Recap / Sherlock S3 E3 "His Last Vow"

"I've dealt with murders, psychopaths, terrorists, serial killers. None of them can turn my stomach like Charles Augustus Magnussen."

— Sherlock Holmes

A case of stolen letters leads Sherlock Holmes into a long conflict with Charles Augustus Magnussen, the Napoleon of blackmail, and the one man he truly hates. But how do you tackle a foe who knows the personal weakness of every person of importance in the Western world?

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Tropes:

• 10-Minute Retirement: It only took four minutes for Sherlock to be ordered back from his assignment in East Europe to help the British government deal with Moriarty.
• Achilles' Heel: Magnussen stores all the information about his victims not on a computer, which would be hackable, but in hard copy form in a vast underground vault underneath his high-security home. Only he has access to it, and he doesn't let anybody in...Except that he doesn't. There is no such vault. He just remembers it all. As a result, Sherlock is able to eliminate Magnussen as a threat by shooting him in the head.
• Actor Allusion: Several to 'The Hobbit'':
  • John staring intensely at a ring.
  • Sherlock criticises John's burglary skills.
  • Sherlock identifies a person, albeit falsely, though scent.
  • Then there's Sherlock and Mycroft's conversation about dragons.
• Adaptational Badass: Magnussen's literary counterpart was content blackmailing England's nobility and gentry, specifically ladies, who were either married or engaged. Here he's blackmailing world governments, and instead of keeping all of his information in a locked safe, he keeps it all in his own head.
• Adaptational Nationality: Magnussen's book counterpart was British. Magnussen is probably from a Scandinavian country but we never find out which one.
  • Lars Mikkelsen being told to keep his native accent (more distinctive to Scandinavians than Anglophones, admittedly) and the spelling ("Magnussen" rather than "Magnusson") strongly suggest he's meant to be Danish.
• Adaptational Wimp: A particularly subtle example, but Magnussen isn't nearly as smart as his Conan Doyle counterpart. Unlike Magnussen's mistakes (see Idiot Ball, below), Doyle's version of Milverton is smart enough to have concrete material to blackmail his victims with. Doyle's Milverton also keeps the location of this information well-hidden, and even notes that he would never do anything stupid like bring the materials to some place they could be forcibly taken from him.
• Always Someone Better: Sherlock's hatred of Magnussen is exacerbated by the fact that Magnussen is genuinely smart enough to outwit him.
• Anger Born of Worry: After finding he's failed a drug test, Molly slaps Sherlock three times and chews him out about how he could be so careless, then orders him to apologize to his friends.
• Arc Words: There's an east wind coming.
• Arrested for Heroism: Sherlock realizes that there's no way Magnussen has a computer database of his blackmail info — he just keeps it in his head — and kills him. He doesn't get off scot-free for it as MI-6 decides to send him on a suicide mission as punishment. At least, until Moriarty shows up.
• Asshole Victim:
  • When Sherlock and Watson come up to see a security guard and Janine unconscious in the office. Watson, as he is looking over Janine, asks if the other needs assistance. Sherlock is able to tell the guard is an ex-con and probably a white supremacist and tells Watson to ignore him.
  • Magnussen is so cruel and unlikable, you can't help but cheer Sherlock on when he shoots Magnussen in the head.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Mitigated slightly as Mycroft is unknowingly being tranquillized.
  Mycroft: ... also, your loss would break my heart.
  Sherlock: What the hell am I supposed to say to that?
  Mycroft: ...Merry Christmas.
• Baker Street Regular: Bill Wiggins is a drug addict Sherlock befriends while undercover in a crackhouse. Sherlock then uses him to communicate with Mary.

• Big "SHUT UP!": John yells this at Sherlock after John asks if everyone he's known is a psychopath, and Sherlock says yes and is about to go on. Understandable, since John at this moment is VERY angry. He's just found out Mary is an assassin and he's just asked if everyone he's ever known is a sociopath. Sherlock being Sherlock just answered yes and was about to carry on. Cue this trope.
• Blackmail: Magnussen's methods.
  Sherlock: ... he attacks people who are different and preys on their secrets!
• Blackmail Backfire: The whole of the episode is a slow set-up towards this. If Magnussen, the so-called "Napoleon of Blackmail", had not kept on bullying Sherlock and John out of a petty desire to showcase his control over them, Sherlock wouldn't have figured out that all of the blackmail information he has was located in his head (and only his head), and wouldn't have been angry enough to deal with the threat thusly. Magnussen unknowingly dodges a bullet earlier when his continuous dangling of Mary Watson's (nee Morstan's) past to make John do what he wants nearly make Mary (who in this version is apparently a retired assassin, presumably for the CIA) kill him; only to be thwarted because John and Sherlock entered the office while she was talking to Magnussen.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Magnussen doesn't think of his actions as blackmail. It's ownership.
