Sherlock RPG

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1. #1General story

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   Sherlock is a British crime television series based on the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and his character Sherlock Holmes. Created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, it stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the title character and Martin Freeman as his assistant Dr. John Watson in a modernised adaptation of the classic stories. The series consists of 13 episodes in four three-part series which aired on the BBC network from 2010 to 2017, including a special episode that aired on January 1, 2016. It was produced by Moffat, Gatiss, Sue Vertue, and Rebecca Eaton.

   Sherlock depicts "consulting detective" Sherlock Holmes solving various mysteries in modern-day London. Holmes is assisted by his flatmate and friend, Dr. John Watson, who has returned from military service in Afghanistan with the Royal Army Medical Corps. Although Metropolitan Police Service Detective Inspector Greg Lestrade and others are suspicious of Holmes at first, over time, his exceptional intellect and bold powers of observation persuade them of his value. In part through Watson's blog documenting their adventures, Holmes becomes a reluctant celebrity with the press reporting on his cases and eccentric personal life. Both ordinary people and the British government ask for his help.

2. #2Characters

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   Main Cast

   Sherlock Holmes
       The world's only "Consulting Detective", played by Benedict Cumberbatch ("Unaired Pilot", Series One, Series Two, Series Three, The Abominable Bride, Series Four)
   John Watson
       A former Army doctor and the best friend and assistant of Sherlock Holmes, played by Martin Freeman ("Unaired Pilot", Series One, Series Two, Series Three, The Abominable Bride, Series Four)
   Mrs Hudson
       The owner of 221 Baker Street and Sherlock and John's land lady, played by Una Stubbs ("Unaired Pilot", Series One, Series Two, Series Three, The Abominable Bride, Series Four)
   Mycroft Holmes
       The brother of Sherlock Holmes, played by Mark Gatiss ("A Study in Pink", "The Great Game", Series Two, Series Three, The Abominable Bride, Series Four)
   Greg Lestrade
       An inspector with Scotland Yard, played by Rupert Graves ("Unaired Pilot", "A Study in Pink", "The Great Game", Series Two, Series Three, The Abominable Bride, Series Four)
   Molly Hooper
       A specialist registrar at St Bartholomew's Hospital, played by Louise Brealey ("Unaired Pilot", Series One, "A Scandal in Belgravia", "The Reichenbach Fall", Series Three, The Abominable Bride, Series Four)
   Mary Morstan
       A former assassin and the wife of John Watson, played by Amanda Abbington. (Series Three, The Abominable Bride, Series Four)
   Jim Moriarty
       The world's only "consulting criminal", played by Andrew Scott ("The Great Game", Series Two, "The Empty Hearse", "His Last Vow", "The Final Problem (Sherlock)" )
   

   Recuring characters Philip Anderson A member of the forensics team at Scotland Yard, played by Jonathan Aris ("Unaired Pilot", "A Study in Pink", "The Reichenbach Fall", "The Empty Hearse", "His Last Vow") Sally Donovan A Scotland Yard Police Officer, played by Vinette Robinson ("Unaired Pilot", "A Study in Pink", "The Great Game", "The Reichenbach Fall", "The Sign of Three") Dr Sarah Sawyer A doctor who works in the London clinic to which Dr John Watson applies; also his girlfriend for a time. Played by Zoe Telford ("The Blind Banker", "The Great Game") Ella Thompson A therapist that Dr John Watson sees after he is shot during the war in Afghanistan, played by Tanya Moodie ("Unaired Pilot", "A Study in Pink", "The Reichenbach Fall" "The Six Thatchers") Irene Adler The Woman, a dominatrix and the only woman to best Sherlock Holmes. Played by Lara Pulver. ("A Scandal in Belgravia", "The Sign of Three", "The Lying Detective" (text alert/mentioned)) Elizabeth Smallwood (also referred to as Alicia Smallwood) A fellow member of the British Government who works alongside Mycroft Holmes. ("His Last Vow", "The Six Thatchers", "The Lying Detective") Janine Hawkins The personal assistant of the late Charles Augustus Magnussen. Played by Yasmine Akram ("The Sign of Three","His Last Vow","The Abominable Bride") Mr. and Mrs. Holmes The parents of Mycroft, Sherlock, and Eurus Holmes. Played by Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton. ("His Last Vow", "The Final Problem (Sherlock)") Bill Wiggins A drug addict and Sherlock's "protégé", played by Tom Brooke. ("His Last Vow", "The Lying Detective") Eurus Holmes The secret sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, played by Siân Brooke. ("The Six Thatchers", disguised as "E"; "The Lying Detective", disguised as John's therapist and as herself; "The Final Problem (Sherlock)", as herself) Rosamund Mary Watson The infant daughter of John and Mary Watson. ("The Six Thatchers", "The Lying Detective", "The Final Problem (Sherlock)")

3. #3Sherlock Holmes

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   Sherlock Holmes is described himself as "a consulting detective, the only one in the world", consulted by Scotland Yard when they are out of their depth with cases (usually homicides). He appears as a tall, thin man with dark, curly hair. Like the original character, Sherlock is able to deduce information from the smallest details. Sherlock is often insensitive of how this affects the officers and usually ridicules their incompetence; however, he is frequently mocked by them for being eccentric, especially by forensics member Anderson and Sergeant Sally Donovan.

   Sherlock seems to care more about the crimes than the victims involved, like the Holmes of the original canon. He is not very sociable, but he refers to Dr. Watson as his "intimate friend and associate". Sherlock is rude and inconsiderate towards others, including his flatmate and colleague John Watson (often leaving him behind and expecting him to do menial, domestic tasks such as shopping). However, Sherlock is revealed to care deeply for John as the series progresses, showing uncharacteristic emotion when his friend's life is in jeopardy or when John comes to his aid.

   Sherlock also has considerable fighting ability, fighting off a man armed with a sword using his bare hands in "The Blind Banker". In "A Scandal in Belgravia", he disarms and incapacitates a trained CIA operative on two separate occasions.

   He considers only three people as his friends: John Watson, Mrs. Hudson, and DI Greg Lestrade.

   Romantically, Sherlock is self-described as "married to his work"; he is oblivious of how attractive he is to other people. Sherlock ignores the romantic interest that forensic pathologist Molly Hooper has for him, but sometimes uses her attraction to his advantage if it assists him in a crime investigation. In series 2, after the introduction of Irene Adler, Sherlock appears to have an intellectual connection to her and comes to her rescue at the end of the episode. She frequently flirts with and texts Sherlock in A Scandal in Belgravia, but he never responds, save for once, when he replies “Happy New Year” in response to her text wishing him a Merry Christmas.

   He knows London's streets and alleys extremely well. He has strange connections, including a graffiti artist, as well as the entire network of the homeless (whom he uses as his "eyes and ears").

   Sherlock is a smoker who finds the habit impractical in present-day urban London and therefore mostly makes do with nicotine patches. He may apply as many as three patches on himself at the same time when it is a "three patch problem"; he implies that the nicotine helps him to think. For the same professed reason, he plays the violin and even composes music from time to time. It is also implied that he has a history of illegal drug use. Sherlock has violent mood swings during periods of extreme ennui when there are no cases that interest him. He is once seen curled up on the sofa and firing a gun at the wall in his flat. In "A Study in Pink", he claims to be a "high-functioning sociopath". Trying to avoid getting his face taken in pictures, Sherlock disguised it with a deerstalker. Unfortunately, this becomes his trademark, much to his annoyance, as he greatly dislikes the hat (even being given one by New Scotland Yard as a gift).

   Sherlock Holmes (born William Sherlock Scott Holmes) is the world's only consulting detective, a profession he created for himself. He is based in London and often consulted by Greg Lestrade of New Scotland Yard, usually taking his best friend and flatmate, John Watson, on cases. He has a keen and strong interest in unusual or bizarre crimes, without which he rapidly becomes bored, relying on nicotine to keep his brain active, although in the past he has dabbled in illegal drugs such as heroin for entertainment.

   Sherlock is a thinker and an observer; his incredible ability to notice and draw deductions from seemingly trivial details is his primary tool for solving crimes he investigates. He also often utilizes his "mind palace", a tool for remembering the smallest of details and visually organizing his memories. However, his unusual and somewhat anti-social personality and characteristic has led to many in the official police force distrusting and disliking him.

   Sherlock claims on more than one occasion to be a "high-functioning sociopath".[1][2] However, according to Jim Moriarty, as well as Sherlock's own actions and displays of emotion and empathy, this may not be true. Sherlock does not seem to exhibit any of the symptoms of an anti-social personality disorder. John jokes once, to explain Sherlock's behavior, that he might suffer from Asperger's Syndrome, a disorder on the autism spectrum, though this has never been confirmed.

   Sherlock was born on 6th January 1977, 1981, or 1983[4] and spent his early childhood at Musgrave Hall, the Holmes family home located somewhere in the countryside[5]. He was raised by his mother (a genius mathematician), alongside his father, who describes himself as 'something of a moron' compared to his wife [6]. He grew up with his older brother Mycroft (seven years his senior), who Sherlock in later years claims would belittle him and try to frighten him with stories of 'the East Wind'. [7] He also had a younger sister named Eurus (one year his junior), who taught him the violin. [8]

   During his early years, Sherlock befriended a boy named Victor Trevor, with whom he became 'inseparable'. The pair often played pirates together, nicknaming each other ‘Yellowbeard’ (Sherlock) and ‘Redbeard’ (Victor). Eurus harbored jealousy of Sherlock’s friendship with Victor and imprisoned Victor in a deep well, where he would ultimately die. She sang a song to Sherlock in hopes that it would lead him to her, but Sherlock misunderstood the lyrics as a set of directions that would lead him to Victor.

   Eurus' animosity towards Sherlock following this led her to burn down Musgrave Hall, supposedly to kill him.

   Sherlock never discovered the truth of Victor's fate and became severely traumatized, with Mycroft later claiming that he was much changed afterwards from the 'emotional child' he'd been before. To cope with the loss, Sherlock manifested a memory of owning a pet dog named Redbeard in place of his memories of Victor. As Eurus was taken away and institutionalized, his memory of her gradually faded over time. [5]

   In 1989, Sherlock learned about the death of child athlete swimmer, Carl Powers. Upon reading that Powers' trainers were missing, Sherlock began to consider the case suspicious. He attempted to enlist the police force's help, but his attempts were denied, and the case was ultimately dismissed. [9]

   Sherlock went to university to read chemistry but was unpopular with other students. Sebastian Wilkes, who was at university with him, later mentions how Sherlock would 'put the windup everybody' by deducing things about their private lives. [10]

   Sherlock is said to have struggled with drugs in earlier years, at some point reaching an agreement with Mycroft that he would always write a list of anything he had taken. [11] It is implied that some of these struggled originated in Sherlock's trauma regarding the loss of Victor Trevor, as Mycroft has noted down 'Redbeard' from a time when he'd found Sherlock high. [12]

   In 2004, Sherlock befriended Inspector Greg Lestrade, (after aiding him in solving a case) and through Lestrade became affiliated with the London police force with whom he maintained a rather difficult partnership with several police officers: Sally Donovan and Philip Anderson in particular distrusted him for his over-zealousness at crime scenes and harsh disposition.

   At some point, Sherlock managed to gain access to St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he utilised the equipment to conduct experiments. It was here that he met pathologist Molly Hooper, who developed a secret affection for him. [13]

   Sherlock is first introduced to Dr John Watson in a laboratory at St. Bartholomew's Hospital after having been experimenting on corpses with Molly Hooper at the morgue. He shows no emotion towards the deceased, unlike Molly, who states that she knew the dead man, and thought that "he was nice". Sherlock then proceeds to beat the corpse with a riding crop to see what bruises form.

   Afterwards, Molly nervously asks him out for coffee, but he misses the romantic intent of her question and gives her an order before leaving the lab. Mike Stamford then brings John Watson to meet Sherlock with the knowledge that both need a flatmate. Sherlock shows interest in John right away, deducing that he had recently been invalided home from war and that he has an alcoholic brother named Harry. Later on, when Sherlock is explaining his process of deduction, John corrects him by stating that "Harry is short for Harriet".

   Shortly after meeting at 221B Baker Street, the two decide to move in together. The landlady, Mrs Hudson, offers the flat at a discounted rate because Sherlock helped ensure her ex-husband was executed for double-murder. It is also revealed that Sherlock is not good at taking care of himself, often getting Mrs Hudson to clean and bring him food, despite her arguments that she is "not his housekeeper". Shortly after, DI Greg Lestrade arrives at Baker Street and asks the detective to come to a crime scene. Sherlock is calm and collected until the Inspector leaves, when he jumps in the air with excitement, whooping "It's Christmas!" before running out the door. He returns a few seconds later, asking John if the doctor would like to accompany him.

   While on their way to the crime scene, Sherlock explains how he earlier deduced personal information about John from small details about his appearance and personality, including that his limp is psychosomatic. John remarks that Sherlock is brilliant and appears visibly shocked and confused for a few moments before explaining that people usually tell him to piss off.

   When they arrive at the crime scene, Sherlock insults two police officers, Anderson and DS Sally Donovan, publicly announcing that the two are sleeping together behind Anderson's wife's back. Both show apparent dislike and even hatred toward the detective. It is interesting to note that Sherlock introduced Sally as an "old friend" to John, while he openly despises Anderson to a much more intense degree. Dead pink lady

   Jennifer Wilson's body at Lauriston Gardens.

   The crime is the fourth in a series of "serial suicides", in which people are being found dead after taking poisonous pills for seemingly no reason. However, unlike the first three, this victim, a woman dressed entirely in pink, has left a note; she carved RACHE into the wooden floorboards with her fingernails. Sherlock deduces that the woman died before finishing the word, which means she was trying to cut the name RACHEL. Sherlock deduces that the woman is a serial adulterer with an unhappy marriage. Sherlock finds splashes of mud on the woman's leg, thrown up by the wheels of a suitcase, and deduces that she is from out of town. The police found no bag on the premises, but Sherlock searches for it, later finding it in a nearby skip.

   He then texts John to come and send a text for him at Baker Street.

   After convincing John that the killer has the phone, the two lie in wait for him at a cafe owned by a friend of Sherlock's named Angelo. However, even after the two run all over the area chasing a cab which stopped suspiciously, the lead is revealed to be a dead-end and the two return home. After laughing about the venture, they go upstairs to find DI Lestrade searching Sherlock's things for drugs. At first, John argues that there is no way Sherlock is a junkie, but Sherlock quiets him, confirming that the idea is not so far from the truth.

   After much yelling and arguing, Sherlock realizes that RACHEL is the passcode for the victim's phone. She had known she was going to die and had slipped her phone to the killer, then given them the password to use the online tracker to find him. However, when they enter the password, the computer tells them the phone is in the flat. At first, Sherlock is confused but then realizes the original lead was correct, but he had questioned the wrong person. It was not the passenger in the cab that was the killer, but the driver.

   He then "slips out for some air" and meets the cabbie outside. The cab driver gives him the choice of coming with him and finding out how he got those people to kill themselves or staying here, safe. Sherlock goes with him.

   The cabbie brings him to a university where he ushers him inside with his gun. He then sits the detective down and brings out two pills. Stating one pill is good, the other bad, the cabbie says that Sherlock can choose whichever medicine he likes, and then the driver will take the other. Sherlock argues that it is chance, not skills that would allow him to pick the right pill, but the cabbie disagrees, calling it a "chess game with one move". The taxi driver then passes Sherlock one of the pills and asks him if it is the good or the bad one.

   Sherlock deduces that for some reason, the cabbie is killing people for his children. The driver tells him of a 'sponsor' who gives him money every time he murders. He is dying, and the more money he has at the time of death, the more his children get after he is gone. After a few moments, Sherlock decided he will choose neither pill, opting instead to be shot. However, the detective grins when the cabbie pulls the trigger, revealing that Sherlock is the first to realize the gun is a fake. With no more incentive to stay, Sherlock turns to leave, but the cabbie tempts him, asking if he knows which pill is the right one.

   Arrogant as always, Sherlock replies that he knows and chooses a pill, holding it above his head. The cabbie then states that Sherlock will do anything to stop being bored, even risk his life. Just as he is about to take the pill, a gunshot fires and the cabbie is hit. Sherlock demands to know if he picked right, but the cabbie merely laughs. Angered, Sherlock throws the pill on the floor and steps on the bullet hole, demanding the name of the cabbie's sponsor. The cabbie screams the name "Moriarty" just before dying.

   After giving his statement, Sherlock begins to describe the traits of the cabbie's shooter to DI Lestrade: a marksman with strong moral principles and nerves of steel. However, halfway through the sentence, he spots John standing outside the police tape and realizes it was John who saved him. Quickly lying to cover for John, Sherlock states that he is in shock and needs to go home.

   He compliments John on his aim, a notable act as Sherlock never compliments anybody. He then reveals the man who earlier kidnapped John is, in fact, his brother Mycroft Holmes, who works for the government. Or "as the government" as he maintains. Finally, John and Sherlock leave the crime scene grinning at each other. [1]

   Perhaps Sherlock's most noticeable trait is his proneness to boredom. He is continuously agitated by the lack of work, describing peace as "hateful". Even if a case is offered to him, he won't take it unless he finds it sufficiently attractive (though it is worth noting that he seems to lower his standards as he gets more desperate). In the absence of casework that meets his criteria, he will go to extreme lengths to keep himself occupied, such as repeatedly shooting the wall of his flat with live rounds, and even turning to drugs in more extreme situations; he claims that he is a "user" of narcotics on more than one occasion, which helps to increase his thought process. He even went so far as to accuse the criminal class of slackening, viewing that as the reason for his boredom. He labels himself as a high functioning sociopath, but is more likely to have Asperger syndrome.

   Sherlock also has a blatant disregard for rules and etiquette. He once wore only a bedsheet to Buckingham Palace and was willing to walk out of there naked, greatly embarrassing Mycroft.

   Sherlock has a major manipulative streak and will often take advantage of people to get his way. For example, knowing Molly has a crush on him, he will occasionally flatter her to gain access to the morgue he would not otherwise have.[14] John, on the other hand, is sometimes subject to experiments. In one particular instance, when Sherlock needs to test out a drug, he sneaks it into John's coffee. When John tries to say "I don't take sugar," Sherlock effectively uses a 'kicked puppy' look to guilt John into finishing the drink.[3]

   He seems to have a sense of humour, though it is very sarcastic and can be quite dark sometimes. Sherlock is amused, most notably, by the stupidity of others in comparison to himself. He also often makes quips at the expense of his brother, Mycroft, usually about his dieting habits or his posh job. Sherlock is incredibly unamused; however, by John's blog. He thinks the titles John gives their cases, such as "The Geek Interpreter", or "The Speckled Blonde", are ridiculous, and he finds the fame that comes with being an 'internet phenomenon' distasteful and funny. He was also deterred by the prospect of having to wear his now-iconic deerstalker in public for the cameras. In "The Lying Detective", he puts it on before heading out to have cake for his birthday, stating "I'm Sherlock Holmes. I wear the damn hat."

   One quality that Sherlock lacks entirely is tact, which is one of the main reasons that he is disliked so heavily by so many people. He often doesn't notice when his accurate deductions about other people's personal lives offend them, including the implication that Anderson and Sally Donovan were having an affair - that being said, neither of them did anything to soften his opinion of them. He is incredibly antagonistic towards the officers at Scotland Yard, particularly Anderson and Sally Donovan, which is often relayed with a cutting remark from the latter. It does seem, though that, over time, Sherlock is becoming increasingly aware of his ability to insult, occasionally asking John "Not good?" when he does see that he has upset someone.[3]

   Although he puts forth a cold-hearted and rough exterior, Sherlock does have a kind, caring side. Despite telling John that not caring about people makes it easier to do his job, Sherlock has concern for the people involved in his cases. During one of their earlier instances, when John's girlfriend Sarah was kidnapped by Chinese smugglers, Sherlock focused on saving her rather than catching the smugglers themselves and comforted her gently while untying her, even though he had not seemed to like her much previously. And again, in one of his first confrontations with Moriarty, he looks very emotionally affected when he is unable to save the life of an older woman. A bit later, at Baskerville, he tries to talk Henry down from taking his own life.[3] He reacted with compassion towards his younger sister, Eurus Holmes, upon learning the secret behind her childhood song. When Eurus became uncommunicative following their final game at Musgrave Hall, Sherlock visited her and played his violin for her, eventually eliciting a reaction from her. He continued visiting Sherrinford and playing for Eurus over the years, later able to hold a violin recital of the two of them for their parents and Mycroft, reflecting in Eurus some measure of mental recovery and also Sherlock's dedicated care to his newly learned sister, apparently forgiving her for her responsibility of Victor Trevor's death and the subsequent trauma. He also despises criminals such as Charles Augustus Magnussen, who disgusted him more than any criminal he ever dealt with and described Culverton Smith as a monster.

   Sherlock is the most protective towards the people he is close to, however. Even though it often seems like he takes Mrs Hudson for granted, he is enraged when he finds that she has been roughed up by an American operative, going so far as to tie him up and throw him out the window - so many times he "lost count". Later, when John insists that she go stay with her sister for a while, Sherlock tells him that if Mrs Hudson left Baker Street, "England would fall", while putting a comforting arm around her. This protective nature extends to all his friends, to the point that he is willing to fake his death to save them.[15]

   John and Sherlock, however, share a unique relationship. Sherlock cannot be considered a man with many friends; his attitude and cutting words often ward people away, but with John, he makes an effort. John is intelligent, though not as brilliant as Sherlock, lacking Holmes' observational skills and his unique insight into crime. John, however, does have great idea in his analysis of relationships, which Sherlock may dismiss, though often does prove to come in handy.[14][16] The pair seems to have very compatible senses of humor, and Sherlock does generally appear to appreciate John's love of danger and risk-taking, even confessing to John that he "doesn't have friends. [He] just has one". He never denies it when people incorrectly assume that they are romantic partners.

   When John asks Sherlock to be his best man, Sherlock is stunned into silence. He later reveals, during a very long and touching speech at the wedding, that he'd never expected to be anyone's best man because he'd "never expected to be anybody's best friend."

   Sherlock shares a somewhat complicated relationship with his older brother, Mycroft Holmes. Mycroft does seem to worry a great deal about Sherlock, often rallying his younger brother's friends to ensure his safety (specifically to prevent an implied relapse), and attempting to protect Sherlock when they thought Irene Adler had died. While he does show, at times, childlike frustration with his elder brother, Sherlock never dismisses him as he does with clients or police officers he finds truly annoying or tedious. Mycroft also seems comfortable with the idea of going to Sherlock for help with issues of national security, showing once again an innate sense of trust in his younger sibling.

   Though he was unaware of it, his younger sister, Eurus Holmes, had profoundly influenced Sherlock's person to the extent that, as Mycroft remarked, every choice Sherlock made, every path he ever took, the man Sherlock is, is Sherlock's memory of Eurus. When Eurus made Victor Trevor, Sherlock's childhood best friend, disappear, Sherlock was so traumatized by the loss that he rewrote his memories of Victor and Eurus, remembering Victor as his pet dog Redbeard and forgetting Eurus entirely. Mycroft noted that, because of what Eurus did, Sherlock substantially changed in personality from the emotional child he was to the cold, a deductive and logical man that he was introduced as in the series.

   Irene Adler deduces that he believes in a higher power which is himself, an assertion that Sherlock neither confirmed or denied.

   Sherlock is a tall, svelte man appearing no more than in his late thirties, with pale skin and dark, curly hair. His look is designed to stand out in contrast to John, who is shorter, with straight blonde hair. His eyes can appear to be silver, blue or even green depending on the light. Sherlock's iconic outfit consists of a long ulster coat, the collar spiked up (which John calls out for being part of his "cool" image), and a dark blue scarf. Beneath his coat, he always wears a black suit with a dress shirt, no tie. During mornings in his flat, he would sometimes skip the suit jacket and instead wears a dressing gown in camel, crimson, blue or tartan. Sherlock can also be seen wearing the famous checkered deerstalker hat. He has been known, on occasion, to wear nothing but a bedsheet.

   Genius-Level Intellect: Sherlock Holmes has an extremely high intellect and masterful observational skills. He is presumably the third most intelligent character on the show currently alive, with only his elder brother Mycroft and younger sister Eurus surpassing him in intelligence. However, Sherlock's intelligence was sufficient that he was able to resist Eurus's manipulation abilities. His intelligence is thanks in part to a highly developed “mind palace”, a memory technique that allows him to memorize vast amounts of information.
       Deduction: Sherlock has many well-developed abilities that aid him with his detective work, including a profound aptitude for deductive reasoning.
       Investigation: He often uses a memory retrieval technique called "the method of loci"[17], which he refers to as his 'mind palace'.[18] John describes this system of storing memories as plotting them on a map of a familiar location and retrieving those memories by finding the way back to them, to theoretically never forget anything. To use this skill, Sherlock requires silence and space to himself to reduce outside interference.
       Cold Readings: Upon meeting a person, he will often "scan" them, using elements of their appearance and behavior to arrive at astonishingly accurate conclusions about their past or personality. He sometimes even performs cold readings on a location such as an apartment to deduce a trait related to the current resident. His cold readings are usually performed subconsciously, as his brain was still performing them and deducing things about people and places in front of him when he was heavily intoxicated on John's stag night and severely depressed after Mary's death. However, Sherlock is not infallible, as he admits "there is always something" that he misses or misinterprets.[1]
   Expert Scientist: To be added
   Master Tactician: To be added
   Skilled Martial Artist: Sherlock is an exceptionally proficient hand-to-hand combatant. In reference to his Conan Doyle counterpart, the rules of the combat discipline Baritsu hang over his bed, and he is also well-versed in the japanese style of wrestling. He often uses his deductive reasoning to identify weaknesses of his opponents before he strikes them, only losing in fights when he is taken by surprise.[15] He is so proficient in hand-to-hand combat that he can defeat a professional assassin wielding a sword with only some minor struggle, effortlessly disarmed a CIA agent of his gun and knocked him out with a blunt blow to the head, and was able to defeat Ajay, a member of Agra, the world's best assassins, agents, killers, spies, in unarmed combat after a fierce fight. However, he was overpowered by John when John was angered due to the death of his wife and was no match for his mind's manifestation of Moriarty when they fought, though he wasn't trying to fight back at all with John and what happened with Moriarty was inside his head.
       Skilled Swordsman: Sherlock is described by Watson to be excellent with a sword, having fought his way alongside John against what John described as a pair of jewel thieves who were like the parallel evil universe version of Little and Large, and he wielded a sword to survive an armed group of terrorists while rescuing Irene.
   Espionage Proficiency: Sherlock has also proven incredible espionage talents. Despite not having spoken to Irene Adler for months, Sherlock was able to follow her to Pakistan, pose as her executioner and save her life, keeping this a secret from (possibly) everyone.
   Master Violinist: Sherlock has shown considerable ability to play the violin on multiple occasions. He even stated he sometimes composes his own pieces, as it "helps him think".
   

   Relationships John Watson Sherlock states, both implicitly and explicitly, that he has no friends, except for John.[3][2] They live at 221B Baker Street, which they rent from Mrs Hudson at a discounted rate due to Sherlock's help in getting her husband executed. In a confrontation with Moriarty, he forces Sherlock into complying by threatening to have one of his snipers kill John. Sherlock is visibly put on the back foot by this and only rallies around at the end of the encounter when he, with John's nodded consent, threatens to blow up the bomb jacket. [16]

   John and Sherlock's friendship continued to solidify with Sherlock announcing to John that he does not have friends, "just one". In the final confrontation with Moriarty, Sherlock fakes his death to avoid his three friends (including John) being killed. After an emotional farewell via a phone call, Sherlock jumps off of the rooftop of St Bart's while John, injured by a collision with a cyclist, stumbles towards his friend's body uttering murmurs of his complete disbelief, not realizing he survived the fall. [19]

   John, at first, is very angry with Sherlock after faking his death for two years but forgives him and goes back to solving crimes with him. [20] He asks Sherlock to be his best man at his wedding. Sherlock states that he will do anything to protect John, Mary and their baby. Their friendship is stronger than ever now, with Sherlock becoming slightly more human. When he discerns that Mary is pregnant at the wedding reception, Sherlock states categorically that she and John will be the best parents in the world, as they've already had so much practice with him.

   Jim Moriarty Moriarty proved to be Sherlock’s greatest adversary. Both men push each other to their limits, both were geniuses in their respective fields.

   Mrs Hudson Mrs Hudson, Sherlock's landlady, takes care of many of his needs, like washing his clothes and making food, even though she seems to do so begrudgingly. Sherlock, in turn, is protective of her – beating a man half to death after deducing that he had struck Mrs Hudson and then throwing him out of a window, claiming the man was injured when he "fell out" (several times).[15] When Moriarty says to Sherlock he will kill "everyone you care about", the fully enumerated list comprises three names, of which Mrs Hudson is one.

   Greg Lestrade Sherlock's relationship with DI Greg Lestrade began as one of necessity, as Greg acknowledges that traditional police methods can not solve some crimes, and Sherlock needs someone to bring him in on cases. [1] Greg since appeared to have become someone that Sherlock would consider a friend, especially when it is revealed he is one of Moriarty's three targets designed to coerce Sherlock into "suicide". Greg can be noted as one of the few at Scotland Yard that does not completely believe, upon the evidence that Sherlock was the one committing crimes all along, that Sherlock was a fraud. [19] In The Final Problem, Sherlock finally has enough respect for Lestrade to get his first name right.

   Mycroft Holmes Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, his older brother, have a rocky relationship at best. However, Mycroft does remark to Sherlock that they have more in common than Sherlock likes to think. There are many examples of this, one being that both of them have the exceptional brainpower and can deduce things quickly. However, there are also many examples of them being opposites of each other, as Sherlock "prefer[s] to text"[1] and does so very frequently, while Mycroft, as Sherlock says, only texts when he cannot speak, e.g. when he is at the dentist.[16] Despite the unstable relationship, Sherlock and Mycroft are seen to pay attention and care about each other quite a bit, knowing about each other's personal lives, and with Mycroft asking Sherlock for favours. In return, Mycroft has his way of keeping tabs on Sherlock, having a high level of national security placed on him and John. The two are seen to spend some time with each other, Sherlock having 'acquired' one of Mycroft's security cards, and when Mycroft finds out that he uses it, he is more exasperated than angry, despite Sherlock breaching a national security protocol in Mycroft's name. Mycroft later allows Sherlock access to the military base that Sherlock stole his identity to breach.[3] Nevertheless of their arguments, Sherlock shows that he does indeed love his brother and knows him quite well, as when Mycroft tries to manipulate Sherlock into shooting him instead of John, he is able to see through the act easily and refuses to do so, even willing to sacrifice his life to save both his brother and John.

   To Sherlock's amusement and Mycroft's shock, their mother considers Sherlock to have always been the grown-up between the two of them.

   Molly Hooper Molly Hooper is a pathologist at St Barts Hospital and often assists Sherlock in his "experiments". She is shown to have a huge crush on him and is awkward and stuttery around him. He does not respond to her feelings for him, although he does use them to his advantage by flirting with her to get something he wants. Sherlock originally did not seem to understand how much Molly cared for him.

   However, their friendship became slightly stronger. During a Christmas party at Baker Street, Sherlock upsets Molly by embarrassing her in front of everyone after he deduces that she has 'love on her mind' and is seeing someone that night. When it turns out to be him, Molly snaps back at him, standing up to him for the first time. Then, another first, Sherlock apologizes to her all on his own, much to the shock of John, and kisses her on the cheek. [15]

   Molly seems jealous of Sherlock's "infatuation" with Irene, jumping to the conclusion that she is his girlfriend to which he questions "you think she is my girlfriend because I am x-raying her possessions?" [15]

   Molly's and Sherlock's relationship developed substantially from colleagues into a friendship. At one point, Molly points out how sad Sherlock looks when he thinks no one else can see. He states that she can see him to which she replies that she does not count. Sherlock later tells her that she does count and that she has always counted and that he has always trusted her. When she asks what he needs, he replies with 'you'. [19]

   Molly aided Sherlock in faking his death. To thank her, and also to temporarily replace John, Sherlock asks Molly to solve some cases with him. He also tells her that Moriarty made a mistake in believing that she did not matter to Sherlock when he admits to her that she was the one person who mattered the most. [20]

   Sherlock asks her out for dinner "chips", but she refuses because of her engagement. When Sherlock notices that Molly is engaged, he congratulates her, saying that she deserves to be happy. He later also states how he wants her to be herself, not John, showing that he values her friendship even if he is using her as a replacement. [20]

   Eventually, Sherlock compliments her without reason (without trying to get something) and even asks how Tom is. He also makes an effort not to say anything about the fact that Tom looks like him (hinting that Molly is not over him) showing how Sherlock has come to respect Molly and how he is starting to show regard for Molly's feelings. [2]

   Molly was furious at Sherlock for being back on drugs, but he responds with 'sorry your engagement's over' after he notices the lack of a ring. He also has her in his mind palace when he is dying; she is shown helping him and guiding him through it, trying to keep him alive. Although it was not Molly, it shows that Sherlock has respect for her and considers her to be someone who saves his life. Unlike Irene Adler, who appears as a distraction in his mind palace, Molly appears as a motivation. It is also revealed that her house is one of his bolt holes and that she had the spare room while he had her room. [6]

   While being tortured and put through a series of problems by Eurus Holmes, Sherlock is forced to get Molly to say "I love you" to him. Eventually Molly says it too, despite how cruel and upsetting she finds this.[21] After this scene, Sherlock proceeds to break the coffin that was supposedly hers in a very agitated state, and screams one last time : I love you.[21] At some point after this upsetting event she visits Sherlock and John at their flat, showing she got over it and she and Sherlock are still friends.

   Parents Mrs Holmes, or "Mummy", has been mentioned at several points, most commonly as a threat or complaint from the eldest Holmes brother, Mycroft Holmes.

   After Sherlock's return from the "dead", Mycroft's and Sherlock's mother and father show up at 221B, having known all along that Sherlock was alive. They appear to be very ordinary, unlike the two brothers; Sherlock tells Watson it's an embarrassment he has to deal with. It is later revealed that Sherlock's mother is a renowned mathematical genius who retired from academia to be a full-time mother.

   Mummy maintains a powerful hold on both her sons, as is shown by her making Sherlock promise to stay in contact more often when[20] both Holmes brothers are caught by their mother smoking outside of her home. When she confronts them, they hide the cigarettes behind their backs and deny they are doing anything. Sherlock even goes further, blaming Mycroft.

   Janine Hawkins Sherlock meets Janine at John and Mary's wedding and[2] later have a short relationship with her. "Sherl", however, as she calls him, was using Janine to get access to her employer's office – Charles Augustus Magnussen. In retaliation for this betrayal, Janine sells her story to the newspapers in a "kiss and tell" story – lying about their sex life, which they'd never had. They do appear to part on good terms despite this, with Janine visiting him in hospital after he is shot (but she also lessens his morphine drip in the process--her way of avenging her "broken heart"). [6]

   Irene Adler Irene Adler holds a certain fascination for Sherlock Holmes. She is shown to enjoy "the game" just as much as Sherlock, enjoying detective stories and understanding the intricacies of them similar to Sherlock. When he is first tasked to recover her phone by the monarchy, she beats him both metaphorically and literally with her riding crop, before escaping through the window, sparking a mutual fascination. When she gives him her phone as a 'Christmas present' Sherlock deduces she has been killed (it is later revealed she faked her death), and falls into a depression so deep both John and Mycroft are concerned he may begin using drugs again. However, upon learning she is alive, he recovers near immediately.

   When Mycroft tells John of her capture, he states "What might we deduce about his [Sherlock's] heart?" (about how he would take the news of her death, thereby revealing that Mycroft thought that Sherlock might have cared for her, although it might have more likely been a fascination for the woman who's mind matched his own). When John goes to tell Sherlock that she went into the Witness Protection Program in America, to spare him the sorrow of learning of her death, Sherlock asks him for her phone (part of Mycroft's file on her). It is later revealed that Irene did not die in the Middle East. Sherlock infiltrated the prison to rescue her, risking his own life to save hers. [15]

   During a later case when Sherlock is deducing who the murderer is, and is in his mind palace, he sees Irene naked (as he saw her when they first met) stroking his cheek with her hand as she smiles at him. He then tells her 'Out of my head, I'm busy', suggesting she often appears in his thoughts and he would rather she turn up later. [2]

   In the episode "The Lying Detective" revealed that Irene continues to send SMS messages to Sherlock, and sometimes he texts to her back. John actively encourages this and seems to believe they suit one another romantically.

   When asked by Eurus to 'play him' in "The Final Problem" Sherlock responds by playing the music he wrote while in mourning for Irene, known as 'Irene's Theme' or 'The Woman'. From this, Eurus deduces that Sherlock has had sex, suggesting that it is Irene Adler he has had sex with as she is the subject of the music he is playing.

   Rosamund Mary Watson Sherlock is Rosie's godfather. When John offers Sherlock to become a godfather for Rosamund, he initially refuses to do so, but he still agrees. When Mary dies, Sherlock expresses a desire to help in the education of the little Rosie, but John denies him. Later, when John and Sherlock settle their conflict, John allowed Sherlock to visit Rosie sometime. Sherlock does sometimes hold Rosie, showing he cares for her to some degree.[22]

   Eurus Holmes Eurus is Sherlock's younger sister. As children, she loved him very much and wanted to play with him. Sherlock, however, he was more interested in playing pirates with Victor Trevor. This drove her over the edge, prompting Eurus to leave Victor to drown in a well; she even attempted to kill Sherlock by burning down their home. Soon after, the trauma of Victor's death and Eurus being taken away caused Sherlock to rewrite his memories, turning Victor into a dog and Eurus into a ghost story.

   In 2017, Eurus made contact with him again as Faith Smith, while he was high on drugs. She also posed as John's therapist. After being convinced to scare Mycroft senseless, Sherlock learned Eurus was insane and capable of one day gaining control of the world through reprogramming people with a conversation. When he met Eurus in her cell, Sherlock learns she taught him how to play the violin and that she got out by reprogramming the governor. She forced him through sadistic games to emotionally torture him and those close to him. Eventually, Sherlock learned the song from their childhood was a cry for love; he gave Eurus the context she yearned for. To this day, Sherlock visits her, playing the violin together in the hopes of healing her psyche.

4. #4John Watson

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   Dr John Watson is a main character in the BBC crime drama Sherlock. He is a retired military doctor who left Afghanistan after sustaining an injury in his shoulder. He is Sherlock's best friend, colleague, and flatmate. He writes a blog about his adventures with Sherlock and is often mistaken as gay because he spends so much time with Sherlock.

   Portrayed by Martin Freeman History

   John Hamish Watson (Martin Freeman) is Sherlock's flatmate and colleague. He is often a foil to Sherlock in both appearance and personality. Unlike Sherlock, John is short with blond hair. He is kind, caring, and 'human' compared to Sherlock's cold, calculating ways. He gets on better with the police and takes care of practical matters at their flat, apparently doing most of the shopping. He also gets a locum job at nearby general practice to help pay the bills, and starts dating Sarah, another doctor he meets working there.

   At the start of the series, John was recently invalided home from Afghanistan after serving as an "army doctor" (it is unclear whether John served separately as a doctor then a soldier, or as a medic, although in his first scenes he is shown with a mug with the cap badge of the Royal Army Medical Corps). Prior to his military service, John read medicine at King's College, London as seen on his CV. He is in possession of a pistol, described as a "British Browning L9A1" in the show, but is actually a Sig Sauer P226. John is highly proficient with the weapon, described as a "crack shot" by Sherlock.

   Before meeting Sherlock, and after returning to London from Afghanistan, John had several medical issues: a psychosomatic limp in his right leg, and bullet wound in his left shoulder (a reference to the canon), using a cane on his right side. As well, his left hand had an "intermittent tremor". His therapist noted John had "trust issues" and diagnosed him with PTSD, the latter of which Mycroft (Sherlock's brother) later subverted, saying John is not "haunted by the war" but rather misses it for the excitement. Following a chase around London with Sherlock, John's limp disappears (and so, presumably, does the tremor). This only proves the Holmes brothers correct, and John's therapist wrong.

   John is also shown to be loyal and courageous, with a strong sense of personal integrity. His "strong moral principles" are likely a result of his medical training and army service. He refuses Mycroft's offer to pay him to spy on Sherlock, despite only having just met Sherlock at this time (and not knowing that Mycroft was his brother). He is willing to occasionally use deadly force, but he is only ever seen to do so when someone else's life is in immediate danger. He shows no visible signs of regretting his actions afterwards.

   In the second series, John is referred to as Sherlock's P.A. and is not shown working any other job. John writes about Sherlock's cases on his blog, which attracts clients to them. He also gives the cases names he deems appropriate. Much to John's constant annoyance, he is often mistaken for a gay man because of the time he spends around Sherlock. He is alluded to have had a number of short-lived relationships with women - one of whom is shown ending their relationship due to John's commitment to Sherlock, saying, that "[Sherlock] is a very lucky man."

   The only member of John's family that has been alluded to thus far is his sister, Harriet (aka Harry), with whom he has strained relationship as a result of her alcoholism and recent separation from her partner, Clara. During their first case together, Sherlock deduced that John had refused to accept help from Harry after being invalided out of the army, even though the fact that she gave John her old phone was an indication that she wanted to stay in touch with her brother.

   Watson's middle name being Hamish was originally proposed by Dorothy L. Sayers to explain discrepancies in Watson's name in the canonical works of Conan Doyle.

   Dr. John Hamish Watson (MBBS) is the best friend and assistant of Sherlock Holmes and a former British Army doctor. Before marrying Mary Morstan, he lived at 221B Baker Street with Sherlock, a flat they rented from Mrs Hudson. He lived with Mary, whom he worked with before developing a romantic relationship.

   Early history

   John Watson has a sister, Harriet Watson (nicknamed 'Harry'), whom he does not see often. He was born in April, and is currently in his 40s.[citation needed]

   John went to King Edward VI Grammar School in Chelmsford. He studied medicine at King's College (London), where he also did his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery in 2004. John worked at the Broomfield Hospital Chelmsford and the University College Hospital London.[1] He was trained at St. Bartholomew's Hospital as a British Army doctor and served as a Captain in the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers. John was deployed to Afghanistan, where he served for three years until being shot in the shoulder. He recovered from the physical wound, but was left with psychological trauma – a psychosomatic limp and an intermittent tremor in his dominant hand. The limp was bad enough to require a cane to help him walk, and shortly thereafter he was discharged from service.

   John was seeing a therapist for post-traumatic stress, but did not make much progress. As part of his treatment, he was instructed to keep a blog to record his day-to-day life, thoughts, and feelings as he adjusted to civilian life after leaving the army. However, he failed to keep up with it, claiming that "nothing happens to [him]". [2]

   Later life His new flatmate (“A Study in Pink”)

   John is introduced to Sherlock Holmes via an old friend from St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Mike Stamford. Mike is now an instructor at the hospital and, upon hearing John needs a new place to live, mentions another person saying the same thing that morning. Mike takes John to a lab in the morgue to introduce him. Within seconds and with a few fleeting glances, Sherlock has deduced key elements of John's life, and although both awestruck and off-put, John agrees to meet Sherlock the next day at 221B Baker Street.

   Upon seeing the flat, John expresses interest in renting it. He also learns that Sherlock is a consultant for Greg Lestrade of Scotland Yard. Sherlock requests he come along to a crime scene as his assistant. There, John witnesses more of Sherlock's uncanny deductive ability as well as his complete animosity toward the Yard's investigative team. Sally Donovan goes so far as to warn John to stay away from Sherlock.

   Sobered by this information and abandoned by Sherlock at the crime scene, John returns to a main road to pick up a cab. Instead, he is intercepted by a strange car and taken to a secure location to have a talk with Sherlock's brother, Mycroft Holmes. Mycroft never introduces himself, and due to his questionable attitude and methods, John is unwilling to take what he has to say seriously. Mycroft offers him money to spy on Sherlock, which John declines. "You're very loyal very quickly," Mycroft observes. He also notes that John's therapist has reported that he has a tremor in his left hand. However, upon observing the same hand during their conversation, Mycroft says, "You're under stress right now and your hand is perfectly steady. You're not haunted by the war, Dr Watson. You miss it."

   Despite several warnings to the contrary, John returns to 221B – first stopping off at his old residence to collect his firearm – and continues to aid Sherlock in the murder investigation. This leads them to pursuing a cab through London on foot, a course of action that is ultimately fruitless, but helps Sherlock prove a point. When faced with the apprehension of a potential suspect, John forgets entirely about his psychosomatic limp and is able to keep up with Sherlock during the chase. When they return to Baker Street, Sherlock tells the landlady, Mrs Hudson, that John will indeed be renting the flat.

   John comes to Sherlock's rescue after Sherlock goes off on his own to confront a serial killer. John uses a victim's mobile phone, left in the possession of the killer, to track their location via GPS. He shoots the killer from an adjacent building, thinking that Sherlock's life is in danger. He is an excellent marksman, able to shoot through two windows and over Sherlock's shoulder in order to fatally wound the suspect. Afterward, John moves into 221B and begins blogging about their adventures. [2] Despite Sherlock's consultant status and John's army pension, money remains tight, prompting John to seek employment at a medical centre. There he meets another doctor, Sarah Sawyer, with whom he is attempts to begin a relationship. He sets out to aid Sherlock with a new case, an endeavour that cuts into his work day. Sarah covers for him when he falls asleep on the job and John manages to get a date out of her. He unwisely accepts Sherlock's recommendation of a place to take her, and all three of them end up at a visiting Chinese circus while Sherlock investigates the performers as part of their case. John and Sarah are later abducted by members of the Black Lotus Tong, mistakenly thinking John is Sherlock. Sherlock appears to set the record straight and save the two. [1]

   Despite Sherlock's consultant status and John's army pension, money remains tight, prompting John to seek employment at a medical centre. There he meets another doctor, Sarah Sawyer, with whom he is attempts to begin a relationship. He sets out to aid Sherlock with a new case, an endeavour that cuts into his work day. Sarah covers for him when he falls asleep on the job and John manages to get a date out of her. He unwisely accepts Sherlock's recommendation of a place to take her, and all three of them end up at a visiting Chinese circus while Sherlock investigates the performers as part of their case. John and Sarah are later abducted by members of the Black Lotus Tong, mistakenly thinking John is Sherlock. Sherlock appears to set the record straight and save the two. [1]

   Later, it is revealed that John has been blogging about specific cases of Sherlock's, and it is gaining some popularity – particularly with the members of Scotland Yard. Their next case is unlike any they have seen before. An anonymous bomber is deliberately playing a game of wits with Sherlock. John assists as best he can, but their adversary is intent upon blowing up his victims if Sherlock cannot solve certain cases within a specific amount of time. John becomes concerned for the innocent lives hanging in the balance between Sherlock and their mysterious bomber, and equally concerned that Sherlock does not seem to care about human life at all. An argument ensues between the two, and John is angered by Sherlock's cold attitude, but relents to continue aiding in the investigation.

   John is later abducted by the bomber – revealed to be Jim Moriarty – and used as the final victim in a confrontation with Sherlock. John attempts to sacrifice himself, attacking Moriarty, so that if the bomb were to detonate, he would take Moriarty out with him. Moriarty sees that John values Sherlock's life above his own and in turn has his snipers train their weapons on Sherlock. This forces John to back off from Moriarty. Sherlock removes the explosives from John's coat. The two then decide it would be worth both their deaths to detonate the bomb and take Moriarty out with them. The high-tension standoff is interrupted when Moriarty's mobile phone rings. [3] Whatever the caller has to tell him is enough to make him call off his snipers and allow Sherlock and John to live another day.

   Several months pass, during which the pair investigate other different cases and John records and blogs about them. His blog becomes popular with the general public, which forces them to avoid attention from the media. Still, John is pleased with the development, telling Sherlock, who was annoyed, that the blog is helping him make a living. During this time, John ends his relationship with Sarah and enters the dating pool again, with limited success.

   The two are summoned to Buckingham Palace by Mycroft to investigate a matter of delicate importance to the British Royal family. A young female person in close relation to the Queen has had compromising photographs taken of her while in the company of Irene Adler, a dominatrix known professionally as 'The Woman'. They are being employed to get the photos back before Irene can use them as blackmail. Irene proves to be an intellectual match for Sherlock and escapes their grasp. John has his own inklings about Sherlock's feelings towards Irene.

   When Irene turns up dead that Christmas, Sherlock is upset by the news to an unprecedented extent. John is baffled and concerned by the behaviour, wondering if Sherlock is actually capable of being heartbroken. Soon later, Irene contacts John, revealing that she had faked her death to escape her enemies. John's stance is for her to tell Sherlock she is alive. She wants his help, but John holds Sherlock's well-being in higher regard than anything she has to offer him.

   John is still no closer to understanding Sherlock's capacity for emotion, yet he still he opts not to tell Sherlock that Irene Adler wound up dead after all, instead following Mycroft's suggestion to tell Sherlock she was put in a witness protection scheme in America. He also breaks police protocol and allows Sherlock to keep Irene's mobile phone as a memento. John remains unaware that Irene is actually alive, and at the last moment whilst she was to be executed in another country, Sherlock came to her rescue. [4]

   Sherlock and John end up infiltrating Baskerville Military Base, a top secret government base after being called to investigate the specifics of a case. John expresses skepticism about clearing security with an ID stolen from Mycroft, but then pulls rank on a young army officer to aid Sherlock's cover story. Sherlock is impressed by John's ability to think on his feet.

   The case brings out John's instincts as a doctor. Their client, Henry Knight, is in a state of visible emotional trauma, which John attempts to treat with bed rest and a prescription. Additionally, when Sherlock finds himself on unsteady mental ground, John keeps his cool. He attempts to steer Sherlock back to thinking rationally, citing mental stress and overwork as a reason why Sherlock might have thought he saw a demon hound out on the moor with Henry Knight. Sherlock's difficult behavior ultimately angers him, but not so much that he will not interview Henry's therapist, Dr Louise Mortimer, as a favor to Sherlock. When speaking with Mortimer, John expresses concern for Sherlock's well-being despite the argument that they had.

