"'Dear Jim, please will you fix it for me to get rid of my lover's nasty sister?', 'Dear Jim, please will you fix it for me to disappear to South America?' [...] Consulting criminal. Brilliant."
— Sherlock Holmes
The third episode of the first series of Sherlock. The episode starts in Belarus, with Sherlock declining a case from a grammatically-challenged prisoner. We return to London, and Sherlock is bored. Very bored. So bored that he starts shooting walls which, naturally, John isn't very happy about. John decamps to Sarah's house just before a massive explosion blasts out the windows of 221B.
John returns to the flat to find Mycroft requesting that Sherlock find some missing missile defence plans. Despite having nothing on, Sherlock claims to be busy — a claim which comes true minutes later when he receives a phone call from Scotland Yard. Turns out that the explosion was a bomb which destroyed the whole house across the road — all save a strongbox containing a rather familiar phone. The phone plays five pips (the sound of the Greenwich Time Signal) before displaying an image of the unoccupied flat below Sherlock and John's.
The dusty basement flat is empty, save for a pair of shoes; Sherlock's examination of them is interrupted by a phone call from a woman with explosives strapped to her — or, more accurately, someone using her as a voice to disguise their own. Sherlock has twelve hours to solve the mystery of the shoes before the woman blows up.
Sherlock goes to the lab at Bart's to analyse the mud on the shoes, where he is joined by John and, later, Molly. Molly has brought along her ostentatiously camp new boyfriend, Jim from IT. Sherlock breaks Molly's dreams of romance by informing her, in a typically Sherlocky manner, that her Jim is gay, causing her to run from the room. Poor lamb. However, don't let that keep you down for long, as Sherlock solves the case and informs the bomber via blog post. The woman is saved and cut loose, and Sherlock receives another message.
Sherlock solves the problem and another two (although one of the rigged people attempts to talk about the bomber, which triggers the explosive and kills her and twelve others in their apartment building), along with recovering the missile plans on the side. John goes out to Sarah's place while Sherlock, being Sherlock, decides to arrange a meeting with the mysterious bomber. Of course, it's not all that straightforward — first it seems that the bomber is John, but then it's revealed that John's rigged to blow, and they're surrounded by snipers.
We finally meet the mysterious Moriarty, who turns out to be... Jim from IT. A "consulting criminal" who's spent years solving other people's problems, he's delighted to have found a proper challenge, and couldn't care less about the missile plans. All of this has been for his own amusement, and to show Sherlock exactly what he's capable of. He fully intends to kill Sherlock someday, but doesn't want to end his fun just yet; he's saving that up for something truly special. However, if Sherlock keeps interfering in his affairs, he will do worse than kill him. "I will burn the HEART out of you."
With that cheery message delivered, he swaggers off and takes his snipers with him. Sherlock removes John's bomb and it looks like everything's going to be alright, but then —
Jim: Sorry boys, I'm soooo changeable!
Jim's back! With more snipers! And danger! There doesn't seem to be any way for the duo to avoid death. Then Sherlock points a gun at the bomb.
Cut to the credits and an eighteen-month wait.
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Jewish: The assassin The Golem is named after a creature of Jewish folklore.
- Anachronistic Clue: The episode features a forged painting of a night scene, where one of the stars in the sky is a star that only became visible to the naked eye when it went nova, after the painting was supposedly finished.
- Answer Cut: Yet another situation where John ends up being the butt of a joke.Sherlock: I'm putting my best man on to it, right now.
John: Right. Good. ...Who is that?Cut to the next scene with John at Mycroft's office collecting more clues. - Artistic Licence – Geography:
- Sherlock discovers one victim had mud on his shoes from London and Sussex - whilst the results on the map flag London and Suffolk - 137 miles away.
- Artistic Licence – Gun Safety:
- At the beginning of the episode, Sherlock is so bored that he's using a handgun to shoot holes into the wall to form a smiley face. This is incredibly reckless and dangerous because it would only take one resilient bullet to make it through that wall and hit someone on the other side — one of the reasons it's against the law to practice shooting in a residential area outside of a shooting range. John is suitably appalled. Not only that but in the commentary for this episode, Benedict Cumberbatch mentioned that he had managed to shoot a hole in the dressing gown that was his costume for that scene.
