Line #1 Recap/SherlockS01E01AStudyInPink


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6	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a_study_in_pink.jpg]]
7
8	->''"We've got a serial killer on our hands. Love those, there's always something to look forward to!"''
9	-->-- '''Sherlock Holmes'''
10
11	Dr John Watson has just returned from service in Afghanistan with nightmares, a psychosomatic limp and a bullet wound for his trouble. John's therapist encourages him to keep a blog about his life as a returned vet, but it doesn't seem to help since, as John himself puts it, [[TemptingFate "nothing happens to [him]"]]. And to top it all off, his army pension isn't enough to keep living in London. All in all, things are kinda crappy for John until he runs into Mike Stamford, an old friend from his days at St. Bart's Hospital. As it happens, Mike knows of someone who's looking for a flatmate...
12
13	As if to prove this, Sherlock Holmes is introduced to John whilst beating a cadaver with a riding crop ForScience, being completely oblivious to the advances of the St. Bart's morgue attendant, Molly Hooper, and texting people the solutions to murder cases. [[SherlockScan From a glimpse of John and a brief borrow of his mobile phone]], Sherlock is able to deduce that John is an army doctor home from service with a psychosomatic limp who disapproves of his alcoholic divorcee brother ([[TomboyishName though he wasn't quite right]]).
14
15	John goes to look at the flat with Sherlock and seems to like it. Sherlock introduces him to the landlady, Mrs. Hudson, for whom he did a favour once. After John agrees that the flat would be a good place to live, he is interrupted by the arrival of Inspector Lestrade, who needs Sherlock's assistance with the fourth in a series of identical suicides that have been occurring. Sherlock leaves, before returning to ask John to come along since he's a qualified doctor who might be able to help. In the taxi, they talk, and Sherlock explains his job: he's a consulting detective, one who helps the police with problems when they're out of their depth. He also explains his first deductions of John. John is amazed, naturally, and Sherlock is intrigued by someone who appreciates his deductions.
16
17	They go look at the corpse, a woman dressed in pink. When they get there, John finds that the police don't like Sherlock -- the first officer they meet, Sgt. Donovan, calls Sherlock 'freak' and another officer, Anderson, seems to really dislike him (after Sherlock reveals his affair with Donovan, it's easy to see why). Sherlock and John examine the corpse and find a few anomalies: one, she wrote 'Rache' on the floor next to her. While Sherlock recognises this as being an incomplete 'Rachel', the question still remains: why? Two, Sherlock sees that she had a suitcase, but no suitcase was found. Finally, her phone is missing. Sherlock has a brainwave and runs out of the scene, leaving John to walk home. On his way out, Donovan gives him some advice: stay away from Sherlock, whom she calls a psychopath who gets off on crimes and puzzles. She also says that she fully expects Sherlock to eventually get bored of solving crimes and start committing them. John gets back to the main road and phones around him start ringing. He finally answers one in a public phone box and is picked up and taken to an empty warehouse, where a man with an umbrella identifies himself as the closest thing Sherlock has to a friend (an enemy) and offers John money to spy on Sherlock. John declines and is taken back to Baker Street.
18
19	John tells a remarkably unfazed Sherlock about the man's offer. Sherlock isn't bothered by the event and asks John to text a message to a certain number. John sees that Sherlock has the woman's case, and texts the message to the number- the victim's phone. The message is designed to freak out the murderer and gives an address. Sherlock and John go to a restaurant near the address and when a cab arrives, they chase it. However, the cab's passenger has a perfect alibi, and they return home only to find a drug bust in progress - Lestrade, thinking that Sherlock was withholding evidence, orchestrated the bust so he could search the flat. They find nothing, but a cabbie arrives for Sherlock, and he's got the victim's phone. Sherlock follows the cabbie outside, where the cabbie tells him that he doesn't actually kill his victims -- he talks to them, and they kill themselves. Holmes' curiosity gets the better of him, so he gets into the cab. John also gets his cane returned to him by the restaurant owner - in the heat of the chase, he completely forgot about his limp, proving that it was, indeed, psychosomatic.
20
21	Sherlock and the cabbie drive to a special, secret location, where they play a psychological mind game. The cabbie explains that he has a sponsor, a person who is giving him money for each person he kills, money that will go to his children. In addition, he's dying and thus has nothing to lose. Sherlock milks the killer for information while the killer reels Sherlock in by suggesting his game as the ultimate test of Sherlock's observation and judgement. John follows Sherlock, but the trail ends with two seemingly identical buildings. He picks the wrong building, but at the crucial moment, he sees Sherlock and the cabbie through the windows across the courtyard, shooting the cabbie before Sherlock fully accepts the cabbie's challenge. Sherlock manages to get the name of his sponsor out of the wounded man -- Moriarty.
22
23	Outside, Sherlock talks to Lestrade about the cabbie until he realises that John killed him. The man with the umbrella arrives at the scene, and Sherlock reveals who he is -- Mycroft, Sherlock's older brother. They have a brief fight before Sherlock and John leave, and Mycroft decides to step up surveillance on his younger brother.
24
25	----
26	!!Tropes:
27
28	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Sherlock jokes about a serial killer while John unsuccessfully tries to keep a straight face.