   John inspires Sherlock to recognise the clue that solves the case: the use of acronyms to abbreviate the name of a government project. John mistakenly applies the idea to something irrelevant, but Sherlock then realises the clue of the word "hound" should actually be "H.O.U.N.D." They then uncover traces of a defunct experiment, with that code name. [5]

   John's blog has inspired more widespread media coverage of Sherlock, and Sherlock has been solving increasingly high-profile cases as a result. John sticks with him, making sure he can conduct himself cordially in public. John is worried about the repercussions of Sherlock's newfound fame and warns him that the press will turn on him.

   Before long, Jim Moriarty resurfaces in highly dramatic fashion and begins systematically destroying Sherlock's reputation and credibility. During this time, Mycroft summons John to the Diogenes Club to warn him that Moriarty has stationed four assassins around 221B Baker Street, although their motives are currently unknown.

   Moriarty sets up a crime and plants enough evidence that it appears Sherlock committed it himself. With Scotland Yard wanting to arrest him, Sherlock asks John if he has doubts as well as to whether Sherlock could be a fraud. John remains steadfast and loyal, although he adds, "I know you're for real. No one could fake being such an annoying dick all the time".

   When the Yard does arrest Sherlock, John is outraged. He punches a high-ranking officer, ensuring that he will be arrested as well. Sherlock "implements a daring escape" and they flee together as fugitives. Trying desperately to find a solution, they find themselves in the flat of journalist Kitty Riley, who claims she will be soon publishing an exposé on Sherlock's life. Her source is a man claiming to be Richard Brook, an actor Sherlock hired to play the part of his nemesis. It is really Moriarty, and he appears to them at that point. John loses his temper, vehemently refusing to believe the lies Moriarty has spun. Sherlock remains silent while John vouches for his character.

   Moriarty escapes again, and the two split up to investigate separate avenues. John returns to Mycroft, having realised Kitty's story contains so much factual evidence about Sherlock that someone must have tipped off Moriarty to it. Mycroft confesses that the government had Moriarty detained and interrogated, but he would only cooperate if Mycroft told him about Sherlock's life. Moriarty was then released. John leaves in disgust.

   Sherlock is hiding out in the Barts morgue, where John joins him. Then John receives a phone call that Mrs Hudson has been shot. John wants to return to her immediately, but Sherlock coldly tells him he needs to stay where he is. In a fit of emotion, John insults Sherlock and leaves. When he arrives back at 221B, he discovers Mrs Hudson is fine, and he was only given the call to get him away from Barts. He rushes back to the scene just in time to get a suicide phone call from Sherlock, who is standing on the top of the building. Sherlock tries to convince John that he is indeed a fraud, but John, although confused and scared, still refuses to believe it. Sherlock then jumps from the roof, and John is unable to get to him until it is too late.

   From that point on, John believes Sherlock is dead, although when visiting his grave, he expresses hope that somehow Sherlock will be able to cheat death and return. Despite having stopped the therapy sessions, eighteen months after meeting Sherlock, John schedules another due to the death of his friend. [6]

   However, John is able to move on from Sherlock's death, and begins dating Mary Morstan. As he was about to propose to her, he realises that the waiter was in fact Sherlock in disguise. After almost having a panic attack, he manages to calm down enough to lunge at Sherlock, and the two fight in the restaurant. They move to a small take-away shop, where Sherlock explains everything, however John is still upset. He leaves shortly after with Mary, although she assures Sherlock that she will talk to John. Later, John is drugged and kidnapped by two men. When he regains consciousness, he is inside a bonfire to be lit during a Guy Fawkes Night celebration. Mary receives a series of texts which contain clues and enable her and Sherlock to rescue John seconds after the flames are ignited and John is nearly burned alive[7] He ends up reconciling with Sherlock, and after finally managing to propose to Mary, asks him to be best man.[8]

   Over the months between learning Sherlock is alive and his wedding, John helps Sherlock with a number of cases, and the two fall back into their former friendship. Sherlock's 'Best Man' speech references these cases, and he is able to prevent one of John's wedding guests from being murdered as he re-examines the cases while talking about them. John finds out at the end of the reception that Mary is pregnant and he is going to be a father. [8]

   However, their relationship hits a rocky patch when, while investigating a businessman by the name of Charles Augustus Magnussen, he learns that Mary is a former CIA-agent. She shoots Sherlock, however he tricks her into coming clean in front of John. He is unable to deal with it and so distances himself from her, referring to her not as his wife, but a client. Christmas Day that year, Sherlock invites John and a heavily pregnant Mary to Christmas lunch at his parents house, where the two make up.

   Personality

   John is extremely brave, resourceful and practical. He is extremely loyal to Sherlock, and will usually, but not always, do what Sherlock asks him to, and cares a great deal about his well-being. Sherlock likewise cares about John. He is also very selfless and modest, as he puts himself at colossal personal risks to help Sherlock Holmes and is rather sceptical about his companion's ideals. He is very sarcastic and has an erratic sense of humour.

   John deals with lack of stimulation little better than Sherlock does, the difference being that when Sherlock is bored he is very vocal in his frustration; when John feels that "nothing ever happens", he withdraws into a shell and shows strong tendencies towards depression (possibly exacerbated by his post-traumatic issues). He is adept at reading people through facial expressions, whilst Sherlock relies on his surroundings, on clothing and personality displays to read people.

   Abilities

   Expert Physician: According to his CV, John is "able to recognize and give immediate and appropriate treatment to a wide range" of illnesses and dysfunctions, including "myocardial infarction, acute coronary syndrome, pulmonary embolus and Sickle Cell Crisis, deep vein thrombosis, acute asthma attack, severe exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetic keto-acidosis, community and hospital acquired pneumonia, seizures, poisoning/overdose, acute abdomen and post-operative oliguria hypotension".
   Expert Marksman: Due to his military career, John is incredibly proficient with firearms, far more so than Sherlock or Lestrade, proving to be able to judge the distance and split-second timing of a shot across a large area with two windows in the way, and fatally wound his target while missing Sherlock, who was standing very close to the target.[2]
   Expert Combatant: His military career has also given John skill in unarmed combat.[citation needed] His skill in unarmed combat is also displayed where he sprains someone's arm in a single move and, as he is a medical expert, he is perfectly aware that he sprained it and how bad it should be.[9]
   

   Relationships

   John has few close friends. The only one he knew in the military before he went to Afghanistan is Bill Murray, the nurse who saved his life.

   Mike Stamford and John were, according to John, "sort of mates" when they were students.

   There have been several women John has expressed an interest in:

   Anthea
   Sarah Sawyer
   "the one with the nose" (girlfriend)
   "the one with the spots" (girlfriend)
   Jeanette (girlfriend)
   Dr Louise Mortimer
   Mary Watson (wife)
   

   John is also fond of Mrs Hudson. Both Sherlock and John become angry at Mycroft for telling Mrs Hudson to shut up, and John fusses over her after she had been attacked by CIA agents.[4] Since neither of the two men are on good terms with their relatives, they may form a sort of surrogate family between them.

   People assumed several times that John is homosexual and in a relationship with Sherlock. However, whenever people say this John makes a point of correcting them, in noticeable contrast to Sherlock, who never responds.

5. #5Mary Elizabeth Watson

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   Mary Elizabeth Watson[2] (formerly Morstan, born Rosamund Mary) was the identity used by a former assassin.

   She worked as a nurse in the same clinic as her husband John Watson, whom she met sometime after his best friend Sherlock Holmes' supposed death. She and John had a daughter named Rosamund Mary. She was killed by Vivian Norbury when trying to save Sherlock from being shot.[1]

   Biography

   Mary's past is a little unclear; however, it is known that she was born Rosamund Mary and that she used to be a trained assassin who went rogue and changed her identity in order to hide from her past. Sherlock suspects that while her accent is English, she may not have been born in Britain. Approximately five years before meeting John Watson, she chose the name "Mary Elizabeth Morstan" from the gravestone of a stillborn child, in order to hide her true identity, and claimed to be an orphan in order to cover for the fact that she had no family.[1]

   They had been together at least six months before John proposed. Mary's Deductions

   Sherlock's deductions about Mary in the Last Vow.

   Shortly after they first met Sherlock performed a series of deductions about Mary, which revealed that she was an only child, that she was clever, a nurse, linguist, short sighted, romantic, had a cat, wore size 12, was a disillusioned Liberal Democrat, bakes, had a secret tattoo and an appendix scar, and that she was a "liar". However, Sherlock did not reveal any of these deductions to anyone.

   John planned to ask Mary to marry him shortly before Sherlock's return, he took her for a meal out and brought a ring, however the meal was interrupted by Sherlock just as John was about to ask her. When John finally saw that Sherlock was alive the horror on Mary's face was obvious, as she knew just what Sherlock's "death" put him through. Despite being together for less than two years, Mary was more of a serious girlfriend than the other girlfriends John had and he proposed to her soon after the interrupted meal.[3]

   Mary married John on the 18th May, at St, Mary's Church in Sutton Mallet, Somerset.[2] The wedding was attended by among others, Greg Lestrade, Molly Hooper, Tom, Mrs Hudson, General Sholto and Sherlock who was John's best man. Her wedding was tumultuous and she received a possibly threatening telegram from CAM (who could be Charles Augustus Magnussen). Her first dance with John as a married couple was a waltz written by Sherlock. She was revealed to be pregnant during one of Sherlock's speeches at the wedding.[2] Uncovering Mary's Past

   The truth about her past was revealed to some extent during Sherlock and John's investigation of Charles Augustus Magnussen. Under a threat from Magnussen, she went to his office intending to kill him, however she was discovered by Sherlock whilst he and John were breaking into the place. Knowing that if she killed both men, John would be a suspect, and she could no longer kill Magnussen without Sherlock witnessing, she shot Sherlock just below his chest where the wound would not surely kill him. She then hit Magnussen over the head and phoned an ambulance for Sherlock and left the building. When he was in the hospital, she told Sherlock not to tell John about any of it. AGRA

   The flash drive containing Mary's personal history is given to John.

   After Sherlock ran away from the hospital, Mary found him after he fed her a series of clues. He projected a picture of her face onto an empty house – saying that it mimicked her personality, a facade. Inside the house, they discussed how she could easily have killed him yet chose not to. Mary said that she would do anything not to have John leave her. However, John was present while she confessed to being an assassin. They returned to Baker Street, where Sherlock told him as much as he knew about her. Mary produced a USB drive that she claimed had everything about who she used to be on it. She begged John not to read it in front of her, because she did not want to watch him stop loving her.

   Six months later at Christmas, after a period of separation between Mary and John, John told her that he did not think her past was his business but that her future was his privilege. Mary, now known to be pregnant with a girl, was incredibly relieved. John admitted he was still angry at her, but the two remained together. After Sherlock kills Magnussen, Mary and John see him off in an emotional farewell when he is being exiled and sent on a dangerous mission as part of his punishment. However Sherlock ends up being flown back in when images of the deceased Jim Moriarty start appearing around London, indicating the late master criminal may still be alive.[1]

   Mary later gives birth to a healthy baby girl, named Rosamund Mary Watson, after her prior self and Sherlock, Molly, Mrs Hudson and possibly D.I. Greg Lestrade were named as Godparents. Alas, Mary is tracked down by a member of the assassin team she was part of and is forced to leave John and Rosamund behind whilst she takes random trips around the world, a new country, a new identity. Eventually, she is tracked down by Sherlock and John, but also Ajay, the fellow assassin she was running from. The three escape.

   Mary meets Sherlock in an alcove to show him her past. She knocks him out using some sort of drug and leaves after he has seen the real Mary Watson, also known as Rosamund Watson. Her real maiden name is still unknown. We later find out, in an aquarium, that a government secretary, Vivian, gave the order in a fateful mission in Georgia (the country, not the state) that cost the lives of half of A.G.R.A., Mary's former assassin team. She then shoots Sherlock, but before the bullet could get to him, Mary intercepts it and dies from the bullet wound. John doesn't show up until she is shot, so he blames Sherlock for not protecting her and the two are left on bad terms. Aftermath

   Not long after, Sherlock receives a video message left for him by Mary, begging him to save John Watson.

   While on the trail of Culverton Smith, Sherlock and Watson are dealing with the aftermath of Mary's death; Sherlock getting hooked on heroin and Watson hallucinating Mary and lying to his therapist, and all the while avoiding each other. He initially believed that Sherlock was only going after Smith in a delusional fit from excessive drug use and, in a fit of frustration, attacks him in the hospital morgue and blames the consulting detective for Mary's death. Later, while searching through Sherlock's flat, Watson finds Mary's video message on the fireplace and realizes that Sherlock put himself in danger on purpose to help the widowed doctor recover. He manages to reach the hospital and prevent Smith from strangling Sherlock, who also got his confession saved in a recorder hidden Watson's old walking cane.

   While recovering, Watson was also making regular visits to Sherlock's flat, having forgiven him for Mary's death and acknowledging that she made her choice to save him and no one could make her do anything. He also confesses to a hallucination of Mary that he cheated on her via text and subconsciously decides that he needs to move on from her death, weeping in front of Sherlock who goes to comfort his friend for their loss.

   After confronting Eurus Holmes and sending her back to Sherrinford, Sherlock and Watson receive another video message from Mary, stating that she knows what they could become because she knows who they really are, the best and wisest men she knows who succeed when all else fails.

   Personality

   Mary Morstan appeared to be a sweet, kind-hearted and lively person. She is very intelligent, as she was able to tell when Sherlock was lying and keep the secret of her past from him. She cared a great deal about John and Sherlock.

   Her relationship with John was threatened by the discovery that she was once an assassin. She has infrequently exhibited sociopathic tendencies, having a ruthless and violent side, as she was willing to murder Charles Augustus Magnussen in order to safeguard her secret from John.

   Abilities

   She was cunning and calculating, a tactical adept. She was also a markswoman, an excellent shot with small handguns, showing reflexes and perfect timing, able to shoot a hole in a fifty-pence coin when tossed in the air. [1] She also had a photographic and extensive memory. [2] She is also able to mimic different accents, such as a New York one.

   Relationships John Watson

   Mary Morstan and John Watson met while they were still under the impression that Sherlock was dead and while they had not known each other for a particularly long time, they loved each other enough for John to propose to her and Mary to accept. They eventually got married, and John also told Sherlock that both he and Mary were people that had changed his life completely and that they were the two he loved and cared about the most. Sherlock also figured out that Mary was pregnant with John's baby. [2] Their relationship remained stable until John heard Mary profess to having been an assassin, that she had been the one to shoot Sherlock and that everything he thought he knew about her past had been lies (something she hoped he would never find out). John got very angry with Mary and she was prepared for him to leave her, a thought she could not bear. However John eventually chose to accept that Mary had lied to him and not to have every detail about her past revealed to him, along with the fact that he must be attracted to danger as he had been drawn to people like Sherlock and Mary. John told her that the problems of her past were her business, but the problems of her future were his privilege. John threw the USB drive containing information on Mary's former identity into the fire, watching the flames consume it. Though he was still disappointed in her, they stayed together and loved each other. Mary was mentioned by Magnussen later as being John's "pressure point".

   Sherlock Holmes

   Mary was initially shocked when Sherlock revealed he was alive but did not react as strongly as John did, and told John that she liked Sherlock when they were alone together. [3] Mary and John originally had to look after Sherlock, getting him out of the house and so on, showing that Mary cares for Sherlock, possibly as an "extension" of her love for John. She is fairly friendly towards Sherlock, considering his supposed psychopathic tendencies and the difficulties in making friendships these bring. He was the best man at her wedding to John and she even seemed to want all three of them to dance together. However Sherlock felt troubled when he realised Mary was pregnant, meaning she and John would hardly need Sherlock around with a real baby on the way. [2] Mary was considering coming to Sherlock as a client about her case with Magnussen. She is still not averse to hurting him, as shown when she shot him, though killing him would take it a step too far (showing a care not usually shown by assassins such as herself). She also purposefully shot Sherlock in a spot where it wouldn't surely kill him and called an ambulance right away, making sure he would be hospitalised and that his life could be saved. This made Sherlock defend her actions, though he admitted that she gave him mixed messages. Sherlock was less concerned about the fact that she was a former assassin than he was about her lying to John. But he reconciled with her just like John did and when he shot Magnussen, he exclaimed "Give my love to Mary", as this was something Mary wanted done and Sherlock had vowed to do anything for the couple, as he cared so much about John. He was pleased to hear Mary say that she would make sure to keep John in trouble when Sherlock was going on exile. [1]

   Charles Augustus Magnussen

   Magnussen heavily stalked Mary for her past life, and knew many personal details about her. This would drive Mary to attempt to murder Magnussen but she would be intervened by Sherlock Holmes. While going through his imaginary "files" on Mary in his Mind Palace, Magnussen referred to her as a naughty girl who had killed and harmed many people and claimed he understood why John liked her. Magnussen's knowledge of her previous life drove Mary to plan to murder him. Sherlock Holmes ended up doing this for her, giving Mary the freedom to have a life with John. [1]

6. #6Miss Hudson

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   Mrs Hudson is a minor character on the BBC crime drama Sherlock. She is Sherlock and Dr Watson's elderly landlady at 221b Baker Street. She is kind and gradually starts to care for Sherlock and Johns welfare. She works hard and gets upset when Sherlock leaves specimens in the fridge or microwave, but Sherlock and John care for her as well. When she was attacked by an American agent, Sherlock threw him out of a window. And when John received a call saying that Mrs Hudson had been shot, John rushed over to her - it was a fake call set by Moriarty to get rid of John so he could talk to Sherlock privately. History

   Mrs Hudson is kind and caring, as well as being motherly towards Sherlock and John as well as looking after them despite insisting that she is their landlady, not their housekeeper.[7]

   Mrs Hudson (Una Stubbs) is the landlady of 221B Baker Street. Sherlock won his way into her good graces after ensuring that her husband was executed for an unknown crime in Florida; given this, it may have been a domestic dispute (during a vaction to the America) that left Mrs. Hudson injured badly. Despite repeated declarations that she is not their housekeeper, she fusses over Sherlock and he takes it for granted that she will provide dinner for him. She is often horrified to see Sherlock keep human body parts in his kitchen applianices (refrigerator, microwave) for experimentation. Though Sherlock has been shown to make Mycroft apologise to her for saying to shut up, he will do so himself when stressed. When she met John, Mrs. Hudson thought he was Sherlock's romantic partner, until being told she was wrong. Sherlock has a great deal of concern for her. In "A Scandal in Belgravia", Sherlock pushed an American agent, who attacked her, out of a second-story window to "restore balance to the universe"; apparently, this was done so many times that "[Sherlock] lost count."

   Martha Louise Hudson (née Sissons)[1] is the landlady of 221B and 221C Baker Street. She rents 221B out to Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson.[2] Mrs Hudson lives in the same building in a flat of her own.

   Sherlock won his way into her good graces after ensuring that her husband was executed for a double-murder in Florida. Due to his assistance, she allowed Sherlock and John to have the flat at a lower cost than what it is worth. According to John, it is in a "prime location".[2]

   Despite repeated declarations that she is not their housekeeper, she fusses over Sherlock and they share somewhat of a 'mother-son' relationship. Even Mycroft is far more casual than usual with her, and atypically flummoxed when he tells her to "for God's sake, shut up, Mrs Hudson!".

   She often assumes that John and Sherlock are a couple, despite John's constant proclamations on the topic.

   Sherlock mentions to John that she offers him a special deal on the rent because he helped her out by ensuring the conviction and execution of her husband in Florida. [2]

   Mrs Hudson's character is further improved in the second series, as well as how much Sherlock values her. When Mycroft Holmes tells her to shut up, Sherlock is immediately provoked to snap at his brother (Which is one of the very few times that Sherlock is seen to have done so). Mrs Hudson also becomes more directly involved with a case when 221B is attacked by apparent CIA operatives looking for a video phone that Irene Adler has left in Sherlock's possession; when the agents torture Mrs Hudson trying to find the phone, the normally aloof Sherlock throws the agent responsible out of an upper-level window – apparently several times – and later (when John suggests for her own safety she takes a leave) reaffirms his affection for her by stating that "England would fall" if Mrs Hudson left Baker Street. It is heavily displayed that Sherlock violently assaulted the agent before throwing him out of the window[3]

   She is one of the three people who make up the full list of "Everyone you care about", each of whom Moriarty threatens to kill if Sherlock fails to commit suicide.[4]

   John Watson returns to Baker Street to visit Mrs Hudson, who is visibly upset at the lack of contact he has had with her since the two years of Sherlock being gone. She confronts him about how hurt she was, that for two years he never once contacted her, after all, they went through. She tells him she understands how difficult it was for him, to which Watson tells her how he let it slide, and it just got harder and harder to pick up the phone. Mrs Hudson and John return to the flat, revealing that she left it just as Sherlock had it. John tells her he is getting married, and Mrs Hudson asks what his name is. John assures her that it is a woman. Mrs Hudson is delighted at the news. Later when Sherlock comes back to Baker Street to show he is still alive, Mrs Hudson hears a noise and arms herself with a frying pan. She screams at the top of her lungs. [5]

   After Sherlock has reclaimed his room a Baker Street, Mrs Hudson brings Sherlock his tea and excitedly talks about "the big day" – John's wedding. After Sherlock and John's stag party, she makes John a full breakfast (much to his nausea) and goes on about how different life will be once he is married. She reveals a lot more information about Mr Hudson (as she briefly mentions his first name is "Frank"), and that it was purely a physical relationship and she knew it would never last; however, she was completely unaware of his "other activities" until the police arrested him for "blowing someone's head off". It was revealed that he was running a drug cartel, and had relationships with many other women. Mrs Hudson was rather relieved once he was arrested. [6]

7. #7Detective Inspector Lestrade

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   Detective Inspector Greg Lestrade is one of Sherlock's colleagues and friends even though they don't get on sometimes in the last episode Sherlock considered Lestrade as his friend. he is the one who tells Sherlock about cases they need him to solve and was the last one to think Sherlock was a fake. History

   Detective Inspector Greg Lestrade (Rupert Graves) works for Scotland Yard and directly with Sherlock. He has a reluctant respect for Sherlock and often defends him from the other police officers' animosity. He is often frustrated by Sherlock's cryptic deductions and withholding of evidence, but believes that he is a good man (hoping that one day, he can overcome his poorer qualities). Proven in "The Hounds of Baskerville", Sherlock had absolutely no idea what Lestrade's first name was; he gave a sarcastic quip in response to Sherlock's surprise. In "The Reichenbach Fall", Lestrade agrees to bring Sherlock in for questioning and it becomes apparent that Lestrade's superiors were not aware of Sherlock's involvement in cases. Unlike Donovan and Anderson, Lestrade had complete faith that Sherlock was innocent of any wrongdoing, proving just how much he trusted him.

   In "A Study in Pink", he mentions that he is in an on-again-off-again relationship with his ex-wife. In "A Scandal in Belgravia", Lestrade says he and his wife have settled their problems, but Sherlock flatly informs him that she is (as of Christmas that year) sleeping with a P.E. teacher.

   Although Lestrade is ranked as 'DI', i.e. 'Detective Inspector', he is referred to in scenes as just 'Inspector', possibly as Lestrade in the original novels was ranked as Inspector (the rank of 'DI' not having been created at that time.

8. #8Jim Moriarty

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   Jim Moriarty is the main antagonist in the BBC crime drama, Sherlock. He is the only consulting criminal in the world, and has lots of undercover operatives everywhere, including in the Bank of England and Pentoville Prison. He says he is the only one who beat Sherlock and he says Sherlock is just like everyone else. Moriarty shot himself in the head so Sherlock would have to kill himself. He is a lunatic and the only Irish character on the show.

   Moriarty is portrayed by Irish actor Andrew Scott. History

   James 'Jim' Moriarty (Andrew Scott) is the only "consulting criminal" in the world, a counterpoint to Sherlock's similarly unrivalled "consulting detective". He is also responsible for the criminals and crimes in all three episodes of the first series, acting as a sponsor, an informant, or a mastermind. He is shown to have an interest in Sherlock that borders on obsession, though he does not hesitate trying to kill him when he loses interest. He is a highly capable, entirely psychopathic, and extremely powerful criminal. Moriarty's primary motivation appears however to be the avoidance of boredom rather than a thirst for money or power, which is actually a very common 'problem' for psychopaths.

   He is also an excellent actor, frequently shown to have convinced others that he is someone else - indeed his first appearance occurs as a gay man who Molly is dating, and Sherlock does not realise his identity at the time. In "The Great Game", Moriarty forces Sherlock to solve mysteries within a time limit, taking hostages to ensure that Sherlock is sufficiently motivated.

   In the second series, he continues in his role as consulting criminal, giving Irene Adler advice on how to manipulate the "The Holmes Boys", having given them both nicknames. It is mentioned that he asked for nothing in return, becoming involved just to cause trouble, suggesting his obsessions are deepening. It is also alluded to that he might have an independent rivalry with Mycroft. He is seen briefly at the end of "The Hounds of Baskerville" apparently having been captured and in the process of being released by Mycroft.

   Moriarty features extensively in "The Reichenbach Fall", simultaneously breaking into the Tower of London, HMP Pentonville and the Bank of England, being tried but acquitted after intimidating the jury, and then setting about to destroy Sherlock's reputation and ultimately force him into suicide. When Sherlock realizes there is a way out as long as Moriarty is alive, Moriarty shoots himself in the head in order to force Sherlock into committing suicide. Relationships Sherlock Holmes

   Moriarty has an obsession with Sherlock and finds he is the only one smart enough to figure out of his game. He has played many games with Sherlocks mind and forces him to commit suicide. Jim is the opposite of Sherlock because Sherlock is a consulting Detective and Jim is a consulting criminal but Jim says they are more alike then he thinks. Dr John Watson

   John hated Jim. Jim once tried to blow John up in the season 1 finale. John never belived Jims story that Sherlock invented Moriarty and Jim was just an actor Sherlock hired to play him. John has no idea that he is responsible for Sherlocks suicide.

   ===Irene Adler Irene had something that Jim wanted (most likely her camera phone) and Irene changed Jim's mind about killing Sherlock and John. Jim gave information about Sherlock and Mycroft and how to manipulate them.

   Biography Early history

   In 1989, when he was 13 years old, Moriarty murdered Carl Powers, whom he claimed "laughed at him". He kept Powers' trainers almost twenty years until he used the shoes as part of his plan to meet Sherlock Holmes and had them planted in the disused flat at 221C Baker Street. [2]

   From that point onwards he developed and trained his skills at criminal activities and went on to create a large criminal organisation which would stretch across the whole globe.

   Operating behind the scenes

   Moriarty acted as a sponsor, an informant and a mastermind. He is shown to have an interest in Sherlock that borders on obsession, though he does not hesitate to try to kill him when he loses interest. In his operations, there is never any direct contact between Moriarty and his clients.

   Jeff Hope, one of Moriarty's clients, attempts to murder Sherlock, but is shot dead by Dr John Watson, Sherlock's friend and flatmate. Hope had previously revealed that he had a sponsor, but refused to tell Sherlock his name. Only when Sherlock stamps on Hope's bullet wound does he eventually scream, "MORIARTY!" [3]

   Later, Moriarty assists in smuggling the Black Lotus criminal organization into Britain. Sherlock and John thwart their plans, though. The leader of the organization, General Shan, has a brief conversation with Moriarty over her laptop, and is shot by one of his snipers so that she cannot reveal his identity. [4]

   Moriarty eventually decides to play a "game" with Sherlock, forcing him to solve mysteries within a time limit and taking hostages to ensure that Sherlock is properly motivated. He also disguises himself as Molly Hooper's boyfriend Jim and visits Sherlock in his lab when he is trying to solve a mystery. Sherlock, unaware he is Moriarty, "deduces" that he is gay (though this was a plot by Moriarty), which upsets Molly.

   Revealing himself to Sherlock Jim Moriarty-3

   Jim and Sherlock at the pool.

   When Sherlock has solved every mystery, he finally meets Moriarty at a swimming pool. Moriarty has taken John hostage and wired plastic explosives to him, while having a sniper aimed at him. In an intense showdown, Moriarty warns Sherlock to back off, saying he will "burn the heart out of [him]" if he does not. Moriarty then leaves, and Sherlock rips the explosives off John and tosses them away. However, Moriarty then reappears along with dozens of snipers, saying they cannot be allowed to continue. Sherlock aims at the explosives he took off John, intending to detonate them and take Moriarty with him. [2]

   Moriarty's phone rings, interrupting them. After a few words with the caller, Moriarty leaves for good and calls off the snipers.[5]

   The caller is revealed to be Irene Adler. Moriarty constantly gives her advice on how to manipulate the "The Holmes Boys", having given them both nicknames. It is also mentioned that he asked for nothing in return, becoming involved just to cause trouble, suggesting his obsessions are deepening. [5]

   Bringing down Sherlock

   It is also alluded to that he might have an independent rivalry with Mycroft.[6] At some point, he was captured and interrogated by Mycroft, but was released, the information he gave coming at a personal price to Mycroft.[6][1] As he is leaving, it is shown he has repeatedly scratched the name Sherlock into the concrete walls of his dungeon, as well as in reverse on the two way mirror. [6]

   Shortly after this, Mycroft called for Moriarty to come to the Sherrinford maximum security prison in order to meet he and Sherlock's secret sister Eurus Holmes, who requested to spend 5 minutes alone with Moriarty unsupervised as part of a Christmas present. MoriartyCrown

   Moriarty broke into the Crown Jewel safe to prove a point to Sherlock.

   Later, Moriarty is seen outside Tower of London dressed as an ordinary civilian, and after walking into the room where the Crown Jewels are kept, he then puts on his earphones and begins listening to Rossini's "A Thieving Magpie." Taking out his Droid Incredible S, Moriarty presses a button bearing the emblem of the Crown of England. From there, it is shown that the Bank of England, Pentonville Prison, and the Tower of London's security systems have all been breached at the same time. As London's police force, including Lestrade and Sally Donovan, drive hastily to the scenes, the alarm in the room begins to activate, and as the nearby guards tell everyone to leave, the whole of the room is emptied of visitors and guards. As the door closes, a guard asks Moriarty to leave but before he can speak, Moriarty sprays a canister of sleeping gas at him. Smashing the glass case around the Crown Jewels, he dressed in them and waited for the police to take him into custody, being found not guilty after the jury are extorted by him. Moriarty paid Sherlock a visit after to plant a false clue in his mind and assured him nothing was over yet, before leaving.

   Later, Sherlock and John investigate the disappearance of two children of a U.S. ambassador from a private school in London. It is revealed that the day the kids disappeared was the same day the school term ended. So, with numerous parents and children surrounding the school, it was incredibly easy for Moriarty's man to blend in with the crowd, become unnoticeable and enter the school. Waiting until nightfall, the kidnapper walked towards the room where the children slept, armed with a gun. As a result of spending the majority of his school life in private education, the boy had become acquainted with all the shadows of all the people who passed the door, leaving a clue behind for the police. After grabbing hold of the two children, Moriarty's man held them at gunpoint and led them out of the school. From there, he transported them to an abandoned warehouse in Addlestone. The kidnapper then locked the terrified children in a cage in a cold, dark room. The cage was filled with hundreds of sweets. The wrappers of the sweets were lined with a deadly poison (mercury) that was gradually killing the children.

   Moriarty had traumatized the girl, so upon meeting Sherlock, she would scream and become terrified of him, which was meant to convince DI Lestrade that Sherlock was actually potential kidnapper. Lestrade was then ordered by his superior to arrest Sherlock for kidnapping and John for punching Lestrade's superior in the face. After escaping from the police, Sherlock and John were now fugitives. After Sherlock and John break into the house of a journalist, they discover Moriarty. Seemingly terrified and shaking with fear, he tells Sherlock and John to keep away from him and begs John not to hurt him. Rb

   Whilst posing as Richard Brook.

   Reporter Kitty Reilly states that there never has been a man named James Moriarty and accuses Sherlock of inventing him, as well as all his crimes as a way of becoming popular with the media and building up a reputation of himself as a Private Detective. John refused to believe this, arguing that Moriarty had only recently been on trial for attempted burglary, and that Moriarty intended to detonate explosives to kill Sherlock and himself. Reilly countered by saying that Moriarty was actually an actor named Richard Brook that Sherlock paid to act as a master villain. Still in denial, John asks to be shown proof, from there the journalist shows him numerous papers about Richard Brook including various headshots and an actor's profile. Moriarty then claims to be playing the role of a storyteller to young children on television. Sherlock then shouts at Moriarty, demanding him to stop this lie. Advancing on him, Sherlock and John chase Moriarty as he escapes through a nearby window.

   Final Standoff

   Later, at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Sherlock texts Moriarty, who meets him on the roof. Sherlock claims that, with the code, he can completely delete all evidence of Richard Brook from the world. Moriarty says that there is no code, and the tapping rhythm that he did at Sherlock's flat was actually the beats to Bach's Partita No. 1. Moriarty said to Sherlock that his weakness was that he always wants everything to be intelligent and complex, so then he can solve it and brag about his intellect to others.

   Moriarty explains that for the past 24 hours, he has convinced the general public that Sherlock Holmes is a fraud and a liar, therefore making Sherlock's once-great reputation completely shattered, and the only person who still trusted him was John. When asked by Sherlock how he managed to break into the prison, the bank, and the Tower, Moriarty replied that he simply bribed security guards to collaborate with him in his scheme. Moriarty's final plan was to drive Sherlock to the point where he would commit suicide to escape his shattered life, but as Sherlock had no wish to do so, Moriarty explained that he'd hired three assassins, strategically located around London, each one ready to shoot Sherlock's only three true friends; Lestrade, Mrs. Hudson and John. One was disguised as a police officer outside DI Lestrade's office, another was disguised as a repairman inside the Baker Street flat, and the final one was located in a tower building opposite St. Bart's hospital.

   Moriarty is then revealed to know a word that only he could say, that when spoken, would call off the assassins. Sherlock and Moriarty then spoke to each other, and Sherlock coldly stated that, although Mycroft would just lock up Moriarty, he would most likely kill him, and that even though Sherlock seemed to be a kind person and "on the side of the Angels", Moriarty should never assume that he is one of them. Sherlock says that he is willing to do anything to activate the fail-safe. After acknowledging that he and Sherlock are alike (in the sense that Sherlock has a dark side), Moriarty realizes that as long as he is alive, Sherlock can activate the fail-safe and save his friends, so he produces a handgun from his coat pocket and shoots himself in the mouth. [1]

   Legacy DidyouMissme

   Moriarty's image appearing on TV screens all over the UK.

   Two years after Sherlock's 'death', it was concluded by police that the actor Richard Brook was in fact an alias created by Moriarty and that Sherlock was innocent of fabricating Moriarty. Moriarty appears in numerous flashbacks and imaginary sequences when contemplating how Sherlock possibly faked his death.[7]

   Moriarty was also in Sherlock's mind palace, in solitary confinement and wearing a straitjacket. He taunted Sherlock but when John was mentioned, it gave Sherlock the strength he needed to recover from a serious bullet wound when he was near death. Moriarty's face was later broadcast all over England and spoke the words "Did you miss me?", forcing Sherlock to return from his exile early to work on the case.[8]

   On the flight back, Sherlock enters his mind palace in a drug induced state to unravel the unsolved mystery of Emelia Ricoletti, a late 19th century woman who, like Moriarty, shot herself in the head then appeared to rise from the grave. Afterwards, Sherlock concludes that Moriarty is still dead but it becomes a matter of explaining how he's manipulating events beyond the grave, with Sherlock telling John and Mary Watson that he knows what Moriarty will do next.[9]

   When Eurus Holmes traps Sherlock, John and Mycroft at Sherrinford, she plays pre-recordings that Moriarty made years prior in order to stress out Sherlock, with one of them being Moriarty going "tick-tick-tick-tick" when Sherlock is forced to work out one of her games. Sherlock finally stops Eurus, thus ending Moriarty's reign of terror once and for all.[10]

   Personality A criminal genius, Jim Moriarty was a sadistic and psychopathic individual. He exhibited the following traits: extreme intelligence, grandiosity, incapacity for remorse, arrogance, and an unhealthy degree of self-confidence. He also displayed highly Machiavellian traits. Much like Sherlock, he had a sarcastic, cynical, albeit childish sense of humour but unlike Sherlock he often spoke in a tone that would intimidate or annoy his opponents.

   Moriarty was arranging the deaths of others from a young age. In 1989, he killed schoolboy Carl Powers. He appeared to be a highly efficient criminal businessman and had a humongous network of people at his command. Moriarty seemed to show, at least superficially, concern for children, as he paid Jeff Hope large amounts of money for his children every time he killed, however he actually has no care for them as shown when he had a bomb strapped to a very young boy.

   Moriarty was obsessed with Sherlock Holmes and appeared to enjoy his role as a villain. Moriarty, like Sherlock, was willing to do anything to stop himself from getting bored. He was capable of frightening mood swings. He was ruthless, and committed torture and murder in sadistic ways, and when Sherlock accused him being responsible for people's deaths, Moriarty screamed at him 'That's what people do!', indicating that he didn't care if people lived or died. He also rather glibly referenced people's deaths when he was personally responsible, citing that Carl Powers 'laughed at me, so I stopped him laughing'.

   Moriarty was a man who would resort constantly to humour regardless of the situation, especially when mocking people for falling for his deceptions - when he faced off against Sherlock at the swimming pool, he taunted Sherlock with the fact that he managed to convince the detective he was gay. When he played a sadistic trick on Sherlock with a derisive video during a taxi journey, he remarked 'No charge' when Sherlock discovered him. When Sherlock held him over a rooftop and threatened to let him fall to his death and labelled him insane, Moriarty shot back 'You're just getting that now', to belittle Sherlock.

   Moriarty believed his only weakness (or at least openly suggested it to be) that he was extremely changeable - this was prominently shown in him first deciding to abandon his showdown with Sherlock, only to abruptly return and threaten Sherlock again.

   It is very debatable as to whether or not Jim fears death - he showed absolutely no concern or fear when he was held at the point of a gun by Sherlock (most likely because he knew he had too many advantages on the man at the time), only to cry out when Sherlock threatened to throw him from a rooftop.

   Appearance

   Moriarty is of average height, standing a couple of inches below Sherlock, and of a slender build, with dark black hair and pale skin. He can nearly always be seen wearing full dress suits (Westwood, to be precise), such as a dark blue one he wore in his first meeting with Sherlock and a grey one during his visit to the latter's apartment, often accompanied by a tie. As "Richard Brook", he seemed to put on a more standard image, with unruly hair and casual clothing.

   Abilities

   Genius-Level Intellect: Moriarty has an incredible intellect. He is one of the most intelligent individuals on the planet, rivaled only by Sherlock, Mycroft, Charles Augustus Magnussen, and Eurus Holmes. His genius was strong enough that Moriarty was able to safely interact with Eurus in Sherrinford.
   Master Tactician: He was also clearly calculating and resourceful for his age, managing to retrieve an almost undetectable poison that would work effectively in the circumstances that Moriarty required. As a consulting criminal, he was able to consult his clients to do a wide range of crimes, such as murder, forgery, and theft of top-secret information.
   Master Manipulator: He was highly skilled at manipulation, and even Sherlock found it hard to predict Moriarty's next move. Also, he had complete mastery of terrorist techniques and intimidation strategies and knew exactly what buttons to press to pressure or enrage people.
   Expert Intimidator: He had an incredible capability for changing his tone of voice and behavior several times in a single sentence for psychological warfare - ranging from serenity, humor, mockery, childish, laid-back, to violence, and this will make the victim more terrified of him. Moreover, because of this, Moriarty is extremely difficult to read and anticipate.
   Expert Deceiver: He is notably clever and skilled in deceiving and misdirecting through several means, most notably with his Richard Brook persona, who managed to lead people to believe that Sherlock's a fraud, and was able to lead his assassins and clients to go after a non-existent key-code.
   Expert Networker: He was shown time and again to be an expert at managing the web of criminals he led, and he was able to consult and command all of them flawlessly, including a centuries-old Chinese crime syndicate, the Tong, showing that his criminal network encompasses worldwide, even reaching the isolated nation of North Korea.
   

   Relationships Sherlock Holmes

   Sherlock Holmes appears to be the only person who can keep Moriarty entertained. Moriarty reveals several unstable musings of his to Sherlock: he ponders suicide because he is bored with the world, and he is obsessed with the consulting detective until he believes Sherlock is just "another ordinary person". When Sherlock spots the hole in Moriarty's plan, Moriarty seemingly kills himself so as to have the last laugh.[1] In their interactions (and in his interactions with any character so far), Moriarty persists in playing his games on his own terms.

   Moriarty nicknames Sherlock "the virgin," and continuously interferes with his life, if only to watch him dance. On the few occasions they meet, Moriarty usually speaks to Sherlock casually while issuing threats to his friends. He displays a sick and twisted demeanour in Sherlock's company, and will do anything to win a game once he starts to play.

   Irene Adler

   Irene Adler was one of Moriarty's clients. He is one of the few people in the series that have openly threatened her and it appears as though he is the only one who got away with it. He threatened to "skin her" and "make [her] into shoes" if she lied to him, and at the same time, he also gave her advice on how to manipulate Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes. [2][5]

   Mycroft Holmes While posing as Richard Brook, Moriarty used the information he'd gathered on Sherlock to defile the consulting detective's name in the media. It is revealed that he gained this information from Mycroft Holmes, whom he nicknamed "The Iceman". Mycroft was the only person who could elicit any sort of response from Moriarty when he had him imprisoned secretly. [1] When Moriarty returns, Mycroft displays signs of intimidation that he has only revealed when Sherlock mentions Charles Magnussen and when Irene Adler is presumed dead. [8]

   Molly and Moriarty dated briefly. She describes their meeting as an "office romance," although Moriarty was posing as an IT worker at the time. He did this to get close to her and, through doing so, meet with Sherlock Holmes. She is furious when Sherlock says Jim's gay, although she seems a lot more angry at Sherlock for saying so, as opposed to Jim for flirting with him. They break up some time afterwards. Sherlock then finds Moriarty, who mocks him for falling for the gay act. [2]

   Molly was not told until later on that Jim was Moriarty, as she is flustered when Sherlock brings up her old boyfriend when he and John Watson approach her as fugitives. Although they separated and Moriarty was taken to court for committing the "crime of the century", it appears she remained in the dark until this moment. [8]

   Molly's blog has shed some light upon their brief relationship.

   Jeff Hope

   The serial killer, Jeff Hope, was sponsored to kill by Moriarty, who made it so the more people he killed, the more money his children would receive upon his death. Hope refused to speak his name until Sherlock stomped on his bullet wound before he died. This was the first incident that alerted Sherlock to Moriarty's interference.[3

   Carl Powers

   Moriarty knew Carl Powers in his childhood and murdered him by poisoning him with botulinum, causing him to have a fit in a swimming pool and drown.[2]

   Clients

   Jim Moriarty is a consulting criminal who plans out and arranges for crimes to take place. People contact him and pay him in exchange for planning out "perfect" crimes for their personal benefit. His area of expertise ranges from faking one's own death to art forgery. He is cautious to never communicate to his clients directly as to avoid being identified, often just leaving them with his name as the only thing they know about him.

   Sponsored Jeff Hope to start killing
   Helped smuggle Black Lotus agents into London
   Faked the death of Ian Monkford
   Supplied poison to Raoul de Santos to help in the murder of Connie Prince
   Helped Miss Wenceslas in faking the authenticity of the Vermeer painting
   Advised Irene Adler on how to manipulate Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes
   Leaked information to a terrorist cell about a US/UK counter-terrorist operation
   

   Eurus Holmes

   Due to his interest in Sherlock Holmes, Moriarty caught Eurus Holmes's notice and was asked by her to Mycroft for five minutes of unsupervised conversation together. At Sherrinford, Eurus mentioned 'Redbeard' to Moriarty and, from then, hatched their respective games for Sherlock. Moriarty thought Eurus to be a clever girl and supported her plans for Sherlock, Mycroft, and John by contributing recordings of himself and his image for Eurus to utilize after his death for her games.

9. #9Mycroft Holmes

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   Biography

   Mycroft was born to Mr and Mrs Holmes, the eldest of their three children, with his younger brother, Sherlock, being born seven years later, and their younger sister, Eurus, a year after Sherlock. Eurus was institutionalized at age five after her psychosis caused her to kidnap Sherlock's best friend Victor Trevor in jealousy (she killed him) and also to burn down their home of Musgrave. Their uncle Rudy oversaw this, and Mycroft would later assume the responsibility when he ascended to his position in the British government. He deceived their parents out of kindness to believe she was killed in another fire to spare them to the pain of letting them know what she had become, but would consult with Eurus for her intellectual insight occasionally and still showed brotherly care of her in giving her "treats" in exchange. ("The Final Problem")

   In the pilot episode of the series, Mycroft has Dr John Watson brought to him for questioning when he begins investigating crimes with Sherlock and offers him money to help ease his way for information on his brother's activities out of concern for his well-being, which John refuses believing Mycroft a possible criminal. During the meeting, Mycroft, neglecting to mention he's Sherlock's older brother, told John that Sherlock may even consider him his arch-enemy. Sherlock neither confirms nor denies this statement, and introduces them properly at the end of the episode, at which point Mycroft ordered the surveillance of Sherlock be increased to observe how Sherlock and John's partnership will progress and keep them safe. ("A Study in Pink") Mycroft came to Sherlock to ask him to investigate the death of Andrew West and the disappearance of the Bruce-Partington missile project plans, supplying John with further information on West when Sherlock sent him to Mycroft's office. Throughout the episode, Mycroft eventually grew impatient with them, having texted them continuously, but Sherlock eventually solved the murder of West and recovered the memory stick with the plans that West was responsible for, which was afterwards ruined by consulting criminal Jim Moriarty at the end of the episode. Mycroft, however, had stated previously that it was not the only copy of the plans. ("The Great Game")

   After Irene Adler, a dominatrix with a passion for making trouble, took a number of compromising pictures of herself with a female member of the royal family, Mycroft had Sherlock and John brought to Buckingham Palace to be briefed on the case and to assign them to recover the photos, which they failed to do. In their effort, American agents tried to get the phone, causing Sherlock to suspect Adler had more than compromising photos and that something big was coming, but Mycroft ordered him to leave the case be from then on and stay out of the way. For some time, he and the British government had been working on a counter-terrorism project with the US government to foil the efforts of terrorists to blow up an aeroplane, and Mycroft didn't want Sherlock in the way after encountering the American agents involved. Mycroft was later informed on Christmas that he might find Adler dead and had "her" brought to the morgue of St Bartholomew's Hospital for Sherlock to identify, after which he gave Sherlock a Christmas cigarette as he seemed sad at the idea of her death. When Sherlock left, Mycroft phoned John to see if there was any danger of Sherlock relapsing on drugs and ordered him to stay with him in case its a "danger night." However, Adler was still alive, and Mycroft didn't know at first, or that Adler was working for Jim Moriarty. On his behalf, she later came to Baker Street and tricked Sherlock into deciphering a MOD official's email that proved the British and US governments knew the plane would be bombed. She texted Moriarty the information, who then informed the terrorists of governments' knowledge of the bombing plot, and Mycroft that their project had been exposed. With the counter-terrorism project foiled, Mycroft brought Sherlock to the plane to confront his unwitting aide in its failure and apologized for pushing him into Adler's path. She then arrived to confront Mycroft and tried to blackmail him and the government with her camera phone's contents, however, Sherlock finally cracked its password, gave it to Mycroft to make up for having ruined the project, and they refused Adler's plea for help despite knowing she won't be able to avoid her enemies for long without the phone's protection. When she was later apparently killed, Mycroft brought her file to Baker Street and gave it to John, them agreeing to tell Sherlock that Adler got herself into a witness protection program in America out of consideration for his brother's unspoken feelings for her. ("A Scandal in Belgravia")

   When one of Sherlock's cases led to him breaking into the top-secret military base "Baskerville" using his priority "Ultra" government security pass, an annoyed Mycroft texted Sherlock to ask what he was doing and sent DI Greg Lestrade, Sherlock's Scotland Yard "handler," to keep an eye on him. When Sherlock phoned him later and requested his help, Mycroft pulled strings to allow him 24 hours of unlimited access to Baskerville to help him solve his case. Mycroft is also revealed to have kidnapped Jim Moriarty, and let him go at this end of this episode. ("The Hounds of Baskerville") After Moriarty resurfaced, was found not guilty in the "trial of the century"(which he set himself up for) after extorting the jury, and left Sherlock with a threat of owing him a "fall," Mycroft had John brought to him at the Diogenes Club he frequents to inform him that four top international assassins, who he believed were sent by Moriarty, had moved into flats close to 221B Baker Street, and asked John to watched after Sherlock before he left since Sherlock's sibling rivalry toward him caused him to refuse Mycroft's help. When Moriarty, acting under a false name, later published a kiss-and-tell in a newspaper which claimed Sherlock a fraud, but had his whole life's story within, John came to Mycroft and confronted him about having told Moriarty all this, believing it to have been a betrayal of Sherlock since people would believe the lie given the rest of the story is true. Mycroft, however, had been for some time working on a plan to bring Moriarty down with Sherlock, which included giving Moriarty this information and which they had agreed John would have to be kept out of for reasons of discretion, ("The Empty Hearse") and he here explained around that point, saying Moriarty's key-code was why he had abducted him previously and that he had offered Sherlock's life story to try and get information on it. Their plan ultimately worked and Moriarty was finally defeated(committed suicide thinking he could win when he walked into a trap blindly), in the process of which Sherlock faked his death to go undercover and dismantle Moriarty's international criminal organization. ("The Reichenbach Fall")

   After two years of undercover work, Sherlock finally succeeded in dismantling Moriarty's organization but was captured in Serbia shortly afterwards. Mycroft went undercover and rescued him, having learned Serbian in a couple of hours with his extraordinary intellect, and brought him back to London, informing him of a massive terrorist attack the government learned of that he wanted Sherlock to avert. He visited Baker Street for an update, where Mycroft and Sherlock played various games despite the terror alert, which Mycroft found senseless, and had a deduction duel, which Mycroft won before instructing Sherlock to get back to work and leaving. Sherlock ultimately succeeded in thwarting the terrorist plot(an attempt to blow Westminster Palace and wipe out the parliament, headed by Lord Moran who was arrested quickly afterwards), and their parents came into town for a concert Mycroft had promised to take them to, yet he comically called Sherlock to ask him to come and take over at the interval, not enjoying himself at all. ("The Empty Hearse") The day of John and his fiance, Mary's, wedding, Sherlock telephoned Mycroft, who had just finished exercising, and asked him to come down to it, jokingly remarking that there should be a "spectre at the feast", but Mycroft refused, teased Sherlock a little, and asked him to give John and Mary his best wishes before they hung up. ("The Sign of Three") A month after the Watsons' wedding, John phoned Mycroft after discovering Sherlock in a drug den and on drugs again, and Mycroft contacted Philip Anderson and other fans of Sherlock's to search his flat for drugs, and Sherlock explained his drug relapse was part of a plan for a case involving blackmailing media mogul Charles Augustus Magnussen, after which Mycroft sent Anderson and the others away with a threat not to reveal what they have heard and warned Sherlock not to go against Magnussen, or else he will go against him too (because Magnussen was a government asset who is useful, it would later be revealed).

