Did you miss me?
The ninth episode of Sherlock begins the same as the first — with John Watson having war flashbacks. Even this relatively standard fare for characters in our post 9/11 world has been subverted in that John doesn’t fear the war, he misses it. Biking to work, beating up drug addicts, having literal dreams of violence – despite his genuine love for Mary, he’s chafing under the domestic life. It’s hardly surprising then that he leaps to the rescue of a neighbor’s drug addict son and encounters a familiar face.
After John storms the drug den and angrily chastises Sherlock for relapsing, Sherlock protests that his actual drug use was all a front to take down the show’s newest and most powerful villain (aside from Moriarty, of course): Charles Augustus Magnussen. Magnussen, like Moriarty before him, is incredibly intelligent and influential, sitting behind a web of power intrigues and manipulation while smirking in his superiority. However, Magnussen’s power draws from a far more creepy and parasitic nature. He’s a virus, invasive both physically and in his categorical knowledge of everyone’s darkest secrets. Licking people, dripping sweat, urinating in the fireplace, flicking John because he “just loves doing” it — Magnussen revels in insinuating himself in everything, claiming it, spreading so far down into the world’s society that he believes himself completely invulnerable. No one in their right mind would dare harm him.
Except for Sherlock Holmes.
Perhaps the most notable shift in season three of Sherlock is the focus on characterization at the expense of the intricate cases. Sherlock and John have always been interesting characters, having been freed from strict interpretations of classical literary figures and allowed to grow into actual people. Their friendship has been a highlight of the show since its inception as well but never put to the forefront as it is here.
John has changed Sherlock in profound ways — compare this Sherlock arguing for Mary’s worth solely to make John happy to the old Sherlock casually dismissing the boring, regular people he encountered (or everyone, really) in the pilot episode. It’s heartwarming, of course, to see the cold, analytical lead character grow into an empathetic hero while retaining all the caustic elements we like about him, but making Sherlock too friendly could risk turning him into a different character altogether. Thankfully “His Last Vow” does a mostly fantastic job at balancing the new Sherlock with the old.
Sherlock’s relationship with Janine shows that while he may care for John and by extension Mary, he still finds it difficult to keep from using people when it’s convenient – a decidedly sociopathic behavior coming from the self-proclaimed, but obviously not, sociopath. Even John is surprised when Sherlock casually reveals his relationship with Janine was just a sham, a front for an ill-advised intrusion into Magnussen’s office.
It’s here that the show throws the biggest wrench into the season so far. Sherlock lying about his relationship? Pretty obvious. A new powerful villain? Of course the show needs one. But here, in Magnussen’s office, we see something truly surprising.
Mary, armed in tactical gear, pointing a silenced pistol in the face of a pleading Charles August Magnussen. Mary, swiveling around and shooting Sherlock.
The following sequence is a highlight in an episode full of them. Sherlock, in what amounts to a few split seconds, is confronted in his mind palace by his own thoughts in the forms of his friends. With the show’s trademark innovative cinematography, Sherlock’s mind versions of Molly and Mycroft force him to maximize his chance of survival. We learn that “Redbeard” refers to the Holmes’s pet dog and remains a calming memory for Sherlock, and eventually, with the aid of a brilliantly crazed mind-Moriarty chanting “John Watson is definitely in danger,” he forces himself awake.
The immediate threat to his life over, Sherlock has time to focus on the question at hand. Who is Mary really? A liar. Here the disjointed elements of the previous two episodes begin to finally make sense. Mary is far more than just an attempt to disrupt the Sherlock–John dynamic. She has a dark past (and possibly a dark future) that’s inexorably tied with Magnussen’s. The major villain of the season and John’s new wife are both involved in something dangerous, casting all of Mary’s previous interactions in a new light.
The television plot twist of a past secret is not new, but rarely are these reveals as devastating as Mary’s. John has struggled for two years with the supposed death of his best friend only to pull through with Mary’s love. Making Mary a liar who’s manipulating John would be such an emotionally horrifying twist, driving another knife into John just after he got over Sherlock’s fake death. What more emotional turmoil can John go through in this show? While it seems, from this episode at least, that Mary does love John despite her lies, it remains to be seen if she’s wholly on the side of the angels.
Previous predictions had declared Mary likely to die in this episode, but having John grieve yet again for the loss of a loved one wouldn’t probe new territory for him as a character. Mary as a villain offers a new world of opportunity for the show. What are her ties to Magnussen? What has she done? What does she plan to do? The continuing mysteries behind Mary will, and should, make up a large portion of the upcoming season.