- During the poolside confrontation, Sherlock waves the gun around for emphasis, before SCRATCHING HIS HEAD WITH IT. Bear in mind the gun is loaded, no safety, and cocked, with his finger still on the trigger. Granted, he is having a bit of an emotional meltdown at the time, what with his only real friend at that time being wired with explosives and all.
- Artistic Licence - Space:
- Sherlock and John look up at a sky that one would only see in the very best viewing conditions (like in a park on a clear night out in the middle of nowhere)—certainly not in the downtown area of modern, light-polluted London.
- The snippet of a planetarium show we see says the Earth would fit into Jupiter 11 times. It's actually Jupiter's diameter that's 11 times Earth's, not its volume (which is about 1,300 Earths).
- The Van Buren Supernova is completely fictional. There is no supernova whose light reached the Earth in 1858 and was visible to the naked eye (at least not in this universe).
- Baker Street Regular: We learn that Sherlock has been employing the homeless of London as informants.
- Bald of Evil: The Golem again.
- Bat Deduction: Sherlock examines a corpse and suddenly tells Lestrade "that lost Vermeer painting's a fake." When John and Lestrade demand an explanation, Sherlock explains that the man's physical health as well as the type and state of his clothes led him to conclude he was a security guard, probably at a museum or gallery given the presence of ticket stubs in his pocket and an insignia of some sort torn from the clothes to prevent identification. Sherlock quickly looked up any museums reporting missing persons and found one, which has apparently come into possession of a thought-to-be-lost masterpiece and is to be selling it tonight. Sherlock thus deduces the man must have known something that would jeopardise the sale and was killed to keep it quiet; the obvious conclusion is forgery.
- Beeping Computers: Sherlock's computer at the lab makes a beep sound when the molecular search is completed.
- Big Bad Friend: Subverted. Just for a minute, when Watson shows up at the swimming pool, it looks like he's Moriarty... until he opens his jacket and reveals that he's strapped to a bomb.
- Black Screen of Death: The series 1 finale ending.
- Bolivian Army Ending: Moriarty has about a dozen snipers trained on Sherlock and John, with John's suicide-bomb jacket on the floor a few feet away. Sherlock aims his gun at Moriarty... then at the bomber jacket. And then it ends.
- Break the Haughty: Happens to Sherlock in the climax. He dismisses the lives put on the line by Moriarty, ecstatic about the puzzles set before him and the pleasure of unravelling the mystery of Moriarty's overall plan. But then Moriarty puts John's life on the line. And it turns out that the entire game was not what Sherlock had guessed, and was only used to get Sherlock out in the open so that Moriarty could get rid of him and John.
- Brief Accent Imitation:
- Sherlock abandons his usual upper-crust tones for a more cockney accent, pretending to be a grief-stricken friend of the departed, but intentionally getting things wrong. He knows that people will automatically contradict any mistakes made by a stranger pretending to be a friend or relative, which means that she'll expose things that she wouldn't if he was actually an old friend of her husband.
- Moriarty seems to be putting on a generic English accent in the scene where he meets Sherlock while pretending to be "Jim from IT", but then reverts back to Andrew Scott's natural Irish brogue when he reveals himself.note It's hard to understand his motivations.
- For those who don't know, it's a posh Dublin 4 accent.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Sherlock makes John pass him his phone from his jacket pocket. The jacket he was wearing.
- Bystander Syndrome: At least two of the hostages were visibly crying and frightened in public. If one person stopped to say, "Are you okay?", Moriarty's plan wouldn't have worked. Granted, Moriarty being Moriarty, he probably had a failsafe he could implement if this happened.
- Call-Back: Several references are made to Moriarty's earlier scheme in "A Study in Pink".
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Everybody involved in the last scene. Most notably, of course, Sherlock and Moriarty, who have quite the civilised conversation and for a while almost forget about the bomb and the gun. Though, to be fair, John is the one who has enough gumption to crack an actual joke once he's free to use his own words. Even parroting Moriarty's, however, he does wind up with a peculiarly sarcastic tone of voice with "stop his heart".
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- Jim from IT is Moriarty.
- The biker who later turns out to have caused the death of the train jump victim.
- Chekhov's Skill: Almost reverse example: Sherlock's lack of knowledge about the solar system (because he doesn't consider it necessary) nearly causes him to lose the fourth 'round' with Moriarty. It's only a convenient slideshow at the planetarium that clues him in on the answer he needs.