• Blown Across the Room: Defied by Sherlock's imagination of Molly, who explains that a bullet doesn't transfer enough energy to significantly move a human body.
• Boom, Headshot!: This is how Sherlock gets rid of Magnussen, after the latter is dumb enough to reveal that there are no hard copies of his Blackmail material, and it was all kept in his head.
• Bullying a Dragon: Seriously, revealing that there are no physical Appledore vaults, that all the information is in his head, and there are no tangible copies of data or backups or contingencies that can be disseminated in the event of his death to cause chaos, and then being utterly unrepentant and physically humiliating the people who hate him and want to stop him. Did Magnussen really not consider someone would be desperate or stupid or self-sacrificing enough to simply kill him where he stood? Because that is the one thing that will easily and definitively eliminate the threat of his blackmail scheme by leaving all that sensitive information completely dead inside his equally dead brain. It is especially puzzling that he would admit as much to Sherlock, after just barely escaping a similar fate by Mary's hand earlier in the episode.
  • Magnussen saw Sherlock try to talk Mary out of committing cold-blooded murder she thinks is justified, even with a gun pointed at him. A reasonable person would assume from that Sherlock isn't okay with murder in general, let alone okay with committing it himself. It's just Magnussen's bad luck John's happiness is Sherlock's blind spot and enough to drive him to act like the remorseless sociopath he claims to be but usually isn't.
• The Bully: The specific reason Sherlock hates Magnussen is that he picks on people for being different, hinting at a bit of bullying in Sherlock's own past.
• Call-Back: To the rest of the series, particularly "A Study In Pink". Among them:
  • Sherlock's drug habit is a plot point in the beginning of the episode.
  • The drugs bust.
  • Every single time Mary was clever in "The Empty Hearse" and "The Sign of Three" gets referred to.
  • Moriarty's death is called into question.
• The Cameo: Jim Moriarty has a scene in Sherlock's Mind Palace. Then he shows up again in time for the cliffhanger.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Sherlock is recalled from his suicide mission for MI-6 after just getting on the plane, because he's the only one who can deal with Moriarty when Moriarty comes back to life.
• Card-Carrying Villain: In public, Magnussen presents himself as a simple businessman. Defied at the end, though — he mocks Sherlock and John precisely for treating him like some kind of villain. He seems to honestly believe that he isn't a villain due to some Insane Troll Logic like, for instance, the fact that he technically hasn't killed anyone (even though he has ruined several lives and puts others in mortal danger, both for his own amusement).
• Chekhov's Gun: Watson's gun.
  • Everything related to Mary in the first 2 episodes of Season 3.
  • Redbeard, appearing in Magnussen's analysis of Sherlock. He is extremely important in Series 4.
• The Chessmaster: Magnussen's ultimate goal is to get leverage on Mycroft to blackmail and control him. He achieves this by blackmailing Mary, then manipulating Sherlock and John when they react as he expects they will, relying on a series of "pressure points" to control the involved parties. Once Sherlock implicated himself for high treason by trying to sell him Mycroft's laptop full of government information, Magnussen would have the leverage he needs to get to Mycroft.
• Complexity Addiction: Sherlock. Like in the series 2 finale he expects the other party to be more devious and circumspect than they actually are.
• Composite Character:
  • With her attack on a dummy in an empty house and military background, Mary combines both Mary Morstan and Sebastian Moran. Interesting, since Lord Moran in "The Empty Hearse" seemed to be Sherlock's adaptation of the character. Perhaps Lord Moran was Sebastian's father, Sir Augustus Moran?
  • Magnussen is called "The Napoleon of Blackmail" appropriating Moriarty's "The Napoleon of Crime," which the latter was not called in Sherlock. While he owes obvious debts to Charles Augustus Milverton, his characterisation and encounters with Sherlock are much closer to Conan Doyle's version of Moriarty than Sherlock!Moriarty was.
  • Bill's first name, Billy comes from the page boy of 221B who first appeared in William Gillette's play, and then migrated into the stories as a relatively minor character. His last name Wiggins, comes from the leader of the Baker Street Irregulars in Conan Doyle's first two novels, "A Study in Scarlet" and "The Sign of Four".
• Continuity Nod:
  • Mrs. Hudson's "herbal soothers."
  • The positioning of the chairs.
  • The "Christmas cigarette" from "A Scandal in Belgravia".