Relying on Mary’s skills, Sherlock leads her to one of his hiding places and confronts her. She tells him she truly does care about John and would do anything to prevent him from learning the truth about her. Of course, Sherlock, looking especially grim, turns on the lights and reveals that the “dummy” is none other than John, confronted with his lying wife, the one stable center of his life. Mary Morstan, the alias. Mary Morstan, a woman whose only known characteristic is “liar.” Back at Baker Street, Martin Freeman gives one of his post powerful scenes as Watson as he cries, “But she wasn’t supposed to be like that!” It’s a powerful scene that shows both the strength of his acting ability and John’s seething rage. Though Sherlock and Mary do have a point: John would have tired of the domestic life and its lack of danger.
After another time jump, the Holmes family (portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch’s actual parents) hosts an awkward Christmas party for the Holmes brothers, the estranged Mr. and Mrs. Watson, and Billy. John casts Mary’s past into the fire and rekindles their relationship; Mycroft is sassy; and Sherlock drugs everyone except John and Billy in order to sell out his brother to defeat Magnussen. Typical Sherlock move. The duo travel to Appledore and confront Magnussen, touting their plan to finally arrest the master blackmailer once the government finds out about his treasure trove of information.
Rarely has Sherlock had a plan that didn’t pan out, at least after some on-the-fly adjustments, but the look on his face when Magnussen reveals his trump card – that the vaults are nothing more than an intricate mind palace – makes a strong case for his surprise and sickening feeling of dread. He’s most likely planned for this – hence the gun he asked John to bring – but he was really hoping it wasn’t true. Still, as his original plan collapses and Magnussen gloats, Sherlock forces himself to ultimately follow through with his last vow to John and Mary, sacrificing his own freedom to keep John (and really Mary as well) safe from such a horrible, repulsive person.
The episode winds down with Sherlock apparently being sent away on a suicide mission, having accomplished his goal of saving John and Mary. His farewell to John is appropriately restrained, with both leaving so much unsaid. Sherlock can’t truly express how much John means to him and can only crack a joke – “Sherlock is a girl’s name” – before leaving him for good. This seems a logical ending to the season – Sherlock will undoubtedly survive and return to a changed John and a different London. The plane flies away; John grieves with Mar;, and Mycroft continues his life.
Until the TVs around England show the maniac face of James Moriarty, his mouth crudely animated and a high-pitched voice repeating, “Did you miss me?” Just like that, after four minutes in exile, Sherlock is back. Moriarty is back.
Or is he?
Having both Sherlock and Moriarty fake their own deaths is an interesting subversion of Doyle’s source material, keeping in line with the ways the show has toyed with it so far as well as magnifying Moriarty’s already enormous villainous stature. But what does this mean for the show, if characters can die left and right only to actually survive? Can we trust anyone’s death anymore? Isn’t this essentially the same cliffhanger as the past season but reversed? Internet theories about Moriarty’s true fate have proposed that Richard Brook was not actually a fake identity but a twin; while there’s evidence supporting that, it seems like a cheap ploy. Doyle’s stories briefly mention another Moriarty – could season four be setting us up for the reveal of both another Sherlock and another Moriarty? Would we even want that? Could we accept that?
Regardless of what remains for Sherlock, John, and Moriarty, “His Last Vow” stands among the best of the series’ nine episodes with a propulsive story, plot twists, intriguing camerawork, emotional punches to the gut, and of course, Sherlock shooting a guy in the head.
Did you miss me?
Extra Thoughts:
· John’s exchange with Sherlock of “-You’re not undercover!” “–Well I’m not now!” is probably one of the funniest moments of the show. You can even see Martin Freeman crack up laughing in the back of the shot.
· Mycroft mentions “the other one” near the end of the episode in response to an accusation of sibling love. Is there another Holmes?
· Could Mary still be, or become, a villain? A popular Internet theory proposes that she was working for Moriarty and had to keep a close eye on John to make sure Sherlock wasn’t faking his death and trying to contact him. She watched John, decided that Sherlock really was dead, fell in love with him and hoped to live the rest of her life in quiet marital bliss. Until Magnussen revealed he knew Moriarty hired her. That was the information she tried to hide, the information Sherlock killed Magnussen to prevent from coming to light. If this is true, what does Moriarty’s return mean for Mary?
· I wish they could have done more with Janine. She’s interesting, and her invented tabloids about Sherlock – “He made me wear the hat” – were hilarious.
· Janine is Irish. Moriarty is Irish. Moriarty may have a sibling. Could she be behind Moriarty’s apparent return?
· Mycroft and Sherlock, two of the most powerful and intelligent men in England, are terrified of letting their parents know they smoke.
· I really like how Sherlock’s parents are Benedict Cumberbatch’s actual parents. You can see physical resemblances as well as some mannerisms.
· “I’ve chosen these words with care. The problems of your past are your business. The problems of your future…are my privilege.” Cue my tears.
· Season four around Christmas? I’m hopeful.
