I am Sherlocked: The Hounds of Baskerville

 

Well well well. I am back. I have survived the… experience of A scandal in Belgravia. And now, I present another classic Holmes story, adapted into a Sherlock episode.

This one begins with a small child running across a moor, and then screaming at a spaniel. Then we cut to adult version of said screaming little, boy who, for some reason, has wondered out onto the moor on his own. At night. Despite clearly being traumatised.

Well hey.

This is, of course, the Hounds of Baskerville.

Anyway, the episode starts properly, with Sherlock arriving home to 221b Baker Street, carrying a… lance? Harpoon? Not sure of the technical word here.

Oh, and he’s covered in blood.

He complains that no cab would take him. Then he cleans up, and starts grilling John for information about cases. When John can’t find anything of interest in the paper, Sherlock starts demanding that John “get him some”. Some what?

Well, whatever it is, Sherlock has, apparently, gone “cold turkey”. Clearly a drugs reference then. The question is, which drug?

We get a couple of minutes of Sherlock tearing the flat apart desperately looking for a hit. Of…. Cigarettes, apparently.

OK, so let’s break down the first…. Three minutes of this episode.

So, we have a flashback type sequence of a mystery man, a moor, a hollow and a traumatised child. This obviously refers to the actual story, Baskerville etc. What it doesn’t actually do is explain in actually explain… anything? It’s basically just some pretty shots, with no plot relevant information, not even a proper teaser supplied.

Then we get to Sherlock. Again, we get an incredibly meme-able picture of him covered in blood and holding a harpoon. No explanation given, just a joke about public transport.

And no, I really don’t think that you would be allowed onto the tube holding a dangerous weapon and covered in blood. Not without the police being called by… everyone that saw you.

And then we get this scene. A scene that we are clearly meant to think is about Sherlock withdrawing from drugs of some kind. But no, haha, turns out its only nicotine.

Weird thing is that… Sherlock doesn’t have an addiction to cigarettes? He is literally shown to smoke one, once so far in this series. Now, he probably is addicted to nicotine (remember the three patch problem?), but why would he go cold turkey when he was already mostly using nicotine patches?

In short, this is a scene that is set up purely to make us think that Sherlock is using drugs, when he isn’t, to give Sherlock an excuse to be tetchy, and to allow Sherlock to carry around a harpoon. But if you’re going to do a scene where someone is withdrawing from an addictive substance… maybe actually build up the fact that they have that addiction?

One final point before we move on into minute… oh goodness me, minute four of this episode, going “cold turkey” from cigarette smoking is such a strange choice, given that Sherlock has previously complained about how difficult it is to keep up a smoking habit, and how he primarily uses nicotine patches anyway. If he was trying to give up nicotine patches, the logical way to do it is to gradually reduce his need for them.

Anyway. Turns out that Sherlock is actually looking for something “7% stronger than tea”. Interesting reference to a 7% morphine solution that the classic Holmes favoured, especially as… as far as I know that terminology is now no longer in use?

Well anyway, it’s quite a nice little call back. Would be nicer if the scene that it was set in actually made any sense.

To get his hit, Sherlock stops looking for drugs, and starts deducing things about Mrs Hudson. He reckons that she is interested in dating the next door neighbour/shop owner, but he has a secret wife in Doncaster.

Obviously, this upsets Mrs H. But Sherlock doesn’t care, because he is BORED!!!

John tells him to go and apologise. Sherlock refuses, instead taking the opportunity to tell John that he envies him, because his mind is so “placid, straightforward, barely used”. Sherlock, meanwhile, is fully utilising his brain, and he needs a case.

Except… he had one this morning? He solved one this morning?

Seriously, this episode is really turning EVERYTHING into a drugs reference. Sherlock is now addicted to cases, and he is starting to need his “hit” more often.

 One case in a day just isn’t enough, apparently.

