History Recap / SherlockS02E02TheHoundsOfBaskerville

A bored Sherlock decides to take on the case of Henry Knight, who claims to have seen the footprint of a gigantic hound in the woods. He also claims that 20 years before he had seen his father mauled to death by the creature. Holmes assumes that the source of the creature is the nearby Baskerville military research facility. Using his brother Mycroft's identity card, he and Watson gain access to the facility though his ruse is quickly found out. His faith in his abilities is shaken to the core when he too sees the creature, something that genuinely frightens him.

* AdaptationalVillainy: Frankland wasn't the bad guy in the original story. He was at most a crabby, litigious old man.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Dr Frankland is very polite and friendly despite being a murderer involved in highly unethical scientific experiments.

-->'''Dr Frankland:''' I'd love to tell you, but then of course I'd have to kill you.\\

** Before they're about to go into Baskerville for a second time, Sherlock tells John he'll have to go look for the hound on his own and says, "Could be dangerous". These are the same words he texted to John to get him to agree to help in "A Study In Pink".

* CryptidEpisode: The episode centres around a mysterious "hound" that apparently killed the client's father in his childhood, near the Baskerville military installation. Sherlock and John chase this strange creature for the majority of the episode until it's realized they were suffering under the effects of a powerful hallucinogenic vapor that was being disseminated in a nearby wooded area.

** Although it's not really pointed at all when John appears beside the swimming pool in an explosive vest he was forced to wear by Moriarty, he seems to be blinking SOS.

* GenderFlip: Dr Louise Mortimer. Corporal Lyons. Possibly Dr Stapleton depending on whether you think she's based on Jack or Beryl from the original (she doesn't quite fit either).

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: In the climax of "The Hounds Of Baskerville", Frankland attempts to escape through the Grimpen Minefield and steps on a mine, which blows him to bits.

** Played with. While Henry doesn't spell it for Sherlock, Sherlock quickly remarks the saying "Liberty In Death"; when he enters his mental Wiki-Walk, his mind does go to "Liberty Inn" as a possibility but can't make any meaningful connections and thus discards it.

* LandMineGoesClick: Dr Frankland dies this way, having unwisely decided to enter the Grimpen Minefield while trying to escape.

** Sherlock's remark about his mind being "like an engine racing out of control, a rocket tearing itself to pieces on the launch pad" when he doesn't have work echoes "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge," where the original Holmes says "My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built."

* NotQuiteDead: The real hound at the end. Minutes after being shot it comes back and provides Dr Frankland with an opportunity to escape.

** Not only that but picking a line of sight password is one of the WORST things you could do.

** Dr Stapleton, especially for those familiar with the original novel. She's involved in genetic experimentation on animals of dubious legality, but is otherwise innocent -- and her counterpart in the original turned out to be the killer.

* TheShrink: Dr Louise Mortimer. While she genuinely cares about Henry Knight, she doesn't realize that the delusions she believes he's suffering from are caused by witnessing the brutal murder of his father and then being regularly dosed with an experimental psychotropic drug. In her defence, ''nobody'' would have reason to suspect that given it was all classified and Sherlock himself wasn't thinking of it until he experienced the Hound as well.
* StuffBlowingUp: Grimpen Minefield and Dr Frankland's fate.

* WhatTheHellHero: In this episode, Sherlock has gone from violently defending Mrs Hudson and showing a lot of affection for her to cruelly telling her a man she's involved with is a bigamist and threatening her ''with a harpoon''- all because John won't tell him where his emergency cigarette stash is. John is so horrified by his behaviour that he shouts at him and then, when she has tearfully retreated, orders him to go downstairs and apologise to Mrs Hudson.
** Then again, the previous episode implied that Sherlock [[BerserkButton hates]] people being mean to Mrs Hudson, because only ''[[HypocriticalHeartwarming he]]'' gets to do that.
* WhiteBunny: Justified: The rabbits Dr Stapleton is working on are pure white: genetically engineered lab animals are usually white because it's easier to see bioluminescence in a light-coloured specimen than in a darker one.

** Also, [[spoiler:Sherlock's ComplexityAddiction that a straightforward murder in a board game ''must'' be something more elaborate shows how he easily fell for Moriarty's fake "super hacking bug"]] in the next episode.