   Sherlock refused to listen and assaulted Mycroft when he angered him, after which he departed. When Sherlock was later shot during the course of his case and mysteriously vanished from his hospital room before he could be questioned as to who did it, Mycroft gave DI Lestrade knowledge of two additional bolt-holes where Sherlock is known to go when in need of keeping out of sight. Six months later, on Christmas day, Sherlock had fully recovered from his gunshot wound, and he, Mycroft, John, Mary, and a man named Wiggins, who Sherlock invited, gathered at their parent's house to celebrate (Mycroft reluctantly), where Mycroft and Sherlock again smoke a Christmas cigarette. As they do, Mycroft expressed his relief that Sherlock had apparently given up on the Magnussen case, explaining why he had been opposed to it by calling Magnussen a "necessary evil," and not a "dragon for Sherlock to slay" (Mycroft knows Sherlock thinks of himself as a dragon-slayer). He also urged Sherlock to turn down an offer from MI6 to go on an undercover mission that would prove fatal within six months, which Sherlock complied with before Mycroft confessed that losing Sherlock would break his heart. However, Sherlock hadn't given up on the idea of taking down Magnussen and drugged Mycroft and everyone else present besides John and Wiggins (who was left behind to monitor their recovery). Sherlock stole Mycroft's laptop of state secrets and left with John to Appledore, Magnussen's country estate, to trap him with it, with Mycroft summoning a helicopter and policemen to track it through its GPS locator upon waking up. When they arrived, to his horror, Sherlock murdered Magnussen (because his trap backfired with the lack of blackmail evidence at Appledore), and Mycroft ordered the police present not to kill him. He later convinced other government officials not to incarcerate Sherlock since there is no prison he can be contained safely in, but to instead press him into the MI6 mission previously mentioned as an alternative punishment, which Lady Elizabeth Smallwood authorized. At the airport, Mycroft saw Sherlock off after he was given a last talk with John Watson, however, quickly called him back when every TV screen in the country was hacked to show a video of Jim Moriarty repeating "Did you miss me?" on a loop. ("His Last Vow")

   Mycroft and the rest of the highest government officials gathered together with Sherlock in a private meeting, where Mycroft presented doctored security footage of Magnussen's death, which made it look like an over-eager policeman shot Magnussen instead of Sherlock to cover up the murder so he could investigate the Moriarty incident, which Sherlock stated he thought to be a posthumous revenge plan before leaving. Throughout this episode, Mycroft was consulted by Sherlock for information on various people, including whether Moriarty had ever had an interest in Margaret Thatcher (Mycroft said he had been involved in various international crimes, but nothing specific to Thatcher in the last year of his life), and on the elite freelance assassin group AGRA (whose backfired mission in Tbilisi, Georgia Mycroft explained to have been the reason he made the call to end the British government's use of freelancers). Sherlock explained that John's wife, Mary, was once one of its members, which Mycroft didn't know, and asked him to look into the use of the word "ammo" in connection to the Tbilisi incident when one of Mary's fellow AGRA survivors threatened her life. Mycroft agreed but warned Sherlock people like Mary often get "retired" rather than reach old age. When Sherlock found Mary after she ran off to lure her former comrade from her family in an effort to keep them safe and convinced her to return to London after her old comrade was killed by police in Morocco, he phoned Mycroft after having a breakthrough on the word "ammo," which was instead the Latin word "amo," which means "I love," implying perhaps Lady Smallwood whose code name is "Love" and who sent AGRA into Tbilisi may have betrayed them. Mycroft had her security access rescinded and brought her in for questioning on the matter, but she convinced the Holmes brothers she was not involved in betraying either the UK embassy in Tbilisi or AGRA. The person who did, it turned out, was Smallwood's PA, Vivian Norbury, who betrayed them in an effort to cover up her high treason in selling government secrets, which the UK Ambassador in Tbilisi discovered prior to being taken hostage by terrorists in the coup there. Sherlock found her out, and confronted her with Mycroft, the police, and Mary Watson, who was killed by Norbury in saving Sherlock when Norbury tried to shoot him. Mycroft summoned an ambulance, but Mary died quickly before it could arrive. ("The Six Thatchers")

   Mycroft was later informed that Sherlock had finally left his flat (after a mourning period), and had him tailed and watched to make sure he was alright. He joined Lady Smallwood in the surveillance room and wondered why Sherlock was wandering about aimlessly, appearing rather cross to Smallwood. When Smallwood remarked that he hadn't made up for falsely suspecting her previously, Mycroft asked how to do so, before later wondering whether Sherlock was with someone. Mycroft phoned John, who eventually answered, let him know Sherlock was out and about and asked to be contacted if Sherlock got in touch. During the brief conversation, Mycroft stated Sherlock was a security concern and that his being Sherlock's brother wouldn't affect that any more than the last time (revealing there was another Holmes sibling). Before he left, Lady Smallwood asked if he was still in touch with "Sherrinford," to which Mycroft replied that he got regular updates and that Sherrinford was secure. Just over three weeks later, Mycroft was contacted by Mrs Hudson, Sherlock's landlady, for an unknown reason, and despite her violation of traffic laws, stood down the police confronting her from over the phone. He later called John again after Sherlock had tried to assault a certain Culverton Smith, and had him brought to Baker Street after going there with some others and finding a meth lab in the kitchen. He stated he was looking for answers as to what drove his brother off the rails, and asked John's impute while wondering why Sherlock had fixated on Smith. John, however, only confronted him about his hinted second sibling, but Mycroft denied there was one (truthfully saying no other "brother") before Mrs Hudson came in and wondered what he and his people were doing.

   Answering her and explaining it, Mrs. Hudson laughed at his effort to discover what had been on Sherlock's mind and mocked Mycroft, before insulting him and telling him to leave when John found a prior-recorded DVD from Mary made before she died and sent to Sherlock, to which Mycroft complied. Later, Lady Smallwood gave him her private number in case he might like to get together (no doubt so he can make up for falsely suspecting her before) at the end of this episode. ("The Lying Detective") John later met Mycroft and Sherlock's secret sister, Eurus Holmes, and reported it to Sherlock, who had long since repressed his memories of her from childhood. John advised Sherlock to pressure Mycroft into acknowledging her existence by setting up a frightening, seemingly life and death circumstance in Mycroft's house. He had been trying to enjoying a cinema film at the time, but they got his attention after disabling his security systems and ultimately were able to trick him into acknowledging Eurus, before inviting him to Baker Street. Arriving the next morning, Mycroft was again disrespected by Mrs Hudson, before explaining the traumatic events regarding Eurus from their childhood that led to her incarceration. He explained she was in "Sherrinford," a maximum security facility on an island, before explaining he deceived their parents to believe she was dead to spare them the further pain of the knowledge of what she had become and dismissing the notion that she had left the island or that they had met her. However, a drone carrying a motion-censored grenade and a recording of Eurus' cryptic song from their childhood that she'd sing, which Sherlock started to remember as the conversation progressed, smashed through the window.

   Mycroft explained what it was and how long they'd have to clear its blast radius, which they all successfully did, before hijacking a boat and heading to Sherrinford to see whether or not Eurus had ever escaped it. Sherlock got the Security chief's pass and headed for Eurus' cell, while Mycroft and John were questioned by the chief. Revealing himself from his disguise to him, Mycroft then watched over the tapes of psychiatric evaluation sessions of his sister done against Mycroft's orders. Everyone who had spoken to her had been enslaved by her ability to reprogram people's minds, which Mycroft had said Eurus had been able to do since she was five years old. Angry at the Security chief for disobeying his instructions, Mycroft's attention was eventually drawn to the fact that the chief's voice was among those on the tapes and therefore that Eurus had taken over the facility, explaining how she had been able to get out when she wanted. Eurus then had all three of them, along with the chief, locked inside Eurus' cell, and subjected to emotionally traumatic mind games wherein they had to suit her whims by following instructions or solving puzzles in exchange for phone time with a girl supposedly trapped on a plane that would eventually crash, including either Mycroft or John killing the security chief in exchange for Eurus not killing his wife (which she did when they wouldn't and he committed suicide), solving the murder of a man in which three brothers were suspects (Mycroft, initially unwilling to play along with Eurus' games, aided in this one, but after they solved the crime Eurus, who had taken the three brothers captive, killed them all even though only one was guilty), saving Molly Hooper's life by getting her to say "I love you" to Sherlock(her life was never in danger and Eurus simply wanted to make Sherlock emotionally hurt Molly), and lastly trying to force Sherlock to either kill Mycroft or John, which Mycroft tried to make it easy for Sherlock to pick him by insulting Watson insincerely. Despite this, Sherlock refused to kill either, but instead turned the gun on himself and threatened Eurus with a countdown, forcing her to tranquilize him, John, and Mycroft. She didn't hurt him, but Mycroft was afterwards locked in her old cell.

   After Eurus stood down eventually and the facility was back under the control of the government, Mycroft spoke to DI Lestrade and let him know he was alright, and he and Sherlock went on to reveal that Eurus was still alive to their parents, who put down Mycroft for deceiving them about her, with Sherlock defending him. He stated she was now catatonic and wouldn't respond to anyone when they asked to see her, yet Sherlock was able to get her to by playing the violin outside her cell, to which she responded by starting to play with him. In the time that followed, Mycroft and their parents came to see them play on one such occasion. ("The Final Problem")

   Mycroft claims to merely "occupy a minor position in the government." However, according to Sherlock, he functionally is the British Government, acting as the control centre or "clearing house" for all government actions and decisions. There are signs throughout the series that Sherlock Holmes is right about Mycroft's high position in the UK Government, such as his ability to control CCTV cameras at will. He also is shown to have the ability to hack into cash machines and make them display messages he wants the user to see.[2] Reflecting his high position is his priority level "Ultra" and clearance level higher than the Cabinet Office or even the Prime Minister: him and a group of peers with certain codenames are the only people to know what really happened at Appledore and doctored the footage that will go public and even managed to clear Sherlock of his crimes. He is also implied to have a great say over certain policies: the fact that the British Government stopped using freelance agents for missions after the incident in Tbilisi is his initiative. With his priority level, he has access to MI5's top secret archives.

   Mycroft has a habit of kidnapping people to talk to them, instead of using more conventional methods. He has very good connections; it is implied by Sherlock that he knows the Queen, when Sherlock starts to play "God Save the Queen" on his violin,[3] and he is able to pull strings to allow Sherlock access into a top secret military base.[4] In this episode, it is also asserted that his priority level is "Ultra". Unlike his brother, Mycroft is known to only text when he cannot talk.[5]

   Mycroft occasionally warns John when he thinks that it is a "danger night" with Sherlock ("A Scandal in Belgravia"), and has John search the house. On those nights, he needs John to stay at home with Sherlock and look out for him. However, Sherlock knows that John has been searching his stuff, and may be aware of what Mycroft has done (and what he has asked John to do)

   Personality Despite the hostility/rivalry the latter maintains toward him, Mycroft cares greatly for his brother, Sherlock, although his ways of watching out for his brother are unorthodox in the extreme. He is an almost entirely socially detached and calculating individual with an exceptional degree of self-control.

   After he has first witnessed Sherlock and John working together, he tells his assistant to update Sherlock and John's surveillance status to level 3, implying that he already had governmental surveillance on Sherlock.[1] In tandem with his high intelligence, his self-confidence and mental resilience are almost inhuman, as he seems to be practically immune to even his own brother's probing and he was even able to resist Eurus own ability to instantly reprogram a person despite Eurus being more intelligent. He is, however, not above petty or childish arguments with Sherlock, claiming that the latter's petty feud with him was "childish" and upsetting their mother, and he also argued with Sherlock in front of one of his peers and John in Buckingham Palace to force him to wear pants. Like Sherlock, Mycroft also smokes cigarettes albeit low-tar only, with him carrying a pack at any moment and able to enjoy chatting over smoking, usually without his parents finding out.

   Mycroft is shown to be much more capable of faking or maintaining a degree normalcy than his brother, whereas Sherlock is ostracized for his behaviour, Mycroft is highly respected by his peers. Though Mycroft is apparently just as cold as his brother, once informing him categorically that caring was not an advantage, he still strongly reacts to the loss of a human life, as seen in his forced part in Eurus' game at Sherrinford. He refused to take the life of Sherrinford's governor when offered the gun, felt the condemnation game over the lives of the three Garrideb brothers to be insane and inhuman, worried over the imminent death of Molly Hooper's life, and acted to preserve the lives of the people in the city which were threatened by the 'plane' that Eurus had set up.

   He is thought to be very lonely and isolated. Sherlock has said this to him too, as even Sherlock has friends but Mycroft has none (that he considers friends at least). Mycroft believes himself to be "living in a world of goldfish", showing how he believes himself to be surrounded by people of much lower intelligence.[6]

   However, despite his lack of romantic interests, it is suggested that he is not a virgin unlike his brother Sherlock. When in Buckingham Palace, upon telling his brother not to be alarmed as Irene Adler's job was to do with sex, Sherlock replied "Sex doesn't alarm me," to which Mycroft sarcastically asked him "How would you know?". To make up for his accusation of treason, Lady Smallwood has taken up Mycroft on this regard. On other occasions, Irene Adler had informed the Holmes brothers that Moriarty's nickname for Mycroft was "The Iceman" whereas his nickname for Sherlock was "The Virgin." Also, during the wedding of John and Mary, Sherlock had phoned Mycroft just after Mycroft had finished exercising and asked him why he was out of breath. He then stated that he had either caught Mycroft in a "compromising position" or he had been working out again. He might work out primarily to keep his body healthy and thus his mind sharp as it seems he is quite physically weak. This is demonstrated when he patronizingly referred to Sherlock as "brother mine" and Sherlock effortlessly twisted his arm up his back. John even warned Mycroft that Sherlock could easily injure him severely and Mycroft reluctantly departed, indicating he is capable of picking and choosing his confrontations, a trait Sherlock either lacks or dismisses.

   Again, despite his cold and seemingly unsympathetic personality, he cares greatly about his family and those close to him, especially his younger brother Sherlock, as he smiled impulsively upon being surprised by a home video of him and his family as a child, and at seeing a young Sherlock tackle his younger self in a hug. In the first episode he had told John that he "worries about him (Sherlock) constantly." In another episode, Sherlock and Mycroft are seen to be smoking outside their parents' house on Christmas day, where Mycroft says to Sherlock "Your loss would break my heart." Mycroft also cares a lot about John, as in Eurus' last game at Sherrinford of trying to force Sherlock to choose between killing Mycroft or John in order to be granted another chance at saving the 'plane' from crashing into the city, Mycroft, despite the asset his superior intellect would contribute, tries to manipulate Sherlock into killing him over John out of regard for them both, a gesture that Sherlock himself recognized and admitted made it even harder for him to raise the gun. When Sherlock was prepared to kill himself, to wreck Eurus's last game, as well as spare John and Mycroft, Mycroft was shown to be horrified, and stepped forward, as if to try and stop him, showing just how much he cares for his brother. He also cares about his parents very much, as he keeps them informed as to whether Sherlock may have relapsed on drugs and, though definitely misguided, he also lied to them about Eurus and said she died in a fire after being taken away, feeling this was kinder than telling them what she had become (a complete psychopath). This led to their outrage when he finally confessed the truth to them, and Mycroft was very ashamed as they reproached him. However, they forgave him for it, attending a violin recital of Sherlock and Eurus in Sherrinford with Mycroft, wherein his mother placed her hand on his, showing they harbored no animosity for his previous deceit.

   In contrast to his relationship with Sherlock, Mycroft's feelings to his youngest sister Eurus were more estranged. Though he recognized the outstanding genius of her superior intellect, Mycroft was aware of Eurus's disturbing personality and actions. Aware of the dangers posed by his sister's psychosis coupled with her abilities, Mycroft supported Eurus's secret institutionalization at Sherrinford with their uncle Rudy's help. Mycroft regards Eurus as a danger first and foremost and conducts himself accordingly, being resistant and unwilling to becoming subject to her manipulations. The mere mention of her, and recalling memories of Eurus, brought even higher guard and dread than even Charles Augustus Magnussen's name. In turn, Eurus had a singular preference for Sherlock and seemingly holds Mycroft with no regard beyond Sherlock's attachment to Mycroft and in comparison with Sherlock's attachment to John. Despite this, Mycroft does hold a measure of sentiment for his younger sister, occasionally speaking to Eurus and exchanging consultations of her genius insight with 'treats' such as a violin and, despite the extreme danger that in part came from it, a genuine unsupervised conversation with Jim Moriarty for five minutes. Though his mother abhorred Mycroft's actions of secretly institutionalizing Eurus for decades, Sherlock recognized that Mycroft had done his best considering everything regarding Eurus. Mycroft also harbors a love for vintage cinema in his home, silently quoting the lines by one of the leads.

   Abilities

   Genius-Level Intellect: Mycroft is immensely intelligent and possess incredible analytical and deduction abilities that surpass even his younger brother Sherlock, with Sherlock saying he has always been the "smart one" between them and, as children, even made Sherlock think he was a fool, and is only rivaled by Charles Augustus Magnussen. He is the second most intelligent human on Earth. However, while Mycroft's intellect was professionally referred to as remarkable, he is still not quite as smart as Eurus, who was deemed to be an era defining genius beyond Newton and could perceive things beyond even Mycroft's own scope. However, Mycroft's genius was still enough that he is one of the only three known persons on the Earth, the other two being Sherlock and Moriarty, who can safely interact with Eurus without succumbing to her manipulation abilities and even Eurus admits Mycroft was very clever, able to pick up things on her scope if she went a bit slow for him.
       Deduction: Mycroft's powers of deduction are extremely high, surpassing even that of Sherlock, who is renowned to be the greatest detective in the world, and is beyond the standards of Charles Augustus Magnussen even though Mycroft relied on Magnussen most heavily. His superiority to Sherlock was shown when he discovered what had happened to a hiker by simply "glancing over the police reports".[3] At one point, he and Sherlock have a deduction battle and, as always, he wins.[6] Mycroft was also able to correct Sherlock's deduction of John and the lilo, by saying it was the sofa[5], and could perceive that Alex Garrideb was short-sighted but had corrective laser surgery, which Sherlock's deductions had missed, from simply looking at his clothes.
       Mental Resistance: Due to Mycroft's inhumanly intelligent mind, he possesses extremely strong mental resistance and, coupled with his confidence, he is practically immune to even Sherlock's mind probing and even resisted the more intelligent Eurus' ability to manipulate others instantly despite Eurus's superior intellect, a feat that only 2 other men have ever accomplished, Sherlock Holmes and James Moriarty.
   
   Expert Deceiver: Though not a skill he enjoys or prefers using much, Mycroft proved to be an excellent deceptor, being able to successfully fool his parents of what truly happened to Eurus for years with ease.
   
   Multilingualism: Mycroft's tremendous intellectual aptitudes and geniuses makes him highly adept at learning new languages, evidenced when he went to save Sherlock after he was captured in Serbia. Mycroft quickly fully mastered Serbian in 2 hours and was able to speak it with enough fluency to fool Sherlock's captors completely with ease long enough to rescue his brother.
   

10. #10Eurus Holmes

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    Biography

    Eurus Holmes is the third child and only daughter of Mr Holmes and Mrs Holmes, eight years younger than Mycroft and one year younger than Sherlock. She is referred to as the most intelligent one among the Holmes, classified as an era-defining genius and perhaps the most intelligent person alive. Mycroft first mentioned her as "the other one". She grew up alongside her two brothers in their family home.

    One day, while playing with Sherlock, Mycroft and Redbeard, Eurus displays signs of loneliness and so she decides to kill Redbeard, who is later revealed not to be a dog, but Sherlock's best friend Victor Trevor. Eurus refuses to reveal the whereabouts of Victor and expresses her emotions about the situation through replying to Sherlock with her poem. It is seen in "The Final Problem" that Eurus had cast Victor into a nearby well where he was left to die. The assumed loss of Victor traumatizes Sherlock to the point that he 'rewrites' his memories to forget Eurus and Victor.

    Eurus is sent to the maximum-security psychiatric prison, Sherrinford, after she burns down Musgrave, the Holmes' family mansion by her uncle Rudy Holmes. Through her gift of manipulation, she takes control of Sherrinford and can leave whenever she likes. She first meets John Watson while she is undercover, as Elizabeth, a lady on the bus, and this meeting later develops into a texting relationship. Soon after John ends the relationship, she assumes a new disguise as John's therapist, Ursa. Her first meeting with her brother Sherlock on screen is when she disguises herself as Culverton Smith's daughter, Faith Smith, seeking help. She reveals herself to John at the end of "The Lying Detective", when he returns to her seeking therapy, holding him at gun point. The audience is left hanging after Eurus pulls the trigger on John, which was revealed as a tranquilizer dart.

    In "The Final Problem", Eurus, having already had the whole institution of Sherrinford at her mercy, plays "games" with Mycroft, Sherlock, and John Watson, making Sherlock choose who would have to shoot the governor, due to the fact that the governor's wife would be shot if they did otherwise. In the end, after no one had wanted to get their hands dirty, the governor shoots himself thinking that his wife's life would be spared. Showing more cruelty, she promptly shoots the governors's wife with no care whatsoever.

    Afterwards, because of knowing all about Sherlock's personal life, she lies about having placed bombs in Molly Hooper's flat and then commands Sherlock to get her to make her say that she loved him, without telling her that there was anything urgent going on. While Sherlock's time starts to grow short, she plays recorded clips of Moriarty saying things such as tick-tick-tick-tick in hopes that it would stress Sherlock. It is also revealed that the whole ordeal was planned in five minutes conversation with Jim Moriarty. The next challenge passes, with Sherlock trying to choose which of three men to die, all the while having to save a girl stuck on a crashing plane. After being tranquilized and sent to Musgrave, Sherlock has to save the girl on the plane and a slowly drowning John Watson.

    He decodes the cleverly planned gravestones and seeks Eurus in her room, where she is having a delusion, identical to the situation of the girl on the plane, being revealed to be the girl on the plane. After being comforted by Sherlock and saving Watson, she is sent back to Sherrinford, where she doesn't seem to make any conversation besides playing duets with Sherlock. By the end of episode, she seems to have become a different person, due to seemingly being able to feel emotion. She shows that all it needed was Sherlock's compassion, and that the experiments were to see things about emotional context.

    Personality

    Eurus is considered perhaps the most intelligent human being alive and is a master of manipulation. As a young child, she lacked emotion and seemingly the ability to distinguish her own pain, cutting open her arm because she wanted to see how her muscles worked. As an adult, she has slipped between being calm to screaming and, when finally seen, to being a helpless child alone on a malfunctioning air-plane. Eurus lacks typical normal human feeling, but she watches and reads the emotional reactions and emotional states of others, manipulating them to her favour in order to better understand an individual, or, for Eurus to feel something about what she's doing. A part of Eurus, however, is aware of the wrongdoing of her actions but, like the child helpless on the malfunctioning plane that she experiences herself to be, Eurus has no idea how to behave differently than how she already is, much less succeed or even progress in that area.

    Regarding her family, Eurus has a singular preference for Sherlock, declaring him as her favorite family member. Making Sherlock scream, which she initially understood as laughter, was the one thing that made her most happy. When Sherlock played pirates with his best friend 'Redbeard', who was revealed to be Victor Trevor, and seemingly excluded Eurus, Eurus entrapped and murdered Victor out of want for Sherlock to play with her. She later produced drawings of Sherlock being dead and acted upon them by her attempt to burn down Musgrave Hall. When reunited with Sherlock as adults, she continued to play with him through her disguise and impersonation of Faith Smith, and Sherlock was the main subject of her games at Sherrinford and at Musgrave Hall, manipulating Sherlock's emotions regarding his loved ones and his 'Redbeard' trauma for her engagement. Despite her tormenting Sherlock, however, as decrypted in her childhood song 'The Musgrave Ritual', Eurus throughout her entire life held Sherlock as the only person who can reach her in her extreme feelings of isolation and psychosis, which he indeed finally solved decades later and managed to reach out to Eurus to reveal the location of the well she trapped Victor's remains and John in. While Eurus has shown little regard for human life, shown throughout the many people who died during her trials, she refused to let Sherlock die, shown when she tranquilized him to prevent him killing himself instead of John or Mycroft, though this was also most likely done to prevent her games being stopped.

    Because of her unique mind, Eurus' feelings of extreme isolation and psychosis are so profound that she subjectively experiences herself alone on a plane full of sleeping people and has no idea how to land. After the culmination of her game with Sherlock at their childhood home of Musgrave Manor, Eurus became uncommunicative and was described by Mycroft as having "passed beyond our view". However, she still seems reachable, reacting to Sherlock's playing the violin and being able to effortlessly copy his played melody. After repeated sessions over the years covering numerous cases and Rosamund's growth into a toddler, she performed with Sherlock in a violin recital that Sherlock organised for their parents and Mycroft, perhaps reflecting steps towards some measure of recovery.

    On Mycroft, Eurus held her eldest brother with seemingly no regard beyond being one of the two most important attachments to Sherlock, the other being John Watson. Like Mycroft was to Sherlock as the smarter sibling, Eurus felt Mycroft to be 'quite clever' and could understand things if Eurus herself 'went a bit slow for him'. Though Mycroft holds the responsibility of institutionalizing her at Sherrinford since being a child, Eurus does not seem to hold any profound ill-feelings towards Mycroft about that. Regarding her parents, she has not demonstrated, and doesn't seem to hold any feeling towards them at all.

    Because of her attachment to Sherlock, Eurus took special notice of Jim Moriarty's own interest with Sherlock, requesting to Mycroft that, as a 'Christmas treat', she wanted an unsupervised conversation with Moriarty for five minutes in exchange for a consultation to her insight. When they finally talked, Eurus spoke 'Redbeard' as a treat for Moriarty, and, from then, hatched their respective games for Sherlock. She refers to Moriarty as 'Sweet Jim' and remarked on his death wish and his interest in causing trouble after his own death, with Eurus' games themselves as being Moriarty's revenge on Sherlock from beyond the grave.

    Abilities

    Genius-Level Intellect: Of all the Holmes siblings, Eurus was the most clever. She is the most intelligent human on Earth. Compared to Mycroft who was professionally assessed as 'remarkable', Eurus was 'incandescent'. "An era-defining genius beyond Sir Isaac Newton." Mycroft explained to John and Sherlock in 'The Final Problem'. According to Mycroft, Eurus seemed to be able to perceive truth beyond both the normal scope and even his own, such as how Eurus during their childhood together once remarked on how funny her older brother looked as an adult. (This startled the present day Mycroft, who was seeing this in his own Mind Palace) As a young child, she taught Sherlock the violin, successfully orchestrated the entrapment and drowning of Victor Trevor that went unsolved for decades, utilized ciphers, and was able to manipulate people to the point of enslavement since the age of 5. As an adult, this talent of hers had increased to the extent that, except geniuses like Mycroft, Sherlock, and Jim Moriarty, virtually anyone who interacts with her are 'reprogrammed' and thus compromised, as demonstrated in her former psychiatrist killing his family and himself and Eurus' secret takeover of Sherrinford. Her intellectual abilities are such that, after spending an hour on Twitter, Eurus precisely predicted the exact dates of three separate terrorist attacks on British mainland. Because of these faculties, the British Government and Mycroft tap her as a consultant on potential threats to Britain, risking the exchange of granting her 'treats' from which she may potentially and dangerously benefit from. However, for all of her genius, Eurus' 'cleverness' is undermined by her psychosis stemming from her perpetual feelings of extreme isolation due to her very exceptional but singular genius.
    Master Therapist: Unlike her brothers, who both are bad at interpersonal relationships, Eurus, despite her own dysfunctional feelings on account of her psychosis, has great understanding of human psychology, easily manipulating John with just a smile, and successfully acting as a therapist for many days before revealing her true identity. Eurus was especially focused on reading human interactions and fluently understood emotional reactions and the person's subsequent fluctuating emotional state, undoubtedly the root of her gift of manipulating anyone she talks to and her drive of subjecting Sherlock, Mycroft, and John to the emotional trials of her game.
    Master Manipulator: Eurus once noted that she used her manipulation skills to get a nurse to have sex with her. She claimed that, in the heat of the moment, she hadn't noticed whether it was a male or female nurse.
        Hypnotist: Eurus is able to plant suggestions in the minds of weaker willed people. For this reason, Mycroft expressly forbade anyone other than himself from speaking to her. She repeatedly encouraged her therapist to kill his family; ultimately, her power of suggestion won. It's for this reason she was able to do as she pleased in Sherrinford.
    Disguise Mastery: Eurus is very skilled in disguise and acting, as her own extremely deductive brother Sherlock failed to recognize her guise as Faith Smith, when they met face to face. Though, Sherlock was under the influence of heavy drugs, and had no memory of her at the time.
    Master Violinist: Eurus also demonstrates excellent aptitude in violin music, at least on par with, if not, superior to Sherlock's own. Even as a young child, she was already capable enough that she taught Sherlock how to play. As an adult, Eurus's skill and knowledge in violin music had grown greatly, with her practicing regularly with the violin she had Mycroft buy for her as one of the treats that she gained from helping the government. Despite how damaged her mind was after their game, she was able to effortlessly play what Sherlock played on his violin after only listening to it once by ear with equal beauty. She instantly recognized Sherlock's playing Bach's Sonata No. 1 in G minor from just the first chord and remarked that he didn't understand it. When Sherlock played something of himself, Eurus was able to quickly perceive Sherlock's relation to a woman behind his played melody. Even Sherlock himself complimented Eurus's violin playing as being beautiful, however, to Eurus's unique mind, she only understands her playing of the music not in terms of beauty but instead in terms of whether it's right or not.
    

11. #11Molly Hooper

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    Molly Hooper is a specialist registrar in the morgue at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London.[1][2]

    A Study in Pink

    After watching Sherlock whip a corpse with a riding crop, Molly asks him if he would join her for coffee. He interprets this as her simply offering him a cup, to which he responds, "Black, two sugars, I'll be upstairs." She shrugs off this blow although she is obviously hurt by his lack of interest in her. Molly applies lipstick, aiming to impress Sherlock. He notices, though it does not have the desired effect upon him. [2]

    The Blind Banker

    Sherlock flirts with her, complimenting her hair, in order to gain access to two bodies in the morgue. This suggests he has some knowledge of her affection for him. [3]

    The Great Game

    When Sherlock is in the lab investigating the shoes of Carl Powers, Molly is seen helping him. "Jim from IT", who she is dating, enters and introduces himself to Sherlock. When Sherlock deduces that he is gay, Molly is visibly upset and yells at him. In actuality, this is all a ruse created by Moriarty, the evil mastermind, to get closer to Sherlock, which failed as Sherlock was dismissive of Molly during their interaction in the lab. Upset by Sherlock's deduction, Molly leaves the lab. While Sherlock is obviously upset that he has hurt Molly, he only notices that he has done so when she runs out. [4]

    Series Two A Scandal in Belgravia

    Molly appears at the Christmas party at 221B Baker Street, dressed up nicely in a figure-hugging dress. Sherlock embarrasses her by deducing that she has a present for a boyfriend whom she is wildly in love with and will later meet that night, comparing the colour of her lipstick to the colour of the wrapping paper in order to draw attention to her lips "to compensate for the size of her mouth and breasts." It turns out that the present is for him. Molly becomes visibly upset, but Sherlock apologizes sincerely and gives her a kiss on the cheek, which visibly shocks John. At this point, Molly is the only person that Sherlock has apologized to without prompting and the only person other than Mrs Hudson that he has kissed on the cheek. John looks on bemused by the detective's sudden change in attitude. Photo

    Molly dressing up for Christmas.

    Molly later turns up at Bart's to analyse what is believed to be Irene Adler's corpse. She is clearly troubled by the fact that Sherlock is able to identify the naked body from "not her face". Later, she sees Sherlock analysing Adler's camera phone, which is loaded with four small explosives at the ready to blow up the camera phone. She becomes visibly insecure when Sherlock mentions that "She [Irene] loves to play games" and then proceeds to ask if she is his girlfriend to which he responds "You think she is my girlfriend because I am x-raying her possessions?". Molly then says that "we all do silly things" which then triggers Sherlock to try another passcode to Irene Adler's locked phone. Sherlock responds with, "Yes... they do." [5]

    The Reichenbach Fall

    Molly is on her way to a lunch date when Sherlock and John barge into Barts; Sherlock waves two packets of Quavers at her and says he is taking her to lunch, and she willingly helps analyze the linseed oil discovered at the kidnapping scene. She brings a large stack of books into the lab and analyzes the material from the shoe print under another microscope, listing out figures for him. Sherlock thanks her but calls her "John". She looks visibly upset and corrects him, but he only responds with "Yes." This was not meant as an insult; it was a slip, and shows that in Sherlock's mind, Molly on the same level as John, his best friend. He often forgets other names– notably Greg Lestrade's– but the only person he ever mistakes for John is Molly. This shows his strong trust in both her medical knowledge in the lab and during postmortems as well as her friendship.

    In a mostly one sided conversation, she attempts to speak to Sherlock about her father, who she believes was similar to him, stating that when her father knew he was going to die, he was only sad when he thought no one could see him, and that Sherlock acts the same when John is not looking. When Sherlock states that she can see him, she says simply that she does not count and offers him help if he needs it. Sherlock looks surprised and confused at her reply and watches her walk out of the lab to purchase some crisps.

    Later, after being discredited, Sherlock immediately goes to Molly and startles her in the darkened lab. He tells her that she was wrong earlier, saying "You've always counted, and I've always trusted you." He goes on to vulnerably ask for her help, saying that he is not okay and that he believes he may die. He asks Molly if she would still help him and trust him if he was not everything the world thought he was. Molly asks several times, "What do you need?", to which Sherlock finally responds, "You." She agrees to his request and played a vital role in helping him to fake his death. [6]

    The theme of Molly "seeing through" Sherlock is reiterated throughout later series; unlike John and Lestrade, who view Sherlock as superhuman or a "machine", or ever Sherlock himself, who constantly refers to himself as a "sociopath", Molly sees him as he is: flawed and human. This may be why Sherlock approached her for help in faking his death instead of John. He did not want John to think less of him or see him as vulnerable, but knew that Molly's opinion of him would not be changed and that she would be more than happy to help him in his time of need.

    Series Three The Empty Hearse

    Molly first appears in a visualization of one of Anderson's theories. Anderson believes that Sherlock survived the fall from the Barts rooftop with the use of a bungee cord, which pulled him back just before he could hit the ground. Several floors above, Molly watches Sherlock fall. She then stumbles back, startled, when Sherlock crashes through the window and removes the bungee cord. Without a word, Sherlock flips his coat, ruffles the glass out of his hair, and passionately kisses Molly for a few seconds before pulling away and leaving St. Barts. In Anderson's plan Molly also would have helped transform the body of Jim Moriarty into a Sherlock look-alike.

    Two years after Sherlock's apparent suicide from the roof of St Barts, Sherlock and Molly reunite in the Barts hospital locker room. When Molly sees Sherlock standing behind her in a mirror, she smiles softly and turns to face him.

    Later, after Sherlock returns to detective work, he calls Molly to be his assistant as he is at odds with John, who is upset that Sherlock faked his death and did not tell him. He calls Molly around to Baker Street and nervously asks her to solve crimes with him. However she thought that he was going to ask her for dinner. They then accept clients, with Molly asking if she should take notes like John does. Sherlock responds that Molly is not being John, she is being herself. Molly smiles.

    Throughout the day, Molly acts quite different from how she used to, being more confident and speaking to Sherlock without stuttering. Molly is seen investigating with Sherlock at Anderson's faked crime scene, where she quickly deduces the age of the skeleton propped up at the desk. After Molly says this, John's voice in Sherlock's mind leers, "jealous?" This could refer to Molly's intelligence or her engagement to Tom, which he has surely deduced by this point in time. Molly is also with Sherlock when Mr. Sholcott shows them the video footage of the disappearing underground car. When Sholcott explains that his girlfriend is a big fan of Sherlock's, the detective asks "girlfriend?" in surprise and snorts. Molly elbows him and shoots him a glare, which leads to him quietly apologizing.

    When Sherlock asks Molly to go for fish and chips, she dodges the question and asks what today was about. Sherlock said that he wanted to thank her for everything she did for him and that Moriarty made a mistake when targeting his friends, as he had forgotten about Molly. To him, Molly was the "one person who mattered the most" and Moriarty had erred thinking that she didn't matter at all to him. Molly says that she would love to solve crimes with him again but is unable to because she is engaged. He congratulates her and says that he hopes she will be very happy and that she deserves it. Molly states that she met Tom through friends (not at the office, unlike "Jim", who was Moriarty pretending to be an IT worker) that he has a dog, they go to the pub on weekends, and that she has met all of his friends and family. She then says she does not know why she is telling him all of this. Sherlock teasingly says that not all the men Molly 'falls' for turn out to be sociopaths as Molly questions him saying "No?" and him slowly shaking is head replying "No.". He then smiles down at her and kisses her on the cheek before walking out of the door. She is then seen saying "maybe they're just my type", indicating that she isn't truly over Sherlock.

    When Molly arrives at 221B Baker Street later in the episode along with Tom, it is clear that he reminds her of Sherlock due to his appearance. Sherlock and John notice but say nothing. Lestrade asks if it is serious between her and Tom, and Molly happily claims she has moved on. Molly seems oblivious to the fact that Tom is very similar in appearance and dress to Sherlock. [7]

    The Sign of Three

    Before the wedding of John and Mary, Molly showed nervousness about the prospect of Sherlock making a speech if he were to be selected to be John's "best man". She consults Lestrade and Mrs Hudson about it but they both reassure her it will be fine.

    Sherlock comes to her for help with controlling his and John's alcohol levels on Stag Night so that they do not get too drunk. Molly points out that he is a graduate chemist, meaning that he could easily do it himself, but Sherlock respond by telling Molly that he lacks the "proper experience". Sherlock asks about Tom, to which she responds that he is "still not a sociopath" and that they are "having quite a lot of sex", which makes Sherlock feel extremely awkward.

    She is a guest of the wedding along with Tom. Molly is shown giving lots of affection towards Tom but it looks a bit forced. She also cries when Sherlock gives his best man speech. Tom gives a surprising theory to a murderous case at the wedding, embarrassing Molly, who hisses for him to sit down. When Sherlock is trying to find the Mayfly Man, Tom says "he's pissed, isn't he?" resulting in Molly stabbing him in the hand with a fork.

    She notices Sherlock leave the wedding early. She takes a step to go after him however, but she doesn't due to her being with Tom. [8]

    His Last Vow

    After John retrieves Sherlock, Wiggins, and his neighbor's son from a drug den, he takes all three of them, along with Mary who was driving the car, to St Bartholomew's Hospital. He calls Molly to request that she test Sherlock for drug use to which Sherlock looks worried. Molly tests him and is very angry that he has taken drugs. She slaps him three times on the face, saying "How dare you throw away the beautiful gifts you were born with, and how dare you betray the love of your friends!" and demanding that he apologize. Instead, he deduces that Molly is not wearing her ring and says sarcastically "Sorry your engagement is over." and that he is grateful for the lack of a ring. Molly knows that Sherlock is trying to upset her and she tells him to stop it.

    When Sherlock is shot by Mary, Molly is seen in his Mind Palace and helps him to analyze the impact of the bullet. She directs him which way to fall- forward or backwards- and again slaps him, telling him to focus as he only has three seconds of consciousness left. Sherlock's view of her as a personification of medical knowledge in his Mind Palace shows that he trusts her advice and views her as very intelligent. The continued reiteration of her slapping him also shows that he sees her as the one who makes him right and brings him back to reality when he cannot focus, instead of him slapping himself in the face as he does in The Sign of Three.

    When Sherlock goes missing, it is revealed that Molly's house was one of his bolt holes. Molly also says that Sherlock slept in her room while she had the spare because they both agreed he needed the space. This implies that Sherlock might have stayed with Molly sometime between his faked death and his return since she was one of the few people who knew he was still alive and he trusts her. [9]

    Series Four The Six Thatchers

    In this episode, it is implied that Molly and Mary Watson have a fairly close relationship, as Mary asks her along with Mrs Hudson to be the Godmother of her daughter, Rosamund Mary Watson. At Rosie's christening, she is seen telling Sherlock to put down his phone. When Mary and John are about to leave for the aquarium and realize that someone needs to watch Rosie, Mary suggests that they call Molly. After Mary's death, Molly is seen taking care of Rosie and tells Sherlock that John said he would rather have "anyone but him" offer to help with his daughter.

    The Lying Detective

    She does not have much screen time in this episode, however, when Sherlock is presumed to be on drugs, John says that they were calling the only person who had learned to see through his "bullish*t" a long time ago. The person who Sherlock "would least expect". That scene ends with John being quite puzzled as the door is opened to reveal Molly, who had already been called by Sherlock, thus implying she was not the last person Sherlock would think of.

    She is lastly seen getting out of an ambulance with Sherlock, looking a bit different from before, leading to several assumptions. When John asks how he is, Molly states that she's "seen healthier people on the slab." Angrily, she tells Sherlock that if he keeps taking "what he's taking and the rate he's taking it", he has weeks to live, if that. When Sherlock brushes her off, she is visibly upset at the thought of his death and shouts at him, "For Christ's sake, Sherlock, this is not a game!" She witnesses when Culverton Smith comes to salute Sherlock at the scene, and as Sherlock and John follow Culverton inside, Sherlock shoots one last glance at her before they go.

    The Final Problem

    In this episode, one of the tests Eurus Holmes puts on Sherlock is to put Molly in danger. He enters a room with a small coffin that says "I love you". He soon deduces the coffin belongs to Molly Hooper and Eurus makes him call her and make her say she loves him in three minutes, or she will blow up her apartment. Molly is in a bad mood and reluctant, so she makes Sherlock say it first, like he means it. He says it first, and ends up saying it twice. After that, he says he won, but Eurus reveals there were never any explosives in her apartment, and that he had just lost (this is implied to be a reference to the quote said in "A Scandal in Belgravia", where Sherlock says, "Sentiment is a chemical defect found on the losing side."). After Eurus hangs up, Sherlock proceeds to close the coffin, and destroys it in a very agitated state.[10][11]

    Molly is last seen entering the newly refurbished 221B in a very happy state, after Sherlock sent a text saying "You know where to find me." This could imply an amendment of their friendship after the aftermath of the phone call.[11]

    Relationships William Sherlock Scott Holmes

    Throughout most of the series, Molly has romantic feelings for Sherlock Holmes. Although he initially acts coldly to her, usually only exploiting these feelings to attain assistance or priveleges, Molly and Sherlock eventually develop a friendship as Molly grows confidence in herself and Sherlock realizes how much she means to him.

    At the beginning of the series, Sherlock seems to know Molly has feelings for him, yet remains impassive or confused whenever she attempts to further their relationship. He is often unintentionally rude to her, which is a source of great contention with Molly. After Molly finally stands up for herself, however, Sherlock begins to realize how his actions have affected her. He apologizes to her and the two begin to become friends.[6]

    As their friendship progresses, her romantic affections for him become muted, if still lingering ever-so-slightly. Meanwhile, Sherlock grows to rely more on Molly. As well as becoming much less rude to her, in The Reichenbach Fall , he admits that he needs her help, and even concedes that she was the "one who mattered the most" to him. [6]

    After John refuses to solve crimes with Sherlock, Molly is asked to partner with him instead. While Molly initially feels awkward, Sherlock reassures her, saying that she only needs to be herself. At the end of their day together, Sherlock reveals he asked her to spend the day with him in order to thank her for her help in faking his death and invites her to dine with him that evening. Molly declines and explains she is engaged to Tom, her fiancé. Sherlock congratulates her on finally loving a man who is not a sociopath. This, because Sherlock has labelled himself a "sociopath" many times in the past, implies that he believes he himself is not a good match for her. Before the two go their separate ways, Sherlock wishes her the best in her new relationship, saying she "deserves to be happy." Then, before parting ways with her, he kisses Molly on the cheek. [7]

    During Molly's engagement to Tom, the dynamic between the two shifts – Molly claims she has moved on; yet traces of her previous crush still linger. The fiancé dresses and looks remarkably like Sherlock, something everyone – including Sherlock – notices, but refuse to announce to her. It doesn't take long for her relationship with Tom to start to show signs of wear and annoyance for Molly.[8] It is clear that, although he might look and dress like Sherlock, Tom is not half as brilliant. The engagement between the two, therefore, breaks off.[9]

    When on the run, it is revealed that one of Sherlock's 'bolt-holes' is at Molly's house. At first, she states that he has stayed in her spare room. However, she awkwardly corrects herself, explaining that he, in fact, stays in her bedroom because they "agreed he needed the space". [9]

    Jim Moriarty spared her life when targeting Sherlock's friends. It is possible Jim was not aware of the depth of Molly's importance to Sherlock. This is further implied when Sherlock claims Moriarty's biggest mistake was in not considering that Molly mattered.[6]

    We can again see Molly's importance to Sherlock when Mary shoots Sherlock in the chest. He imagines Molly in his mind palace and with her help, and a little input from Mycroft, Anderson and Redbeard, he survives the shooting. [9]

    Their relationship changes greatly in "The Final Problem". Sherlock is forced to say to her "I love you". It is implied that the viewer may interpret this as he chooses, but many assume that it is the peak of the humanization of Sherlock, and that he probably, in fact, meant it. [10]

    John Watson

    Molly and Dr John Watson do not interact much, and when Sherlock is around she sometimes neglects to remember his name.[4] However, it is obvious that John likes Molly platonically and holds her in high esteem. This is not only for her various efforts in helping him and Sherlock solve cases, but also because of her sweet, unassuming personality. Moreover, John – aware of her crush on Sherlock as well his friend's lack of reciprocation of these feelings – feels sorry for Molly for all the times Sherlock uses her infatuation to manipulate her into doing whatever he asks. He often chides Sherlock for his behavior towards Molly and tries to make him treat her better.

    Molly was a guest at John's wedding.[8] Later, she becomes a godmother for his daughter, Rosamund Mary.

    Jim Moriarty

    Molly and Jim Moriarty date briefly. However she only knows him as 'Jim from IT'. After 'Jim's' attempt at giving Sherlock his phone number, she breaks up with him. She describes their meeting as an 'office romance', as Jim was posing as an IT worker at the time. He did this to get close to her and, through doing so, meet Sherlock Holmes. She is furious when Sherlock announces Jim is gay, pointing out bluntly that Jim has left his number for Sherlock to call. Frustrated and humiliated, Molly tries to deny Sherlock's deductions, but is unable to do so. Near to tears, she abruptly storms off, leaving Sherlock startled and unsure of what happened. She breaks up with Jim some time afterwards. Jim then meets Sherlock and John, mocking him for falling for his act. [4]

    Molly tries to contact him via her blog, but after she discovers his true identity she discontinues it because "it was all a lie".

    Neither of the two mention each other again, and although their interactions are limited, Jim chose to spare her life when targeting Sherlock's closest friends, selecting DI Greg Lestrade instead.[4]

    Greg Lestrade

    Molly and Greg share a friendly relationship. He gawks at Molly's appearance, suggesting that he found her attractive, and offered her a glass of wine.[5] However, he has not been seen expressing feelings towards her again other than that as he knows that Molly is in love with Sherlock.

    Tom

    Molly was engaged to Tom. She says that they met through friends. It is implied that she is attracted to him because he looks and dresses a lot like Sherlock. [7] They attend John's and Mary's wedding together. However, Molly is embarrassed when Tom attempts to solve the case of The Bloody Guardsman, ordering him to sit down after he suggests the weapon was a knife made of meat and bone. She later stabs him mildly in the hand with her fork when he speaks and further embarrasses her. Despite the strained appearance of the couple, they pose for photographs and dance together. [8] Not long after, the relationship faltered and they broke it off.[9]

    Rosamund Mary Watson

    Rosamund Mary Watson is Molly's goddaughter. John and Mary Watson asked Molly, Mrs. Hudson and Sherlock to be Rosie's godparents. Molly was present at the Christening and accepted her duties as Rosie's godmother. When John and Mary have to run off to Sherlock it is Molly they call to take care of Rosie. And after Mary's death it is Molly who is taking care of Rosie, while John deals with his grief.

12. #12Irene Adler

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    Irene Adler, professionally known as "The Woman", was a celebrity dominatrix and extortionist who had a brief attraction to Sherlock Holmes.[1]

    Whilst Mycroft is telling Sherlock about Irene, he states that she is a dominatrix who gives out 'recreational scolding' to people. She has been in the middle of two political scandals in recent years, one of them involving a famous author, in which she had an affair with both sides.

    She is brought to Sherlock's attention when he and John are summoned to Buckingham Palace by Mycroft and are asked to take on a case of national importance. Irene had taken compromising images of a young female member of the British Royal family during a dominatrix session.

    Even though Irene does not want money or power for the pictures, Sherlock is tasked in getting them back. She is using them, and other information on her mobile phone, for her 'protection'.

    She is presumed dead, with the only information on her given by Mycroft Holmes, mentioning that she was captured by a terror cell and beheaded.

    A flash back at the end of the episode shows that when she was about to be executed by the terrorist, she sent a goodbye text message to Sherlock. We then hear the distinctive text message alert that denotes a text message from Adler to Sherlock (she set his phone to play a recording of her earlier in the episode) coming from behind her. The executioner is revealed to be Sherlock in disguise and the two battle their way out, presumably successfully.

