Sherlock 3.3 "His Last Vow" Review

                                              
Spoilers Sweetie, in the words of River Song!!

An inquiry leads us to meet Charles Augustus Magnussen (Lars Mikkelsen) being questioned as he reads off info about them in his glasses, looking for people's 'pressure points', i.e their weaknesses.  Lady Elizabeth Smallwood's (Lindsay Duncan) weakness happens to be her husband and Magnussen knows her husband has a weakness for women, younger girls at this point in time, she tells him he didn't know her age and that's a fact.  He sniffs her perfume, Clair de la Lune (which happens to be very common) and then licks her face. Eurgh, enough with the face licking, do we have to see that in everything!!  Anyway he's going to use the letters to blackmail her cos that's what he does, a master blackmailer, aka "the Napoleon of blackmailers" who's a newspaper owner/mogul and a most hated man.  She's driven away in her car thinking that no one can stand up to him, no man or woman and then, the penny drops, hello, Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch). Though she doesn't mention him by name.

John (Martin Freeman) dreams of his time in Afghanistan as a soldier and when he met Sherlock for the first time, as he's awoken by a knock at the door, their neighbour who is concerned about her son, he's disappeared and is an addict.  First thought Sherlock, no really, he is/was an addict and John must have thought that too even if only for an instance.  She gives John the address of this den of inequity and Mary (Amanda Abbington) won't let him go alone.  John takes a tyre lever just incase he needs it.  The door is answered by another so-called addict who doesn't reply to John when he's asked the boy.  So John sprains his arm, he's a doctor and he knows how to sprain arms, overpowering him and taking his knife. When he finds him, John also chances upon Sherlock in the next bed and I say chances cos what were the odds that Sherlock would be right there, seeing as John tells Mary Sherlock's vanished.  Keeping tabs on him was he?  Just a thought.

John thinks he's relapsed without him around, well I added that bit cos he really needs to be around to keep an eye on him.  Referring to Sherlock's remark last ep, that John and Mary will make good parents since they have had practice, well John has, of looking after Sherlock.  Anyway John thinks Sherlock has relapsed and has become an addict once again, but he tells him he's undercover, which is apparent.  I mean why would Sherlock become an addict.  They drive to see Molly (Louise Brealey) and she tests him, then slaps him.  Molly really has sociopathic, sadistic tendencies doesn't she.  Sherlock having to mention that the engagement ring is gone.  It had to happen sooner or later and after stabbing him with a fork, Tom wouldn't really stick around for long, besides he's not the real thing!

Wiggins (he was a Baker street irregular) as he's now named 'deduces' everything about John, in what seemed like he was meant to be a protege of Sherlock, not likely although he may think so.  Sherlock tells them still he's undercover which all falls on deaf ears.  Ina bid to make Magnussen believe he's a drug addict and that it will appear in the papers by now.  Getting home he sees Mycroft  (Mark Gatiss) is there since he has straightened the door knocker, his OCD has anyway.  John called him and he too thinks that Sherlock is an addict once more as he brings along Anderson (Jonathan Aris) and some of his cohorts from the fanclub to find the morphine, as Mycroft puts it.  Also Mycroft notices Sherlock's bedroom door is closed so he must be hiding it in there.  Sherlock gets angry with Mycroft and when he finds out he is investigating Magnussen, Mycroft warns him to stay away.  Sherlock refuses and grabs Mycroft's arm, with John having to stop him from doing so, he knows Sherlock will break it especially since he is high. John asks him to leave and Sherlock gives up and goes for a bath.

Was it just me or has that doorknocker on 221B always been straight and not just straight now cos Mycroft's inside!  Maybe it was meant to be a reference to Sherlock being high, but I have never seen that doorknocker crooked.

Out pops Janine (Yasmine Akram) in a bid to confuse, make angry or jealous, take your pick as we're meant to think Sherlock has been 'getting it on' with Janine.  Which is far from the case, as I pointed out to everyone, well, blabbed! Ha.  Clearly that shirt didn't look like one of Sherlock's, a little too high on her wasn't it.  Janine has words with Sherlock in the bath and probably a little more, ha.  John isn't interested in Magnussen but the fact that Sherlock out and out tells him he has a girlfriend.  She tells him he hasn't been home last night.  John still in awe at Sherlock having a girlfriend.  Oh get it over it, he doesn't really!  She's just a plot point as I like to say, ha.  She invites John and Mary for dinner, the four of them at her place. Before leaving she and Sherlock kiss, which will send hearts racing, first Molly, now Janine.  Oh Irene you
needed to make an entrance too!

Speak of the devil along comes Magnussen, as Mrs Hudson (Una Stbbs) runs up looking rather worried to announce his arrival.  His men search them both and find the knife and tyre lever in John's coat.  Sherlock tells him he is acting on behalf of Smallwood, but it seems to fall onto deaf ears.  So very arrogantly, he's more interested in looking for Sherlock's 'pressure point(s)' of which there seem to be plenty but John Watson comes up many times.  Magnussen needing the loo but won't use it cos it's like the rest of the place so in the ultimate slap in the face, insult, he pees in the fireplace.  Sherlock's fireplace of all places as Sherlock must stand by and watch.  Though he's not concerned with that when he leaves, Sherlock will see John later as they will attempt to break into Magnussen's building.  In the meantime, Sherlock has some shopping to do, oh since when? Ha.

They meet and enter his building and as said the only thing that was on Sherlock's mind when he asks John if he saw what he did, obviously I knew he meant he flashed them Smallwood's letters, but John was more bothered about the pissing in the fire place and so he should be!  Sherlock demonstrates how he can get into his office, without being caught.  He has his keycard which he nicked from his guard and put it with his mobile phone, thus the magnetic strip is rendered useless cos of the tech from the phone.  So if he enters it his guards will catch him, but if he enters the corrupted card then his PA will just let him in, we're shown a woman's hand on the keyboard but not whom.  Though hazarding a guess, I went for Janine.  remember it's all about foreshadowing, well mostly and by now we know that Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss always get most of the guests returning.

So no surprises there but his PA is Janine, it pays to befriend bridesmaids at weddings!  Sherlock wants her to let him come up but she refuses in which case he has to do it here and shows her a ring.  By the time they get to the the office, Janine has been knocked out and so has the guard.  Sherlock sniffs Clair de la Lune and finds Magnussen being held at gunpoint with a masked intruder.  He thinks it's Smallwood but it's actually Mary, so now you see that 'There's something about Mary', was right.  Well anyone who said there was, was correct in their observations. Sherlock thinks back to when he analyzed her and stops at liar, several times over.  He should have known it would be Mary as John mentioned that's her perfume too, not two seconds ago.  She wants to kill him for what he has on her with Sherlock asking why she didn't tell him.  He thinks she won't shoot him but she does, she pulls the trigger, Sherlock oh how could you underestimate her! He has all sorts of thoughts and flashes to Molly whilst he's shown lying on that gurney in her morgue and she tells him what he must do, whether he should fall back or forward.

Mycroft appears asking him what is behind him, the mirror of course and as it didn't break, it means the bullet is still inside him and so it's stopping the blood from flowing out which would be the COD, blood loss. So he has to fall back and look Anderson shows up too telling him what he should be doing and asking if it's just the one bullet then.  Sherlock falls back, the second stage that will kill him is shock.  He needs to stay alive, or did I just say that, thinking of Moriarty's ringtone!  Sherlock calls out to their dog, his dog, little Sherlock (Louis Moffat) that is and saying that they had to put him down.  With older Sherlock running down some stairs in his coat, flowing with him all the while.  He ends up in Moriarty's padded cell and Moriarty (Andrew Scott) talks to him about being dead and the pain.  He doesn't like pain but Sherlock did. Eventually he tells him about John, he can't leave John behind and that's what makes Sherlock fight, as he comes back up the stairs and struggles to return.  He must return for John, he can't leave him alone and especially not with Mary.