This is such a strange idea to me. Yes, Holmes is dependent on his cases. Yes, he resorts to other stimulants when he can’t find one suitably interesting. But the level of dependence that this scene suggests is just…. Ridiculous. The idea that Sherlock literally can’t go a single afternoon without having a case, that there is nothing else to interest him apart from cases…

The problem is, this Sherlock is never shown to have hobbies. Yes, he plays violin from time to time (but only when the show needs an emotional moment). But despite the weird things littered around, he is seldom actually shown doing anything outside cases. The original Holmes spends his spare time developing new chemical tests (like the Sherlock Holmes blood test). He reads through reports of historical cases, he replies to correspondence, he goes to watch concerts.

In short, when he has just solved a case, he goes out and improves his mind, he expands his knowledge. This Sherlock never does.

In fact, this raises a really interesting issue around Sherlock’s mind palace. Later, we see him using his mind palace like a computer database, full of facts that he has stored away, a resource that he can search through. But in this show, we never actually see him populating his mind palace with that data. He knows some truly obscure things that frankly, he shouldn’t have access to, but we never find out how he learned about them in the first place. To get that kind of data, and to keep it up to date he should be spending hours every day trawling through government files, searching the internet, reading scientific articles.

But this Sherlock never does this. So when he has an afternoon without a case….

Anyway, John suggests Sherlock check his blog to see if there have been any requests for help.

There has been! A little girl has lost her rabbit, Bluebell. A glowing rabbit, in fact.

Based on every previous episode, this seemingly minor, unimportant case will DEFINITELY be incredibly relevant to the main plot of this episode.

But apparently, Sherlock is desperate enough to look into it.

Until the doorbell rings.

This client, very kindly, has brought a video with him. A video that introduces us to Baskerville, a Porton Down style research centre. There are local myths about genetically modified animals, designed to be weaponised, being developed in Baskerville.

And the locals are worried that one has escaped.

We see Mr Henry Knight telling the story of his father being attacked and killed by a large dog like creature in front of him. Then we see that the real Henry Knight is the client.

Henry, apparently, used to go out for a walk with his Dad every night, on the more. One night, they went to Dewer’s hollow, and Henry saw his father bring killed by a huge, black beast with red eyes. Henry ran, and his father’s body was never found.

Henry thinks that the dog was GM, made by Baskerville and set on his father because his Dad was looking into the experiments there.

Why has Henry come today? Sherlock “noticed”. He does his lil’ deduction thing. For some reason, it’s getting gradually less impressive.

Wait…

Something is wrong here. As he goes through his list, Sherlock mentions that it is “just after 9:15”.

Is this… is this a different day to the whole “harpooning a pig” thing? Because just a minute ago, Sherlock mentioned that he hadn’t had a case since the morning. I was presuming that this was the afternoon…

Just….what???

Is this a continuity error? Did I miss a bit where they all went to sleep and then woke up the next day?

I mean… TV shows can have continuity errors. It’s a thing that happens. But in a show where the audience is expected to pay attention to little details, where the purpose of the thing is meant to be that the audience has a chance to solve the case alongside Sherlock, even a little error matters.

Also, 99% of the things that Sherlock deduces in this exchange are completely useless. He could have just said “you got the first train because it’s only 9:15 and you’re here already” would have been completely adequate.

Anyway, Henry name-drops his therapist. She encouraged him to go back to Dartmoor to confront his demons. Later we see that she has moved there too! Or maybe she always lived there, and Henry actively decided to pick a therapist that lived in his home town for… some reason?

Anyway… Henry went back to Dewer’s hollow. And he saw the footprints there.

Sherlock quickly decides that Henry’s therapist is right, this is all childhood trauma. To be honest, I completely agree with him. Travelling for several hours to speak to a consulting detective because you saw some animal footprints at the spot where your father was killed… isn’t really rational behaviour.

But apparently the use of a specific word is enough to change Sherlock’s mind.

“They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!”

Sherlock decides the use of the word “Hound” merits his involvement. Despite the fact that “hound” is not only a fairly commonly used word for “dog” in general, but also could apply to the “hounds” as in “hunting hounds”, or “greyhound” or any other kind of hound.