29	-->'''John:''' ''[laughs]'' Stop. ''[holding back laughter]'' We can't giggle--it's a crime scene, stop it.\
30	'''Sherlock:''' You're the one who shot him, don't mind me.\
31	'''John:''' Keep your voice down! ''[giggles]''
32	* AdaptationalNationality: Jeff Hope was originally from Utah. Here, he is a Cockney cab driver.
33	* AdaptationalVillainy: Jefferson "Jeff" Hope, the cab driver responsible for the murders, uses the same methods as his counterpart in ''Literature/AStudyInScarlet'', but most of his sympathetic motivations are removed. In the book, he was an embittered VigilanteMan [[SympatheticMurderer trying to avenge his wife's death at the hands of fanatical Mormons.]] In the show, he's a {{serial killer}} with a [[DeadManWalking brain aneurysm]], who is murdering innocent people [[ForTheEvulz for the thrill]] of outliving others and because Moriarty is giving him enough money to support [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes his children]] when he's gone. Additionally, the original Hope was captured and confessed but died in jail shortly thereafter.
34	* AllForNothing: The victims who took the poisoned pills, thinking they were being held at gunpoint when it was actually a fake. They were all chosen by pure chance and could have walked out safely at any time. The one consolation is Jeff was able to get some money for his kids with each kill, but will they even want his blood money?
35	* AlmightyJanitor: Jeff Hope's career is rather dull and unimportant, yet he shows himself to be rather intelligent and calculating. He lampshades that someone like him who drives a cab doesn't look all that bright.
36	* AloneWithThePsycho: PlayedWith. Sherlock leaves the flat, ostensibly to [[INeedToGoIronMyDog "get some air"]], leaving John to sit about in confusion and continue trying to track down a victim's phone through its GPS. After only a few minutes, John realises that the phone was at Baker Street because the [[SerialKiller cabbie]] who was there a few minutes ago had it - and now it's moving again, ''because Sherlock went out after him'', putting Sherlock {{Alone With the Psycho}}. Played with in that Sherlock knows full well he's AloneWithThePsycho, and ''actively put himself in that position''.
37	* AnswerCut: When John asks his friend who the first one was that morning to ask about a flatmate, the scene cuts to Sherlock.
38	* AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering: There is a hilarious misunderstanding when John comes to see the flat and thinks out loud that it needs cleaning while Sherlock at the same time notes that this was him moving in.
39	-->'''John:''' Well, this could be very nice. Very nice indeed.\
40	'''Sherlock:''' Yes, I think so, my thoughts precisely.\
41	''[in unison:]''\
42	'''Sherlock:''' So I went straight ahead and moved in.\
43	'''John:''' Soon as we get this rubbish cleaned up.
44	* AssholeVictim: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]]. After John kills [[ArcVillain Jeff Hope]] and Sherlock figures it out, John responds to Sherlock's accusation by saying that Hope "wasn't a very nice man". Sherlock agrees and also adds that he was "an awful cabbie".
45	* BaitAndSwitch: John is forced into a meeting with a man who's very interested in Sherlock Holmes and describes himself as someone Holmes would call his archenemy. It's all very cloak and dagger, and it gives the impression that this enemy is coercing Watson's cooperation against Holmes as TheMole (the man even pulls out a small red pocketbook, like Moriarty is famous for). In truth, the man approaching Watson is ''Mycroft'' Holmes, Sherlock's brother and a government agent.
46	* BatmanGambit: Jeff Hope pulls one in the final moments of the show. Sherlock already figured out he has no reason to accede to his captor's demand to play the deadly game because he has nothing holding him to, the killer's weapon being a prop lighter. As he leaves, Hope asks if Sherlock had figured out which bottle was really poisoned and by that simple question, Sherlock gets baited into playing the game simply by his own desire to prove himself.
47	* BeneathNotice: Cabbies. Everyone trusts them without knowing them. They hunt in crowds because all everyone thinks about is the back of someone's head. Sherlock even mentions that the killer has to be someone the victims trusted and who was in plain sight.
48	-->'''Sherlock''': All of his victims disappeared from busy streets, crowded places, but nobody saw them go. Think! Who do we trust, even though we don't know them? Who passes, unnoticed, wherever they go? Who hunts in the middle of a crowd?
49	-->'''John''': I dunno, who?
50	-->'''Sherlock''': ...I haven't the faintest. Hungry?
51	* BerateAndSwitch: When Sherlock gets John hooked on becoming his partner.
52	-->'''Sherlock:''' Seen a lot of injuries, then. Violent deaths.\
53	'''John:''' Well, yes.\
54	'''Sherlock:''' Bit of trouble too, I bet?\
55	'''John:''' Of course. Yes. Enough for a lifetime, far too much.\
56	'''Sherlock:''' Want to see some more?\
57	'''John:''' Oh, God, yes.
58	* BigBrotherIsWatching: The most direct example of the series; Mycroft uses CCTV cameras on the street to watch John. Also, he is literally a big brother to Sherlock and tries to bribe John into spying on him.
59	* BigDamnHeroes: Dr. John Watson pulls this off by shooting the serial killer right before Sherlock takes one of the pills. From the next building. Through two windows. Over Sherlock's shoulder.
60	* BigShutUp: Sherlock does this to everyone in 221B while trying to solve the murder case.