    Adler next appears in "The Sign of Three" as a figment of Sherlock's mind palace whilst he is attempting to solve the Mayfly man case.

    Whilst John is watching Sherlock at the end of "The Lying Detective", Sherlock receives a text message with the distinctive Adler alert sound. John hears it and figures out that Adler is still alive and correctly guesses that it's Sherlock's birthday and that that's why Adler sent the text.

    Personality

    Adler is scheming and manipulative. She uses her profession to gain insight into the top secret activities of individuals and governments. She compiles these on a cameraphone with which she plans to extort the British government. She has significant connections in the criminal underworld, including hiring Moriarty to help her get the most use out of her leverage. Irene Adler - A Scandal in Belgravia

    Even Sherlock and Mycroft admires her ingenuity. As a dominatrix, she enjoys BDSM activities and is not ashamed to reference these in conversation. Adler can be cold and calculating one minute hot and heavy the next. She flirts jokingly with men like John and Mycroft to prove her dominance over them. She self-identifies as a lesbian (though this could've been a lie to throw Watson off), but maintains her attraction to Sherlock.

    Appearance

    Irene Adler is a tall Englishwoman in her twenties/thirties. She wears her dark hair in a vintage inspired updo, and dons bright red lipstick. She is seen wearing skintight black and white dresses.

    Relationships Sherlock Holmes

    Adler and Sherlock have a complex relationship. Her flirtatious interactions are undermined by the fact she engaged with him in the first place to extort the British government.

    Mycroft dispatches Sherlock to recover incriminating pictures of an undisclosed member of the Royal family taken by Irene Adler. Disguised, Sherlock attempts to infiltrate Adler’s home but she is expecting him. She appears naked rattling Sherlock and rendering him unable to make deductions. When the CIA arrives and forces him to open her safe, he deduces the passcode - Adler’s bust, waist, and hip measurements. Then, Adler incapacitates Sherlock and beats him into submission, taking the camera phone. While unconscious, Sherlock dreams about the hiker case and she helps him solve it. She reiterates her famous line, “Brainy... definitely the new sexy.”

    In the subsequent months, Adler flirts with him over text. Come Christmastime, Adler sends him her precious cameraphone and a body resembling hers appears dead. Sherlock lapses into depression.

    Irene reappears seeking Sherlock’s help. He deciphers Moriarty’s plane bombing plan in less than four seconds to impress her. Later, Adler initiates an intimate moment with Sherlock, asking if he’d like to have dinner, but he appears confused and does not reciprocate. When Adler’s plan is revealed to Sherlock via Mycroft, she berates him for believing that she was interested in him, but he exposes her lie, saying her elevated pulse meant she liked him after all. He guesses the password of her all-important camera phone is, “I AM SHER-LOCKED”, and she is forced to flee.

    Mycroft receives word that Adler has been executed by Pakistanian terrorists but it is revealed that Sherlock saved her, suggesting a level of shared sentiment. He keeps her camera phone in his breast pocket, near his heart.

    Adler sometimes appears naked in Sherlock's "mind palace" while he is making deductions, indicating he does hold physical attraction to her. She is named as one of Sherlock's 'pressure points' by Charles Augustus Magnussen and Eurus implies she and Sherlock had sex.

    Irene continues texting at Sherlock on occasion, having sent him a message on his birthday, unknowingly letting Watson know that she's still alive and deduce that Sherlock saved her.

    John Watson

    During their first meeting, John interrupts Adler's attempt to seduce Sherlock, and is thereafter visibly uncomfortable whenever the two of them are in a room together. He teases Sherlock about his fixation on Adler and jokingly suggests they use 'Hamish' for a baby name. She managed to fake her death on Christmas, but when she reappears to Watson, alive, he accuses her of playing with Sherlock's feelings. When she is believed dead after Sherlock deduces her phone's password, John tells Sherlock Irene sought a new identity from an American witness protection program to spare his feelings after hearing Mycroft's story that she was killed by terrorists.

    Later, Watson discovers that she's alive, Adler having sent Sherlock a text message on his birthday upon hearing the text alert she placed on Sherlock's phone. He encourages Sherlock to pursue his feelings for Irene, signifying that despite her criminal reputation, he acknowledges her as a potential significant other for Sherlock.

    Jim Moriarty

    Adler consults with Jim Moriarty on how to properly manipulate Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes.

    Mycroft Holmes

    Mycroft Holmes is an adversary of Irene's, whom she blackmails several times within "A Scandal in Belgravia".

    Molly Hooper

    After Sherlock remarks he can identify Adler from just her body, Molly is rendered slack-jawed with disbelief, and believes the two were in an intimate relationship.

    Kate

    Kate is Adler's assistant and close friend. She consults with her on fashion and is privy to details about Irene's clients. It is also implied she is one of Irene's sexual partners, when Irene comments, "Well, God knows she is used to that" after being informed that Kate is unconscious. This is further implied by Adler's remark that, "Everything works on you" while they discussed Irene's choice of outfit.

13. #13Season 1 - Episode 1: A Study in Pink

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    The police investigate the deaths of a series of people who all appear to have committed suicide by taking a poisonous pill.

    They turn to their unofficial consultant, Sherlock Holmes, who deduces various elements pointing to a serial killer. Meanwhile, Sherlock is introduced to Dr John Watson by a mutual friend, and the pair immediately move into a flat at 221B Baker Street.

    Plot

    Dr John Watson, an ex-army doctor injured in the war in Afghanistan, is having a nightmare with images of armed conflict and injured people that make him wake up in sweat and tears. His therapist encourages him to start writing everything that happens to him in a personal blog as a means to cope with his stress symptoms and his trust issues; however, John replies that nothing happens to him.

    There are three flashbacks into the previous year. On October 12th, a well-dressed businessman, Sir Jeffrey Patterson, is talking with his personal assistant on his mobile phone, asking for her help because he has gone to the wrong railway station. She tells him that he has no choice but to catch a cab, something that he is obviously not used to doing. It is also obvious that the two are having an affair. He is seen later on the floor of an office building nervously taking a capsule from a small glass jar and eating it, after which he has a seizure and dies. Later, the dead man's wife is seen giving a press release on how unexplained his suicide was while the PA cries on the background, trying not to be obvious.

    The next is of November 26th; two young men walk in the rain under one umbrella. One, James Phillimore, tries unsuccessfully to hail a cab, then decides to go home to find another umbrella. His friend Gary Jenkins waits for a while and walks back to search for him, but the friend never comes back. James is seen crying in an empty gym while taking a capsule from a jar. We see a newspaper headline hit the front page, announcing the 18-year-old's suicide.

    On January 27th, a wild party is in progress to celebrate the nomination of Beth Davenport, a local MP, to the Ministry of Transport. Two of the MP's assistants meet at the bar. One of them has removed the car keys from Beth's bag, in order to prevent her from driving They both suddenly look around, but their boss is not there any more. She is seen by her car, looking for her car keys, then looking around. She is then seen in a fenced yard full of rental containers crying, with a jar with capsules by her hand.

    Later, the Metropolitan Police Service holds a press conference about the MP's death. Sergeant Sally Donovan confirms that the MP's suicide resembles those of Sir Jeffrey Patterson and James Phillimore, and hence all three incidents are being treated as linked. Detective Inspector Greg Lestrade notes that all three suicides happened in locations where the victims had no reason to be and they all took the same poison, but apart from that, there are no other links between the victims although the police are sure that they will find it. At this moment, every single mobile phone in the room receives a text message with the word "WRONG!". Lestrade ignores the messages, and states that they have their best people investigating the case, and again every phone is texted the word "WRONG!". When questioned about precautionary measures, Lestrade states that so far, there is no reason for anyone to take alarm, and again the text message is sent to all except Lestrade, who receives a different one "You know where to find me. SH". Once the conference is over, Donovan complains to Lestrade about the behaviour of the message sender, but Lestrade says that he does not even know how 'he' does it, so he is unable to stop it.

    John is walking in the park when he is stopped by another man, Mike Stamford, who recognises him from their time as interns at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. They both sit to have a coffee and John's left hand spasm when talking about the army. John explains to his old friend that he might have to leave London, since he cannot afford an apartment on an army pension and it is very unlikely that he might find someone willing to share with him. Stanford tells him that he is the second person today that told him that same thing, and brings John to meet that person at the morgue.

    In the morgue, we meet Sherlock Holmes, in the middle of performing an experiment by beating a corpse with a riding crop to prove an alibi and ignoring the clumsy efforts of the mousy assistant, Molly Hooper, to flirt with him. In the lab upstairs, Sherlock and John meet for the first time. Sherlock asks Mike Stanford for his phone because he needs to text and John offers his to him. He asks John if he had been in Afghanistan or Iraq, much to Stanford's amusement, then asks John if he would mind having a flatmate who plays the violin when he is thinking and goes on without speaking for days, to which John wonders how Sherlock knows that he is looking for a flatmate. Sherlock reveals that he knows that John is an army doctor invalided home from Afghanistan who has a brother of whom he disapproves because of his drinking habits, because he walked out on his wife, and that his therapist rightly thinks that his limp is psychosomatic. Then he gives his name, and his address, 221B Baker Street, before dashing off.

    In another place, a woman with a pink skirt, jacket and shoes takes a small jar with the suicide pills from the floor, with a rather trembling hand.

    John and Sherlock meet the next day to see the apartment. It is owned by a lady, Mrs Hudson, a widow who is giving Sherlock a special deal because he ensured the conviction and execution of her husband in Florida.

    As they settle in, Sherlock eagerly asks for his opinion and is a bit hurt when John seems skeptical about Sherlock's claims, prompting him to retaliate and tell him that he could read John's military career from his face and leg and John's brother's drinking habits on the mobile phone. John asks how, but Sherlock does not answer. Mrs Hudson intervenes, asking Sherlock why he is not investigating the three serial suicides, just the type of case that would suit him.

    Sherlock looks at the window and sees a police car with its emergency lights on parked outside, and deduces that there has been a fourth suicide and that something must be different this time. Lestrade enters the room running and answers Sherlock's questions with an address as he explains that this fourth victim is different in one way: she left a note behind. Sherlock asks about who is in charge of forensics, but when he hears the name of Anderson, he complains that Anderson would not work with him and that he needs an assistant. He tells Lestrade that he will go anyway. Lestrade and his men leave; Sherlock prepares to follow in a cab, but comes back and invites John along to view the crime scene. He knows John's seen in his army career enough blood and violent death for any man, but challenges him, "Want to see more?" to which John replies fervently, "Oh, God, yes".

    As they ride the cab to the scene, Sherlock is texting on his phone while John stares. Sherlock finally tells John to ask the questions in his mind. The first ones are about where they are going and what does Sherlock do exactly, to which Sherlock replies that they are going to a crime scene where he will assist the police, as he is a consulting detective (the only one in the world: he invented the job). John replies that the police do not consult amateurs, and Sherlock retorts by explaining exactly how he deduced that John was an army doctor: the first was by his bearing and by the way he spoke. His injury occurred abroad, however judging from John's tan, which was only present on exposed skin, it was not a recreational visit. His limp is partly psychosomatic – something his therapist also believes – as John seems to forget he has it when standing still.

    As for the brother, John's expensive mobile phone – a model only six months old – is inscribed with a message; "Harry Watson, from Clara XXX". It also had scratches and small damage around the charging port. From that, Sherlock deduces that the phone was a gift from a family member who is of a similar age, as no elder person would have such a new piece of technology. The original owner had a very heavy drinking problem, obvious to Sherlock due to the scratches around the plug-in port; the original owner's hands tremble when they plugged in the phone to charge each night. The fact that John was gifted with such an expensive present indicates that the relationship between Harry and Clara is or has failed, and Harry is the one leaving the relationship – if it were the other way around, the phone would be kept due to sentiment. They also want to keep in touch, however John does not go to him for help; thus, John must disapprove in some way.

    Arriving at the crime scene, Sherlock asks if he got something wrong on his earlier deductions. John confirms the bad sibling relationship, the divorce and the drinking, but just one little error: "Harry" is short for Harriet – John's brother is in fact a sister. Sherlock acknowledges that he is not infallible. They are stopped at the yellow tape by Sergeant Donovan, who calls Sherlock a "freak", to which Sherlock retaliates by telling her that she did not make it home last night. John is introduced as a colleague, to Donovan's disbelief. Anderson, who is one of the forensic investigators, warns Sherlock that he does not want the crime scene contaminated, and Sherlock asks him if his wife is away for long. Anderson tries to dismiss it as a trick, but Sherlock points out that his deodorant is all over Sally and that the state of her knees indicates that she spent quite some time kneeling recently, leaving them both embarrassed while he and John enter the building. Once inside they are greeted by Lestrade who brings them to a room where the victim, identified as a woman by the name of Jennifer Wilson, lies facedown. Sherlock approaches the body and starts finding clues. He notices the message "Rache", scratched by the dying woman's fingernails. Anderson pipes up, mentioning that "Rache" is the German noun for revenge. Sherlock disregards Anderson, and completes the word into "Rachel", a lesson he learned from the Harry/Harriet error. He also notices that the dead woman's coat is wet, even on the inside of the collar, but the pocket umbrella is dry, suggesting that she had been in extremely windy, rainy weather – too windy for an umbrella.

    Sherlock notices that the woman's jewelry is clean, save for her well-worn wedding ring. The inside is clean, however she had neglected the outside, indicating that she had been unhappily married for more than ten years; she does not bother to clean it, but regularly removes it to conduct more illicit sexual affairs with people she would prefer to believe she were unmarried.

    Sherlock discovers, due to the weather, that she is from Cardiff and was in town for one night. He then asks John to examine the body, forcing Lestrade to acknowledge John as Sherlock's assistant, making the point that if the police want Sherlock's help, they have to do it his way. John tries to comply, but he is only able to say that the victim probably choked to death while seizing. Lestrade interrupts and asks Sherlock for his conclusions. Sherlock explains all that he has discovered, and asks where the case is. John cannot stop making comments on how brilliant he finds Sherlock's deductions, to the latter's surprised delight. Lestrade tells Sherlock that there was no suitcase, which triggers another set of deductions while Sherlock runs downstairs: the victim must have been accompanied by someone who took the suitcase, meaning that she was driven here and somehow forced to commit suicide by a serial killer, and indicating that the killer took the suitcase. It also means that the other three victims were all murdered.

    John is left at the crime scene alone with the police and makes his way to the exit. Donovan warns him to stay away from Sherlock, because he is a psychopath and, one day, he is going to get bored and start committing crimes himself. As John limps towards a main road in search of a cab, a phone booth rings. The same happens to the phone in a shop as he passes by and then yet another booth elsewhere. The third time, he picks it up and a voice calls his name tells him to check three security cameras on the vicinity: All three move and focus away from the booth towards the other side of the street while a black sedan arrives, and John is instructed to enter it, which he does.

    The woman in the car, who identifies herself as Anthea, but admits that it is not her real name, ignores his questions and keys on the mobile. He is driven to a warehouse where a tall man leaning on an umbrella awaits. He offers him a seat, but John defiantly remains standing. The mysterious man interrogates John about his relationship with Sherlock, to which John replies that he met Sherlock just yesterday, and then asks the man if he is Sherlock's friend. The man replies that Sherlock does not have friends, but he is the closest thing: an enemy, arch-enemy actually. John's mobile tells him that he has a text message – Sherlock, asking John to meet him at Baker Street whenever convenient. The man asks John if he plans to continue his association with Sherlock, to which John replies that it is none of his business. The man now tells John that he is concerned about Sherlock and offers John money in exchange for information on him, but John refuses while another text message rings, telling John that regardless of convenience, Sherlock wants to see him at their potential flat. The man tells John that he is very loyal very quickly to Sherlock and asks him if despite the trust issues described by his therapist, he has decided to put his trust in Sherlock. John turns back to leave, but the man sends a parting shot: his left hand (the one with the intermittent tremor) tells that he is going to move in with Sherlock, despite multiple warnings to stay away. Angrily, John turns around and the man asks him to show him his left hand. It is not trembling, even when the man touches it. The man tells John that when he walks with Sherlock, he sees the battlefield again, and that he should fire his therapist: John's hand does not tremble because he is stressed and haunted by war, or it would be trembling now since he is in a stressful situation, but because he misses it. John's phone signals a third text message: "Could be dangerous. SH" and John follows the woman back to the car, where he asks her to stop by his old apartment to take his gun, and then drive him to Baker Street. He also tries unsuccessfully to flirt with her. When John gets home, Sherlock asks him to text the message "What happened at Lauriston Gdns? I must have blacked out. 22 Northumberland St. Please Come," to Jennifer Wilson's phone number. Meanwhile, Sherlock retrieves a small pink suitcase from the kitchen and opens it, adding sarcastically to a surprised John that despite the suitcase and the text message, he is not the killer. Then Sherlock explains to John that he deduced that the killer drove the woman to Lauriston Gardens but made the mistake of driving away with the suitcase, a very colourful one (pink) which will draw attention especially on a man. He had to have gotten rid of it quickly, so Sherlock searched for potential dump sites near the crime scene located in areas accessible by car but isolated and found the right skip in less than one hour.

    There is one thing missing: her mobile phone. A serial adulterer would be careful where she leaves her phone, so it is possible that the killer has it, on purpose or by mistake. The text message that John sent could only have meaning to the killer, so when John's phone rings, Sherlock realises that the hunt is on and asks John to come with him. John tells Sherlock about Donovan's warning, that Sherlock gets off on this, to which Sherlock replies that he said "dangerous", and John is here, proving that he is just as bad. Sherlock and John walk to a small Italian restaurant overlooking 22 Northumberland Street, where the owner, an old "friend" of Sherlock, insists on serving him and his "date" a nice free dinner. John tries unsuccessfully to explain that he is not Sherlock' date, but eats the dinner anyway while Sherlock ignores the food and watches the street. John profits for the moment by asking Sherlock some private questions. After an extraordinarily awkward conversation, in which it is established that John is straight and Sherlock "married to his work", Sherlock says he believes that the killer is someone who can stalk and approach victims on the streets of London without arousing any suspicion.

    At that moment, a taxi stops in front of 22 Northumberland Street and the passenger in the back looks around but does not get out. Sherlock leaves the restaurant in a hurry, and John follows, his cane forgotten by the chair, at the same time as the taxi moves away. John memorizes the number plate but Sherlock visualises in his head the route (in an overhead grid view of the streets, showing traffic lights, one-way streets, and detours) that the taxi must follow to reach the closest main street and sees an alternative route via the alleyways and rooftops that will allow him to intercept it. He pursues it with John close to his heels but when they reach the taxi and meet the passenger, Sherlock realises that he is just an American tourist newly arrived from Los Angeles, judging from his teeth, his tan, and a tag on his luggage that has the initials "LAX" and "LHR"; meaning, the killer did not make it to the rendezvous point. Sherlock and John run back to Baker Street and, while still at the entrance hall, the doorbell rings. It is the restaurant owner, with John's cane. Sherlock texted him to have it sent back as a housewarming gift to John, since Sherlock had little doubt now that John would be staying with him in Baker Street.

    Mrs Hudson greets them, panicking, because the police are upstairs and Sherlock and John go up to find their living room being systematically savaged by Lestrade and his people on a pretend drug bust. Lestrade wants to make a point too, plus recover the evidence from the suitcase that he was sure Sherlock would find. John laughs at the drugs excuse but Sherlock asks him to be quiet, indicating that Sherlock might have had some problems of that kind in the past. Anderson is all for arresting Sherlock as the murder suspect, but Lestrade wants Sherlock's insights. "Rachel", it has been discovered, was the name of the murdered woman's stillborn daughter, dead for fourteen years. Sherlock is dubious, and asks why the victim would have carved her daughter's name as she was dying, pondering outloud the probable connection to the case, she was obvious trying to pass on crucial information. Mrs Hudson enters and tells Sherlock that his taxi has arrived. Annoyed, he says he did not order one. Mrs Hudson is told about the drug search, and she complains about the mess. Sherlock explodes, shouting for everyone to shut up so he can think. The clues begin to gel for Sherlock. Mrs Hudson asks "What about your taxi?" Sherlock again responds in a rage, but stops short, pauses, and suddenly realises what he had been missing; he knew that the woman was clever, due to being able to hide a string of lovers, however he had failed to connect her intelligence with her death; she did not lose her phone – she planted the phone on her killer. As she did not have a laptop, the word she tried to scratch on the floor, "Rachel," was the password to her smartphone's account, which enabled those who knew it to activate the GPS and discover who had the phone.

    Mrs Hudson again insistently mentions the taxi driver. Sherlock gets up from the laptop, and John sits down, discovering that that the phone is indicating it is at 221B Baker Street. Having just come up the stairs to the edge of the room, the cabbie, #71126, waits patiently. It dawns on Sherlock the cabbie fits the profile of the killer, and that he has the missing phone. While the others search, the cabbie takes the victim's pink phone out of his pocket and texts "COME WITH ME" to Sherlock's phone and returns to his cab. Seeing the message, Sherlock decides to follow cabbie outside without telling anyone. Downstairs, the cabbie confesses to the murders but warns that if Sherlock calls the police now, he will surrender quietly, but he will never reveal how his victims died. Sherlock will know the details only if he gets in the cab and goes with the cabbie. Sherlock enters the taxi while John, looking through the window, dials the victims phone. It rings unanswered in the cab. Lestrade and the police quit the apartment search, since the victim's phone is clearly ringing, but it is not ringing in the apartment.

    The cabbie admits to Sherlock that he recognised him when he chased his cab. He had been warned about him and he read his website. Sherlock asks him who gave the warning, but gets no answer. The cabbie drives to an empty school building and briefly threatens Sherlock with a gun, but it is unnecessary since they both know that Sherlock will see it to the end. John, still standing next to the laptop logged in to the victims account, hears it beep as it updates the GPS location of the victim's phone, and he rushes off in pursuit.

    Sherlock and the cabbie sit face-to-face in a large study room at the Roland Kerr Further Education College, where the cabbie challenges Sherlock to a supreme battle of wits, to the death. The cabbie puts on the table two bottles, each containing a large pill, explaining that one is quite harmless, but the other is deadly poison. When Sherlock selects the pill that he deduces to be safe, the cabbie promises that he will eat the other pill at the same time, and they will then find out who the "proper genius" is, and who is dead. Sherlock ensures that both of the bottles are identical, to which the cabbie verifies this fact. Sherlock has deduced the correct choice to make, and the cabbie asks Sherlock for his best game. The cabbie brags that he is not a novice, he has already won this game four times. He asserts that it is not a game of chance, but chess, confidently insisting for a second time that it is not a matter of chance, but genius.

    John enters a building, searching it frantically and calling out for Sherlock, who is busy playing the cabbie's game. Summing up his observations, Sherlock ventures that the "game", as the cabbie calls it, is about his children.

    The cabbie confirms he has been estranged from his children for three years and has been told that he is dying. He adds that the inheritance he will leave for them is only meagre, And in that moment, focusing on his children and his mortality, the cabbie looks to the pill bottle on his left. Sherlock deduces that is where death is.

    The game over, Sherlock suggests to the cabbie that he could simply walk out, refusing the challenge, but the cabbie pulls out a pistol to force Sherlock to choose a pill. Sherlock chooses to be shot, having easily discerned the "pistol" to be a harmless cigarette lighter.

    The cabbie pulls the trigger, and the lighter lights up. Sherlock gets up to leave, saying he looks forward to the court case, but the cabbie asks him if he figured it out. He taunts Sherlock to choose a pill again, to prove that he indeed has the superior wits to deduce the safe one, saying that Sherlock is driven by boredom and an addiction to thrill-seeking and is simply unable to resist the challenge. Sherlock explains that he solved the puzzle through "child's play".

    Sherlock picks the bottle in front of the cabbie and they both face each other. John, searching frantically, sees Sherlock and the cabbie from a building across the street. With the cabbie edging Sherlock, both men prepare to take their pills. Sherlock delays, holding his pill up to the light inspecting it closely, when a crack shot is fired through a window pane, hitting the cabbie squarely in the chest. Sherlock runs and looks through the bullet hole in the broken window, to the building across the street, but he does not see the shooter. Sherlock returns to the cabbie and asks if he made the right choice, but the cabbie just smiles. Angry, Sherlock ruthlessly drives his foot into the cabbie's wounded shoulder, demanding the name of the serial killer's sponsor. In pain the cabbie screams "Moriarty!" and dies.

    The incentive for the murders: Moriarty promised the cabbie to send money to support his children for each successful murder. These unsolved serial murders would attract Sherlock, the intended target. Moriarty presumed that Sherlock would not be clever enough to survive the battle of wits.

    Outside, Scotland Yard has surrounded the perimeter and Sherlock is wearing a shock blanket, since he is being treated for shock. Lestrade questions Sherlock about the shooter and he starts to make some deductions. He suggests that the shooter was more than a crack shot, but also a skilled marksman who acclimatised to violence. However, the fact that they waited for Sherlock to be in immediate danger suggests that they have a strong moral code. Sherlock trails off as he looks over to John, realising that his new flatmate must have been the shooter. He turns to Lestrade and pretends to be ranting nonsense because of the shock and rejoins John outside the police lines. John pretends to have just arrived but Sherlock tells him that he knows the truth and expresses his concern for John, who has just killed a man. John admits that, but states that the driver was not a nice man, plus an awful cabbie. They both start giggling as they leave, and John asks Sherlock if he would have taken the pill. Sherlock tries to deny it, but John says that Sherlock gets his kicks risking his life to prove that he is clever, which just proves that he is an idiot like the rest of the human race.

    At that moment, the tall man who "kidnapped" John appears and Sherlock recognises him. He wants Sherlock to join forces with him. A short squabble between the two reveals that the mysterious man is Sherlock's brother, Mycroft Holmes. Mycroft insists that he is a minor British government official, but Sherlock informs John that he is no such thing – he is the British government.

    Sherlock and John walk away to a dim sum dinner while they talk about the new mystery man: Moriarty. Mycroft makes a note with Anthea to have Sherlock's and John's surveillance status upgraded to grade three active.

    In a bedsit somewhere in London, John Watson is having a nightmare. He is reliving his Army days and his team is under fire somewhere abroad. A colleague cries out his name as the gunfire continues. Finally he jolts awake and sits up in bed wide-eyed and breathing heavily until he realises that he is safe and a long way from the war. Flopping back onto his pillow, he tries to calm his breathing as he continues to be haunted by his memories. Eventually, unable to stop himself, he begins to weep.

    Some time later he has sat up on the side of the bed and switched on the bedside lamp. It’s still dark outside. John sits quietly, wrapped up in his thoughts, and looks across to the desk on the other side of the room. A metal walking cane is leaning against the desk. He looks at it unhappily, then continues to gaze into the distance. He will not be sleeping again tonight.DAY TIME. The sun has finally risen and John, now wearing a dressing gown over his night wear, hobbles across the room leaning heavily on his cane. In his other hand he has a mug of tea and an apple, both of which he puts down onto the desk. The mug bears the arms of the Royal Army Medical Corps. Sitting down, he opens the drawer in the desk to get his laptop. As he lifts the computer out of the drawer, we see that he also has a pistol in there. Putting the laptop onto the desk and opening the lid he looks at the webpage which has automatically loaded. It reads, “The personal blog of Dr. John H. Watson”. The rest of the page is blank. Later he is at his psychotherapist’s office and he sits in a chair opposite her.

    ELLA: How’s your blog going?

    JOHN: Yeah, good. (He clears his throat awkwardly.) Very good.

    ELLA: You haven’t written a word, have you?

    JOHN (pointing to Ella’s notepad on her lap): You just wrote, “Still has trust issues.”

    ELLA: And you read my writing upside down. D’you see what I mean?

    (John smiles awkwardly.)

    ELLA: John, you’re a soldier, and it’s gonna take you a while to adjust to civilian life; and writing a blog about everything that happens to you will honestly help you.

    (John gazes back at her, his face full of despair.)

    JOHN: Nothing happens to me.

    Opening credits.

    OCTOBER 12TH. A well-dressed middle-aged business man walks across the concourse of a busy London railway station talking into his mobile phone.

    SIR JEFFREY: What d’you mean, there’s no ruddy car?

    (His secretary is at his office talking into her phone as she walks across the room.)

    HELEN: He went to Waterloo. I’m sorry. Get a cab.

    SIR JEFFREY: I never get cabs.

    (Helen looks around furtively to make sure that nobody is within earshot, then speaks quietly into the phone.)HELEN: I love you.

    SIR JEFFREY (suggestively): When?

    HELEN (giggling): Get a cab!

    (Smiling as he hangs up, Sir Jeffrey looks around for the cab rank.)

    Some unspecified time later, sitting on the floor by the window of what appears to be an office many storeys above ground, Sir Jeffrey unscrews the lid of a small glass bottle which contains three large capsules. Tipping one out, he stares ahead of himself wide-eyed and afraid and puts the capsule into his mouth. Later, he is writhing on the floor in agony. We can now see that the office in which his dying body is lying is empty of furniture.

    POLICE PRESS CONFERENCE

    Flanked by a police officer and another man who may be her solicitor or a family member, Sir Jeffrey’s wife is sitting at a table making a statement to the press.

    MARGARET PATTERSON (tearfully as she reads from her statement): My husband was a happy man who lived life to the full. He loved his family and his work – and that he should have taken his own life in this way is a mystery and a shock to all who knew him.

    (Standing at one side of the room, Helen tries to keep control of her feelings but eventually closes her eyes and lets the tears roll down her face.)

    NOVEMBER 26TH. Two boys in their late teens are running down a street at night in the pouring rain. Gary has opened a fold-up umbrella and is trying to keep it under control in the wind, while Jimmy has his jacket pulled up over his head. He calls out in triumph when a black cab approaches with its yellow sign lit to show that it is available for hire.

    JIMMY: Yes, yes, taxi, yes!

    (He whistles and waves to the taxi but it drives past. He makes an exasperated sound, then starts to head back in the direction he just came, looking round at his friend.)

    JIMMY: I’ll be back in two minutes, mate.

    GARY: What?

    JIMMY: I’m just going home; get my mum’s umbrella.

    GARY: You can share mine!

    JIMMY: Two minutes, all right?

    (He walks away. Some time later Gary looks at his watch, apparently worried because Jimmy has been gone for too long. He turns around and heads back in pursuit of his friend.)

    Some unspecified time later, Jimmy sits crying and clutching a small glass bottle which contains three large capsules. He unscrews the lid, his hands shaking, and sobs. We see that he is sitting on a window ledge inside a sports centre overlooking a sports court.The following day, an article in The Daily Express runs the headline “Boy, 18, kills himself inside sports centre”

    JANUARY 27TH. At a public venue, a party is being held. A large poster showing a photograph of the guest of honour is labelled “Your local MP, Beth Davenport, Junior Minister for Transport.” As pounding dance music comes from inside the room, one of Beth’s aides walks out of the room and goes over to her male colleague who is standing at the bar. He looks at her in exasperation.

    AIDE 1: Is she still dancing?

    AIDE 2: Yeah, if you can call it that.

    AIDE 1: Did you get the car keys off her?

    AIDE 2 (showing him the keys): Got ’em out of her bag.

    (The man smiles in satisfaction, then looks into the dance hall and frowns.)

    AIDE 1: Where is she?

    Beth has slipped out of the venue and is standing at the side of her car searching through her handbag for her keys. She sighs when she can’t find them and looks around helplessly.Some unspecified time later, Beth stands inside a portacabin on a building site and sobs hysterically. As she continues to cry, she reaches out a trembling hand towards a small glass bottle which contains three large capsules.

    POLICE PRESS CONFERENCE

    Detective Inspector Lestrade sits at the table looking uncomfortable while his colleague sitting beside him, Detective Sergeant Sally Donovan, addresses the gathered press reporters.

    DONOVAN: The body of Beth Davenport, Junior Minister for Transport, was found late last night on a building site in Greater London. Preliminary investigations suggest that this was suicide. We can confirm that this apparent suicide closely resembles those of Sir Jeffrey Patterson and James Phillimore. In the light of this, these incidents are now being treated as linked. The investigation is ongoing but Detective Inspector Lestrade will take questions now.

    REPORTER 1: Detective Inspector, how can suicides be linked?

    LESTRADE: Well, they all took the same poison; um, they were all found in places they had no reason to be; none of them had shown any prior indication of ...

    REPORTER 1 (interrupting): But you can’t have serial suicides.

    LESTRADE: Well, apparently you can.

    REPORTER 2: These three people: there’s nothing that links them?

    LESTRADE: There’s no link been found yet, but we’re looking for it. There has to be one.

    (Everybody’s mobile phone trills a text alert simultaneously. As they look at their phones, each message reads: Wrong! Donovan looks at the same message on her own phone.)

    DONOVAN: If you’ve all got texts, please ignore them.

    REPORTER 1: Just says, ‘Wrong’.

    DONOVAN: Yeah, well, just ignore that. Okay, if there are no more questions for Detective Inspector Lestrade, I’m going to bring this session to an end.

    REPORTER 2: But if they’re suicides, what are you investigating?

    LESTRADE: As I say, these ... these suicides are clearly linked. Um, it’s an ... it’s an unusual situation. We’ve got our best people investigating ...

    (Everybody’s mobile trills another text alert and again each message reads: Wrong!)

    REPORTER 1: Says, ‘Wrong’ again.

    (Lestrade looks despairingly at Sally.)

    DONOVAN (to the reporters): One more question.

    REPORTER 3: Is there any chance that these are murders, and if they are, is this the work of a serial killer?

    LESTRADE: I ... I know that you like writing about these, but these do appear to be suicides. We know the difference. The, um, the poison was clearly self-administered.

    REPORTER 3: Yes, but if they are murders, how do people keep themselves safe?

    LESTRADE: Well, don’t commit suicide.

    (The reporter looks at him in shock. Donovan covers her mouth and murmurs a warning.)

    DONOVAN: “Daily Mail.”

    (Lestrade grimaces and looks at the reporters again.)

    LESTRADE: Obviously this is a frightening time for people, but all anyone has to do is exercise reasonable precautions. We are all as safe as we want to be.

    (Again the mobiles trill their text alerts, and once more each message reads: Wrong! But Lestrade’s phone takes a moment longer to alert him to a text and when he looks at it, the message reads: You know where to find me. SH Looking exasperated, he puts the phone into his pocket and looks at the reporters as he stands up.)

    LESTRADE: Thank you.

    Shortly afterwards, he and Donovan are walking through the offices of New Scotland Yard.

    DONOVAN: You’ve got to stop him doing that. He’s making us look like idiots.

    LESTRADE: Well, if you can tell me how he does it, I’ll stop him.

    RUSSELL SQUARE PARK

    John is limping briskly through the park, leaning heavily on his cane. As he walks past a man sitting on a bench, the man stares after him, clearly recognising him. He calls out.)

    MIKE: John! John Watson!

    (John turns back to Mike as he stands up and hurries towards him, smiling.)

    MIKE: Stamford. Mike Stamford. We were at Bart’s together.

    JOHN: Yes, sorry, yes, Mike. (He takes Mike’s offered hand and shakes it.) Hello, hi.

    MIKE (grinning and gesturing to himself): Yeah, I know. I got fat!

    JOHN (trying to sound convincing): No.

    MIKE: I heard you were abroad somewhere, getting shot at. What happened?

    JOHN (awkwardly): I got shot.

    (They both look embarrassed.)

    A little later they have bought take-away coffees and are sitting side by side on a bench in the park. Mike looks at John worriedly. Oblivious, John takes a sip from his coffee then looks across to his old colleague.

    JOHN: Are you still at Bart’s, then?

    MIKE: Teaching now. Bright young things, like we used to be. God, I hate them!

    (They both laugh.)

    MIKE: What about you? Just staying in town ’til you get yourself sorted?

    JOHN: I can’t afford London on an Army pension.

    MIKE: Ah, and you couldn’t bear to be anywhere else. That’s not the John Watson I know.

    JOHN (uncomfortably): Yeah, I’m not the John Watson ...

    (He stops. Mike awkwardly looks away and drinks his coffee. John switches his own cup to his right hand and looks down at his left hand, clenching it into a fist as he tries to control the tremor that has started. Mike looks round at him again.)

    MIKE: Couldn’t Harry help?

    JOHN (sarcastically): Yeah, like that’s gonna happen!

    MIKE (shrugging): I dunno – get a flatshare or something?

    JOHN: Come on – who’d want me for a flatmate?

    (Mike chuckles thoughtfully.)

    JOHN: What?

    MIKE: Well, you’re the second person to say that to me today.

    JOHN: Who was the first?

    ST BARTHOLOMEW’S HOSPITAL MORGUE

    Sherlock Holmes unzips the body bag lying on the table and peers at the corpse inside. He sniffs.

    SHERLOCK: How fresh?

    (Pathologist Molly Hooper walks over.)

    MOLLY: Just in. Sixty-seven, natural causes. He used to work here. I knew him. He was nice.

    (Zipping up the bag, Sherlock straightens, turns to her and smiles falsely.)

    SHERLOCK: Fine. We’ll start with the riding crop.

    Shortly afterwards the body has been removed from the bag and is lying on its back on the table. In the observation room next door, Molly watches and flinches while Sherlock flogs the body repeatedly and violently with a riding crop, but her face is also full of admiration. She walks back into the room and as he finishes and straightens up, breathless, she goes over to him.

    MOLLY (jokingly): So, bad day, was it?

    SHERLOCK (ignoring her banter as he gets out a notebook and starts writing in it): I need to know what bruises form in the next twenty minutes. A man’s alibi depends on it. Text me.

    MOLLY: Listen, I was wondering: maybe later, when you’re finished ...

    (Sherlock glances across to her as he is writing, then does a double-take and frowns at her.)

    SHERLOCK: Are you wearing lipstick? You weren’t wearing lipstick before.

    MOLLY (nervously): I, er, I refreshed it a bit.

    (She smiles at him flirtatiously. He gives her a long oblivious look, then goes back to writing in his notebook.)

    SHERLOCK: Sorry, you were saying?

    MOLLY (gazing at him intently): I was wondering if you’d like to have coffee.

    (Sherlock puts away his notebook.)

    SHERLOCK: Black, two sugars, please. I’ll be upstairs.

    (He walks away.)

    MOLLY: ... Okay.

    BART’S LAB

    Sherlock is standing at the far end of the lab using a pipette to squeeze a few drops of liquid onto a Petri dish. Mike knocks on the door and brings John in with him. Sherlock glances across at them briefly before looking at his work again. John limps into the room, looking around at all the equipment.

    JOHN: Well, bit different from my day.

    MIKE (chuckling): You’ve no idea!

    SHERLOCK (sitting down): Mike, can I borrow your phone? There’s no signal on mine.

    MIKE: And what’s wrong with the landline?

    SHERLOCK: I prefer to text.

    MIKE: Sorry. It’s in my coat.

    (John fishes in his back pocket and takes out his own phone.)

    JOHN: Er, here. Use mine.

    SHERLOCK: Oh. Thank you.

    (Glancing briefly at Mike, he stands up and walks towards John. Mike introduces him.)

    MIKE: It’s an old friend of mine, John Watson.

    (Sherlock reaches John and takes his phone from him. Turning partially away from him, he flips open the keypad and starts to type on it.)

    SHERLOCK: Afghanistan or Iraq?

    (John frowns. Nearby, Mike smiles knowingly. John looks at Sherlock as he continues to type.)

    JOHN: Sorry?

    SHERLOCK: Which was it – Afghanistan or Iraq?

    (He briefly raises his eyes to John’s before looking back to the phone. John hesitates, then looks across to Mike, confused. Mike just smiles smugly.)

    JOHN: Afghanistan. Sorry, how did you know ...?

    (Sherlock looks up as Molly comes into the room holding a mug of coffee.)

    SHERLOCK: Ah, Molly, coffee. Thank you.

    (He shuts down John’s phone and hands it back while Molly brings the mug over to him. He takes it and looks closely at her. Her mouth is paler again.)

    SHERLOCK: What happened to the lipstick?

    MOLLY (smiling awkwardly at him): It wasn’t working for me.

    SHERLOCK: Really? I thought it was a big improvement. Your mouth’s too small now.

    (He turns and walks back to his station, taking a sip from the mug and grimacing at the taste.)

    MOLLY: ... Okay.

    (She turns and heads back towards the door.)

    SHERLOCK: How do you feel about the violin?

    (John looks round at Molly but she’s on her way out the door. He glances at Mike who is still smiling smugly, and finally realizes that Sherlock is talking to him.)

    JOHN: I’m sorry, what?

    SHERLOCK (typing on a laptop keyboard as he talks): I play the violin when I’m thinking. Sometimes I don’t talk for days on end. (He looks round at John.) Would that bother you? Potential flatmates should know the worst about each other.

    (He throws a hideously false smile at John, who looks at him blankly for a moment then looks across to Mike.)

    JOHN: Oh, you ... you told him about me?

    MIKE: Not a word.

    JOHN (turning to Sherlock again): Then who said anything about flatmates?

    SHERLOCK (picking up his greatcoat and putting it on): I did. Told Mike this morning that I must be a difficult man to find a flatmate for. Now here he is just after lunch with an old friend, clearly just home from military service in Afghanistan. Wasn’t that difficult a leap.

    JOHN: How did you know about Afghanistan?

    (Sherlock ignores the question, wraps his scarf around his neck, then picks up his mobile and checks it.)

    SHERLOCK: Got my eye on a nice little place in central London. Together we ought to be able to afford it.

    (He walks towards John.)

    SHERLOCK: We’ll meet there tomorrow evening; seven o’clock. Sorry – gotta dash. I think I left my riding crop in the mortuary.

    (Putting his phone into the inside pocket of his coat, he walks past John and heads for the door.)

    JOHN (turning to look at him): Is that it?

    (Sherlock turns back from the door and strolls closer to John again.)

    SHERLOCK: Is that what?

    JOHN: We’ve only just met and we’re gonna go and look at a flat?

    SHERLOCK: Problem?

    (John smiles in disbelief, looking across to Mike for help, but his friend just continues to smile as he looks at Sherlock. John turns back to the younger man.)

    JOHN: We don’t know a thing about each other; I don’t know where we’re meeting; I don’t even know your name.

    (Sherlock looks closely at him for a moment before speaking.)

    SHERLOCK: I know you’re an Army doctor and you’ve been invalided home from Afghanistan. I know you’ve got a brother who’s worried about you but you won’t go to him for help because you don’t approve of him – possibly because he’s an alcoholic; more likely because he recently walked out on his wife. And I know that your therapist thinks your limp’s psychosomatic – quite correctly, I’m afraid.

    (John looks down at his leg and cane and shuffles his feet awkwardly.)

    SHERLOCK (smugly): That’s enough to be going on with, don’t you think?

    (He turns and walks to the door again, opening it and going through, but then leans back into the room again.)

    SHERLOCK: The name’s Sherlock Holmes and the address is two two one B Baker Street.

    (He click-winks at John, then looks round at Mike.)

    SHERLOCK: Afternoon.

    (Mike raises a finger in farewell as Sherlock disappears from the room. As the door slams shut behind him, John turns and looks at Mike in disbelief. Mike smiles and nods to him.)

    MIKE: Yeah. He’s always like that.

    LATER

    John has returned to his bedsit. Sitting down on the bed, he takes out his mobile phone and flicks through the menu to find Messages Sent. The last message reads: If brother has green ladder, arrest brother. SH)

    (Puzzled, John looks at the message for a long moment, then looks across to the table where his laptop is lying. He pushes himself to his feet and walks over to the table. Shortly afterwards, he has called up a search website called Quest and types “Sherlock Holmes” into the search box.)

    In an unknown location, a woman wearing a pink overcoat and pink high-heeled shoes slowly reaches down with a trembling hand towards a clear glass bottle which is standing on the bare floorboards and which contains three large capsules. Her fingers close around the bottle and she slowly lifts it off the floor, her hand still shaking.

    BAKER STREET

    John limps along the road and reaches the door marked 221B just as a black cab pulls up at the kerb behind him. John knocks on the door as Sherlock gets out of the cab.

    SHERLOCK: Hello.

    (He reaches in through the window of the cab and hands some money to the driver.)

    SHERLOCK: Thank you.

    (John turns towards him as he walks over.)

    JOHN: Ah, Mr Holmes.

    SHERLOCK: Sherlock, please.

    (They shake hands.)

    JOHN: Well, this is a prime spot. Must be expensive.

    SHERLOCK: Oh, Mrs. Hudson, the landlady, she’s giving me a special deal. Owes me a favor. A few years back, her husband got himself sentenced to death in Florida. I was able to help out.

    JOHN: Sorry – you stopped her husband being executed?

    SHERLOCK: Oh no. I ensured it.

    (He smiles at John as the front door is opened by Mrs Hudson, who opens her arms to the younger man.)

    MRS. HUDSON: Sherlock, hello.

    (Sherlock turns and walks into her arms, hugging her briefly, then steps back and presents John to her.)

    SHERLOCK: Mrs. Hudson, Doctor John Watson.

    MRS HUDSON: Hello.

    JOHN: How do?

    MRS. HUDSON (gesturing John inside): Come in.

    JOHN: Thank you.

    SHERLOCK: Shall we?

    MRS. HUDSON: Yeah.

    (The men go inside and Mrs. Hudson closes the door. Sherlock trots up the stairs to the first floor landing, then pauses and waits for John to hobble upstairs. As John reaches the top of the stairs, Sherlock opens the door ahead of him and walks in, revealing the living room of the flat. John follows him in and looks around the room and at all the possessions and boxes scattered around it.)

    JOHN: Well, this could be very nice. Very nice indeed.

    SHERLOCK: Yes. Yes, I think so. My thoughts precisely.

    (He looks around the flat happily.)

    SHERLOCK: So I went straight ahead and moved in.

    JOHN (simultaneously): Soon as we get all this rubbish cleaned out ... Oh.

    (He pauses, embarrassed, when he realises what Sherlock was saying.)

    JOHN: So this is all ...

    SHERLOCK: Well, obviously I can, um, straighten things up a bit.

    (He walks across the room and makes a half-hearted attempt to tidy up a little, throwing a couple of folders into a box and then taking some apparently unopened envelopes across to the fireplace where he puts them onto the mantelpiece and then stabs a multi tool knife into them. John has noticed something else on the mantelpiece and lifts his cane to point at it.)

    JOHN: That’s a skull.

    SHERLOCK: Friend of mine. When I say ‘friend’ ...

    (Mrs. Hudson has followed them into the room. She picks up a cup and saucer while Sherlock takes off his greatcoat and scarf.)

    MRS. HUDSON: What do you think, then, Doctor Watson? There’s another bedroom upstairs if you’ll be needing two bedrooms.

    JOHN: Of course we’ll be needing two.

    MRS. HUDSON: Oh, don’t worry; there’s all sorts round here. (Confidentially, dropping her voice to a whisper by the end of the sentence) Mrs Turner next door’s got married ones.

    (John looks across to Sherlock, expecting him to confirm that he and John are not involved in that way but Sherlock appears oblivious to what’s being insinuated. Mrs. Hudson walks across to the kitchen, then turns back and frowns at Sherlock.)

    MRS. HUDSON: Oh, Sherlock. The mess you’ve made.

    (She goes into the kitchen and starts tidying up, and John walks over to one of the two armchairs, plumps up a cushion on the chair and then drops heavily down into it. He looks across to Sherlock who is still tidying up a little.)

    JOHN: I looked you up on the internet last night.

    SHERLOCK (turning around to him): Anything interesting?

    JOHN: Found your website, The Science of Deduction.

    SHERLOCK (smiling proudly): What did you think?

    (John throws him a “you have got to be kidding me” type of look. Sherlock looks hurt.)

    JOHN: You said you could identify a software designer by his tie and an airline pilot by his left thumb.

    SHERLOCK: Yes; and I can read your military career in your face and your leg, and your brother’s drinking habits in your mobile phone.

    JOHN: How?

    (Sherlock smiles and turns away. Mrs Hudson comes out of the kitchen reading a newspaper.)

    MRS. HUDSON: What about these suicides then, Sherlock? I thought that’d be right up your street. Three exactly the same.

    (Sherlock walks over to the window of the living room at the sound of a car pulling up outside.)

    SHERLOCK: Four.

    (He looks down at the car as someone gets out of it. The vehicle is a police car with its lights flashing on the roof.)

    SHERLOCK: There’s been a fourth. And there’s something different this time.

    MRS. HUDSON: A fourth?

    (Sherlock turns as D.I. Lestrade [who apparently must have picked the lock on the front door ... like you do ...] trots up the stairs and comes into the living room.)

    SHERLOCK: Where?

    LESTRADE: Brixton, Lauriston Gardens.

    SHERLOCK: What’s new about this one? You wouldn’t have come to get me if there wasn’t something different.

    LESTRADE: You know how they never leave notes?

    SHERLOCK: Yeah.

    LESTRADE: This one did. Will you come?

    SHERLOCK: Who’s on forensics?

    LESTRADE: It’s Anderson.

    SHERLOCK (grimacing): Anderson won’t work with me.

    LESTRADE: Well, he won’t be your assistant.

    SHERLOCK: I need an assistant.

    LESTRADE: Will you come?

    SHERLOCK: Not in a police car. I’ll be right behind.

    LESTRADE: Thank you.

    (Looking round at John and Mrs. Hudson for a moment, he turns and hurries off down the stairs. Sherlock waits until he has reached the front door, then leaps into the air and clenches his fists triumphantly before twirling around the room happily.)

    SHERLOCK: Brilliant! Yes! Ah, four serial suicides, and now a note! Oh, it’s Christmas!

    (Picking up his scarf and coat he starts to put them on while heading for the kitchen.)

    SHERLOCK: Mrs. Hudson, I’ll be late. Might need some food.

    MRS. HUDSON: I’m your landlady, dear, not your housekeeper.

    SHERLOCK: Something cold will do. John, have a cup of tea, make yourself at home. Don’t wait up!

    (Grabbing a small leather pouch from the kitchen table, he opens the kitchen door and disappears from view. Mrs. Hudson turns back to John.)

    MRS. HUDSON: Look at him, dashing about! My husband was just the same.

    (John grimaces at her repeated implication that he and Sherlock are an item.)