- Chekhov's News: A side mention of an art display opening on the morning news later becomes a plot point.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Moriarty betrays several of his criminal clients as part of his game with Sherlock by helping them carry out their crimes, only to then bring the crimes to Sherlock's attention so that the latter will expose them.
- Cliffhanger: The season finale ends on a Mexican Standoff between Sherlock and Moriarty.
- Clue, Evidence, and a Smoking Gun: Sherlock concludes that "Jim from IT" is gay based on his grooming habits, choice of clothes, and the fact that he slipped Sherlock his phone number.
- Coincidental Broadcast: While sitting at a diner, Sherlock and John overhear a TV news report about the death of Connie Prince, which provides them with another lead in their investigation.
- Continuity Nod: John's psychosomatic limp returns for a few seconds at the end, when the same leg buckles at the swimming pool.
- Criminal Mind Games: The entirety of this episode. Every case Sherlock has to solve ends up having been orchestrated by Moriarty, looking for a fun challenge. It's implied that he, as a consulting criminal, has been arranging a vast array of crimes all over the place. Subverted in that the whole thing was to distract Sherlock from the plans. Revealed that the plans were a MacGuffin, and double-subverted, when Moriarty tosses them away.
- Crocodile Tears: Sherlock is apparently able to cry on cue. He pretends to be a grieving friend when speaking to a victim's wife, purposely getting things wrong about her husband to get her to reveal information by contradicting him. Once he has his information, Sherlock instantly drops the act and wipes away his fake tears as he and John leave.
- Curse Cut Short:
- John gets in an epic one:John: [opens fridge innocently, sees human head, slams fridge door shut] Oh FFFFF—!
- He never quite finishes his reaction of "Aw sh-" when he realises he hasn't got his gun on him when he and Sherlock go after the Golem.
- John gets in an epic one:
- Death Glare: Surprisingly, this is what we saw during the fight with the Golem in the planetarium when Sherlock is in a headlock in an attempt to strangle him or snap his neck-and to make matters scarier? John's DOING it. Uh-oh. Unfortunately, the gun was knocked out but MAN, he was PISSED OFF.
- Didn't See That Coming: Sherlock has this twice, about thirty seconds apart, in the confrontation at the pool:
- When Sherlock first shows up at the pool and starts talking to the then-unseen Moriarty, he is filled with confidence and bravado. Then John walks in, and the apparent implication that he is Moriarty is enough to completely take the wind out of Sherlock's sails, immediately pushing him into a (very brief) Heroic BSoD.
- His face shows a more subdued version when he (and the audience) sees who Moriarty really is: Molly's new boyfriend, "Jim from I.T."
- Disproportionate Retribution: Moriarty claims he was laughed at by Carl Powers... which is why he was poisoned.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Moriarty is revealed to be Molly's boyfriend, Jim, who showed up briefly earlier in the episode. Though this last was guessable, considering "Jim" is a nickname for "James".
- Double Take: When Sherlock discovers at the police station that Lestrade (and the other cops) reads John's blog, after Lestrade gives a Title Drop of the first episode (which was, In-Universe, named by the title of John's blog post):Lestrade: What, from 'A Study in Pink'?
Sherlock: Obviously it's not the same phone but it's supposed to look l- (short Beat) 'A Study in Pink'? You read his blog? - Dramatic Gun Cock: Sherlock cocks his gun on Moriarty during the climax when the latter claims that no-one will ever get to him.
- Everyone Knows Morse: John blinks SOS at Sherlock when they meet at the end of the episode.
- Environmental Symbolism: When Moriarty first comes around the corner, he's in front of a sign that says "Deep End".
- Establishing Character Moment: Moriarty gets two. His first appearance has him masquerade as "Jim from IT", the obviously gay boyfriend of Molly which retrospectively shows how capable he is at being Hidden in Plain Sight, while his second appearance has him introduce himself while holding John hostage with a suicide-vest, being alternatively affable and menacing, in addition to establishing him as a complete sociopath and Sherlock's Evil Counterpart.Sherlock: People have died.
Moriarty: That's what people DO! - Facepalm:
- John, after finding a human head inside the fridge.
