It’s the day of Watson’s wedding, and Sherlock has
been entrusted with the responsibility of providing a Best Man’s speech to
remember. He certainly delivers, in a highly entertaining episode.
For quite some time the episode seemed to be
focussing entirely on comedy; the lengthy pre-credits sequence unfolded with
Lestrade growing increasingly frustrated at a highly elusive criminal gang,
before eventually pinning them down whilst they were in the middle of a bank
robbery which looked rather reminiscent of the bank robbery from The Dark Knight. However, just as
Lestrade was set to make the arrest he received an urgent text from Sherlock
which forced him away from the crime scene. Frantically Lestrade rushed to
Baker Street, calling for as much back-up as possible, before arriving to find
Sherlock struggling with his Best Man’s speech because he couldn’t think of any
funny stories about John. I think that everyone saw the punch-line coming a
mile off, but it was so well delivered that the long build up was worth it.
The case to be solved within this episode did not
materialise until at least half an hour in, which initially had me thinking
that the entire episode would be dedicated to the comedic possibilities of
Sherlock’s speech. In a way that was actually the case, but there were plenty
of deviations which built up intrigue very effectively, and all tied-in
together, ultimately leading to the threat that someone was going to be
murdered during the wedding reception.
‘The Bloody Guardsman’ and ‘The Mayfly Man’ were
both skilfully integrated into Sherlock’s speech, and when they were revealed
to be unsolved cases all of the pieces started to come together. Then the full
attention of the audience was required as Sherlock began solving the case,
whilst continuing with his speech – which involved a lot of jumping back and
forth from Sherlock’s mind to the reception room. The metaphysical trial which
Sherlock was conducting in his mind saw many characters swapping in and out,
including Mycroft as the presiding Judge and even a cameo from Irene Adler –
The Woman.
There was a lot within this episode that seemed to
be hinting at the series as a whole potentially drawing towards an ending,
while simultaneously playing against that notion by having Watson and Mary both
make reassuring statements that “nothing’s going to change” and “it will be
just like it always has been”. Who are we to believe? During Sherlock’s speech
a montage of scenes played out of cases the two friends have embarked on
together, which seemed a lot like a ‘greatest hits’ collection (of sorts),
perhaps indicating that this will be the final series. There were some
excellent throwaway moments here, which included one of the most inventive uses
of an “elephant in the room”.
Additional heavy implications that this may be the
end of the line for the Sherlock/Watson partnership came from a bizarre confessional
speech from Mrs Hudson about how marriage changes people, and Holmes’ confessional
statement that he is “the most unpleasant, rude, ignorant and all-round
obnoxious arsehole that anyone could possibly have the misfortune to meet”.
Such statements don’t emerge casually!
Then there was of course the final deduction that
Mary is pregnant and that consequently there will be a new ‘baby’ for the
newlyweds to look after. The episode then concluded with Sherlock slipping away
into the night.
Both episodes in the third series have placed a
large focus on comedy, so perhaps next week’s finale will be a more serious
affair. Will they be able to out-do the finale from series 2? We’ll find out
next week…
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