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The Final Problem (Sherlock)

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"The Final Problem"
Sherlock episode
Episode no.Series 4
Episode 3
Directed byBenjamin Caron
Written bySteven Moffat
Mark Gatiss
Featured musicDavid Arnold
Michael Price
Cinematography byDavid Luther
Editing byYan Miles
Original air date15 January 2017 (2017-01-15)
Running time89 minutes
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
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List of Sherlock episodes

"The Final Problem" is the third episode of the fourth series of the British television series Sherlock and the thirteenth episode overall. The episode was first broadcast on BBC One, PBS, Channel One[1][2] and 1+1[3] on 15 January 2017.

Plot

A girl wakes up on an aeroplane and finds everybody asleep. She picks a mobile phone up and hears Jim Moriarty announce "Welcome to the Final Problem".

Mycroft Holmes is at home watching a vintage film, which stops with the words "I'M BACK", when a clown with a sword intrudes. Mycroft tries to escape, but Sherlock appears and reveals that he and John Watson staged the attack to prove that his sister, Eurus, exists.

On Baker Street, Mycroft reveals that their parents sent Eurus to a mental institution after she burned their home down. An adult Mycroft then sent her to a maximum-security facility, Sherrinford. He dismisses the idea that she has escaped, but on the next day at Baker Street, when they were discussing Eurus, a quadcopter carrying an explosive flies into the flat. John, Sherlock, and Mycroft are forced to flee as the bomb detonates.

Later, John and Sherlock hijack a boat to travel to Sherrinford and carry a diversion plan out so that Sherlock can reach Eurus' cell. Mycroft and John corner the prison governor, discovering that Eurus has taken control of the prison by influencing anyone with whom she speaks. Meanwhile, Sherlock talks to Eurus, but she attacks him and knocks him unconscious. The guards lock Sherlock, John, Mycroft, and the governor together in a cell.

Mycroft reveals that five years ago, he granted Eurus five unsupervised minutes with Moriarty as a Christmas present. In the present day, Eurus leads the captives in a series of psychological ordeals, forcing Sherlock into sinister games to save lives while videos of Moriarty taunt him. Although Eurus prods Sherlock onward with the prospect of saving the girl on the aeroplane, he eventually stops the games by threatening to shoot himself when she orders him to shoot either John or Mycroft. Frustrated, Eurus uses tranquilliser darts on the three of them.

Sherlock wakes up near his family's old house. He speaks to the girl in the aeroplane to try to guide her in landing safely. John wakes up at the bottom of a well. When he finds human bones there, Sherlock realizes that what he thought was his dog Redbeard was in fact his best friend, Victor Trevor. Eurus threw him into the same well and left him for dead because she felt left out of Sherlock's attention as a child. Sherlock then deciphers the real meaning of the song that Eurus originally taunted him with when Redbeard went missing, which reveals that she wants him to find her. Sherlock discovers that the girl in the plane is actually Eurus's mental metaphor and that the game has been a cry for help. With Eurus' puzzle solved, Sherlock is able to send her back to Sherrinford after rescuing John.

Mycroft explains to his and Sherlock's parents, who had been told by Mycroft that Eurus was dead, that Eurus refuses to speak to people anymore, but Sherlock visits her and they play violin together, giving performances for their parents and Mycroft. While helping Sherlock repair his destroyed flat, John receives a video sent by Mary before she died, encouraging him to continue having adventures with Sherlock.

Sources

The title of the episode is a reference to "The Final Problem" (1893). The episode was partially based on "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual" (1893), which it directly references. The three Garrideb brothers seen in a puzzle sequence are an adaptation of "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" (1924). The character Victor Trevor is a reference to "The Adventure of the Gloria Scott" (1893), where he appears as a university friend of Holmes. James Moriarty's brother being a station master is a reference to The Valley of Fear (1915). In the final sequence, "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" (1903) is referenced with the following cipher seen on a chalkboard, which reads "AM HERE ABE SLANEY":

A diagram drawn by Conan Doyle
A diagram drawn by Conan Doyle

Production

The setting for Sherrinford, the high-security prison, was filmed at St Catherine's Fort, St Catherine's Island off Castle Beach in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales.[4]

Musician Paul Weller made a cameo appearance, in a non-speaking role as a man lying on the floor in a Viking costume, seen near the end of the episode.[5]

Leak and investigation

One day before the episode's release, it was leaked online by Russian distributor Channel One.[6] Both the official Sherlock Twitter and members of the Sherlock team acknowledged this and asked people to not share it and keep the Internet free of spoilers.[7]

BBC through BBC Worldwide is engaged in a full-scale investigation of the early leak of the Russian version of the episode, which occurred on 14 January.[8][9] Channel One is conducting its own separate investigation.[10]

Broadcast and reception

"The Final Problem" received mixed reviews from critics. Among the more positive reviews was Sean O'Grady of The Independent who gave the episode four out of five stars, stating that "Benedict Cumberbatch and Tim (Martin) Freeman are their usual accomplished double act" although suggesting "Maybe Sherlock needs a little more reimagining".[11] Meanwhile, Michael Hogan of The Daily Telegraph gave the episode five out of five stars, praising that "the dazzling script delivered laughs, excitement, and emotion .. we were left with a wiser Holmes and Watson." He also commented about the possibility of series 4 being the last series for Sherlock, stating "if this was the last-ever episode, which it surely won't be, it worked well as a sign off."[12] Louisa Mellor of Den of Geek wrote "this was fun to watch. Fun and ultra-tense with a terrific, whooshing sense of momentum. It went like the clappers, held its breath, went like the clappers again, held its breath some more until you thought you might pass out with the dizziness."[13] Neela Debnath of the Daily Express was also positive, writing "I can't fault the thrill ride that The Final Problem takes viewers on from the begin to the end. Sherlock has clawed itself back from the edge."[14] Two seperate reviews in The Guardian were positive, with one describing it as "much better than it looked"[15] and the other writing "directed by Ben Caron with a visual swagger far beyond the budget – and including an eerily beautiful high-security violin duet for Sherlock and Eurus – this was a fine way to go, if gone Sherlock has."[16]

