The hiatus

Two years! We spent two years waiting for Sherlock to be back on television. How we survived? We read fan-fiction, pored over gifs and memes and once the shoot for the third season started we waited for #setlock pictures.

The trailers for Season Three left us in a tizzy. Sherlock tells John “just the two of us against the rest of the world” (sigh!). Once the dates were announced everything seemed right with the world again and we spent the rest of the time in anxious anticipation.

Then, The Empty Hearse aired and the fandom exploded.

The first episode

Enough good things can’t be said about the first episode which had to deal with not only how Sherlock Holmes (played by the exquisite Benedict Cumberbatch) survived the fall and the reunion between Sherlock and John Watson (Martin Freeman) but also introduced new and — even more importantly — potentially Johnlock-destroying characters like John’s girlfriend Mary Morstan (Amanda Abbington).

We had expected to be shocked, gutted and left sobbing. What we got instead was a light-hearted caper that was every Sherlockian’s dream come true. It was like Mark Gatiss, the writer of the episode, had gone to Tumblr and lifted ideas straight out of the fanfics, gifs and memes. How you ask? First there were the bizarre explanations of how Sherlock survived (we still don’t know how he did it, and don’t care, we have something else to obsess about now; more about that later), then there was Sherlolly (the Sherlock-Molly pairing), Sheriarty (Sherlock-Moriarty) and, of course, the reunion where Sherlock tells John “Not Dead”. Of course, we also got the sniffles. The Johnlock moments gave us so many #feels.

The plot really was secondary and substandard (given what we expect from Sherlock), but frankly the fandom didn’t give a damn.

The second episode

The Sign of Three threatened to rip the fandom into two — the ones who loved the new human side of Sherlock and the others who wanted their beloved, socially-awkward sociopath back solving crimes instead of planning weddings.

The Sign of Three was a gag-a-minute episode that had viewers rolling on the floor. We loved the jealous Sherlock as well as his emotional best man speech at John and Mary’s wedding. But a Sherlock who noticed girls, and participated in wedding planning? Not so sure. Also, the mystery and the danger that make Sherlock so addictive was missing for the first 20 minutes and what followed too was very far-fetched and dealt with willy-nilly.

The fandom adored Mary. Sherlock played a waltz for John and Mary’s first dance (aww) and then took his last vow of being there for all three, umm, two, umm both of them no matter what, leading to the revelation that left this Sherlockian seething. The Sign of Three (taken from The Sign of Four novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) referred to Mary’s pregnancy. What a disservice to the canon!

While many fans were embittered about the human Sherlock wondering if the finale would be spent with Sherlock on nappy duty, this fan was just gearing up for what was going to be the last time she saw Sherlock for Mofftiss (that is how we refer to the creators of the show Steven Moffat and Gatiss) only knows how long. And she was dreading that it would be as gut-wrenching as the first two were funny.

There were also those who cribbed about not bringing in Lars Mikkelsen, the big bad villain of Season Three, at this point. To them this fan wanted to say Moriarty only appreared in the last episode of the first season, and that too, for all of five minutes. So there!

The finale

Be careful what you wish for because when Moftiss are in charge it seems to come true, with interest.

His Last Vow left us speechless and slightly numb. And it had nothing to do with the big reveal at the end. The finale was an emotional roller coaster that had you laughing one minute and shoved a knife in your gut the next.

Mikkelsen is chillingly creepy as a Rupert Murdoch-like media baron Charles Augustus Magnussen, an expert blackmailer who knows the pressure points on everyone who is remotely important. He is very different from Moriarty, who was all passion. But like Moriarty, he represents another side of what Sherlock could have become.

But this episode was really all Benedict who shines through — whether it is while behaving like a petulant child, trying to survive being shot or cold-bloodedly murdering someone to keep his last vow to John. And no, it has nothing to do with the fact that we get to see him topless, for an entire scene! #blush

We start with a junkie Sherlock who is back on drugs, which he insists is part of the case which is Magnussen. John (and the fandom) is shocked to discover that Sherlock has a girlfriend (the same girl he noticed in The Sign of Three). Sherlock even proposes to her, but then he does an old Sherlock and reveals that it was all a ruse to get into Magnussen’s office — the girl was his PA. We all heaved a sigh of relief, not just because he was still single but also because the old Sherlock was back.

What followed had Sherlockians on the edge. Sherlock gets shot by Mary (we were so afraid that Moftiss would do that to us) and then we get a stunning tour through Sherlock’s ‘Mind Palace’, where we see Molly, Anderson, Mycroft, his old dog Red Beard and Moriarty, as he tries to stay alive. His heart does stop. But what brings him back is Moriarty taunting him that John is in danger. # aww

We find out that Mary was ex-CIA and a freelance assassin and Magnussen was blackmailing her. John and Mary’s make-up scene is heart-wrenching. John’s “your past problems is your business, your present problems are my privilege” dialogue to Mary is the new mantra for romance. Sherlock tackles Magnussen to clear Mary’s name but having been beaten at the game chooses to shoot him to fulfil his last vow to John.

Sherlock is sent on a fatal mission to Central Europe and says his final goodbyes to John and Mary on an airstrip. Sherlock tells John he has something to confess and says, “Sherlock is a girl’s name”, wanting John to name their child, a girl, after him. But for us it is the new “I love you”.

The fandom is weeping into their hankies when a familiar face crops up on telly asking “Miss me?” Our prayers have been answered. We die! Moriarty is back? How? How did he survive?

Hiatus, old friend

With Season Four and Five on, according to Moftiss, a horizon not too far (cross all fingers and toes). Ponder this in the Sherlock Holmes canon: Professor Moriarty had a brother also called James. Twins anyone? It is for us to wait, once again, to find out what the master game-players and first-rate tease Moftiss have up their sleeves.