History Series / Sherlock

* AerithAndBob: Sherlock and John.
** And, as revealed at the end of S3, [[spoiler:the Holmes boys: Mycroft and William]].

* ChekhovsGag: During a scene in "A Scandal In Belgravia", there is a Cluedo board randomly pinned to the wall with a dagger, which goes completely unacknowledged. In the next episode, John and Sherlock have an argument about Cluedo, with John vehemently refusing to ever play the game with Sherlock again (because according to Sherlock, the only possible solution is for the victim to also be the killer and the rules are clearly wrong). John must have gotten a bit worked up last time they played...

* BorrowedWithoutPermission: {{Inverted}} - Sherlock says that if he wanted to look at naked women, he'd borrow John's computer. John retorts that Sherlock does borrow it. Sherlock then states, "I confiscate it."

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[{{Tagline}} A new sleuth for the 21st Century]]''.]]

*** Sherlock identifies a person, albeit falsely, though scent.

** Sherlock himself notes that Molly was this to [[spoiler:Jim Moriarty. Moriarty didn't think to include her among the list of Sherlock's closest friends (which included John, Mrs. Hudson, and Lestrade) whom he would threaten to kill to force him to go along with his plan, and this oversight allowed Sherlock to turn to Molly for help in faking his death]].

** The last lines of the [[Recap/SherlockS01E01AStudyInPink first episode]] and [[Recap/SherlockS04E03TheFinalProblem last episode]] are "Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson", where it is said by Mycroft and Mary Watson ([[spoiler:albeit posthumously in a video message]]). It is immediately accompanied by a slow motion shot of the duo, [[PowerWalk where the former episode depicts them walking away from a solved mystery]], [[AndTheAdventureContinues while the latter has the two running towards a new one]], [[GrandFinale and many more to come]].

** It works both ways, however, since he arrogantly and blithely antagonizes and embarrasses them despite the fact that they are police officers with, as shown in the first episode, 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. This comes back to bite him in a big way in "The Reichenbach Fall", when [[spoiler:Moriarty finds it very easy to convince the police Sherlock is a fraud and a criminal simply because, with the exception of Lestrade, they all hate him for how he's treated them]].

** In "A Study In Pink," the murderer says he's able to get away with his crimes because [[spoiler:no one ever pays attention to their cab driver.]] This comes back to bite Sherlock in "The Reichenbach Fall," when he gets in a cab and doesn't realize his driver is [[spoiler:Moriarty.]]
** A more generic case occurs with the theme of never looking at people past their occupation; John fails to recognize [[spoiler:Sherlock when the latter disguises himself as a waiter while meeting John again after 2 years.]] Upon dropping the disguise [[spoiler:Sherlock]] even lampshades the effect a tuxedo has in an establishment full of tuxedo-wearing waiters. [[spoiler:Eurus Holmes also takes advantage of this in "The Lying Detective".]]

** Everybody involved in the last scene in "The Great Game". Most notably, of course, [[spoiler:Sherlock and Moriarty, who have quite the civilized 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 slightly sarcastic tone of voice with "stop his heart".]]

** Mr. Spock from ''Franchise/StarTrek'' is mentioned in the series, but in 2013 Benedict Cumberbatch had a major role in ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness''. If Star Trek exists in the Sherlock universe, someone should probably notice that the bad guy of that movie looks a lot like the famous detective.

** Mrs. Hudson demonstrates she's much tougher and more resourceful than she looks in "A Scandal in Belgravia".

** [[spoiler:Mrs. Hudson's Repairman]] in "The Reichenbach Fall".

** In "The Reichenbach Fall," John gets a call that Mrs. Hudson has been shot. Sherlock seems unconcerned to hear this and insists he'll stay where they are to work on the case. John, baffled, notes that Sherlock "once half-killed a man for laying a finger on her." (The event in question occurs in "A Scandal in Belgravia.")

** In "The Empty Hearse," in response to Mrs. Hudson's question about how John responded to Sherlock, Sherlock says, "F--" before the shot cuts to John in the surgery asking a patient to, "Cough." (Possibly [[PlayingWithATrope a subversion]], in that we hear "F-ck off" through "F-Cough" -- so, via clever clip cutting, he is actually swearing.)
** In "The Six Thatchers" Sherlock cuts off Mary's astonished "How the f-" with "Please, Mary, there is a child present" [[spoiler:when she finds Sherlock waiting for her in a hotel in Morocco after she's travelled across the world in a random pattern to prevent anyone from following her.]]

** Lestrade is much more impatient and petulant

* EmotionsVsStoicism: Sherlock's lack of emotion (and also that of his brother, Mycroft) is often shown in comparison the the more emotional John. Whilst Sherlock's lack of emotion helps him to solve crimes, it doesn't always endear him to people.

* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Sherlock would often start a sentence only to get an EurekaMoment before finishing it.

** John again, during the intensely awkward meeting between Molly, Sherlock and Jim at the beginning of "The Great Game." 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.

* FakeGuestStar: Rupert Graves (Lestrade) and Mark Gatiss (Mycroft) both appear in every episode of the second, third, and fourth series; Louise Brealey (Molly) appears in every episode of the first, third, and fourth series; and Una Stubbs (Mrs. Hudson) appears in every episode, but only Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are allowed to have their names in the opening titles.

** TheChick: Mrs. Hudson and Molly

--->'''[[spoiler:The cabbie]]:''' "I'm not going to kill you, Mr. Holmes. I'm going to talk to you, and you're going to kill yourself."\\

** In "The Sign of Three": [[spoiler:a rather sad one. Mrs. Hudson tells Sherlock of how marriage led to the decline in her friendship with her best friend -- she comments particularly on how that friend spent the whole evening in tears and left early. Sherlock doesn't do tears...but he spends most of the episode torn up over how his relationship with John looks set to weaken, if not disappear entirely. And he does leave John's wedding early. Alone.]]

*** [[spoiler:This is even more, fitting the trope, as those texts make the spectator think, that he got all the information through his glasses. And Sherlock thinks the same, until he checks the glasses himself.]]

** Comes up again in "The Empty Hearse". Mrs. Hudson is apparently [[ShipperOnDeck a big Sherlock/John shipper]].

** There are also gay couples in every other episode: Harry and her ex-wife, Mrs. Turners married ones, Connie Prince's brother and one of her staff, Irene Adler and her maid (and others) and inn keepers at Baskerville.

* IconicOutfit: Played for laughs. Sherlock picks up the iconic deerstalker completely at random, intending to hide his face from reporters who have gotten wind of his existence. The public assumes it's his usual look; cue an exasperated Sherlock having to fend of compliments from people about his [[SignatureHeadgear signature hat]]. In "The Reichenbach Fall" he rants at length at a deerstalker he received as a gift about how it's a hat that makes no sense.