John tells Lestrade (Rupert Graves) Sherlock must know who did it since he was shot facing forward and he won't tell them who cos he's protecting them, no John, he's protecting you.  Mary appears to Sherlock telling him he can't tell John and he wakes up with Janine there and all the newspaper headlines.  So you see, he was using her which was what I said all along.  You know just sometimes I wish that they would write things to be a little bit harder to suss out.  Not being big headed or egotistical, ha, but it's too easy to work out what happens/is happening.  She tells him Magnussen must be angry cos she broke the news to his rivals and also how Sherlock used her, well they used each other cos she is a publicity seeking whore and got a cottage out of it.  As he ups his morphine, then lowers it when she leaves.  As said does it look like Sherlock would have a girlfriend, not that gullible, not quite yet anyway!  Though in one of the canons, Sherlock did get engaged.

John and Lestrade enter Sherlock's room, only to find it empty, he made his escape via the window.  He gets Wiggins to contact Mary and he hands her the phone.  She's on Leinster Gardens and he talks about the houses.  Then projects her photo from the wedding outside two of the houses which have been demolished for the underground (ooh let's mention the underground again).  They're just a facade, like her, she's a facade too.  He invites her in and asks how good a shot she is, since she could have killed him but didn't.  She thinks he's sitting in the chair talking to her, again, it was obvious it wasn't him.  As he asks her to demonstrate what she can do with a gun.  She throws up a coin and shoots it.  Sherlock creeping up behind her and she thinks it's a dummy on the chair, well if you look at it that way, I jest.  She admits she's not really Mary, well Sherlock does that for her since the real one died and is buried, she didn't become her until five years ago and that's why she doesn't have any friends, as he mentioned in The Sign of Three, her side is rather sparse and she put it down to being an orphan.  He wants to know why she didn't come to him for help and she replies she didn't want John to know and he mustn't know now.  John is in the chair and has heard it all. Think he got that when he sat in his chair that Sherlock put back for him after removing it to see the view to the kitchen.  As John notices the bottle of perfume on the table.  He was meant to see that.  Seeing as he's the one who mentioned that Mary also wears the same brand.

Sherlock wants them to return to Baker Street where they can both have a domestic.  Cue Christmas scene where they have moved on and have all been invited to the Holmes's Christmas gathering.  Even Wiggins is there as he gives some tea to Mary.  She reads one of his mother's (Wanda Ventham) books on Maths which she comments is is rather boring, as his father (Timothy Carlton) lights the fire. He's the sane one in the family.  John turns up and they're not really on speaking terms.  Back to Baker Street where John wants Sherlock to just shut up.  Sherlock asking John what she is now, what she really is, a client of course.  John pulls up a chair for her and she sits there as he tells her that's where they decide if they'll take on the case.   She hands him a flashdrive with the initials A.G.R.A, that's her real name.  She's a spy or more likely a CIA assassin.

Cue forward to Christmas again and Sherlock saying he doesn't like it.  Their mother comments on how someone shot her little boy and if she finds out who it was... John loves Mary and he throws the flashdrive away.  He doesn't want to know who she was or her name, she is Mary.  He's not bothered with her past but with her future, with him.  Mary telling him Sherlock was right, John is attracted to people like her, that's why he ended up marrying someone like her. His best friend is a sociopath after all.  So what does that say about Sherlock and Irene?

Everyone has been drugged as Wiggins is a chemist, and Sherlock tells John not to drink Mary's tea or the punch.  He needed Mycroft, his laptop with all the secrets in it cos he wants to confront Magnussen and get to Appledore: the vault where he keeps his secrets. That will be their ride, his helicopter.  Magnussen refuses to deal since he knows that the laptop will have GPS and by now Mycroft and the police will be here.  He shows them the vault, just a room with a chair where he sits and gathers his thoughts, cos everything he needs to know is in his mind.  Again too obvious.  Which is why he teased him with flashing the letters, to fool Sherlock. That's why I said it would have been easier if Mary had shot him, it was after all, what she does.  Out on the patio, John asks if Sherlock has a plan and Magnussen wants to flick John, as long as it wasn't to lick him!  Sherlock wants him to go along with it cos he's buying time.  John telling him if it's in his mind he hasn't got any proof, but he doesn't need proof, he only needs to publish and the damage is done.

Mycroft approaches and wants them to step away from Magnussen so either he can get him shot or arrest him, but it was the inevitable, that Sherlock would be the one who would end it all, as he shoots Magnussen. Mycroft ordering them not to shoot Sherlock.  Mycroft tries to ensure the bigwigs can't make Sherlock go to prison,  it would be chaos.  But to no avail, well that's gratitude for you, yes you Smallwood!  So he has no choice but to send Sherlock on that mission in Eastern Europe for six months which will prove fatal for him. Not that he wants to lose his brother.  Mary promises to look after John and to get him into trouble.

John won't see Sherlock again so he suggests baby names: William Sherlock Scott Holmes, but he tells him it's a girl.  He still tries to convince him that Sherlock is a girl's name, but he can't fool him into naming the baby after him.  Sherlock leaves and is called by Mycroft asking how he's enjoying four minutes of exile? The TV signals are disrupted as we get Moriarty asking, "Did you miss me?"  Sherlock being the only man who can help them!  SO it's London for you Mr Holmes once again!!  It's like he never left!

Did you like the scene where we actually get to see Sherlock eat!  The hospital canteen he calls it, and Magnussen shows up.  Sherlock thinking he reads files through his glasses but finds they're just an ordinary pair of spectacles.  Think that's where he worked out there is no vault and had to keep the illusion going of not really knowing.  I mean this is Sherlock he had to have deduced that for certain now.  Some people have said he made a mistake, as Magnussen did, that he thought the vault was real, but I didn't get that impression. Also the scene at their parent's house where they both smoke and have another brotherly moment together, before mother catches them in the act. Sherlock saying it was Mycroft, who is called Mike and hates it.

SO the question or tag line will now be #MoriartyLives, but how?  #MoriartyReturns  #MoriartyNeverDied.  Or I like #MoriartyStayinAlive. That will haunt us now for the foreseeable future, as long as it's not two years! Anyway knew he wasn't dead as I wrote in my review of The Reichenbach Fall, it could not be that easy.  Mind you anyone could have sent that transmission, anyone, it's not like we saw Moriarty in person. Could have been Mycroft, Sherlock, even.

Not to mention the fact that Magnussen had a so-called 'mind palace,' hey only Sherlock can have a mind palace!  Mycroft calls it a "memory palace" then what or where were the letters that he had on Smallwood. Since no one got a hold of them, they were only in his mind.  SO was shooting him enough,, did he have the letters stored in his memory too, cos really he wouldn't have destroyed them, or would he.

Of course it would have been more conducive if Mary had just ended it all for him but then we wouldn't have gotten those scenes at the end, where Sherlock had to be the one to kill him, since he was the one really being taunted, but he was a really bad man, even if he kept pointing out he wasn't a killer or a villain.  But he was.  He was the worst kind of criminal, human, the one who hides behind his fancy words without admitting to what he really does and is.  But it had to be Sherlock that's why he asked John if he brought his gun with him, cos in this case, only a gun would do.

As for Janine calling him "Sherl", done that already, ha, in my tweets for the new year!  To quote Moriarty, "I am so good", well paraphrase him then. Ha.

