Following on from the earlier deduction of the Holmes brothers, it's enlightening to see now that Mycroft wasn't actually taunting Sherlock by asking "Do you remember Redbeard?" Sherlock may have replied, "I'm not a child anymore, Mycroft", but Mycroft's intention was to calm his little brother down, just as Redbeard comes to Sherlock to calm him down in 'His Last Vow'. We might never know the story of what happened with Redbeard, but when Mycroft asked John what we might deduce about Sherlock's heart, he did mention that the man himself wanted to be a pirate initially. Redbeard's no doubt not far from his heart. Redbeard is just a single trick of the mind palace, but one of the most fantastic. The idea that Molly would provide calculations in Sherlock's head cements the character's importance, but also backs up the claim that she's always counted. The courtroom is a perfect device for Sherlock to interrogate the Mayfly Man's dates and the way that Magnusson's mind palace is presented as being completely tangible not only makes for gorgeous direction, it almost justifies such a simple resolution of killing him. The show was one of the first to deal with the awkward text alert shots in such an innovative way, so it's only right that the show should evolve with more and more elaborate ways of presenting thinking patterns. And in an age of HD, 4K, best quality and pushing aesthetic boundaries, Series 3 of Sherlock has raised the bar.