- John again, during the intensely awkward meeting between Molly, Sherlock and Jim near the beginning. Molly is trying to provoke Sherlock to jealousy, Jim is unashamedly fawning over Sherlock while tripping over his own feet, Sherlock is being outrageously rude to both of them, and everyone is ignoring John. Good times.
- Famous-Named Foreigner: Czech Miss Wenceslas, presumably named for Wenceslaus of Bohemia. Unfortunately, this also violates Czech naming conventions, as that name would be Václav in Czech, would be exclusively male, and would only be used as a first name.
- Foreign Money Is Proof of Guilt: Justified. Sherlock suspects a car dealer of having lied about travelling overseas. He sneaks a peek in the man's wallet and sees a Colombian banknote, the final clue he needs to solve the case.
- Foreshadowing: Moriarty mockingly feigns an expression of shock, after commenting that if Sherlock did decide to shoot him in the face, all he'd get to enjoy is his look of genuine surprise. In the following season's finale "The Reichenbach Fall", Moriarty adopts the same expression when he decides to spite Sherlock, by turning his gun on himself.
- Gas Leak Cover Up: Played with, as the explosion that tore through Baker Street is initially thought to be a gas leak, but was later discovered to be a bombing made to look like one.
- Giant Mook: The Golem. Comes with the territory when your M.O. involves suffocating your victims with your bare hands.
- Grammar Correction Gag: Sherlock is talking to a prisoner and is more annoyed with the man's crimes against good grammar than the murder he committed. At the end the prisoner begs him to help, otherwise he'll get hung. Holmes responds: "No, not at all. Hanged? Yes".
- Grammar Nazi: A prospective client describes the events leading to his wife's murder, but is repeatedly interrupted by Holmes to correct his grammar (see quotes page for complete exchange).
- Prisoner: Without you... I'll get hung for this!
Sherlock: No, no, Mr. Bewick, not at all.
[prisoner looks relieved]
Sherlock: Hanged, yes.
- Heroic BSoD: Sherlock when he thinks John is Moriarty.
- Hostage Situation: A recurring plot. Becomes personal at the end when John is the final hostage.
- Idiot Ball: There is no other explanation for why West would have copied the Bruce-Partington Plans to an easily portable medium and taken them to the pub instead of just leaving them in the secure facility they were supposed to be in.
- I Have Your Friend: Moriarty captures John, puts him in a bomb vest, and has his sniper aim the rifle at John during their confrontation, which keeps Sherlock from doing anything rash.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face/Reckless Gun Usage:
- At the beginning of the episode, Sherlock is so bored he's using a handgun to shoot holes into the wall forming a smiley face. This is incredibly reckless and dangerous because it would only take one resilient bullet to make it through that wall and hit someone on the other side — one of the reasons you are not allowed to practice shooting in a residential area outside of a shooting range. John is suitably appalled.
- Not only that, but in the commentary for this episode, Benedict Cumberbatch mentioned that he had managed to shoot a hole in the dressing gown that was his costume for that scene.
- The way Sherlock was swinging John's gun around at the end of the episode, the series could very well have ended with Sherlock accidentally shooting himself in the head before Moriarty got the chance to come back and finish the job. He rubbed his temple with the barrel of a loaded gun!
- He also waves it at John as a careless gesture as he's trying to blurt out a thank you to him.
- At the beginning of the episode, Sherlock is so bored he's using a handgun to shoot holes into the wall forming a smiley face. This is incredibly reckless and dangerous because it would only take one resilient bullet to make it through that wall and hit someone on the other side — one of the reasons you are not allowed to practice shooting in a residential area outside of a shooting range. John is suitably appalled.
- I Made Copies: When John lampshades the foolishness of putting some top secret plans on a memory stick that is now lost, Mycroft points out "it's not the only copy."
- In Vino Veritas: Andrew West's death was indirectly caused by blabbing to his future brother-in-law while overindulging at the pub.
- Ironic Echo:Sherlock: People have died.
Moriarty: That's what people DO! - Irony: In the opening, Sherlock expressed his disdain for astronomy because it is useless as a forensic tool, only to find that one of Moriarty's puzzles revolves entirely around historical astronomy.
- It's Personal: For most of the episode, Sherlock treats the bomb threats as an interesting and hugely enjoyable diversion. That changes once John gets targeted and subsequently put in a bomb-rigged jacket.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Knowing what the Earth revolves around wouldn't have helped Sherlock solve the puzzle.