61	* BlandNameProduct: [=MePhone=].org.uk standing in for Apple's [=MobileMe=] service and as a pun on the iPhone.
62	* BluntYes:
63	-->'''John''': Do people usually assume you're the killer?
64	-->''(Beat)''
65	-->'''Sherlock''': Now and then, yes.
66	* BloodKnight: Mycroft suggests that John is one, evidenced by how calm and capable he is in dangerous situations, compared to his shakes and his limp in everyday life. As he so astutely notes about the ''real'' reason John is seeing a therapist.
67	-->'''Mycroft:''' You're not [[ShellShockedVeteran haunted]] by the war, Dr Watson, ''[[InHarmsWay you miss it!]]''
68	* BreakThemByTalking:
69	-->"I don't want to kill you, Mr. Holmes. I'm going to talk to you, and then you're going to kill yourself."
70	* BullyingADragon: All Sherlock has to do is sniff Anderson and he is able to deduce Anderson is having an affair (which people will get divorced over) with a co-worker (which many places will fire employees over). He probably has similar ammo against most of the people he knows, and yet, he's still the freak. It works both ways, however, since he arrogantly and blithely antagonises and embarrasses them despite the fact that they are police officers with the authority to raid his flat looking for drugs, among other things which could probably get him sent to prison for a good long while if they investigated him for it.
71	* ButtMonkey: Sherlock makes fun of Anderson all the time.
72	-->'''Sherlock:''' Anderson, don't talk out loud. You lower the IQ of the entire street.
73	* CatapultNightmare: The first scene is Watson waking up catapulting from a dream of Afghanistan.
74	* CharacterBlog: You can look up Sherlock's website and Watson's blog, but Watson's was blank for a while.
75	* ChekhovsGun: John has a gun in a drawer shown in the first minute. He takes it with him on his way back to 221B, and at the climax of the episode, uses it to fatally shoot the serial killer.
76	* ClueOfFewWords: The primary clue in the mystery is that the murder victim scrawled the word "RACHE" in their dying moments. This is directly lifted from being an adaptation of "A Study in Scarlet". [[spoiler: It goes in a different direction, however.]]
77	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: The entire exchange between Sherlock and Molly revolving around coffee and Sherlock noticing her lipstick (not because she looks nice, but because the lack of it "makes [her] mouth look smaller").
78	* ConfessToALesserCrime: In a variation, Sherlock was able to get Angelo, the restaurant owner, out of a triple murder charge by proving he was in a completely different part of town, house-breaking, at the time of the murders.
79	-->'''Angelo:''' But for this man, I'd have gone to prison.\
80	'''Sherlock:''' You ''did'' go to prison.
81	* CouldntFindAPen: A woman clawed a vital clue into the floorboards.
82	* CutApart: After realising Sherlock's gone off with the murderer, John tracks them down to a college campus. After frantically searching the building next to where their taxi is parked, he gets to a room with big windows only to see Sherlock and the murderer in the building next door. He makes the most of it by shooting the killer through the window.
83	* CutLexLuthorACheck: Jeff Hope is very intelligent but working in a low-income job, even Sherlock lampshades it:
84	-->"Either way you're wasted as a cabbie."
85	* DeadManWalking: Sherlock deduces that Jeff Hope is one, and even describes him as such. It's then confirmed by the man himself, revealing he's suffering from an aneurysm and that any breath he takes could well be his last.
86	* DeathOfAChild: Downplayed with James Phillimore, as according to the newspaper article detailing his death, he is only eighteen.
87	* DerangedTaxiDriver: Holmes' investigation into a Serial Killer leads him to a {{terminally ill\|criminal}} cabbie who forces his victims into a sick game of RussianRoulette involving poison pills. Sherlock almost plays the game with him just to see if he's smart enough to deduce the right pill, but Watson sharpshoots the cabbie before he can.
88	* TheDogWasTheMastermind: The serial killer turns out to be a cabbie, seen earlier when Holmes and Watson chased down his cab because they thought the passenger might be the killer
89	* DoubleTake: John gets in a blatant one after Sherlock tells him that girlfriends aren't really "his area". Is he gay?
90	* DrivenToSuicide: It looks like this is what Jeff Hope does to his victims. It turns out he's forcing them at gunpoint to choose between two pills, one of which is poisonous.
91	* DyingClue: One victim scratches the word 'Rache' into the floorboards with [[CouldntFindAPen her fingernails]]. Sherlock correctly deducts this to be a clue to her phone password.
92	* EmbarrassingAlibi: Discussed. Sherlock once got a friend of his out of a triple murder charge by proving he was in a completely different part of town, house-breaking, at the time of the murders.
93	-->'''Angelo''': But for this man, I'd have gone to prison.\
94	'''Sherlock''': You ''did'' go to prison.
95	* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
96	** Sherlock has a show-stopping one when he first meets [[TheWatson John]]. It is, naturally, a startlingly accurate analysis of John and his background after having known the man for [[SherlockScan all of two minutes]].
