Who is Eurus Holmes? What is the significance of Redbeard to Sherlock? What is the purpose behind Moriarty’s video messages? Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have set up the first question this series while the other two go back to Series Three. It's time for answers and The Final Problem attempt to address all of them. While the episode certainly answers the questions, the answers themselves are not altogether satisfactory.
The Final Problem has a fantastic premise. Sherlock, John and Mycroft visit Sherrinford, an island fortress, to find out how Eurus has been leaving her cell. When they arrive they fall into a trap set by Eurus, who has manipulated the prison staff so that she can take over the prison. Sherlock, John and Mycroft are now forced to solve puzzles which challenge their ethics in order to save the life of a girl who is trapped on a plane without a pilot. It sounds like an interesting plot but the longer it goes on, the more it starts to fall apart.
Eurus Holmes turns out to be a largely disappointing character. We're told that her intelligence surpasses Sherlock and Mycroft, but here she uses that intelligence in a boring way. She's supposed to be able to manipulate people through words but it's fairly standard Hannibal Lector stuff. Sian Brookes is good but this week but playing cod psychopath gives her little range to work with. Her character doesn't quite add up either. If she’s imprisoned and isolated since her youth then where did she get the education to make her deduce threats to Britain? Her motives are also a little poor. Her reason for committing all these crimes is that she just wants a hug feels trite and no consolation to the families of her victims.
The puzzles set by Euros for her siblings feel dull. The three heroes move to one room, solve the mystery and then move on to the next, like some kind of reality tv game. It’s a structure borrowed from The Great Game but focused more on Sherlock's emotional decisions rather than his deductive skills. It does not come off as well as that previous episode because all the puzzles are taking place within the same claustrophobic and dull locations. Getting Sherlock, John or Mycroft to kill the prison warden was a neat idea but when John and Mycroft are threatened there is little to no reason to care since we know, instinctively that Sherlock and John are unlikely to die. The most effective puzzle involves getting Molly to say she loves Sherlock. This is because it is cathartic for viewers who have waited for a similar revelation.
The return of Moriarty via video recordings wasn't particularly exciting. It felt more like an obligatory appearance to tie up a loose plot thread. Having Eurus and Moriarty working together came at the detriment of both characters. The Final Problem ends up giving the impression that Eurus was the true power behind Moriarty, even though I don't think this was intentional. Still, it was good to see Andrew Scott again playing the living Moriarty in a flashback sequence.
The final act at Musgrave House was probably better in the sense that the tension was higher but there was still two wobbly plot revelations to go. When Eurus revealed that Redbeard was a childhood friend of Sherlock's, it didn't have the impact it should. It's actually easier to feel more sorry for the dog because we've seen it in several flashbacks in previous episodes. The child’s relationship with Sherlock is too vague. As with the girl on the plane, just having a child in danger is not enough in itself to be scary. We have to care about the child otherwise it's just cheap audience manipulation. The little girl was actually the manifestation of Euros’ madness all along. I guessed that the plane itself was fake due to the amount of time it took for the plane to crash but the actual identity of the little girl feels like a cheat because the girl is played by a different actor to the young Eurus in other flashback scenes. It might have felt more fair if we'd only heard her voice.
Still, it wasn't all bad. The best bit was seeing more of Mycroft. We see his deductive reasoning and the disguise as the sailor and his feelings towards his other siblings. The final scene of Sherlock's parents calling Sherlock the grown up were good.
The final scene was nice. Seeing Sherlock and John solving regular mysteries made me feel sad that we never get to see this. Having Sherlock be a series of movies is a double-edged sword. It means there is less padding but sometimes it feels like we miss the fun of a straightforward case. By the end, Molly is back to being nice with no real transition from her previous sadness. Still, seeing Sherlock and John running out of 'Rathbone place' was funny. This epilogue certainly makes it feel like Sherlock has come to an end but it doesn't have to be. Steven Moffat and Mark gatiss could still do more specials like David Renwick does with Jonathan Creek. This would make it easier for Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman to take a break and only do a few weeks.
It's perhaps not the best way the series could have ended. There were decent few moments peppered through a script which could and should have been much, much better. Still, it doesn't cancel out the fact that the show as a whole has been great. Here's hoping there's more to come.
5/10
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