Questions there were plenty, as Mycroft mentions there was a third brother and he died, surely not Moriarty, Noo, well anything's possible in this production, as we do get to move away from the original books!! Ha. So there was a third Holmes.  Other interesting moments, Mrs Hudson being an exotic dancer and Sherlock being the one who sent her husband to death row in Florida.  Well it wasn't mentioned here but I like the reference to series 1.

This ep was based on The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton and other mentions too from other books, though I know many refer to them as canons.  The opening scene with Magnussen was meant to be one where we immediately hate the villain and the true abhorrent nature of him and the workings of his mind. Smarmy and yet attempting to be so very above it all.  Sherlock even mentions his "dead eyes" towards the end.  He's entirely focused on one thing and one thing alone, his blackmailing and how he keeps not just mere mortals but countries at his beck and call.  Finding peoples' pressure points, Mary was John's and he couldn't quite be sure if John was Sherlock's as he had to find out, thus kidnapping him in The Empty Hearse to find this out.  How Sherlock would move heaven and earth to save him.  He even returned from flatlining to ensure John is 'saved.'   Apparently Sherlock's pressure points also include Irene, though John was recurring.  But somewhere it had to include Mycroft too.  Blood is thicker and all that.

Reminding me of The Empty Hearse scene, where he tells John to be careful what he wishes for when he wants Sherlock dead.  Thus somewhere we had to get a scene where this actually happens.  Another thought I had was how in Sherlock's mind palace after he was shot, with Molly asking if he needs to fall backwards or forwards, was a kind of allusion to how he jumped off the building to survive his fall.  I know this sounds a bit far fetched; or at least how they both planned his 'demise' back then.

Still some laughs assured in this but not quite as laugh out loud as the other two episodes.  Like John telling Magnussen, "I don't understand," Magnussen replying he should put that on a T-shirt and John saying, "I still don't understand," would be on the back of the T-Shirt.  (With Sherlock's T-Shirt saying, "Fooled you!" Included here by me.  Not that Magnussen would be around to see that one.)

Another point to his episode is how married life is not really boding well for John.  He has his clothes packed in his bag, his shirts folded which he changes into at work, as deduced by Wiggins.  With Sherlock adding he's putting on weight, seven pounds, cos he misses this sort of detective work, John adding it' actually five pounds.  John's war nightmares returning maybe a little disturbing since he was over them, with the help of Sherlock and seeing his shrink, but now that he's getting them back, is worrying since he seems to be regressing back to pre A Study In Pink days.  Maybe his nightmares were trying to tell him something about Mary.

Mary was another addition who was quite a breath of fresh air, she understood both men and that she was willing to go so far to end the blackmailing, even shooting Sherlock, more a last resort, he happened to be there at the wrong time, but he still knew all about her.  She knew when he was lying and even John can't determine that.  She changed the dynamic between the two friends and in a way, also made Sherlock realize his humanity and how he does need a friend, how much of a true friend John really is.  Sherlock forgives Mary and wants John to do the same since she saved his life, she called the ambulance before John did and it takes an ambulance in London eight minutes to reach its destination as he times it, suffering a relapse as Sherlock bleeds internally.

Sherlock needs morphine and as he tells Mrs Hudson she hasn't got any but she ran a drug cartel, she responding, "I just did the typing."  The entire three episodes showed Sherlock: character and detective in a different light with all the people he knew and has built up a relationship with over the years.  Oh and never to be forgotten, Molly slapping him endlessly for being an addict and ruining his life! As Redbeard was mentioned quite a bit, he was actually the family dog.

That scene with Sherlock on the plane was so heartbreaking and gut wrenching.  Here was a man who did all for his friends, kept his last vow, dying to keep it, stepping on board that plane and to certain death and accepting it so, well so graciously, can I say that, just brought tears to my eyes.  Deep down thinking that he is Sherlock, he won't die.  Then we get Moriarty, who perhaps can be called a life saver, ha.  SO many emotions in this episode still, from the funny, to the sad and then look, it was Sherlock as we knew him all over again as he's coming back.
                                                    This is how we felt!!!

Oh and also enjoyed Mycroft's reference to dragons and needing slaying, his "here be dragons" line was no allusion to Smaug of course!! ha.  As Sherlock tells John the game will never be over, there'll always be a new villain and in this case we have the return of one of our very fave ones in Moriarty, or is he just one big tease? It's as if series 3 didn't really happen and we're back to The Reichenbach Fall, in some ways.

In The Adventures of Charles Augustus Milverton, Sherlock is hired by a socialite to retrieve some stolen letters from one his most hated criminals he has encountered. Sherlock disguises himself as a plumber to gain the layout of Milverton's house and befriends the maid for this purpose, he even gets engaged to her.  Read Janine here.  Milverton is actually shot here by one of his Vics and Sherlock and John just stand by and watch it happen.  In one adaptation, Milverton was part of Moriarty's gang, maybe why Moriarty was mentioned here at the end.

Mycroft and John both mention "an east wind" a reference to Mycroft predicting Sherlock's death, whereas Sherlock predicts Moriarty's return, all in his mind palace and John alludes to Sherlock's return. Janine and her cottage, in the book, His Last Bow, Sherlock retires to a cottage on the Sussex Downs and keeps bees, here Janine mentions removing the beehives from her cottage.  As for A.G.R.A being Mary's real name, In The Sign of Four the treasure was stolen from Agra, India.

Roll on series 4 as we anxiously await a new beginning....

Sherlock 3.2 "The Sign of Three" Review

                                           
Yes More SPOILERS in this too.

Lestrade (Rupert Graves) and Donovan (Vinette Robinson) are the on the case of a criminal gang of robbers who get away every time. As we are shown, Eighteen months Earlier  Twelve months earlier they still manage to elude the police and Lestrade gets angry kicking his BMW tyre over and over.  I see Donovan is still around and wasn't booted off along with Anderson since the two of the were adept in calling Sherlock a fake and a fraud.  She even went as far as saying one day he would actually commit murder.

Six months earlier it's the same and finally Yesterday he decides the only way to nab them is when they're actually committing the act.  Lestrade is texted by Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) saying he needs help now at Baker street and Lestrade thinks he's in real danger and orders police back-up.  Obviously he needs help with being the best man and writing the speech.  Mrs Hudson (Una Stubbs) laughing her head off, or "torturing an owl" as John puts it when she realizes Sherlock  will have to write the speech!  We're shown the six months earlier since it's been six months since The Empty Hearse and this episode.

Once gain this episode is more character and relationship orientated as we get Sherlock practising his
 dancing which Mrs Hudson catches him doing, as well a playing one of his own violin pieces which he has especially composed for the happy couple.  Bringing him his usual tea, she mentions she'd like to meet his mother and he agrees.  His mother being mentioned now since we've met the parents.  Also he notices there aren't any biscuits and sends her out for some.  Not that we'll see you eating Sherlock.

We go back and forth to the wedding and then jump back into various cases Sherlock mentions he and John solved.  Which in turn leads to the main case of murder and yes there is one.  It's very complex in places, jumps in and out of scenes, throwing in some fun moments, laugh out loud antics and some serious and emotional moments too.  One that definitely needs to be viewed many times over just to savour it all.  Also again many people will be divided in its delivery and content, as in The Empty Hearse, there's no apparent case, not one that is apparent from the outset at least.

                                           

There's more repetition of Sherlock's character of how he's tall, nice-ish, clever, all seen, er, in a scene where Sherlock and John try to guess the person they are.  Sherlock has Sherlock Holmes stuck onto his head and John is Madonna.  Which is all very amusing especially for Sherlock since he's drunk, yes Sherlock actually drunk, all John's fault of course.  Yes you've guessed it, John's stag night organized by Sherlock consists of just the two of them on a pub crawl of sorts!  Sherlock asking Molly (Louise Brealey) about drinking and him suggesting she drinks a lot as she puts it.  She adding that her and Tom see a lot of each other and have plenty of sex too!  To which he has nothing to say.  He uses large measuring cylinders to measure out the right amount of beers to keep them both under the limit.  That is until John drinks on the side, adds a shot to one of the cylinders and then hands Sherlock the wrong on, of course it was the one in your left hand John, the right drink for John that is.

