"The Lying Detective" is the second episode of the fourth series of the British television series ''
Sherlock'' and the twelfth episode overall. The episode was first broadcast on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
,
BBC First
BBC First is an entertainment subscription television channel featuring comedy, crime, drama and film programming, originating from UK and mostly from the BBC. The channel is wholly owned and operated by BBC Studios. The channel began rolling ou ...
,
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
and
Channel One on 8 January 2017.
Plot
Sherlock remains distant to
Watson, who is still grieving over the death of his wife,
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
. John, who is seeing a new therapist, conceals the fact that he is having hallucinations of Mary. Culverton Smith, a prominent entrepreneur and philanthropist, gathers close colleagues, including his daughter, Faith, to confess that he is going to kill somebody. Before he does so, he forcibly injects them with a
serum that inhibits memory. Faith is still able to remember fragments and writes them down on a sheet of paper. She comes to Sherlock, who has started abusing drugs again, and that she remembers a one-word name that shook her. Sherlock dismisses her case as being too weird and refers her to
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...
.
Before Faith leaves, Sherlock realises that Faith is suicidal, and offers to walk with her around London.
Mycroft tracks Sherlock's movement across the city, and calls John out of concern, accidentally implying existence of another Holmes sibling. Sherlock and Faith walk all night, and the following morning he decides to take her case. Sherlock is momentarily overwhelmed by the side effects of his drug use and, upon gathering himself, finds Faith gone. As Sherlock stumbles back to his flat, he realises that the 'one name' was "anyone". Smith is a serial killer with the wealth and power to hide his crimes completely.
Sherlock becomes obsessed with Smith, but his drug-addled antics frighten
Mrs. Hudson, who subdues him. Mrs. Hudson takes Sherlock to see John while he is at his therapist's house for a session, where Sherlock attempts to enlist John's help. Much to John's shock and annoyance, the arrival of a car sent by Smith, and of
Molly Hooper
The following is a list and description of the characters of '' Sherlock'', a British television series that started airing on BBC One in July 2010. The series is a contemporary adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyl ...
with an ambulance to his therapist's house at the exact time, were all prearranged by Sherlock two weeks prior, even before John had chosen his new therapist.
Sherlock and John arrive at a studio to meet with Smith, during which it's revealed Smith has used Sherlock's accusation as a publicity stunt to support his new brand of cereal, making him a "Cereal Killer" and claiming Sherlock was in on the joke, after which the latter takes them to visit a new hospital wing for which he had been a major donor. Smith takes Sherlock and John to his '
favourite room', whilst repeatedly referring to the serial killer
H. H. Holmes
Herman Webster Mudgett (May 16, 1861 – May 7, 1896), better known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or H. H. Holmes, was an American con artist and serial killer, the subject of more than 50 lawsuits in Chicago alone. Until his execution in 1896, he ...
. John asks Smith how he moves through all of the rooms freely, to which Smith replies that he has keys to the hospital.
Sherlock tries to goad Smith into a confession just as Faith arrives, having been texted by Sherlock from Smith's phone. Upon seeing her, Sherlock realises that she was not the woman who had come to his flat. Frustrated and suffering from
withdrawal
Withdrawal means "an act of taking out" and may refer to:
* Anchoresis (withdrawal from the world for religious or ethical reasons)
* ''Coitus interruptus'' (the withdrawal method)
* Drug withdrawal
* Social withdrawal
* Taking of money from a ban ...
, Sherlock attacks Smith with a scalpel, but is stopped by John. John attacks Sherlock out of anger, and blames him for Mary's death.
Sherlock is admitted into Smith's hospital, where John pays him a last visit. Sherlock is then visited by Smith, who enters the room through a secret door. Sherlock asks Smith to kill him, and Smith complies after confessing to his murders. Unknown to him, the events were part of Sherlock's elaborate plot to expose Smith and fulfill Mary's last wish for Sherlock to "save John" by "going to Hell".
After seeing Mary's video for himself, John rushes to the hospital and arrives in time to pull Smith off Sherlock. Believing that he would be able to get away without proof of his confession, Smith is surprised when Sherlock reveals a recording device hidden in John's walking stick which John had left behind earlier. John reconciles with Sherlock, telling him that he no longer blames him for Mary's death. He also confesses to Sherlock that he had cheated on her by texting with another woman. Sherlock comforts him as he weeps, and John's hallucinations of Mary finally disappear.
After resuming taking cases, Sherlock discovers the note "Faith" had left him, proving the woman was real. Upon inspecting the note under a black light Sherlock finds the message "Miss me?". During John's next session, his therapist reveals she was the one who had pretended to be both Faith and the woman with whom John had been texting. Holding John at gunpoint, she reveals herself to be
Eurus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, the Anemoi (Greek: , 'Winds') were wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came (see Classical compass winds), and were each associated with various seasons and ...
, Sherlock and Mycroft's secret sibling. As John attempts to leave, Eurus pulls the trigger.
Production
The episode was based loosely on the Doyle short story "
The Adventure of the Dying Detective
"The Adventure of the Dying Detective", in some editions simply titled "The Dying Detective", is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories that were written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was originally published in '' Collier's'' in the Unit ...
".
The villain, Culverton Smith, was loosely based on disgraced British entertainer and charity fundraiser
Jimmy Savile
Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile (; 31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011) was an English DJ, television and radio personality who hosted BBC shows including ''Top of the Pops'' and ''Jim'll Fix It''. During his lifetime, he was well known ...
, who was a BBC icon.
Sam Wolfson of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' noted that the Savile-esque character must have caused consternation behind the scenes at the BBC. Wolfson gave "a respectful nod to the BBC," writing, "There must have been some unease in the corporation about having an episode in their flagship drama series in which a beloved public figure... uses his position of power and fame to commit monstrous crimes."
Broadcast and reception
The episode received positive reviews from critics. Kaite Welsh of
IndieWire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...
graded "The Lying Detective" an A+, particularly the plotline of Sherlock descending into drug addiction: "He really does turn his kitchen into a meth lab, he is weeks away from death and hallucinating. It's the flip side of the genius that carries the show."
Vox rated the episode 3.5/5 stars.
Sean O'Grady of ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' gave the episode 4/5 stars, describing it as "Rarely can drama have come so morbidly loaded as last night's ''Sherlock'', and rarely carry so much morbid fascination for the viewer".
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
gave the episode a good rating with a 7/10, describing it as "hampered by another unsatisfying case and some odd story beats".
Allison Shoemaker of ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' praised the episode and the story, grading it a B+, writing, "'The Lying Detective' does what it does so dazzlingly well that it's easy to overlook its misses... It's got a couple of good twists, some familiar to readers of the stories and others not. It's affecting and funny and moving and smart, and in short, a great script. But just because something checks all the right boxes doesn't mean it totally works, and
Steven Moffat
Steven William Moffat (; born 18 November 1961) is a Scottish television writer, television producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work as showrunner, writer and executive producer of the science fiction television series ''Doct ...
's script falls a bit flat where it really counts. It's as if he's blinded to the big picture by his own considerable gifts. This is a great Sherlock/Watson story with time to spare for everything but them."
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lying Detective, The
2017 British television episodes
Television episodes written by Steven Moffat
Sherlock (TV series) episodes