I‘m sorry, but this case absolutely broke my brain. There’s no way my meagre episode notes will be able to do it justice in the slightest.
The return of Mary Morstan! OMG, I had made my peace with either Mary Morstan being a throwaway offscreen one-liner in the pilot, or with her being a brand-new character. I did not expect her to come *back*, tying in nicely with the pilot and then gaining such a personality of her own after all. I think I love everything about her and if it was ever OK in any Sherlock Holmes universe for Dr Watson to be happy with Mary Morstan long-term (which it is not), then this Mary and our Jonk would have been a great, great match.
"Parents don’t have favourite children." - "I assure you they do." - Our first glimpse at Sherlock‘s painful family history. I CANNOT wait to meet Mycroft and find out more.
Sherlock not wanting to retain information about astrophysics was such a lovely reference to his canon disregard for the solar system!
The creepy music box jingle was a bit of a cliché, but the soundscapes of this particular case are absolutely amazing.
Also, the famous watch deduction- I squealed with delight. "Cheap, sentimental and superstitious." 😂 I can’t believe though that both John‘s granddad *and* dad died in action and John still became a soldier afterwards.
I spent the entire adventure wondering when John‘s grandpa‘s military watch was going to come up again.
"I was looking for something… I did find it, yeah. It doesn’t do laundry and it plays the violin all night, but I finally feel like me." What a declaration of love! 💜
And then a minute later we get a bi Mary, too? What a lucky bunch are we even, people?
And that jealousy of John‘s over Sherlock’s fondness for Toby, and then Sherlock’s much worse jealousy of Mary… So telling.
Love the nod to the BBC version in how they gave our boys their own private lab at Barts, with Stamford as the door opener this time. Love how he has taken on a life of his own in the show! "I don’t save lives, I save egos." 😂
"Can we go back to teasing Watson please?" 😂
I love that Past Sherlock/Victor is officially canon now, too.
I did not expect our gang to actually go to India to figure out the case. But yeah, in the 21st century, they absolutely would.
Sherlock taking Athelney Jones down a peg or two when he bursts into their hotel room was a delight.
And then when the trip turns into a road rail movie to Pondicherry, it’s just bursting with friendship and joy. The way Sherlock laughs when they retell the duck chase story from the Noble Bachelor, I don‘t suppose we‘ve ever heard him laugh so happily and unreservedly. Sherlock calling the elephant "lovely fellow". 🥹🐘 I think it’s this short sequence that will stay with me forever.
"Indiana Holmes" 🤣 Sometimes John is just ✨inspired✨.
The sniffer dog chase made me very happy indeed. As did Sherlock‘s second ever most unrestrained laugh in the history of the show.
"Tobias Forester, get back here!" 😂
Athelney Jones grew on me massively throughout this second part pf the case. He is undoubtedly the Interpol agent with the weirdest sense of humour ever.
And well done John for deducing who the white-faced bad guy was, even though Sherlock got there independently anyway.
Sherlock locking Mariana‘s case so the vital evidence wouldn’t get revealed too soon is such classic Sherlock Holmes.
"Who are you?" - "My name is John Watson, once of the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers, now a true crime podcaster based in Central London…" - What a refrain.
Sherlock taking down the bad guys with the electric carving knife was quite something as well.
I mentioned the amazing soundscapes of this particular case already in my notes on Volume 1, but nothing in this case surpasses Sherlock taking the stolen speedboat down the Thames at 44 knots, cool as a cucumber, to something very reminiscent of the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack. What glory.
And then we get to the Andalucia and the showdown… Well. Mary Morstan & John Watson, cursed forever. I don’t think I expected the curse to take this drastic form in this show, to be honest. But yeah. It works, strangely enough. Especially taken together with the aftermath as depicted in the following couple of cases. Poor Mary. Poor John. Forever sidelined in favour of the most beautiful bromance in the history of crime fiction.
