanic ritual. Sometimes he envisions events many steps into the future, like his boxing technique, and sometimes he has to experience something to deduce it.
He’s brave. Indomitable and fearless, really. He’s either supremely confident or a lucky fool. He’s a mediocre friend to Watson. Loyal, yes, but selfish.
Not a One or Six. Rules are meaningless to him. Not a Two. All of that detective gear is too haphazard. Not a Five. He’s an intuitive thinker, not one to organize a problem. Not a Nine. He thrives on conflict.
So, we have Three, Four, Seven, or Eight remaining. Socially, he’s a fiasco. Not a Three or Four.
Seven. His fighting style comes from the head, not from the gut, as an Eight’s would. And I really like that Sherlock Holmes has an Enneagram type. I mean, we all knew he’d end up a Seven. The excessive edges of his personality and his success in that lifestyle are really only manageable by one number.
When I recently returned to the studio I had a packet of drying flowers leftover from the spring. Most of them — brace yourself — were a moldy, rotting sludge. I had pressed them between paper with no air flow. (Lesson learned.) The flowers on this piece were the ones that hadn’t decayed.
The substrate on this happens to be another of my repurposed pieces. Its former self, Sadko, was based on a painting I desperately wanted to honor. I missed the brief, though, and it had to go.
This is an unorthodox Storytelling Enneagram, but I’m going to count it. Moon Knight has been hit and miss so far. Let’s see what the showrunners tried with this episode.
LEFTOVER NINE
An upside down image of someone walking flips and resolves into the banker-looking avatar. He carries the Khonshu statue, placing it in a ceremonial room lit by candles. The wall contains a number of little icons; this must be Egyptian god prison.
Roll credits.
ONE
We’re back in the overly dark desert with Layla as she tries to wake Steven.
She drags him as headlights approach. Gunfire. Layla rolls both of them down a dune. Leaving Steven, she runs for their truck, hiding alongside.
TWO
The other truck doesn’t find her, but it does locate Steven, who looks dead.
Layla lights a flare, drawing their attention. She dodges their gunfire, then comes up alongside. In the bed of their truck is a rack of bullets. She tosses in a flare, igniting their ammunition.
THREE
As she watches the men dive from their truck, the camera reveals Steven standing behind her.
Continue reading “The Tomb”Now, I love Cavill. He’s a real-life gamer! But, lol, does he always play his characters as Nines? Geralt the Witcher, Superman, and now Sherlock. All of these heroes have a cool distance from the problems surrounding them.
In the first Enola Holmes movie, Sherlock makes only a few brief appearances. Obviously, he detects. He also involves himself in his sister’s life reluctantly. It’s not his business; Enola is Mycroft’s ward. When he does poke in, though, he meets a mind that thinks like his own.
In the second movie we see more of him. He’s inebriated in one scene, which is what we expect of Sherlock. We’re not shown why, or told of his drug/drink choice. Instead, it’s presented as normal: the dude had a night out. It’s not the debauchery we associate with him. It’s almost like a box is checked.
Same for a brief moment when he lifts a violin.
Look, it’s not his story. It’s okay that Sherlock is only an outline of a known character. Everything we see, though, is not a Holmes who is a Seven. (That honor goes to Enola.) I mean, it’s a good choice. We don’t want carbon copies in the same show. And, it’s Henry Cavill busting the arm seams of a double-breasted frock coat! He can steal the scene right out from under everyone if they don’t keep him in the background. The judicial detachment of a Nine is a wise Enneagram decision for this Holmes. We believe he’s competent, famous, and not the protagonist.
Here’s the question: In Enola’s first movie, how much of her character can I attribute to her own Enneagram? Her mother’s training dominates her young life. She even says something about her purpose — what she was made for — is to fight. Does Enola relish fighting, or does she pursue fighting because her mother relishes it?
Like her brother, Sherlock, she has a mind that solves puzzles. Her mother exposed her to word games, but she is also naturally good at it. This is a trait that genuinely belongs to her.
She is not, however, natural at physical pursuits. She’s willing to try anything, but she wobbles on the bicycle and can’t initially master the jiujitsu takedown maneuver. The tennis she and her mother play is more about luck than skill. Although she’s very active, Enola doesn’t seem a Body Type.
In the second movie she leans into her detective skills. She’s brave, unintimidated, and socially comfortable in awkward situations. Her mother makes a brief appearance (as a small-scale terrorist, actually), but doesn’t drive Enola’s behavior like she did in the first movie.
I’m tempted to say she’s a Seven. It’s very Holmesian to love the world of the mind, yet engage in so much of the physical and dangerous. Also, the showrunners and Cavill have made their Sherlock a not-Seven, which gives Enola breathing room.
At this point, Enola’s rebellions are her mother’s. I hope the series continues and we see Enola embrace her own countercultural instincts. As a Seven she should become more efficient, more focused, and more comfortable with her own beauty. Right now she manipulates her image to be more boy-like. When she matures, that will become less believable. A whole world of disguises awaits her, and the use of prosthetics is very Holmesian. I look forward to it!
I’ve left this breakdown of Moon Knight, episode 3 as is. It’s fairly unreadable; it was a difficult watch to translate. I could cut it down to a quick summary at the Four and Five, but I want the flow (or lack thereof) to show. Jump down to the Critical Notes, if you prefer. I won’t blame you for skipping.
ONE
Video of Layla talking about Mark. Ah, she’s complaining to a woman who takes photos and builds a fake passport for her.
Layla, we’re told through this conversation with a friend, hasn’t been home to Egypt in ten years. She only steals artifacts that were previously stolen. She’s returning them! (Mostly.) As a child she accompanied her father to dig sites.
(Yes, this is an awkward exposition dump of a scene. But, if you ever wondered how to construct an illegal international document, you’re in luck!)
Roll credits.
Continue reading “The Friendly Type”