** The plot of "The Blind Banker" depends on the villains being complete morons throughout the episode: from assassinating the smugglers who could've given them vital information, to assuming John was Sherlock, to using Moriarty to get into the country rather than hire him to steal back the Empress Pin outright.

** In "The Reichenbach Fall", when some extremely circumstancial evidence leads Donovan and Lestrade to believe that [[spoiler:Sherlock kidnapped and poisoned two children. Anderson even speculates that Sherlock may have committed ''twenty or thirty crimes'' that he had helped the police investigate in the past, despite the piles of hard evidence that discount such a theory.]]

** In "His Last Vow", [[spoiler:Magnussen picks the ball up and carries past the goal posts, out the stadium and to his ignoble demise by revealing to Sherlock and John that there is no physical vault full of the most scandalous information that could spell the doom of the western world. All that information is not stored in computers or papers, but in the memory palace ''in his head'', which means there are no contingencies, like, say, backup copies that could be disseminated should something unfortunate happen to Magnussen. And ''then'' the man proceeds to threaten and humiliate John in front of Sherlock, both of whom were not frisked for weapons. Sherlock, with all his [[BerserkButton Berserk Buttons]] pressed, with no reason to let Magnussen live and all the incentive to kill him, proceeds to blow the man's brains out.]] He might have been excused on the basis that an ordinary, decent person probably wouldn't do this, but [[spoiler:Magnussen]], despite having extensive knowledge of Sherlock, also made the huge mistake of labelling Sherlock a noble, [[spoiler:non-lethal]] hero, when he is in fact a self-described [[AntiHero "high-functioning sociopath"]]. Right before [[spoiler:killing him]], Sherlock actually calls him out on this. There's being {{Outgambitted}}, TooDumbToLive, and WrongGenreSavvy all at once.
** Mycroft suffers it in "A Scandal in Belgravia", as he needs Sherlock to interact with a subject of particular interest to the British government but never warns him of what her actual intentions may be or who the stakeholders are in the matter, resulting in Sherlock [[spoiler:doing her job for her unintentionally by playing on his ChallengeSeeker personality]]. It ends up [[spoiler:ruining a multi-national counter-terrorism operation and tipping their hand to the terrorists whom they had been spying on, undoing countless hours of work and surveillance]]. Their person of interest even points this out [[spoiler:as Mycroft helplessly accedes her demands. It's only with an eleventh-hour deduction by Sherlock that saves face for all the duped parties]].

* LaserSight: In "The Great Game," the visible dots are used to intimidate the hostages [[spoiler:and later John and then Sherlock himself]]. These were also foreshadowed in the dénouement of "The Blind Banker". A few of these have angles that are obviously impossible, since the long shots show a wall two feet away in that direction.

** In the first episode, we are lead to believe that [[spoiler:Mycroft is Moriarty]]. So any subsequent episode or trailer that shows [[spoiler:him as Sherlock's brother]] is a spoiler to those planning to start watching the episodes later.

** Sherlock [[DiegeticSoundtrackUsage composing]] Irene Adler's leifmotif throughout "Scandal in Belgravia".

** John Watson's blog has some expansions on character that are priceless, and all three -- John's blog, Sherlock's website and Molly Hooper's blog -- hold some clues as to the outcome of [[spoiler:the MexicanStandoff ending of "The Great Game"]].

** In one conversation, Sherlock and John both seem convinced the other is gay. The waiter of the restaurant they go to also thinks this, calling John a date and bringing them a romantic candle. Mycroft and Mrs. Hudson also get in on it, too.

* MistakenForRomance: Sherlock John are HeterosexualLifePartners but their obvious (though prickly) affection for each other is frequently mistaken for being romantic.

** Even done at [[spoiler:Sherlock's grave]] when Mrs. Hudson begins ranting about Sherlock's odd habits, the body parts in the fridge and shooting in the flat at one in the morning. Bonus points for [[spoiler:John's plea for Sherlock not to be dead immediately afterwards.]]
** During arguably the most tense, depressing part of the entire series we get this:

** What look like suicides in "A Study In Pink" turn out to be the work of a SerialKiller, [[spoiler: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.]]

* NoSmoking: Updated, considering the character in question had a notorious pipe smoking habit. It's lampshaded that "it's impossible to sustain a smoking habit in London these days". This leads both Sherlock and Lestrade to use nicotine patches instead.

** In the beginning of the Hounds of Baskerville, Sherlock enters the apartment ''covered in blood'' and carrying a well over 2 meter long ''harpoon''. He had apparently stabbed pigs with it. It has no relevance to the plot whatsoever.[[note]]It is, however, a reference to the Holmes short story "The Adventure of Black Peter".[[/note]]

** From John's blog, there's "The Inexplicable Matchbox", which involved Sherlock dressing up as a clown and Mrs. Hudson being pushed out of a helicopter. He's apparently unable to explain what happened due to "Every Official Secrets Act." We get a clue of what's in the matchbox in "The Sign of Three". Though it only makes it a bigger noodle incident.

** Whatever lead to the elephant in the room. Not a metaphor, a literal elephant.

** Mrs. Hudson even lampshades this in "The Lying Detective". [[spoiler:She describes how Sherlock is emotional. He shoots the wall when he's bored, and when he can't figure something out? He stabs it on the mantelpiece.]]

** Sherlock, John and Lestrade in "The Great Game", when [[spoiler:the child's voice is first heard over the phone at the art gallery, giving a ten second countdown.]] 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.

** In show, followed for the first two seasons, and then HEAVILY averted in season 3:

* OrwellianRetcon: John's blog does this a couple of times: the summary of "The Great Game" intially stopped dead, with increasingly panicky comments from Mrs Hudson and others who hadn't heard from either of them since. Once "Scandal" established the cliffhanger had been resolved quickly and simply, the whole thing got rewritten. And the original version of "The Six Thatchers" just disappeared completely when it was made into a full episode.

* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Between Mycroft and John, in four of six episodes so far. They're rarely downright rude to one another, and usually resign themselves to working together for Sherlock's good, but they're not friends and things can get awfully snarky and hostile at times. [[spoiler:And that isn't counting their last showdown in "The Reichenbach Fall", which is just out and out aggressive kombat.]]

** Lestrade does a lot of this. In "A Study in Pink" he 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." In "A Scandal in Belgravia", he makes a point of simply ''walking away'' from an incident where Sherlock [[spoiler:beats a CIA agent within an inch of his life and throws him out a window - because he's about as pissed off as Sherlock is over the spook threatening Mrs. Hudson.]]
** The Christmas party in "A Scandal in Belgravia": Sherlock is able to deduce that Molly is intending to romance someone with a special present; he just doesn't realise that that someone is ''him''. Particularly noteworthy because, in other episodes, he seems aware of Molly's crush on him and uses it to his advantage. He also manages to [[spoiler:crack Irene's phone security by deducing that she's in love with him]]. It seems that he's perfectly capable of observing these feelings in other people but, in Molly's case, it's not important or interesting to him so he overlooks it.