- Kansas City Shuffle: The bombings in Moriarty's "game" with Sherlock initially seem to be out of a mixture of pure evil, boredom, and a cry for Sherlock's attention. Then, Sherlock speculates that the bombings were meant as a distraction for him, and that Moriarty was actually after the missile plans that Sherlock found in a side-quest for Mycroft. It turns out that Moriarty wanted Sherlock to reach this conclusion, but was ultimately just trying to lure Sherlock into a trap so it would be easier to eliminate him and John.
- Karma Houdini: The Golem.
- Laser Sight: The visible dots are used to intimidate the hostages, and later John, then Sherlock, during the last scenes of the episode. These were also foreshadowed in the dénouement of "The Blind Banker".
- Lens Flare: During the planetarium scene.
- Light-Flicker Teleportation: During the planetarium when the Golem sneaks up behind Sherlock.
◊ - Mad Bomber: Although it ends up being less mad and more part of a Criminal Mind Games.
- Mexican Standoff: The ending, with Moriarty having snipers trained on Sherlock and John, and Sherlock about to trigger a massive explosion.
- Mythology Gag:
- The conversation about Sherlock not knowing or caring that the Earth orbits the sun is from A Study in Scarlet, including his explanation that he doesn't want to waste memory space with irrelevancies (although in the original his metaphor is a storeroom rather than a hard drive).
- Sherlock dealing with boredom by making bullet-hole patterns in the wall of the flat is from "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual".
- When the phone plays five time pips at the start of Moriarty's first message, Sherlock mentions that sending someone seeds or pips could be a warning message in some criminal organizations; this was the central plot point of "The Five Orange Pips".
- A message on Bohemian writing paper is a plot point in "A Scandal in Bohemia".
- The subplot about the stolen MOD plans is a fairly straight update of "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans".
- Never Suicide: The presumed train jumper was actually killed by accident by his future brother-in-law.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Sherlock, John, and Lestrade when the child's voice is first heard over the phone giving the ten-second countdown at the art gallery. Lestrade and John completely freak out, while trying not to distract Sherlock; Lestrade ends up screaming at him to just stop dicking around and solve the puzzle, and John is so relieved after that he's actually gasping for breath.
- Sherlock's facial expression when John enters the pool room just screams this trope, in combination with Heroic BSoD. His face shows a slightly more minor one when he sees that John actually has bombs strapped to him.
- John when he sees that the sniper is now aiming at Sherlock's head, thwarting John's Taking You with Me plan.
- Operation: Jealousy: Molly presenting her new boyfriend to Sherlock can be seen as an attempt at such.
- Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?: "Is that a British Army Browning L9A1 in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?" "Both."
- Out-of-Character Alert: John is kidnapped and forced to fool Sherlock into thinking he's Moriarty. There are many, many indications that something is obviously not right, such as John blinking SOS at Sherlock, speaking in an unusual monotone, and wearing a thick jacket (with a bomb-strapped vest underneath) that he was a) not wearing when he left Baker Street and b) according to Mrs. Hudson, would never wear anyway. There is no indication that Sherlock picks up on any of these hints, which is a pretty big Out-of-Character Alert in its own right, showing how deeply shaken he is at the prospect of John's friendship being a lie.
- Perpetual Tourist: One of the crimes that Moriarty arranges and subsequently gets Sherlock to expose is a Perpetual Tourist's travel plan.
- Post-Victory Collapse: John almost collapses on the spot after Sherlock rips the bomb vest off him. Perfectly understandable reaction, though, and it doesn't diminish the moment.
- If anything, it makes the moment. It makes John's stoic command of himself during the stand-off all the more impressive. It's clear that he's not unafraid or unaware of the danger — he just manages to hold himself together until Moriarty leaves.
- Also, a rare moment of vulnerability from Sherlock: His panicked "Are you all right? ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?!" to John after his "Catch ... you ... later" swagger to Jim. Followed by him distractedly pacing, and trying to stammer out a thanks to John, while he scratches the back of his head with a loaded gun.Sherlock: That — uh — thing that you did — that you offered to do — that was — um — good.