SO we get to see Sherlock drunk and lose his inhibitions in almost getting involved in a punch up with some bouncers, ending up home early and lying on the stairs together.  They've only been out for two hours Mrs Hudson tells them.  That's where the guess who game and more drinking comes in.  Sherlock confessing he doesn't know who John is since he just picked the name from the paper.  John asking if he's pretty, Madonna, that is and Sherlock replying it's a state of mind.  Well you know his usual long winded explanations!  So Sherlock gets a client.  A nurse who tells him about how she dated a man for one night, had dinner, went back to his place, nothing happened, but then he vanished.  Sherlock and Watson both asleep at this point.  Sherlock waking John up telling him it's very rude.

They go to the man's place and Sherlock in a comedy routine extraordinaire, looks for clues with his magnifying glass.  He can't seem to put two words together, so his mind is all garbled thingys, which is how he labels the furniture etc.  He looks for clues and gets down on the floor looking into the rug.  No clues there but he does throw up. The nurse calling John by his middle name, Hamish.  Clue for later.  Of course I noticed that too.  They both end up in a police cell and Lestrade has to get them out.  Sherlock admitting this case was interesting, the ghost case.  Thus his must solve it.

We get the wedding photos being taken with Sherlock not being in the one with the bride and groom, as well as meeting some of the guests.  An old friend of Mary's whom Sherlock had words with before the wedding, telling him he can't see her alone and not more than a few times.  Since he's so hung up on her. Another one is the page boy whom he gets to come out of his shell as his mother says, who doesn't know it's by showing him photos of his past cases.  Promising to show him some beheadings.

Jumping back to planning the wedding Mary (Amanda Abbington) can see Sherlock is too involved and is going to miss John around here, or so she thinks.  Thus John is looking for a case for him from his blog.  Sherlock asks about invites and wedding serviettes, Mary preferring the Sydney Opera House design.  He learned napkin origami on Youtube.  So Mary pretends to get a call from Beth which is their code word to be alone, she convinces John to get him onto a case.  By this time Sherlock has sat on the floor and created many more napkins!

John picks the case of Bainbridge (Alfred Enochin) an Elite Guardsman and though he's used to having his photo taken, he is being stalked by a hooded man who takes photos of him.  Sherlock and John stake out the scene on a bench whilst they have time to chat more.  When John tries to tell him he's his best friend and all the emotional stuff, Sherlock has disappeared.  In fact he's wearing a bearskin for himself and has entered the premises.  Er, a bit easy to get in wasn't it, what with the need for added security and all that.  Still no one notices him around and by the time they do it's a bit late.  Cos if Sherlock had been the one who attacked Bainbridge in the shower then he'd have been well away by now.  As it happens John uses his credentials, rather his older credentials now since he's retired to ask Bainbridge's CO some questions, but he doesn't answer anything.

Sherlock is found (bit late now) and brought to the showers where John wants to examine Bainbridge, but can't.  Sherlock convincingly saying if he was the killer he'd have a  weapon, not really, he could have disposed of said weapon since he wasn't at the scene.  Though his clothes show he's not wet and so couldn't have been in the shower. He's still alive and John has to save him, getting Sherlock to part with his scarf and play nurse.

By now we're onto the best man's speech and Sherlock having to read out telegrams, adding they're not really telegrams.  Doing away with most of them as they all say, "love, love, love..."  He talks about John and really about himself too.  John being an influence in his life, being his best friend.  With a hilarious flashback to the time John asks him to be his best man, whilst Sherlock is dissecting an eyeball, which he drops into his tea when John asks him, or should that be, pops the question.  Clearly not knowing what that means, being a high functioning sociopath, he drops the eyeball in his tea and is speechless.  Of course relaying to the guests that he was happy and expressed this in a long conversation.  Also taking a sip from his tea.  Later adding he didn't know what to say.

Sherlock asks the wedding guests how they think the man could have stabbed him and gotten away, even asking Lestrade the same, who thinks the man could be a dwarf so could have go in through the vent. Sherlock saying he's right, but not really. Infact he confesses he is miffed and hasn't solved the case, but that's of no import.  Oh but it is!  You know foreshadowing and all that.  If it wasn't relevant he'd never have mentioned it!  There's more reference to other cases John and he have solved and particularly there's a scene where he and John chase a giant, who is really a dwarf in the 'Poison Giant', 'The Mayfly Man', which is the one with the so-called ghost; 'The Hollow Client', which was an empty suit on the chair; 'The Matchbox Decathlete', one where there's only one matchbox which is full and Sherlock opens it to reveal a light and laughs. As well as 'The Elephant in the Room'.  Joke there, cos really his entire speech is meant to be one big elephant in the room. Ha.  Maybe even the entire ep!

Another aspect of the wedding and guest is John's friend, Major Shalto, who is a wounded officer and responsible for deaths in his regiment. Sherlock happens to be jealous of him.  Mary knows of him but says he won't attend cos he's a recluse and he actually shows up.   John knew he would.  Showing more insight into Sherlock and how once gain John's been an influence on him.  Like the poignant scene where Sherlock looks at John's empty chair with a sigh, well I included the sigh part.  He will miss him even though he reassures him that nothing will change and he will still be here to help him out and 'do their thing' together.

Sherlock is a hit with the bridesmaid since she remarks about not having sex, which is what the bridesmaid and best man do.  Everyone talking about sex to Sherlock now, since he's been 'humanized' a little.  He tries to pick out men for her but each one of them has some flaw.  Except for one who she likes at the end which is the one he picks out would be perfect for her.  Continuing with the speech and having everyone in tears at how John is a great friend and doctor, how he always helps others, was a soldier too, was injured.  Until finally he realizes there's going to be a murder here.  He drops his glass when he sees the photographer and it crashes to the floor.  Sherlock must find who will be killed and by whom and John must save them.  As he's saved his life on many occasions (such as their first meeting in A Study In Pink).

He walks round the room deducing who the Vic could be, as we get Sherlock in a room full of women who the Mayfly Man went out with and why.  He asks them questions trying to find what they have in common and actually he's really on his several laptops asking them questions.  But it's portrayed in such a visual way, with not so much the writing being projected onto the screen, but him standing there with them.  He finally figures out they have a secret, everyone has secrets and they all leave.  Mycroft (Mark Gatiss) appears to him telling him there's criminal intent and this leads to murder.  Sherlock thinks they all work for one employer.  Then recalls the nurse saying John's middle name, so she had to have seen the invite, since John hates his middle name and it took a long time for Sherlock to find out what that is, even after he guessed many of the 'H' names.  He saw his birth certificate and found out it was Hamish.  John also revealed it to Irene Adler (Lara Pulver) who appears to Sherlock naked and he tells her to get our of his head, not now, he's busy! Showing he still thinks about her too, even if only in his head and that he doesn't know where she is.

The nurse must have seen the wedding invitation which means the Vic is the Major, that wasn't too hard to work out.  As well as working out Bainbridge had already been stabbed and this was done through his belt that's why he didn't feel it.  That his stabbing was a rehearsal for the real murder.  The Major leaves the room and waits with his gun.  He tells Sherlock to solve the case and he'll unlock the door, which Mary tells him to do.  John says over several times, "the game is on" this episode and it matters now.  Sherlock tells him not to remove his belt cos he's already been stabbed.  The Major doesn't listen until he tells him it's something they both wouldn't do and not at John's wedding of all places.  Working out the photographer did it.  He's always at weddings but never seen or have his photo taken so no one knows his face.

