We don’t know about you, but we can’t wait for the new Sherlock season!
The British show based on the books by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle really does prove the whole quality over quantity mantra. Sherlock follows the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a consulting detective (a job created by Sherlock himself) played by Benedict Cumberbatch and John Watson (Martin Freeman), a discharged military doctor who served the British Army in Afghanistan in modern-day England.
The show till now has had 3 seasons and a Christmas special episode. It started airing in 2010, which means in 7 years we’ve got 10 episodes. You can’t question a Sherlock fan’s patience!
We are (finally) getting the new season, and the first episode will air on 1st January 2017, and since it has been a year since the last episode aired, we’ve created the ultimate guide to brush up your Sherlock knowledge.
And if you’re looking for the perfect Sherlock inspired merchandise, then look no further. Check them all out here.
THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
SEASON 1
Episode 1 : Study in Pink
‘The name’s Sherlock Holmes and the address is 221B Baker Street.”
Pilot ‘Study in Pink’ kickstarted Sherlock’s first season in 2010. This is the episode where we are introduced to the world’s only ‘Consulting Detective’ Sherlock Holmes; his partner in crime and doctor John Watson; Lestrade, the Detective Inspector seeking Sherlock for help; Mrs. Hudson, the landlord and ‘not the housekeeper!’; Molly Hooper, who is obviously not head over heels in love with the eccentric Sherlock Holmes; and Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s concerned brother and ‘arch enemy’.
‘Study in Pink’ is about 4 ‘suicides’ of seemingly unrelated people, only linked by their choice of poison. What follows is Sherlock and Watson’s unusual camaraderie in deducing and catching the murderer. What is interesting is that neither Sherlock nor Watson is motivated to catch the killer out of their need to help people or some sort of goodness of their heart. Sherlock, while a genius, is a self-proclaimed sociopath thrilled by the idea of murders and death, claiming the four killings were his idea of ‘Christmas’, and like Mycroft rightly deduces, John Watson isn’t horrified by the memories of the war, but in fact, misses them. By the end of the episode, John has killed a man and Sherlock finds he has an unlikely admirer. If you haven’t yet started watching Sherlock and are unsure about what all the fuss is about, trust us, this is one show YOU CANNOT MISS!
Fun Fact : Sherlock’s website, The Science of Deduction in the show actually exists, which you can read here.
Episode 2 : The Blind Banker
“No, I’m Sherlock Holmes and I always work alone because no one else can compete with my massive intellect!”
3 murders, an ancient cipher and a Chinese underworld smuggling ring.
The episode follows John and Sherlock as they investigate a series of ciphers representing numbers in an ancient Chinese numeral system which have been left by a Chinese smuggling ring Black Lotus – who will go to any lengths, including murder, to retrieve an item that one of the smugglers stole. Sherlock’s investigation leads the Black Lotus to believe that he has retrieved the stolen artifact and mistaking John to be Sherlock, kidnaps him and his date. The last few seconds of the episode show the Black Lotus general talking to someone called M, and then is shot to death.
Episode 3 : The Great Game
“I will burn you. I will burn the heart out of you.”
Sherlock is BORED! BORED! BORED!
A series of puzzles, carefully laid out for the consulting detective to solve. A pair of shoes, an abandoned car, a celebrity death, and a dead security guard. Solving each of them gets Sherlock a little bit closer to meeting his admirer – the consulting criminal, James Moriarty.
We finally meet the man behind the name. Played by Andrew Scott, Moriarty tells Sherlock and John to stay out of his way. Just when they think Moriarty has left, he is back, ready to kill them both. And that, marks the end of the first ever season of Sherlock, leaving us on a cliffhanger.
“I’d be lost without my blogger”
Did you know John Watson’s blog where he documents all the adventures actually exists?
Click here for Sherlock inspired merchandise.
SEASON 2
Episode 1 : A Scandal in Belgravia
“We are in Buckingham Palace, at the very heart of the British Nation. Sherlock Holmes, put your trousers on!”
The episode begins with the resolution of the swimming pool scene that ended the previous episode ‘The Great Game’. The new episode was shot 18 months after the earlier part of the scene (as the writers didn’t know what they wanted to do yet.)
A case of blackmail threatens to topple the monarchy itself, but soon Sherlock and John discover there is even more to it than that. They find themselves battling international terrorism, rogue CIA agents, and a secret conspiracy involving the British government.
This case, however, will cast a longer shadow on their lives than they could ever imagine, as the great detective begins a long duel of wits with a new antagonist, one as ruthless, original and brilliant as himself: Irene Adler.
Irene Adler is possibly the only woman who has ever enchanted Sherlock, and if there’s one character we really hope to see again in the new season, it’s her!
Fun fact: Benedict’s favourite scene is the ultra slow motion scene where he opens Irene’s safe and they take down the evil CIA agents. “I’ll be proud to show that to my grandchildren.”
Episode 2 : The Hounds of Baskerville
“Get out. I need to go to my mind palace.”
Based on one of the more famous works by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle, it was more scary and haunting in nature than the other episodes. The creators wanted to keep that element in the episode, but used more modern-day versions of scary for the effect – like genetic modification and conspiracy theories. John takes on the case of Henry Knight, who 20 years earlier witnessed the death of his father by a huge hound. The investigation leads them to Baskerville, a military research base. It is finally disclosed that the hounds didn’t actually exist, but were a hallucination induced by a mind altering drug.
