Review of Sherlock Finale (spoiler warning)

Tonight, as I reel from the amazingly convoluted yet masterfully crafted season (and possibly series) finale of the acclaimed TV show Sherlock, I sit and wonder was it truly a great season finale for the possibly the best incarnations or interpretations of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. This show started off with a bang introducing a modernised Sherlock Holmes, Benedict Cumberbatch showing his full range of skills as the high functioning sociopath, solving crimes with a crippled John Watson, outstandingly played by Martin Freeman. This show presented complex crimes that required a different kind of mind to solve.

This episode starts with a rather chilling opening with a sword wielding clown, a small girl and a haunting voice of a woman in a scene reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s shining all orchestrated by Sherlock to find the truth of his sister from his brother. After a short story and a blown-up flat later we find that Sherlock’s sister, a person more intelligent than either maybe both Mycroft and Sherlock, has been kept prisoner all her life. Following, a highly entertaining yet elaborate plan to break into this prison the trio end up in a saw-like game controlled by the sister. This rather torturous endeavour is while highly fun yet exhilaratingly tense to watch is highly elaborate and very different from what the show started from.  

This episode has no crime for Sherlock to solve since he is only made aware it in the last 10 minutes, in fact Lestrade is only present for a couple cameos at the end that some would say does not do justice for the character. There are several other plot holes or issues that need to be mentioned, firstly the reason Sherlock and co cooperate with Eurus is that there is a girl that is on a pilotless plane that will crash and kill her and the towns people the plane hits, this causes Sherlock to make decisions that get people killed or seriously hurt since the plane could kill hundreds or more so 3 men 1 a killer dying is an acceptable sacrifice, well it turns out that this girl is Eurus and the plane is in her mind meaning Sherlock condemned 3 men to death for no reason at all and it’s not mentioned.

More than this, it is somewhat mentioned and insinuated that Sian Brooke’s Eurus is so intelligent and manipulative that it took only a single 5-minute conversation to manipulate Moriarty into going after Sherlock, a reveal that has had no previous set up thus hard to believe and not even focused on. This is done to make Eurus seem more dangerous, but it largely falls flat with no current time appearance from Moriarty to confirm this insinuation only a single line from Sherlock “5 minutes, it took her 5 minutes to do this to us”. It is my opinion that the manipulation would have hit harder the other way making it Moriarty who manipulated her would have made more sense.

It seems to me that this show like others feel into the trap that Spectre, Arrow and countless other TV series and movie sequels fell victim to the “you have to go bigger to stay better” which isn’t always true.

Don’t get me wrong this is a great piece of television and is a highly entertaining, chilling and emotion stirring masterpiece but it has its flaws, flaws that make me questions if this is a good season/series finale. Overall it was very entertaining and good Sherlock season finale however this may be because the plot lines escaped me but I feel it didn’t do the whole show, the best interpretations of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson justice.

A shame to end the show on a lower note that which it deserves here hoping for a season 5 to give the show the ending it deserves.