WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
At least I warned people which is more than what happens for other shows on Twitter and other sites!!! You meanies!! Ha
So Sherlock lives should I write that as a hashtag; but have to say it wasn't quite what I expected, especially in the sense of Moffat and co having two years to come up with how Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) survived and they pretty much go for the conventional, 'what everyone already talked about' explanation. Was that how it all transpired, he used an inflatable schmatable!!??!! Unbelievable and like Watson (Martin Freeman) at the end, I have to ask, is that really how he did it, or just one explanation out of 13 that Sherlock was teasing Watson with in the tube. Since we know of course he would have 'diffused' the bomb.
We see events replayed from the series 2 finale and Sherlock calling Watson to say goodbye to him, leave him his note whilst behind the scenes, so to speak, his homeless network (or Holmes-less network as you know I call them) get to work in performing the trick! As Sherlock tells him it's just a magic trick. Yes trick of the eye, sleight of hand. Sherlock jumps and has a bungee rope behind him coming through the window and kisses Molly (Louise Brealey). Some hypnotist who turns out to be Derren Brown hypnotizes Watson so he's delayed in getting to the scene. Cue DB of another planted and so on. Then we jump to Anderson (Jonathan Aris) telling Lestrade (Rupert Graves) this is how it really happened! As outside the courtroom the news reporter says how Moriarty was real and was John Brook, that Sherlock wasn't a fake and was vindicated, but it comes too late since he's dead!
If you read my tweet about Sherlock and the headline in Mycroft's (Mark Gatiss) paper in the season 2 finale you would have seen I wrote, the headlines should not be be read as, "Suicide of Fake Genius," but as, "Fake Suicide of Genius" much more interesting and apt! Mind you I was right about the bungee jumping almost, since I also tweeted some days ago about Sherlock bungee jumping from St Bart's!! It just kind of came to me whilst I was thinking of abseiling. SO how does it feel to be kind of right? Oh genius me! Ha. But then it was one of Anderson's scenarios so I don't know how that makes me feel, er, not on the same wavelength as him, huh?!! Nooo! Nah more like thinking like Mark Gatiss since he wrote the ep!
We see a man being chased in the woods and then he's being tortured by foreign captors who turn out to be Serbian. Apparently the man is Sherlock, f course, since we don't get to see his face but he convinces his torturer that his wife is having an affair and if he goes now he can catch them inflagranto. Thus left with another man who speaks Serbian and turns out to be Mycroft. Sherlock hates how he couldn't have saved him sooner and let him endure the torture, whilst getting a shave. Mycroft doesn't know the language but it's easily picked up being a cross between several others. Anthea (Lisa McAllister) walks into with a shirt and suit for him to wear and of course his trademark coat!
Watson returns to 221B Baker Street probably to take one more look at it, final farewell before he gets married. He's engaged or about to be as he tells Mrs Hudson (Una Stubbs) who's upset he didn't even call her once in two years! Not once after everything they went through. Mrs Hudson asks his name. But she's happy it's a woman, though to each his own, and again he shouts Sherlock "was not my boyfriend...I'm not gay!!" So at this point Sherlock has a conversation with Mycroft which is meant to kind of resonate or follow on from what Watson is saying in a bout of comedy. Sherlock thinking he'll still be at Baker Street and he's moved on Mycroft adds, but he can't Sherlock responds, he wasn't there. Showing him Watson's file, he notices his moustache, caterpillar, hair growth or whatever you want to call it, above his lip and tells him he looks old. Which is what Mrs Hudson tells him too. Sherlock is adamant he needs to shave it cos, "I don't want to be seen with an old man."
Sherlock thinks he should surprise Watson and spring it onto him, that he's still alive. I mean how would you do that to a friend. Finding out he'll be at a restaurant, he turns up there without a tie or anything but gets the notion to dress as a waiter, speak in a not too convincing French accent and throw in a few choice phrases such as, "old face. But of course Watson doesn't get the hint, not until Mary (Amanda Abbington) returns from the loo and Mary as we find will be his fiance, since Watson has brought her here to propose to her. Watson finally sees him and is livid after the shock wears off. Sherlock isn't given time to explain but Watson manages to control his temper, barely and bangs his fist on the table. Sherlock removing his eye liner moustache with water and commenting on whether he can do the same as easily.