97	--->'''John:''' Is that it?\
98	'''Sherlock:''' Is that what?\
99	'''John:''' We've only just met, and we're gonna go look at a flat?\
100	'''Sherlock:''' Problem?\
101	'''John:''' We don't know a thing about each other. I don't know where we're meeting, I don't even know your name.\
102	'''Sherlock:''' I know you're an army doctor and you've been invalided home from Afghanistan; I know you've got a brother who's worried about you but you won't go to him for help because you don't approve of him; possibly because he's an alcoholic -- more likely because he recently walked out on his wife, and I know that your therapist thinks your limp's psychosomatic; quite correctly, I'm afraid. [[DeadpanSnarker That's enough to be going on with, don't you think?]]
103	** [[InHarmsWay John]]'s ECM goes like this:
104	--->'''Sherlock:''' You're a doctor. An Army doctor.\
105	'''John:''' Yes.\
106	'''Sherlock:''' Any good?\
107	'''John:''' ''Very'' good.\
108	'''Sherlock:''' Seen a lot of injuries, then. Violent deaths.\
109	'''John:''' Well, yes.\
110	'''Sherlock:''' Bit of trouble too, I bet?\
111	'''John:''' Of course, yes. Enough for a lifetime, far too much.\
112	'''Sherlock:''' Want to see some more?\
113	'''John:''' [[JumpedAtTheCall Oh God, yes.]]
114	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Jeff Hope is an unrepentant killer and borderline misanthrope to boot, but the main reason he poisons people is because he's being sponsored to, and the money goes to his children to make sure they have some kind of inheritance when he's gone.
115	* EvilOldFolks: Jeff Hope's exact age is unknown, but he's definitely getting on in years. For what it's worth, Phil Davis was 56 at the time, but he looks older.
116	* ExactWords: Jeff Hope says he doesn't kill people. He talks to them, and then they kill themselves. By "talk to them", he means, "force them into a DeadlyGame" and by "they kill themselves" he means "they 'lost' said game by taking a poisoned pill."
117	* ExplainExplainOhCrap:
118	** Sherlock has a EurekaMoment when talking about the female victim's hair.
119	--->'''Sherlock:''' She colour-coordinates her lipstick and shoes. She'd never have left any hotel with her hair still looking... Oh... Oh! Serial killers, always hard. You have to wait for them to make a mistake.
120	** At the end, when Sherlock agrees to help Lestrade figure out who killed Jeff Hope.
121	--->'''Sherlock:''' The bullet they just dug out of the wall is from a handgun. A kill shot over that distance from that kind of weapon? That's a crack shot you're looking for, but not just a marksman. A fighter. His hands couldn't have shaken at all, so clearly, he's acclimatized to violence. He didn't fire till I was in immediate danger, though, so strong moral principle. You're looking for a man probably with a history of military service, nerves of steel...\
122	''[Sherlock looks over at John, and realizes that he was the shooter]''\
123	'''Sherlock:''' Actually, you know what? Ignore me.\
124	'''Lestrade:''' Sorry?\
125	'''Sherlock:''' Ignore everything I just said. It's just the...the shock talking.
126	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The time in the episode from the discovery of Jennifer Wilson's body to the encounter between Sherlock and the serial killer cabbie, which leads to the resolution of a Study in Pink, occurs all in one night.
127	* FauxAffablyEvil: Jeff Hope's ''tone'' is certainly friendly and cordial, but the actual content of what he says shows him to be a pretty massive asshole.
128	* FirstEpisodeTwist: Creator/MarkGatiss' character is hinted for the duration of the first episode to be Moriarty, but he's actually Mycroft Holmes.
129	* FiveSecondForeshadowing: When Sherlock mentions Watson's brother, Watson glances over at him with a confused "Hmmm?", clearly having no idea what Sherlock is talking about. In the next scene, Watson informs Sherlock that "Harry" is his sister Harriet.
130	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
131	** When Sherlock and John go to the crime scene near the beginning, they hail a cab and hop in without so much as glance at the driver. It turns out, the killer trapped his victims by exploiting similar behaviour in them.
132	** During the opening scene, John's cane is placed across the room from him, where he couldn't readily access it if he needed to. This is an early sign that his leg pain is psychosomatic and that he's prone to forgetting about it.
133	** Sherlock tells John that the frailty of genius is that it requires an audience. Jeff Hope uses this to bait Sherlock into playing his game, even after he has no reason to.
134	* FourEyesZeroSoul: Jeff Hope's glasses only add to the eerie appearance that he has, although they're more subtle than most cases of this trope.
135	* FreezeFrameBonus: If you pause at just the right time when Sherlock and John catch up with the cab, you can spot Jeff Hope sitting in the driver's seat.
136	* GenderBlenderName: Harry turns out to be Harriet, John's [[HomoeroticSubtext lesbian(?)]] sister.
137	* GoodAllAlong: Mycroft. In this episode, he gives the impression of being an AffablyEvil criminal mastermind with a bone to pick with Holmes. Savvy viewers would be forgiven if they thought he was meant to be Professor Moriarty until the end when it's finally revealed to Watson and the audience that he's Sherlock's brother. When he said he was "concerned" with Sherlock, he was being genuine.
138	%%* HannibalLecture: {{Subverted\|Trope}}.
139	* GooglingTheNewAcquaintance: John searches up Sherlock Holmes which brings him naturally to Holmes' website.
140	* HeIsNotMyBoyfriend: When the pair have a stakeout at a restaurant while waiting for the murderer to appear, the waiter refers to John as Sherlock's 'date', which he immediately denies. [[ShipperOnDeck The waiter pays no attention to this, and afterwards brings a candle for the table.]]