* SharedFamilyQuirks: In addition to both being geniuses, Sherlock and Mycroft are both obsessive compulsive. In "His Last Vow," Sherlock realises that Mycroft is at 221B because he has straightened the door knocker, something he does without realising he's doing it. Sherlock then proceeds to make it crooked again without a second thought. John even asks why Sherlock did that but Sherlock has no idea what John is talking about.

* SharpDressedMan: Both of the Holmes brothers qualify, Lestrade as well. While John is no slob, the former three are always in suits. Amusingly, in the commentary for "The Great Game", Benedict Cumberbatch bemoans the fact that he can't talk about the designer clothes he wears in the show since the names haven't been cleared. Moriarty in his Westwood is also quite an appearance.

** Mrs. Hudson falls just short of having a "Hi, [[YaoiFangirl Slash Fans]]!" sign above her head.

* UnreliableNarrator: Sherlock especially during his [[spoiler:wedding speech]]. He tries to convince Mary that he learned origami due to some amazing feat to solve a crime, only to admit he learned it on Website/YouTube. He states that to learn John's middle name was by earning his trust over a long course of time - he simply stole John's birth certificate. When he tells the people at the party that he told the guests he told John he was honoured at being made the [[spoiler:Best Man]], cut to Sherlock being almost frozen in silence multiple times. He did later admit after that he didn't say it at the time.

** The only reason Reichenbach Fall hadn't been added to this thread yet is because everyone else in the fandom was too busy reeling.

* WrongInsultOffence: "I'm not a psychopath - I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research." [[note]]Sherlock is mistaken. "Sociopath" and "psychopath" are both obsolete terms for people with Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), which Sherlock doesn't have. Unlike with autism, there is no spectrum of higher or lower functioning individuals.[[/note]]

** Mycroft isn't exactly handsome, but is far less slovenly than generally depicted. Because times change, he's shed most of the extra weight he carries in other adaptations.

* BatDeduction: Reconstructed. Sherlock makes ridiculous and implausible leaps in logic, but only to the view of those around him -- his mind just works so quickly that what seems a leap to everyone else is actually a precise series of steps undertaken with deductive reasoning. In "The Great Game," he's examining a corpse and suddenly tells Lestrade "that lost Vermeer painting’s a fake", leaving John and Lestrade confused about what he means. ​Sherlock explains that the man's clothes are cheap, heavy-duty formal attire that's too big for him, meaning it's a uniform, and his physical health shows he did a lot of sitting and walking, which lines up with him being a security guard. Some sort of insignia was torn off the shirt so he worked somewhere recognizable, and he had ticket stubs in his pocket, so it was probably a museum or a gallery. Sherlock used his phone to look up any museums or galleries reporting missing employees 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 deduced the man knew something about the sale and someone had him killed to keep him quiet; the obvious conclusion is forgery.
-->'''Lestrade:''' What’s this got to do with that painting? I don’t see-\\
'''Sherlock:''' You do see. You just don’t ''observe.''

* BavarianFireDrill: Sherlock is prone to these to get himself into places he isn't supposed to be. The absolute apex has to be "The Hounds of Baskerville". Sherlock gets himself and John into ''a top secret military base'' using Mycroft's government ID, but it's ''John'' who pulls rank on the Corporal and uses his military background to deflect the soldier's suspicion.

** Then done again in the very next episode, "The Sign of Three", where would-be murderer is [[spoiler:the wedding photographer]]: someone who could go anywhere and get close to anyone without rousing suspicion, and would be difficult to identify since they wouldn't be in any pictures and most people wouldn't get a proper look at their face [[spoiler:since it was typically hidden by a camera.]]

** Series 3: Charles Augustus Magnussen, a master blackmailer who watches the trio, Sherlock, Watson and Mary and in the finale uses information about one of their pasts to black mail them.

* BritsLoveTea: Used prominently, although Sherlock does drink coffee in [[Recap/SherlockS01E01AStudyInPink his first appearance]]. Like most Brits, John has a favourite mug, with the Royal Army Medical Corps logo on it.
** In the "[[Recap/SherlockS01E02TheBlindBanker The Blind Banker]]" episode, a client makes Chinese tea with hundred-year-old tea pots, and it becomes an important plot point that the antique pots have to be used regularly.

* BuffySpeak: About as close as you are ever going to get, since this ''is'' Sherlock. But upon being given a cigarette: "Smoking indoors... isn't there one of those... law things?"

* BulletTime: Used in several episodes to show just how ''quickly'' Sherlock's brain works - in comparison to him, everybody else thinks in ''slow motion''. Notably in "A Study In Pink," when he explains to John how he knew about Afghanistan or Harry, and in "A Scandal In Belgravia," when he decrypts the code. The starkest use occurs in the final episode of the third season, when [[spoiler:Sherlock is shot, and ''three seconds'' is dragged out to fifteen minutes as Sherlock analyses the attack and his injuries to improve his survival odds]].

** It works both ways, however, since he arrogantly and blithely antagonises and embarrasses them despite the fact that they are police officers with, as shown in the first episode, 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. This comes back to bite him in a big way in "The Reichenbach Fall", when [[spoiler:Moriarty finds it very easy to convince the police Sherlock is a fraud and a criminal simply because, with the exception of Lestrade, they all hate him for how he's treated them]].

** In "A Study In Pink," the murderer says he's able to get away with his crimes because [[spoiler:no one ever pays attention to their cab driver.]] This comes back to bite Sherlock in "The Reichenbach Fall," when he gets in a cab and doesn't realise his driver is [[spoiler:Moriarty.]]
** A more generic case occurs with the theme of never looking at people past their occupation; John fails to recognise [[spoiler:Sherlock when the latter disguises himself as a waiter while meeting John again after 2 years.]] Upon dropping the disguise [[spoiler:Sherlock]] even lampshades the effect a tuxedo has in an establishment full of tuxedo-wearing waiters. [[spoiler:Eurus Holmes also takes advantage of this in "The Lying Detective".]]

* CastingGag:
** Sherlock's parents are played by Creator/BenedictCumberbatch's real parents.
** Mary is played by Creator/MartinFreeman's real life partner. It makes their chemistry much more natural and believable.

** Everybody involved in the last scene in "The Great Game". Most notably, of course, [[spoiler: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 slightly sarcastic tone of voice with "stop his heart".]]