In fact, in the original story the word “hound” is used because the legend being acted out is about “hounds from hell” coming to drag the descendants of an evil, ancient Baskerville down to hell. Thing is, the English language hasn’t changed so much that the word “hound” would not be used to apply to a possibly supernatural, definitely evil dog.

But apparently it’s enough to interest Sherlock that he and John will go to Dartmoor.

In the original, Watson goes on his own. It gives the character a chance to show how he has developed, how he has learned from Sherlock, and developed his own investigative skills. In this version, John has never been shown to have developed any investigative skills, and apparently has no life or meaning away from Sherlock, so they have to go together.

Well, it’s all OK, because we get treated to some lovely shots of Dartmoor. Sort of lovely. If you can look over the camera glare, the washed-out colour pallet… I mean, maybe the dull grey sky is symbolic, or something, but they really aren’t showing Dartmoor at its best here.

Anyway, Sherlock and John stop along the way to pose dramatically on a rock formation. John uses  a map to identify the big, ominous grey building in the distance as Baskerville (Um…. Did you really need a map for that?).

They also discover that Baskerville is protected by a minefield.

Because, as we know, in England all government buildings are surrounded by minefields. Because that is a safe and proportionate way of dealing with the problem of local hikers straying too close to your tall fence.

I mean, I know that this is basically meant to present a similar threat to the mire in the original story, but if you actually think about the implications of the British government actively creating a minefield, with very little in the way of fencing around it… It’s disturbing.

Anyway, John and Sherlock book into an idyllic looking pub, with a “beware the hound” tour taking place outside.

Meanwhile we cut to Henry having his therapy. At home. Because all therapists travel to their clients homes. That’s totally safe and normal, right?

Anyway, Henry, after decades, has started to see a couple of words associated with his vision, “Liberty” and “In”.

Anyway, back to John and Sherlock. “Sorry we couldn’t get a double room for you boys” the innkeeper says, handing over the keys. Because in day to day life, everyone assumes that two people travelling together MUST be in a sexual relationship, right?

Or is this just more queerbaiting in action?

This time, John can’t even be bothered to correct the innkeeper.

But hey, look, he has spotted what in the investigating profession we call: a CLUE.

A receipt, put onto a spike at the front desk of this vegetarian establishment, from a meat supplier.

Now, I have never run a small country inn. But I don’t think I would put receipts from business expenses on a spike at the front desk.  I would assume that there would be a significant chance of these getting lost. If I was secretly keeping a giant dog to use to lure tourists, I definitely would want to hide the fact that I was buying food for said dog, rather than stick that information out there for anyone to see.

Also… are they just feeding this dog red meat? Is that really the easiest way to feed it? I mean… there are supermarkets. Or pet stores. In Dartmoor. They could buy it… dog food. Which could be picked up in person without arousing suspicion, and stored out of sight?

Maybe?

Anyway, these guys are bad at being criminals.

Anyway, they also drop more info on the mine field. It’s apparently a testing site for weapons. Protected with a single, easily crossed, low fence.

So, if it’s a weapons testing site, it shouldn’t be labelled or marked as a “minefield”. And whatever it is, if there are explosives there, you would expect it to be… difficult to get into? Yet as we see later it’s… not.

Anyway, it seems that a whole business has sprung up around the disappearance of Henry Knight’s dad twenty years ago. Tourists come to track the “monster hound”. This is kind of disgusting, as far as tourism goes. “Let’s try to find the giant dog that left a young boy an orphan, and has required him to have decades of therapy”.

Nice.

Ah, and of course, there is also an escaped prisoner around.

Naturally.

Right, so Sherlock tricks the tour guide into showing his “proof” that the hound is real. Proof, in this case, means a plaster cast of a pawprint, and a picture of a black dog. Oh, and a load of hearsay about “terrible things” in labs at Baskerville.

Actually, the giant paw-print cast isn’t ever explained as such… yes, we later find out that there is a dangerous dog running around, but not a supernaturally large one, one large enough to leave that print. So… I think we’re just meant to assume that it’s faked?

Right. So Sherlock and John use Mycroft’s ID to get into Baskerville. This will give them…. 20 minutes before they are found out. I don’t know what they were expecting to do then. It seems like the kind of thing that would definitely get you arrested, using a fake ID to get into a top-secret military base.