    MRS. HUDSON: But you’re more the sitting-down type, I can tell.

    (John looks uncomfortable.)

    MRS. HUDSON (turning towards the door): I’ll make you that cuppa. You rest your leg.

    JOHN (loudly): Damn my leg!

    (His response was instinctive and he is immediately apologetic even as Mrs. Hudson turns back to him in shock.)

    JOHN: Sorry, I’m so sorry. It’s just sometimes this bloody thing ...

    (He bashes his leg with his cane.)

    MRS. HUDSON: I understand, dear; I’ve got a hip.

    (She turns towards the door again.)

    JOHN: Cup of tea’d be lovely, thank you.

    MRS. HUDSON: Just this once, dear. I’m not your housekeeper.

    JOHN: Couple of biscuits too, if you’ve got ’em.

    MRS. HUDSON: Not your housekeeper!

    (John has picked up the newspaper which Mrs. Hudson put down and now he looks at the article reporting Beth Davenport’s apparent suicide. Next to a large photograph of Beth is a smaller one showing the man who just visited the flat and identifying him as D.I. Lestrade. Before he can read on, Sherlock’s voice interrupts him and John looks up and sees him standing at the living room door.)

    SHERLOCK: You’re a doctor. In fact you’re an Army doctor.

    JOHN: Yes.

    (He gets to his feet and turns towards Sherlock as he comes back into the room again.)

    SHERLOCK: Any good?

    JOHN: Very good.

    SHERLOCK: Seen a lot of injuries, then violent deaths.

    JOHN: Mmm, yes.

    SHERLOCK: Bit of trouble too, I bet.

    JOHN (quietly): Of course, yes. Enough for a lifetime. Far too much.

    SHERLOCK: Wanna see some more?

    JOHN (fervently): Oh God, yes.

    (Sherlock spins on his heel and leads John out of the room and down the stairs. John calls out as he follows him down.)

    JOHN: Sorry, Mrs. Hudson, I’ll skip the tea. Off out.

    MRS. HUDSON (standing near the bottom of the stairs): Both of you?

    (Sherlock has almost reached the front door but now turns and walks back towards her.)

    SHERLOCK: Impossible suicides? Four of them? There’s no point sitting at home when there’s finally something fun going on!

    (He takes her by the shoulders and kisses her noisily on the cheek.)

    MRS. HUDSON: Look at you, all happy. It’s not decent.

    (She can’t help but smile, though, as he turns away and heads for the front door again.)

    SHERLOCK: Who cares about decent? The game, Mrs. Hudson, is on!

    (He walks out onto the street and hails an approaching black cab.)

    SHERLOCK: Taxi!

    (The taxi pulls up alongside and he and John get in, then the car drives off again and heads for Brixton. The boys sit in silence for a long time while Sherlock sits with his eyes fixed on his smartphone and John keeps stealing nervous glances at him. Finally Sherlock lowers his phone.)

    SHERLOCK: Okay, you’ve got questions.

    JOHN: Yeah, where are we going?

    SHERLOCK: Crime scene. Next?

    JOHN: Who are you? What do you do?

    SHERLOCK: What do you think?

    JOHN (slowly, hesitantly): I’d say private detective ...

    SHERLOCK: But?

    JOHN: ... but the police don’t go to private detectives.

    SHERLOCK: I’m a consulting detective. Only one in the world. I invented the job.

    JOHN: What does that mean?

    SHERLOCK: It means when the police are out of their depth, which is always, they consult me.

    JOHN: The police don’t consult amateurs.

    (Sherlock throws him a look.)

    SHERLOCK: When I met you for the first time yesterday, I said, “Afghanistan or Iraq?” You looked surprised.

    JOHN: Yes, how did you know?

    SHERLOCK: I didn’t know, I saw. Your haircut, the way you hold yourself, says military. But your conversation as you entered the room ...

    Flashback to the lab at Bart’s

    JOHN (looking around the lab): Bit different from my day.

    SHERLOCK: ... said trained at Bart’s, so Army doctor – obvious. Your face is tanned but no tan above the wrists. You’ve been abroad, but not sunbathing. Your limp’s really bad when you walk but you don’t ask for a chair when you stand, like you’ve forgotten about it, so it’s at least partly psychosomatic. That says the original circumstances of the injury were traumatic. Wounded in action, then. Wounded in action, suntan – Afghanistan or Iraq.

    (He loudly clicks the ‘k’ sound at the end of the final word. Your humble transcriber, for whom this is her favourite vocal idiosyncrasy from Sherlock, giggles quietly.)

    JOHN: You said I had a therapist.

    SHERLOCK: You’ve got a psychosomatic limp – of course you’ve got a therapist. Then there’s your brother.

    JOHN: Hmm?

    SHERLOCK (holding out his hand): Your phone. It’s expensive, e-mail enabled, MP3 player, but you’re looking for a flatshare – you wouldn’t waste money on this. It’s a gift, then.

    (By now John has given him the phone and he turns it over and looks at it again as he talks.)

    SHERLOCK: Scratches. Not one, many over time. It’s been in the same pocket as keys and coins. The man sitting next to me wouldn’t treat his one luxury item like this, so it’s had a previous owner. Next bit’s easy. You know it already.

    JOHN: The engraving.

    (We see that engraved on the back of the phone are the words

    Harry Watson

    • From Clara

    xxx

    SHERLOCK: Harry Watson: clearly a family member who’s given you his old phone. Not your father; this is a young man’s gadget. Could be a cousin, but you’re a war hero who can’t find a place to live. Unlikely you’ve got an extended family, certainly not one you’re close to, so brother it is. Now, Clara. Who’s Clara? Three kisses says it’s a romantic attachment. The expense of the phone says wife, not girlfriend. She must have given it to him recently – this model’s only six months old. Marriage in trouble then – six months on he’s just given it away. If she’d left him, he’d have kept it. People do – sentiment. But no, he wanted rid of it. He left her. He gave the phone to you: that says he wants you to stay in touch. You’re looking for cheap accommodation, but you’re not going to your brother for help: that says you’ve got problems with him. Maybe you liked his wife; maybe you don’t like his drinking.

    JOHN: How can you possibly know about the drinking?

    SHERLOCK (smiling): Shot in the dark. Good one, though. Power connection: tiny little scuff marks around the edge of it. Every night he goes to plug it in to charge but his hands are shaking. You never see those marks on a sober man’s phone; never see a drunk’s without them.

    (He hands the phone back.)

    SHERLOCK: There you go, you see – you were right.

    JOHN: I was right? Right about what?

    SHERLOCK: The police don’t consult amateurs.

    (He looks out of the side window, biting his lip nervously while he awaits John’s reaction.)

    JOHN: That ... was amazing.

    (Sherlock looks round, apparently so surprised that he can’t even reply for the next four seconds.)

    SHERLOCK: Do you think so?

    JOHN: Of course it was. It was extraordinary; it was quite extraordinary.

    SHERLOCK: That’s not what people normally say.

    JOHN: What do people normally say?

    SHERLOCK: ‘Piss off’!

    (He smiles briefly at John, who grins and turns away to look out of the window as the journey continues.)

    BRIXTON. The cab has arrived at Lauriston Gardens and Sherlock and John get out and walk towards the police tape strung across the road.SHERLOCK: Did I get anything wrong?

    JOHN: Harry and me don’t get on, never have. Clara and Harry split up three months ago and they’re getting a divorce; and Harry is a drinker.

    SHERLOCK (looking impressed with himself): Spot on, then. I didn’t expect to be right about everything.

    JOHN: And Harry’s short for Harriet.

    (Sherlock stops dead in his tracks.)

    SHERLOCK: Harry’s your sister.

    JOHN (continuing onwards): Look, what exactly am I supposed to be doing here?

    SHERLOCK (furiously, through gritted teeth): Sister!

    JOHN: No, seriously, what am I doing here?

    SHERLOCK (exasperated, starting to walk again): There’s always something.

    (They approach the police tape where they are met by Sergeant Donovan.)

    DONOVAN: Hello, freak.

    SHERLOCK: I’m here to see Detective Inspector Lestrade.

    DONOVAN: Why?

    SHERLOCK: I was invited.

    DONOVAN: Why?

    SHERLOCK (sarcastically): I think he wants me to take a look.

    DONOVAN: Well, you know what I think, don’t you?

    SHERLOCK (lifting the tape and ducking underneath it): Always, Sally. (He breathes in through his nose.) I even know you didn’t make it home last night.

    DONOVAN: I don’t ... (She looks at John.) Er, who’s this?

    SHERLOCK: Colleague of mine, Doctor Watson.

    (He turns to John.)

    SHERLOCK: Doctor Watson, Sergeant Sally Donovan. (His voice drips with sarcasm.) Old friend.

    DONOVAN: A colleague? How do you get a colleague?!

    (She turns to John.)

    DONOVAN: What, did he follow you home?

    JOHN: Would it be better if I just waited and ...

    SHERLOCK (lifting the tape for him): No.

    (As John walks under the tape, Donovan lifts a radio to her mouth.)

    DONOVAN (into radio): Freak’s here. Bringing him in.

    (She leads the boys towards one of the houses. Sherlock looks all around the area and at the ground as they approach. As they reach the pavement, a man wearing a coverall over his clothes comes out of the house.)

    SHERLOCK: Ah, Anderson. Here we are again.

    (Anderson looks at him with distaste.)

    ANDERSON: It’s a crime scene. I don’t want it contaminated. Are we clear on that?

    SHERLOCK (taking in another deep breath through his nose): Quite clear. And is your wife away for long?

    ANDERSON: Oh, don’t pretend you worked that out. Somebody told you that.

    SHERLOCK: Your deodorant told me that.

    ANDERSON: My deodorant?

    SHERLOCK (with a quirky expression on his face): It’s for men.

    ANDERSON: Well, of course it’s for men! I’m wearing it!

    SHERLOCK: So’s Sergeant Donovan.

    (Anderson looks round in shock at Donovan. Sherlock sniffs pointedly.)

    SHERLOCK: Ooh, and I think it just vaporised. May I go in?

    ANDERSON (turning back and pointing at him angrily): Now look: whatever you’re trying to imply ...

    SHERLOCK: I’m not implying anything.

    (He heads past Donovan towards the front door.)

    SHERLOCK: I’m sure Sally came round for a nice little chat, and just happened to stay over.

    (He turns back.)

    SHERLOCK: And I assume she scrubbed your floors, going by the state of her knees.

    (Anderson and Donovan stare at him in horror. He smiles smugly, then turns and goes into the house. John walks past Sally, briefly but pointedly looking down to her knees, then follows Sherlock inside. Sherlock leads him into a room on the ground floor where Lestrade is putting on a coverall. Sherlock points to a pile of similar items.)

    SHERLOCK (to John): You need to wear one of these.

    LESTRADE: Who’s this?

    SHERLOCK (taking off his gloves): He’s with me.

    LESTRADE: But who is he?

    SHERLOCK: I said he’s with me.

    (John has taken off his jacket and picks up a coverall. He looks at Sherlock who has picked up a pair of latex gloves.)

    JOHN (referring to the coverall): Aren’t you gonna put one on?

    (Sherlock just looks at him sternly. John shakes his head as if to say, ‘Silly me. What was I thinking?!’)

    SHERLOCK (to Lestrade): So where are we?

    LESTRADE (picking up another pair of latex gloves): Upstairs.

    Lestrade leads the boys up a circular staircase. He and John are wearing coveralls together with white cotton coverings over their shoes, and latex gloves. Sherlock is putting on latex gloves as they go up the stairs.

    LESTRADE: I can give you two minutes.

    SHERLOCK (casually): May need longer.

    LESTRADE: Her name’s Jennifer Wilson according to her credit cards. We’re running them now for contact details. Hasn’t been here long. Some kids found her.

    (He leads them into a room two stories above the ground floor. The room is empty of furniture except for a rocking horse in the far corner. Emergency portable lighting has been set up, presumably by the police. Scaffolding poles hold up part of the ceiling near where a couple of large holes have been knocked through one of the walls. A woman’s body is lying face down on the bare floorboards in the middle of the room. She is wearing a bright pink overcoat and high-heeled pink shoes. Her hands are flat on the floor either side of her head. Sherlock walks a few steps into the room and then stops, holding one hand out in front of himself as he focuses on the corpse. Behind him, John looks at the woman’s body and his face fills with pain and sadness. The three of them stand there silently for several long seconds, then Sherlock looks across to Lestrade.)

    SHERLOCK: Shut up.

    LESTRADE (startled): I didn’t say anything.

    SHERLOCK: You were thinking. It’s annoying.

    (Lestrade and John exchange a surprised look as Sherlock steps slowly forward until he reaches the side of the corpse. His attention is immediately drawn to the fact that scratched into the floorboards near the woman’s left hand is the word “Rache”. His eyes flick to her fingernails where the index and middle nails are broken and ragged at the ends, the pink nail polish chipped in stark comparison to her other nails which are still immaculate. The woman’s index finger rests at the bottom of the ‘e’ as if she was still trying to carve into the floor when she died. Sherlock makes an instant deduction: left handed He looks back to the word carved into the floorboards and an immediate suggestion springs into his mind: RACHE German (n.) revenge

    Instantly he shakes his head in a tiny dismissive movement and the suggestion disappears. He looks at the carved word again and overlays the five letters with a clearer type. Next to the ‘e’ a rapid progression of letters appear and disappear as he tries to complete the word, then the correct letter settles into place to form the word: Rachel He squats down beside the body and runs his gloved hand along the back of her coat, then lifts his hand again to look at his fingers:wet He reaches into her coat pockets and finds a white folding umbrella in one of them. Running his fingers along the folds of the material, he then inspects his glove again:dry Putting the umbrella back into her pocket, he moves up to the collar of her coat and runs his fingers underneath it before again looking at his fingers:wet Reaching into his pocket he takes out a small magnifier, clicks it open and closely inspects the delicate gold bracelet on her left wrist ...clean ... then the gold earring attached to her right ear ...clean ... and then the gold chain around her neck ...clean ... before moving on to look at the rings on her left ring finger. The wedding ring and engagement ring flag a different message to him: dirty Sherlock blinks as a rapid succession of conclusions appear in front of his eyes:

    married

    unhappily married

    unhappily married 10+ years

    Carefully Sherlock works the wedding ring off the woman’s finger and holds it up to look at the inside of the ring. While the outside of the ring is still showing dirty the inside registers as clean As Sherlock lowers the ring and slides it back onto the woman’s finger, he has already reached a conclusion about the ring:regularly removed Lifting his hands away from the woman, he looks down at her and makes his final deduction about her: serial adulterer He smiles slightly in satisfaction.)

    LESTRADE: Got anything?

    SHERLOCK (nonchalantly): Not much.

    (Standing up, he takes off the gloves and then gets his mobile phone from his pocket and begins typing on it.)

    ANDERSON (from where he is leaning casually against the doorway): She’s German. ‘Rache’: it’s German for ‘revenge.’ She could be trying to tell us something ...

    (While he was speaking, Sherlock has walked quickly towards the door and now begins to close it in Anderson’s face.)

    SHERLOCK (sarcastically): Yes, thank you for your input.

    (Slamming the door shut, he turns and walks back into the room. On his phone, he has called up a menu for “UK Weather”. The menu offers five options:

    Maps

    Local

    Warnings

    Next 24 hrs

    7 day forecast

    He selects the Maps option.)

    LESTRADE: So she’s German?

    SHERLOCK (still looking at his phone): Of course she’s not. She’s from out of town, though. Intended to stay in London for one night ... (he smiles smugly when he apparently finds the information he needed) ... before returning home to Cardiff.

    (He pockets his phone.)

    SHERLOCK: So far, so obvious.

    JOHN: Sorry – obvious?

    LESTRADE: What about the message, though?

    SHERLOCK (ignoring him and looking at John): Doctor Watson, what do you think?

    JOHN: Of the message?

    SHERLOCK: Of the body. You’re a medical man.

    LESTRADE: Wait, no, we have a whole team right outside.

    SHERLOCK: They won’t work with me.

    LESTRADE: I’m breaking every rule letting you in here.

    SHERLOCK: Yes ... because you need me.

    (Lestrade stares at him for a moment, then lowers his eyes helplessly.)

    LESTRADE: Yes, I do. God help me.

    SHERLOCK: Doctor Watson.

    JOHN: Hm?

    (He looks up from the body to Sherlock and then turns his head towards Lestrade, silently seeking his permission.)

    LESTRADE (a little tetchily): Oh, do as he says. Help yourself.

    (He turns and opens the door, going outside.)

    LESTRADE: Anderson, keep everyone out for a couple of minutes.

    (Sherlock and John walk over to the body. Sherlock squats down on one side of it and John painfully lowers himself to one knee on the other side, leaning heavily on his cane to support himself.)

    SHERLOCK: Well?

    JOHN (softly): What am I doing here?

    SHERLOCK (softly): Helping me make a point.

    JOHN (softly): I’m supposed to be helping you pay the rent.

    SHERLOCK (softly): Yeah, well, this is more fun.

    JOHN: Fun? There’s a woman lying dead.

    SHERLOCK: Perfectly sound analysis, but I was hoping you’d go deeper.

    (Lestrade comes back into the room and stands just inside the doorway, and John drags his other leg down into a kneeling position and then leans forward to look more closely at the woman’s body. He puts his head close to hers and sniffs, then straightens a little before lifting her right hand and looking at the skin. He kneels up and looks across to Sherlock.)

    JOHN: Yeah ... Asphyxiation, probably. Passed out, choked on her own vomit. Can’t smell any alcohol on her. It could have been a seizure; possibly drugs.

    SHERLOCK: You know what it was. You’ve read the papers.

    JOHN: What, she’s one of the suicides? The fourth ...?

    LESTRADE: Sherlock – two minutes, I said. I need anything you’ve got.

    SHERLOCK (standing up, while John struggles to get to his feet): Victim is in her late thirties. Professional person, going by her clothes; I’m guessing something in the media, going by the frankly alarming shade of pink. Travelled from Cardiff today, intending to stay in London for one night. It’s obvious from the size of her suitcase.

    LESTRADE: Suitcase?

    (John looks around the room but can’t see a suitcase anywhere.)

    SHERLOCK: Suitcase, yes. She’s been married at least ten years, but not happily. She’s had a string of lovers but none of them knew she was married.

    LESTRADE: Oh, for God’s sake, if you’re just making this up ...

    SHERLOCK (pointing down to her left hand): Her wedding ring. Ten years old at least. The rest of her jewelry has been regularly cleaned, but not her wedding ring. State of her marriage right there. The inside of the ring is shinier than the outside – that means it’s regularly removed. The only polishing it gets is when she works it off her finger. It’s not for work; look at her nails. She doesn’t work with her hands, so what or rather who does she remove her rings for? Clearly not one lover; she’d never sustain the fiction of being single over that amount of time, so more likely a string of them. Simple.

    JOHN (admiringly): That’s brilliant.

    (Sherlock looks round at him.)

    JOHN: Sorry.

    LESTRADE: Cardiff?

    SHERLOCK: It’s obvious, isn’t it?

    JOHN: It’s not obvious to me.

    SHERLOCK (pausing as he looks at the other two): Dear God, what is it like in your funny little brains? It must be so boring.

    (He turns back to the body.)

    SHERLOCK: Her coat: it’s slightly damp. She’s been in heavy rain in the last few hours. No rain anywhere in London in that time. Under her coat collar is damp, too. She’s turned it up against the wind. She’s got an umbrella in her left-hand pocket but it’s dry and unused: not just wind, strong wind – too strong to use her umbrella. We know from her suitcase that she was intending to stay overnight, so she must have come a decent distance but she can’t have travelled more than two or three hours because her coat still hasn’t dried. So, where has there been heavy rain and strong wind within the radius of that travel time?

    (He gets his phone from his pocket and shows to the other two the webpage he was looking at earlier, displaying today’s weather for the southern part of Britain.)

    SHERLOCK: Cardiff.

    JOHN: That’s fantastic!

    SHERLOCK (turning to him and speaking in a low voice): D’you know you do that out loud?

    JOHN: Sorry. I’ll shut up.

    SHERLOCK: No, it’s ... fine.

    LESTRADE: Why d’you keep saying suitcase?

    SHERLOCK (spinning around in a circle to look around the room): Yes, where is it? She must have had a phone or an organiser. Find out who Rachel is.

    LESTRADE: She was writing ‘Rachel’?

    SHERLOCK (sarcastically): No, she was leaving an angry note in German(!) Of course she was writing Rachel; no other word it can be. Question is: why did she wait until she was dying to write it?

    LESTRADE: How d’you know she had a suitcase?

    SHERLOCK (pointing down to the body, where her tights have small black splotches on the lower part of her right leg): Back of the right leg: tiny splash marks on the heel and calf, not present on the left. She was dragging a wheeled suitcase behind her with her right hand. Don’t get that splash pattern any other way. Smallish case, going by the spread. Case that size, woman this clothes-conscious: could only be an overnight bag, so we know she was staying one night.

    (He squats down by the woman’s body and examines the backs of her legs more closely.)

    SHERLOCK: Now, where is it? What have you done with it?

    LESTRADE: There wasn’t a case.

    (Slowly Sherlock raises his head and frowns up at Lestrade.)

    SHERLOCK: Say that again.

    LESTRADE: There wasn’t a case. There was never any suitcase.

    (Immediately Sherlock straightens up and heads for the door, calling out to all the police officers in the house as he begins to hurry down the stairs.)

    SHERLOCK: Suitcase! Did anyone find a suitcase? Was there a suitcase in this house?

    (Lestrade and John follow him out and stop on the landing. Lestrade calls down the stairs.)

    LESTRADE: Sherlock, there was no case!

    SHERLOCK (slowing down, but still making his way down the stairs): But they take the poison themselves; they chew, swallow the pills themselves. There are clear signs. Even you lot couldn’t miss them.

    LESTRADE: Right, yeah, thanks(!) And ...?

    SHERLOCK: It’s murder, all of them. I don’t know how, but they’re not suicides, they’re killings – serial killings.

    (He holds his hands up in front of his face in delight.)

    SHERLOCK: We’ve got ourselves a serial killer. I love those. There’s always something to look forward to.

    LESTRADE: Why are you saying that?

    SHERLOCK (stopping and calling up to the others): Her case! Come on, where is her case? Did she eat it?(!) Someone else was here, and they took her case. (More quietly, as if talking to himself) So the killer must have driven her here; forgot the case was in the car.

    JOHN: She could have checked into a hotel, left her case there.

    SHERLOCK (looking up the stairs again): No, she never got to the hotel. Look at her hair. She color-coordinates her lipstick and her shoes. She’d never have left any hotel with her hair still looking ...

    (He stops talking as he makes a realization.)

    SHERLOCK: Oh.

    (His eyes widen and his face lights up.)

    SHERLOCK: Oh!

    (He claps his hands together in delight.)

    JOHN: Sherlock?

    LESTRADE (leaning over the railings): What is it, what?

    SHERLOCK (smiling cheerfully to himself): Serial killers are always hard. You have to wait for them to make a mistake.

    LESTRADE: We can’t just wait!

    SHERLOCK: Oh, we’re done waiting!

    (He starts to hurry down the stairs again.)

    SHERLOCK: Look at her, really look! Houston, we have a mistake. Get on to Cardiff: find out who Jennifer Wilson’s family and friends were. Find Rachel!

    (He reaches the bottom of the stairs and disappears from view.)

    LESTRADE (calling after him): Of course, yeah – but what mistake?!

    (Sherlock comes back into view and runs up a couple of stairs so that he can be seen before he stops and yells up to Lestrade.)

    SHERLOCK: PINK!

    (He hurries off again. Lestrade, baffled, turns and goes back into the room while Anderson and his team, who had been waiting on the next landing down, hurry up the stairs and follow him into the room.)

    ANDERSON: Let’s get on with it.

    (Forgotten by everyone else, John hesitates on the landing for a moment and then slowly starts making his way down the stairs. A couple more police officers hurry up and one of them bumps against him, throwing him off-balance and making him lurch heavily against the bannisters. The man hurries on without a word, although his colleague does at least look apologetically at John as he passes. John regains his balance and continues down the stairs.

    Shortly afterwards he has removed his coverall and put his jacket back on, and now walks out onto the street. Looking all around, he can see no sign of Sherlock. He walks towards the police tape, still looking around. Donovan, standing at the tape, sees him.)DONOVAN: He’s gone.

    JOHN: Who, Sherlock Holmes?

    DONOVAN: Yeah, he just took off. He does that.

    JOHN: Is he coming back?

    DONOVAN: Didn’t look like it.

    JOHN: Right.

    (He looks around the area again thoughtfully, unsure what to do.)

    JOHN: Right ... Yes.

    (He turns to Donovan again.)

    JOHN: Sorry, where am I?

    DONOVAN: Brixton.

    JOHN: Right. Er, d’you know where I could get a cab? It’s just, er ... well ... (he looks down awkwardly at his walking stick) ... my leg.

    DONOVAN: Er ... (she steps over to the tape and lifts it for him) ... try the main road.

    JOHN (ducking under the tape): Thanks.

    DONOVAN: But you’re not his friend.

    (John turns back towards her.)

    DONOVAN: He doesn’t have friends. So who are you?

    JOHN: I’m ... I’m nobody. I just met him.

    DONOVAN: Okay, bit of advice then: stay away from that guy.

    JOHN: Why?

    DONOVAN: You know why he’s here? He’s not paid or anything. He likes it. He gets off on it. The weirder the crime, the more he gets off. And you know what? One day just showing up won’t be enough. One day we’ll be standing round a body and Sherlock Holmes’ll be the one that put it there.

    JOHN: Why would he do that?

    DONOVAN: Because he’s a psychopath. And psychopaths get bored.

    LESTRADE (calling from the entrance to the house): Donovan!

    DONOVAN (turning and calling to him): Coming.

    (She turns back towards John as she walks towards the house.)

    DONOVAN: Stay away from Sherlock Holmes.

    (John watches her go for a moment, then turns and begins to limp off down the road. To his right, the phone in a public telephone box begins to ring. He stops and looks at it for a few seconds but then looks down at his watch, shakes his head and continues down the road. The phone stops ringing.)

    Not long afterwards, John is walking down what may well be Brixton High Road. He tries to hail a passing taxi.

    JOHN: Taxi! Taxi ...

    (The taxi passes him by. In Chicken Cottage, the fast food restaurant outside which John is standing, the payphone on the wall begins to ring. John turns and looks as one of the serving staff walks over to it but as he reaches for the phone, it stops. John walks on down the road and shortly afterwards approaches another public telephone box. The phone inside starts to ring. Mystified by this, he pulls open the door, goes inside and lifts the phone.)

    JOHN: Hello?

    (A man’s voice speaks down the phone.)

    MAN’S VOICE: There is a security camera on the building to your left. Do you see it?

    JOHN (frowning): Who’s this? Who’s speaking?

    MAN’S VOICE: Do you see the camera, Doctor Watson?

    (John looks through the window of the phone box at the CCTV camera high up on the wall of a nearby building.)

    JOHN: Yeah, I see it.

    MAN’S VOICE: Watch.

    (The camera, which was pointing directly at the phone box, now swivels away.)

    MAN’S VOICE: There is another camera on the building opposite you. Do you see it?

    (John looks across to the second camera, which is also pointed towards the phone box.)

    JOHN: Mm-hm.

    (The camera immediately swivels away.)

    MAN’S VOICE: And finally, at the top of the building on your right.

    (John stares up into the third camera which is watching him but which now turns away.)

    JOHN (into phone): How are you doing this?

    MAN’S VOICE: Get into the car, Doctor Watson.

    (A black car pulls up at the kerbside near the phone. The male driver gets out and opens the rear door.)MAN’s VOICE: I would make some sort of threat, but I’m sure your situation is quite clear to you.

    (The phone goes dead. John puts it down and looks thoughtful for a long moment, then apparently decides that there’s not much else he can do and turns to leave the phone box.)

    A few moments later he is sitting in the back seat of the car as it pulls away and drives off. An attractive young woman is sitting beside him, her eyes fixed on her BlackBerry while she types on it. She is pretty much ignoring him.

    JOHN: Hello.

    WOMAN (smiling brightly at him for a moment before returning her gaze to her phone): Hi.

    JOHN: What’s your name, then?

    WOMAN: Er ... Anthea.

    JOHN: Is that your real name?

    WOMAN (smiling): No.

    (John nods, then twists to look out of the rear window briefly before turning back again.)

    JOHN: I’m John.

    NOT-ANTHEA: Yes. I know.

    JOHN: Any point in asking where I’m going?

    NOT-ANTHEA: None at all ...

    (She turns and smiles briefly at him, then looks back at her phone again.)

    NOT-ANTHEA: ... John.

    JOHN: Okay.

    Some time later, the car pulls into an almost-empty warehouse. A man in a suit is standing in the centre of the area, leaning nonchalantly on an umbrella while he watches the car stop and John get out.

    [Transcriber’s note: Now, I know that the vast majority of people who read this transcript will have already seen the episode, but for the benefit of the very few people who may be reading this having never watched the show, and because at this point in the episode we are not told who this person is, I’m going to refer to him as ‘M’, which is short for ... um, ‘Man,’ okay? {transcriber inserts winky face here...}]

    In front of the man is a straight-backed armless chair facing him. He gestures to it with the point of his umbrella as John limps towards him leaning heavily on his cane.

    M: Have a seat, John.

    (John continues towards him, his voice calm.)

    JOHN: You know, I’ve got a phone.

    (He looks round the warehouse.)

    JOHN: I mean, very clever and all that, but, er ... you could just phone me. On my phone.

    (He walks straight past the chair and stops a few paces in front of the man.)

    M: When one is avoiding the attention of Sherlock Holmes, one learns to be discreet, hence this place.

    (His voice, which has had a pleasant smile in it so far, now becomes a little more stern towards the end of the next phrase.)

    M: The leg must be hurting you. Sit down.

    JOHN: I don’t wanna sit down.

    (The man looks at him curiously.)

    M: You don’t seem very afraid.

    JOHN: You don’t seem very frightening.

    (The man chuckles.)

    M: Ah, yes. The bravery of the soldier. Bravery is by far the kindest word for stupidity, don’t you think?

    (He looks at John sternly.)

    M: What is your connection to Sherlock Holmes?

    JOHN: I don’t have one. I barely know him. I met him ...

    (He looks away thoughtfully, then appears surprised as if he hadn’t realized until now how little time has passed.)

    JOHN: ... yesterday.

    M: Mm, and since yesterday you’ve moved in with him and now you’re solving crimes together. Might we expect a happy announcement by the end of the week?

    JOHN: Who are you?

    M: An interested party.

    JOHN: Interested in Sherlock? Why? I’m guessing you’re not friends.

    M: You’ve met him. How many ‘friends’ do you imagine he has? I am the closest thing to a friend that Sherlock Holmes is capable of having.

    JOHN: And what’s that?

    M: An enemy.

    JOHN: An enemy?

    M: In his mind, certainly. If you were to ask him, he’d probably say his arch-enemy. He does love to be dramatic.

    (John looks pointedly around the warehouse.)

    JOHN (sarcastically): Well, thank God you’re above all that.

    (The man frowns at him. Just then John’s phone trills a text alert. He immediately digs into his jacket pocket, takes out the phone and activates it, looking at the message while ignoring the man in front of him. The message reads:

    Baker Street. Come at once if convenient.

    SH

    M: I hope I’m not distracting you.

    JOHN (casually): Not distracting me at all.

    (He takes his time looking up from the phone before he pockets it.)M: Do you plan to continue your association with Sherlock Holmes?

    JOHN: I could be wrong, but I think that’s none of your business.

    M (a little ominously): It could be.

    JOHN: It really couldn’t.

    (The man takes a notebook from his inside pocket, then opens it and consults it as he speaks.)

    M: If you do move into, um ... two hundred and twenty-one B Baker Street, I’d be happy to pay you a meaningful sum of money on a regular basis to ease your way.

    (He closes the notebook and puts it away again.)

    JOHN: Why?

    M: Because you’re not a wealthy man.

    JOHN: In exchange for what?

    M: Information. Nothing indiscreet. Nothing you’d feel ... uncomfortable with. Just tell me what he’s up to.

    JOHN: Why?

    M: I worry about him. Constantly.

    JOHN (insincerely): That’s nice of you.

    M: But I would prefer for various reasons that my concern go unmentioned. We have what you might call a ... difficult relationship.

    (John’s phone sounds another text alert. Again he immediately fishes the phone out and looks at the message which reads:

    If inconvenient, come anyway.

    SH

    JOHN (in response to the man’s offer): No.

    M: But I haven’t mentioned a figure.

    JOHN (putting his phone away again): Don’t bother.

    M (laughing briefly): You’re very loyal, very quickly.

    JOHN: No, I’m not. I’m just not interested.

    (The man looks at him closely for a moment, then takes out his notebook and opens it again.)

    M (gesturing slightly to make it clear that he is reading a note from the book): “Trust issues,” it says here.

    (For the first time since their encounter began, John looks a little unnerved.)

    JOHN: What’s that?

    M (still looking down at his book): Could it be that you’ve decided to trust Sherlock Holmes of all people?

    JOHN: Who says I trust him?

    M: You don’t seem the kind to make friends easily.

    JOHN: Are we done?

    (The man raises his head and looks into John’s eyes.)

    M: You tell me.

    (John looks at him for a long moment, then turns his back on him and starts to walk away.)

    M: I imagine people have already warned you to stay away from him, but I can see from your left hand that’s not going to happen.

    (John stops dead. His shoulders tense and drop and he angrily shakes his head a little. He is clearly furious as he turns back around to face the man.)

    JOHN (savagely, through bared teeth): My wot?

    M (calmly): Show me.

    (He has nodded towards John’s left hand as he speaks, and now he plants the tip of his umbrella on the floor and leans casually on it like a man who is used to having his orders obeyed. John, however, is not going to be intimidated and deliberately shifts his feet under him as if digging in. He raises his left hand, bending it at the elbow, and stands still. His message is clear: if the man wants to look at his hand, he’ll have to come to him. Apparently unperturbed by this belligerence, the man strolls forward, hooking the handle of the umbrella over his arm as he reaches for John’s hand. John instantly pulls his hand back a little.)JOHN (tensely): Don’t.

    (The man lowers his head and raises his eyebrows at John, almost as if saying, ‘Did I mention trust issues?!’ John very reluctantly lowers his hand, holding it out flat with the palm down. The man takes it in both of his own hands and looks at it closely.)

    M: Remarkable.

    JOHN (snatching his hand away): What is?

    M (turning and walking a few paces away): Most people blunder round this city, and all they see are streets and shops and cars. When you walk with Sherlock Holmes, you see the battlefield. (He turns towards John again.) You’ve seen it already, haven’t you?

    JOHN: What’s wrong with my hand?

    M: You have an intermittent tremor in your left hand.

    (Perhaps unintentionally, John nods his head.)

    M: Your therapist thinks it’s post-traumatic stress disorder. She thinks you’re haunted by memories of your military service.

    (John almost flinches as the man accurately fires off these facts at him. His gaze is fixed ahead of him and a muscle in his cheek twitches repeatedly.)

    JOHN (angry and distressed): Who the hell are you? How do you know that?

    M: Fire her. She’s got it the wrong way round. You’re under stress right now and your hand is perfectly steady.

    (John’s eyes flicker downwards before returning to stare ahead of himself, his face set and struggling to hold back his anger.)

    M: You’re not haunted by the war, Doctor Watson. You miss it.

    (He leans closer to him. Reluctantly John’s eyes rise up to meet his.)

    M (in a whisper): Welcome back.

    (He turns and starts to walk away just as John’s phone trills another text alert.)

    M (casually twirling his umbrella as he goes): Time to choose a side, Doctor Watson.

    (John stands fixed to the spot for a few seconds, then turns and glances towards the departing man while, behind John, the car door opens and not-Anthea gets out and walks a few paces towards him, her attention still riveted to the BlackBerry held in front of her in both hands.)

    NOT-ANTHEA: I’m to take you home.

    (John half-turns towards her, then stops and takes out his phone to look at the new message. It reads:

    Could be dangerous.

    SH

    Putting the phone back into his pocket, John holds out his left hand in front of him and studies the lack of tremor coming from it. He smiles wryly.)

    NOT-ANTHEA: Address?

    JOHN (turning and walking towards her): Er, Baker Street. Two two one B Baker Street. But I need to stop off somewhere first.

    Later, John opens the door into his bedsit and switches on the light. Walking inside and closing the door behind him, he goes across to the desk and opens the drawer, taking out his pistol. Checking the clip, he tucks the gun into the back of the waistband of his jeans and turns to leave again.Later again, the car pulls up outside 221B Baker Street. Not-Anthea is still rivetted by whatever she’s typing on her phone [that must be one heck of a running blog that she’s writing]. John looks across to her.

    JOHN: Listen, your boss – any chance you could not tell him this is where I went?

    NOT-ANTHEA (nonchalantly): Sure.

    JOHN: You’ve told him already, haven’t you?

    (She smiles across to him briefly.)

    NOT-ANTHEA: Yeah.

    (John nods in resignation and turns to get out of the car but just as he has opened the door, he turns back to her.)

    JOHN: Hey, um ... do you ever get any free time?

    (She chuckles.)

    NOT-ANTHEA (sarcastically) : Oh, yeah. Lots.

    (John waits expectantly. She continues working her phone for a long moment, then turns and looks at him before allowing her gaze to drift past him to the door of 221B.)

    NOT-ANTHEA: ’Bye.

    JOHN: Okay.

    (He gets out and closes the door, then watches the car pull away before turning and walking across the pavement to the front door of 221B. He knocks on the door.)

    Upstairs in the living room of the flat, Sherlock is lying stretched out on the sofa with his head towards the window and resting on a cushion. With his jacket off and his shirt sleeves unbuttoned and pushed up his arms, he has his eyes closed and he is pressing the palm of his right hand firmly onto the underside of his left arm just below the elbow. After some seconds his eyes snap open wide and he stares fixedly up towards the ceiling, then he sighs out a noisy breath and relaxes. John comes through the door, then stops and stares as Sherlock repeatedly clenches and unclenches his left fist.

    JOHN: What are you doing?

    SHERLOCK (calmly): Nicotine patch. Helps me think.

    (He lifts his right hand to show that he has three round nicotine patches stuck to his arm and it was these which he was pressing against his skin to release the substances more quickly.)SHERLOCK: Impossible to sustain a smoking habit in London these days. Bad news for brain work.

    (He loudly clicks the ‘k’ on the last word. Your transcriber dutifully wibbles.)

    JOHN (walking further into the room): It’s good news for breathing.

    SHERLOCK (dismissively): Oh, breathing. Breathing’s boring.

    (John frowns as he looks more closely at Sherlock’s arm.)JOHN: Is that three patches?

    SHERLOCK (pressing his hands together in the prayer position under his chin): It’s a three-patch problem.

    (He closes his eyes. John looks around the room for a moment, then looks down at Sherlock again.)JOHN: Well?

    (Sherlock doesn’t respond.)

    JOHN: You asked me to come. I’m assuming it’s important.

    (Sherlock still doesn’t respond instantly, but after a couple of seconds his eyes snap open. He doesn’t bother turning his head to look at John.)

    SHERLOCK: Oh, yeah, of course. Can I borrow your phone?

    JOHN: My phone?

    SHERLOCK: Don’t wanna use mine. Always a chance that the number will be recognised. It’s on the website.

    JOHN: Mrs Hudson’s got a phone.

    SHERLOCK: Yeah, she’s downstairs. I tried shouting but she didn’t hear.

    JOHN (beginning to get angry): I was the other side of London.

    SHERLOCK (mildly): There was no hurry.

    (John glares at him as he gazes serenely at the ceiling before closing his eyes again. Eventually John digs his phone out of his jacket pocket and holds it towards him.)

    JOHN: Here.

    (Without opening his eyes, Sherlock holds out his right hand with the palm up. John glowers at him for a moment, then steps forward and slaps the phone into his hand. Sherlock slowly lifts his arm and puts his hands together again, this time with the phone in between his palms. John turns and walks a few paces away before turning around again.)

    JOHN: So what’s this about – the case?

    SHERLOCK (softly): Her case.

    JOHN: Her case?

    SHERLOCK (opening his eyes): Her suitcase, yes, obviously. The murderer took her suitcase. First big mistake.

    JOHN: Okay, he took her case. So?

    SHERLOCK (quietly, as if to himself): It’s no use, there’s no other way. We’ll have to risk it.

    (Raising his voice a little, he imperiously holds the phone out towards John, still not looking at him.)SHERLOCK: On my desk there’s a number. I want you to send a text.

    (John half-smiles in angry disbelief.)

    JOHN (tightly): You brought me here ... to send a text.

    SHERLOCK (oblivious to his anger): Text, yes. The number on my desk.

    (He continues to hold the phone out while John glowers at him, possibly wondering if he can get away with justifiable homicide. Eventually he stomps across the room and snatches the phone from Sherlock’s hand. Sherlock refolds his hands under his chin and closes his eyes but instead of going to the table, John walks over to the window and looks out into the street below. Sherlock opens his eyes and tilts his head slightly towards him.)SHERLOCK: What’s wrong?

    JOHN: Just met a friend of yours.

    (Sherlock frowns in confusion.)SHERLOCK: A friend?

    JOHN: An enemy.

    (Sherlock immediately relaxes.)SHERLOCK (calmly): Oh. Which one?

    JOHN: Your arch-enemy, according to him. (He turns towards Sherlock.) Do people have arch-enemies?

    (Sherlock looks towards him, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.)SHERLOCK: Did he offer you money to spy on me?

    JOHN: Yes.

    SHERLOCK: Did you take it?

    JOHN: No.

    SHERLOCK: Pity. We could have split the fee. Think it through next time.

    JOHN: Who is he?

    SHERLOCK (softly): The most dangerous man you’ve ever met, and not my problem right now. (More loudly) On my desk, the number.

    (John gives him a dark look but Sherlock has already looked away again so John walks over to the desk and picks up a piece of paper taken from a luggage label. He looks at the name on the paper.)

    JOHN: Jennifer Wilson. That was ... Hang on. Wasn’t that the dead woman?

    SHERLOCK: Yes. That’s not important. Just enter the number.

    (Shaking his head, John gets his phone out and starts to type the number onto it.)SHERLOCK: Are you doing it?

    JOHN: Yes.

    SHERLOCK: Have you done it?

    JOHN: Ye... hang on!

    SHERLOCK: These words exactly: “What happened at Lauriston Gardens? I must have blacked out.”

    (John starts to type but looks briefly across to Sherlock as if concerned at what he just said. Sherlock continues his narration.)

    SHERLOCK: “Twenty-two Northumberland Street. Please come.”

    (John has got as far as:

    What happened at

    Lauriston Gdns?

    I must have b

    Now he looks across to Sherlock again, frowning.)

    JOHN: You blacked out?

    SHERLOCK: What? No. No!

    (He flips his legs around and stands up, taking the shortest route towards the kitchen – which involves walking over the coffee table beside the sofa rather than around it.)SHERLOCK: Type and send it. Quickly.

    (Going into the kitchen, he picks up a small pink suitcase from a chair and brings it back into the living room. Walking over to the dining table, he lifts one of the dining chairs and flips it around, setting it down in front of one of the two armchairs near the fireplace. He puts the suitcase onto the dining chair and sits down in the armchair. John is still typing.)

    SHERLOCK: Have you sent it?

    JOHN: What’s the address?

    SHERLOCK (impatiently): Twenty-two Northumberland Street. Hurry up!

    (John finishes the message, then looks round as Sherlock unzips the case and flips open the lid, revealing the contents. There are a few items of clothing and underwear – all in varying shades of pink – a washbag, and a paperback novel by Paul Bunch entitled “Come To Bed Eyes.” [Good grief – has Jennifer met Sherlock before?!]. As John turns towards the case he staggers slightly in shock when he realises what he’s looking at.)

    JOHN: That’s ... that’s the pink lady’s case. That’s Jennifer Wilson’s case.

    SHERLOCK (studying the case closely): Yes, obviously.

    (John continues to stare, and Sherlock looks up at him and then rolls his eyes.)SHERLOCK (sarcastically): Oh, perhaps I should mention: I didn’t kill her.

    JOHN: I never said you did.

    SHERLOCK: Why not? Given the text I just had you send and the fact that I have her case, it’s a perfectly logical assumption.

    JOHN: Do people usually assume you’re the murderer?

    SHERLOCK (smirking): Now and then, yes.

    (He puts his hands onto the arms of the armchair and lifts his feet up and under him so that he is perching on the seat with his backside braced against the back rest, then clasps his hands under his chin.)

    JOHN: Okay ...

    (He limps across the room and drops heavily into the armchair on the other side of the fireplace.)

    JOHN: How did you get this?

    SHERLOCK: By looking.

    JOHN: Where?

    SHERLOCK: The killer must have driven her to Lauriston Gardens. He could only keep her case by accident if it was in the car. Nobody could be seen with this case without drawing attention – particularly a man, which is statistically more likely – so obviously he’d feel compelled to get rid of it the moment he noticed he still had it. Wouldn’t have taken him more than five minutes to realise his mistake. I checked every back street wide enough for a car five minutes from Lauriston Gardens ...

    (Cut-away shot of Sherlock standing on the edge of a rooftop looking down into the streets below as he searches for a glimpse of places where the case might have been hidden.)SHERLOCK: ... and anywhere you could dispose of a bulky object without being observed.

    (Cut-away shot of Sherlock back on the ground and rooting through a large skip in an alley before unearthing the case buried under some black plastic, then checking the luggage label attached to the handle.)

    SHERLOCK: Took me less than an hour to find the right skip.

    JOHN: Pink. You got all that because you realised the case would be pink?

    SHERLOCK: Well, it had to be pink, obviously.

    JOHN (to himself): Why didn’t I think of that?

    SHERLOCK: Because you’re an idiot.

    (John looks across to him, startled. Sherlock makes a placatory gesture with one hand.)

    SHERLOCK: No, no, no, don’t look like that. Practically everyone is.

    (He refolds his hands and then extends his index fingers to point at the case.)

    SHERLOCK: Now, look. Do you see what’s missing?

    JOHN: From the case? How could I?

    SHERLOCK: Her phone. Where’s her mobile phone? There was no phone on the body, there’s no phone in the case. We know she had one – that’s her number there; you just texted it.

    JOHN: Maybe she left it at home.

    (Sherlock puts his hands onto the arms of the chair and raises himself up so that he can lower his feet to the floor, then sits down properly on the chair.)SHERLOCK: She has a string of lovers and she’s careful about it. She never leaves her phone at home.

    (He puts the slip of paper back into the luggage label on the case and looks at John expectantly.)

    JOHN: Er ...

    (He looks down at his mobile phone which he has put onto the arm of his chair.)

    JOHN: Why did I just send that text?

    SHERLOCK: Well, the question is: where is her phone now?

    JOHN: She could have lost it.

    SHERLOCK: Yes, or ...?

    JOHN (slowly): The murderer ... You think the murderer has the phone?

    SHERLOCK: Maybe she left it when she left her case. Maybe he took it from her for some reason. Either way, the balance of probability is the murderer has her phone.

    JOHN: Sorry, what are we doing? Did I just text a murderer?! What good will that do?

    (As if on cue, his phone begins to ring. He picks it up and looks at the screen for the Caller I.D. It reads:

    (withheld)

    calling

    He looks across to Sherlock as the phone continues to ring.)SHERLOCK: A few hours after his last victim, and now he receives a text that can only be from her. If somebody had just found that phone they’d ignore a text like that, but the murderer ...

    (He pauses dramatically for a moment until the phone stops ringing.)

    SHERLOCK: ... would panic.

    (He flips the lid of the suitcase closed and stands up, walking across the room to pick up his jacket. As John continues to stare down at his phone, Sherlock puts on his jacket and walks towards the door.)

    JOHN (finally looking up): Have you talked to the police?

    SHERLOCK: Four people are dead. There isn’t time to talk to the police.

    JOHN: So why are you talking to me?

    (Sherlock reaches behind the door to take his greatcoat from the hook. As he looks across towards John he notices that something is missing from the mantelpiece.)

    SHERLOCK: Mrs Hudson took my skull.

    JOHN: So I’m basically filling in for your skull?

    SHERLOCK (putting on his coat): Relax, you’re doing fine.

    (John doesn’t move.)

    SHERLOCK: Well?

    JOHN: Well what?

    SHERLOCK: Well, you could just sit there and watch telly.

    JOHN: What, you want me to come with you?

    SHERLOCK: I like company when I go out, and I think better when I talk aloud. The skull just attracts attention, so ...

    (John smiles briefly.)

    SHERLOCK: Problem?

    JOHN: Yeah, Sergeant Donovan.

    SHERLOCK (looking away in exasperation): What about her?

    JOHN: She said ... You get off on this. You enjoy it.

    SHERLOCK (nonchalantly): And I said “dangerous,” and here you are.

    (Instantly he turns and walks out of the door. John sits there thoughtfully for a few seconds, then almost angrily leans onto his cane to push himself to his feet and head for the door.)

    JOHN: Damn it!

    Not long afterwards, John catches up to Sherlock in the street and they continue down the road.

    JOHN: Where are we going?

    SHERLOCK: Northumberland Street’s a five-minute walk from here.

    JOHN: You think he’s stupid enough to go there?

    SHERLOCK (smiling expectantly): No – I think he’s brilliant enough. I love the brilliant ones. They’re always so desperate to get caught.

    JOHN: Why?

    SHERLOCK: Appreciation! Applause! At long last the spotlight. That’s the frailty of genius, John: it needs an audience.

    JOHN (looking pointedly at him): Yeah.

    (Oblivious to the implication, Sherlock spins around to indicate the entire area as he continues down the road.)

    SHERLOCK: This is his hunting ground, right here in the heart of the city. Now that we know his victims were abducted, that changes everything. Because all of his victims disappeared from busy streets, crowded places, but nobody saw them go.

    (He holds his hands up on either side of his head as if to focus his thoughts.)

    SHERLOCK: Think! Who do we trust, even though we don’t know them? Who passes unnoticed wherever they go? Who hunts in the middle of a crowd?

    JOHN: Dunno. Who?

    SHERLOCK (shrugging): Haven’t the faintest. Hungry?