'''Police Officer:''' Well, he’s a great man, sir.\\
'''Lestrade:''' No, he’s better than that. He’s a good one.

*** [[spoiler:Eurus has to be able to [[CompellingVoice brainwash]] all the prison staff discretely and completely without Mycroft or any other top government agent noticing somehow, ''hope'' that Sherlock survives dismantling Moriarty’s network; ''hope'' that he survives a terror attack plot; ''hope'' that his confrontation with extremely dangerous [[TheChessmaster Magnussen]] would not end with Sherlock being destroyed; [[HollywoodHacking hack]] the telecommunication system of Great Britain to distribute Moriarty’s message ''[[ClockKing at the perfectly calculated time]]'' without anyone noticing; leave prison; reconstruct Musgrave estate without Mycroft noticing; seduce John “the Family Man” Watson and ''hope again'' that Sherlock would not see through her disguise as Culverton Smith’s daughter.]]

* FriendsRentControl: Mrs Hudson is apparently letting Sherlock and John rent 221B at a discount as a fmavour to Sherlock. Since Mrs Hudson lives alone in 221A and cannot rent out 221C because of the damp, one wonders how she can afford to pay the dues on what is clearly expensive prime London real-estate when her only tenants are strongly suggested to be getting an audaciously cheap ride of it. It's worth noting that Sherlock's bedroom is roughly the size of an Olympic stadium.[[note]]Of course, this is no doubt because the space is much easier for a film crew to set up and film in; also, at one point, there needed to be enough space for Cumberbatch to stage a fall on the floor without braining himself on the furniture.[[/note]]

** The plot of "The Blind Banker" [[IdiotPlot depends on]] the villains being complete morons throughout the episode: from assassinating the smugglers who could've given them vital information, to assuming John was Sherlock, to using Moriarty to get into the country rather than hire him to steal back the Empress Pin outright.

* GeniusThriller: It's an adaptation of ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'', one of the UrExamples.

--->'''Sherlock:''' You're ''insane.''

** A case in [[LoggingOntoTheFourthWall John's blog]]: While Sherlock was FakingTheDead between series 2 and 3, John wrote some posts, and among the comments that said Sherlock was a fraud there were a couple by "Sauron1976". Since Cumberbatch was born in 1976 and plays the Necromancer (Sauron's alter ego) in ''Film/TheHobbit'', it was logical to assume that was Sherlock. Come series 3, not only this isn't brought up, but Sherlock doesn't seem to know what John's been up to in these two years.

** Then done again in the very next episode, "The Sign of Three", where the wedding photographer is the (attempted) murderer. His cover allowed him to go anywhere, not be in any pictures, and no one could describe his face since it was typically hidden by a camera.

* AwesomeMcCoolname:
** Obviously, Sherlock Holmes ([[spoiler:his full name is revealed in "His Last Vow" to be William Sherlock Scott Holmes]]), but also his actor, ''Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch.'' Just say it out loud.
** Then there's his brother, Mycroft Holmes, and, possibly, Mycroft's PA, "Anthea", although in "A Study In Pink" she flat-out admits that this is not her name.
** Carl Powers.

As of 2021, plans for a fifth season were already completed. But due to busy film/TV scheduling from both Freeman and Cumberbatch, it's currently on hold.

* ImpressedByTheCivilian: Sherlock makes it clear that he is utterly impressed with Mrs. Hudson. Especially after she pulls a GuileHero moment and retrieves a cell phone from Holmes' coat while pretending to be a hysterical, crying woman.
--> '''Sherlock:''' Mrs. Hudson leave Baker Street? England would fall!

* UnreliableNarrator: Sherlock especially during his [[spoiler:wedding speech]]. He tries to convince Mary that he learned origami due to some amazing feat to solve a crime, only to admit he learned it on Website/YouTube. He states that to learn John's middle name was by earning his trust over a long course of time, he simply stole John's birth certificate. When he tells the people at the party that he told the guests he told John he was honoured at being made the [[spoiler:Best Man]], cut to Sherlock being almost frozen in silence multiple times. He did later admit after that he didn't say it at the time.

** And, as revealed at the end of s3, [[spoiler:the Holmes boys: Mycroft and William]].

** He also inverts this by pretending to be an old friend of a woman's husband and deliberately getting facts wrong, knowing that people tend to automatically correct such statements ([[MythologyGag a fact that Holmes used to his advantage to solve the mystery in]] ''[[Literature/SherlockHolmes The Sign of the Four]]'').

** Sherlock becomes a little more empathetic in the course of Season 1, but his character development doesn't really kick into gear until Season 2, when he becomes more caring and begins to show some real vulnerability. Witness especially his PetTheDog moment with Molly. Season 3 takes his development UpToEleven when [[spoiler:Sherlock shows real remorse for deceiving John and does his best to ensure his relationship with Mary is happy and stable]]. The Sherlock of "A Study in Pink" is much less mature than the Sherlock of "The Reichenbach Fall" but the Sherlock of "The Sign of Three" is ''a completely different person''. It continues in Season 4, where he puts himself in harm's way to rekindle his friendship with John after [[spoiler:Mary's death]], and overall, cares about his friends and family so much that [[spoiler:flies into a destructive rage after his sister Eurus creates a fake SadisticChoice in which Molly must confess her love for Sherlock due to Eurus having bombs in Molly's home, and in a life-or-death challenge where Sherlock must shoot either John or Mycroft, he TakesAThirdOption tries to shoot himself]]. This dialogue from "The Final Problem" displays this great change, meant as a CallBack to Lestrade's "great man" quote from "A Study In Pink".

*** [[spoiler:Then taken UpToEleven in that hard copies and offline computers can be taken or destroyed, he actually keeps all his files in his mind.]]

** Sherlock's disdain for [[NiceHat that hat]].

* IconicOutfit: Played for laughs. Sherlock picks up the iconic deerstalker completely at random, intending to hide his face from reporters who have gotten wind of his existence. The public assumes it's his usual look; cue an exasperated Sherlock having to fend of compliments from people about his NiceHat. In "The Reichenbach Fall" he rants at length at a deerstalker he received as a gift about how it's a hat that makes no sense.

-->''"There is a last refuge for the desperate, the unloved, the persecuted. There is a final court of appeal for everyone. When life gets too strange, too impossible, too frightening, there is always one last hope. When all else fails, there are two men sitting arguing in a scruffy flat like they've always been there, and they always will. The best and wisest men I have ever known. My Baker Street boys: Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson."''

** In 'The Lying Detective' the recording Sherlock made of [[spoiler: Culverton Smith attempting to murder him]] is called 'inadmissible' and 'entrapment.' ''That is not how entrapment works!'' Entrapment is specifically when a '''law enforcement officer''' induces another person into committing a crime ''when they would have been unlikely to do so.'' Sherlock is not a police officer, and the conversation with [[spoiler: Smith]] is not enough to count as provocation. [[spoiler: Smith made the conscious choice to attempt to murder Sherlock,]] and the tape proves it.