And what exactly are they expecting to find out in 20 minutes? That’s not enough time for a tour of anything. But obviously, as it will turn out, they run into exactly the things they needed to in those 20 minutes.

Also, I would like to comment about the cliché white lab thing. It’s like the cliché white operating theatre thing. Labs, in my experience anyway, don’t have to have white floors, ceilings and walls. They also don’t have wide open spaces with no equipment in them.

Even the animal cages are completely white. White floors, white bars… I expect that when an animal poos or sheds, it immediately gets euthanized as punishment for messing up the aesthetic.

Finally, we get to the important character that we are meant to meet on this journey. She is examining a monkey on a lead.

I cannot imagine any situation where you would need to put a monkey on a lead for research purposes. But anyway.

Dr Stapleton. She “has a lot of fingers in a lot of pies”. She works with genes, mostly.

Most scientists… find a field and stick to it. Mostly because every field is roughly the size of a small country. I don’t think there are many scientists that would be specialised enough to be conducting genetic experiments on animals, but also “have fingers in other pies”.

Anyway, we finally find out why Bluebell is relevant. The rabbit who escaped. The rabbit who glowed in the dark.

Fun fact, rabbits that glow in the dark are absolutely, 100% real. I believe the gene is taken from a jellyfish.

Anyway, Mycroft texts Sherlock to ask him why he has broken into a top secret military base using his ID, and then the Major meets Sherlock while he is trying to get out.

Anyway, despite Mycroft knowing that Sherlock is the one who has broken in, he still rings through to alert the Major of the subterfuge. Like all loving big brothers would.

Anyway, one of the scientists steps up to protect John and Sherlock, pretending that he does know “Mycroft” Holmes. The Major, despite having seen that the ID is faked, just… accepts this personal account as true.

Anyway, this mysterious scientist guesses that Sherlock is there to investigate Henry Knight’s case. Apparently, Dr Frankland was a friend of Henry’s Dad.

Well, that isn’t suspicious.

Nor is the fact that he refuses to say anything nice about Dr Stapleton.

But anyway, John and Sherlock somehow leave without being arrested, and discuss the fact that Kirsty, who’s bunny had glowed in the dark, is Dr Stapleton’s daughter. Apparently, this is proof that Dr Stapleton is preforming secret experiments.

Now, as it turns out, this is not true. She is preforming the experiments that she is paid to perform. What probably is true is that there was a spare bunny hopping around at work, she took it home for her daughter to keep as a pet, then realised that she might be found out if her daughter starts going on about her magic bunny. So she takes Bluebell away, either killing it or returning it to the lab.

What it might make more sense to say is that Dr Stapleton has already been involved in one GM animal getting of the facility, and therefore may be involved with other mysterious animal appearances.

But they don’t say that.

John and Sherlock visit Henry, who tells them about the new words he keeps seeing, “Liberty” and “in”. Meanwhile, Henry makes them both coffee, and Sherlock reveals his master plan.

“Go onto the moor at night and see if anything attacks Henry”

This is totally sane and reasonable. Take a man with a huge amount of childhood trauma back to the site of the trauma, but do it in the dark.

Oh, and there’s an escaped prisoner on the loose.

What fun.

Well, John get separated from the other two, and notices a flashing light. Apparently it’s sending a message in morse code. We later find out this is related to dogging. Although this is a humorous pun, it also makes little to no sense. Why would John assume that it was Morse code in the first place, if it was irregular? Why would people who were dogging not ensure that they do not draw attention to themselves by turning a set of car lights on and off?

And now I am thinking FAR too much about the logistics of flashing a light in a very regular and steady way, while doing it entirely by accident.

Thanks Sherlock. I really wanted that.

Anyway, Sherlock has just left John behind, and is approaching Dewer’s hollow with Henry. They decide to discuss Dr Frankland. He was friends with Henry’s dad, as we know, but they agreed to never discuss Baskerville.

Now, why would the editors choose to leave in this seemingly innocent conversation???