141	* HeroesGoneFishing: Referenced. Sherlock says John could either come with him to investigate the case, or he could stay at the flat and watch TV.
142	* HypocriticalHumour:
143	** John's first meeting with Mycroft.
144	--->'''Mycroft:''' [''after showing Watson he can control all the cameras in London and taking him to a secluded location via limo''] He [Sherlock] does so love to be dramatic.\
145	'''John Watson:''' Well, [[SarcasmMode thank God you're above all that]].
146	** Sherlock considers playing the violin while he's thinking and occasionally bouts of muteness to be his worst habits. He conveniently omits storing bits of dead people in the fridge and firing a handgun into the wall when he's bored.
147	** Later Sherlock convinces John to join him on a mission so he can talk to him about his revelations. The next scene, he remarks of the serial killer "that's the frailty of genius, it always needs an audience"; John is quick to agree.
148	* {{Irony}}: Jeff Hope greatly values intelligence in people, and prides himself on his own ability, yet is suffering from a brain aneurysm that threatens to kill him.
149	* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Holmes uses this on the taxi driver to get Moriarty's name. Even if you're dying, you can still feel pain.
150	* JumpedAtTheCall: John, the first time Sherlock invites him to come along on a case:
151	-->'''Sherlock:''' Bit of trouble, too, I bet?\
152	'''John:''' Of course, yeah. Enough for a lifetime. Far too much.\
153	'''Sherlock:''' ''[{{Beat}}]'' Wanna see some more?\
154	'''John:''' Oh, ''God'', yes.
155	* LoveMakesYouEvil: As Sherlock puts it when working out the motive of a serial killer, "Bitterness is a paralytic. Love is a much more vicious motivator".
156	* KidnappedByAnAlly: The man who's stalking John through CCTV and has him kidnapped and taken to a warehouse is actually Mycroft, rather than Moriarty.
157	* TheKindnapper: John is forced to get into a suspicious car with no knowledge of where he's being taken, in order to meet Mycroft in an abandoned building so the latter could offer John money to spy on Sherlock, citing the reason as: "I worry about him... Constantly."
158	* LackOfEmpathy: Jeff Hope doesn't seem particularly bothered by the fact that he has to kill people in order to secure money for his children. In fact, he seems to like killing and holds most people in contempt.
159	* LateArrivalSpoiler: We are led to believe that Mycroft is Moriarty. So any subsequent episode or trailer that shows him as Sherlock's brother is a spoiler to those planning to start watching the episodes later.
160	* LoveMakesYouEvil: The entire reason behind Jeff Hope's killings is because, once he's dead, there'd be no income to provide for his children. Moriarity acts as a "sponsor," paying him loads for each person he kills.
161	* TheManBehindTheMan: We learn that the cabby serial killer had a sponsor -- Moriarty.
162	* ManipulativeBastard: The serial killer. He first talks Sherlock into his EvilPlan without even using his gun by manipulating Sherlock's arrogance and curiosity. Then, once Sherlock reveals that the gun is a fake in any case and he has no need to take a pill at all, he gets him to take it anyway to prove that he's really the smartest. He's only stopped by a well-placed shot from John. [[note]] Interestingly, the serial killer in the pilot version of the first story was not this way at all: the cabbie simply drugs Sherlock in public (with everyone around assuming thanks to his acting that he's simply drunk), drags him back to his home, and presents him with the pill game when Sherlock is still too drugged to really fight him off. He even threatens to simply force the pill down his throat if Sherlock refuses. The cabbie only tries manipulating him after the police have arrived outside, thanks to John noticing something was off. [[/note]]
163	* MisanthropeSupreme: Jeff Hope despises all people around him and believes they're too stupid to measure up to his intellect.
164	* MistakenForGay: The dinner stakeout with Sherlock and Watson starts a running gag that continues into the second series.
165	* MundaneMadeAwesome: The taxi chase, somewhat.
166	* MundaneSolution: Turns out Lestrade's advice of "don't commit suicide" works pretty well, though it's harder to follow when what appears to be a gun is aimed at your head.
167	* MythologyGag: Much of the story makes reference to the original source story ''A Study in Scarlet''.
168	** A character who is a RedHerring for being the murderer is an American visiting London for the first time. In ''A Study in Scarlet'', the murderer ''was'' an American visiting London for the first time. In both, the killer is a cabbie.
169	** In the original story the police assumed that the person writing ''RACHE'' was trying to write the name "Rachel", and Holmes pooh-poohed this by advising them that "Rache" is German for "revenge". Here, the interpretation is reversed in that the victim actually was trying to write ''Rachel'' out.
170	--->'''Sherlock:''' [[SarcasmMode No, she was leaving an angry note in German]]. Of course she was writing Rachel!
171	** John finds Sherlock lying down on the sofa moving his arm in a way that made it look (from the audience's POV) as if he had just treated himself to a ringer of cocaine.
172	** It's a three-patch problem = It's a three-pipe problem.
173	** The fact that Sherlock is on the nicotine patch instead of smoking his pipe: There's hardly anywhere in London where he can legally smoke in public anymore.