Episode 3 : The Reichenbach Fall
“In a world of locked rooms, the man with the key is king. And, honey, you should see me in a crown.”
Moriarty’s big plan is set in motion. Through a series of events, he plants a seed of doubt about Sherlock in everyone’s minds- that Sherlock is, in fact, no genius and faked all the crimes. He even made everyone believe James Moriarty was a product of Sherlock’s creation. He goes as far as to create a fake identity Richard Brookes (English for Reichenbach, the case that made Sherlock famous) claiming he was only an actor hired by Sherlock Holmes. Moriarty blackmails Sherlock that unless he kills himself, his friends will die. Moriarty shoots himself, only before announcing that the only thing that will stop the snipers from shooting Watson, Lestrade and Mrs Hudson is if Sherlock jumps off the roof. Sherlock calls Watson, tells him that he had been a fraud all along and jumps to his death.
There is a mini-episode prequel to Season 3 that BBC uploaded that you can watch below!
SEASON 3
Episode 1 : The Empty Hearse
“I’m gonna kill you!”
“Kill me? That’s so 2 years ago.”
There’s gonna be a terror strike in London, and who better to ‘resurrect’ to get the job done than Sherlock Holmes?
Sherlock’s inability to comprehend that the fact he has pretended to be dead for 2 years and let Watson believe it might not go down well with him makes for a hilarious return.
London is in danger and Watson refuses to forgive Sherlock. Sherlock finds a partner in Molly Hooper, although only temporarily. In a bizarre turn of events, John gets kidnapped, and it is when Sherlock saves him that the two finally reconcile.
All’s well that ends well, and London is saved.
P.S. We are also introduced to Sherlock and Mycroft’s parents in this episode, who were actually played by Benedict’s real parents. There is a conspiracy theory that Sherlock’s mother may be Moriarty.
Episode 2 : The Sign of Three
OF COURSE, there would be a murderer at a wedding where Sherlock Holmes is the best man!?
John Watson has the most interesting wedding, with Sherlock, John and Mary catching an ‘Invisibile killer’, solving the mystery of the ghost dating women, finding out Mary is pregnant and the most heartwarming Best Man speech by Sherlock.
Episode 3 : His Last Vow
“Oh, do your research. I’m not a hero, I’m a high-functioning sociopath. Merry Christmas!”
In the last episode of Season 3, we are introduced to yet another villain, Charles Augustus Magnussen. Magnussen is, as he likes to call himself, only a businessman, but he has information on almost all prominent people that he uses to get his way. Sherlock is approached by a client to retrieve some letters Magnussen has against her, but finds another reason why he needs to destroy him. Magnussen has information on Mary, information that could get her killed or sent to prison. We find that Mary isn’t who she says she is, and Sherlock must find a way to defeat Magnussen to keep John, Mary and their little daughter on the way safe. His methods to defeat Magnussen force Mycroft to send him away, but Sherlock’s 2-minute exile is interrupted by the return of old enemy who everyone believed to be dead.
Fun Fact : Amanda Abbington , who plays John Watson’s wife Mary Morstan was actually Martin Freeman’s wife in real life as well, but they recently split up.
Christmas Special – The Abominable Bride
“You may, however, be rest assured there are no ghosts in this world. Save those we make for ourselves.”
Sometimes we’re convinced BBC and the creators of Sherlock are secretly looking at us fans and laughing. As opposed to American sitcoms, BBC’s Sherlock, instead of 18+ episodes a season, gave a 3. THREE!
The Abominable Bride was a huge sigh of relief because we finally had a new episode, and what’s really cool is that it was based in the original timeline of the books. The Abominable Bride takes place after the video of Jim Moriarty saying ‘Did you miss me?’ resurfaces all over England, and just like that, we are taken to the 19th Century where all our present day favourite characters exist. John and Sherlock meet in a similar fashion and start working on the case of the dead bride killer. The story revolves around trying to figure out just how a dead person can commit a series of murders, and more so come back from the dead at all. We later find that the whole case had been taking place in Sherlock’s mind palace, as a way to figure out how, like the bride, Moriarty came back from the dead. While the episode did not directly contribute to the storyline, it was (like all episodes) brilliantly written and a thrilling watch.
There are various fan theories about how Moriarty could be alive, including that maybe Moriarty isn’t a person, but a network, an organisation who only used Richard Brooke as a face temporarily. It could also be possible that we have in fact never encountered the real Jim Moriarty at all.
WE ALSO NEED TO TALK ABOUT REDBEARD.
Till now, Redbeard has been mentioned five times in the series. Mycroft mentions him in his and Sherlock’s phone conversation during John and Mary’s wedding and Magnussen mentions him as a ‘pressure point’ or information he can use to blackmail Sherlock. The third time Redbeard is mentioned is by Sherlock in his mind palace, and in that image, we find out Redbeard is Sherlock’s dog who was put down. The fourth and the fifth time was in The Abominable Bride, where you can hear the sound of an approaching dog, and Sherlock murmurs ‘Redbeard?’ and Redbeard was also written in Mycroft’s diary. Now the question is, exactly why is this dog so important?
Internet Sherlock theorists out there believe, and some making rather compelling points, that Redbeard could also be the third Holmes brother. While Redbeard has been shown to be a dog, both the times were in Sherlock’s mind palace, which means their reliability could be questionable. All we can say for sure is that there is more to Redbeard than the show has let on till now.
Hopefully, all our questions will be answered when the new season airs, until then you can check out the trailer for season 4 :