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No thanks, I'm good.Is this the end of Sherlock?
Season 4 of Sherlock was a roller coaster.
It’s been 3 days since I watched the finale and I’m still trying to come to my senses.
What the hell happened? And what was that ending all about?
That’s what I’m here to talk about.
For those of you who haven’t seen the finale yet, there be spoilers ahead.
Season three of Sherlock planted a number of seeds for the fourth season.
The incredibly obvious Moriarty “returning”, memories of Redbeard and the almost throwaway mentioning of another Holmes sibling.
Let’s first deal with Moriarty.
A lot of fans expected the villains return. They were adamant that his apparent death on that rooftop at the end of season two wasn’t the last we’d seen of him.
And they were right. In a way.
I thought the way the writers crafted Moriarty into the last episode of the season was magnificent. We knew we were going to see him in some capacity in season four, but we had no idea how and what state he’d be in.
So when he helicoptered into Sherringham with the sound of Queen “I want to break free” blaring in the background at a critical point in the finale, fans everywhere geeked out.
We thought our prayers had been answered; we thought we were getting Moriarty back to play.
But, it was a flashback. It was a flashback integral to the story and expertly explained Moriarty’s return and his involvement in the season four story line.
It was done so incredibly well, however, I don’t think many fans would complain about the nature of his return; even those who were adamant that he wasn’t dead.
Another thing I thought the season did well was to weave in Sherlock’s sister, Eurus.
You just knew there was something up with that woman on the bus making a good man like Watson fall for her. You just knew there was something up with that new psychiatrist that Watson was seeing.
But they didn’t make it obvious. They didn’t shove it in your face like so many other shows would.
It was beautifully crafted, set up and executed.
I thought making the villain of the piece so much more than his greatest ever threat, Moriarty, was genius – Eurus level genius. The diffusion of the villain was even better.
There was a little outsmarting, but Sherlock mostly relied on his feelings to overcome a villain who didn’t really understand them. Very good, very different.
No matter how much I enjoyed the episode, there were a couple of things that didn’t sit right with me.
The first is a minor thing. In canon and, indeed, in the early days of this show Mycroft is said to have intelligence that exceeds Sherlock’s. Wilst it’s obvious that Sherlock does outshine his brother by allowing his feelings to mix with his intelligence, Mycroft does some pretty stupid things.
Letting Moriarty come see his sister? I mean, I know they need information but was it worth the risk given he knows the capabilities of both of these characters? Of course not.
Also, if Mycroft “is the British Government” he’s that clever, why isn’t he working this stuff out himself?
In that regard, why the hell would Moriarty come to a secret government installation for a meeting? A criminal known by the British government and known by Mycroft personally? An installation that could lock you up and throw away the key without batting an eyelid or having to answer to anyone about it.
Also, why didn’t Mycroft just lock Moriarty up right after the meeting? I mean, it would’ve given Eurus what she wanted to continue to help them and it would have neutralised the threat afterwards?
The final thing that didn’t work for me was the drone with the grenade on it. I suppose it was a necessary scene, used a plot device to both convince Mycroft that Eurus was behind all the chaos AND to try to hide the fact that Mycroft survived the explosion unhurt.
Which is another thing. The three of them survived the explosion without so much a scratch.
Really?
Two of them jumped out of second floor windows. Just let that sink a little.
I think all of these issues I’ve mention are picky and you only really think about them days after watching the episode; during the ride, you don’t have much chance to think.
That’s why I’m so sad this could be the end of Sherlock.
There have been many different posts regarding whether season 4 was the end of Sherlock. Arguments for and mostly against, but the ending seemed pretty definitive to me.
They defeated the underlying foe that had been teased from the start (“the East Wind is coming…”), Sherlock had found his place in the world and seemed contented with what he does, John Watson found peace despite his tragedy and the Holmes family came together to mend old wounds.
For me, it was pretty conclusive, but there’s still hope.
Speaking with Radio Times, the Sherlock creative duo Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat discuss the future of the show.
Moffat said:
“If this was the last time – we’re not planning it, but it might be, it’s possible – we could end it there. We couldn’t have ended it on any of the previous series because they always ended up with whopping great cliffhangers.”
So the creators don’t see this as the end of Sherlock. In fact, another idea they had toyed with is the complete opposite of that notion.
Moffat said that he and Gatiss toyed with the idea of flashing text “The Beginning” at the end of the show, but thought it would be “too cheesy”.
The Telegraph had a little more information from Moffat.
“I don’t know how long we can keep it going. I’m personally willing but I’m hardly the main draw. I would be moderately surprised if this was the last time we ever made this show. But it absolutely could be.”
He added:
“It’s unlikely that we’ve completely finished it. There would be nothing strange in stopping for a while. It could go on forever, coming back now and again.”
Benedict Cumberbatch had a similar response in an interview in GQ. He started with a touch of doom and gloom.
“It might be the end of an era. It feels like the end of an era, to be honest”
But in a slightly more upbeat comment, he added:
“We never say never on the show. I’d love to revisit it… but in the immediate future we all have things that we want to crack on with and we’ve made something very complete as it is.”
He later clarified this comment on a BBC2 Radio show:
“This came from an arts desk or any kind of news outlet going, ‘oh we really need a story’, so they sort of shipped out this quote which said that I said, ‘this is the last one’, which is not what I said…We won’t be doing one immediately after this one airs. That’s all I meant.”
From all of this, I’ve come to the conclusion that nobody is really all that sure what the hell is going on with the show. There could be more seasons. There could be a variety of one off specials in the pipeline. Or this could be the end of Sherlock for good.
Whatever the hell they decide, I think we can all agree that it’s been one hell of a ride so far.
Let me know via Twitter or Facebook
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