174	** Sherlock's analysis of Watson's phone is almost identical to a passage in the original story where Sherlock shows off his deductive process on Watson's watch. However, one important detail is changed: Sherlock actually gets something wrong. In both versions, he guesses that Harry is Watson's brother. In the book he's correct. In the show, Harry is short for Harriet, who is Watson's sister.
175	** In "The Problem of Thor Bridge", Watson mentions a case involving a man named James Phillmore who disappeared after going back for his umbrella. One of the victims in "A Study in Pink" is a man named James Phillmore who disappears after going back for his umbrella.
176	** In the story, Hope is baited up to Holmes' room, where he has the cuffs slapped on him. He tries to escape by jumping out a window, only for Holmes, Watson, Gregson, and Lestrade to catch him. In this, he comes up to the room himself, leading to Holmes figuring it out and going downstairs and having a chat with him. He says he'll surrender, but Holmes will only know why he did it if he plays along. Holmes is later saved by Watson taking a shot that breaks a window.
177	** Hope killed his first victim in the story using the same method; a choice between two pills, one of which is lethal. The show's Hope offers Sherlock this choice in a school, which is where the story's Hope stole the poison from in the first place.
178	** The most recent victim scratches RACHE into the floor with her fingernails. In the original story, this was in blood, written by Hope, and Sherlock notes that the killer has long fingernails.
179	** Sherlock getting a restauranteur off for murder by proving that he was committing a different crime at the time is a reference to ''[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/TheBakerStreetDozen Dressed to Kill]]'', although in ''Dressed'' the crime was safecracking rather than car theft.
180	* TheNavigator: Sherlock has all the streets of London memorized and can predict a cab's likely path and come up with an intercept course in a matter of seconds.
181	* NeverSuicide: What look like suicides turn out to be the work of a SerialKiller, albeit one that makes his victims kill themselves (by telling them they will be shot, unless they take the 50:50 chance on survival by choosing between a poisoned and harmless pill) rather than killing them himself.
182	* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Two of Beth Davenport's colleagues took her car keys from her handbag on her birthday so she couldn't drink and drive. Unfortunately, this meant she also had to take a cab, and the one she took had Jeff Hope as the driver. Without realising it, her colleagues accidentally condemned her. Although, had she driven drunk, she could well have died anyway.
183	* NoNameGiven: The cabby's name is only revealed in the credits, and even then, his last name's not given.
184	* NoodleIncident:
185	** John looked up Sherlock online and said, "You said you could identify a software designer by his tie, and an airline pilot by his left thumb?"
186	** Not to mention the real human skull on the mantlepiece at 221B. Sherlock sheepishly explains to John that it belongs to a friend- "...When I say 'friend'..." And that's it.
187	* TheNoseKnows: Sherlock is able to detect that two different people are wearing the same deodorant.
188	* NothingExcitingEverHappensHere: A variant; John says "Nothing ever happens to me" to his psychologist's suggestion that he blog everything that happens to him. Then a couple of scenes later, he meets Sherlock...
189	* NotAfraidToDie: Whenever Jeff Hope plays his "game" with his victims, there's a good chance he could die too, but he just doesn't seem to care. Most likely it's a combination of this trope due to the knowledge he's dying anyway, and confidence that he'll always be able to outsmart his opponents.
190	* NotHyperbole: John is kidnapped and confronted by an upper-class gentleman who claims to be "the closest thing to a friend that Sherlock is capable of having: An enemy. He would probably call me his ''ArchEnemy''." This is, however, just a ruse by Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's older brother. [[DoubleSubversion However]], another dialogue might suggest more than that:
191	-->'''John:''' So, when you say you're concerned about him... you really are concerned?\
192	'''Mycroft:''' Yes, of course.\
193	'''John:''' And when you said it's a childish feud... it really is a childish feud?
194	* NotNowKiddo: Sherlock to Mrs Hudson, regarding the taxi. He has much bigger problems than a taxi he didn't order, thank you!
195	* NotThatTheresAnythingWrongWithThat: After Sherlock declines having a girlfriend, John asks him "[[MistakenForGay Do you have a boyfriend?]] Which is fine by the way." Sherlock answers simply "I know it's fine." and keeps staring unmovingly at John, needing another repeated prompt to actually answer "No." to the question.
196	* OhCrap: John realises that the phone must have been on the taxi driver Sherlock left with.
197	* OnlyALighter: Sherlock confronts the cabbie who's been forcing people to play a deadly game of picking one of two pills to see which is poisoned or he'll just shoot them. Sherlock picks the gun, which [[OnlyALighter turns out to be a lighter]]. He comments that he knows a real gun when he sees one.
198	* OnSecondThought: Sherlock insists that he's not in shock and doesn't need a blanket. Then his chain of deductions leads him straight to John being the one who shot Jeff Hope. He dismisses everything he's said up to this point as the after-effects of shock.
199	* OpenMouthInsertFoot:
200	-->'''Stamford:''' I heard you were abroad somewhere getting shot at- what happened?
201	-->'''John:''' ... I got shot.
202	* PapaWolf: The more people Jeff Hope kills, the more money Moriarty gives to his children.
203	* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: A woman uses the name of her stillborn daughter as a password.
204	* ThePerfectCrime: A serial killer makes all his murders look like suicides.