I wonder?????????

Anyway, Sherlock is looking around Dewer’s hollow. He can see gigantic paw prints, and then, a massive beast runs down towards him. He can’t believe his eyes. In fact, he can’t believe his eyes to the extent that he tells Henry that he hasn’t seen anything.

So, obviously, Sherlock is in denial about the fact that he saw something that could only be a supernatural beast.

And then… they go home. John prescribed Henry a medicine to help him sleep.

Because all doctors carry prescription drugs around with them, just in case they need to dish them out to people. So realistic.

John meets up with Sherlock, and tells him that Henry is in a bad way. In fact, the word that he uses is “manic”.

Now, “manic” is actually a medical term. One that a doctor would not throw around casually. And Henry does not really come across as manic to me. Not at all, in fact. Just saying, if you’re going to make a character a doctor, maybe google the terminology you make them use?

Anyway, we finally get to the best moment in this episode. John is telling Sherlock that he is worried that Henry is delusional, because there cannot be a massive mutant dog wandering out in the wild.

And Sherlock is panicking, because he saw the hound. He saw something that he logically knows cannot exist.

He is having a crisis. He admits to John that he saw it, a hound. This piece of acting is completely sublime. Sherlock is doubting the evidence of his own senses, a terrifying thing for someone who relies on them so heavily.

He also drops the famous “once you rule out the possible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth” line. He delivers it perfectly. The terror is palpable. Also, he is drinking whisky. I think this is the first time we see him drink any alcohol at all.

John doesn’t really help. He tells Sherlock that he probably just got a “bit worked up”, and that he’s been under a lot of stress lately. This isn’t really a great justification for a full blown hallucination, and suggesting that this was a hallucination or his imagination playing tricks on him is COMPLETELY the worst thing to say to him.

Sherlock, almost drunkenly, proclaims that “there is nothing wrong with me!”. But he doesn’t believe it. He is trying to convince himself. He starts deducing things about the random people in the pub, irritating John. He’s not doing it for John. He’s trying to comfort himself, because John has failed to do this.

On the one hand, I think that this demonstrates that this version of John does not really understand Sherlock as well as he thinks he does, and perhaps is meant to. On the other, this just shows so much about what makes this version of Sherlock great. He sets himself so high up on a pinnacle that he panics the second he looks down.

Of course this scene ends with John walking off, leaving Sherlock alone.

This is vaguely disappointing to me. It feels like John, instead of being compassionate, instead of realising how terrified Sherlock is and just offering to be there for him, decides to leave his “friend” to deal with it on his own. This is the problem in their relationship. John is never really shown to be kind. He is loyal, but… not really loving.

Sherlock is sad, and he lashes out. Rather than John realising that this is a sign that Sherlock is terrified, he takes it personally. He leaves him to cool off.

Now, I’m not saying that he should stay and be insulted by Sherlock. But I think that Sherlock and Watson are close enough friends to be able to tell when the other is hurting, and to want to help each other in that moment.

Anyway, John goes to find out what the morse code he saw earlier was.

By the way, it’s still going strong.

And now I’m thinking about dogging again. And I very much don’t want to. Because it’s a dogging couple with a dodgy car light.

Sherlock, by way of apology, messages John and invited him to “interview” Henry’s therapist. Despite being angry, he agrees because… she’s pretty???

Yuck. Very yuck.

“Here’s my apology gift to you, John, an attractive woman for you to “interview”. I hope this makes everything OK between us”.

Anyway, Henry Knight is watching TV, and the light outside his house is flickering. And he is having flashbacks.

Something seems to be moving outside.

Oh, and turns out he has a pistol???

Guns just seem to turn up in this series, don’t they? Seriously, how on Earth does he have a gun???

Well, the episode leaves him there, crying in a ball, and goes back to John trying to get the attractive psychologist drunk.

Again, totally normal and untroubling.

John is questioning her about Henry, and apparently being very unsubtle.

He also mentions that Sherlock may be having a similar problem. Maybe he is starting to realise that abandoning his best friend in his moment of crisis wasn’t a very nice thing to do.