Sherlock dances with the bridesmaid and tells her he loves dancing, as he teaches her to dance.  John adding he's actually pulled.  Back to the dancefloor and Sherlock plays his composed piece for the happy couple as he is left without a partner to dance with.  That was sad. After all that everyone just forgot about him!  He leaves them the composition, dons his coat and exits stage left!  Something you'd see in a Doctor Who ep! Think of Amy's wedding.  No really just like Sherlock slapping himself on both sides of his cheeks to pull himself together and deduce the Vic!  We've seen that plenty of times with Matt Smith as Doctor Eleven. Hey even expected a bit of a dance from Sherlock on the old dancefloor Matt Smith as the Doctor style, though he did a pirouette/mid-air twirl earlier on!! Bravo and encore!

One moment I think is relevant when at the dance at the end he promises he won't make anymore vows, that he will always be there for the three of them, he means both, before he announces Mary is pregnant.  John being shocked he knew before he did and he's a doctor, it was the signs: she didn't like the wine she picked out, was eating a lot and was sick which didn't amount to nerves. Yes getting back to his vow and promising not to make anymore, leading onto next weeks finale of the series, entitled His Last Vow, where we have to meet his nemesis at last.  SO maybe the fun, comical side will be put on hold for that.  Here's hoping we don't get anymore deathly cliffhangers, or a death, that would be too much, especially if it turns out to be someone close to them.

Couldn't help get the feeling that as Sherlock has been firmly established a firm favourite with fans now, hence giving Moffat, Gatiss and co, more leeway to do other things with the show, as far as cases and characters go.  Don't really think we'd be getting such comedic eps last series or even during the first season, but now they're able to let loose and 'experiment' in a way, with alternatives.  Which works for the majority of fans.  Still there must be something a little more of the old Sherlock around still, just to ensure we don't lose all touch with the Sherlock that was.  You know, selfish, kind of self obsessed, aloof.   If nothing else it shows us what good comedy Benedict can do, he's just not a serious Sherlock but one that can laugh, at himself, after criticizing people for all those years and putting them down!

Sherlock referring to himself as an 'arsehole' at one time in the speech, something he wouldn't do, John might and would, but Sherlock, never. We get to see Mycroft work out as Sherlock deduces he wouldn't be out of breath cos he's engaging in other activities, one in particular.  Sherlock throwing his flower to the bridesmaid, aww! Mary didn't throw her bouquet.  Also John mentions his sister Harry wouldn't be coming.

 Is anyone having doubts as to whether John is the baby's father?  I mean the wedding was hurried and everything and did Mary really not know, or could be, pregnant, you know time of the month and all that! Other funny scene was Sherlock saying he's envisioned the deaths of John and has killed him in his mind using poison on him.

I don't know, I'm still suspicious of Mary, she was pushing John to make Sherlock investigate cases, some reason behind this?  Knowing full well John may be in danger too cos he helps him out, would any wife want to see her husband in such imminent danger, always?  She wasn't particularly interested in the message from Cam either, in the sense of wanting Sherlock to skip over it?  CAM = Charles Augustus Magnussen?  Or am I being paranoid? Overly protective in the wake of Sherlock's last vow!

As for the original Sign of Four and of course this could not even be described as being a loose version of it.  In the original book, Mary is Sherlock's client and Major John Shalto does feature.  It centres around a peg-legged man who is the villain and has a dwarf for an assistant, perhaps Sherlock's reference to the poison dwarf case.  Mary consults Sherlock over her missing father who was known to Major Sholto.  The Major being afraid for his life.  He is poisoned by a thorn in his skin.

The dwarf being the one who shot the poison dart, as shown here in the chase on the rooftop when Sherlock alludes to the case of the Poison Dwarf.  SO in a roundabout way, some names and plots were kept from the original, though not in as great detail as before.  Perhaps a parallel here and with the original novel was Sherlock saying he will always be here for them, whereas in the book, the men who hid the body and stole the treasure swear an oath they should all be there for each other and themselves, the oath known as The Sign of Four.  John gets engaged to Mary at the end of the book.

Did feel like Sherlock's speech was a love letter to John to say sorry for the past, kind of, but to show how much he really means to him.  As opposed to the 'Dear John' letter he was actually given in The Reichenbach Fall, when Sherlock died and left John alone.  Basically giving him the cold shoulder! Ha. Mrs Hudson telling Sherlock, "marriage changes people" was right, except it wasn't John who was doing the changing, but our Sherlock!

We find out Mrs Hudson's first husband was executed and he headed a drug cartel before she found out about the cheating.  That their relationship was physical and hands on, which John doesn't want to hear anymore of.  Apologies if this review, like the ep jumps all over the place!

Perhaps we'll see a return to the norm for part 3: less comical more dark.

Sherlock 3.1 "The Empty Hearse" Review

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.

Doctor Who "The Time of the Doctor" Review Christmas Special 2013

                                           
Touche Matt!
SO here it was the final episode with Matt Smith playing the elusive Doctor Who and my final review with him in the title role.  Which brings a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye.  What can you write about an actor who came and made the part entirely his own and put so much into the role that you really laughed, cried, and so many other mixed emotions into the fore.  The Doctor said all things must come to an end but not in this way.  Some things you wish would go one forever and Matt in the role was one of them!  My wishful thinking.

This episode Matt's final swansong had to be different to the one with the Tenth Doctor and it was with so many references and answers to questions that were raised over the almost four years Matt played the Doctor.  The Silence, the Church of the Silence and how they fought with him, the message coming through the crack in the wall, were the Time Lords waiting for him to answer the question, "Doctor Who?"  The question that can never be answered.  He ended up back at Trenzalore, the future that he and Clara saw. River Song was a psychopath and he married her, he wouldn't be here without her he replies, again that was true continuing on from the last episode of the last series.

Then there were the emotions with Clara (Jenna Coleman) summing everything up for us and going through the pain and heartache of losing him, that face, that chin, that wig! Ha.  Well I had to get a funny line in there somewhere.  Just like the 'knock knock' joke he wanted from the cracker but never got.  Then there was the bell, the Bell of St John, or rather the bell of the church of the silence, whatever it was, it didn't signal the end of the Doctor but the start of his regeneration, of the introduction of the Twelfth Doctor, yet for some of us time will stand still at the Eleventh Doctor's final moment, cos right now, couldn't really care about the next one!  The Time of the Doctor will always be Eleven O'clock!

The Doctor has a Cyberman head who he calls Handles and this helps him with information he needs.  A message is being transmitted throughout the universe and all of his foes have gathered, the Daleks, the Cybermen, Sontaren and he must find out what he means.  He must also patch the phone into the main console, which he tells Handles' to remind him 'when.'  Clara calls and invites him to Christmas dinner with her family and he's her 'pretend' boyfriend.  When she arrives and finds him in the TARDIS, he's naked since he's going to the Papal Mainframe, well church.  She takes him home and he hasn't programmed them into the console so they can see him as naked.  The turkey's not cooked but he can cook it in the TARDIS.

He takes Clara to the church and she must get naked too by swallowing a pill.  Here he meets Tasha Lem (Orla Brady) the Mother Superior who has been protecting Trenzalore. Handles tells him Gallifrey has been found but he knows Gallifrey is gone.  Handles deciphers the message as being from Gallifrey.  The cracks in the wall were the Time lords who were hidden on the other side and trying to break through,  But it didn't explain why they seemed so sinister when we first met the crack in Amy's house and throughout the fifth series.  Clara got her first encounter with the weeping angels who were also buried in the snow, is this where they were all this time that we saw them after the episode in New York, or did they come here through the crack, where the Doctor dispelled them in season 5.  Also why the Silence were in pursuit of the Doctor back in series 6, to protect him from River.  As well as the line "Silence will fall when the question is asked."  Which is why Tasha silenced everyone.