    (Lowering his hands, he leads John onwards and into a small restaurant. The waiter near the door clearly knows him and gestures to a reserved table at the front window.)

    SHERLOCK: Thank you, Billy.

    (Taking off his coat, he sits down on the bench seat at the side of the table and immediately turns sideways so that he can see clearly out of the window. As Billy takes the ‘Reserved’ sign off the table, John sits down on the other bench seat with his back to the window, and takes off his jacket.)

    SHERLOCK (nodding to a building over the road): Twenty-two Northumberland Street. Keep your eyes on it.

    JOHN: He isn’t just gonna ring the doorbell, though, is he? He’d need to be mad.

    SHERLOCK: He has killed four people.

    JOHN: ... Okay.

    (The manager and/or owner of the restaurant comes over, clearly pleased to see Sherlock.)ANGELO: Sherlock.

    (They shake hands.)

    ANGELO: Anything on the menu, whatever you want, free.

    (He lays a couple of menus on the table.)

    ANGELO: On the house, for you and for your date.

    SHERLOCK (to John): Do you want to eat?

    JOHN (to Angelo): I’m not his date.

    ANGELO: This man got me off a murder charge.

    SHERLOCK: This is Angelo.

    (Angelo offers his hand to John, who shakes it.)

    SHERLOCK: Three years ago I successfully proved to Lestrade at the time of a particularly vicious triple murder that Angelo was in a completely different part of town, house-breaking.

    ANGELO (to John): He cleared my name.

    SHERLOCK: I cleared it a bit. Anything happening opposite?

    ANGELO: Nothing. (He looks at John again.) But for this man, I’d have gone to prison.

    SHERLOCK: You did go to prison.

    ANGELO (to John): I’ll get a candle for the table. It’s more romantic.

    JOHN (indignantly, as Angelo walks away): I’m not his date!

    (Sherlock puts his own menu down onto the table.)

    SHERLOCK: You may as well eat. We might have a long wait.

    (Angelo comes back with a small glass bowl containing a lit tea-light. He puts it onto the table and gives John a thumbs-up before turning and walking away again.)

    JOHN (a little tetchily): Thanks(!) Later, John has a plate of food in front of him and is eating from it. Sherlock’s attention is fixed out of the window and he is quietly drumming his fingers on the table.JOHN: People don’t have arch-enemies.

    (It takes a moment but Sherlock finally looks round.)

    SHERLOCK: I’m sorry?

    JOHN: In real life. There are no arch-enemies in real life. Doesn’t happen.

    SHERLOCK (disinterestedly, looking out of the window again): Doesn’t it? Sounds a bit dull.

    JOHN: So who did I meet?

    SHERLOCK: What do real people have, then, in their ‘real lives’?

    JOHN: Friends; people they know; people they like; people they don’t like ... Girlfriends, boyfriends ...

    SHERLOCK: Yes, well, as I was saying – dull.

    JOHN: You don’t have a girlfriend, then?

    SHERLOCK (still looking out of the window): Girlfriend? No, not really my area.

    JOHN: Mm.

    (A moment passes before he realises the possible significance of this statement.)JOHN: Oh, right. D’you have a boyfriend?

    (Sherlock looks round at him sharply.)

    JOHN: Which is fine, by the way.

    SHERLOCK: I know it’s fine.

    (John smiles to indicate that he wasn’t signifying anything negative by what he said.)JOHN: So you’ve got a boyfriend then?

    SHERLOCK: No.

    JOHN (still smiling, though his smile is becoming a little fixed and awkward): Right. Okay. You’re unattached. Like me. (He looks down at his plate, apparently rapidly running out of things to say.) Fine. (He clears his throat.) Good.

    (He continues eating. Sherlock looks at him suspiciously for a moment but then turns his attention out of the window again. However, he then appears to replay John’s statement in his head and looks a little startled. Turning his head towards John again, he starts speaking rather awkwardly but rapidly speeds up and is almost babbling by the time John interrupts him.)

    SHERLOCK: John, um ... I think you should know that I consider myself married to my work, and while I’m flattered by your interest, I’m really not looking for any ...

    JOHN (interrupting): No. (He turns his head briefly to clear his throat.) No, I’m not asking. No.

    (He fixes his gaze onto Sherlock’s, apparently trying to convey his sincerity.)JOHN: I’m just saying, it’s all fine.

    (Sherlock looks at him for a moment, then nods.)

    SHERLOCK: Good. Thank you.

    (He turns his attention back to the street. John looks away with an bemused expression on his face as if asking himself, ‘What the heck was all that about?!’ Just then, Sherlock nods out of the window.)

    SHERLOCK: Look across the street. Taxi.

    (John twists in his seat to look out of the window where a taxi has parked at the side of the road with its back end towards the restaurant.)

    SHERLOCK: Stopped. Nobody getting in, and nobody getting out.

    (In the rear seat of the taxi the male passenger is looking through the side windows as if trying to see somebody particular.)

    SHERLOCK (to himself): Why a taxi? Oh, that’s clever. Is it clever? Why is it clever?

    JOHN: That’s him?

    SHERLOCK: Don’t stare.

    JOHN (looking round at him): You’re staring.

    SHERLOCK: We can’t both stare.

    (Getting to his feet, he grabs his coat and scarf and heads for the door. John picks up his own jacket and follows ... completely forgetting to take his walking cane with him. Outside the door, Sherlock shrugs himself into his coat while keeping his eyes fixed on the taxi. The passenger continues to look around him, then turns and looks out the back window. His gaze falls on the restaurant and he looks at it for a few moments while Sherlock stares back at him, then the man turns towards the front of the vehicle and the taxi begins to pull away from the kerb. Sherlock immediately heads towards it without bothering to check the road that he’s running into and is almost run over by a car coming from his left. The driver slams on the brakes and stops the car but Sherlock, always keen to take the quickest route, allows his forward impetus to carry him onto the top of the bonnet. He rolls over the bonnet, lands on his feet on the other side and then runs after the taxi. As the driver of the car angrily sounds his horn, John puts one hand on the bonnet and vaults over the front of the car, apologising to the driver as he goes.)

    JOHN: Sorry.

    (He chases after Sherlock, who runs a few yards up the road before realising that he’s not going to catch the taxi and slows to a halt. John catches up and stops beside him.)

    JOHN: I’ve got the cab number.

    SHERLOCK: Good for you.

    (He brings his hands up to either side of his head and concentrates, calling up a mental map of the local area and overlaying it with images of the streets along the route which he calculates that the taxi must take.)SHERLOCK (quick fire): Right turn, one way, roadworks, traffic lights, bus lane, pedestrian crossing, left turn only, traffic lights.

    (Having worked out the route, he lifts his head and sees a man unlocking the door to a nearby building. Instantly his mind flashes up a signpost saying, “ALTERNATIVE ROUTE.” Sherlock races towards the man and grabs him, shoving him out of the way before charging into the building.)

    MAN: Oi!

    (John hurries after Sherlock, raising an apologetic hand to the man as he goes.)

    JOHN: Sorry.

    (The two of them race up the stairs and out onto a metal spiral fire escape staircase leading to the roof. Sherlock, the lanky git, takes the steps two or even three at a time and John struggles to keep up with him as he scurries up behind him.)

    SHERLOCK: Come on, John.

    (Reaching the top of the stairs, Sherlock runs to the edge and looks over before seeing a shorter metal spiral staircase leading down the side of the building to another door one floor lower. He gallops down the stairs and climbs onto the railing before leaping across the gap to the next building. John scrambles onto the railing and follows. Sherlock runs across to the other side of the roof and again leaps across to the next building. John races after him, but then skids to a halt when he realises that the gap may be too big for him to jump across. As if in sympathy, pedestrian traffic lights on the ground change from the green “It is safe to cross” sign to the red “Stop and wait” sign. John hesitates, looking down at the drop beneath him.)

    SHERLOCK: Come on, John. We’re losing him!

    (John backs up a few paces and braces himself. As the traffic lights change to “Safe to cross” again, he takes a run-up and and leaps the gap. Dropping down onto a walkway along the side of the building, the boys run onwards. The taxi continues its journey on the ground and the boys gallop down another metal staircase, then run to a ledge and drop down into an alleyway before running onwards again. Sherlock leads John down the alleyway as, in his head, a map shows their location in comparison to where the taxi must be. Their paths are beginning to get closer and they are heading towards a point where Sherlock and John will exit the alleyway onto D’Arblay Street, into which the taxi is just turning. Sherlock turns the corner and races down the last part of the alley, only to see the taxi drive past the end, heading to the left.)

    SHERLOCK (angrily): Ah, no!

    (Without breaking stride, he races out of the end of the alley and turns right.)

    SHERLOCK: This way.

    (Instinctively John turns left in pursuit of the taxi.)

    SHERLOCK: No, this way!

    JOHN: Sorry.

    (He turns and heads back in the opposite direction, following Sherlock. In Sherlock’s mind-map, he picks a new point where he and John can intercept the cab. The boys run down the street, taking a shorter route than the taxi which is being diverted by various road signs taking it the long way around. They head down more alleyways and side streets towards the interception point in Wardour Street and finally, at the precise point which his mental map predicted, Sherlock races out of a side street and hurls himself into the path of the approaching cab, which screeches to a halt as he crashes hard into the bonnet. Scrabbling in his left coat pocket, Sherlock pulls out an I.D. badge and flashes it at the driver as he runs to the right hand side of the cab.)SHERLOCK: Police! Open her up!

    (Panting heavily, he tugs open the rear door and stares in at the passenger, who looks back at him anxiously. Instantly Sherlock straightens up in exasperation just as John joins him.)

    SHERLOCK: No.

    (He leans down again to look at the passenger a second time.)

    SHERLOCK: Teeth, tan: what – Californian?

    (He looks at something on the floor in front of the passenger.)

    SHERLOCK: L.A., Santa Monica. Just arrived.

    (He straightens up again, grimacing.)

    JOHN: How can you possibly know that?

    SHERLOCK: The luggage.

    (He looks down at the suitcase on the floor of the cab and its luggage label showing that the man has flown from LAX [Los Angeles International Airport] to LHR [London Heathrow Airport].)SHERLOCK (to the passenger): It’s probably your first trip to London, right, going by your final destination and the route the cabbie was taking you?

    PASSENGER: Sorry – are you guys the police?

    SHERLOCK: Yeah. (He flashes the I.D. badge briefly at the man.) Everything all right?

    PASSENGER (smiling): Yeah.

    (Sherlock pauses for a moment as if wondering how to finish this conversation, then smiles falsely at the man.)SHERLOCK: Welcome to London.

    (He immediately walks away, leaving John staring blankly for a moment before he steps closer to the taxi door and looks in at the passenger.)

    JOHN: Er, any problems, just let us know.

    (As the man nods, John smiles politely and slams the cab door shut. The man looks round to the taxi driver in bewilderment. John walks to where Sherlock has stopped a few yards behind the vehicle.)

    JOHN: Basically just a cab that happened to slow down.

    SHERLOCK: Basically.

    JOHN: Not the murderer.

    SHERLOCK (exasperated): Not the murderer, no.

    JOHN: Wrong country, good alibi.

    SHERLOCK: As they go.

    (John notices as Sherlock switches the I.D. card from one hand to another.)JOHN: Hey, where-where did you get this? Here.

    (He reaches for the card and Sherlock releases it.)

    JOHN: Right. (He looks at the name on the card.) Detective Inspector Lestrade?

    SHERLOCK: Yeah. I pickpocket him when he’s annoying. You can keep that one, I’ve got plenty at the flat.

    (John nods, then looks down at the card again before lifting his head and giggling silently.)SHERLOCK: What?

    JOHN: Nothing, just: “Welcome to London.”

    (Sherlock chuckles, then looks down the road to where a police officer has apparently gone to investigate why the cab has stopped in the middle of the street. The passenger has got out and is pointing down the road towards the boys.)SHERLOCK (to John): Got your breath back?

    JOHN: Ready when you are.

    (They turn and run off down the road.)221B. The boys have arrived back and walk along the hallway, breathing heavily. John hangs his jacket on a hook on the wall while Sherlock drapes his coat over the bottom of the bannisters.JOHN: Okay, that was ridiculous.

    (They lean side by side against the wall, still trying to catch their breath.)

    JOHN: That was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever done.

    SHERLOCK: And you invaded Afghanistan.

    (John giggles adorably and after a moment Sherlock also begins to laugh.)JOHN: That wasn’t just me.

    (Sherlock chuckles.)

    JOHN: Why aren’t we back at the restaurant?

    SHERLOCK (becoming more serious and waving his hand dismissively): Oh, they can keep an eye out. It was a long shot anyway.

    JOHN: So what were we doing there?

    (Sherlock clears his throat.)

    SHERLOCK: Oh, just passing the time.

    (He looks at John.)

    SHERLOCK: And proving a point.

    JOHN: What point?

    SHERLOCK: You.

    (He turns and calls loudly towards the door to Mrs Hudson’s ground floor flat.)

    SHERLOCK: Mrs Hudson! Doctor Watson will take the room upstairs.

    JOHN: Says who?

    SHERLOCK (looking towards the front door): Says the man at the door.

    (John turns his head towards the door just as someone knocks on it three times. He turns back to look at Sherlock in surprise. Sherlock smiles. John stares at him for a moment, then walks along the hall to answer the door. Sherlock leans his head against the wall and blows out a breath. John opens the door and finds Angelo standing outside.)

    ANGELO: Sherlock texted me.

    (Smiling, he holds up John’s walking cane.)

    ANGELO: He said you forgot this.

    (John stares at the cane in surprise, then takes it.)

    JOHN: Ah.

    (He turns and looks down the hall to Sherlock, who grins at him.)

    JOHN (turning back to Angelo): Er, thank you. Thank you.

    (As he comes back in and closes the door, Mrs Hudson comes out of her flat and hurries over to the boys. She sounds upset and tearful as she speaks.)

    MRS HUDSON: Sherlock, what have you done?

    SHERLOCK: Mrs Hudson?

    MRS HUDSON: Upstairs.

    (Sherlock turns and hurries up the stairs, John following him. Sherlock opens the living room door and goes inside, where he finds D.I. Lestrade sitting casually in the armchair facing the door. Other police officers are going through Sherlock’s possessions. Sherlock storms over to Lestrade.)

    SHERLOCK: What are you doing?

    LESTRADE: Well, I knew you’d find the case. I’m not stupid.

    SHERLOCK: You can’t just break into my flat.

    LESTRADE: And you can’t withhold evidence. And I didn’t break into your flat.

    SHERLOCK: Well, what do you call this then?

    LESTRADE (looking round at his officers before looking back to Sherlock innocently): It’s a drugs bust.

    JOHN: Seriously?! This guy, a junkie?! Have you met him?!

    (Sherlock turns and walks closer to John, biting his lip nervously.)

    SHERLOCK: John ...

    JOHN (to Lestrade): I’m pretty sure you could search this flat all day, you wouldn’t find anything you could call recreational.

    SHERLOCK: John, you probably want to shut up now.

    JOHN: Yeah, but come on ...

    (He looks into Sherlock’s eyes. Sherlock holds his gaze for a long moment and John realises how serious he’s looking.)JOHN: No.

    SHERLOCK: What?

    JOHN: You?

    SHERLOCK (angrily): Shut up!

    (He turns back to Lestrade.)SHERLOCK: I’m not your sniffer dog.

    LESTRADE: No, Anderson‘s my sniffer dog.

    (He nods towards the kitchen.)SHERLOCK: What, An...

    (The closed doors to the kitchen slide open and reveal several more officers in there searching through the room. Anderson turns towards the living room and raises his hand in sarcastic greeting.)

    SHERLOCK (angrily): Anderson, what are you doing here on a drugs bust?

    ANDERSON (venomously): Oh, I volunteered.

    (Sherlock turns away, biting his lip angrily.)LESTRADE: They all did. They’re not strictly speaking on the drugs squad, but they’re very keen.

    (Donovan comes into view from the kitchen, holding a small glass jar with some white round objects in it.)

    DONOVAN: Are these human eyes?

    SHERLOCK: Put those back!

    DONOVAN: They were in the microwave!

    SHERLOCK: It’s an experiment.

    LESTRADE: Keep looking, guys.

    (He stands up and turns to Sherlock.)

    LESTRADE: Or you could help us properly and I’ll stand them down.

    SHERLOCK (pacing angrily): This is childish.

    LESTRADE: Well, I’m dealing with a child. Sherlock, this is our case. I’m letting you in, but you do not go off on your own. Clear?

    SHERLOCK (stopping and glaring at him): Oh, what, so-so-so you set up a pretend drugs bust to bully me?

    LESTRADE: It stops being pretend if they find anything.

    SHERLOCK (loudly): I am clean!

    LESTRADE: Is your flat? All of it?

    SHERLOCK: I don’t even smoke.

    (He unbuttons the cuff of his left shirt and pulls it up to show a nicotine patch on his lower arm. Presumably he removed the other two earlier.)LESTRADE: Neither do I.

    (He pulls up the right sleeves of his own jacket and shirt to show a similar patch on his arm. Sherlock rolls his eyes and turns away and they both pull their sleeves back down again.)

    LESTRADE: So let’s work together. We’ve found Rachel.

    SHERLOCK (turning back to him): Who is she?

    LESTRADE: Jennifer Wilson’s only daughter.

    SHERLOCK (frowning): Her daughter? Why would she write her daughter’s name? Why?

    ANDERSON: Never mind that. We found the case.

    (He points to the pink suitcase in the living room.)

    ANDERSON: According to someone, the murderer has the case, and we found it in the hands of our favourite psychopath.

    SHERLOCK (looking at him disparagingly): I’m not a psychopath, Anderson. I’m a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research.

    (He turns back to Lestrade.)SHERLOCK: You need to bring Rachel in. You need to question her. I need to question her.

    LESTRADE: She’s dead.

    SHERLOCK: Excellent!

    (John looks startled.)

    SHERLOCK (to Lestrade): How, when and why? Is there a connection? There has to be.

    LESTRADE: Well, I doubt it, since she’s been dead for fourteen years. Technically she was never alive. Rachel was Jennifer Wilson’s stillborn daughter, fourteen years ago.

    (John grimaces sadly and turns away. Sherlock, on the other hand, just looks confused.)SHERLOCK: No, that’s ... that’s not right. How ... Why would she do that? Why?

    ANDERSON: Why would she think of her daughter in her last moments?(!) Yup – sociopath; I’m seeing it now.

    SHERLOCK (turning to him with an exasperated look on his face): She didn’t think about her daughter. She scratched her name on the floor with her fingernails. She was dying. It took effort. It would have hurt.

    (He begins to pace back and forth across the room again.)

    JOHN: You said that the victims all took the poison themselves, that he makes them take it. Well, maybe he ... I don’t know, talks to them? Maybe he used the death of her daughter somehow.

    SHERLOCK (stopping and turning to him): Yeah, but that was ages ago. Why would she still be upset?

    (John stares at him. Sherlock hesitates when he realises that everyone in the flat has stopped what they’re doing and has fallen silent. He glances around the room and then looks awkwardly at John.)SHERLOCK: Not good?

    JOHN (also glancing around at the others before turning back to Sherlock): Bit not good, yeah.

    (Sherlock shakes it off and steps closer to John, looking at him intently.)SHERLOCK: Yeah, but if you were dying ... if you’d been murdered: in your very last few seconds what would you say?

    JOHN: “Please, God, let me live.”

    SHERLOCK (exasperated): Oh, use your imagination!

    JOHN: I don’t have to.

    (Sherlock seems to recognise the look of pain in John’s face. He pauses momentarily and blinks a couple of times, shifting his feet apologetically before continuing.)SHERLOCK: Yeah, but if you were clever, really clever ... Jennifer Wilson running all those lovers: she was clever.

    (He starts to pace again.)

    SHERLOCK: She’s trying to tell us something.

    (Mrs Hudson comes to the door of the living room.)

    MRS HUDSON: Isn’t the doorbell working? Your taxi’s here, Sherlock.

    SHERLOCK: I didn’t order a taxi. Go away.

    (He continues pacing as Mrs Hudson looks around the room.)MRS HUDSON: Oh, dear. They’re making such a mess. What are they looking for?

    JOHN: It’s a drugs bust, Mrs Hudson.

    MRS HUDSON (anxiously): But they’re just for my hip. They’re herbal soothers.

    (With his back to the door, Sherlock stops and shouts out.)

    SHERLOCK: Shut up, everybody, shut up! Don’t move, don’t speak, don’t breathe. I’m trying to think. Anderson, face the other way. You’re putting me off.

    ANDERSON: What? My face is?!

    LESTRADE: Everybody quiet and still. Anderson, turn your back.

    ANDERSON: Oh, for God’s sake!

    LESTRADE (sternly): Your back, now, please!

    SHERLOCK (to himself): Come on, think. Quick!

    MRS HUDSON: What about your taxi?

    SHERLOCK (turning to her and shouting furiously): MRS HUDSON!

    (She turns and hurries away down the stairs. Sherlock stops and looks around as he finally realises something.)SHERLOCK: Oh.

    (He smiles in delight.)

    SHERLOCK: Ah! She was clever, clever, yes!

    (He walks across the room and then turns back to the others.)

    SHERLOCK: She’s cleverer than you lot and she’s dead. Do you see, do you get it? She didn’t lose her phone, she never lost it. She planted it on him.

    (He starts pacing again.)

    SHERLOCK: When she got out of the car, she knew that she was going to her death. She left the phone in order to lead us to her killer.

    LESTRADE: But how?

    SHERLOCK (stopping and staring at him): Wha...? What do you mean, how?

    (Lestrade shrugs.)

    SHERLOCK: Rachel!

    (He looks at everyone triumphantly. They all look back at him blankly.)

    SHERLOCK: Don’t you see? Rachel!

    (Still everyone looks blank. Sherlock laughs in disbelief.)

    SHERLOCK: Oh, look at you lot. You’re all so vacant. Is it nice not being me? It must be so relaxing. (More sternly) Rachel is not a name.

    JOHN (equally sternly): Then what is it?

    SHERLOCK: John, on the luggage, there’s a label. E-mail address.

    (John looks at the label on the suitcase and reads out the address.)

    JOHN: Er, jennie dot pink at mephone dot org dot uk.

    (Sherlock has sat down at the dining table and is looking at his computer notebook.)

    SHERLOCK: Oh, I’ve been too slow. She didn’t have a laptop, which means she did her business on her phone, so it’s a smartphone, it’s e-mail enabled.

    (He has pulled up Mephone’s website and types the email address into the ‘User name’ box.)

    SHERLOCK: So there was a website for her account. The username is her e-mail address ...

    (He begins to type into the ‘Password’ box.)

    SHERLOCK: ... and all together now, the password is?

    JOHN (walking over to stand behind him): Rachel.

    ANDERSON: So we can read her e-mails. So what?

    SHERLOCK: Anderson, don’t talk out loud. You lower the I.Q. of the whole street. We can do much more than just read her e-mails. It’s a smartphone, it’s got GPS, which means if you lose it you can locate it online. She’s leading us directly to the man who killed her.

    LESTRADE: Unless he got rid of it.

    JOHN: We know he didn’t.

    (Sherlock looks at the screen impatiently.)SHERLOCK: Come on, come on. Quickly!

    (Mrs Hudson trots up the stairs and comes to the door again.)

    MRS HUDSON: Sherlock, dear. This taxi driver ...

    (Sherlock gets to his feet and walks over towards her.)

    SHERLOCK: Mrs Hudson, isn’t it time for your evening soother?

    (John sits down on the chair which Sherlock vacated and watches a clock spinning round on the website as it claims that the phone will be located in under three minutes. Sherlock turns to Lestrade.)

    SHERLOCK: We need to get vehicles, get a helicopter.

    (Mrs Hudson looks around anxiously as a man walks slowly up the stairs behind her.)

    SHERLOCK (to Lestrade): We’re gonna have to move fast. This phone battery won’t last for ever.

    LESTRADE: We’ll just have a map reference, not a name.

    SHERLOCK: It’s a start!

    (On the computer, a map has appeared and is now zooming in on the location of the phone.)

    JOHN: Sherlock ...

    SHERLOCK (to Lestrade): It narrows it down from just anyone in London. It’s the first proper lead that we’ve had.

    JOHN: Sherlock ...

    SHERLOCK (hurrying across the room to look over John’s shoulder): What is it? Quickly, where?

    (The map is now indicating the precise location of the phone.)JOHN: It’s here. It’s in two two one Baker Street.

    SHERLOCK (straightening up): How can it be here? How?

    LESTRADE: Well, maybe it was in the case when you brought it back and it fell out somewhere.

    SHERLOCK: What, and I didn’t notice it? Me? I didn’t notice?

    JOHN (to Lestrade): Anyway, we texted him and he called back.

    (Lestrade turns to call out to his colleagues.)

    LESTRADE: Guys, we’re also looking for a mobile somewhere here, belonged to the victim ...

    (Sherlock tunes him out as he begins to remember questions he asked to John earlier.)

    SHERLOCK (voiceover): ‘Who do we trust, even if we don’t know them?’

    (Behind Mrs Hudson, the man has reached the top of the stairs. Wearing a cardigan and with a cap on his head obscuring his face, he has a badge in a leather holder on a cord around his neck. The badge is for a licensed London cab driver.)

    SHERLOCK (voiceover): ‘Who passes unnoticed wherever they go?’

    (In a cut-away, a black taxi drives down a rainy street with its sign lit indicating that it’s for hire.

    In flashback, at the railway station Sir Jeffrey Patterson walks to the cab rank and raises his hand to a taxi.)SHERLOCK (voiceover): ‘Who hunts in the middle of a crowd?’

    (Sherlock stands lost in thought in the flat.)

    (In flashback, James Phillimore walks alone across the road, huddled against the pouring rain, and a vacant taxi drives along the road behind him.In flashback, Beth Davenport looks around despairingly when she realizes that she doesn’t have her car keys. Nearby, a vacant cab pulls up.)(In the flat, Sherlock turns, his mind racing as he puts all the clues together.)(In flashback, Jennifer Wilson arrives at a London train terminus and gets into the back of a taxi.)(Sherlock turns his head, still putting it all together. On the landing, the taxi driver takes a pink smartphone from his pocket and presses the screen to send a text. A moment later, Sherlock’s own phone chimes a text alert. Taking his phone from his jacket pocket he looks at the message which simply reads: COME WITH ME. As he turns his head towards the door, the taxi driver turns around and calmly heads off down the stairs.)

    JOHN: Sherlock, you okay?

    SHERLOCK (vaguely, watching the man go): What? Yeah, yeah, I-I’m fine.

    JOHN: So, how can the phone be here?

    SHERLOCK (still watching the taxi driver): Dunno.

    JOHN (getting up to get his own phone out of his jeans pocket): I’ll try it again.

    SHERLOCK: Good idea.

    (He heads towards the door.)

    JOHN: Where are you going?

    SHERLOCK: Fresh air. Just popping outside for a moment. Won’t be long.

    (John frowns as Sherlock leaves the room, and calls after him.)JOHN: You sure you’re all right?

    SHERLOCK (hurrying down the stairs): I’m fine.

    Downstairs, Sherlock opens the front door and stands on the doorstep for a moment while he shrugs himself into his coat. A taxi is parked at the kerb and the driver, Jeff Hope, is leaning casually against the side of the cab.

    JEFF: Taxi for Sherlock ’olmes.

    (Sherlock steps forward, closing the door behind him.)

    SHERLOCK: I didn’t order a taxi.

    JEFF: Doesn’t mean you don’t need one.

    SHERLOCK: You’re the cabbie. The one who stopped outside Northumberland Street.

    (In flashback, the American man sits in the back of the cab outside the restaurant and turns his head to the front. In the driver’s seat, Jeff looks over his shoulder and through the rear window of the cab before turning around again and starting to drive away.)

    SHERLOCK: It was you, not your passenger.

    JEFF: See? No-one ever thinks about the cabbie. It’s like you’re invisible. Just the back of an ’ead. Proper advantage for a serial killer.

    (Sherlock takes a few more steps forward and looks up towards the windows of his flat.)SHERLOCK: Is this a confession?

    JEFF: Oh, yeah. An’ I’ll tell you what else: if you call the coppers now, I won’t run. I’ll sit quiet and they can take me down, I promise.

    SHERLOCK: Why?

    JEFF: ’Cause you’re not gonna do that.

    SHERLOCK: Am I not?

    JEFF: I didn’t kill those four people, Mr ’olmes. I spoke to ’em ... and they killed themselves. An’ if you get the coppers now, I promise you one thing.

    (He leans forward.)JEFF: I will never tell you what I said.

    (Sherlock stares at him. After a moment, Jeff straightens up and starts to walk around the front of the cab.)

    SHERLOCK: No-one else will die, though, and I believe they call that a result.

    (Jeff stops and turns back towards him.)

    JEFF: An’ you won’t ever understand how those people died. What kind of result do you care about?

    (He turns again and continues around to the driver’s door. Getting in, he sits down and closes the door, settling into his seat and ignoring Sherlock. Biting his lip, Sherlock walks closer to the cab, looking up again at the flat windows, then he bends and looks into the open side window of the cab.)

    SHERLOCK: If I wanted to understand, what would I do?

    JEFF (turning to look at him): Let me take you for a ride.

    SHERLOCK: So you can kill me too?

    JEFF: I don’t wanna kill you, Mr ’olmes. I’m gonna talk to yer ... and then you’re gonna kill yourself.

    (He turns to face the front again. Sherlock straightens up, his eyes lost in thought as he considers the situation. Jeff calmly sits gazing out of the front window, then smiles in satisfaction when the rear door opens. The cab dips as Sherlock gets in and then the door slams shut. Jeff starts the engine.Upstairs, John has his phone held to his ear and is looking out of the window. The cab can be heard as it pulls away.)JOHN: He just got in a cab.

    (He turns to Lestrade.)

    JOHN: It’s Sherlock. He just drove off in a cab.

    (Donovan, standing beside Lestrade, tuts in irritation.)

    DONOVAN: I told you, he does that.

    (She turns to Lestrade.)

    DONOVAN: He bloody left again.

    (She walks back into the kitchen, talking loudly.)

    DONOVAN: We’re wasting our time!

    JOHN (to Lestrade): I’m calling the phone. It’s ringing out.

    (In the cab, a phone is ringing. Sherlock watches Jeff as the pink phone – which Jeff has put in the well beside his seat – continues to ring. Back in the flat, Lestrade watches John as he continues to hold his phone to his ear.)LESTRADE: If it’s ringing, it’s not here.

    (John lowers his phone and reaches for the computer notebook.)

    JOHN: I’ll try the search again.

    (Donovan comes back to confront Lestrade.)

    DONOVAN: Does it matter? Does any of it? You know, he’s just a lunatic, and he’ll always let you down, and you’re wasting your time. All our time.

    (Lestrade stares at her for a long moment as she holds his gaze, then he sighs.)

    LESTRADE (loudly): Okay, everybody. Done ’ere.

    (In the cab, Sherlock is watching the London scenery pass by.)

    SHERLOCK: How did you find me?

    JEFF: Oh, I recognised yer, soon as I saw you chasing my cab. Sherlock ’olmes! I was warned about you. I’ve been on your website, too. Brilliant stuff! Loved it!

    SHERLOCK: Who warned you about me?

    JEFF: Just someone out there who’s noticed you.

    SHERLOCK: Who?

    (He leans forward, looking closely at the side of Jeff’s neck, then noticing a photograph of a young boy and girl attached to the dashboard of the cab.)

    SHERLOCK: Who would notice me?

    JEFF (meeting his eyes briefly in the rear view mirror): You’re too modest, Mr ’olmes.

    SHERLOCK: I’m really not.

    JEFF: You’ve got yourself a fan.

    SHERLOCK (nonchalantly, sitting back in his seat): Tell me more.

    JEFF: That’s all you’re gonna know ...

    (He pauses dramatically for a moment.)JEFF (quietly): ... in this lifetime.

    (Back at the flat, as the other police officers leave, Lestrade picks up his coat and turns to John.)

    LESTRADE: Why did he do that? Why did he have to leave?

    JOHN (shrugging): You know him better than I do.

    LESTRADE: I’ve known him for five years and no, I don’t.

    JOHN: So why do you put up with him?

    LESTRADE: Because I’m desperate, that’s why.

    (He walks to the door, then turns back.)

    LESTRADE: And because Sherlock Holmes is a great man. And I think one day, if we’re very, very lucky, he might even be a good one.

    (He turns and leaves. Some distance away, the cab drives on and finally stops at the front of two identical buildings side by side. Jeff turns off the engine and gets out, coming to the back door and opening it. He looks in at Sherlock.)

    SHERLOCK: Where are we?

    JEFF: You know every street in London. You know exactly where we are.

    SHERLOCK: Roland-Kerr Further Education College. Why here?

    JEFF: It’s open; cleaners are in. One thing about being a cabbie: you always know a nice quiet spot for a murder. I’m surprised more of us don’t branch out.

    SHERLOCK: And you just walk your victims in? How?

    (Jeff raises a pistol and points it at Sherlock. Sherlock rolls his eyes and turns his head away.)

    SHERLOCK: Oh, dull.

    JEFF: Don’t worry. It gets better.

    SHERLOCK: You can’t make people take their own lives at gunpoint.

    JEFF: I don’t. It’s much better than that.

    (He lowers the gun.)JEFF: Don’t need this with you, ’cause you’ll follow me.

    (He confidently walks away. Sherlock sits for a moment, then grimaces in exasperation at himself as he does just what Jeff predicted and gets out of the cab to follow the man.)

    Back at 221B, John is alone in the flat. He appears to have decided to go home and walks towards the living room door, then looks down and clenches his right hand as if realising that he doesn’t have his walking cane. He looks round and sees the cane lying on top of a box of papers next to the dining table and goes over to collect it. With its back to him, Sherlock’s notebook is still on Mephone’s website and the clock is spinning on the screen while the site searches for Jennifer Wilson’s phone. As John picks up the cane and heads for the door again, the computer beeps triumphantly and a map appears on the screen and starts to zoom in on the new location of the phone. John turns back as the computer beeps repeatedly. Going back to the table and propping his cane against it, he picks up the notebook and looks at the screen, then he turns and takes the notebook with him as he hurries out of the door and down the stairs, once again forgetting to take his cane.At Roland-Kerr College, Jeff opens the door of a room and stands aside so that Sherlock can go in. Sherlock looks at him closely but steps inside the room, then Jeff releases the door and lets it swing closed as he walks over to some switches on the wall and turns on the lights. The men are in a large classroom which has long fixed wooden benches and free-standing plastic chairs. Sherlock walks deeper into the room, looking around.JEFF: Well, what do you think?

    (Sherlock raises his hands and shrugs as if to ask, ‘What do I think about what?’)

    JEFF: It’s up to you. You’re the one who’s gonna die ’ere.

    (Sherlock turns back to him.)

    SHERLOCK: No, I’m not.

    JEFF: That’s what they all say.

    (He gestures to one of the benches.)JEFF: Shall we talk?

    (Without waiting for a reply, he pulls out one of the chairs and sits down. Sherlock takes a chair from the bench in front, flips it around and sits down opposite. He sighs dramatically while he takes off his gloves and puts them into his coat pockets.)

    SHERLOCK: Bit risky, wasn’t it? Took me away under the eye of about half a dozen policemen. They’re not that stupid. And Mrs Hudson will remember you.

    JEFF: You call that a risk? Nah.

    (He reaches into the left pocket of his cardigan.)JEFF: This is a risk.

    (He takes out a small glass bottle with a screw top and puts it onto the table in front of him. There is a single large capsule inside. Sherlock looks at it but doesn’t react in any way.)

    JEFF: Ooh, I like this bit. ’Cause you don’t get it yet, do yer? But you’re about to. I just have to do this.

    (Reaching into his right pocket, he takes out an identical bottle containing an identical capsule and puts it onto the table beside the first bottle.)

    JEFF: You weren’t expecting that, were yer?

    (He leans forward.)

    JEFF: Ooh, you’re going to love this.

    SHERLOCK: Love what?

    JEFF (sitting back again): Sherlock ’olmes. Look at you! ’Ere in the flesh. That website of yours: your fan told me about it.

    SHERLOCK: My fan?

    JEFF: You are brilliant. You are. A proper genius. “The Science of Deduction.” Now that is proper thinking. Between you and me sitting ’ere, why can’t people think?

    (He looks down angrily.)

    JEFF: Don’t it make you mad? Why can’t people just think?

    (He looks up again into Sherlock’s eyes. Sherlock looks back at him for a long moment, narrowing his eyes, then makes a realisation.)

    SHERLOCK (his voice dripping with sarcasm): Oh, I see. So you’re a proper genius too.

    JEFF: Don’t look it, do I? Funny little man drivin’ a cab. But you’ll know better in a minute. Chances are it’ll be the last thing you ever know.

    (Sherlock holds his gaze for a second or two, then looks down to the table.)SHERLOCK: Okay, two bottles. Explain.

    JEFF: There’s a good bottle and a bad bottle. You take the pill from the good bottle, you live; take the pill from the bad bottle, you die.

    SHERLOCK: Both bottles are of course identical.

    JEFF: In every way.

    SHERLOCK: And you know which is which.

    JEFF: Course I know.

    SHERLOCK: But I don’t.

    JEFF: Wouldn’t be a game if you knew. You’re the one who chooses.

    SHERLOCK: Why should I? I’ve got nothing to go on. What’s in it for me?

    JEFF: I ’aven’t told you the best bit yet. Whatever bottle you choose, I take the pill from the other one – and then, together, we take our medicine.

    (Sherlock starts to grin. Now he’s interested.)JEFF: I won’t cheat. It’s your choice. I’ll take whatever pill you don’t.

    (Sherlock looks down at the bottles, concentrating properly now.)

    JEFF: Didn’t expect that, did you, Mr ’olmes?

    SHERLOCK: This is what you did to the rest of them: you gave them a choice.

    JEFF: And now I’m givin’ you one.

    (Sherlock looks up at him.)

    JEFF: You take your time. Get yourself together.

    (He licks his lips in anticipation.)

    JEFF: I want your best game.

    SHERLOCK: It’s not a game. It’s chance.

    JEFF: I’ve played four times. I’m alive. It’s not chance, Mr ’olmes, it’s chess. It’s a game of chess, with one move, and one survivor. And this ... this ... is the move.

    (With his left hand he slides the left-hand bottle across the table towards Sherlock. He licks his top lip as he pulls his hand back and leaves the bottle where it is.)

    JEFF: Did I just give you the good bottle or the bad bottle? You can choose either one.

    John is in the back of a taxi. He has the computer notebook open on his lap and is holding his phone to his ear.

    JOHN (into phone): No, Detective Inspector Lestrade. I need to speak to him. It’s important. It’s an emergency!

    (The map on the laptop shows the location of Jennifer’s phone again.)

    JOHN (to the cab driver): Er, left here, please. Left here.

    ROLAND-KERR COLLEGE

    Jeff looks down at the bottles briefly then meets Sherlock’s eyes.

    JEFF: You ready yet, Mr ’olmes? Ready to play?

    SHERLOCK: Play what? It’s a fifty-fifty chance.

    JEFF: You’re not playin’ the numbers, you’re playin’ me. Did I just give you the good pill or the bad pill? Is it a bluff? Or a double-bluff? Or a triple-bluff?

    SHERLOCK: Still just chance.

    JEFF: Four people in a row? It’s not just chance.

    SHERLOCK: Luck.

    JEFF: It’s genius. I know ’ow people think.

    (Sherlock rolls his eyes.)

    JEFF: I know ’ow people think I think. I can see it all, like a map inside my ’ead.

    (Sherlock looks exasperated.)

    JEFF: Everyone’s so stupid – even you.

    (Sherlock’s gaze sharpens.)

    JEFF: Or maybe God just loves me.

    (Sherlock straightens up and leans forward, clasping his hands in front of him on the table.)

    SHERLOCK: Either way, you’re wasted as a cabbie.

    John has arrived at Roland-Kerr College. As the taxi pulls away, John tucks the notebook into his jacket and looks at the two identical buildings in front of him. Clearly the map isn’t precise enough to indicate exactly where the phone is. After a moment, he makes his choice and heads towards the buildings.

    In the classroom, Sherlock lifts his clasped hands in front of his mouth and gazes at Jeff intently.SHERLOCK: So, you risked your life four times just to kill strangers. Why?

    (Jeff nods down to the bottles.)

    JEFF: Time to play.

    SHERLOCK (unfolding his fingers and adopting the prayer position in front of his mouth): Oh, I am playing. This is my turn. There’s shaving foam behind your left ear. Nobody’s pointed it out to you.

    (Flashback to Jeff sitting in the driver’s seat of the cab, which is when Sherlock noticed this.)SHERLOCK: Traces of where it’s happened before, so obviously you live on your own; there’s no-one to tell you.

    (Jeff tries not to fidget under Sherlock’s gaze.)

    SHERLOCK: But there’s a photograph of children. The children’s mother has been cut out of the picture. If she’d died, she’d still be there.

    (Flashback to the photograph attached to the dashboard of the cab. There is indeed a third person at the left of the photograph but the photo has been cut along that side to remove most of her image.)

    SHERLOCK: The photograph’s old but the frame’s new. You think of your children but you don’t get to see them.

    (Jeff’s gaze slides away from Sherlock and for the first time there’s a hint of pain in his eyes.)

    SHERLOCK: Estranged father. She took the kids, but you still love them and it still hurts.

    (He extends his index fingers.)

    SHERLOCK: Ah, but there’s more.

    (Jeff lifts his gaze back to Sherlock as he points his index fingers towards him.)

    SHERLOCK: Your clothes: recently laundered but everything you’re wearing’s at least ... three years old? Keeping up appearances but not planning ahead. And here you are on a kamikaze murder spree. What’s that about?

    (Jeff has got control of himself again and his expression says nothing as he gazes back at Sherlock. The detective’s eyes widen slightly as he makes his most important deduction.)

    SHERLOCK (softly): Ahh. Three years ago – is that when they told you?

    JEFF (flatly): Told me what?

    (Sherlock’s deduction seems to appear beside Jeff’s head: DYING)

    SHERLOCK: That you’re a dead man walking.

    JEFF: So are you.

    SHERLOCK: You don’t have long, though. Am I right?

    (Jeff smiles.)JEFF: Aneurism.

    (He lifts his right hand and taps the side of his head.)

    JEFF: Right in ’ere.

    (Sherlock smiles in satisfaction.)

    JEFF: Any breath could be my last.

    SHERLOCK (frowning again): And because you’re dying, you’ve just murdered four people.

    JEFF: I’ve outlived four people. That’s the most fun you can ’ave on an aneurism.

    SHERLOCK (thoughtfully): No. No, there’s something else. You didn’t just kill four people because you’re bitter. Bitterness is a paralytic. Love is a much more vicious motivator. Somehow this is about your children.

    JEFF (looking away and sighing): Ohh.

    (He looks at Sherlock again.)

    JEFF: You are good, ain’t you?

    SHERLOCK: But how?

    JEFF: When I die, they won’t get much, my kids. Not a lot of money in driving cabs.

    SHERLOCK: Or serial killing.

    JEFF: You’d be surprised.

    SHERLOCK: Surprise me.

    (Jeff leans forward.)JEFF: I ’ave a sponsor.

    SHERLOCK: You have a what?

    JEFF: For every life I take, money goes to my kids. The more I kill, the better off they’ll be. You see? It’s nicer than you think.

    SHERLOCK (frowning): Who’d sponsor a serial killer?

    JEFF (instantly): Who’d be a fan of Sherlock ’olmes?

    (They stare at each other for a moment.)

    JEFF: You’re not the only one to enjoy a good murder. There’s others out there just like you, except you’re just a man ... and they’re so much more than that.

    (The side of Sherlock’s nose twitches in distaste.)

    SHERLOCK: What d’you mean, more than a man? An organisation? What?

    JEFF: There’s a name no-one says, an’ I’m not gonna say it either. Now, enough chatter.

    (He nods down to the bottles.)JEFF: Time to choose.

    (Sherlock looks down to the bottles, his eyes moving from one to the other.)

    Elsewhere in the college, John is running through the corridors.JOHN (calling out): Sherlock?

    (He runs from door to door, trying them and peering in through windows.)

    JOHN: Sherlock!

    CLASSROOM

    SHERLOCK: What if I don’t choose either? I could just walk out of here.

    (Sighing in a combination of exasperation and disappointment, Jeff lifts up the pistol and points it at Sherlock.)

    JEFF: You can take your fifty-fifty chance, or I can shoot you in the head.

    (Sherlock smiles calmly.)

    JEFF: Funnily enough, no-one’s ever gone for that option.

    SHERLOCK: I’ll have the gun, please.

    JEFF: Are you sure?

    SHERLOCK (still smiling): Definitely. The gun.

    JEFF: You don’t wanna phone a friend?

    (Sherlock smiles confidently.)

    SHERLOCK: The gun.

    (Jeff’s mouth tightens, and slowly he squeezes the trigger. A small flame bursts out of the end of the muzzle. Sherlock smiles smugly.)

    SHERLOCK: I know a real gun when I see one.

    (Calmly Jeff lifts the pistol/cigarette lighter and releases the trigger. The flame goes out.)

    JEFF: None of the others did.

    SHERLOCK: Clearly. Well, this has been very interesting. I look forward to the court case.

    (He stands up and walks towards the door. Jeff puts the gun onto the desk and calmly turns in his seat.)JEFF: Just before you go, did you figure it out ...

    (Sherlock stops at the door and half-turns towards him.)

    JEFF: ... which one’s the good bottle?

    SHERLOCK: Of course. Child’s play.

    JEFF: Well, which one, then?

    (Sherlock opens the door a little but shows no sign of leaving the room.)

    JEFF: Which one would you ’ave picked, just so I know whether I could have beaten you?

    (Sherlock closes the door again.)

    JEFF (chuckling): Come on. Play the game.

    (Slowly Sherlock walks back towards him. When he gets to the table, he reaches out and sweeps up the bottle nearest to Jeff, then walks past him. Jeff looks down at the other bottle with interest but his voice gives nothing away as he speaks.)

    JEFF: Oh. Interesting.

    (He picks up the other bottle as Sherlock looks down at the bottle in his own hand.

    Out in the corridors, John is still running along and searching.In the classroom, Jeff has opened his bottle and tips the capsule out into his hand. He holds it up and looks at it closely while Sherlock examines his own bottle.)JEFF: So what d’you think?

    (He looks up at Sherlock.)

    JEFF: Shall we?

    (In the corridors, John pulls open yet another door and looks inside the room before hurrying onwards.)

    JEFF: Really, what do you think?

    (He has stood up and is facing Sherlock.)

    JEFF: Can you beat me?

    (John races up a flight of stairs and continues his search.)

    JEFF: Are you clever enough to bet your life?

    (John bursts through a door and stares ahead of him as he finally sees who he’s looking for. His eyes fill with horror. Inside the classroom, Sherlock lifts his gaze from the bottle he’s holding and looks towards the door ... and the camera zooms over his shoulder and out of the window behind him, soaring across the courtyard outside and in through another window to reveal John standing in an identical classroom in the other building, too far away to be of help. John cries out in horror.)

    JOHN: SHERLOCK!

    (Unaware that they’re being watched, Jeff continues to hold up his pill as he looks at Sherlock.)

    JEFF: I bet you get bored, don’t you? I know you do. A man like you ...

    (Sherlock unscrews the lid of the bottle.)

    JEFF: ... so clever. But what’s the point of being clever if you can’t prove it?

    (Sherlock takes out the capsule and holds it between his thumb and finger, raising it to the light to examine it more closely.)

    JEFF: Still the addict.

    (Slowly Sherlock lowers the pill again, holding it at eye level and gazing at it.)

    JEFF: But this ... this is what you’re really addicted to, innit?

    (Sherlock holds the pill in his fingers and stares at it.)

    JEFF: You’d do anything ... anything at all ...

    (Sherlock’s fingers begin to tremble with excitement and anticipation.)

    JEFF: ... to stop being bored.

    (Slowly Sherlock begins to move the pill closer to his mouth. Jeff matches the movement with his own pill towards his own mouth.)

    JEFF: You’re not bored now, are you?

    (Each of their hands gets closer to their mouths.)

    JEFF: Innit good?

    (A gunshot rings out and a bullet impacts Jeff’s chest close to his heart, continuing through his body and smashing into the door behind him. As he falls to the floor, Sherlock drops his pill in surprise. In the opposite building, John has his pistol still raised and aimed out of the window. He lowers the gun to his side. In the other building, Sherlock turns, slides over the desk behind him and hurries to the window, bending down to stare through the bullet hole in the glass. The window of the opposite room is open but there is nobody in sight. As Sherlock straightens up, Jeff breathes heavily and coughs. Sherlock turns back, looking around the room and seeing one of the pills lying on one of the desks as Jeff convulses on the floor and gasps and coughs in pain. Sherlock snatches up the pill, kneels down and brandishes it at Jeff, who has a large pool of blood underneath him and is staring up at him in shock.)

    SHERLOCK: Was I right?

    (Jeff turns his head away in disbelief.)

    SHERLOCK: I was, wasn’t I? Did I get it right?

    (Jeff doesn’t reply. Sherlock angrily hurls the pill across the room and stands up.)

    SHERLOCK: Okay, tell me this: your sponsor. Who was it? The one who told you about me – my ‘fan.’ I want a name.

    JEFF (weakly): No.

    SHERLOCK: You’re dying, but there’s still time to hurt you. Give me a name.

    (Jeff shakes his head. Grimacing angrily, Sherlock lifts his foot and puts it onto Jeff’s shoulder. Jeff gasps in pain.)

    SHERLOCK: A name.

    (Jeff cries out in pain.)

    SHERLOCK: Now.

    (Still Jeff can only whine in pain. His face intent and manic, Sherlock leans his weight onto his foot. Jeff whimpers.)

    SHERLOCK (furiously): The NAME!

    JEFF (agonised): MORIARTY!

    (His eyes close and his head rolls to the side. Sherlock steps back, turning his head away and looking reflective. After a few seconds, he silently mouths the word ‘Moriarty’ to himself.)LATER

    Outside the college, Sherlock is sitting on the back steps of an ambulance. A paramedic puts an orange blanket around his shoulders as Lestrade walks over. Sherlock gestures to the blanket.