The three end up at a cafe/diner together and Watson isn't interested in knowing how he lived but how many people knew and where he's been. Well Mycroft since Mary adds he'd need a confidante and Molly too cos he'd need a DB, as well as his homeless network, 25 of them no less. He finally punches Sherlock since he doesn't believe he could keep it a secret. If Sherlock doesn't want anyone to know he's still alive, then why does he just walk around London without a disguise, though he's not really into those. He's here to foil a terrorist plot to bomb London and he could use Watson's help. Ooh Sherlock is headbutted this time round, that's military training for you I guess! As Sherlock tells Watson at the end, he mentions he's a soldier enough times. Mary says she will try and get him to help him again. Sherlock looks at her and ascertains everything about her in about 2 seconds, maybe even less! ha. She's shortsighted, loves cats...Oh and Sherlock tells Watson that Mary doesn't like his 'tache either.
Later Watson shaves and Mary is a little perturbed that he didn't shave it for her all this time but he does for Sherlock, which he denies! Mycoft and Sherlock play games, chess at first, or so it seems, as they talk about themselves and childhood. How Mycroft would tell him he's smarter than him and Sherlock mimics him as a child. They decided to make friends and well, Mycroft doesn't have any friends even now. Next it's Operation and Mycroft isn't able to remove the heart! Afraid to give his heart. Mycroft tells him he had a client who left his hat behind. So they deduce traits about him, such as he's nervous and so bites the left bobble of his hat which also makes him obsessive and he's got short hair. Sherlock adding women also have short hair. It's a Peruvian hat and by now we're back to Mycroft being alone and lonely again. At which point he's had enough and leaves. Sherlock even sporting the hat, he's into hats now! Ha.
Watson is at his surgery, seeing all sorts of mundane patients with common ailments and Sherlock is helped by his network to take photos of his rats, cos he knows if any one of them changes their habits then something is happening. While he too is getting boring clients. Sherlock appears to Mrs Hudson of course and she thought he was an intruder, now who could mistake that profile and outline; not to mention Lestrade as well who can only hug him! Thus it comes to dawn that Sherlock is alive and Anderson talks with some of his like-minded individuals who have theories on how Sherlock survived. The Empty Hearse he calls them explaining the title. But of course we know the truer meaning of it. One of his number has a flashback to Sherlock throwing off a dummy with his photo mask on the front of it and then sitting and joking over it with Moriarty, as they're about to kiss! Er, not likely! Ha. Which is why we know it's not real. Anderson being right after all about Sherlock being alive, as was shown in the Sherlock minisode, Many Happy Returns.
Lestrade calls upon Sherlock for help in a skeleton that's been found and he calls upon Molly to help out since Watson's no longer around. Deducing that the skeleton was a hoax since he was dressed in clothes from a fire damage sale, and he finds a book, "How I Did It, by Jack the Ripper." All the time, Sherlock mentions John and makes reference to him a lot. He then takes her along to house, the one with the hat man. He tells him he works on the tubes, he's a train enthusiast and he found footage of a man who got onto the tube at Westminster in the last carriage, the last passenger, but didn't get off at St Jame's Park, the next stop. There are no places in between where anyone could have got off and the train doors wouldn't open. Sherlock thanks Molly for helping out and for helping him out in the past. He couldn't have done it without her. He asks if she wants to go for chips since the owner gives him an extra portion, whilst she thinks of dinner. But she's engaged and he hopes she'll be happy. We even get to see Sherlock eating those chips when Mary comes to him for help.
Watson comes to see Sherlock finally and is abducted. Mary gets a cryptic clue and runs to Sherlock who knows he's in trouble. She doesn't have a car so he hails a motorbike, yes something that was a little too close to home (or Holmes) to Doctor Who 7.7 The Bell's of Saint John. Watson finds himself inside a bonfire and bait to be lighted. Obviously that was karma for not giving a 'penny for the guy' to the boys in the beginning. Ha. The fire is lit but Sherlock arrives in time to rescue him. Sherlock doesn't know why Watson would be kidnapped. He finds out the man at the station is a Lord since his face is familiar. We also get to see Sherlock's parents who Watson describes as, "ordinary." Knew they were his parents and he also realizes they also knew he was alive and weren't at his funeral. Okay I got it was about blowing up Parliament when his mother mentioned they were having an all night session, though it did appear Sherlock was a little off his game and slow off the mark in this ep, which we can put down to being absent for so long!