                                                   

Thus the Doctor ended up on the planet where he was always destined to be, the planet where he meets his end.  The Time Lords must have the Doctor say his name so they can come through the crack, but it's a bit of a stalemate as Tasha warns him, if they do, a war will succeed and this world "will burn."   Kind of like damned if you do and damned if you don't.  Hence if the Time Lords break through when they find out his name the planet will die and if he doesn't tell them his name then he will die.  So it was left to Clara to come though with her own answer to this.  As we remember Clara saw the book and found out what his name was.

The Doctor sends Clara back to the TARDIS for a charge for one of his devices and the TARDIS takes her back home.  He's saving her and doesn't want her here.  He becomes "the sheriff" of Christmas and is here to protect it, fighting off Cybermen and Daleks.  Cue a wooden Cyberman which destroys itself cos the Soinc is useless on wood.  Three hundred years pass and he begins to grow old.  As he later tells Clara when she returns, he finally found a place where he could stay and never leave.  The Doctor will die here and he's resigned himself to that fact and that the Twelfth regeneration will be the last since the War Doctor was a regeneration even if he didn't call himself the Doctor.  But she tells him to fight it and change the future since he has his TARDIS now.

Some of the mid-point of the ep felt a little repetitive and tedious since the Doctor wasn't doing much.  Also have to mention the scene where he gets back to the Mainframe to find Tasha died several times over and is assimilating into a Dalek but he tells her to fight it.  The Doctor also has a penchant for pink marshmallows now and he has been getting them from his supplier, Tasha of course.  A nice moment, very touching when he sits and waits for the sunrise which only appears for a brief incidence.  A chance to reminisce and talk, grow even older for him and to showcase Handles's end, showing a similar fate awaiting the Doctor.  He reminds him to fix the phone and dies.

Clara makes him promise to let her look into his "sad eyes" that he will never leave her again.  A promise he can't really keep since he is leaving, okay not the character, but still...yet he lies to her as we all know in his own words, "I lie."  She ends up home again but the TARDIS finally gets back with Tasha at the helm and she wants her to be there for the Doctor, "you can't let him die alone."  They pull a cracker with some help from Clara for him and finds a poem which is apt for his transition and farewell.  "And now it's time for one last bow, like all your other selves. Eleven's hour is over now, the clock is striking Twelve's."  
Which the Doctor claimed he didn't know the meaning of!

He must go and do battle one last time as the Daleks request the Doctor and Clara tells the crack the Doctor's name is the Doctor and if they love him, they will help him.  The Doctor now looking as if he's in a homage to William Hartnell, it seems, rings the bell as he's given a burst of energy from the Time Lords, allowing him to destroy the Dalek ship this time round (whereas last time the regeneration from the Tenth to the eleventh had the Tenth destroying his TARDIS) and so the regeneration begins.  The enemies are   defeated and he returns to the TARDIS.  Clara goes in and finds his clothes on the floor and a bowl of fish fingers and custard.  HE appears but only for the briefest of moments.  He sees Amelia as a little girl and then Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) the elder as she too vanishes after saying her goodbye to her "raggedy man." One second he's walking and the next minute he's zapped into the Twelfth Doctor, who says he has kidneys and doesn't know how to fly the TARDIS.

Nice touch with The Eleventh removing his bow tie, cos "bow ties are cool" but bow ties are no more!  I'm not going to get into the arguments I've read on other sites about the end of the episode and who (no pun) did whatever better, sufficed to say everyone will have their own thoughts and theories on the ending and how Matt was written out as the Doctor, or go into comparisons with the Tenth Doctor's departure.  Cos it's done now and there's no way it can be changed.

Some comedy in this episode also included the Doctor going onto the Dalek ship with his cloak and a "Dalek part in my hand."  But it appears there was too much going on here and we never got to say a real farewell to Matt and his Doctor.  It could have been extended for over an hour cos it seemed like he was here and he was gone.  At least David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor got to say goodbye in a more casual and slow paced way, seeing all his friends.  Here Matt was gone in a second, what he didn't have any friends aside from Amy! Yes he sees Amy and Clara is forgotten, they (Matt and Jenna) had so much chemistry and she even blurts his feelings for him when they arrive at the town and the Truth Line, but no more is made of it!  Why? Yet he kisses Tasha in front of her and comes up with the comment, "now that is a real woman." Again leaving Clara with nothing to say, er, wouldn't he have said that about River too.

We also get to see that what the Doctor saw in season 6 ep The God Complex behind door number 11 was the crack, but it seemed to be tacked on here like there was no idea of what to do with the crack and any explanation for it.  Very amateurish!  To be honest and don't all shout at me at once, the Tenth and Eleventh were my Doctors and I can't say I'm enthused or looking forward to number 12.

Perhaps the town called Christmas could have been given a reprieve this year and though it was meant to be a Christmas special it could have foregone the festivities cos we knew what it really was and given us the proper goodbye to Matt we deserved!  Clara's parents were rather boring and standoffish, I mean yes they were old but was her mother really like that.  The woman her father met with the maple leaf was stuck on the face. She deserved a much better family than that.  Aside from her gran who recalled her husband and how she met and remembers him, something much more closer to home for Clara, "my Impossible girl."  That's all her Doctor could call her.

Episodes alluded to here were: The Wedding of River Song, The Big Bang, The Day of the Doctor, The Name of the Doctor, A Good Man Goes to War, where River was engineered to kill him as Tasha explains when she calls her a psychopath;  The God Complex.  The seal the Doctor places on Handles's head to decipher the message he stole from the Master in the story with the Fifth Doctor, The Five Doctors.

As I tweeted, "Matt Smith may be the Eleventh Doctor, but to me he will always be my number one!" Enough said!

Doctor: "I will not forget one line of this.  Not one day, I swear.  I will always remember when the Doctor was me!  And so will we, well I will at least, ha!

Atlantis 1.13 "Touched By The Gods" Part 2 Review

                                          
Jason (Jack Donnelly) is determined to rescue Ariadne (Aiysha Hart) as the three of them watch preparations being made for her to burn inside the bull.  How the person is placed inside the belly of the bull is explained and Hercules (Mark Addy) keeps making foody references to cooking and roasting when he's describing what happens.  Pythagoras (Robert Emms) adding the horns make a sound when the person screams inside which sounds very ominous, he thinks it's a veritable piece of genius, of course not choosing the best place or time to make this known. Hercules won't let him do this alone since has become fond of him but only marginally better than he likes Pythagoras whom he likes only marginally better than wine. Jason will succeed or die trying.  Which pretty much becomes their motto.

Jason visits the Oracle (Juliet Stevenson) who tells him he should head for the tin mines where he will be safe amongst the dead.  Wonder why he needed counselling from the Oracle at this point in time.

Ariadne is visited by Melas (Ken Bones) in her cell and can't come to terms with her sentence.  He goes to see Jason and the others as they prepare the rescue and will help them get into the grounds.  Hercules turns up to the spectacle and pretends to be drunk, spilling wine near the fire which happens not to be wine. Ariadne is dressed in white and Jason lights an arrow which he releases into the wood and starts a fire.  They head into the sewers as Melas shows them a way out into the woods and he's been injured in the fighting. Hercules pulls apart the bars since he won't able to fit through them with Pythagoras adding he would have gone through.  He holds down the fort as the others leave and Heptarian (Oliver Walker) finishes Melas off.

