With Torchwood no longer a threat, the healing for the Doctor and his Companions can at last begin... but will the Bruce-Partington case ever be solved? And will Sherlock and Beth be allowed to stay together?
This bonus episode is an expansion on the last episode of the finale, "Together Or Not At All." Many scenes of "Together" past the Torchwood showdown are expanded upon in this episode, with more context. The splitting of the story between abbreviated ("Together") and expanded ("Study") versions was intended to let readers choose how they wanted to finish the story. "Study" has much more content with no respect for pacing whatsoever, purposefully, to let the characters develop in their own good time; "Together" finishes with less content to allow for tighter pacing.
This Episode Provides Examples Of:
- Broken Bird: A big part of why this bonus episode exists — the authors didn't want to cut the development of Beth's trauma and slow healing for pacing.
- Flashback Nightmare: Two separate times.
- Beth's experience plays it straight, her subconscious recalling her time with Moran, although we only have the moment from Sherlock's point of view.
- Sherlock dreams of when Beth came to Torchwood for him, but the scene ends differently this time, with her Taking the Bullet for him and dying. (According to authors' notes, this was the original ending for "The Dying Detective," and so cruel that they had to rewrite it.)
- Hotter and Sexier: Enough so that it was actually rated M, the only episode of the series thus far to be given that rating (despite the wedding night scene in "Every Good Fairytale"). There's still not a whole lot of sex scenes — only three — but the authors had to rate it.
- Your Universe or Mine?: Beth and Sherlock think they have to choose between her time or his. Fortunately, the Doctor promises them he can subvert this and give them a third option: their own method of time travel.