And of course, Dr Frankland comes up and ruins the whole “get the therapist drunk and ask her questions about one of her patients, +/- get her to go on a date with me” thing John has going on here.

Anyway, morning comes. Sherlock is looking dramatic on top of a rock formation again. Seriously, what is it with him and posing in dramatic and beautiful locations?

 After he’s done his morning posing, Sherlock pops around to visit Henry. Apparently, he has resolved his internal crisis, and steals some of Henry’s sugar. He also goes back to the word “Hound”, apparently the only interesting thing about the case.

On his way out, he sees John looking at a gravestone. We never find out why. Sherlock is trying to be nice to John after the argument. Then he tries to apologise. He explains that he doubted himself, doubted the evidence of his own eyes, for the first time.

Bit of a claim for a guy with a history of taking multiple different kinds of drug. But hey.

Anyway, despite Sherlock trying to explain, trying, in his own way, to apologise… John stalks off. Even when Sherlock tells him that he is his only friend. But Sherlock runs after him. He has a new idea. HOUND might be an acronym

Before they can dig into it, Lestrade shows up. He is on “holiday”. By which he means Mycroft sent him.

This also gives us the birth of one of the worst jokes in the show. Sherlock doesn’t know that Lestrade’s first name is Greg.

Now, let me take you back a while. Do you remember the very first Sherlock episode? The study in Pink, the murderous cab driver?

Do you remember a moment when Sherlock chases after a cab, holds it up and pretends to be from the police? He uses an ID card to support this deception.

Greg Lestrade’s ID card.

Now, remember last episode, the Christmas party? Sherlock was clearly meeting socially with Lestrade, and importantly other people were there. Even if he didn’t call Lestrade by his first name, I am very sure that Molly, John of Hudson would have.

In short, Sherlock absolutely, 100% should know Lestrade’s first name.

Now, the intention of this joke is that, in the original stories, inspector Lestrade’s first name is never revealed. This is meant to be a fun, witty call-back.

Problem is, it makes no sense given previous facts and circumstances established in the show.

Anyway, John has discovered something to further the plot. Remember the random meat receipt left out for all to see? John has just remembered that it exists. While Lestrade studies the books, Sherlock gives John coffee made with the “drugged” sugar from Henry Knight’s house.

Anyway, the pub owners admit to having bought a dog to keep the myth of the hound alive. Apparently they “couldn’t control it”, and so they had it put down.

Why they lie about this, I don’t know. There motive is never explained. Do they lie to stop the dog from being put down? Do they lie because they think that it will get them out of trouble? EXPLAIN!!!!

John and Lestrade walk out of the pub. John tells Lestrade that Sherlock does actually like having him around, and then… oh no.

“Having the same faces around appeals to his…”

“Asperger’s?” John suggests.

Now, I am not saying that Sherlock isn’t somewhere on the autism spectrum. I’m not saying that he doesn’t have Asperger’s. What I am saying is that this statement could be taken two ways. First, it’s a joke, in which case it is in very bad taste. Second, they actually are saying that Sherlock does have Asperger’s… but if this is the case, they never make this clear before or after this moment. If you make a single passing comment in four seasons of a TV show, suggesting a character may have ASD, but then never mention it, address it or look at the effects of that diagnosis in any way shape or form, you are not well-representing this condition or the people who live with it.

So essentially, this is either a callous and ill-thought out joke, or a missed opportunity to actually represent ASD in media.

You can choose which one you prefer to believe.

Anyway, back to the plot… Sherlock and John call Mycroft and ask to be let into Baskerville. Mycroft… says yes?

Anyway, Sherlock sends John down to the labs, while he “goes and talks to the Major”.

Now, Sherlock actually plans to trap John in a lab, and create an environment where the “drugged” sugar he gave him could do it’s work and give him hallucinations.

Thing is, he could also have taken John back to the hollow, or done this literally anywhere else. But no, getting access to a top-secret military base is…. Easier?

Well, we cut back to Henry Knight having awful flashbacks. That seems to be the go-to thing to cut away from in this episode. Not really sure it furthers the plot, but… anyway.

