Julia: So first of all, I feel like we should apologize to our readers for putting this up so late. It’s about 90% my fault because the only way I got through this episode was watching it in ten to fifteen minute increments spread out over two days because it was just too much for me to take all at once. My sister kept walking in on me curled in the fetal position around my pillow or violently pausing to shout, “WHY ARE YOU RUINING MY LIFE?!” at the computer screen and pointed out that this is why I never normally get into dramas. When I tried to explain to her that Sherlock is usually my happy place filled with vaguely gay, super-endearing British dudes who cavort around London solving crimes and being adorable to jaunty music, she was like, “You know you sound like you’re in an abusive relationship with this show, right?” And I was like “No! But I deserve to be hurt! And when it’s good, it’s so good between us! It’s my fault! Maybe if I just love the show more it will stop hurting me so much!” And then she shook her head and left the room.
No one in my family understands me. But you, Katie. You understand me.
Katie: When I re-watched the finale, I just kept thinking, “This is … the best show on television. Hands down.” It’s so beautifully written, it’s so clever and it’s so moving.
Julia: I’m always reluctant to give any show the “best on television” moniker, especially when it’s not in a genre-specific discussion. That’s like choosing the best food — there’s no best food. There’s the best cake or best sandwich, but there isn’t, like, one food that’s better than everything. But I will definitely agree that Sherlock is the best drama on television. And you can tell this because I actually watch without getting bored, rolling my eyes, and making fun of all the melodramatic music cues.
Katie: Do you realize there have only been 9 hours total of this show? In a normal American drama, that would be about 12 episodes. And this brilliant show has created more depth in their characters and especially in their relationships than most shows that last for years. The more brilliant part of the show is that they let each episode be so long to let the story unfold at the right speed. It’s clear that it’s another reason the characters have developed so well so quickly.
Julia: I definitely noticed that in the first season finale too — there had only been 180 minutes of air-time and already I was so emotionally invested in these characters in a way that defied all logic. But that attachment was nothing compared to how they hooked me this season.
Katie: Probably the best thing you can say about the show is that they’ve been brave enough to let Sherlock grow as a person. It’s much easier to keep him the cold robotic genius, but that’s not good enough for this show. This show makes Sherlock’s journey into one of real emotional discovery, an epic that separates the functioning sociopath from the heartless psychopath. The line is drawn and Sherlock will always be on the side of good, even if he finds most good people to be incredibly stupid.
Julia: I think what’s most brilliant to me about this show is how clearly it’s been thought out. You think you’re tuning in week-to-week for a one-off arc, when in reality it’s just like real life — arcs don’t die. Ideas and emotional growth touched on in earlier episodes don’t die. If you re-watch A Scandal in Belgravia now, it’s all of a sudden blindingly obvious that the entire thing was a prelude to what would happen. It’s essentially the same story but in that one, Sherlock takes the role of Moriarty and Irene takes the role Sherlock will play. Sherlock beats her because he’s able to remain cool and detached, but what makes him not Moriarty is you see him begin to question in earnest if he really is as removed as he points out. And as Irene points out in that episode and Hounds made abundantly obvious, he’s not. John is his Achilles Heel the same way he was Irene’s. And yes, in both Irene’s case and his case, his sentimentality leads to pain and loss, it’s also what saves them. Because Sherlock cares for Irene, he saves her at the end of Belgravia, and because John and Molly care for Sherlock, he’s able to fake his death successfully and save the people he cares about.
Speaking of which, is there a Molly Hooper for President of Everything campaign? Because if so, I’d like to sign onto it. What they did with her was so good and in line with the entire emotional arc of this episode, which was that sentimentality and caring for someone might make you vulnerable and at times seem naive or silly, but it also what saves you and makes you good and human. Like Sherlock, Molly doesn’t become less because she loves Sherlock or she let herself believe Jim cared for her when he was just using her, it’s what ultimately makes her valuable. Moriarty dismisses people like her because he’ll never get that, but the character growth Sherlock went through this season makes it so that when Molly comes to him he’s smart enough now to realize how much she does matter.
Katie: I am so impressed by how they were able to make Molly into something great. In my past life as an awkward teenager, I was a lot like Molly in that people often underestimated my intelligence and my self-awareness. She has such a quiet strength in this episode and Sherlock’s acknowledgement of that strength was wonderful.