    SHERLOCK: Why have I got this blanket? They keep putting this blanket on me.

    LESTRADE: Yeah, it’s for shock.

    SHERLOCK: I’m not in shock.

    LESTRADE: Yeah, but some of the guys wanna take photographs.

    (He grins. Sherlock rolls his eyes.)SHERLOCK: So, the shooter. No sign?

    LESTRADE: Cleared off before we got ’ere. But a guy like that would have had enemies, I suppose. One of them could have been following him but ... (he shrugs) ... got nothing to go on.

    (Sherlock looks at him pointedly.)SHERLOCK: Oh, I wouldn’t say that.

    (Now it’s Lestrade’s turn to roll his eyes.)

    LESTRADE: Okay, gimme.

    SHERLOCK (standing up): The bullet they just dug out of the wall’s from a hand gun. Kill shot over that distance from that kind of a weapon – that’s a crack shot you’re looking for, but not just a marksman; a fighter. His hands couldn’t have shaken at all, so clearly he’s acclimatised to violence. He didn’t fire until I was in immediate danger, though, so strong moral principle. You’re looking for a man probably with a history of military service ...

    (While he’s talking, he turns his head to look around the area and sees John standing some distance away behind the police tape.)SHERLOCK: ... and nerves of steel ...

    (He trails off. As John looks back at him innocently and then turns his head away, Sherlock clearly begins to realise the connection. Lestrade turns to follow Sherlock’s gaze and Sherlock turns back to him before he can start to ask questions.)

    SHERLOCK: Actually, do you know what? Ignore me.

    LESTRADE: Sorry?

    SHERLOCK: Ignore all of that. It’s just the, er, the shock talking.

    (He starts to walk towards John.)

    LESTRADE: Where’re you going?

    SHERLOCK: I just need to talk about the-the rent.

    LESTRADE: But I’ve still got questions for you.

    SHERLOCK (turning back to him in irritation): Oh, what now? I’m in shock! Look, I’ve got a blanket!

    (He brandishes the sides of the blanket at Lestrade as if to prove it.)LESTRADE: Sherlock!

    SHERLOCK: And I just caught you a serial killer ... more or less.

    (Lestrade looks at him thoughtfully for a moment.)LESTRADE: Okay. We’ll bring you in tomorrow. Off you go.

    (Sherlock walks away. Lestrade smiles as he watches him go. Taking the blanket from around his shoulders, Sherlock bundles it up as he approaches John, who is standing at the side of a police car. Sherlock tosses the blanket through the open window of the car and ducks under the police tape.)

    JOHN: Um, Sergeant Donovan’s just been explaining everything, the two pills. Been a dreadful business, hasn’t it? Dreadful.

    (Sherlock looks at him for a moment.)

    SHERLOCK (quietly): Good shot.

    JOHN (trying and utterly failing to look innocent): Yes. Yes, must have been, through that window.

    SHERLOCK: Well, you’d know.

    (John gazes up at him, still unsuccessfully trying not to let his expression give him away.)

    SHERLOCK: Need to get the powder burns out of your fingers. I don’t suppose you’d serve time for this, but let’s avoid the court case.

    (John clears his throat and looks around nervously.)

    SHERLOCK: Are you all right?

    JOHN: Yes, of course I’m all right.

    SHERLOCK: Well, you have just killed a man.

    JOHN: Yes, I ...

    (He trails off. Sherlock looks at him closely.)JOHN: That’s true, innit?

    (He smiles. Sherlock continues to watch him carefully.)

    JOHN: But he wasn’t a very nice man.

    (Apparently reassured that John really is okay, Sherlock nods in agreement.)

    SHERLOCK: No. No, he wasn’t really, was he?

    JOHN: And frankly a bloody awful cabbie.

    (Sherlock chuckles, then turns and starts to lead them away.)SHERLOCK: That’s true. He was a bad cabbie. Should have seen the route he took us to get here!

    (John giggles, and Sherlock smiles.)

    JOHN: Stop! Stop, we can’t giggle, it’s a crime scene! Stop it!

    SHERLOCK: You’re the one who shot him. Don’t blame me.

    JOHN: Keep your voice down!

    (They’re walking past Sergeant Donovan.)

    JOHN (to Donovan): Sorry – it’s just, um, nerves, I think.

    SHERLOCK (to Donovan): Sorry.

    (John clears his throat as they walk away from Donovan.)JOHN: You were gonna take that damned pill, weren’t you?

    (Sherlock stops and turns back to him.)

    SHERLOCK: Course I wasn’t. Biding my time. Knew you’d turn up.

    JOHN: No you didn’t. It’s how you get your kicks, isn’t it? You risk your life to prove you’re clever.

    SHERLOCK: Why would I do that?

    JOHN: Because you’re an idiot.

    (Sherlock smiles, apparently delighted that he has finally found someone who understands him and – more to the point – doesn’t care about his behaviour. After a moment he forces the smile down.)SHERLOCK: Dinner?

    JOHN: Starving.

    (They turn and start to walk again.)SHERLOCK: End of Baker Street, there’s a good Chinese stays open ’til two. You can always tell a good Chinese by examining the bottom third of the door handle.

    (As he has been speaking, a few yards ahead of them a car has pulled up and the man who abducted John earlier gets out. Not-Anthea is with him. John stares.)

    JOHN: Sherlock. That’s him. That’s the man I was talking to you about.

    (Sherlock looks across at the man.)

    SHERLOCK: I know exactly who that is.

    (He walks closer to the man and stops, looking at him angrily. John glances round to gauge where the police are in case he needs to summon their help. The man speaks pleasantly to Sherlock.)

    M: So, another case cracked. How very public spirited ... though that’s never really your motivation, is it?

    SHERLOCK: What are you doing here?

    M: As ever, I’m concerned about you.

    SHERLOCK: Yes, I’ve been hearing about your ‘concern.’

    M: Always so aggressive. Did it never occur to you that you and I belong on the same side?

    SHERLOCK: Oddly enough, no!

    M: We have more in common than you like to believe. This petty feud between us is simply childish. People will suffer ... and you know how it always upset Mummy.

    (John frowns as if unsure of what he just heard.)

    SHERLOCK: I upset her? Me?

    (The man glowers at him.)

    SHERLOCK: It wasn’t me that upset her, Mycroft.

    JOHN: No, no, wait. Mummy? Who’s Mummy?

    SHERLOCK: Mother – our mother. This is my brother, Mycroft.

    (John stares at the man in amazement.)

    SHERLOCK (to Mycroft): Putting on weight again?

    M/MYCROFT: Losing it, in fact.

    JOHN (to Sherlock): He’s your brother?!

    SHERLOCK: Of course he’s my brother.

    JOHN: So he’s not ...

    SHERLOCK: Not what?

    (The brothers look at John as he shrugs in embarrassment.)JOHN: I dunno – criminal mastermind?

    (He grimaces at having even suggested it. Sherlock looks at Mycroft disparagingly.)

    SHERLOCK: Close enough.

    MYCROFT: For goodness’ sake. I occupy a minor position in the British government.

    SHERLOCK: He is the British government, when he’s not too busy being the British Secret Service or the CIA on a freelance basis.

    (Mycroft sighs.)

    SHERLOCK: Good evening, Mycroft. Try not to start a war before I get home. You know what it does for the traffic.

    (He walks away. John starts to follow him but then turns back to Mycroft, who has turned to watch his brother.)

    JOHN: So, when-when you say you’re concerned about him, you actually are concerned?

    MYCROFT: Yes, of course.

    JOHN: I mean, it actually is a childish feud?

    MYCROFT (still watching his brother): He’s always been so resentful. You can imagine the Christmas dinners.

    JOHN: Yeah ... no. God, no!

    (He half-turns to follow Sherlock.)

    JOHN: I-I’d better, um ...

    (He turns back to not-Anthea, who has been standing nearby throughout the conversation with her eyes fixed on her BlackBerry.)

    JOHN: Hello again.

    (She looks up and smiles brightly.)

    NOT-ANTHEA: Hello.

    JOHN: Yes, we-we met earlier on this evening.

    (She stares at him as if she has never seen him before but is pretending that she remembers him.)NOT-ANTHEA: Oh!

    JOHN (somewhat exasperated): Okay, good night.

    (He includes Mycroft in his glance, then turns and follows after Sherlock.)MYCROFT: Good night, Doctor Watson.

    (John catches up to Sherlock and they walk away side by side.)

    JOHN: So: dim sum.

    SHERLOCK: Mmm! I can always predict the fortune cookies.

    JOHN: No you can’t.

    SHERLOCK: Almost can. You did get shot, though.

    JOHN: Sorry?

    SHERLOCK: In Afghanistan. There was an actual wound.

    JOHN: Oh, yeah. Shoulder.

    SHERLOCK: Shoulder! I thought so.

    JOHN: No you didn’t.

    SHERLOCK: The left one.

    JOHN: Lucky guess.

    SHERLOCK: I never guess.

    JOHN (laughing): Yes you do.

    (He looks across to Sherlock, who is smiling.)

    JOHN: What are you so happy about?

    SHERLOCK: Moriarty.

    JOHN: What’s Moriarty?

    SHERLOCK (cheerfully): I’ve absolutely no idea.

    (Back at the car, not-Anthea turns to Mycroft who is watching the boys as they walk away.)NOT-ANTHEA: Sir, shall we go?

    MYCROFT: Interesting, that soldier fellow.

    (Not-Anthea looks briefly at the departing boys, then turns her attention back to her BlackBerry.)MYCROFT: He could be the making of my brother – or make him worse than ever. Either way, we’d better upgrade their surveillance status. Grade Three Active.

    (Not-Anthea looks up from her phone.)

    NOT-ANTHEA: Sorry, sir. Whose status?

    (Mycroft intensely watches the departing men.)

    MYCROFT: Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.

    (Hero!shot as our boys walk in slow motion towards the camera before turning and smiling at each other.)

14. #14Season 1 - Episode 2: The Blind Banker

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    At the National Antiquities Museum, Chinese pottery expert Soo Lin Yao demonstrates a tea ceremony to a group of visitors. Afterwards, as closing time approaches, her co-worker Andy Galbraith asks her out for a drink, but she turns him down and says that he would not like her very much if he knew her. Soo Lin then tells him to stop asking her out.

    That night, Soo Lin is working late when she hears someone moving. She goes to investigate and finds a statue covered with a canvas. When she pulls the canvas away, she stares in shock at what she saw underneath.

    Dr John Watson is trying to buy groceries at the supermarket, but the machine gives him problems and refuses to accept whatever form of payment he tries to use. Meanwhile, at home, Sherlock Holmes battles a robed swordsman and finally knocks him out. When John finally comes home, he complains that he had a row with a machine, and that Sherlock has not moved all day. Sherlock admits that he turned down a case about a diamond and gave the messenger a refusal. As he does, he also shoves a sword beneath the chair. John notices that Holmes is using his computer to check his e-mail. John asks for money, and Sherlock says he has to go to the bank, in actuality a big financial powerhouse.

    At the bank, Sebastian Wilkes, an old university acquaintance of Sherlock's, asks for help. As they exchange greetings, Sherlock deduces from out-of-nowhere that Sebastian has made two trips around the world in the past month. He pretends to have learned this from Sebastian's secretary, but later confides to John that he figured it out from the fact that Sebastian's watch was brand new and it was also two days behind, indicating that he had crossed the International Date Line but had not altered it.

    Sebastian explains that someone broke into their former chairman's empty office the night before and sprayed an apparently meaningless set of symbols on a wall and across the head of the chairman's portrait. Sebastian shows them the room, and two symbols, one on a painting and one on the wall nearby. The building is sealed and the CCTV shows that the vandal did the deed within a 60 second period between 11:33 PM and 11:34 PM. He offers to pay Sherlock to find the hole in their security. Sherlock turns down the money, but John quickly accepts.

    Sherlock takes photos of the symbols in the room and then steps out on the balcony and considers the street far below. He then walks through the office, figuring out who has a line of sight to the chairman's office. He finds one office, which belongs to Eddie Van Coon of the Hong Kong division. Holmes notices that Van Coon's office has a direct line-of-sight view to the symbols. As he leaves with John, he explains that the graffiti was a message to someone, and Van Coon was the only one who could see the room where the message was left -since he trades with China, he probably works at night and the message was intended for someone who started their work at midnight.

    Sherlock and John go to Van Coon's apartment. Sherlock buzzes Van Coon several times, but no one answers, but then he notices that the woman who lives directly above Van Coon has recently moved in – her label is still handwritten. Sherlock buzzes her, and pretends to be Van Coon. Claiming that he locked his keys into his flat, he asks if he can use her balcony. Sherlock jumps from her balcony onto Van Coon's directly below it, and lets himself in through the patio doors, which have been left unlocked. As he looks through the apartment, John buzzes the apartment to have Sherlock let him in. Sherlock forces open another set of doors and finds Van Coon, who has been shot in the head, a SIG-Sauer P226 pistol lying by his side.

    As the police examine the scene, Sherlock determines from the laundry in Van Coon's suitcase that he had just come back from a three-day vacation, probably very recently. He also notices that something was tightly packed inside the suitcase at one point. The primary investigator, DI Dimmock, is prepared to regard it as a suicide, though Sherlock points out several holes in that theory – for one thing, someone appears to have inserted a black paper lotus flower into Van Coon's mouth post-mortem. Additionally, Van Coon was shot in the right side of his head, but he was left-handed (as evidenced by his habits and the layout of furniture in his apartment). He explains that Van Coon had been threatened (the spray-painted message from the bank is proof of this) and was waiting for the killer. He fired a shot at the killer when he came in, but the bullet missed and sailed out the open window. Sherlock tells Dimmock to check that the bullet is determined to not have come from Van Coon's gun.

    That night, Sherlock and John encounter Sebastian while he is having dinner with several associates, and they inform him of Van Coon's death. He mentions that the police regard his death as a suicide, and berates them for being sidetracked.

    Later that night, journalist Brian Lukis is seen running down a busy street, constantly looking over his shoulder, like he is being chased. He scrambles into his apartment, locks all of the doors behind him, and finds that his place has been searched. Panting, he turns, and his mouth drops at what he sees....

    The next day, Andy is working at the museum when the director informs him that Soo Lin has resigned. Andy goes to her apartment in Chinatown and knocks on the door, but does not get an answer. He writes a note on museum stationary and places it in the mail slot.

    John applies for the position of locum at a local clinic and admits to the doctor, Dr. Sarah Sawyer, that he needs the money. She warns that it is mundane, but he insists that that is fine and she hires him. He returns to 221B Baker Street and finds Sherlock contemplating the case, and notices that Sherlock has opened John's computer again, but not to check his email.

    Sherlock has opened John's computer to a news website with an article about Brian Lukis, a freelance journalist who was shot and killed in his locked apartment by a killer who can apparently pass through walls. Sherlock notes that the circumstances of the journalist's death seem identical to Van Coon's death and suspects a connection. They go to Scotland Yard to make a request to see Lukis' apartment. While they are making their request to Dimmock, Dimmock confirms that the bullet extracted from Van Coon did not come from his gun. In Lukis' apartment, Sherlock finds a black paper lotus lying on the floor, identical to the one he extracted from Van Coon's mouth. Sherlock notices a skylight in the apartment, and realises that the two victims both thought that by locking themselves in, they would be impossible to reach.

    He determines that the shooter broke into Lukis' apartment through the skylight, after climbing up the wall and running along the roof. This seems to indicate that the shooter is a human fly – he scaled a six floor apartment building to kill Van Coon, and ran along the roof and onto the terrace to leave the message at the bank. Sherlock finds a book recently checked out from a nearby library. Sherlock and John go to that library to look for the books that Lukis checked out, and find more of the painted graffiti symbols of the type from the bank on the shelf.

    Back at 221B, Sherlock and John try to piece together the symbols. It is clear that the shooter threatened Van Coon by spray painting the message at the bank; Van Coon then went home, locked himself in, and hours later, Van Coons was killed. The shooter then left the message at the library for Lukis, and later that night, Lukis was killed. Sherlock realises that the graffiti symbols are ciphers of an ancient code.

    He and John go to talk to an expert, a street graffiti artist named Raz, as he uses a spray paint can to paint his newest masterpiece on the door to a building. He informs them that he has exactly two minutes before two community police officers will come running around the corner and catch him in the act. Raz identifies the type of paint, but has no idea what the ciphers represent, and agrees to do some inquiries. There is no more time for conversation as two community officers come around and spot them. Raz and Sherlock run off, leaving John holding the bag with Raz's spray paint.

    John returns home later, annoyed that he is been given an ASBO. To find out what links Van Coon and Lukis together, Sherlock traces Van Coon's footsteps on the day he was killed, and instructs John to track down addresses from Lukis' diary.

    Sherlock talks to Van Coon's personal assistant, Amanda. She has all of his receipts, but notes that there is a gap in her boss' schedule on the day he was killed. Amanda admits that Van Coon was not appreciative of her – he only was appreciative of very expensive items – though Sherlock notices a bottle of expensive hand cream that he might have bought for her. Examining the receipts, Sherlock finds some very interesting details – Van Coon took a taxi out to the West End, but a ticket shows that he took the London Underground to get back, signifying that Van Coon lugged a heavy package up the escalator. There's also a receipt from a coffee shop that he stopped at on the way back.

    Sherlock follows the receipts, and runs into John, who is retracing Lukis' steps. Sherlock starts to explain to John that Van Coon must have dropped off a heavy package in this area, and John immediately points to The Lucky Cat Emporium, an oriental curio shop across the street, noting that Lukis wrote down the address in his diary. Inside, they discover that many of the goods have numbers on them, in the same symbols as the ciphers. They realise that the numbers are in Hang Zhou numerals, an ancient Chinese numeral system now only used by traders – Sherlock determines that the numbers at the bank are 15 and 1. As they leave, a mysterious woman takes photos of them.

    Sherlock and John go to a restaurant across the street for lunch, and Sherlock tells John about a possible motive for the killings. He remembers Seb telling them that Van Coon lost five million pounds one week, but made it all back the next. Now Sherlock knows why: Van Coon was smuggling illegal antiques. The idea that both Van Coon and Lukis were smugglers is not far fetched, given their cover careers: Van Coon was a businessman making frequent trips to Asia; Lukis was a journalist writing about China. Both of them must have smuggled things back in their suitcases, and used the Lucky Cat as their delivery point. Sherlock thinks that one of them stole something from his employer, but since the killer does not know which one took it, he had to kill both of them.

    Sherlock is distracted when he notices a wet phonebook package next to an apartment door adjacent to the Lucky Cat, an apartment that just happens to be Soo Lin Yao's. He climbs up the fire escape and goes inside through an open window, ignoring John's pleas to open the door. Going over the apartment, Sherlock realises that someone else is inside and is still there. A shadowy figure ambushes Sherlock and chokes him almost to the point of unconsciousness, drops a black paper lotus on the floor, and just when Sherlock is about to pass out, the intruder suddenly releases him and runs out. Sherlock staggers downstairs and opens the door for John. He says they need to find Soo Lin. He also spots Andy's note, though he is noticeably wheezy from his near-death experience. John asks if he is getting a cold, but Sherlock insists that he is fine.

    Sherlock and John talk to Andy, who says that Soo Lin resigned and the last thing he remembers seeing her do was demonstrate the tea ceremony. As Andy shows them her locker, Sherlock notices a nearby statue with two of the same ciphers on them, painted with exactly the same yellow paint. As the two men leave, the same woman from earlier watches them. Raz meets them and takes them to a tube station where someone has written more ciphers using the same paint. They spread out the search, and Sherlock finds a can of discarded spray paint. John finds a wall with more of the graffiti and snaps a photo. They go back home and John begins to pass out due to lack of sleep. Sherlock realises the numbers are all pairs – the killer left them to communicate with the thief and demand the return of the stolen item. They go back to the museum to ask Andy for more information. As they talk, Sherlock notices that one of the teapots Soo Lin was obsessed with has been freshly polished since the last time they were there.

    That night, Sherlock and John discover Soo Lin in hiding at the museum, who explains that the code is the work of the criminal "Black Lotus Tong", of which she was once a member. She explains that the killer is Zhi Zhu, "The Spider". She shows them a Tong tattoo on the heel of her right foot, which resembles a lotus flower, and explains that everyone who smuggles for them bears this mark. She confides that the Black Lotus Tong employed her after her parents died and she had no other way to survive. By the time she was 17, she was smuggling thousands of pounds worth of drugs across the border into Hong Kong. She gave up the life and came to London, but Zhi Zhu tracked her down after five years. He asked for her help finding what was stolen, but she refused. When John asks how well she knows Zhi Zhu, Soo Lin explains that he is her brother. He became a puppet of the Tong in the power of General Shan, the Black Lotus' General. When she refused to help him, he accused her of betraying him, and left the ciphers behind as a threat.

    Unfortunately, before she can decode the message, Zhi Zhu strikes again and fatally shoots her, leaving a lotus flower in her hand. He also goes after Sherlock and John, but despite firing at them, he fails to hit either of them.

    After the incident, John and Sherlock talk to Dimmock at the police station. Based on what they learned from Soo Lin, Sherlock now believes that Van Coon and Lukis worked for the Tong. He also says he can prove it. At Barts Hospital, Sherlock flirts with Molly Hooper to convince her to bring the victims' bodies back out. As she is unzipping the body bags, he instructs her to only unzip the feet. Sherlock's suspicions are confirmed - both Lukis and Van Coon have the Tong tattoo on the heel of their right foot. To determine the identity of the item that was taken, Sherlock requests to have all of the books from both victims' apartments delivered to 221B Baker Street.

    Sherlock and John go over the books, looking for the book that both of them had and has significant words that match the two numbers, page and word (the conclusion being that it refers to the first entry on page 15 of a book that both victims own). Dimmock returns the photo of the wall, and Sherlock explains that they thought Soo Lin Yao would decipher them. Performing a web search on recently discovered Chinese artifacts sold at auction, Sherlock finds the recent sale of two Ming vases that are being auctioned off by an anonymous source. He deduces that Van Coon and Lukis each brought back one of the vases when they returned on their latest trips to China – and it was their last delivery (Sherlock remembers having noted that something was tightly packed inside Van Coon's suitcase). Further searching for Chinese artifacts sold at auction shows in London over the past few months show that many of those sold came from anonymous sources. Even more startling is the timing: a cross-reference between the auctions and each victim's schedule shows that the auctions always coincided with Van Coon's and/or Luki's trips to China.

    Sherlock is unable to find the proper book, and tells John they should go out to get some air. John tells him that he is going out on a date, and Sherlock gives him a pair of circus tickets in his name. However, when they arrive there, they discover Sherlock is there, and he admits that he bought a third ticket in his name. He explains to John that the Tong are using the circus as a cover to get the killer out of China – given that Chinese exit visas are hard to come by and those who do get them need very good reasons to leave the country – and he needs John's help to look around. John is more interested in getting off with Sarah.

    They go inside and the circus matron first gives a demonstration of classic Chinese escapology, using a giant crossbow designed to fire at the escape artist when the weight of an emptying sandbag activates it. Sherlock sneaks off while the next act begins: a masked acrobat who "flies" on silk robes. Backstage, Sherlock spots the acrobat and realises it is Zhi Zhu. The matron comes backstage and Sherlock hides until she leaves. He finds a can of the spray paint and confirms it is the same type, and then the escape artist attacks him with a sword. The fight bursts onto the stage, and John and Sarah comes to Sherlock's aid. Sarah knocks him out with a stick and Sherlock confirms he has a Tong tattoo on his foot, of the same kind found on Van Coon, Lukis, and Soo Lin.

    The trio returns to 221B and Sherlock figures that the Tong will have gone back to their hideout, the key to which rests within the ciphers. Sarah suggests that she should go and Sherlock agrees, but John hastily say she should stay and tries to find some food. Meanwhile, Sarah tries to make conversation with Sherlock without success. Mrs Hudson brings in some food, while Sarah notices that some of the ciphers are already solved – Soo Lin began translating two of the words and wrote them on the photograph they gave her. The two words are Nine Mill, and Sherlock realises it is the value of the stolen object (nine million pounds).

    He leaves for the museum restoration room to find the book that she used, while at Baker Street, John suggests to Sarah that they get takeaway. The deliveryman arrives quickly and John answers the door. The man demands to know where the treasure is, and knocks John out when he says he has no idea what he is talking about.

    Meanwhile, Sherlock tries to hail a taxi without success, and notices a pair of German tourists who are using an A-Z London guide. He remembers seeing it in a stack of books at Van Coon's apartment and in plain sight at Lukis' apartment, and deduces that both Van Coon and Lukis had the same book, as it is one that everyone would use, and the answer to the code lies in the first entry on page 15. He uses the tourists' copy to start translating the remaining ciphers, with this final result: Nine Mill for jade pin. Dragon den black tramway. He realises what has happened and rushes back to 221B and discovers that John and Sarah have vanished, and their abductors have left more ciphers. Sherlock goes over the maps of London to find the hideout.

    John and Sarah wake up and find themselves in an abandoned tramway tunnel. The matron from the circus introduces herself as the Black Lotus General Shan, and mistakenly assumes that John is Sherlock. When he denies it, she points out that he has Sherlock's credit card, Sebastian's check to Sherlock, and the circus tickets in his name. Shan points out that they tried to kill him three times and failed, but they failed deliberately so that he would search for the treasure. Shan demands to know where the Empress' hairpin can be found. When John says he has no idea, they use the circus crossbow to threaten Sarah, and cut open the sandbag weight to activate the trigger, intending to kill her through a failed escapology performance. Sherlock arrives, knocks out one of her guards, and warns that her gunshot could easily ricochet. He kicks over the barrel to provide light and tries to untie Sarah, but Zhi Zhu strangles him with one of his silk ropes. John manages to knock himself over and jar the crossbow, which instead fires at and impales Zhi Zhu. Shan runs off and Sherlock frees Sarah, while John assures her that their next date would not be the same. When the police arrive, Sherlock lets Dimmock takes the credit, and Dimmock realises who he owes.

    The next day, Sherlock and John go back to the bank, while Sherlock explains to John that when Van Coon and Lukis smuggled the Ming vases, Van Coon also stole a jade hairpin worth nine million pounds. John wonders how Sherlock is sure that Van Coon stole the hairpin and not Lukis, since Zhi Zhu did not know that.

    As Seb hands John a check for finding the hole in their security (which is merely that they need to nail the windows shut), Sherlock talks to Amanda again. He reveals that she and Van Coon were having an affair – he remembers seeing an almost empty bottle of scented hand soap in Van Coon's bathroom, and hand soap would not be something Van Coon would keep unless he was having a woman coming over. Furthermore, the hand soap in question happens to be of the very same brand as the hand cream Amanda has on her desk. She admits to Sherlock that she ended the affair because Van Coon often took her for granted and they planned to go somewhere for the weekend, only he left on trips for China on short notice. Sherlock notes that Van Coon bought her a present to make up for his abandoning her, and asks for the hairpin that he gave her. When she hands it over, she mentions that Van Coon claimed to have purchased it at a street market, though Sherlock counters that he more likely pinched it. Van Coon never knew of its real value, but only the fact that it would suit her. When he tells Amanda the value of her hairpin, she runs off in shock.

    A few days later, at 221B Baker Street, John and Sherlock read a newspaper story about Amanda's windfall ("Who Wants To Be A Million-Hair?" the headline reads), while Sherlock remarks on the irony that both Lukis and Van Coon died because Van Coon decided to pick up a trinket as a gift, with no idea of its real value. John realises that Sherlock is upset because General Shan escaped. John points out that they've cracked the code, but Sherlock says that the code can be easily changed – all Shan has to do is pick another book. As he looks out the window, John sees a Chinese street tagger writing another cipher on the wall opposite.

    Back home, Shan talks to her benefactor, "M", on her computer, and thanks him for his help in getting them passage into London. She worries that his safety is compromised, but "M" assures her that her actions cannot be traced to him. When Shan promises that she would not betray him, the mysterious "M" has a sniper kill her.

15. #15Season 1 - Episode 3: The Great Game

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    Sherlock travels to Minsk to consider the case of an alleged murderer, Barry Berwick, who claims that he murdered his girlfriend by accident. Sherlock is, of course, more offended by the man's crimes against good grammar than by the actual murder itself. He leaves, smugly informing Bewick that he will soon be hanged, not hung.

    At 221B Baker Street, a bored Sherlock is reduced to shooting holes in the wall. When John comes in, he discovers a decapitated head in the fridge, one of Sherlock's experiments. Sherlock is angry that his account of their first case on his blog has made him ridiculous by revealing that Sherlock lacks even primary school level notions of astronomy. Sherlock is of the opinion that any knowledge not likely to have an importance in his work takes up precious space in his brain. John goes out and Mrs Hudson comes in. She sympathises with Sherlock's disgust for a boring life, and assures him that he will no doubt soon have a murder to investigate. As she leaves, an explosion rocks the building across the street, shattering the windows behind Sherlock.

    The next morning, John wakes up at Dr Sarah Sawyer's flat, where he is spent the night on the couch. As they flirt, they watch a newscast and John spots a piece on the explosion. He rushes back to the apartment and discovers Sherlock and his brother Mycroft sitting in the living room, unaffected by what seemed to be a staged gas leak. Mycroft tries to persuade his brother to look into the murder of MI6 employee Andrew West, who was found in a rail yard in Battersea adjacent to a switch, with his head smashed and missing a USB that had been in his custody. Mycroft elaborates that the flash drive contained vital information about the Bruce-Partington missile project. Sherlock however, refuses to take the case, stating that his hands are already full. He eventually asks John to investigate it himself.

    Shortly after, DI Greg Lestrade calls Sherlock to Scotland Yard. There, Sherlock is given a package, containing a replica of the pink mobile phone of Jennifer Wilson, the murder victim in "A Study in Pink". A message on the mobile plays five Greenwich pips and displays a photo of a run-down basement which he recognises as 221C Baker Street, the basement flat of his building. Sherlock, John and Lestrade go back to 221C and find a pair of trainers lying in the middle of the room. At that point, Sherlock receives a blocked phone call from a terrified woman in her parked car, and is reading a message that is obviously being sent by a third party. She urges Sherlock to solve the puzzle in 12 hours or the explosive vest she is being forced to wear will be detonated. Sherlock believes the five pips mean that he will be required to solve five challenges. Case #1: Carl Powers

    Sherlock and John go to St. Bart's laboratory to examine the trainers. They are interrupted by Molly Hooper, the lab technician who has a crush on Sherlock. She is hoping to make Sherlock jealous by introducing him to her new boyfriend Jim, an IT employee, who is impressed with Sherlock based on what Molly has told him. Sherlock simply informs her that Jim is gay, pointing out his meticulous self-grooming, exposed underwear and most importantly the telephone number he surreptitiously left under Sherlock's petri dish. Once Molly leaves, Sherlock invites John to examine the trainers, insisting that he can use a second opinion. John begins examining them, deducing that they belong to a child with large feet. Sherlock congratulates him, but notes that he missed almost everything. He explains that the shoes are 20 years old but well kept, and the mud and pollen on them indicates that they came from Sussex.

    Upon noticing these clues, Sherlock realises that the shoes belonged to a young schoolboy named Carl Powers, an athlete who came up to London from Brighton for a swimming competition and drowned in 1989 in a tragic accident. The case had attracted Sherlock's attention at the time, because the victim's shoes were not present with the rest of his stuff, however, Sherlock was underage and unable to get the police to open an investigation into Carl's death. Now he is able to solve it simply from clues left on the trainers: Carl Powers had been poisoned with clostridum botulinin via his eczema medication. He applied a cream to his feet, and that is why his shoes were taken. He posts the results on the website, and the booby-trapped woman is freed by the bomb squad.

    Lestrade tells Sherlock and John that the woman was abducted by two men who broke into her house and forced her to drive to a remote parking lot, where they decked her out in an explosive vest with explosives in quantities high enough to destroy an entire house. She was forced to read from the pager, and would have been set off if she deviated by a word.

    During this time, John meets with Mycroft to collect more facts about the missing missile plans. Mycroft tells him that the dead man was a MI6 clerk, involved in the Bruce-Partington project in a minor capacity, and last seen with his fiancée, Lucy, the previous night. He was found at Battersea, his skull bashed in, but he did not have a ticket or a used Oyster Card. John lies and insists that Sherlock is completely focused on the case. Case #2: Ian Monkford

    Next, Sherlock gets another picture message showing a sports car's front view. He also receives another phone call from a man trapped in a similar position to the woman who phoned him earlier, except he is standing in Piccadilly Circus, with a sniper ready to detonate his explosive vest jacket at a moment's notice. He gives Sherlock eight hours to solve the mystery.

    With Lestrade's help, they track down the vehicle, a small car hired by a banker named Ian Monkford, which is found abandoned at the docks, with a bloodstain over the driver's side seat. Posing as a close friend, Sherlock interviews Monkford's wife, learning that he was recently very depressed, though suspiciously, he discovers that Mrs Monkford might be lying because she is referring to her husband in the past tense even though the body has not been found. Following a card he found in the glove box, he reaches a local rental car agency, Janus Cars. The owner, Ewart, claims that he did not know Monkford. Sherlock notes that he has a tan and must have gone on holiday, but Ewart says that he uses a tanning bed. Sherlock then asks for change for the cigarette machine, but Ewart shows him his wallet and says he does not have any change. As they go, Sherlock says that he needed to see inside of Ewart's wallet, and now knows that he is a liar, since his wallet contained 20'000 pesos from Colombia.

    At the lab, Sherlock examines the blood samples from the car. With three hours left, Sherlock takes John and Lestrade to the car, and explains that there was exactly a pint of blood, and it was frozen. He explains that the clue is in the name of Janus Cars – they can arrange for people to disappear, and Sherlock figures that Ian Monkford is in Colombia – Ewart had a 20,000 Colombian peso note in his wallet and quite a bit of pocket change in that currency as well, despite having said that he had not been abroad recently, and his tan-line clearly showed that he had not been on a tanning bed, plus he kept scratching his arm since he'd recently had a booster shot, allowing Sherlock to conclude that Ewart had just returned from settling Ian Monkford into a new life in Colombia, and Mrs Monkford is in on it as well. Sherlock tells Lestrade to arrest her and then goes to notify the bomber via his website. The booby-trapped hostage is freed by emergency services. Case #3: Connie Prince

    John and Sherlock go out for a meal, and John wonders if it is Moriarty, the mysterious employer of the killer cabbie.[2] Sherlock's phone rings, and someone sends him a photo of a woman, with three Greenwich pips. Sherlock has no idea who she is, but John recognises her as Connie Prince, a fashionista from the television. As he turns on the television, an elderly woman calls and relays a message that his new hostage is blind, and Sherlock has twelve hours to solve the new case, which is a funny one. When Sherlock asks why the bomber is doing it, he says (through the woman) that he loves watching Sherlock dance. Sherlock and John turn to the television, which is announcing the death of television makeover artist Connie Prince, who died recently from tetanus after cutting herself on the hand with a rusty nail.

    At the morgue, however, Sherlock shows that the wound was clean and was made after her death. Posing as a journalist, John interviews Connie's brother Kenny Prince and decides he murdered his sister by infecting her cat's paws. Holmes demolishes this theory and instead blames her housekeeper Raoul de Santos, who committed the murder by increasing the dosage of her botox injections. Although Sherlock has solved the puzzle before the deadline, the bomber triggers the explosives upon the hostage when she starts describing his voice as being soft. The blast kills the woman and eleven of her neighbours, with the bombing once again being staged to look like a gas leak, and Sherlock admits that, while he solved the puzzle, he still lost that round. Sherlock explains that Moriarty is some sort of crime consultant who normally does not get himself exposed. John accuses him of relishing the challenge when lives are being endangered. Sherlock replies that being unemotional makes him more efficient, which in turn saves lives. Case #4: Alex Woodbridge

    The fourth piece appears as a photograph of the River Thames. Sherlock sets out for the scene and comes across the corpse of a man there. After surveying the scene, Sherlock starts checking Internet records. John examines the corpse and concludes that he was asphyxiated and dead for 24 hours.

    Sherlock explains that the water has destroyed most of the data, but the lost Vermeer painting, recently rediscovered and valued at over 30 million pounds, is a fake. Lestrade has no idea what he is talking about, and Sherlock explains that the victim was killed by the Golem, a Czech assassin, who strangles his victims with his own bare hands. The victim himself is wearing heavy duty pants, and what looks like a standard-issue uniform. There also is a clip on his belt for a walkie-talkie, and his legs show that he apparently does a lot of walking and sitting about – allow Sherlock to deduce that the man is a security guard. The killer was also interrupted before he could strip the corpse completely, but he did manage to get rid of an insignia of some sort. Further examination reveals ticket stubs in the victim's pocket, indicating he worked at a museum or art gallery. The Hickman Gallery, where the Vermeer painting is located, has reported one of their attendants, Alex Woodbridge, as missing since about the same time that the corpse has presumed to have been cold. The Gallery is showing the Vermeer that night, meaning Woodbridge must have been killed because he was aware of something that would have stopped the sale of the painting.

    Sherlock sets off to find the Golem, while wondering why the bomber has not contacted him. Sherlock has the cab pull over and goes up on a pier. He gives money to a homeless woman, tells John that he is "investing," and goes on to the gallery. When they get there, he tells John to check out the attendant and goes inside.

    John gets the attendant's address from Lestrade and talks to his roommate, who mentions that Woodbridge was an amateur astronomer, but did not know anything about art. She says that someone left a message for Alex, and plays it back. It's Professor Cairns, a local professor, calling to tell Alex that he was right. Mycroft calls and asks if there is any progress on the Bruce-Partington plans. At the Hickman Gallery, the owner, Mrs Wenceslas, notices Sherlock disguised as a security guard and analysing the Vermeer. She insists that it is not a fake but Sherlock insists that, even if he cannot prove it, he knows the woman is lying.

    That night, Sherlock meets with John, who explains that Alex Woodbridge knew nothing about art and was an amateur astronomer. Sherlock is more interested in the woman he gave change to earlier. She slips him an address and he leaves, taking John with him. They go to a seedier part of town and Sherlock explains that he has established a homeless network and pays them for information. They notice a tall, skinny balding man, the Golem, but he gets away in a car before they can catch up to him. John says he knows where he is going.

    Professor Cairns, meanwhile, is running a video of a planetarium. The Golem murders her, but John and Sherlock arrive and call out. He releases Cairns and flees into the darkness, and then ambushes Sherlock. John draws his gun and tells the Golem to surrender. The Golem knocks him aside and the two men try to subdue the assassin. They fail and he flees. Though Sherlock and John have failed to save her life, the garbled astronomy presentation playing on their arrival (garbled due to it being damaged during the attack) gives Sherlock the clue he needs as to what makes the painting a fake – the Van Buren supernova in the skyscape, which appeared in 1858 and thus could not have been painted in the 1640s.

    At the station, Wenceslas admits that she only wanted her share of the 30 million pounds. She met a forger in Argentina, and eventually she was put in touch with people who worked for the mysterious bomber, who helped her set up the sale. However, she never met with him. Sherlock demands a name, and she finally tells them that it was Moriarty. Case #5: Andrew West

    At Sherlock's behest, John is investigating the Andrew West case on his own and examines the crime scene where he is puzzled to hear that little blood was found on the tracks. Sherlock appears behind him, confirming his suspicion that West was killed somewhere else and dumped on the roof of a train and then fell off when the car experienced a slight jolt from passing over the switch points. Subsequently, they break into the apartment of West's prospective brother-in-law, Joe Harrison, who is a bike messenger. They find traces of blood on the windowsill of a window overlooking a railroad line.

    When Joe comes home, they confront him about the murder and theft. Joe breaks down, confessing that he stole the Bruce-Partington data because he started dealing drugs and ended up in debt. One night he went out drinking with West, who boasted about the secret missile plans and showed Harrison the memory stick. Harrison stole it from his drunken brother-in-law, but West realised it later and confronted him. West accidentally died in the fight when he fell down a stairway, and then Joe had the idea to place him on top of a train to get the body as far away as possible. While a train was stopped underneath the window, Joe rolled West's body onto the train roof, and the train pulled away. The body subsequently fell off from the sudden jolt of the passenger cars when the wheel axles hit the switch points. Harrison turns over the memory stick, and Sherlock says that the distraction is over. Sherlock tells John that he has returned the memory stick and waits by the pink phone while watching what John describes as "crap telly"; John goes out to meet Sarah. Sherlock then contacts Moriarty, offering the missile plans and arranging a meeting at the swimming pool where Carl Powers died. When he arrives, he is greeted by John, who at first appears to taunt him but reveals that he is wearing an explosive vest and is having his words dictated to him like the previous hostages. The red dot of a rifle's laser sight floats on his chest.

    Moriarty finally appears and turns out to be Jim, Molly's pseudo-boyfriend. The volatile and clearly unhinged Moriarty throws the USB stick in the pool and explains that the whole point of the exercise was to show Sherlock what he is capable of. In desperation John seizes Moriarty, shouting at Sherlock to run; Moriarty finds this highly amusing, calling John Sherlock's "pet". Within moments another laser sight appears on Sherlock's face: John releases Moriarty, who warns Sherlock to stay out of his way, threatening that he will not merely kill Sherlock: "If you don't stop prying, I'll burn you. I will burn the heart out of you."

    Finally Moriarty leaves, giving Sherlock a chance to rip the bomb-rigged jacket off John and hurl it away. Both men are distraught, John crouching against a wall because his legs would not hold him, Sherlock stammering his thanks, and scratching the back of his head with a loaded pistol. John comments dryly that he is glad no one was watching.

    Suddenly a laser sight reappears on John's chest, and within moments there are at least four on each of them. Moriarty reappears, calling, "Sorry, boys, I'm sooo changeable!" He has whimsically decided that Sherlock "cannot be allowed to continue" and must die; Sherlock glances at John, who nods faintly. Sherlock aims his handgun at Moriarty, then lowers it – to point directly at the explosive-rigged jacket now lying nearly at Moriarty's feet.

16. #16Season 2 - Episode 1: A Scandal in Belgravia

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    Jim Moriarty, whose snipers are aimed at Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson, and who has stated his intention to kill them both, is interrupted by a phone call. He leaves, having "received a better offer", letting Sherlock and John return to their flat at 221B Baker Street. Laterez

    “Laterez”

    Sherlock Holmes solves a number of cases over the next few weeks, turning down several others because they bore him, including a man claiming his aunt's ashes are not hers and two girls not allowed to see their dead grandfather. Sherlock becomes a minor celebrity following John's blogs about his activities. One day, Sherlock's brother Mycroft has the pair brought to Buckingham Palace with Sherlock in only a sheet for a meeting when they are in middle of solving a case. The case involved the 'murder' of a man in an open field, witnessed by another man whose car had broken down near where the victim died. Mycroft and a Palace official explain that a female member of the royal family has had compromising photographs taken with dominatrix Irene Adler, and that she wishes for them to be retrieved. While Sherlock reviews photos of Adler, who is referred to as "The Woman", she looks at pictures taken of him. Ms. Adler I presume

    “Ms. Adler I presume?” Don’t you want me on the floor to?

    “Don’t you want me on the floor to?”

    Sherlock and John visit Adler's home, attempting to use deception to get inside. However, Adler is expecting them and after considering possible outfits, she appears fully made-up but completely naked. Sherlock is consequently unable to deduce anything about her. After several rounds of banter between Sherlock and Adler, John sets off the fire alarm and Sherlock is able to determine the location of Adler's safe, where a camera phone containing the compromising photos, as well as other valuable information, is hidden. Several American operatives appear and hold Sherlock, John, and Adler at gunpoint, demanding that Sherlock open the safe. Sherlock deduces the password (Adler's measurements) and opens the safe, which is booby-trapped with a handgun and kills one of the assailants. The duo and Irene disarm the rest of them. Sherlock acquires Adler's camera phone, but she attacks him with a drugged syringe and escapes through a window with the phone. During this time, John is in another room. Back at his apartment, Sherlock has a fevered dream in which he sees Irene returning his coat. He wakes to find that his coat has mysteriously reappeared, and Adler has added her number to his phone. She has added a personalised ringtone of a woman sighing erotically, which sounds whenever Sherlock's telephone receives a text message she has sent.

    Six months later, whilst celebrating Christmas, Sherlock learns (via text message) that Adler has sent him the camera phone for safekeeping. Sherlock notifies Mycroft that he will shortly find Adler dead, knowing the value Adler put on her phone. Subsequently, the Holmes brothers arrive at St Bart's morgue where Sherlock identifies Adler's mutilated body. On New Year's Eve, John is contacted by an unnamed woman who has him brought to the abandoned Battersea Power Station. The contact reveals herself to be Irene, not Mycroft as John expected: she faked her own demise to shake pursuers off her trail. John urges her to reveal herself to Sherlock. She initially refuses, but is persuaded. The two then discuss the nature of their respective relationships with Sherlock; during this, Adler's personalised ringtone is heard from an adjacent corridor, revealing Sherlock's presence and his awareness of Adler's survival.

    Back in 221B, Sherlock detects the signs of a break-in and finds the American hitmen from Adler's residence holding Mrs Hudson hostage. Sherlock immediately realises that the landlady has been tortured and plans extreme retaliation. During the stand-off, Sherlock demands two of the gunmen go away, leaving him with their leader. While the man frisks him, Sherlock maces the man, knocks him out cold, ties him up, and eventually throws him out the window (apparently several times). Vlcsnap-2014-01-09-12h25m26s215

    Adler kissing Sherlock to encourage him to crack the code.

    Later on, Sherlock finds Adler sleeping in his bedroom. Irene reveals that she is still being hunted and asks Sherlock to decipher a code she stole from a Ministry of Defence official. He effortlessly cracks the code, revealing it to be an airline seat allocation number. Irene secretly texts the flight number to her contact, Jim Moriarty. He in turn texts Mycroft Holmes, revealing that he is now aware of the MoD plot to fool a terrorist cell that was attempting to sabotage the flight. Mycroft is visibly shattered by this development.

    Adler's attempts to seduce Sherlock are interrupted by government officials who have come to collect him and deliver him to Heathrow airport. En route there, Sherlock remembers Mycroft mentioning Coventry on the phone and reminisces about the allegations that the British government allowed the Coventry Blitz to happen, so as not to alert the Germans that their military codes had been cracked. There, his suspicions that a similar situation is occurring are confirmed by Mycroft on board the airplane, which has been filled with corpses. The government had decided to fly a 'dummy plane', so as not to alert the saboteurs yet still avoid genuine casualties, which also explains the involvement of US agents. However, as Sherlock has unwittingly helped Irene, and, by extension, Moriarty, crack the code, the scheme is foiled.

    Afterwards, the Holmes brothers and Adler sit down, while Adler reveals a list of demands, including protective measures for herself, against the release of further confidential material. Mycroft is helpless; however, at the last moment, Sherlock confronts Adler, deducing the password of her camera phone. Despite Adler's cold insistence that Sherlock meant nothing to her, taunting his lack of sexual or romantic experience, he has already concluded she is lying. He points out her dilated pupils and her elevated pulse during moments of intimacy – both indicators of her own attraction to him. He types S-H-E-R into the phone, which reads "I AM S-H-E-R LOCKED". Passing it to his brother, Sherlock walks out, ignoring Adler's pleas for protection. Without the insurance of the information she held, she is unlikely to outrun her enemies.

    Some months later, Mycroft informs John that Adler has been beheaded by a terrorist cell in Karachi, but asks him to tell Sherlock instead that she has entered a US witness protection program. Sherlock appears to accept this and asks John to give him Adler's phone. John leaves, while Sherlock re-reads her multiple flirtatious text messages to him. The scene changes to a flashback of Adler's "execution" where Sherlock had infiltrated the cell, disguised as her executioner, and rescued her with seconds to spare.

    Back in the present, Sherlock chuckles to himself, puts the phone away and says "The Woman".

    Vatican Cameos is a code-phrase used between Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson. Sherlock uses it as a warning to indicate that the situation they are in at that moment is similar to one they have encountered before, presumably one where they needed to duck.

    Vatican Cameos was used again in "The Sign of Three" when Sherlock says it during his best man speech to warn John about an impending murder. When Mary asks what it means, John tells her it means somebody is going to die.

    The phrase is similar to the 'Headless Nun' ploy from the "Unaired Pilot", which appears to mean 'Throw me out (of the restaurant) while I pretend to be drunk'. Judging from Angelo's reaction, this had happened before.

17. #17Season 2 - Episode 2: The Hounds of Baskerville

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    Sherlock, in the throes of a violent nicotine fit (he swore to quit cold turkey and is not precisely making a rip roaring success of it) and a perfect frenzy of boredom, pines for a case to work upon. After ridiculing an e-mail from a child who asks him to find her "luminous rabbit" named Bluebell, he is visited by Henry Knight, a man whose father was violently ripped apart by a gigantic hound on Dartmoor twenty years earlier. Henry, then a small child, had fled in terror only to be found in a bewildered state the next morning. After years of not knowing whether or not it was a false illusion of his imagination, Henry has visited the hollow where the killing occurred, and found gigantic paw prints of a dog, prompting his request for help from Sherlock Holmes. Although initially dismissive, Sherlock suddenly becomes interested after being struck by Henry's use of the archaic word "hound". Sherlock agrees to come down to Dartmoor.

    Sherlock and John interview the Dartmoor locals at a local vegetarian restaurant and inn and find that the hound has become a local legend with a guide who takes people on treks around the moor. The pair then visits the nearby Baskerville Military Base. Sherlock gains access using an ID card taken from Mycroft Holmes. They are introduced to various officials in the base: Commander Major Barrymore, genetic scientist Dr Jacqui Stapleton and Dr Bob Frankland. Sherlock deduces that Dr Stapleton is the mother of the child who contacted him about Bluebell. When their credentials finally cause a security alert, Dr Frankland vouches for Sherlock's cover as Mycroft, despite knowing Sherlock's real identity. Frankland intimates that he was a friend of Henry's father and displays a considerable concern about his well-being.