They are followed into he woods with Pasiphae (Sarah Parish) in pursuit and Jason and Hercules can't help but turn around to see Ariadne changing, er, there were tress there you know!  Pythagoras not being able to look either! They arrive at the mine and find they are surrounded by lepers.  A man greets them and Pythagoras now understands they were to be helped by the "living dead."  The soldiers follow them, seeing as Pasiphae has brought a legion with her and Jason talks with Aeson (John Hannah).  Hercules feeds and tasting their food calls them all good people now but before he didn't want anything to do with them.  Aeson knows Jason has feelings for Ariadne and he can't really express them, also noticing his necklace.

Heptarian attacks and the others escape into the woods.  More fighting as Jason is knocked out.  Ariadne is taken back and Pasiphae is about to kill Jason in a reverse of the last episode where Jason stood over her with his sword and couldn't go through with it.  Pasiphae was his wife and he tells her Jason is their son, well that was obvious.  One reason why he couldn't kill her.  Jason doesn't know and he promises he won't know.  Wonder if Heptarian heard them talking since he turns up but is finally taken care of by Jason.

Aeson knows she can't kill her son.  The priest sees Ariadne's servant putting the poison into Minos's (Alexander Siddig) drink and administers an antidote.  Jason still wants to rescue Ariadne and they return to Atlantis but find that Minos is well.  He confronts Pasiphae and she's shocked to see him well. Seems like she's an outcast now, would have thought Minos would have been much more angry with her. She asks the Oracle what will happen in her future and that she knew about Jason all along.  She warns her to be careful of her own future.  Minos tells Jason he can't be with Ariadne since she's a princess and he's so beneath her status.  Jason refuses money from him and Hercules would have preferred he took it.  Jason and Pythagoras talk of being fond of him too aside from his annoying habits and Hercules mentions being a "legend amongst my people."  As Pasiphae watches them.

But fear not as Atlantis will return next year!  Well we knew that weeks ago of course.  So in the final episode we had to meet Jason's father since he was mentioned from the outset and is long lost to Jason, as was Merlin's father to him.  Some were amazed and surprised at Pasiphae being Jason's mother but it was quite apparent if you think about it.  It was easier to kill Circe than Pasiphae and as his father tells her he's her flesh and blood and she won't kill him.  He also hid Jason somewhere she wouldn't find him after she carried on with Minos.  The question being where did Aeson go with Jason and was this with help from the Oracle as when we met Jason he was living in modern times and with a man he referred to as his uncle Maguire and Jason found his father's submarine with the name "The Oracle" on its side.

As for Jason being warned off Ariadne will this happen, oh let's hope so we can do with a break from her, she wasn't the best of heroines and rather feeble, granted she did live a sheltered life for a princess.  Pasiphae had to be caught out otherwise the three couldn't return to Atlantis.

Death Comes to Pemberley Part 3 Review

                                                         
The trial is set for Wickham (Matthew Goode) and Fitzwilliam (Tom Ward) can't see why Darcy (Matthew Rhys) had to hire Henry Alveston (James Norton) to defend him.  Lizzie (Anna Maxwell Martin) gets Louisa (Nichola Burley) to come clean about the baby and her meeting with Denny (Tom Canton) and the woman in the bonnet. She met with her to hand over little Georgie but had a change of mind thinking the woman was too overly excited to have the boy and Denny put his foot in it by handing over the thirty pounds.  William Bidwell (Lewis Rainer) tells Louisa to tell the truth and she confesses Fitzwilliam was also at the abbey. Lizzie tries to tell Darcy of this and he will not believe his cousin is such a man, capable of doing such things. Still thinking Georgiana (Eleanor Tomlinson) has found a good match in him.  Indeed Fitzwilliam proposes to Georgiana and she has to accept him.  Though he says his pride and brotherly feelings are turning to love for her.

Lady Catherine de Bourge (Penelope Keith) calls on Lizzie with the intention of staying here and sees that Darcy attending the trial is dangerous to his reputation and he shouldn't be there.  Lizzie has also called Lydia (Jenna Coleman) back to Pemberley so Jane can have some rest from her but also cos of the trial.  She arrives shouting and being loud as usual and how the women in the shop shunned her when they found out she was Lizzie's sister.

A good portrayal of trials back then and how justice had very little do with it.  Darcy tells Wickham he should place his desk by the window in his cell,  but Wickham is loathed of the view, the gallows being constructed outside.  He plans to leave for America when all this is over, trying to convince himself he won't be found guilty.  Hardcastle (Trevor Eve) talks with Mrs Piggott (Teresa Churcher) the inn keeper's wife who tells him she overheard the argument between Denny and Wickham and repeats what she said.  She's to testify at the trial in Derby and needs a new hat.  Alveston later asks why she didn't come forward at the inquest and she states that she was on the privy and people would have laughed at her, as they do now.  She doesn't think Denny would have been afraid of Wickham since he had his gun and they wouldn't have been violent in front of Lydia.

Alveston, trying to set a precedence here on how to cross examine witnesses and raise objections doesn't really succeed when he's shot down by the judge time and again.   Darcy testifies he heard Wickham say he was responsible for his friend's death but wasn't a confession.  Instead he was distraught and if he hadn't argued then his friend wouldn't have been here, but he still stands by Wickham's innocence.  Darcy spots the bonnet woman at the trail and knows her as Mrs Younge (Mariah Gale).  She was the one who informed him of where Lydia and Wickham were when he searched for them, for a high price.  She tells him she's Wickham's sister and they have strong feelings for one another.  That's whys he met with Fitzwilliam in the inn and was talking about her brother.  Darcy is angry that he could do such a thing and doesn't want him coming to Pemberley anymore and calls off the engagement.  He tells Georgiana she should marry for love and stand by her heart's desire and always trust the one she loves.  Finally taking a leaf out of his own book and admitting Lizzie was right.  Thus they spend a night of passion together.

Darcy feels Lizzie should tell Lydia the truth about Wickham as it will be easier to hear from her sister, but Lydia refuses to listen, leaving it to the gossips so she can treat them with contempt.  Hardcastle is called to testify but omits the part about Wickham's affair with Louisa and the baby.  Which comes as a shock to Darcy.  He later tells him he knew Wickham was to be hanged so he didn't want to ruin Darcy's reputation further.  No matter what people think Hardcastle's not his father.  SO the jury returns a verdict of guilty as to be expected and Mrs Younge couldn't take the news, running out and the sight of the gallows leading her to run in front of a horse and carriage.  It was death by carriage here.

Lydia is distraught but stands by him still knowing he didn't kill Denny.  Wickham telling her he's, "lead her a merry dance."  But they've had fun she tells him, cos that's what it's all about and no doubt Darcy will pay for their going to America.  He wants her to remember him by his brightest memory.  Wickham is to hang in two days.

Lizzie at church speaks with the Reverend who mentions William's illness and how it was serious after the murder and how he hasn't been to see him since, nobody has.  Giving Lizzie an idea of going about solving the killing.  Of course, William was the only one left who could have possibly done the deed whilst defending his sister's honour.  He saw Denny and confused him for Wickham.  He hit him with his stick and ran after him but he headed towards the gully and fell, hitting his head on great grandfather Darcy's headstone in the woods.  Showing he was still causing mischief from beyond.   Wickham arrived and shot at William so he ran away.  Lizzie gets him to sign a confession and his father wants forgiveness for not being here for him. William dies and Lizzie must rush the confession to the judge, with Bidwell taking her.

It was a sight seeing Wickham being lead to the gallows, he was to be hanged with the common riff-raff and it has to be said his reputation as a soldier that kept him in stead as he didn't falter at all, not until the last moment.  Lizzie gets to the judge and at the last moment the hanging is stopped, with Wickham falling to his knees.  He and Lydia head to America with Lydia showing off Wickham as they leave.