-->'''Lestrade''': What’s this got to do with that painting? I don’t see-\\
'''Sherlock''': You do see. You just don’t ''observe.''

** Series 4: [[spoiler: Sherlock's secret sister, Eurus. After escaping from Sherrinford Asylum, she uses disguises and creates mind games for the duo. She once met Moriarty briefly, cooperating for his posthumous revenge.]]

** And again, very slightly, affecting his stiff military bearing as he [[spoiler: walks away from Sherlock's grave]] in "The Reichenbach Fall."
** In "A Study In Pink," the murderer says he's able to get away with his crimes because [[spoiler: no one ever pays attention to their cab driver.]] This comes back to bite Sherlock in "The Reichenbach Fall," when he gets in a cab and doesn't realise his driver is [[spoiler: Moriarty.]]
** A more generic case occurs with the theme of never looking at people past their occupation; John fails to recognise [[spoiler: Sherlock when the latter disguises himself as a waiter while meeting John again after 2 years.]] Upon dropping the disguise [[spoiler:Sherlock]] even lampshades the effect a tuxedo has in an establishment full of tuxedo-wearing waiters. [[spoiler: Eurus Holmes also takes advantage of this in "The Lying Detective".]]

** In "Scandal in Belgravia", Mycroft, after Sherlock has been taken in by Irene, refers to her as a "damsel in distress" and asks Sherlock if he's really that obvious. In "His Last Vow", Magnussen points out [[spoiler: just how far Sherlock will go to protect John]] and calls [[spoiler: him]] Sherlock's "damsel in distress."
** Sherlock figures out where Irene keeps the incriminating photos in "Scandal" when John sets off the fire alarm and notes, "Amazing how fire exposes our priorities." Then in "The Empty Hearse" he immediately runs to save John from a bonfire and pulls him out of the fire with his bare hands. This is used by [[spoiler: Magnusson to determine that John is one of Sherlock's pressure points.]]
** Also in "Scandal," the [[spoiler: {{Bolivian Army Ending}}]] from "The Great Game" is shown to end when [[spoiler: Moriarty]] gets, as Sherlock puts it, "a better offer" for [[spoiler: his and John's lives]]. Three episodes later, Sherlock reveals [[spoiler: the sniper aiming at John during his rooftop confrontation with Moriarty]] ''also'' got a better offer, this time from [[spoiler: Mycroft's people]].
** In "A Study in Pink", Sherlock gets John's sister's gender wrong. [[spoiler: In "The Lying Detective", Eurus Holmes says the following to John:]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Eurus''': Did it ever occur to you - even once - that Sherlock's secret brother might just be Sherlock's secret sister?]]

** Everybody involved in the last scene in "The Great Game". Most notably, of course, [[spoiler: 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 slightly sarcastic tone of voice with "stop his heart".]]

-->''"[[Recap/SherlockS01E01AStudyInPink A Study in Pink]]"''\\

** [[spoiler: Lestrade]] in "The Hounds of Baskerville."
** [[spoiler: Moriarty]] himself in "The Great Game".
** [[spoiler: Mrs. Hudson's Repairman]] in "The Reichenbach Fall".

** [[spoiler: The lady on the bus]] from "The Six Thatchers", and [[spoiler: John's new therapist and "Faith Smith"]] in "The Lying Detective", [[spoiler:all three of whom are the same person: Sherlock's and Mycroft's previously-implied secret sibling]].

-->'''Sherlock''': It's all right. It's OK now.\\
'''John''': NO, IT'S NOT! IT'S NOT OK! I saw it, I was wrong!

* ClothesMakeTheLegend: Sherlock's default attire is: dark suit, white shirt, black shoes, black trench coat, dark blue scarf. Sometimes when sitting around at home he will swap the coat for a dressing gown, and he wore a tux to John's wedding, but otherwise, that's it. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in "The Empty Hearse" when Mycroft's assistant gives him these exact items [[spoiler: after Mycroft rescues Sherlock from the Serbians]]. Sherlock asks for the coat specifically, and the dialogue implies that he feels incomplete without it.

-->'''John:''' I am seriously fighting the impulse to steal an ashtray.

** Mycroft is very rarely without his umbrella. [[spoiler: It's got both a hidden blade and gun.]]

--> '''John:''' ''[Opens fridge innocently, sees human head, slams fridge door shut]'' Oh FFFFF--!

---> Ooh! A new case!! So when do I get to come and visit?!?!\\

--->'''Sherlock''': Punch me in the face.\\
'''Watson''': Punch you?\\
'''Sherlock''': Yes. Punch me. In the face. Didn't you hear me?\\
'''Watson''': I always hear "punch me in the face" when you're speaking, but it's usually subtext.

** [[spoiler: In "The Final Problem", Sherlock realises that Eurus killed his childhood best friend, Victor Trevor, out of envy because she herself never had a best friend.]]

-->'''John:''' ''(with characteristic [[DeadpanSnarker deadpan snark]])'' Oh, you're a ''bad'' man.
** Irene Adler continuously with Sherlock, to the point where [[spoiler: her phone password is revealed to be "I Am '''SHER''' Locked"]].
** Sherlock [[spoiler: seems to]] avert this during [[NakedFirstImpression his first meeting with Irene Adler]]. It seems he's not even paying attention to it [[spoiler: but then his normally flawless diction breaks down momentarily and he mumbles his next line when Irene says "brainy's the new sexy" (John's reaction emphasises how out of character this is).]] Also seems like he fumbles his sentence once [[spoiler: Irene shows interest in John]].

** Mycroft gets a bait-and-switch moment when he [[spoiler: kidnaps John and meets with him in a shady-looking warehouse, then refers to himself as Sherlock's "archenemy".]] The knowledgeable viewer assumes [[spoiler:he's Moriarty]], before finding out [[spoiler:he's Sherlock's brother]].

---> '''Sherlock''': People have ''died!''
---> '''Moriarty''': [[OmnicidalManiac That's what people DO!]]

---> '''Mary''': ''(grinning smugly)'' I like him.

*** [[spoiler: Then taken UpToEleven in that hard copies and offline computers can be taken or destroyed, he actually keeps all his files in his mind.]]