205	* PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo: The serial killer has two identical pills, one poisonous and one harmless, and forces his victims at gunpoint to choose one while he takes the other. Sherlock realises the gun is fake and is about to simply walk away, but the killer challenges him into playing anyway. However, before they can actually take the pills, Watson shoots him, and he never finds out which was which (although we can presume that the forensics team will take the two pills and do a forensic analysis to determine this).
206	* PreemptiveShutUp:
207	-->[''Silence'']\
208	'''Sherlock:''' Shut up.\
209	'''Lestrade:''' I didn't say anything.\
210	'''Sherlock:''' You were thinking. It's annoying.
211	* PsychoForHire: Jeff Hope kills people for money to provide for his kids and also to satisfy his sense of superiority over others (in particular, being terminally ill and yet being able to outlive his victims).
212	* RedHerring:
213	** The taxi passenger, who has a strong alibi of being new to the country.
214	** This episode does a great job of making you think that the sinister, all-controlling gentleman who calls himself Sherlock's archenemy, and who Sherlock tells John is the most dangerous man he'll ever meet, is Moriarty. This false play culminates in this man noting a NotSoDifferentRemark between himself and Sherlock, which makes perfect sense when we learn soon after it's actually Sherlock's brother Mycroft.
215	* ReinventingTheTelephone: Mycroft contacts John by watching him on London's ubiquitous [=CCTVs=] and calling every public phone he walks by until he picks one of them up.
216	* TheReveal: The killer is the taxicab driver, and he got the victims to commit suicide by forcing them to choose between two pills at gunpoint (one harmless, one poison).
217	* RoofHopping: Sherlock and Watson do this when pursuing a cab (aided by Sherlock's knowledge of all the traffic stops).
218	* RubiksCubeInternationalGeniusSymbol: It's downplayed, but in one scene we see a Rubik's Cube on Sherlock's desk. He needs constant diversion after all.
219	* SayMyName:
220	** John shouts Sherlock's name when he realises that Sherlock is in another building with the murderer. It's muffled through a window, which lessens the impact, but the fact that there's a dramatic echo (as well as an appropriate choice in soundtrack) helps.
221	** And then... "MORIARTY!"
222	* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Mycroft tries to bribe John into spying on Sherlock. In true sociopathic fashion, Sherlock doesn't see a problem with this.
223	-->'''Sherlock:''' Pity, we could have split the fee, think it through next time!
224	* SecurityBlindspot: Invoked by Mycroft, who phones John and directs his attention to several cameras in security-conscious England, then deliberately has the cameras pan so that they're ''not'' looking at John. It's basically sending the message, "I can do anything I want to you, and no one will see." John, to his credit, tells Mycroft that it's a "clever trick" but that he could have just called him on his phone.
225	* SelectiveObliviousness: Lestrade makes it clear that he's got no intention of investigating who shot the cabbie. It's somewhat implied that he already knows, especially after Sherlock figures it out as well in the most obvious and unsubtle fashion ever. Otherwise, we have to conclude that Lestrade honestly thought this guy must have been shot by "an enemy", possibly an even bigger crazy lunatic than himself, but shrugs it off with "eh, well, got nothing to go on."
226	* SerialKiller: Picking people at random and killing them because "they don't think". However, this killer also has a sponsor...
227	* SherlockScan: The episode contains three different types of scans to establish just how sheer awesome Sherlock is. Though in a bit of a departure from the usual trope, he's not always ''quite'' right -- when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EbhfRBAWwo he first meets Watson]], he deduces that Watson has an estranged alcoholic brother named Harry who has recently left his wife. He's right about the troubled sibling relationship, the alcohol, and the break-up... but Harry is short for ''[[TomboyishName Harriet]]''.
228	* ShoutOut:
229	** When Sherlock and Watson go to a café to stake out the killer, they walk down Rathbone Street, London W1. Creator/BasilRathbone played Sherlock Holmes in several late 1930s/early 1940s films.
230	** One address the pair visit is 22 Northumberland Street, which just happens to be right next door to a RealLife cafe called The Sherlock Holmes.
231	* SlutShaming: Holmes uses his SherlockScan to humiliate Donovan and Anderson by blatantly stating that they were sleeping with each other. In this case, the fact that Anderson was married was the main source of shame.
232	* SmartPeopleWearGlasses: Jeff Hope may not look it at first, but he is a genius behind the simple elderly facade.
233	* SmugSnake: While Jeff Hope is a very clever man, as proven by how he's managed to survive four rounds of his "game," his arrogance, cold-bloodedness, and firm belief in the stupidity of everyone around him does little to earn anyone's admiration.
234	* StarterVillain: Jeff Hope is the first villain in the series and, while clever and dangerous enough to arouse Sherlock's interest, he's just the opening act for Moriarty.
235	* StickyFingers: Sherlock mentions that he regularly pickpockets Lestrade when he gets annoying, hence why he has Lestrade's badge to flash. He also apparently has several more back at his flat. [[spoiler:It's later found out that he's also pilfered at least one of his brother's government badges for similar purposes.]]
236	* StrangerBehindTheMask: The serial murderer turns out to be a random taxi driver, whose reason for killing the people he did had nothing to do with the victims themselves.
237	* SuicidalSadisticChoice: The serial killer who apparently never directly kills their victims, but merely talks them into killing themselves... at gunpoint. [[DownplayedTrope However]], there was technically a chance for them to survive the game.