John is walking around Baskerville. He finds his way into a dark room with a leaky gas cylinder connected to a pipe.

Fun fact, this means that the actual villain of this episode is manufacturing his aerosolised fear gas in this top-secret government facility, then somehow smuggling it out to use in his death-trap in the hollow.

I’m not really sure how he can do this without people becoming aware of such a large quantity of a dangerous substance being missing…

Additionally, clearly everyone is fine with this dangerous substance leaking out of a cylinder? Well, good thing they are, or the plot wouldn’t advance as nicely as it is about to.

John walks through the gas-filled room, into a blindingly white lab. An alarm blares, and he can’t leave.

A moment later, the lights snap off.

John conveniently has a torch with him, to make the lighting even more dramatic. He calls Sherlock, but he gets no answer.

Then, he starts to hear something.

He locks himself in a large cage for protection, and Sherlock calls him back. Sherlock asks John to describe what he can see…. And a moment later Sherlock arrives. The lights flick back on, and John is panicked, because the “hound” seems to have vanished.

Sherlock gets John to describe the hound, and he does. He describes it… exactly as Sherlock describes it to him. Sherlock explains that they have all been drugged, then heads off to find Dr Stapleton.

Sherlock accuses her of killing her daughter’s glowing bunny, and tells her that he will tell her daughter unless she helps him.

He looks at the sugar sample he took under a microscope while Stapleton explains that there was a mix-up resulting in her daughter getting a glowing rabbit.

Sherlock is getting frustrated, he can’t find any drugs mixed in with the sugar. That being said, it looks like he’s just looking at it under a microscope, which…. Doesn’t tell you if there’s a drug in anything?

But sure. Sherlock dives into his mind palace, looking for answers.

This is the first time we see him using it, I think. A memory storage technique. I believe this is actually based off a real memory technique, but, um…. It doesn’t work in the way in which it is depicted?

Anyway, sure. It undeniably looks cool.

And somehow, he remembers a project. H.O.U.N.D, Liberty Indiana.

Ooh, another cut to Henry having a flashback. This time he’s holding a gun. He’s going to shoot the hound…. But actually he shoots at his therapist.

Still not sure how he got a gun in the first place…

Right, back to Sherlock. He gets Stapleton to look up HOUND, but her access is limited. Sherlock decides to use the Major’s password, so he guesses it. He looks at his books, asks for Stapleton’s opinion on him…

Now, I kind of like the method, but…. Who makes the name of a former prime minister their password???

Anyway, it works. Of course. They find out about the gas. Lots of people died, apparently.

A gas that made people suggestible, paranoid and murderous. The test subjects they used ended up killing lots and lots of people.

I think this might be a good time to talk about the shirts, as they’re in the picture. We find out that the H.O.U.N.D shirt is the basis behind Henry’s hallucinations. A snarling dog, the world “hound” and “liberty in” became a focus for his paranoia. The stimulus. His father’s killer wore this shirt on the night Henry watched his father die.

Firstly, the fact that a top-secret scientific group had a shirt printed AT ALL is ridiculous. The only thing more ridiculous is wearing that shirt on the night that you weaponize the product of that group, and use it to commit a murder.

Was Frankland contractually obliged or something? “If you use this to kill someone, be sure to wear the shirt and credit us, so that other people can learn about our fantastic product too!!!”

And, let’s be honest, the ENTIRE plot rests on this t-shirt.

Everything.

Anyway, Mortimer calls John, and tells him to go and find Henry. Henry has a gun, she tells him.

Of course, everyone’s first response on being attacked by a client is to call the guy you met for the first time last night, and who lied to you from the moment you met.

Very natural.

At least Sherlock does something sensible, he calls Lestrade.

And asks Lestrade to being a gun? Because…. Lestrade totally has one of those?

Henry is on the moor, returning to Dewer’s hollow, returning to the place where it all started.

The hollow, as always, is full of gas.

Henry is preparing to kill himself, terrified because he almost killed someone. Sherlock, instead of trying to talk him down, instead of getting to a safe place that wasn’t filled with gas, he gets Henry to remember seeing his Dad die.

