"The Game is afoot."
Hello everyone!
Well. We've made it.
And contrary to what I generally feel when a show season ends, I'm not entirely certain what to make of this particular one.
This weekend saw the end of season four in the lives of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, but fans all around the globe are pretty much crying out, either in confusion, shock, or just point-blank outrage.
As a wise individual once said: "I feel a disturbance in the Force."
Fortunately, we can always go back and watch the first two seasons (and three, three was okay-ish, as well) if we want to go back to Sherlock's glory days. Unfortunately, despite previous statements that Benedict Cumberbatch is contracted for a fifth season, this has now been pulled and in its place was said that, while a fifth season has been plotted, Gatis and Moffat aren't sure if they'll produce it.
On that note, let's dive into this Sherlock recap, shall we?
Let's briefly say what happened in the first two episodes: as in, Mary is dead, John is mad at Sherlock, Sherlock is going off the deep end, and John's new therapist is actually, supposedly, Sherlock and Mycroft's younger sister.
Unfortunately, the above is all true.
The last episode, however, doesn't start where you'd think it would - with John being shot by Eurus - but instead with Mycroft watching a very old black-and-white movie, and getting scared out of his pristine suit and tie by a little girl running around the house, followed by a clown who wants to duel him.
Now I can honestly say I hate clowns.
I can also FINALLY say why Mycroft carries that umbrella everywhere! It's like Lucius Malfoy's walking stick - only instead of a wand it has a rapier in there, attached to a pistol in the handle.
Quite nifty, only the scare isn't by Eurus, it's Sherlock and John, who have come to tell Mycroft they know about the third Holmes.
This leads to Mycroft sitting in 'the chair', as they call it, and explaining that, while he and Sherlock had always been extra intelligent, Eurus was almost clairvoyant with how her mind worked pretty much like a computer's. And that, after she locked Redbeard away somewhere, not telling but only giving some silly rhyme to them, they were all kind of terrified (not that he admits to that), but it took her setting the old house, Musgrave, on fire for them to lock the psychopathic child into an institution.
Proof that too much intelligence is bad for you, kids. Remember to go outside and play and don't learn too much.
Anyway, in present day, a drone enters the apartment, set to detonate a grenade as soon as one of the three men moves, which results in the lot of them scrambling (out windows and down stairs) and pirating a fishing boat to get to the unique prison these 'undesirables' (let me quote J. K. Rowling here) are housed in.
Or, as Mycroft puts it: there is no Heaven on Earth, but he can give you a map of Hell.
Once there, however, after Sherlock heads down to speak to Eurus, John (out of all apparently intelligent people, it has to be JOHN) figures out that the governor of the prison is actually under Eurus' sway, leading to the lot of them being captured.
And, news flash: Mycroft gave Eurus 'Christmas presents' for helping the government, one of those being a five minute uncensored meeting with one James Moriarty.
I swear, can a character be killed off more times? The death really becomes pointless when you keep bringing people back, even for flashbacks, you know!
Anyway, for some reason, Jim and Eurus concocted a plan to get back at the Holmes brothers, which leads our lot of interpid detectives to cells in the prison where they must solve 'puzzles' in order to move ahead.
First one being, killing the governor or his wife dies, but Watson or Mycroft have to do it. They don't; he kills himself, Eurus shoots the wife. Moving on.
Now they have to figure out which of three brothers shot the next victim, and Eurus dangles the lot of them outside the cell windows. They figure it out - but instead of the guilty one, Eurus lets the innocent two drop down into the sea (still tied and gagged, by the way), then just drops the last one in because Watson complains.
Moving on, again.
In this cell we find a coffin, and while Eurus keeps going on and on that they need to figure out who's about to die, one thing stands out: someone who loves Sherlock. And ANY Sherlock fan will immediatelly scream MOLLY HOOPER at that point.
Sherlock needs to call Molly and get her to confess her love (without telling her what it's all about). He does. He's not happy about it, and trashes the coffin.
In the final room, Eurus demands Sherlock shoot either Watson or Mycroft - and Mycroft is the sacrificial lamb, as it were, because the man does in fact understand his brother quite well: he will survive the loss of Mycroft, but not the loss of John Watson.
Only, Sherlock turns the game around, and points the gun at himself.
This causes the lot of them to get tranq-ed, and once Sherlock wakes up, he's in another room, alone, but he can hear Watson, who is caught somewhere with water and is apparently chained up. Also, there are bones. Yes, yummy.
Sherlock realises that he's back at Musgrave, and must figure out the original puzzle from years ago, which is kind of difficult since, after Redbeard, he rewrote his memories to forget all about his sister anyway, but now he realizes the 'funny headstones' of the graves that, apparently, Eurus made up, are the clue, and he solves the puzzle - which is a cry for help from an incredibly gifted, incredibly intelligent, incredibly lonely child.
Because how these supposedly smart people never figured out that Eurus, because she was locked away as a kid, remained at the mental level of a frightened little girl, is beyond me.
Of course, through this all, we get intersections of an apparent passenger plane on which everyone is asleep, except for a little girl that our trio speaks to from time to time (as Eurus allows it), and so on top of everything else they have to figure out how to save the plane, too.
Luckily, Sherlock and Watson figure things out together: the bones in the well (yes, Watson is in a well) don't belong to an animal, they belong to a child. Redbeard was never a dog - the Holmes patriarch was allergic to dogs - but he was Sherlock's best friend, whom Eurus murdered in the well because she wanted to play with the boys and they wouldn't let her.
I tell you, if every girl who ever got denied in anything committed murder, there'd be no guys left.
Anyway, Sherlock finds Eurus, mentally unstable as she is, and calms her down, realizing the plane is just a metaphor for what's inside her head, and he convinces her to save John Watson from the well.
Afterwards, after Inspector Lestrade pronounces Sherlock 'a good man' (and Sherlock proves he does in fact know his name, Greg), Eurus is taken back to her cell, Mycroft tells their parents what really happened (since he originally made them believe their daughter had died in a second fire she set), and Sherlock routinely visits Eurus to play violin with her.
John receives another DVD, obviously from Mary, and calls Sherlock to watch it with him.
In it, she reveals that she hopes her death won't stop them - but enable them to continue on being what they are: a junkie who gets high on solving crimes, and a doctor to monitor him, never returning from the war. And in voice-over, as we see random bits of the duo at work, Mrs. Hudson, Molly, Lestrade, little Rosie being passed around, she finishes off with a little ditty.
"It's all about the legend. The stories, the adventures. There is a last refuge for the desperate, the unloved, the persecuted. There is a final court of appeal for everyone. When life gets too strange, too impossible, too frightening, there is always one last hope. When all else fails, there are two men sitting, arguing in a scruffy flat, like they've alway been there ... and they always will. The best and wisest men I have ever known. My Baker Street boys. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson."
And gee whiz, doesn't THAT make a true Holmes fan tear up?!
Sure, this episode was trippy. Yeah, this whole season was out-of-whack, in a way. But it DID give us Holmes and Watson, in pretty much their best, and their worst. The final montage gives a great reset for, perhaps, picking the series up the way it used to be, one crime per episode, no mastermind behind it all (that seems to be what sinks SO many shows, because I have yet to come across a long-lived plot that keeps viewers interested through to the end).
And, if it IS the end, and there will be no season five - Mary's voice-over gives us a fitting eulogy.
It gives us, in her own words, the legend.
That, after all, is what Sherlock Holmes is.
xx
*images and video not mine
The Lying Detective
The Six Thatchers
The Abominable Bride
Mr. Holmes
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