  • Magnussen finds people's pressure points and uses them to blackmail them. In "The Reichenbach Fall", Moriarty comments "Every person has their pressure point, someone that they want to protect from harm." John is still Sherlock's. Big time.
  • Mycroft references Irene as a "damsel in distress" after Sherlock was taken in by her in "A Scandal in Belgravia", and asks "In the end, are you really so obvious?" In this episode, Magnussen echoes that with "Look how you care about John Watson. Your damsel in distress."
  • The real Mary Morstan was stillborn, like Jennifer Wilson's daughter Rachel in "A Study In Pink".
  • "Oh, it's Christmas!"
  • Sherlock states that Mycroft is the British Government in the first episode. Magnussen fully admits that Mycroft is the most powerful man in the British Government.
  • Sherlock's subconscious references that 'The Woman' (Irene Adler) will mourn Sherlock.
  • The staircase Sherlock runs down, and back up again, in his mind palace after being shot is the same one from the hotel the fourth body was found in in "A Study In Pink", this time in harsh daylight instead of in the hotel at night.
  • Magnussen's scan of Watson lists his alcoholic sister Harry as a potential pressure point. Sherlock's are Moriarty, Irene Adler, "Redbeard," John, and opium.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: In addition to his blackmailing activities, Magnussen has no problem printing false information in his papers.
• Credits Gag: The plane flies off, the screen goes black, and the theme music starts playing, but then it cuts off and the screen turns to static before the episode continues for another couple of minutes.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Bill is more Crouching Wimp, Hidden Genius - which is why Sherlock takes a shine to him. He's also apparently an excellent chemist, capable of creating non-lethal drugs to knock out people without damaging their bodies.
  • Including a pregnant woman with the explicit assurance that the knockout drug won't harm the baby. As the baby's born without ill effect, it's not just a Badass Boast on his part.
• Cutting the Knot: Sherlock is unable to outwit Magnussen, so Sherlock kills the man to eliminate the threat altogether.
• Dark Secret: Mary used to be a professional killer for the CIA and has left that life behind.
• Dead Person Impersonation: The real Mary Morstan was stillborn and buried decades ago. The woman who John married took her identity to escape her old life as a trained assassin. Leads to Becoming the Mask with forgiveness and acceptance from John.
• Deal with the Devil: Name-dropped by Sherlock when he tells John why he's drugged everyone.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  John: I don't understand.
  Magnussen: You should put that on a t-shirt.
  [later]
  John: I still don't understand.
  Magnussen: And there's the back of the t-shirt.
• Did They or Didn't They?: Sherlock and Janine. (They didn't.)
• Did You Actually Believe...?: ...that the vaults were a physical place, Sherlock?
• Dirty Coward: Magnussen has no problem with begging for his life when he's got a gun to his head.
• Dirty Old Man: Magnussen can go anywhere from small, simple actions and words that will leave your skin crawling, to licking a woman's face and molesting Sherlock while he's nearly unconscious in a deleted scene.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: In the last scene, Moriarty does a grandiose comeback by showing up in every television screen in the UK.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Magnussen's interactions with his victims strongly resemble those of a rapist (and in Britain, forcibly licking someone like that counts as sexual assault).
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Molly slaps Sherlock three times after finding out that he's been using drugs again. It's really not surprising that she and Tom aren't engaged anymore.
• The Dreaded: Sherlock mentions that Magnussen is the most dangerous threat he's faced up to that point and nobody's ever made his stomach turn quite like Magnussen.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Several — Sherlock is called "Shezza" (by the druggies) and "Sherl" (by Janine) while the Holmes mother calls Mycroft "Mikey" and "Mike."
• Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Among all the things Magnussen does just because he can, he stirs around the pasta and eats an olive from Sherlock's plate.
• Engineered Public Confession: Sherlock's meeting with Mary at Leinster Gardens is revealed to be one. Sherlock tricks Mary into revealing details about her past as an assassin in front of John, with Mary saying she doesn't want John to find out. As you might expect, she gets an Oh, Crap! when Sherlock reveals the ruse and that John heard the whole thing.
• Erudite Stoner: Bill might be a heroin addict but he also has deductive skills similar to Sherlock's.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Magnussen, for all the ways he manages to outwit Sherlock in this episode, misses one crucial fact about the man. While he recognizes that John is a pressure point for Sherlock that he can exploit, he seems completely unaware of just how far Sherlock will go to protect or save John. It doesn't end well for him.
  • A smooth talker with a thousand enemies and a gun presently to his head: "What's this obsession with honesty?!"
  • Also, for all the truly vile and horrible things he does every single day, he scoffs and laughs at the idea that he is actually the bad guy.