Alveston proposes to Georgiana and Lizzie tells Darcy she's expecting a baby but can't promise it will be a girl. He thinks Louisa should keep her baby and Pemberley should take care of its own.  So ends the saga and it's happy families for all.  Not much of a murder mystery since there weren't that many suspects left and William all but gave himself away when he said Louisa should tell Lizzie the truth about seeing Fitzwilliam at the abbey, trying to avert blame onto him.  He conveniently dies so doesn't have to face the hangman's noose.  Thought Matthew Goode would have made a good Sidney Carton in an adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities, you know stiff upper lip and all that.

All 'n' all though this could have been much better and seemed everything was solved and resolved within the last five minutes of the three episodes and still no ball! We was robbed!  It was fine as murder mysteries went, but wasn't that big a mystery and would have been more interesting had it not contained characters from one of our fave serials.  Fitzwilliam's secret wasn't that huge either since he was paying off Wickham and Louisa to protect Darcy.  Which is why Darcy was angry since he doesn't need protecting.  Fitzwilliam still maintaining even if Wickham is hanged he will still take Georgiana since no one else will.

Tom Ward was in the 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice as Captain Chamberlayne in one episode.

Death Comes to Pemberley Part 2 Review

                                               
The morning after the night before and we pick up with Lizzie (Anna Maxwell Martin) and Darcy (Matthew Rhys) still not quite on speaking terms, well okay, they are speaking but it's so very routine and dull, like they're just holding on for the sake of reputation.  Shown when Lizzie tries to hold his hand in church and he pushes it away. Oh he'd have died for that hand a few years ago!  The ball is cancelled and is announced to the staff by Bidwell since the Lord and Lady are not up to the task until later when they summon the staff and Darcy announces, "Death has come to Pemberley."  Like 'it' was some uninvited visitor and all cos Wickham (Matthew Goode) brought it upon them.  Yes Wickham you cad.  As Darcy puts it, he keeps changing his character as did this version, first he's a bounder, then Lydia's (Jenna Coleman) suitor before marring her for money and then war hero.  Oh and Lizzie thanks the staff for their hard work and guarantees them no one at Pemberley will go without and always have a place here, which Darcy doesn't really stand by.

As I said, trouble in paradise and Lizzie confides in Jane (Alexandra Moen) as she arrives, that she fears their marriage is over.  She has flashes to when he proposed to her and how he mentioned their family and how it was all "beneath him" and pained him to propose.  Also recalling the ball when the locals were talking about Lydia and Wickham and the shame of it all.  Jane tells her it's not the case and I have to say Jane's arrival was a breath of fresh air, but didn't last long, as she took Lydia and Mother Bennett (Rebecca Front) home with her. Since she's in the way and a constant reminder of Wickham.  Especially as she talks of Darcy and how Lizzie only really married him for his money which he overhears.  Well she was loud!

Hardcastle (Trevor Eve) interviews the witnesses and staff and the servant girls tell about Mrs Reilly's ghost and how she lost her bonnet, which Lizzie tells him she also saw and that the mysterious woman was quite alive.  Hardcastle thinking she was trying to appease his sensibilities on ghostly apparitions.  Fitzwilliam (Tom Ward) visits Wickham in prison and Wickham demands better food, it appears he doesn't really like him and has his own secrets still, as does everyone.  Lizzie confides in Darcy about Fitzwilliam burning the letter but Darcy can't think he'd step a foot wrong since he's known him since childhood as he later tells the same to Hardcastle.

Jane and Lizze along with Darcy at church where Darcy is disgusted he has to take Lydia inside who almost feigns a fainting spell.  They later pay a visit to the Bidwell's after church and Lizzie sees Louisa (Nichola Burley) nursing the baby which was meant to be her sister's.  Lizzie later asking Mrs Reynolds (Joanna Scanlan) if she's aware of anything troubling Louisa, as in man trouble.  Louisa cries in the wood and carves the initials 'FYD' onto a tree, which Hardcastle chances upon.  Of course red herrings since the initials could stand for Darcy, Denny or even Fitzwilliam.  Lizzie also finds Darcy at the grave of another Fitzwilliam Darcy and has to ask Georgiana (Eleanor Tomlinson) who it belongs to and why it's in the woods since Darcy only told her it's a "discredit."  He was their great grandfather, a gambler who almost set Pemberley to ruin and their father had to sell land to gain Pemberley back.  Something Darcy has kept from Lizzie so who knows what other secrets he has.

Fitzwilliam asks Darcy for permission to wed Georgiana and he agrees saying he also has Lizzie's blessing. She of course does not give it since Georgiana is in love With Henry Alverston (James Norton).  They then have an argument over love and how Fitzwilliam will provide security for her since they don't know the future of Pemberley.  She calls him a hypocrite which he has to utter for himself as he married for love.  Maybe he regrets that too.  Since it was going against every bone in his body and against all his sensibilities and pride and prejudices.

Louisa tells her of a Freddie D in the army and how he's disappeared.  He went into London to get money and he's vanished.  Of course that's cos Freddie doesn't exist which was obvious.  Fitzwilliam comes clean about his whereabouts on the night in question and did not want to ruin a lady's reputation, the lady being the 'loony' in the woods or so everyone perceived her but he doesn't reveal her name.  She was enquiring the whereabouts of her brother and needed his help.  Hardcastle has already checked this at the inn  and he also adds he gave Wickham the thirty pounds he asked for.  He couldn't refuse him since he helped bring him his godson after he was killed in the war and made sure his mother could bury him.  Darcy agrees he did a good thing.  So this money was it for Louisa?  Oops gave the game away here.  Since it wasn't difficult to work out Wickham is Freddie, who else would be such a womanizer and why Denny would be angry with him. Perhaps he was going to pay her off.  He clearly wasn't going to set up home with her, was he?

Darcy pays a visit to Wickham and he shows him his memoirs which Darcy thinks would serve him in good stead as an honest living.  He needs money when he gets out of here and so he can leave Pemberley, which Darcy promises him.  He once again pleads his innocence since he's guilty of many things but not murder.  Darcy believes this.  The murder weapon, a stone is found in the woods and the inquest is held.  Yeah inn full of bawdy and drunk men!  Hardcastle wants only the facts from the coachman and after various testimony.  The men retire to consider their verdict.  Alverston helps out even though he didn't do much and Georgiana rejected him.  She must do her duty as she tells Lizzie as the family have all done so in the past for the good of the estate.

Seems unbelievable, but even Fitwilliam has good things to say about Wickham at the inquest.  Lizzie arrives with lunch for Darcy and sees Louisa.  She runs out of there after seeing Freddie.  She points out Wickham as he is found guilty.  Still plenty of suspects since we know Fitzwilliam is still hiding something and the letter. Which must have more to do with the estate since it mentions Darcy in it.  Who is the woman in the woods looking for and how does she fit into all of this.  It would be a turn up for the books if Fitzwilliam turned out to be the killer but he was alibied.  Perhaps he knows who it really is.  Don't think Wickham is guilty since he just wouldn't kill Denny like that, as he states he was his only friend who accepted him for who he was until he found out about the baby.

Suppose we'll get a happy ending in the final part with Lizzie and Darcy playing happy families and all will be forgiven.  be good of it wasn't.  I mean he doesn't call her Lizzie and she calls him Darcy what happened to dear or some other pet name?  Funny moments were provided by Lydia of course and how she thinks Denny may have had a crush on her and wouldn't do anything about it which is why he avoided her.  More he like he knew what Wickham was really keeping from her.  His guilty secret.  Perhaps the killer will turn out to be some complete stranger.