    Later on that night, Sherlock and John visit Henry Knight, who tells them about the words "Liberty" and "In" he sees in his dreams. Sherlock convinces Henry to visit the moor in the hope of confronting the beast. Along the way, John gets distracted and follows his own path where he notices what seems to be a Morse-code signal. Meanwhile, Sherlock and Henry arrive at the center of the hollow, where they suddenly hear growling. John finally arrives at the top of the hollow just as Henry sees the beast and panics. The three of them leave in a hurry, Sherlock claiming to have not seen anything.

    That night, at the inn, Sherlock is visibly shaken and he confesses that he actually saw the hound. John pursues the Morse-like signals, which turn out to be unrelated headlight flashes. On his way back, Sherlock asks John to interview Henry's therapist, Dr Louise Mortimer. During the interview, Dr Frankland drops by and blows John's cover, revealing him to be Sherlock's assistant, which causes Mortimer to leave. Meanwhile, in his house Henry Knight appears to hallucinate about the hound.

    In the morning, Sherlock suggests that "hound" might not be a name, but an acronym. He also claims that the dog he saw was not just large and black with red eyes, but also emitting a sort of eerie glow. The pair run into DI Greg Lestrade who was sent to Dartmoor by Mycroft to keep an eye on Sherlock. They interrogate the innkeepers, Gary and Billy about a copious order for meat which John has spotted, which struck him as odd for a vegetarian restaurant. The proprietors own up to keeping a dog on the moor to boost the tourist trade, but assure they have had it killed because it was uncontrollable. This satisfies Greg but not Sherlock who assures that the dog he saw was monstrous.

    Using an ID pass 'borrowed' from Mycroft, Sherlock gains access to Baskerville for 24 hours despite Major Barrymore's anger. In the lower levels of the facility, John investigates the genetics labs where he observes various cages for test animals and a few leaking gas pipes in a confined chamber. As he leaves the chamber, he is stunned by a glaring light and a screeching siren. Trying to leave the lab, he finds his pass-card access denied. He hears a growling sound and immediately assumes that it is the hound. Locking himself in one of the empty cages, he calls Sherlock who asks him to describe what he sees. Rendered speechless from horror, John is eventually rescued by Sherlock. Sherlock asks him what he saw, and John claims that the dog he saw was exactly how Sherlock had described earlier, glowing.

    They confront Dr Stapleton, who admits that genetic mutation experiments were conducted on animals. Sherlock now believes that the hound was a manifestation of a drug that causes hallucinations, contained in Henry Knight's sugar bowl, but analysis of the sugar reveals nothing. Using the method of loci ("mind palace"), Sherlock reaches the conclusion that the words 'Liberty' and 'In' seen by Henry in his dreams stand for Liberty, Indiana, and that 'Hound' refers to Project H.O.U.N.D, a CIA experiment that took place there. Taking the geneticist into their confidence, Sherlock and John try to access the confidential files in the Baskerville database, only to be stumped by a CIA database password, only accessible by Major Barrymore. After observing the commander's office, Sherlock deduces Barrymore's password and accesses the database. "H.O.U.N.D" is revealed to be a secret military project aimed at creating a chemical weapon that makes the targets incredibly suggestible and disorient them through fear and stimulus. However, the project was shut down in 1986 due to the side-effects of the drug triggering brain damage, insanity, violent hallucinations, and uncontrollable aggression in subjects to both themselves and others around them. Looking at a photograph of the scientists involved in the project, Sherlock realises that Dr Frankland was involved with the project, and that he had been continuing the project in secret for the past 20 years in an attempt to refine the drug. At that moment, John receives a phone call from Dr Mortimer who tells him that Henry went on a rampage with a pistol while she was with him at his house, before running off to the moor.

    Assuming that Henry went to the hollow where his father died, Sherlock summons Greg and they rush to the scene. They find a delirious Henry Knight, about to commit suicide. Sherlock fortunately talks him out of it, explaining that the hound was just a hallucination and that his father was attacked by Dr Frankland, wearing a gas mask with red-coloured lenses and a jersey with "Hound. Liberty, In" written on it. Henry's memories were subdued as a result of the trauma but as he began to remember the incident, he had to be silenced as well. As another murder would arouse suspicion, Dr Frankland decided that driving Henry insane and therefore casting doubt upon his story would be the best alternative for getting away with what he had done. With pressure pads installed around the hollow as a "chemical mine field" which released an aerosol dose of the compound, each time Henry attempted to face his fears he would be pushed further into a deeper state of madness. As Henry calms down, they all hear the howling of a hound, which had not been killed but simply abandoned by the innkeepers, and now appears at the edge of the hollow. In a fit of terror, Sherlock sees the image of Jim Moriarty descending upon him. As he grapples with the phantom criminal, it turns into Dr Frankland, who desperately shouts for them to kill the advancing hound. The hound leaps upon the party, only to be shot down by Greg and John. Henry flies into a vengeful rage and attempts to throttle Frankland, but the doctor escapes. After a brief chase, he runs into the Baskerville mine field and is blown up.

    The next day, Sherlock and John are having coffee, discussing the case. John is confused as to why he saw the hound in the lab despite not having inhaled the gas from the Moor. Sherlock tries to explain that the pipes in the lab must have been leaking the gas, but John correctly guesses that Sherlock was the one who locked him in the lab as an experiment. John also purposely reminds Sherlock of being wrong when he previously deduced the drug was in the sugar, which hits Sherlock's nerves, he implies he won't get it wrong again another time.

    In the last scene of the episode, Mycroft orders the release of Moriarty from a government facility in which Moriarty has written Sherlock's name all over the walls.

    H.O.U.N.D. is a hallucinogenic drug that was used by Bob Frankland to essentially make Henry Knight, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson lose their senses of reality; only mentioned in "The Hounds of Baskerville".

    The H.O.U.N.D. drug was first created in the eighties by five men and women-Leonard Hansen, Jack O'mara, Mary Uslowski, Rick Nader and Elaine Dyson, as an aerosol disperser for chemical warfare to induce fear and stimulus into the enemy to weaken them. The project was shut down in 1986 due to the damage it did to the subjects (frontal lobe damage, paranoia, insanity) and what they did to others (murder).

    Bob Frankland was originally a friend of the team but was convinced that the drug would one day work, and continued testing it on people. Henry Knight's father realised what Frankland was doing and Frankland was forced to take action. One night, when the Knights were walking on the moor, Frankland dosed a young Henry Knight and his father with the drug, while staying safe due to a gas mask. With Knight senior disoriented, Frankland murdered him. Henry only saw the red eyes of the gas mask and Frankland's T-shirt-with the H.O.U.N.D logo on it and 'Liberty In'.

    Twenty years later, Henry began to put pieces together of what really happened that night. Knowing this, Frankland installed pressure pads in the ground of Dewer's Hollow, so whenever Henry went there he would be dosed with the drug – having the ability to take control over his mind. Whenever Henry did see the hound, he only saw an ordinary dog but the way he expected to see it.

    Sherlock Holmes figured out what Frankland was doing and chased Frankland onto the Grimpen mine field where Frankland stepped on a mine and was blown up. After Frankland's death, the project was officially ended for good.

18. #18Season 2 - Episode 3: The Reichenbach Fall

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    The episode opens with John Watson in his first meeting with his therapist for eighteen months. He struggles to explain the reason for the impromptu visit, but eventually chokes out the words, "My best friend, Sherlock Holmes, is dead". The episode then flashes back to three months earlier, with Sherlock receiving plaudits and gifts from various people for whom he has solved cases, along with much unwanted media attention.

    Meanwhile, Moriarty has been freed from Mycroft's prison and proceeds to break into the Tower of London, where the Crown Jewels are kept, while simultaneously opening the vault at the Bank of England and unlocking all the cells at Pentonville Prison via his mobile phone. Before smashing the Crown Jewels' case, he writes the words "Get Sherlock" in reverse on the outside, to be seen by the security cameras. He then allows himself to be caught wearing the jewels and sitting on the throne.

    Sherlock is called to testify at Moriarty's trial. Sherlock explains to the court that Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, a criminal for hire. During the trial Moriarty does not speak a word and does not even mount a defence. Even though he did not mount a defence against the charges and the Judge himself recommends Moriarty be found guilty, Moriarty is acquitted due to having threatened each of the families of the jury. After being acquitted, Moriarty visits Sherlock at his home, and Sherlock understands now that Moriarty has a digital key which can break into anything and was responsible for the triple-heist, he allowed himself to be caught to advertise it to the world. What Sherlock doesn't understand is what Moriarty is interested in, given he clearly doesn't care about money or power. Moriarty states he just wants to play the final game with Sherlock and win. Meanwhile, John is summoned to see Mycroft, who explains that a number of professional assassins have moved into flats on Baker Street, and asks him to watch out for Sherlock.

    Sherlock and John investigate a kidnapping of the US Ambassador's children, which is a carefully orchestrated plot by Moriarty to implicate that Sherlock has been staging all of his cases himself. Lestrade arrests Sherlock, but Sherlock escapes with John. They also realize Moriarty's "Get Sherlock" was him signalling that he left the key at Baker Street during his earlier visit. A trail of bodies follow Sherlock as professional assassins fight over him, but not to kill him but keep him alive.

    They break into the house of a journalist poised to publish an expose on Sherlock. There, they discover that Moriarty has developed a fake identity, Richard Brook, who is supposedly an actor that Sherlock paid to pretend to be a master criminal. Now a wanted man with the papers ready to print the expose, based on Richard Brook's testimony, Sherlock launches a final gambit. Leaving John, Sherlock contacts Molly at the hospital, and, responding to an earlier conversation they had, admits he needs her help. John goes to Mycroft's office to question him, and learns that Mycroft divulged Sherlock's personal information during interrogations of Moriarty. Meanwhile, Sherlock deduces that the anti-security program was encoded in the tapping of Moriarty's finger during his earlier visit, and the assassins are killing each other since the last one standing will be able to get the key.

    John finds Sherlock at the Barts lab, but leaves again after hearing Mrs. Hudson has been shot. Sherlock texts Moriarty, who meets him on the roof of the hospital, and claims that with the code he can erase Richard Brook electronically. Moriarty reveals that there is no code as the tapping is really a Bach tune; the break-ins were actually accomplished by paying off the security personnel of the establishments. Moriarty's only plan is to ensure his plan ends with Sherlock committing suicide over his disgrace. Ready to do so, since otherwise Moriarty's assassins will kill John, Mrs Hudson and Lestrade, Sherlock realises that Moriarty has some sort of fail-safe and can call the killings off. Sherlock then convinces Moriarty that he would be willing to do anything to make him activate the fail-safe, so Moriarty kills himself after acknowledging commonality between him and Sherlock.

    With no way to use the fail-safe, Sherlock calls John, who is rushing back from 221B Baker Street, after having found the report of Mrs Hudson's shooting false. Claiming that he was always a fake and explaining that this last phone call is his "note", Sherlock throws himself from the roof of St. Bartholomew's as John looks on from the street. After being knocked to the ground by a cyclist, John watches as Sherlock's crumpled and bloody body is carried away by hospital staff.

    The episode returns to Watson's meeting with his therapist, but he is unable to open up. Later he visits Sherlock's grave with Mrs Hudson. While standing in front of his gravestone, he reaffirms his faith in Sherlock, and begs him not to be dead. From the shadows, Sherlock looks on silently as John walks away.

19. #19Season 3 - Episode 1: The Empty Hearse

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    Roughly two years earlier, Sherlock is standing on the rooftop of St. Bart's Hospital, John on the pavement below. As Sherlock speaks to John over the phone, Moriarty's body is dragged away and his face is covered with a mask of Sherlock's face. Sherlock falls off the roof, and as John is looking up he is hit by a bicyclist. Molly Hooper is shown looking out the window when this happens and looks surprised when she sees Sherlock go past it. It is shown that there is a bungee rope attached to Sherlock's back, which bounces him upwards before he can hit the ground. Sherlock crashes through a window to meet Molly. He then kisses her and walks away. Meanwhile, on the ground, Moriarty's body is dragged onto the pavement and decorated with fake blood. As John stands up slowly, Derren Brown intervenes by hypnotising John, convincing him to sleep for a short time, and gives the people with Moriarty's corpse more time.

    "Bollocks", says Lestrade, and it is revealed that this is just a theory of Anderson's. The two are loitering in front of a coffee stand, watching reporters who reveal that Sherlock's innocence has been proven, though it is too late for the detective. Lestrade is not convinced by Anderson's theories, however, saying that they are only based on guilt.

    Meanwhile, somewhere in Serbia, a man with long, scraggly hair is being pursued. Night-vision cameras show that he is trapped by three other men. Sherlock chained

    Later, the long-haired man is chained with his arms outstretched and is being hit by another man, interrogating him. There is another man sitting quietly in the room as well, a member of the jailer's group. The interrogator asks why the man broke in to the area. The prisoner replies with a series of facts about the questioner's personal life, concluding with the fact that his wife is sleeping with the next-door neighbor. The interrogator storms out to go home, and the other man in the room is shown to be Mycroft Holmes, who walks up to the prisoner and tells him that a massive attack about to happen in London. The prisoner is then revealed to be Sherlock. You were enjoying it

    “You were enjoying it.”

    In Mycroft's office, Mycroft is reading a newspaper regarding something called the "Skeleton Mystery" while Sherlock is being shaved by an assistant. Sherlock and Mycroft quibble about Mycroft's getting involved in getting Sherlock out of Serbia.

    John looks at 221B for the first time in a long time and, upon entering, announces to Mrs. Hudson that he is moving on with life now and is going to propose to his girlfriend, Mary Morstan. John has to insist that he is not gay after Mrs. Hudson implies multiple times that Sherlock was his boyfriend.

    Mycroft warns Sherlock that he might not be welcome if he tries to surprise John in returning, but Sherlock ignores him and leaves. Not Dead

    “Not Dead.”

    At The Landmark, a posh restaurant, Sherlock impulsively steals horn rimmed glasses and a bow tie from passerby, then takes an eyeliner pencil from a ladies purse to scribble on a false moustache, and uses a phony French accent as he attends to John's table while John is trying to propose to Mary. Distracted, neither Mary nor John recognize Sherlock at first. Sherlock drops his fake accent, and John is astounded when he finally realizes the true identity of the "waiter". Though she had never met Sherlock, Mary also figures out who it is and is as incredulous as John. Sherlock wipes his moustache off as John tries to keep calm, but when Sherlock asks John if he is going to keep his moustache, John tackles Sherlock to the floor in fury. They are apparently thrown out of the restaurant, as we immediately cut to them in a shabbier restaurant. Sherlock's flippant attitude angers John several more times, and each time, they land in a less reputable eating establishments to continue their conversation. After cutting Sherlock's lip and breaking his nose, with Sherlock characteristically being unable to understand John's hostility despite apologising, Mary and John leave Sherlock and go home in a cab, with John still very upset that Sherlock had faked his death without telling him and then failed to contact him over the previous two years. You Bastedd

    Sherlock reveals himself to DI Lestrade.

    Soon after, Sherlock reveals that he is back to Molly Hooper, Greg Lestrade, and Mrs. Hudson.

    In a Sherlock fan club, Anderson is arguing with another member who proposes an overly hilarious theory that involves Sherlock and Moriarty dangling a Sherlock-sized dummy off the roof (with the head being a horribly glued on photo of Sherlock), exchanging laughs at John's cries of anguish, then leaning in to kiss to the swell of romantic music....when suddenly, along with numerous hashtags of #sherlocklives, the television announces that Sherlock is indeed alive. Both of you

    Mrs. Hudson points out the brotherly care in each of them.

    Sherlock sets up his information wall in 221B and has a conversation with Mycroft about the underground terrorist cell, all while simultaneously playing chess and Operation with his brother. They briefly discuss their childhood, mentioning that Mycroft having used to belittle Sherlock for being "an idiot," as they had had nothing else to go off of until they had met "other children". Mycroft described his life as "living in a world of goldfish," to which Sherlock asks why he hadn't gotten a goldfish of his own in the two years that he had been absent; Mycroft then quickly tries to change the topic. Afterwards, Sherlock decides to play Deductions with Mycroft, disguising the continuation of the topic as a simple deduction game of a hat, suggesting that Mycroft was lonely in an eloquent trap that even Mrs. Hudson, one of the so-called "goldfish," had recognized before Mycroft himself, who unwittingly proved Sherlock's earlier point.

    Later, John has an ordinary day in his doctor's office with several patients while Sherlock asks Molly to solve crimes with him. After several usual clients, Lestrade shows them the "Skeleton Mystery" that had been in the papers lately, which Sherlock quickly denounces as a fake. Your being yourself

    “You're being yourself.”

    They also talk to a client, Howard Shilcott, who works for the London Underground. His job is to clear security footage after each day but he had noticed someone get into a car on the Tube, but not get out. Sherlock recognizes the man in the security footage as one Lord Moran, but is unable to deduce how he had disappeared.

    After work, John decides to go to Baker Street to talk to Sherlock, but is drugged and kidnapped in front of the door. Back near the skeleton crime scene, it is shown that Molly is engaged and that she would not be able to do anything like this day again with Sherlock, who thanks her for having some part in the faking of his death. JOHN!

    Sherlock rushes to save John from a bonfire.

    Mary receives a text that tells her that John has been taken. She goes to Sherlock, who realises that the place John is being held at St. James the Less, a church. He and Mary commandeer a motorcycle to get to the church, where they rescue John from being burned in the bonfire for Guy Fawkes Night. BBC Sherlock’s Parents

    Sherlock and his parents.

    Later, in 221B, Sherlock is listening to his parents in his sitting room. When John comes in, Sherlock's parents leave and Sherlock and John discuss what had happened the night before. Sherlock tells John about the underground network in London and realizes that the terrorist plot is related to Lord Moran's disappearance. He deduces that Moran had not disappeared, but the entire car had.

    When he contacts Shilcott, he is told that between the stations that Moran had disappeared between is an Underground station that had never been opened, on Sumatra Road, near Parliament. Sherlock decides that there must be a bomb in the car, and he and John go to an Underground station where they break into the tunnels and try to find the bomb. John tries to call the police in order to warn the members of Parliament in an important meeting about an anti-terrorism bill, but Sherlock does not let him.

    When they find the car, they realize that the car is not carrying a bomb, it is the bomb. The entire compartment is wired with explosives. While Sherlock and John are in the car, the timer, set for two minutes and thirty seconds, starts. Lord Moran has set the bomb remotely.

    Knowing they have no time to get out before the bomb detonates, the two try to find out a way to disarm the bomb, but even Sherlock's mind palace does not hold 'how to defuse a bomb'. John tells Sherlock that he was the wisest man he has known, and then they brace for death.

    Sometime later, Sherlock is being recorded by a camera. He explains how he had faked his death. He and Mycroft had allowed Moriarty to destroy Sherlock's reputation because they had needed to learn information about Moriarty's criminal network. Then, since Sherlock had set up the final meeting place on the roof, there had been thirteen different possible things that could have happened. He and Mycroft cased the roof and set up a solution for each scenario, with a code word for each one.

    The only one that wasn't expected was Moriarty shooting himself. After that, Sherlock had texted the word 'LAZARUS' to Mycroft, and the homeless network bystanders moved into position. A group of men deployed a giant air cushion directly below Sherlock's position on the rooftop, and the street had been closed off to the public. Since John was behind the shorter ambulance station below, he could not see the air cushion. As Anderson had speculated, Molly Hooper was involved in the plan. Sherlock points out that Moriarty had found a way to traumatize one of the kidnapped children, from Sherlock's last case, into thinking that Sherlock was the kidnapper, which allowed Sherlock to realize that perhaps Moriarty had achieved this by using an accomplice who happened to bear a unique resemblance to Sherlock, and this accomplice was killed as soon as he had exceeded his usefulness. This meant that the morgue had a body on hand to pass for Sherlock, with the real Sherlock supplying the necessary coat.

    Once Sherlock jumped onto the air mattress, he and the rest of the group ran the opposite way around the ambulance station while John was walking toward Bart's. John saw the fake body, and then was knocked down by the bicyclist. Once John got back up, Sherlock had been covered in fake blood, then taken the place of the body on the pavement, and put a rubber ball under his armpit in order to stop his pulse shortly while the paramedics loaded him into the ambulance.

    Anderson is the one recording the explanation. After the video is finished, Sherlock says that he had not come to explain, he'd come to talk to him about the "Skeleton Mystery", which he knew Anderson had organized with the help of his fan club. Sherlock berates Anderson for distracting him, almost causing the deaths of countless innocents and the destruction of Parliament. Anderson wonders about loopholes in Sherlock's solution, and then wonders if he'd even been told the true way Sherlock had faked his death.

    Back in the Tube car, Sherlock and John prepare for their final moments. Sherlock begins to cry but suddenly starts laughing, and John looks down and sees that the timer has been stopped since one minute and twenty-nine seconds. Sherlock had stopped the bomb, and he says that there had been an off switch. Soon after, they see people with torches coming down the tunnel towards them, and John realizes that Sherlock had called the police as well. This has all been a trick by Sherlock to get John to admit how much he'd missed Sherlock.

    In a hotel, Lord Moran attempts to run away but is arrested.

    Later, Sherlock, John, Mary, Mrs. Hudson, and Lestrade sit in 221B, talking. Molly enters soon, with her boyfriend, Tom, who dresses quite a bit like Sherlock.

    Sherlock prepares to go outside to talk to the press outside, and talks to John about his kidnapping. Sherlock does not tell John how he'd faked his death, and John tells him about the speech he'd made at his grave.

    Sherlock and John go outside to talk to the press, but somewhere in a dark room elsewhere, someone is watching footage of Sherlock's rescue of John from the bonfire.

20. #20Season 3 - Episode 2: The Sign of Three

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    The episode opens with Greg Lestrade investigating a series of bank robberies, however the robbers always seem to know just before the police turn up. He gets increasingly frustrated with each new incident, but finally the police force manage to corner the gang. As he is moving in, Sherlock texts him urgently for help at Baker Street. Lestrade abandons the arrest and sends police units Sherlock's house, only to find that the help needed was with writing a best man's speech. High functioning Sociopath with your number

    “With Your Number”

    Mrs Hudson then speaks to Sherlock about the big day coming up: John's wedding to Mary. We see a man getting ready for the occasion: James Sholto, John's old army commander. After the ceremony, John and Mary leave the church, and a photographer takes their picture. Sherlock interrogates all of Mary's male friends to see the likelihood of infidelity, causing one of them to very carefully keep his distance from Mary after Sherlock had warned him to do so.

    The reception begins and John thanks Sholto for coming. Sherlock begins his speech, and is lost for words, and we flash back to John preparing to ask Sherlock for the honour of being best man. Sherlock remembers the telegrams, and begins to read them out. One is from Mike Stamford, another from Cam, who wished Mary's family was around to see the wedding. Sherlock rattles through the rest of the telegrams and then recounts the story of John asking him to be best man. He claims to have gone through a range of emotions before expressing his gratitude, then admits that he'd not said anything out loud.

    Sherlock then goes about insulting most of the guests and ridiculing the institution of marriage. He says this shows what an arsehole he is, and how good a man John Watson is to consider Sherlock his best friend. He also sincerely congratulates them both, and says that Mary deserves as good a man as John. The guests begin to cry, just as Sherlock launches into his funny stories about John. He brings up John's blog, and recounts the cases of The Hollow Client, The Poison Giant, The Matchbox Decathlete, and The Elephant in the Room.

    He then picks the case of the Bloody Guardsman to explain in full detail – Stephen Bainbridge, a royal guardsman, contacts Holmes when he believes he has a stalker. The pair investigate, trying to speak to Bainbridge, but soon discover him dead, stabbed in a locked shower. While investigating the body, Watson sees he is still alive and saves his life. Sherlock recounts how he is all about solving the mystery, whereas John is all about saving peoples' lives.

    Lestrade and Tom attempt unsuccessfully to guess how the murder was done, and Sherlock explains he never solved it. He then moves onto the story of John's stag night, where he calculates exactly the right amount of alcohol to consume in order to have the perfect evening. However, John sneakily adds extra shots to their drinks, throwing off Sherlock's careful calculations and causing them to get drunk and almost get into a fight. Drunk Heads Up

    Playing Heads Up Drunk

    They go home and start playing a game of Celebrity Heads. Sherlock has his own name on his head, and much to Watson's amusement, he is unable to figure this out in his inebriated state. A client, Tessa, then enters and tells them she believes she has been dating a ghost. Holmes and Watson are still quite drunk and are prone to giggling and nodding off while she tells her story. They agree to accompany her to the flat where she had last seen her date. Sherlock, whose usual super-human deductive abilities have been reduced to looking at a chair and thinking "sitty thing?", flops over and vomits while trying to inspect the floor for clues. The landlord, disgusted, has them arrested. Can You Whisper

    “Can You Whisper”

    An amused Lestrade gets them out of prison the next day, and Sherlock begins investigating the ghost date. He speaks to other women who say they have dated the ghost, and he deduces that it is a man using recently deceased men's flats and identities to meet women. He comments that he is less of a ghost and more of a mayfly, as he lives for just one day. He tries to find the common connection between the women but cannot see it. He gives up, simply assuming the Mayfly Man is married and using the women for gratification, and back at the wedding finishes his speech. He delivers a toast to the couple using John and Mary's full names, however as the photographer takes photos Sherlock suddenly realises something he missed before; Tessa knew John's middle name, which John hates and rarely uses. After ruling out Irene Adler as a suspect, Sherlock realises that only place Tessa could have seen it would be on John's wedding invitation, meaning the Mayfly Man is at the wedding. Your a Drama Queen

    “Your a Drama Queen”

    He continues his speech, working out that the man is the same person who attacked Bainbridge, and he must be here to murder someone: Sholto, the army commander who got a platoon of new recruits killed in Afghanistan. All the women he dated worked for Sholto in various capacities, and he used them to identify a time when Sholto (who rarely leaves his home due to death threats) would be in public and vulnerable. He tells Sholto he is in danger, then informs John and Mary of the danger. Not at John’s Wedding

    “Not at John’s Wedding”

    Sholto locks himself in his room while John, Sherlock and Mary bang on the door. Sherlock then works out that both Sholto and Bainbridge the guardsman wore the same military-issue belt, and that the belt is constricting a stiletto wound (delivered painlessly thanks to the tightness of the belt) that will only start to bleed out once the belt is removed. Sholto refuses to let them in, saying it is his time to die, but Sherlock convinces him to let John Watson treat him.

    Later Lestrade brings in the wedding photographer, presumably on Sherlock's request, and it is revealed that the photographer had been the murderer; his brother had been one of the recruits under Sholto's command when the platoon was attacked. You’ll hardly need me anymore

    “You’ll Hardly need me anymore now that you have a real baby to take care of”

    At the wedding dance, John and Mary dance to a waltz Sherlock wrote for them. He then makes a speech, and proposes a toast to the three of them – indicating he has deduced Mary is pregnant. He apologises for letting it slip, then dons his coat, after putting on his regular outfit, and makes his way into the night, alone.

21. #21Season 3 - Episode 3: His Last Vow

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    Several high-ranking Government officials are questioning Charles Augustus Magnussen about his frequent meetings with the Prime Minister. He later meets Lady Elizabeth Smallwood, one of the officials, and blackmails her using information about her husband's past. She reluctantly obliges, and on her way home, decides to seek the services of Sherlock Holmes.

    John Watson wakes up in the morning beside his wife, Mary. A distressed neighbour comes to them to ask for help regarding her drug-addicted son, who did not return home the previous night. John and Mary drive to the drug-den, with John finding the son, and surprisingly, also an undercover Sherlock. John is mad at Sherlock for abusing drugs (which Sherlock denies doing and insists that he is working incognito on a case) and not contacting him for a month after the wedding. They go to Bart's, along with the door guard who John injured but thought his arm was broken. There Molly tests Sherlock's urine for drugs and repeatedly slaps him for his reckless behaviour. They all realise that the drug-den door guard, Bill Wiggins, has impressive skills in the deduction.

    Back at the apartment, Anderson helps John search for drugs, much to Sherlock's annoyance. Mycroft realises that Sherlock is working against Charles Augustus Magnussen, a newspaper owner who blackmails people and warns him not to. Sherlock is adamant and plans to meet Magnussen; however, his plan does not work out the way he wants it to. Magnussen visits Baker Street to intimidate Sherlock and refuses to enter negotiations over Lady Smallwood's stolen letters, and is careful to make Sherlock aware that he knows of "Redbeard", but avoids elaborating. The business magnate deliberately urinates in the fireplace, mainly to show that he can.

    John is also baffled to find Sherlock in a relationship with Mary's bridesmaid, Janine until he learns that Janine is Magnussen's assistant and the liaison a ruse. Using her help, Sherlock and John break into Magnussen's apartment, only to find that Janine and a guard are unconscious. Sherlock goes upstairs to investigate but is shocked to find Mary holding Magnussen at gunpoint. Mary shoots Sherlock, who harnesses all his mental powers to stay conscious, including remembering his childhood dog, the mysterious "Redbeard", who was put down. He is taken to the hospital. In his mind palace, he is fighting to stay conscious through the pain while Moriarty mocks him. In the real world, Sherlock's vitals are dropping. His heart stops beating in surgery, while the doctors are prepping for surgery, and the doctors fail to revive him. When his "mind palace-self" fights back and escapes Moriarty, his real-world self makes a comeback. He wakes up in surgery (from pre-op sedation) and mutters "Mary". The next morning (only hours later) John announces to Mary that Sherlock is stabilised. Mary visits the steadied, yet in critical condition Sherlock, and tells him to keep the shooting incident between them. Sherlock fades away, falling back asleep.

    Janine realises that Sherlock used her and retaliates by turning down his pain medication and talking to tabloids. She visits Sherlock, the afternoon after the shooting, to taunt him, now that he has stabilised and conscious. John begins to suspect something about Mary. John brings Lestrade to the hospital to question Sherlock about the shooting.

    Sherlock runs away from the hospital and arranges a confrontation with Mary, who confesses to having a past as a secret agent and assassin, for which Magnussen is blackmailing her. It is also confirmed she intentionally shot Sherlock in a non-lethal spot and called an ambulance, and she says she is desperate to keep John in the dark as she loves him. John, however, witnessed the conversation and is in turmoil.

    Back at Baker Street, Sherlock points out to John that he is addicted to a dangerous lifestyle and was most probably attracted to Mary because of her hidden past. The three talk and Mary gives John a memory stick containing information on her, marked with her right initials. The flash drive is labelled "A. G. R. A". She also tells him the contents will destroy his love for her. Sherlock then proves that Mary had called London "999" before John when Paramedics appear after being told that there was a shooting. Sherlock refers to a shooting that happened prior. With the paramedics present, Sherlock faints from pain from hypovolemia and is treated on the scene. In the apartment, while the paramedics restart Sherlock's heart, at his request, John thinks over what Mary and Sherlock had explained to him. On Christmas, after sitting on the memory stick for a few months, John decides to destroy it without reading it and to love Mary regardless, much to her relief.

    (Although he does admit he is still "basically pissed off" with her.)

    The couple spends Christmas with the Holmes brothers (and Wiggins as well) at their parents'. Sherlock drugs everyone, with the help of Wiggins except John and takes him to Magnussen's country property, Appledore, which is supposed to contain his blackmailing archive. During their confrontation, Magnussen explains his purpose in putting pressure on Mary was to arrive at Mycroft via John and Sherlock. Magnussen also reveals he was the one who had John abducted and hidden in a bonfire (in "The Empty Hearse") to confirm that John is Sherlock's "pressure point". Sherlock offers to buy Magnussen's information on Mary with the state secrets contained in Mycroft's laptop. Still, he realises immediately Sherlock is setting up a trap: security services looking for the portable computer will raid his vaults, find their contents and arrest him as a blackmailer. However, Magnussen triumphantly reveals that this plan can't work because Appledore's vaults don't physically exist, but are instead his mind palace. By giving Magnussen Mycroft's laptop, Sherlock and John are now guilty of attempting to sell government secrets and can be imprisoned for high treason, whereas Magnussen remains legally untouchable.

    To pass the time until Mycroft's government forces arrive, he demonstrates his control over Sherlock and John by taunting them while repeatedly flicking John's face. When Mycroft and the police arrive, a distraught Sherlock shoots Magnussen in the head knowing its the only way to free them and everyone else from his power.

    Sometime later, Mycroft convinces the government to spare Sherlock a trial and, as an alternative punishment, press him into a highly dangerous MI6 mission to Eastern Europe. John and Mary fondly bid goodbye to Sherlock, thinking that it is their last encounter, and Sherlock boards the plane. However, within minutes, TV screens all over England are hacked to broadcast a loop of Jim Moriarty asking "Did you miss me?" Thus Sherlock's flight is turned around, and he is summoned back.

22. #22Season 4 - Episode 1: The Six Thatchers

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    The episode opens with a monologue from Sherlock telling the story of a merchant who comes into contact with Death as a figure and despite his attempts cannot escape fate. Mycroft briefs Sherlock on the new 'official' story of Charles Augustus Magnussen, who Sherlock murdered. The official record of the incident now shows Magnussen being killed by a trigger-happy sniper, exonerating Sherlock from any wrongdoing. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sherlock goofs around and ends up asking the Secretary, Vivian Norbury, about ice-lollies, as well as expressing his love for ginger nuts. John and Mary Watson welcome the arrival of a baby daughter, whom they name Rosamund. At the same time, Sherlock has become obsessed with working out his arch-enemy Moriarty's posthumous revenge, with Mycroft and various Scotland Yard detectives including Greg Lestrade assisting him in solving seemingly trivial cases, hoping it will lead them to a larger scheme.

    He investigates a case where the son of a rich couple (Charlie Welsborough) is found dead in a car wreck, despite seemingly being on a gap year in Nepal. Sherlock quickly solves the case, but is then led into another mystery involving the smashing of a bust of Margaret Thatcher. Further busts are smashed and upon encountering and fighting the culprit, Sherlock discovers that the last bust contained a memory stick containing information about Mary and her past as a government agent. A figure from her past is bent on revenge in the belief that Mary betrayed him.

    Upon questioning from Sherlock, Mary explains that she and her colleagues were members of a freelance task force named 'A.G.R.A' (derived from the members' names, Mary being 'R' for Rosamund - her real name - and A, her pursuer, Ajay). All members have a memory stick containing data on each other to force an inability for one to betray the other. (If one released information on the other, the victim could do the same likewise). A failed rescue mission of members of the British embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia under coup d'etat (set off by codeword 'Ammo') resulted in the embassy members dead and Mary fleeing.

    After informing Sherlock, Mary knocks him out with a drugged letter and runs away across the world, following a random path. Sherlock and John quickly find her, having placed a tracking device on the memory stick. Ajay has also followed their lead. He explains that he was captured by the terrorists but not before hiding his memory stick in one of the Thatcher busts which he intended to recover. During his torture Ajay heard whispers of 'Ammo' and 'the English woman' being the reason for the mission failure. Ajay attempts to kill the trio but is shot by police. They reflect on what has happened and believe that Ajay was working on the assumption that 'the English woman' was Mary.

    Sherlock visits Mycroft and discusses the situation. Mycroft explains that he previously hired 'A.G.R.A' but hasn't since the failed mission. Mycroft also states he has no knowledge of 'Ammo'. Later Sherlock calls Mycroft and explains that 'Ammo' is really Amo, the Latin word for "I love". Lady Smallwood, codename Love, is then interrogated by Mycroft. Sherlock later pieces together the final part of the puzzle when he recalls Mary explaining the great thing about 'underlings' bringing information but still being under everyone's noses. He meets Vivian Norbury in the London Aquarium. Vivian reveals that she tipped off the terrorists on the rescue so that the hostages and 'A.G.R.A' could be eliminated.

    Her motive was to kill the British ambassador who found out Vivian was selling secrets and to achieve a 'quiet life'. When the police and Mary arrive, Vivian pulls out a gun and shoots at Sherlock. Mary jumps in the way, taking the bullet. John appears and Mary tells of her love for being 'Mary Watson'. She then dies in John's arms. Sherlock blames himself for his death as he had vowed to protect her, and John also blames Sherlock creating a rift between them. Sherlock visits a therapist's but is reluctant to converse. Returning to Baker Street, Sherlock and Mrs. Hudson lament the loss. Sherlock opens a parcel containing a DVD (titled "Miss me?"); on it is a posthumous message from Mary. She instructs him to 'Save John Watson'. Returning to the story of the merchant, Sherlock concludes that death is inevitable but questions if how one dies is also certain and unchangeable. In a post-credits sequence, additional footage from Mary's DVD shows her scathing 'Go to Hell Sherlock'.

23. #23Season 4 - Episode 2: The Lying Detective

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    Sherlock remains distant to John Watson, who is still grieving after the death of his wife, Mary. John, who is seeing a new therapist, keeps it to himself that he is hallucinating conversations with Mary. Culverton Smith, a prominent entrepreneur and philanthropist, gathers close colleagues, including his daughter, Faith, to confess he is going to kill somebody. But before he does so, he forcibly subjects them to a medical serum that inhibits memory causing them to not remember Smith's confession.

    Some time later, Faith goes to visit Sherlock, who has started using drugs again and is clearly suffering from the side effects, with a sheet of paper containing fragments of what she wrote down saying that there was one word—one name—that shook her. Sherlock dismisses her case as being too weird and refers her to Scotland Yard. Before she leaves, Sherlock realizes that Faith is suicidal, and offers to walk with her around London at night despite him being still high. Meanwhile, Mycroft tracks Sherlock's unusual movement across the city, even calling John out of concern, and accidentally slips an implication of another Holmes sibling. Sherlock and Faith walk all night and the following morning, and he decides he will take on her case. Sherlock is momentarily overwhelmed by side effects of his drug use and upon calming himself, finds Faith gone and nowhere to be seen. As Sherlock makes his way back to his flat stumbling and disoriented, he realizes that the one word was "anyone".

    Sherlock becomes inexplicably obsessed with Smith, but his crazy antics as a result from his drug use frighten Mrs. Hudson, who effectively subdues him. Mrs. Hudson races with an intoxicated and bound Sherlock in the boot of her Aston Martin sports car to see John while he is at his therapist's house for a session. Sherlock suspects Smith of being a serial killer and asks John to help him bring him down. Much to John's shock and annoyance, Mrs. Hudson's arrival with Sherlock, a car sent by Smith, and Molly Hooper with an ambulance, were all prearranged to arrive at his therapist's house at that exact time by Sherlock weeks prior before John had even chosen a new therapist.

    Sherlock and John arrives at a studio to meet with Culverton Smith. As Smith takes them to visit the new hospital wing for which he was a major donor and thus also named after him, he subtly hints of being a serial killer to Sherlock and John while meeting with a group of children at the hospital. Smith continues to give them a tour of the hospital by taking Sherlock and John down to his favorite room, the mortuary. Sherlock tries to goad Smith into a confession just as Faith arrives—called by Sherlock via Smith's phone to come—but is shocked to find upon seeing her that Smith's daughter is not the woman who came to the flat. Smith suggests that Sherlock's mind is so messed up from his drug abuse that he hallucinated Faith and entirely made up this case just for something to do. Becoming mentally unstable, Sherlock makes a move to attack Smith with a scalpel, but John stops him and beats up Sherlock out of anger, blaming him for Mary's death.

    Sherlock is admitted into Smith's hospital, and Smith visits him, coming in through a secret passageway. Sherlock states that he wishes for Smith to kill him despite not wanting to die and Smith complies after confessing to his murders. Unknown to him, Sherlock is acting on the orders of Mary who asked him earlier, through a recorded video message given to him posthumously, to save John by putting himself in harm's way so John could rescue him and thus mend their broken friendship. John, after seeing Mary's video himself at Sherlock's flat, rushes to the hospital to save Sherlock. He arrives just in time to pull Smith off from suffocating Sherlock. Believing he can get away with no proof of his confession, Smith is surprised when Sherlock reveals Smith's confession was recorded by a hidden device in John's old walking stick which John had left behind earlier.

    John reconciles with Sherlock, telling him he no longer blames him for Mary's death and acknowledges that she made her choice to save Sherlock, since no one can make her do anything. In his guilt, Watson also confesses to a hallucinated Mary that he had cheated on her, but only through text conversations with another woman. At the same time, he learns that Sherlock saved Irene Adler, and is trying to avoid having a relationship with her. John encourages him, even offering to have cake for his birthday. With his spirits revived, Sherlock dons the deerstalker, heading out to celebrate his birthday with John and Molly. However after he returns, Sherlock finds the note that 'Faith' left behind, proving that a woman did visit the flat. Checking it for clues, he examines it with a UV light and finds the message 'MISS ME?'.

    John, once again, goes to see his therapist, but the therapist reveals that she was the one who pretended to be both Faith and the woman John cheated with. She reveals her true identity to be Eurus (Greek for the east wind), purportedly Sherlock and Mycroft's secret sister. As John attempts to leave, she pulls out a gun, points it at John, and pulls the trigger.

24. #24Season 4 - Episode 3: The Final Problem

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    A young girl wakes up on an aeroplane and is deeply troubled that her mother sitting beside her and everyone on the plane, including the pilots are unconscious, the oxygen masks deployed. A passenger's mobile phone rings and when she answers it pleading for help, she hears a man tell her, "Hello, my name is Jim Moriarty. Welcome to the final problem."

    Mycroft is enjoying a vintage film in the private cinema in his home. After a while, the film footage is disrupted by footage from his childhood before ominously flashing the message, "I'M BACK" right before the reel ends. Visibly bothered by this, Mycroft tries to leave but finds the main door locked. He is forced to go through a hidden door that mysteriously opens and slams behind him. Taking a sword disguised as an umbrella to defend himself, he follows a girl running about and whispers coming from his walls to an upstairs corridor. Around a corner, a clown confronts him, arms himself with a nearby sword, and poises himself to challenge Mycroft to a sword battle. Mycroft removes the blade of his sword to reveal a hidden gun, but it fails to shoot. The clown cries out and lunges at Mycroft who dodges him and flees downstairs. He tries to open all the doors to escape finding them all also locked. As panic sets in for Mycroft, Sherlock and John appear and reveal the whole situation to be a ploy to prove the existence of the Holmes brothers' secret sister, Eurus Holmes, as well as the fact that she had been incarcerated at a facility controlled by Mycroft from an early age. John tells Mycroft he thought the latter would never admit the truth unless put into a terrifying situation.

    Back at Baker Street, Mycroft comes to meet with Sherlock and John and is told to sit down like a regular client if he wants to talk. Reluctantly, he does so, after which Sherlock demands that Mycroft tell him the whole truth, as he cannot remember Eurus at all, or indeed ever having another sibling. Mycroft describes Eurus as being more brilliant than either of the Holmes brothers, which was confirmed in professional assessments done in their childhood. Even though Sherlock has no memory of Eurus, Mycroft tells him that every action and decision that defines Sherlock is based on Sherlock's memory of Eurus. Mycroft retells them disturbing instances from Eurus' childhood at their family ancestral home, Musgrave, such as cutting herself to see how her muscles worked or cryptically singing about how and where she killed their dog, Redbeard. After she set a fire and burned down their home, she was taken away. Mycroft reveals that their parents were told the lie that she died there after starting another fire. In reality, he admits, she had been contained at a maximum security facility called Sherrinford ever since. Just as Mycroft dismisses the idea that she has escaped, they hear Eurus singing her cryptic song as a drone flies into the flat carrying a powerful bomb rendering them to be still since it will detonate when sensing motion. They make a plan of escape and then move, setting off the bomb just as John and Sherlock jump out the windows and Mycroft makes for the doorway.

    At sea, Sherlock and John are dropped by helicopter onto an unsuspecting boat and pirate it to travel to Sherrinford. It is revealed that Mycroft was severely injured by the explosion and is in the hospital unconscious with little hope of recovery. The boat captain and his second mate are found on a nearby beach of the island with a message written in the sand regarding Eurus. A fake-looking captain and John are found on another taken into custody for questioning. The head of security believes that he sees through the fake-looking captain's disguise and has captured John and Sherlock. He gives a security card to the guard to check on Eurus. The captain removes the prosthetics and reveals himself to actually be Mycroft and that the man who received the security card was in fact Sherlock. Sherlock sneaks past security and is able to visit his sister for the first time since their childhood. After a short conversation which leaves Sherlock visibly nonplussed with him asking Eurus repeatedly how she escaped, she coaxes Sherlock to step closer to the glass of her prison so she can tell him the truth of how she escaped. As he attempts to touch the glass, he instead touches her hand behind it and realizes that there was never any glass there.

    Meanwhile, Mycroft, John and the governor review tapes of Eurus's psychiatric sessions, all of which happened against Mycroft's express instructions; he forbade any kind of communication with Eurus because of her powerful manipulative abilities. The governor mentions that whoever came into contact with Eurus was invariably corrupted and put under her influence, recalling an instance in which she talked a member of the Sherrinford staff into killing himself and his family. John then realizes the other voice on the tape they were currently watching was the governor himself and he, too, was under the influence of Eurus. Alarmed at realizing the security of the compound was already compromised, Mycroft and John attempt to leave. The governor apologizes and sounds the alarm, with guards capturing them to take them away. John hears the security alarm and realizes it is Moriarty talking gibberish, just as security screens flash his face and say, "Did you miss me?", before John is knocked unconscious.

    In a flashback from Christmas five years prior, a helicopter arrives at Sherrinford with Moriarty onboard by Mycroft's orders. At Eurus' request for a Christmas present, she wanted five minutes of unsupervised time with Moriarty. According to Mycroft, Eurus had taken an interest in Moriarty's obsession with Sherlock, and she had him record the audio and video that the girl heard on the phone and John saw before being knocked unconscious, as well as many hundreds of other messages.

    John awakes in a Sherrinford prison cell along with Sherlock, Mycroft, and the head of security. They briefly talk to the girl on the aeroplane before the connection is terminated by Eurus, who communicates with them via television screens around the compound. She gives them a choice in order to reconnect with the girl: Sherlock must choose either John or Mycroft to kill the head of security, or she will kill the man's wife whom she has taken captive. Mycroft declines the gun from Sherlock but John accepts it. Nonetheless, John cannot bring himself to shoot, so the head of security takes the gun from John and shoots himself before anyone can react. Because neither John nor Mycroft actually carried out the deed and her demands were therefore not met, Eurus shoots the wife anyway while remarking on her fascination with the moral standards the men hold themselves to. She tells Sherlock to take the gun with one bullet left because he will need it later.

    She opens a secret cell door leading to a series of rooms with puzzles she has created for them. In the first room, Eurus has left them an envelope with images of suspects of a crime in which a man was shot, as well as the rifle he was shot with. She demands they solve who did it in exchange for more time to talk with the girl on the plane. To further pressure Sherlock emotionally, she suspends the three suspects outside the window bound and hanging over the sea, asking Sherlock to condemn one of them directly. Upon choosing one of the suspects, Eurus unexpectedly lets the other two men fall to their deaths instead, and after John reacts angrily to this pointless murder, she lets the condemned fall as well, remarking that there really is no difference between guilty or innocent.

    Eurus leads them into the next room, where an empty coffin sits with the lid simply saying, "I LOVE YOU". After some time, Sherlock and John deduce that the coffin is intended for Molly Hooper. Eurus explains that she has rigged Molly's apartment with explosives, and in order to call off the detonation Sherlock must get Molly to say "I love you" on the phone within a time limit of three minutes, on the condition that he cannot reveal in any way that there is a threat or danger involved. Sherlock is thereby forced to make Molly confess her love for him, which leaves her emotionally shaken. Afterwards, Eurus reveals there were never any bombs and Sherlock had in fact lost rather than won, since the only result was Molly now having been emotionally hurt by him. Before leaving the room, Sherlock puts the cover on the coffin and suddenly breaks down, punching and destroying the coffin while yelling in frustration.

    The next room is empty. Eurus tells Sherlock he now has to choose either John or Mycroft to continue on with him, and to kill the other. Mycroft proclaims that intellect rather than sentiment is what is needed going forward, and that the choice should be obvious: John. John tries to argue but after a moment quietly remarks that he believes Mycroft is, in fact, right. Sherlock, clearly unable to kill John, is taunted by Mycroft. This eventually leads Sherlock to point the gun at him instead, but after realizing it took only five minutes for Moriarty and Eurus to devise the entire plan that pitted them against one another, Sherlock in a desperate move puts the gun to his own throat while threatening Eurus with a ten-second countdown. Not getting the result she wanted, Eurus shoots them with a tranquiliser dart from the walls.

    Sherlock wakes up hours later in a cell with images scattered on the walls. He is reconnected with the girl and starts to guide her in landing the plane before being cut to John who has woken up chained at the bottom of a well. Realising the cell is a ruse, Sherlock easily pushes down the wall to see that he is at Musgrave. Eurus once again challenges him to solve his first case, the Musgrave Ritual, and save John. Sherlock simultaneously guides the girl in landing the plane and solves Eurus' puzzle while Eurus mocks him with her cryptic song. Already having analysed her song's lyrics with no results, Eurus reminds him that Redbeard was not a dog—for they could never have one because of their father's allergy to them—but rather the nickname for his best friend, Victor Trevor. This revelation comes as John figures out the bones in the well are human, not canine. Sherlock remembered Redbeard as a dog to cope with being upset with the horrific truth of his friend's death. Sherlock deciphers the cryptic song and realises that it along with the girl on the plane (which was a mental metaphor) was Eurus asking Sherlock for help. Finally getting the love she was denied in childhood from Sherlock, she discloses where John is and he is rescued. It is revealed Mycroft was safe and had only been locked away in her old cell in Sherrinford.

    Eurus is taken back into custody at Sherrinford since she had killed people during her trials for Sherlock. Mycroft admits to their parents that Eurus is alive, but cannot see her since she will talk to no one. Mr. and Mrs. Holmes are furious with Mycroft for keeping the truth from them and eventually ask Sherlock what to do next, surprisingly remarking he "was always the grown-up one", which startles Mycroft. Sherlock can be seen visiting Eurus regularly and although they do not talk, they play violin duets together separated only by the now-solid glass pane of her cell. One time, we also see Mycroft and Mr. and Mrs. Holmes sitting in on one of Sherlock and Eurus' violin duets.

    Sherlock and John return home to clean up and repair their Baker Street flat. John receives an anonymous CD with "MISS YOU" written on it which he watches with Sherlock. It is another message from his late wife, Mary Morstan, who encourages him to continue working with Sherlock in solving cases and having adventures together.

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