Julia: The scene where Molly says she sees how sad Sherlock looks when he thinks John isn’t walking broke me on so many levels. That was one of those scenes that ended up taking me about two hours to get through because I kept having to pause so I could calm myself, because I don’t think it’s, like, healthy for someone’s psyche to have as many emotions. It’s just that whenever they explore how terribly in love with each other Sherlock and John are (and after this episode if anyone is really going to argue with me that they are in anything but the truest of love, I will punch you in the face), I just am incapable of handling it.
Clacked by Julia Hass 
on Jan 19, 2012 @ 16:29 EST5EDT
Yeah it’s okay.
You know, I’ve been checking daily hoping for this. :)
For what is worth, I agree: not only tv writing, but dramatic writing doesn’t get much better than this, it’s a joy for the mind (“brainy is the new sexy”, indeed) and yet with so much heart at its core.
I knew what had to happen, but in the original story Sherlock “dies” a hero’s death, acknowledged by the world. Here? Here he dies in disgrace, outed as a fake, apparently taking his own life, and only John (who had to watch him die, and I still can’t wrap my mind around that – but of course he had to watch, he wouldn’t have believed it otherwise) still keeps faith in him.
It makes for an incredibly powerful story arc, because now we see the first series in 2010 as the Introduction, this second chapter as the Fall (no pun intended), and we know that the third series will be the (hopefully glorious) Restoration; It’s a brave take of the canon, and I admire Moffat and Gatiss as much as I despise them for ripping my heart out, thank you very much.
One thing I’d like to share: most people seem to believe that now John is a broken man, back to square one where he was before he met Sherlock. But watching the scene at the cemetery I just don’t see it. He’s heartbroken, but he marched out of there like a man with a purpose. This is life after Sherlock, and I think John is going to make the best he can with what he has left, he loved Sherlock too much (be it platonically or romantically) and is too much a man of honour not to do that.
So life goes on, and there is no doubt in my mind that next time we’ll see John, he’ll be married (though I suppose he could be a widower, like in the canon, but personally I go with married): first, because Moffat hinted at it, secondly and more important simply because it would lead to an interesting story arc, if you think about it: would John’s relationship survive Sherlock’s return? Mmmh…
Oh, I already miss this show so much!
Did either of you ever read the Sherlock Holmes stories? Just wondering. And yes, best show on TV.
I love your review because it really says all I was thinking. When the credits rolled I was too stunned to move for a few seconds – and then through all the wonder and awe and thinking it was fantastic I started getting that awful “and now it’s gone”. Well, at least there will be another series – already breathless with imagining how the Sherlock/John reunion will be written and acted – but will we have to wait another 18 months? Thank goodness the DVDs come out here (UK) next week.
And I can reread your reviews when I need to top up on the love! Ta!
Julia and Katie, now that you’ve both had time to recover from all the feelings – any theories about how Sherlock survived the fall? I’ve seen a lot of ideas floating around, but Moffat has suggested that we’re missing something big:
From Digital Spy:
“I’ve been online and looked at all the theories,” Moffat told the Radio Times. “And there’s one clue that everyone’s missed.” He added: “It’s something that Sherlock did that was very out of character, but which nobody has picked up on.”
This is going to drive me crazy.
On an unrelated note, here’s a personal connection to Sherlock I discovered today: the exterior of 221B Baker Street is actually 185 N. Gower Street, mere steps from my mom’s old flat (111 N. Gower Street). I told her, and she was just like, “Yeah I stopped by there last year.” Gah, if only she watched this show she would understand why I was going on about Sherlock Holmes being her neighbor.
@Ruby
It’s the bicyclist. The bicyclist hit John at the exact right moment so Sherlock could do *something* to make himself seem dead. Also, almost immediately after he fell, there were people swooping in and picking him up and carting him away. Who *were* those people? There was no ambulance. Nothing. Just people putting Sherlock onto a trolley and taking him back into the very building he jumped off of.
I’m rather astonished more people didn’t notice those two things.
That may be true, but if sherlock was going to pull off a fake death why would he call on so many people to make it happen? The character of Sherlock is very enclosed, with few people he actually relies on, I just feel that he wouldn’t put that much faith into people he hardly knew to keep the truth behind his death a secret.
Which is what makes it so plausible that it’s the clue people have missed. Sherlock doesn’t like people; he doesn’t get on with them. So it would be “very out of character” for Sherlock to enlist the help of so many people.
Good point, maybe the way they will introduce a new series is by having one of those people come up and confront watson about what really happened to sherlock