Sherlock Season 4 Recap: The Lying Detective

Sherlock’s second episode faces the fallout of last week’s tragic demise, and introduces a new big bad for Holmes and Watson to face down: Culverton Smith.

Moffat has always been really obsessed with memory. His best horror characters over on Doctor Who, for instance, are based on the inability to look at the creature in question, the other is based on the inability to remember it once you stop looking. So perhaps it is not surprising that when given the chance to create one of the most “frightening characters” in the history of the miniseries, he went right for the memory jugular.

"Sherlock: “Taking your own life. Interesting expression. Taking it from who. Once it’s over it’s not you who will miss it. Your own death is something that happens to everybody else. Your life is not your own, keep your hands off it.”"

But first, let’s talk Mary. Watson still sees her. Everywhere.  The opening scene where he sees her in their home, and in his therapy session is one of the most emotionally touching Sherlock scene in perhaps years. Which was then interrupted by…Sherlock. Well, actually Mrs. Hudson, who is concerned about the fact that he’s been reciting Shakespearean speeches from The Hollow Crown. (I know, irony.) Also his sudden obsession with Culverton Smith “the man on the telly.” To that end, she begs Watson to look after him. She’s even brought him in the boot of the car.

Image via BBC

The choice to introduce drugs to Sherlock’s repertoire last Christmas raised eyebrows. But if the plan was already set to do this adventure, then it was really Moffat planting seeds to be used down the line. In the original “Dying Detective”, Sherlock pretended he had a few days to live because Culverton Smith had supposedly poisoned him and he need the confession. In this version, Smith is a combination of Donald Trump, Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and every other evil CEO you can come up up with rolled into one. And Sherlock’s behavior comes from going on a severe drug binge in the wake of Mary’s passing.

"Sherlock: “You’re suicidal, you’re allowed chips.”"

In several aspects, this story adhered to the original one more than we’re used to. In fact, the major scene where Sherlock and Culverton go mano-a-mano as Smith confesses to his crimes (here being a serial killer instead of just killing off his son) felt as if some of the lines were pulled from the original story. And the piece about power being a shield was more topically resonant than Moffat probably ever meant it to, considering that this episode was written and filmed prior to either the Brexit vote and government shake-up that followed, or the US election two months ago. After all, Trump continues doing genuinely horrific things, right in public, right on Twitter, and people stop looking at it, because they don’t want to see it.

Image via BBC

But while the retelling of the Dying Detective was the plot driver, what made this possibly one of the best episodes of Sherlock so far was the rest of the story that it hung from. I had been grimly anticipating Mary’s death used for “emotional drama” between Watson and Sherlock. (The worst of that was Watson suddenly beating the hell out of him in the morgue.) But instead, most of the drama came from Watson dealing with himself.

Dealing with not being the person Mary thought he was, though he wanted to be. Dealing with the fact that he never confessed to cheating (turns out it was just texting). The best scenes of the episode–all of them–belongs to Freeman addressing Mary’s ghost. (Abbington is a great foil for him, I’m sorry they’re over.) And perhaps a chink in Sherlock’s armor as well, as he admits he texts back “The Woman” (Irene Adler), and that sometimes texting means something.

"Watson: “So you dreamed up a magic woman who told you things.”"

Speaking of the cheating by text…. Let’s talk about that twist with Sherrinford Holmes, shall we? This reveal has been hinted at since the end of Season 3, where Mycroft gave the Moffat version of Yoda’s “there is another” line. And of course, Moffat and co have used their own reputation for sexism (and the audience’s assumptions) against them, by planting her throughout the season. I personally thought the hippy dippy woman Watson texted with was just styled in a bad wig from the BBC prop basement.

I didn’t know that was supposed to be deliberate. And I assumed that there was going to be some Smith related twist when the daughter he walked around all night with “had never met him” and was, in fact, a completely different person. But I’ll admit, I did not see the two of them being the same person, along with also being Watson’s shrink, or that this was the person behind the Moriarty “Miss Me?” Well played.

Next: Sherlock Season 4 Recap: The Six Thatchers

With the end of the episode, Watson has had his cry out, he and Sherlock are back together (and eating cake with Molly.) Sherlock even has admitted that he’s been speaking with Mary’s ghost too, and Mrs. Hudson has allowed John to drive her car. (Also, not only is Sherlock texting with irene, Mycroft is getting asked out to drinks by Lady Smallwood. Life does go on.) And now there’s a gun in the hand of another mad woman who doesn’t really think she’ll be sensible, and this time it’s been fired at Watson, with no Mary to take the bullet. Can this really end well for anyone? We’ll have to find out next week.