The BBC’s Sherlock is one of the best and most popular modern adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, but it betrayed its fans a couple of times during its run. Created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, Sherlock brought the Great Detective and his accompanying characters to modern-day London, adapting some of his most notable cases to modern issues and technology.
Sherlock had a strong start, with a lot of praise going towards Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Watson, but the show’s decline began with its third season. Sherlock’s fourth and final season was a big disappointment, and it was the show’s weakest season.
Sherlock made some big mistakes in its third and fourth seasons, but its biggest one was betraying its fans – and it did so in different ways in just a couple of episodes.
Sherlock Killed Moriarty Too Soon
No Sherlock Holmes adaptation would be complete without the presence of his archenemy, Moriarty. Sherlock teased his appearance in its first episode, and from there, it was established that Moriarty was behind most of the crimes Holmes and Watson investigated. At the end of Sherlock season 1, Moriarty (Andrew Scott) finally made his official debut.
Moriarty was the main villain throughout Sherlock season 2, but this season was also his last. Sherlock peaked in the finale of season 2, “The Reichenbach Fall”, in which Moriarty went to great lengths to destroy Holmes’ image and push him to kill himself. However, the detective outsmarted him at the last minute, but Moriarty had one more unexpected trick up his sleeve.
Moriarty killed himself in front of Holmes so the latter would have no other choice but to do the same, and he did, but it turned out to be a fake death. Sherlock never recovered from Moriarty’s death and never had another big villain, and there wasn’t enough of Scott’s brilliant performance as Moriarty.
Sherlock Never Confirmed How Holmes Faked His Death
Speaking of Holmes’ fake death, the biggest betrayal from Sherlock was that it never confirmed exactly how Holmes faked his death. At the end of “The Reichenbach Fall”, it was confirmed that Holmes faked his death, but the big question now was “how.” Unfortunately, season 3’s premiere episode failed to explain this.
“The Empty Hearse” saw Holmes returning home and reuniting with Watson, while Anderson (of all people) led a group of enthusiasts who came up with all types of theories about Holmes’ death. For this, Sherlock took various real-life fan theories, mocking its own audience through these. Even though Holmes visited Anderson and told him a version of what happened.
However, when Anderson turns around to ask about all the inconsistencies in Holmes’ story, the detective is gone, implying it was all in Anderson’s head, and thus doesn’t give an official explanation. Of course, the rest of Sherlock didn’t even try to explain how Holmes faked his death.
Sherlock Made Unnecessary Changes To Mary Morstan
“The Empty Hearse” had a big surprise for Holmes and the audience: Watson was dating Mary Morstan (Amanda Abbington), and they were about to get married. The problem isn’t that Sherlock introduced Mary, as it was expected to happen as the show progressed, but that it made unnecessary changes to the character.
Sherlock turned Mary Morstan into a former spy with a complicated past that eventually caught up to her, affecting her marriage to Watson. This also led to her death in season 4, and by then, the show hadn’t done anything for the audience to care about her.
Sherlock Introduced A Third Holmes Sibling
Many things went wrong with Sherlock seasons 3 and 4, but the latter made a huge mistake with the sudden introduction of a third Holmes sibling, Eurus (Sian Brooke). Although it was revealed that she had been hiding in plain sight and getting dangerously close to Watson, her existence made no sense, as she hadn’t been mentioned or referred to before.
Eurus was revealed to be a criminal mastermind who had been killing since she was very young, as she was the one who provoked the death of Holmes’ childhood friend, an event so traumatic that Holmes blocked it from his memory. Eurus was later sent to the maximum security prison of Sherrinford.
However, not even that could stop Eurus, as she manipulated everyone there, which allowed her to come and go inside and outside the prison as she pleased. On top of that, she came up with a very elaborate and nonsensical plan to bring her brothers and Watson down, only to be outsmarted at the last minute by her famous brother.
Sherlock Had An Underwhelming & Messy Ending
Most of these mistakes and betrayals could have been forgiven had Sherlock had a strong ending… but it didn’t. The series finale was all about the above-mentioned plan by Eurus and a quick backstory of the Holmes’ siblings, which made her presence even more nonsensical and unnecessary.
Eurus’ plan and the entire final episode of Sherlock left a bunch of plot holes that might never be solved, and it was made even worse by the addition of (honestly cheesy) recorded messages left by Mary.
At the end of Sherlock, Holmes and Watson moved back to 221B Baker Street and started taking cases again, which is what the audience had been asking for since season 3, but only got in a quick montage. With no season 5 happening, Sherlock had one of the most disappointing finales of the decade.
- Release Date
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2010 – 2017-00-00
- Showrunner
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Steven Moffat
- Directors
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Steven Moffat
- Writers
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Steven Moffat, Steve Thompson, Mark Gatiss