** "The Reichenbach Fall" [[spoiler:Sherlock himself manages to do it by throwing himself off a building yet turning up alive at the end of the episode]]. In the next episode, "The Empty Hearse," [[spoiler: Anderson suggests that Sherlock used a bungee cord to slow his descent, and had Moriarty's body fitted with a mask to look like him; a {{fangirl}} suggests that Sherlock threw a dummy off the roof to fake their deaths and be with each other; and Sherlock himself states that he landed on an air cushion, had Mycroft block off the streets except to Sherlock's informants, and left behind the body of the kidnapper who resembled him that he had Molly find from the morgue]]. WordOfGod [[http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/01/21/benedict-cumberbatch-and-steven-moffat-on-sherlocks-big-return-for-season-3 here]] says Sherlock's explanation was the correct one.

** TheLeader / The AntiHero: Sherlock (doubles as TheSmartGuy)
** TheLancer / TheHeart: John

** In "A Scandal in Belgravia", Mycroft comments that it would take nothing less than Sherlock's expertise to convince him that [[spoiler: Irene Adler is ''not'' FakingTheDead. This provides an allusion towards the ending, in which they think she really ''is'' dead this time, yet TheStinger shows Sherlock rescuing her from her executioners]].

-->'''Henry (to [[spoiler: Dr. Frankland]]:''' Why didn't you just kill me?!
-->'''Sherlock:''' [[spoiler: Because dead men get listened to! He needed to do more than kill you! He had to discredit every word you ever said...]]

-->'''[[spoiler: The cabbie]]:''' "I'm not going to kill you, Mr. Holmes. I'm going to talk to you, and you're going to kill yourself."
-->'''Sally:''' "One day we're going to stand around a body and Sherlock Holmes is the one who put it there."
** Also from "A Study In Pink", Sherlock talking about how no one ever pays attention to [[spoiler: the cab driver.]] It takes on a whole new meaning in "The Reichenbach Fall", when [[spoiler: Moriarty drives Sherlock around in a cab for several minutes without Sherlock realising.]] And in a similar flat cap as well.
** In "The Sign of Three": [[spoiler: a rather sad one. Mrs. Hudson tells Sherlock of how marriage led to the decline in her friendship with her best friend -- she comments particularly on how that friend spent the whole evening in tears and left early. Sherlock doesn't do tears...but he spends most of the episode torn up over how his relationship with John looks set to weaken, if not disappear entirely. And he does leave John's wedding early. Alone.]]

** Another from "A Study in Pink": Sherlock gets Watson's sister's gender wrong, as he fails to consider that his sibling may be female. [[spoiler: In Series 4, John doesn't suspect that Sherlock's other sibling could be a sister.]]

*** [[spoiler: This is even more, fitting the trope, as those texts make the spectator think, that he got all the information through his glasses. And Sherlock thinks the same, until he checks the glasses himself.]]

** This trope is taken to absurd levels in ''"The Final Problem"'' as we learn about the master plan of [[spoiler: Eurus]].
*** [[spoiler: Her plan to destroy Sherlock is critically dependent on help from Moriarty. In order to meet Jim, Eurus needs to convince Mycroft to arrange a meeting for the two [[EvilGenius evil geniuses]]. This part of the plan requires Mycroft, who is phenomenally smart and is deeply caring about Sherlock, to allow an unsupervised meeting between two extremely dangerously psychotic and intelligent criminals, ''[[CardCarryingVillain who are not hiding their intentions to harm his brother]]''. If Mycroft refuses, she loses her only chance to do anything outside her prison cell for the rest of her life. Trusting notoriously unreliable [[PsychopathicManchild Moriarty]] as an accomplice may be considered a gamble on its own.]]
*** [[spoiler: Eurus has to be able to [[CompellingVoice brainwash]] all the prison staff discretely and completely without Mycroft or any other top government agent noticing somehow, ''hope'' that Sherlock survives dismantling Moriarty’s network; ''hope'' that he survives a terror attack plot; ''hope'' that his confrontation with extremely dangerous [[TheChessmaster Magnussen]] would not end with Sherlock being destroyed; [[HollywoodHacking hack]] the telecommunication system of Great Britain to distribute Moriarty’s message ''[[ClockKing at the perfectly calculated time]]'' without anyone noticing; leave prison; reconstruct Musgrave estate without Mycroft noticing; seduce John “the Family Man” Watson and ''hope again'' that Sherlock would not see through her disguise as Culverton Smith’s daughter.]]
*** [[spoiler: The plan of ''"The Final Problem"'' itself requires Sherlock, John, and Mycroft to [[NoOneShouldSurviveThat survive a grenade explosion at close range]] and infiltrate the [[TheAlcatraz highest security island prison]] as just the start of a series of elaborate personalised mind games.]]

-->'''Sherlock:''' Where are you taking her?\\

-->'''Judge:''' You've been called here to answer [the lawyer's] questions, not to give us a display of your intellectual prowess! Keep your answers brief and to the point. Anything else will be treated as contempt! Do you think you can survive just a few minutes without ''showing off?!''\\

-->''[Sherlock has just been arrested. The Chief Superintendent is wandering around the flat]''
-->'''Chief Superintendent:''' Looks a bit of a weirdo if you ask me. They usually are, these vigilante types. ''[John stares at him]'' What are you looking at?
-->''[Cuts to the Chief Superintendent nursing a bloody nose. John is slammed up against a police car next to Sherlock]''
-->'''Sherlock Holmes:''' Joining me?
-->'''John Watson:''' Yeah, well, apparently it's against the law to chin the Chief Superintendent.

-->'''Billy:''' ''[of Gary]'' He's a snorer.
-->'''Gary:''' Wheesht!
-->'''Billy:''' Is yours a snorer?
-->'''John:''' ... Got any crisps?

--> '''Sherlock''': It is '''NOT''' my hat!

*** This one was ultimately averted by "The Empty Hearse", in which it was revealed that [[spoiler: Mycroft feeding Moriarty information about Sherlock was done in order to bargain "hints" from Moriarty about the extent of his criminal network, and that Sherlock was completely in on it.]]
** In "His Last Vow", [[spoiler: Magnussen picks the ball up and carries past the goal posts, out the stadium and to his ignoble demise by revealing to Sherlock and John that there is no physical vault full of the most scandalous information that could spell the doom of the western world. All that information is not stored in computers or papers, but in the memory palace ''in his head'', which means there are no contingencies, like, say, backup copies that could be disseminated should something unfortunate happen to Magnussen. And ''then'' the man proceeds to threaten and humiliate John in front of Sherlock, both of whom were not frisked for weapons. Sherlock, with all his [[BerserkButton Berserk Buttons]] pressed, with no reason to let Magnussen live and all the incentive to kill him, proceeds to blow the man's brains out.]] He might have been excused on the basis that an ordinary, decent person probably wouldn't do this, but [[spoiler: Magnussen]], despite having extensive knowledge of Sherlock, also made the huge mistake of labelling Sherlock a noble, [[spoiler: non-lethal]] hero, when he is in fact a self-described [[AntiHero "high-functioning sociopath"]]. Right before [[spoiler: killing him]], Sherlock actually calls him out on this. There's being {{Outgambitted}}, TooDumbToLive, and WrongGenreSavvy all at once.