* TheShrink: Dr Louise Mortimer. While she genuinely cares about Henry Knight, she doesn't realize that the delusions she believes he's suffering from are caused by witnessing the brutal murder of his father and then being regularly dosed with an experimental psychotropic drug. In her defence, ''nobody'' would have reason to suspect that given it was all classified and Sherlock himself wasn't thinking of it until he experienced the Hound as well."

* AffablyEvil: Dr Frankland is very polite and friendly despite being a murderer involved in highly unethical scientific experiments.

* MadScientist: Frankland is killed by a colleague who threatened to expose his unethical experiments, then spent decades psychologically tormenting the only witness, to guarantee that witness could never plausibly explain what he'd seen.

* LamePunReaction: In the comments for the blog write-up of this case.
-->'''Bill Murray:''' It sounds as if the dog's bark was worse than its bite!\\
'''Mike Stamford:''' It's certainly given me paws for thought.\\
'''Bill Murray:''' Surely this is just a ShaggyDogStory.\\
'''Sherlock:''' John, [[ShootTheDog fetch me my revolver]].

* ComplexityAddiction: It turns out Sherlock lost a game of Cluedo because he simply refused to accept the idea Mr. Black was murdered and ''insists'' it had to be suicide as "the only logical explanation" ignoring that his being murdered ''is the entire point of the game.''

* {{Foreshadowing}}: John tells Sherlock that it's not possible for the victim to have committed the murder in Cluedo. [[spoiler:This is more-or-less what happens in [[Recap/SherlockS02E03TheReichenbachFall the next episode]].]]

* SuicideNotMurder: Sherlock apparently drew this conclusion when he and Watson played the board game Cluedo, thinking it's the "only possible solution".

* AmbiguousDisorder: After Sherlock has been especially difficult for days on end:
-->'''Lestrade:''' I suppose he likes having the same faces back together. It appeals to his... his...\\
'''Watson:''' ''[very snarkily]'' Aspergers?

** Holmes' idea that H.O.U.N.D. is in the sugar comes straight from the [[Series/DoctorWho Second Doctor]] episode "The Moonbase" in which the Cybermen's virus was in the crew's sugar.

* TheShrink: Dr Louise Mortimer. While she genuinely cares about Henry Knight, she doesn't realize that the delusions she believes he's suffering from are caused by witnessing the brutal murder of his father and then being regularly dosed with an experimental psychotropic drug. In her defence, ''nobody'' would have reason to suspect that given it was all classified and Sherlock himself wasn't thinking of it until he experienced the Hound as well.
* SpotOfTea: John sardonically suggests that he and Sherlock can arrive at a top-secret military base and be greeted with "Come on in, kettle's just boiled."

* SurpriseInspectionRuse: Sherlock enters the Baskerville facility by pretending to be an inspection from Home Office. He even uses his brother's entry card to prove his claims. While Mycroft learns about the incident and proceeds to warn Baskerville's commander, Sherlock still has enough time to see what he wanted.

* AbsenteeActor: Molly is not seen or mentioned at all.

* ArtisticLicenceMilitary: British Army personnel are not allowed to have beards. However, Major Barrymore's full beard is a nod to the original canon character on which he's based, John Barrymore, who is described in the book multiple times as being a "black-bearded man."

* StupidSexyFlanders: John commenting on Sherlock's ''cheekbones''. Sherlock has the decency to [[CelibateHero just]] [[{{Asexuality}} look]] [[MarriedToTheJob confused]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: John tells Sherlock that it's not possible for the victim to have committed the murder in Cluedo. [[spoiler:This is more-or-less what happens in [[Recap/SherlockS02E03TheReichenbachFall the next episode]].

* AnimalMotifs: Due to Henry's PTSD from the attack, he is associated with dogs/hounds which foreshadows the hounds appearance and his resulting cynophobia.

* CelebrityParadox: Henry watches 1959 film version of ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'' briefly on television.

* CryptidEpisode: The episode centers around a mysterious "hound" that apparently killed the client's father in his childhood, near the Baskerville military installation. Sherlock and John chase this strange creature for the majority of the episode until it's realized they were suffering under the effects of a powerful hallucinogenic vapor that was being disseminated in a nearby wooded area.

* EveryoneKnowsMorse: Justified in case of John, as he could have been trained in it in the Army. However, it turns out to be a RedHerring, as the flashes were cause by a guy's belt being caught on the switch in his car, as he's having sex with a girl.