However, some reviews were more critical. Kaite Welsh of IndieWire scored the episode a grade of B-, writing "Steven Moffatt and Mark Gatiss wrap up their 13th episode on an elegiac note, musing on the legend that is Sherlock and Watson. It's just a shame the rest of the episode was such a mess, really."[17] Ian Hyland of The Daily Mirror stated that he preferred it "when Holmes and Watson were just solving fairly believable mysteries. If it went back to that I'd welcome another series or two with open arms." He compared the series to the BBC series Taboo, suggesting that the latter would be a better television series for those who love Sherlock.[18] Aja Romano of Vox also criticized the episode, praising the usual drama of Sherlock, but being critical of the fact that the episode "collapses into a muddled mess of melodrama and confusion ... there is even less logic." Romano considered the episode to be an anticlimax, saying "the episode feels like a window dressing on a completely different story."[19] Christopher Stevens for the Daily Mail ended up awarding the episode zero stars (following his one-star review of The Six Thatchers),[20] highly critical of what was seen as poor writing, describing the "problems" of the episodes as "all so callow, so contrived, so undergraduate" and a proneness to become self-satisfied.[21] For Rosemary Collins of The Mary Sue, the finale "let down those who loved the show the most."[22]

Issues of representation within the episode were raised by some commentators. Gavia Baker-Whitelaw of The Daily Dot called the episode the "most sexist" of the TV show. She noted that Eurus, a stereotypical female villain, "ticks every box for the kind of madwoman who gets locked up in an asylum in a 19th century melodrama [...]" and commits crimes only motivated "by a desire for male attention."[23]

References

  1. ^ Moskvitin, Egor (1 January 2017). ""Шерлок": что мы знаем о четвертом сезоне" [Sherlock: what do we know about the fourth series]. Meduza (in Russian). Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  2. ^ Soshin, Dmitry (1 January 2017). "Первый канал начинает показ нового сезона британского сериала "Шерлок"" [The fourth series of Sherlock on Channel One]. Channel One (in Russian). Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  3. ^ "Шерлок – 4 сезон – 3 серія – онлайн" [Sherlock - Season 4 - Series 3 - Online]. 1+1. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  4. ^ Williams, Kathryn (15 January 2017). "Revealed: Sherlock's Sherrinford is Tenby landmark St Catherine's". Wales Online. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  5. ^ O'Connor, Roisin (16 January 2017). "Sherlock season four: Paul Weller makes cameo appearance in The Final Problem with friend Martin Freeman". The Independent. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  6. ^ Yelistratov, Vadim (14 January 2017). "В сеть досрочно утекла финальная серия "Шерлока" в переводе Первого канала" [Final episode of "Sherlock" with translation by Channel One prematurely leaked]. DTF (in Russian). Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  7. ^ "Sherlock series finale leaked online". BBC News. 15 January 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  8. ^ "Sherlock finale ratings hit all-time low". BBC News. 16 January 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  9. ^ Yelistratov, Vadim (16 January 2017). "Финал "Шерлока" показал на родине самые низкие рейтинги со времён первого сезона" [Final "Sherlock" has shown in his homeland lowest ratings since the first season]. DTF (in Russian). Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  10. ^ "Первый канал расследует слив серии "Шерлока"" (in Russian). The Village. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  11. ^ Sean O'Grady (24 November 2016). "Sherlock season 4 episode 3 review: 'The Final Problem' maybe needs reimagining". The Independent. Retrieved 16 January 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ Michael Hogan. "Sherlock episode 3: The Final Problem, review: 'an exhilarating thrill-ride'". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  13. ^ http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/tv/sherlock/46513/sherlock-series-4-episode-3-review-the-final-problem
  14. ^ http://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/754593/Sherlock-The-Final-Problem-review-Moriarty-Andrew-Scott-Benedict-Cumberbatch
  15. ^ Ferguson, Euan (22 January 2017). "The week in TV: Horizon: Clean Eating – The Dirty Truth; Sherlock; Endeavour; A Series of Unfortunate Events; Antiques Roadshow". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  16. ^ https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jan/15/sherlock-finale-trumped-by-russian-leak-online
  17. ^ Kaite Welsh. "Sherlock Review: 'The Final Problem' Is A Problematic Season Finale". IndieWire. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  18. ^ , 16 January 2017Updated10:33, 16 January 2017. "I preferred it when Sherlock and Watson were just solving fairly believable mysteries - Ian Hyland - Mirror Online". Mirror.co.uk. Retrieved 16 January 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ Johnson, Nathanael. "Sherlock season 4, episode 3: "The Final Problem" might be the series finale. If it is, it's a huge disappointment". Vox. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  20. ^ Driver, Ben. "CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: Sherlock's now so clever-clever, it's stupid". The Daily Mail. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  21. ^ Stevens, Christopher (19 October 2016). "Do BBC bigwigs give a fig about Sherlock viewers? | Daily Mail Online". Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  22. ^ Johnson, Rosemary Collins. "How Sherlock's Finale Let Down the People Who Loved the Show the Most". The Mary Sue. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  23. ^ Gavia Baker-Whitelaw. "'The Final Problem' is season 4's most entertaining 'Sherlock' episode—and its most sexist". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
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