Ever since show creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss announced that series four of Sherlock would be “darker” and there would be “loss and grief”, we were waiting for someone to die. We all had our guesses about who it would be and we were... right. Mary Morstan or Mary Watson played by a stupendously talented Amanda Abbington, is dead. And even though we were expecting it, we hate the fact she is gone. More about why later. 

The Sherlocking

The first episode of series four titled The Six Thatchers, which in all likelihood will be the last season of the modern retelling of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, begins in true Sherlockian style. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock is on a high as brother Mycroft, played by Gatiss, tries to clear his name of Charles Magnussen’s murder. Sherlock seems to be even worse now that he is not being sent away to exile. He texts and tweets with abandon (#221bringiton is brilliant), even at the baptism of wee Rosie Watson, is rude to everyone and in a case-solving flurry.

But the show is like three shows being fitted into one. If the first third of the show is a comedy with all the usual Sherlock gags — Sherlock solving cases at light speed, Sherlock taunting Lestrade, Sherlock talking down to John, Sherlock and Mycroft sparring verbally, and a little of the new parents gag — the second third is a globe-trotting adventure with Mary. The third section is a relationship drama with love, adultery and grief.

The cases

Instead of one case, there is a multiplicity of them but none seem to be of any consequence. Apart from the multiple cases that Sherlock solves during the first part (seen only as a series of texts, blog entries and conversations), there is one of a week-dead corpse in a car. It seemed promising till we discovered that he died of a random seizure, and it ultimately had nothing to do with the main story. Then there was the case of the vandalised Margaret Thatcher busts. While in the original story the title is drawn from, The Adventure of the Six Napoleons, the busts were central to the story, here they are more of a MacGuffin.

The villain of the piece is Vivian Norbury. We were introduced to her right at the start as a dotty old secretary, and you wouldn’t pay her attention unless you are a Sherlock fan and you know  nobody is there without a purpose, and she is the one holding the gun. But she wasn’t the villain we’ve been waiting for since Sherlock Series Three (yes we miss Him!) and the episode fails to build the suspense of The Great Game or The Reichenbach Falls.

The wows

Other than the first bit, very little about the episode is like Sherlock. Because Sherlock by the end of the episode is not the cocky, sure d**k of a person, but torn by guilt and a sense of inadequacy. In this the show was very close to the original case where Watson describes Holmes as showing more human emotions than ever before. 

It is a testament to his love for John and Mary that he goes to John’s therapist after Mary dies. As he tells her, this is not really his style. He even babysits Rosie, who will probably be one of the few people who didn’t listen to Sherlock, even after being lectured, and threw a toy right at his face. 

The ‘what the hells’

While we did expect Mary to die, we weren’t prepared for it to happen in the very first episode. And she was done away with just to give more meat to the bromance (which may be off the cards for the time being) between Sherlock and John. Why we resent it? Because Mary was one of the few independent women we’ve seen in Sherlock who was almost as smart as Sherlock. No wonder they killed her. As Sherlock tells John in the episode, she is better at this than he is. So how would the show justify Sherlock using John as his partner instead of Mary?

The show takes us into Mary aka Rosamund’s life both as a mother (she gets babysitters to go solve cases with Sherlock, atta girl!) in the present and as an assassin in the past and while we get even more invested in her, kills her off. And she dies saving Sherlock, for no real reason! 

Meanwhile, John’s being huffy about more secrets in Mary’s life, and he cheats on her with a random woman he meets on the bus. No one does that to Mary Morstan! It would serve John right if she turns out to be Moriarty’s pawn!
So now Sherlock is guilty for not keeping his vow to protect the Watson family, though the number of time he mentioned this gave us a clue about what was coming, and because Mary died for him. John is angry with Sherlock because of the same things and because he could not absolve himself of the adultery. And no, no matter how fond we are of Johnlock, we are not happy to see Mary go.

And how long do we wait till Moriarty becomes the main case?

PS: Did we hear Mycroft refer to Sherrinford (that’s the other Holmes brother) towards the end? And will Moffat and Gatiss ever do as the world expects and give us Tom Hiddleston in that role?

Sherlockians began 2017 with Episode 1 of Season 4 aired on BBC One on Sunday night. Catch it here on AXN on January 7, 8pm