--> "You're not haunted by the war, Doctor Watson. ''You miss it.''"

-->'''Sherlock:''' I'm not a psychopath, Anderson, I'm a high-functioning sociopath; do your research.

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: For killing four people and kidnapping Sherlock and attempting to manipulate him into the challenge that could kill him in "A Study In Pink", John shoots Jeff Hope in the shoulder, through two windows, and he dies from the resulting injury.]]

--> '''Lestrade:''' [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown And just how many times did he fall out the window?]]

** In "The Lying Detective", [[spoiler: Culverton Smith is an unrepentant murderer who revels in the fact that he can kill anyone for the thrill of it and get away with it due to being a VillainWithGoodPublicity. He eventually tries to throttle Sherlock, but John rescues him and Smith goes down, as he confessed to his crimes before attempting to kill Sherlock, which a recording device in John's cane picked up.]]

** In the first episode, we are lead to believe that [[spoiler: Mycroft is Moriarty]]. So any subsequent episode or trailer that shows [[spoiler: him as Sherlock's brother]] is a spoiler to those planning to start watching the episodes later.

-->'''John:''' People want to know you're human.
-->'''Sherlock:''' Why?
-->'''John:''' 'Cause they're interested.
-->'''Sherlock:''' No they're not. Why are they?

** Sherlock's response to Anderson's [[spoiler: criticizing the way he supposedly faked his death]] in "The Empty Hearse" is to sigh and say "Everyone's a critic."

** Continues to be one of the running themes of series 3. As Sherlock becomes more human, he misses things that should have and would have been obvious to him. [[spoiler: He misses clues as to Mary's true identity because John likes her, and Sherlock wants to like her as well. He also somehow misses the fact that John is his pressure point that Magnussen is exploiting, and he misses that Magnussen's 'vaults' were only in his head. In the end, Sherlock kills Magnussen to protect John and Mary, essentially sacrificing his life for them.]]

** Part of the supervillain-cliche interchange between [[spoiler: Mycroft]] and Sherlock, which leads us to believe he's actually [[spoiler: Moriarty]] until the reveal.
** [[spoiler: The ''actual'' Moriarty tries something similar in "The Great Game". Sherlock acknowledges this in the climax of "The Reichenbach Fall".]]

-->'''Sherlock''': You're ''insane.''
-->'''Moriarty''': You're just getting this ''now?''
** Also rather [[MoodWhiplash Mood Whiplashy]], The Reichenbach Fall starts with [[spoiler:John telling his therapist that Sherlock is dead]] and then immediately cuts to the upbeat title sequence.
** At the end of "His Last Vow", the end credits appear to be starting to roll as [[spoiler: Sherlock is flown off to his suicide mission in Eastern Europe, but it then cuts back in to reveal that every television in London is displaying a picture of Moriarty saying repeatedly "Did you miss me?"]]

-->'''Sherlock''': 243. ''(Lights blowtorch)''

** John hopes for this at the end of "The Reichenbach Fall." [[spoiler: He's right, but doesn't find out until over a year later.]]

-->'''Sherlock:''' Smoking indoors. Isn't there... [[BuffySpeak isn't that one of those... law things?]]
-->'''Mycroft:''' We're in a morgue. There's only so much damage you can do.

---> '''Sherlock:''' Well that was tedious.

** Mycroft gets this combined with BreakTheHaughty in "A Scandal in Belgravia". He's actually shown ''shaking'' in fear and despair after realising [[spoiler: the Bond Air mission had been compromised due to his own hubris]].
** Sherlock a few times in the "The Reichenbach Fall". [[spoiler: Notably when he death-glares Moriarty during his WoundedGazelleGambit and practically screams at him to stop. And then again while giving John his suicide "note". There were tears dripping onto his coat]].

** Mrs. Hudson even lampshades this in "The Lying Detective". [[spoiler: She describes how Sherlock is emotional. He shoots the wall when he's bored, and when he can't figure something out? He stabs it on the mantelpiece.]]

-->'''Sherlock''': It's all right. It's OK now.
-->'''John''': NO, IT'S NOT! IT'S NOT OK! I saw it, I was wrong!
-->'''Sherlock''': Well, let's not jump to conclusions.

** Also in "The Reichenbach Fall" when Sherlock catches a taxi, at the end of [[spoiler: Moriarty telling the story of Sir Boast-A-Lot]] and Sherlock realising what it means.

** In "His Last Vow", when [[spoiler: Sherlock]] realises that Magnussen's vaults of information [[spoiler: are only in his head. Sherlock is visibly affected by the reveal.]]
** Also in "His Last Vow", [[spoiler: Mary has one when she realises the dummy she thought was Sherlock during [[EngineeredPublicConfession her meeting with him about her past]] is actually John, and that he has heard every word they've said.]]

-->'''Sherlock:''' ''(tearfully clutching a straight whisky for dear life and shaking badly)'': Look at me. I'm afraid, John.

-->'''John''': Sherlock--
-->'''Sherlock''': THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ME! Do you understand?!

-->'''Sherlock:''' You were right. I'm not okay.

** The climactic scene of "The Hounds of Baskerville" combines loaded guns with a group of men [[spoiler: hopped up on a paranoia-inducing hallucinogen]] in a forest in the middle of the night.
** Not to mention when they run out of the hollow and through the dark forest after [[spoiler: Dr Frankland]], Sherlock leads the way- which is fine, except John is right behind him holding a ''loaded gun in his hand.'' Presumably John, who's seen as being very gun-responsible, is smart enough to ''not'' have his finger on the trigger at the time, but it's still never safe to get in the path of someone holding a loaded gun.

-->"''Confirmed'' bachelor. [[MistakenForGay What are they implying?]]"

** The Christmas party in "A Scandal in Belgravia": Sherlock is able to deduce that Molly is intending to romance someone with a special present; he just doesn't realise that that someone is ''him''. Particularly noteworthy because, in other episodes, he seems aware of Molly's crush on him and uses it to his advantage. He also manages to [[spoiler: crack Irene's phone security by deducing that she's in love with him]]. It seems that he's perfectly capable of observing these feelings in other people but, in Molly's case, it's not important or interesting to him so he overlooks it.

** A prime example of this is in "The Empty Hearse" when Sherlock scanned Mary, we could see, among others, words such as [[spoiler: "liar", "secret" and "tattoo"]]. Paranoid fans could easily deduce her past and therefore the whole plot of "His Last Vow" from it.