He also sees that the tube carriage is missing one, there's six instead of seven that's why the man wasn't seen getting off. There's a hidden train line which was never used as a station. So they find the missing carriage and Sherlock then deduces the carriage is the bomb. Got that too when they got on there! Sherlock claims he doesn't know how to diffuse the bomb and Watson is sure he does, urging him to go into his "mind palace." He gets down over the bomb as if he's in real agony and despair, that's when it's obvious he's disarmed it, or at least stopped the timer, cos he wouldn't tell Watson his version of events with only a minute and a half to spare. He wants Watson to forgive him and explains how he 'lived.'
That he made sure Watson's view was obscured. He jumped and his homeless network and Mycroft all helped him. When he sent 'Lazarus' text to Mycroft. His men took care of Watson's assassin and Sherlock jumped onto a giant inflatable. The DB was placed there and then he placed himself on the ground with the blood effects around him. Watson was hit by the cyclist, but he managed to get there and felt for a pulse, Sherlock resorting to using the old rubber ball in armpit ploy!! Noo So not original and has been done before so many times. More recently in The Mentalist. That's why like Watson I also said I'm hoping there's more of an explanation to how Sherlock really managed to survive, since this is such a disappointment. I mean we wait two years and this is all that was adhered to: an inflatable and a rubber ball!
Watson celebrates his engagement and Molly arrives with Tom who is a carbon copy of Sherlock, right down to wearing a coat and scarf and similar shoes! Molly has fallen for a copy, or rather transferred her feelings onto him. Maybe I got the feeling she made him dress like that. Sherlock doesn't want Watson to say a word! Sherlock doesn't know why Watson was kidnapped and by whom and he hates that. As a bespectacled old man watches Sherlock rescue Watson. Here we go, a new nemesis for him who also resorts to filming him and watching his foe at work, just as Moriarty did. Let's hope he doesn't turn out to be a copy of Moriarty, or someone who got away from his network and is continuing on for him.
Oh and I didn't mention the pleasure Sherlock took in tormenting Watson with the bomb since there was an off switch, "there's always an off switch." Which is what made Watson and me wonder if Sherlock's version of events is what actually transpired.
It was good to see Sherlock back after a two year absence and somehow it wasn't quite what I expected, some areas were a bit of a letdown. Don't get me wrong, I love my Sherlock as much as any fan, but I couldn't help but think it could have been a little more exciting, so it seemed less contrived. Kind of felt a tad cheated with the ploy as I said of saving Sherlock, but hopefully I'll enjoy it more when re-watching. Maybe we were meant to see it as a new beginning, yes but in some ways perhaps just have to get back into watching it. By the time we do get used to it, the other two eps will be over! Ha.
There are those who have hated it and those who have loved it but since it moved on from Sherlock being 'dead' and The Reichenbach Fall, it gave the show more of a chance for purely character interaction and re-introducing Sherlock to London, the "cess pool" as he describes it. So in that respects it may not be to everyone's taste.
Some best parts were Sherlock tormenting Anderson with the news he was alive and he was right all along, with Anderson wondering why he's telling him that, as well as Sherlock knowing it was him with the skeleton, so he wasted police time, obstructed justice. It felt good to torment him in that way! Sherlock's back but Anderson won't be returning to policework. As for Anderson leaving the Jack the Ripper book, it may be a bit relevant here, or not, but Robert Anderson investigated the Jack the Ripper case as he was chief inspector with Scotland Yard at the time of the murders in Victorian England. Perhaps Anderson here thought he was being a bit clever in choosing this book to leave there. It is elementary (had to use that once) Sherlock would have made the deduction and connection.
Sherlock donning his deerstalker which apparently Mrs Hudson kept or he did, since he takes it off the hook and wear it before greeting the press!
Also Sherlock's parents were played by Benedict's real parents, Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham. So another in-joke there.
I will probably be back with some more thoughts on this ep after I've watched again and re-analyzed it a thousand times over! Ha.
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