The Cliffhangers at 221B, Baker Street! (Sherlock Season 3)

It was sometime in mid-2012 that my best friend and 2-year-hostel-roomie told me about a British TV series called ‘Sherlock’ and recommended watching it. It’s amazing, he said. Having never read a Sherlock Holmes novel and having just recently seen the 2009 film, I thought it’s worth a go. I downloaded the two season comprising of six episodes and was glued to them. Within two days, I had seen it all and read a lot more about the series online. I was SHER-LOCKED!

BBC's Sherlock- This has been my wallpaper and facebook cover pic for the last 10 days! #SherlockLives

The second season ended with what has been termed as the ‘biggest cliffhanger in the history of television.’ Yes, it was bigger than Chandler and Monica hooking up in London (F.R.I.E.N.D.S.) or Ted sitting outside Barney and (probably) Robin’s wedding (H.I.M.Y.M.) or if I could include films in the list, the recent 2^nd installment of The Hobbit series (I have already got the book for this though, surely not waiting till 17^th December to learn Smaug’s destiny!)! For a series I had no clue about a couple of days ago, I had now joined the millions of fans worldwide waiting for the third season of Sherlock. How the hell did he fake his own death?

A 1.5 year wait culminated with Sherlock Season 3 premiering on New Year’s Day in the U.K. I was too excited and tried keeping myself off the internet for some time, because I wanted to see this season on television, without getting the experience spoiled by the many ‘spoilers’ on the net. AXN India was going to start showing S3 from 3^rd January every Friday. But then on the evening of 2nd, my best friend called. And things weren’t the same again.

Huge Sherlock Season 3 SPOILERS AHEAD (probably). Tread with caution! You have been warned!

He said he had downloaded and seen the episode and he knew ‘how Sherlock faked his death’. It wasn’t many minutes later that I downloaded the episode and watched it with the utmost concentration possible. And I was left bewildered! So were all the fans I presume!

The Cliffhanger(s)

One explanation leads the episode. Turns out to be just a theory. Another explanation comes up. Turns out to be funny, unacceptable and well, again a theory. A third one comes up, and we see the man himself saying it, but yes, we are ‘dissapointed’. Surely, we expected something more brilliant. And then at the end of the episode John says, ‘You are never going to tell me how you did it, are you Sherlock?’ and he simply smiles, signaling that the truth is probably not completely out yet. And then in the entire season, his survival is never mentioned again!

What a brilliant strategy by the writers! They know that the entire fandom has been theorizing for the past two years and they play at that very thing in the entire first episode and then never mention it again. I seriously thought that the entire season would have the ‘13 different ways’ spread over and at the end we would actually know how he did it. But wait a minute, the writers have already seen the fans thinking like this and they have something deadlier pre-planned. It’s not just Sherlock who faked his death, apparently Moriarty survived (Ep 3) somehow even after pulling that trigger and letting the bullet into his head! And now, for the coming year or two, they are going to sit back and enjoy seeing the various new theories coming out of the fandom; this time- How did Moriarty survive?

That’s the big cliffhanger in those final moments of the final episode of the third season. Something that surely we never ever expected! I personally feel it would be great to have Andrew Scott back as Moriarty- he was brilliant! But is this why Sherlock hasn’t yet answered John’s question about the ‘how’ of his survival? Don’t miss this- we haven’t yet seen Sherlock’s reaction to Moriarty’s return!

The 3^rd episode of Season 3 has a 9.8 IMDB rating as I write this! Wow! Plus, news tells me that BBC One’s tweet on #MoriartyLives received the maximum retweets immediately at the end of the episode! Some more amazing Twitter stats here.

"Did you miss me?" #Sherlock #SherlockLives
— BBC One (@BBCOne) January 12, 2014

The Characters

For the first time it seemed there was more than solving crimes in this season. The majority of the episodes went into character development- not just Sherlock’s, but also John, Mary, Molly, Mrs.Hudson, Mycroft and Sherlock’s parents’! Yeah, this detective that we have been seeing as a heartless psychopath (Ok, high functioning sociopath!) has a heart too and is learning to understand human emotions!

When Sherlock returns (Ep 1), and we see the reactions of everyone who has known him, Mrs.Hudson’s reaction was the very best. I just loved the way she screamed! And then at the end of Ep 3, when Moriarty is on TV, she screams yet again, this time clearly dazed! Hahaha…!

Of course Mary’s plot twist was the least called for. I was shocked! This was one character we have just started liking and all of it turns out to be lies? Like seriously? Of course, as per John’s take on it, the past is past and does it actually affect us that much as long as it is not causing harm to our two beloved protagonists? The only thing is, with such surprises coming up, you never know what could be another lie and what could be another big twist in the coming seasons.

The Editing

The editing of some particular sequences in this season left me awed. Seriously! Take for instance the Sherlock-Mycroft phone conversation in ‘The Sign of Three’ (Ep 2) or the toast-glass falling sequence in the latter half of the episode. In ‘His Last Vow’ (Ep 3), no one can ever forget the bullet hitting Sherlock scene- a matter of a couple of seconds and Sherlock’s deductions of how to survive if hit with a bullet- brilliance! Of course, I can’t forget the wedding photographs in Ep 2- use of bullet time photography. I wish somebody would lend me 50 DSLRs, I so want to try this technique right now.

Wedding Photo's #timeslice #Sherlock pic.twitter.com/B7xqh3vkTV
— Steve Lawes (@SteveLawes) January 6, 2014

What do you mean you didn't press the shutter! #Sherlock pic.twitter.com/mxoVewW6kf
— Steve Lawes (@SteveLawes) January 6, 2014

Obviously over the past 10 days, I have read immensely about Sherlock Season 3- the fan theories, the filming, interviews, news and a lot more. And I say this with immense seriousness when I say, I want to work with this team behind-the-camera for at least one season of Sherlock. I have always wanted to get behind-the-camera in some big production and this is surely my dream project right now! Steven Moffat or Mark Gatiss, if you are listening, please give me a call!

And till the time I wait for the call, I guess we can all go and start the wait for Season 4. Another 2 years, probably?

“Did you miss me?”