238	* SurroundedByIdiots: Jeff Hope thinks so:
239	-->"Between you and me sitting here, why can't people think? Don't it make you mad? Why can't people just think?"
240	* TakeAThirdOption: [[DoubleSubversion Double Subverted]]. Rather than play the killer's game, Sherlock decides to take his chances with the gun, which turns out to be a cigarette lighter, correctly deducing that the killer's MO is to outwit his prey, not simply shoot them dead and that the "gun" was merely persuasion. Free to leave of his own accord, Sherlock stands up to do so, but then the killer manages to bait him into his game by asking if Sherlock had figured him out, to which Sherlock can't resist and ends up nearly taking the pill.
241	* TheTaxi: The murderer turns out to be a cabbie who uses his taxi to cover up his victims.
242	* TeamPowerWalk: The last scene has Sherlock and Watson walk away in slow motion with confident looks on their faces.
243	* TerminallyIllCriminal: The [[MonsterOfTheWeek killer of the week]] is a taxi driver-turned-SerialKiller because, as he's terminally ill and unable to provide for his family, he approached [[GreaterScopeVillain "consulting criminal" James Moriarty]] and accepted the offer to be paid for every person he murdered (an offer that, quite notably, Moriarty apparently decided to fund [[ForTheEvulz just for kicks]]).
244	* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: The killer turns out to be an ordinary-looking cabbie.
245	* ThrowingOffTheDisability: Watson returns after being wounded in Afghanistan, now walking with a limp and cane. But, as pointed out by others, the limp and pain are not constant, and disappear when he is occupied with something dangerous, exciting, or curiosity-inspiring — letting them conclude it's mostly psychosomatic. They are right, and during the first episode it happens more and more often for extended periods until the limp and the cane disappear entirely. We later learn that he was wounded in the ''shoulder'', not the leg.
246	* TomboyishName: During his investigation of Watson's phone, Sherlock notices the name "Harry" on it. Turns out it's Watson's ''sister'', Harriet.
247	* TooDumbToLive: Sure, Jefferson, ''[[BerserkButton threaten]]'' [[HeterosexualLifePartners Sherlock]]. Not like he ''has'' a friend who will kill you if you do it.
248	** [[BewareTheNiceOnes He does. Said friend unremorsefully kills Jefferson Hope.]]
249	* TroubleEntendre: Played with for laughs; when John is driven to a secret location to meet a sinister gentleman who inquires after his friendship with Holmes and attempts to bribe him for regular updates on Holmes' activities, he becomes convinced by the man's manner that he's some kind of master criminal speaking in these ("I worry about him. Constantly"). Turns out, it's actually Sherlock's brother Mycroft, who was being entirely sincere and (for him) straightforward the whole time.
250	-->'''John:''' So, when you say you're concerned about him, you actually ''are'' concerned about him?\
251	'''Mycroft:''' ''[As if John's grown a second head]'' [[SincerityMode Yes, of course.]]
252	* UncoveringRelationshipStatus: John asks Sherlock if he has a girlfriend or a boyfriend. When Sherlock makes it clear that he's single, John replies "Right. Okay. You're unattached. Like me. Fine. Good."
253	* TheUnreveal: Right when we are about to learn which pill was poisoned, John shoots the serial killer. Now we will never know.
254	* WasntThatFun: Sherlock and John have an important one of these after a chase, as John realizes his limp actually is psychosomatic and going on Sherlock's little adventures makes him forget the pain. The moment doesn't last long... but by the end of the episode, John no longer needs his cane...
255	* WeaponForIntimidation: The culprit threatens the eponymous detective with a gun. Before long, Sherlock has reason to call his bluff - it's a novelty lighter.
256	* WeddingRingRemoval: Sherlock is examining the body of the woman in pink, comparing, in particular, her well-maintained jewelry and her dirty and tarnished wedding band; he finds the latter to be clean on the inside, meaning it was regularly removed, leading him to conclude that she was a serial adulterer.
257	* WellIntentionedExtremist: Jeff Hope. He was killing innocent people in a semi-suicidal murder spree, but he wanted to ensure his children would be better off after his inevitable death; for every life he took, money would be paid to his children.
258	* WhamLine: There's a brilliantly comical, subverted take on this trope when Sherlock and John encounter the mysterious and ominous man who has introduced himself as Sherlock's archenemy.
259	-->'''Mycroft:''' This petty feud between us is simply childish; people will suffer... And you know how it always upset Mummy.
260	* WorthyOpponent: While Jeff Hope talks about all his other victims as if they were idiots, he seems to hold Sherlock in some regard. Granted he still thinks Sherlock's not as smart as him, but he's conversational with him and even compliments Sherlock on the ideas Sherlock's put on his website.
261	* XanatosSpeedChess: Used by the cabbie. When Sherlock realises the gun is fake and he can just walk away unharmed, the cabbie changes tactics and uses reverse psychology instead, convincing Sherlock to take a risk by appealing to his vanity.
262	* YoureInsane: Sherlock himself gets called a psychopath:
263	-->I'm not a psychopath, Anderson, I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research.
264	* YourDaysAreNumbered: Jeff Hope has a life-threatening aneurysm, meaning he lives with the knowledge any breath could be his last.

Context Recap / SherlockS01E01AStudyInPink