- Race Against the Clock: Sherlock is given twelve hours to solve the first mystery, eight hours for the second, and ten seconds to prove the Vermeer painting is a fake.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: It may seem at first like a continuity error - the TV report on Connie Prince's death lists her age as 48, yet in the next scene, when Sherlock, John and Lestrade go to the morgue, Lestrade reads the patient record which says her age is 54. It's actually not unheard of that celebrities will lie about their age. The media reports give the age she was claiming to be, while her medical records show her real age.
- The Reveal: Molly's new boyfriend "Jim" is actually James "Jim" Moriarty, who was using her to keep an eye on Sherlock.
- Rule of Pool: Averted.
- Screw Your Ultimatum!: A variation. Moriarty would give an ultimatum, but doesn't even bother, because he knows Sherlock wouldn't accept it.Moriarty: I would try to convince you, but everything I have to say has already crossed your mind.
Sherlock: Then possibly my answer has crossed yours. (points gun at the bomb jacket) - Sherlock Scan: Subverted when Sherlock, having pronounced Molly's new boyfriend Jim gay, follows up a long list of subtle, ambiguous clues about Jim's personal grooming habits with the fact that he has just given Sherlock his phone number. And after all that, he still misses the fact that Jim's last name is Moriarty.
- Soap Within a Show: Implied when Sherlock watches daytime TV and winds up yelling at it.Sherlock: No, no, NOOOOOO! OF COURSE he's not the boy's father! Look at the turn-ups on his jeans!
- Staircase Tumble: The train jumper victim was killed falling down a flight of stairs during a fight with his future brother-in-law.
- Strapped to a Bomb: The episode is based around having this trope as the conflict.
- String Theory: In Sherlock's apartment we see a map with photos of the bombing victims and strings attached.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The building across the street from 221B, and the blind woman.
- Suddenly Shouting:Sherlock: People have died.
Moriarty: That's what people DO!!! - Suspiciously Specific Tense: At a potential crime scene where a blood-soaked car has been discovered, Sherlock questions a woman as to her husband's supposed state of mind leading up to the presumed suicide. She uses the past tense when describing him, something he finds suspicious considering they've only just found the car. John figures that she might have killed him, but Sherlock brushes off the tense as something a murderer would specifically know to get "wrong". Turns out the husband had faked his own death to avoid money troubles; his wife was in on it, spreading the idea that he was deeply depressed.
- Taking You with Me: This constitutes Watson's plan to defeat Moriarty. It doesn't work, but still badass.
- Tan Lines: Sherlock deduces that a rental car agency owner is lying about not having been to Colombia recently because of his tan.
- Tranquil Fury: "Let him go, or I will kill you."
- Tropical Epilogue: One of the crimes that Moriarty arranges and subsequently has Sherlock expose is a character's plan to do this.
- Vehicle-Roof Body Disposal: Andrew West's killer places the body on top of a train to get it as far away as possible. The body falls off when the train jolts over switch points in a rail yard.
- Verbal Backspace: After Molly shows off her new boyfriend Jim to her long-standing crush, Sherlock.Sherlock: [after a very brief Sherlock Scan, turning back to his work] Gay.
Molly: What?
Sherlock: Nothing. [flashes Jim an artificial smile] Hey.- Made
Hilarious in Hindsight when we learn that that was Jim Moriarty.
- Made
- Villain Ball: The Golem grabs Sherlock in a headlock in an attempt to strangle him or snap his neck, which leads to one good-looking (and extremely pissed-off) war veteran to threaten death on the guy.
- Wasn't That Fun?: A psychopathic criminal is strapping people to bombs and giving the titular hero puzzles which he must solve in order to save them. Sherlock finds this genuinely interesting.Sherlock: I am on fire!
- We All Die Someday: This exchange between Sherlock and Moriarty demonstrates how psychotic the latter is:Sherlock Holmes: People have died.
Jim Moriarty: That's what people DO! - Wham Episode: Moriarty makes his entrance.
- Wham Line: The line that introduces us to our villain:Moriarty: I gave you my number. I thought you might call.
- Would Hurt a Child: Moriarty's final hostage calls Sherlock at the gallery with only seconds to go before the bomb goes off.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Moriarty, having seemingly left Sherlock and John unharmed following a tense showdown involving explosives and a sniper, returns at the last minute, declaring "I'm so changeable!" as additional snipers reveal themselves. At this, Sherlock aims a handgun at the previously mentioned explosives, before the shot cuts to a Black Screen of Death... Cue a year-long cliffhanger wait for Series 2.