** [[spoiler: Moriarty]] is actually able to fool Sherlock's initial scan of him, by placing subtle but key clues in the way he dressed, his appearance and behaviour. Sherlock did seem rather perturbed when he finds out he was duped.

** He's so eerily good at it that Moriarty [[spoiler: has little trouble planting the idea in the heads of the cops that Sherlock has actually been doing research and setting up crimes to appear brilliant while solving them.]] It helps that he's ''such'' an InsufferableGenius that they want to believe that.

** Charles Augustus Magnussen [[spoiler: has his own version of it, with its own visual format, where he recalls brief notes about the person he's looking at from his eidetic memory instead of deducing them on the spot. Sherlock examines Magnussen's glasses just to ensure he's not ACTUALLY reading the data from them a la Google Glass.]]

--> '''John:''' Who the hell knows about Sherlock Holmes, but if anyone out there still cares, ''I'm not actually gay''.
--> '''Irene:''' [[spoiler:Well, ''I am''.]] Look at us both.
** [[spoiler: Anderson]], however, seems to ship Sherlock and Molly, [[spoiler: if his ImagineSpot to how Sherlock survived is any indication]]
** Meanwhile, [[YaoiFangirl a girl]] in Sherlock's fanclub ships him with [[spoiler: Moriarty!]]

-->'''John''': So when you say it's a childish feud, it really is a childish feud?\\
'''Mycroft''': Mmmm, you can imagine the Christmas dinners.

* TheStinger: Mary delivers one [[spoiler: posthumously]] at the end of "The Six Thatchers" via recording:
-->'''Mary''': [[spoiler: [[DyingDeclarationOfHate Go to hell]], [[HiddenDisdainReveal Sherlock]]]].
** [[spoiler: By "The Lying Detective" [[ZigZaggedTrope the stinger]] is revealed to be a portion of a [[LastRequest plea]] to help John.]]

* TakeOurWordForIt: Holmes does so many [[SherlockScan Sherlock scans]] per episode that he doesn't bother to explain many of them, unlike the original Conan Doyle stories where each scan was explained to the reader.

* TranquilFury: When [[spoiler: Mrs Hudson is hurt by the Americans in "A Scandal in Belgravia"]] Sherlock gives no outward sign of his anger, seeming just as cold as he usually does, but is in reality {{Sherlock Scan}}ning to decide which of the assailant's pain centres to attack. The sequence before that (when he pieces together what happened), his subtle-yet-telling expression lets the audience know exactly how ''incredibly'' [[BerserkButton pissed]] he is.

* UnreliableNarrator: Sherlock especially during his [[spoiler:wedding speech]]. He tries to convince Mary that he learned origami due to some amazing feat to solve a crime, only to admit he learned it on Website/YouTube. He states that to learn John's middle name was by earning his trust over a long course of time, he simply stole John's birth certificate. When he tells the people at the party that he told the guests he told John he was honoured at being made the [[spoiler: Best Man]], cut to Sherlock being almost frozen in silence multiple times. He did later admit after that he didn't say it at the time.

-->'''John:''' Try to remember there's a woman in there dying.
-->'''Sherlock:''' What for? This hospital is full of people dying, doctor. Try crying by their bedsides, see what good it does them.

-->'''Sherlock:''' People have died.
-->'''Jim:''' That's what people [[SuddenlyShouting DO!]]

-->'''Sherlock:''' Look at them. They all care so much. Do you ever wonder if there's something wrong with us?
-->'''Mycroft:''' All lives end. All hearts are broken.

** The CliffHanger ending of "The Great Game" with [[spoiler: Sherlock, John, and Moriarty locked in a MexicanStandoff at the pool]].

** Breaking with tradition, the second episode of season 4 is a huge WhamEpisode, possible the greatest of all, revealing that [[spoiler: The BigBad of season 4 is Sherlock and Mycroft's secret ''sister.'']]

'''Sherlock:''' [[spoiler: John!]] What the hell --\\

-->'''[[spoiler:Jim Moriarty]]:''' [[spoiler: I gave you my number. I thought you might call!]]

--> '''John:''' [[spoiler:My best friend, Sherlock Holmes, is dead.]]
** When Sherlock and John are at Kitty Riley's flat to ask who Richard Brook is and out steps [[spoiler: Moriarty]].
--> '''Kitty:''' Of course he's Richard Brook. [[spoiler:There is no Moriarty.]]

-->''(John comments to the effect that Sherlock will be okay with [[spoiler:never seeing Irene again, as she's in witness protection)'']]
-->'''Mycroft:''' I agree. [[spoiler:Which is why I've decided to tell him that.]]
-->'''John:''' Instead of...?
-->'''Mycroft:''' [[spoiler:She's dead.]]

-->'''Mycroft:''' "Don't be absurd. I'm not given to outbursts of brotherly compassion. [[spoiler:You know what happened to the other one.]]

-->[[spoiler:Did you miss me?]]
** From the Lying Detective: [[spoiler: "My parents liked silly names, like Eurus, and Mycroft...and Sherlock."]]

*** Though it's possible this one may get an explanation, as there are theories that it plays into [[spoiler: which is revealed that Moriarty got someone that looked just like him and then killed the man after he served said purpose]].

->''"There is a last refuge for the desperate, the unloved, the persecuted. There is a final court of appeal for everyone. When life gets too strange, too impossible, too frightening, there is always one last hope. When all else fails, there are two men sitting arguing in a scruffy flat like they've always been there, and they always will. The best and wisest men I have ever known. My Baker Street boys: Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson."''

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Through the series, several Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle are alluded to, either as episode names or in passing. For instance, "A Study in Scarlet" becomes "A Study in Pink", "The Greek Interpreter" becomes "The Geek Interpreter", "The Adventure of the Empty House" becomes "The Empty Hearse", "The Sign of the Four" becomes "The Sign of Three", "His Last Bow" becomes "His Last Vow", "The Adventure of the Dying Detective" becomes "The Lying Detective", "The Final Problem"remains "The Final Problem" etc.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Through the series, several Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle are alluded to, either as episode names or in passing. For instance, "A Study in Scarlet" becomes "A Study in Pink", "The Greek Interpreter" becomes "The Geek Interpreter", "The Adventure of the Empty House" becomes "The Empty Hearse", "The Sign of the Four" becomes "The Sign of Three", "His Last Bow" becomes "His Last Vow", "The Adventure of the Dying Detective" becomes "The Lying Detective", "The Final Solution" becomes "The Final Problem" etc.

* AdultFear:
** [[spoiler:Moriarty]] strapped one of his bombs onto a little boy and forced him to count down from ten to his own demise.
** And again in "The Reichenbach Fall", where two children are kidnapped and locked in a dark factory where they will starve to death unless [[spoiler:they eat the mercury-laced chocolates he left them]].