This is probably not a great way of doing it? But obviously, it works.

Henry remembers seeing a man attack his Dad, beat him to death. Then he turned, and Henry saw the shirt. And Henry ran.

Henry remembers. He lets John take the gun. Sherlock explains that there was a real dog, that left footprints and sightings behind it (though, remember those footprints? Those giant, unnaturally big footprints?????????)

Sherlock says that there was never any real monster… and then a beast howls.

They all see it now. Has no-one realised that the substance is aerosolised??? And that they’re stood in a cloud of mist?????? Because they all seem REALLY CONFUSED as to how they’re all seeing this.

Ooh… and then, for the first time, the audience gets to see this “hound”. Glowing red eyes and all.

And it looks….. bad. I mean, it’s BBC TV show CGI, but it’s poor. Really poor. The way it moves, in particular.

Sherlock also notices a man, a man wearing a gas mask. But underneath the mask… Moriarty.

Until Sherlock steps out of the fog. Then, magically, he is better! He sees Frankland! Yay! (Even though we know from the lab experiment that John walking past a slow leak led to several minutes of suggestibility and other symptoms. Yep. Just forgot about that part.)

Lestrade shoots the dog, and they see that it was just a medium size dog. (Definitely not big enough to make those footprints).

Sherlock explains that Frankland puts pressure pads under the Hollow, designed to release gas every time Henry went there.

Presumably he was the only person who ever went there, or there would be an outbreak of psychosis in the area.

But hey.

Sherlock thanks Henry for the “brilliant” case. Henry explains that he is just glad that his Dad was right. His Dad found that Frankland was experimenting with the gas, and so Frankland killed him.

I think that’s what we’re going with, as far as motive is concerned? Why a single person having a conspiracy theory among so many others was concerning to him… I don’t know. How Henry’s Dad found out what was going on…. I don’t know.

In short, there’s an AWFUL lot that I don’t understand about this story. But at least there’s only 5 minutes left.

The dog (shot several times already, remember), tries to stand, and is shot again. Frankland uses the distraction to run.

Obviously he runs faster than Sherlock, John, Henry or Lestrade (despite being considerably older than any of them), and reaches the wire fence designed to stop people getting into the minefield.

He vaults it, then a few paces later…

Steps on a mine.

We pause for a second…. Then he lifts up his foot and explodes.

The next morning, Sherlock and John are having breakfast. John asks Sherlock what happened at the lab. Sherlock tries to brush it off with the “leaky pipes” excuse.

It genuinely hurts so much to think that this whole part of the plot relied on Frankland being sloppy and letting his valuable drug leak out all over the place.

John realises that Sherlock may have deliberately dosed him, locked him in the lab, played him noises.

John is, understandably, a little irritated that Sherlock wanted to give him an unknown drug, with obvious severe psychiatric effects and unknown side-effects.

Finally, John gets to the real point, “any long term effects?”

“None at all” Sherlock says. Henry Knight coughs in “long-term psychological therapy” in the background.

Sherlock, obviously has forgotten everything he dug up in his mind palace about, what was it, “multiple homicides”?

Anyway, Sherlock pops off to tell the pub owner that his dog is actually dead now.

Oh, and with 90 seconds left in the episode, we are introduced to Mycroft and Moriarty. Mycroft has Moriarty prisoner, seemingly. But lets him go. Not before Moriarty has written “Sherlock” on every wall in his cell.

Set-up. Yay.

 

Overall, this episode disappointed me. I didn’t hate is as much as the last one, but the plot hung on thin, fragile threads, there were many things that never made sense or were never explained, and there was a lot of unnecessary drama between John and Sherlock, which revealed the major flaws in their friendship to me.

I feel like they were really trying to play off the original story here, with everything from the names, to the location, to the quickly-dismissed idea that Sherlock would send John down on his own… but although these give you a moment’s satisfaction when you recognise them, it just… never quite comes off.

Oh well.

Richard Brook next time. I can’t say I’m looking forward to that one either.

 

See you then.