** Although it's not really pointed at all, when John appears beside the swimming pool in an explosive vest he was forced to wear by Moriarty, he seems to be blinking SOS.

* HatePlague: According the the CIA report found by Sherlock online, the hallucinogenic drug researched on at the Baskerville facility drove the test subjects insane and made them almost uncontrollably aggressive.

* InsistentTerminology: One of the reasons Sherlock takes the case is that Henry refers to the thing that attacked his father as a "hound". It is a hound. [[FunWithAcronyms Of sorts.]] Sherlock also refers to it as a hound, but John sticks to calling it a dog, until the night he reports the sight. "It was the hound!"

* OnceMoreWithClarity: Early on Henry's flashback to that night in the woods involves a fight between his father and a hound but at the end Sherlock makes him shed his TraumaInducedAmnesia and this time the flashback shows us the father fighting with a man waering a gas mask, who turns out to be Dr Frankland.

** Not only that, but picking a line of sight password is one of the WORST things you could do.

** The choice of words, given Maggie's real life support for people like [[BananaRepublic Augusto Pinochet]], could be a TakeThat against governments all too willing to perform, accept or cover hideous acts.

* TheShrink: Dr. Louise Mortimer. While she genuinely cares about Henry Knight, she doesn't realize that the delusions she believes he's suffering from are caused by witnessing the brutal murder of his father and then being regularly dosed with an experimental psychotropic drug. In her defence, ''nobody'' would have reason to suspect that given it was all classified and Sherlock himself wasn't thinking of it until he experienced the Hound as well.

* StupidSexyFlanders: John commenting on Sherlock’s ''cheekbones''. Sherlock has the decency to [[CelibateHero just]] [[{{Asexuality}} look]] [[MarriedToTheJob confused]].

* VillainExitStageLeft: Subverted. Once Frankland is caught, he attempts to escape through the Grimpen Minefield, only to end up stepping on a mine and gets blown up.

* WhiteBunny: Justified: The rabbits Dr Stapleton is working on are pure white: genetically engineered lab animals are usually white, because it's easier to see bioluminescence in a light-coloured specimen than in a darker one.

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: British Army personnel are not allowed to have beards. However, Major Barrymore's full beard is a nod to the original canon character on which he's based, John Barrymore, who is described in the book multiple times as being a "black-bearded man."

* BlackSite: The Baskerville facility is a highly secured military research center. Sherlock and John manage to get inside by using Mycroft's ID and BavarianFireDrill tactics.

** Sherlock [[NotSoAboveItAll reacting with fear]] to the Hound, when he normally stays very distant from emotional responses. He notices himself that this is OOC behavior, and deduces that he's been drugged.

* TheShrink: Dr. Louise Mortimer. While she genuinely cares about Henry Knight, she doesn't realize that the delusions she believes he's suffering from are caused by witnessing the brutal murder of his father and then being regularly dosed with an experimental psychotropic drug. In her defense, ''nobody'' would have reason to suspect that given it was all classified and Sherlock himself wasn't thinking of it until he experienced the Hound as well.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: John tells Sherlock that it's not possible for the victim to have committed the murder in Cluedo. This is more-or-less what happens in [[Recap/SherlockS02E03TheReichenbachFall the next episode]].
** Also, Sherlock's ComplexityAddiction that a straightforward murder in a board game ''must'' be something more elaborate shows how he easily fell for Moriarty's fake "super hacking bug" in the next episode.

* ExactWords: "What I said before, John, I meant it. I don't have ''friends''. I've only got one." Somewhat blends with PoorCommunicationKills.

* ThereAreNoCoincidences: Inverted when a joke about a little girl's escaped rabbit [[ChekhovsGun turns out]] to be part of the A-plot. "People say there's no such thing as coincidence. What dull lives they must lead."

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Sherlock knows that Lestrade just returned from holiday because of his tan. In real life, Rupert Graves was tan because he had just returned from Guadeloupe while filming ''Series/DeathInParadise''. His tan was written into the script.

* ConspicuousCGI: The titular Hound.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: It's a huge deal to see Sherlock and, to a slightly lesser extent, John, experiencing and expressing devastating levels of fear:

* ComplexityAddiction: It turns out Sherlock lost a game of Cluendo because he simply refused to accept the idea Mr. Black was murdered and ''insists'' it had to be suicide as "the only logical explanation" ignoring that his being murdered ''is the entire point of the game.''