• Evil Counterpart: Like Sherlock, Magnussen is a genius who stores vast amounts of information in his head via the Mind Palace technique. This is the secret of his serial blackmailing. He doesn't need to store the information corporeally or digitally. He's Sherlock's logical side, if taken to a cold, logical extreme.
  • Like Sherlock, Magnussen specializes in uncovering secrets and solving mysteries, but while Sherlock uses it to put evil away and better society, Magnussen uses it as a power to assert his dominance over people and countries.
  • He is an evil counterpart of Mycroft. Both have extensive influence over governments, both have direct yet ethically-questionable access to leaders of Britain, both are more chessmasters than tricksters, and both are strongly implied to actually be smarter than Sherlock (and both definitely like reminding him of it). It's strongly implied that Magnussen has clashed with Mycroft before and has found a way to blackmail or control him which may be threats against Sherlock and at one point Sherlock tries and fails to bribe him with Mycroft's laptop because Magnussen craves the information on it. In the original stories, Sherlock muses that if Mycroft had the inclination he could easily become the most successful criminal the world had ever seen- Magnussen could be read as an attempt to see if that is true.
• Evil Gloating: Magnussen likes to do this. And in classic villain fashion, this ultimately leads to his downfall: When he thinks that he has beaten Sherlock Holmes, he tells him the reason why — this way exposing his own biggest weakness. Namely that the police can't confiscate his blackmail vault because it only exists in his head. Thus the vault will simply cease to exist and stop causing any more trouble with Magnussen's death.
• Evil Is Petty: Mainly because of all the information he has on people, Magnussen fully believes he can do whatever to whomever he wants. In fact, this seems to be his main motivation.
  • He licks Lady Smallwood's face after declaring he can ruin her husband.
  • He pisses in 221B's fireplace, and when he wipes his hands, he throws the towelette on the floor.
  • He picks up and eats an olive off Sherlock's pasta meal and cleans his fingers with Sherlock's drink.
  • He flicks John in the face repeatedly, because if the latter doesn't allow him, Magnussen will have Mary killed (or rather, expose her as an assassin in his newspapers and thus make her a fugitive from the law and on the run from people who want her dead). He also does it with his middle finger as a petty insult. It's implied he did something similar to Janine. He points out he does this metaphorically to whole countries.
• Exact Words: Sherlock's deal with Magnussen is that in exchange for top British secrets, Magnussen hands over all materials related to Mary Watson. The latter agrees and fulfils his end of the bargain... because there was no material evidence or records to begin with.
• Excrement Statement: Magnussen pisses into the fireplace at the Baker Street flat as a show of contempt and dominance.
• Expecting Someone Taller: On encountering Sherlock, a woman from his fan club notes that she expected him to be taller. Given that Benedict Cumberbatch is already 6 feet (183cm) tall, one has to wonder what sort of Statuesque Stunner she expected him to be.
• Fake Brit: In-Universe. Sherlock speculates that Mary isn't actually English. A passing remark by Magnussen implies that she's American (or at least that she used to work for the CIA).
• Fake-Out Fade-Out: A snippet of the ending theme plays before being interrupted by the static caused by Moriarty's reveal.
• Faux Affably Evil: Magnussen rarely gets angry, and almost always speaks with the same polite tone of voice. It makes him even creepier and even more disgusting.
• Faux Shadowing:
  • Sherlock ensures that Watson brings his gun, and then Magnussen keeps provoking John and lets him know that his control of Mycroft comes from him being the weak part in the chain so he flicks Watson's face repeatedly and as he grows more furious, Sherlock tries to talk him down from retaliating and JUST when you think he's going to shoot Charles, Sherlock confirms all of Magnussen's info is inside of his mind, pulls out John's pistol and shoots him in the head.
  • As well as Magnussen's Sherlock Scan / Photographic Memory which shows up as Stat-O-Vision. At one point Sherlock believes it to be inside of his glasses, but then they turn out to be just regular spectacles. The real Stat-O-Vision being inside of Magnussen's brain.
• Flatline: Sherlock's heart stops beating and the flatline sounds carry over into his Dying Dream.
• Flipping the Bird: When Magnussen is flicking John's face, take a look at which finger he uses to do so. Evil Is Petty, indeed.
• For the Evulz: Magnussen is a wealthy newspaper magnate, so he blackmails people because he enjoys the power it gives him, not for the money.
• Foreshadowing: "I have an excellent memory."
  • And if that didn't prepare you for The Reveal, Sherlock's discovery that Magnussen's glasses were ordinary spectacles should have.
  • On Christmas, as Mrs Holmes takes Mary her tea, Sherlock glances at his watch and a countdown timer briefly appears. We later learn he had drugged Mary's tea and the punch in order to steal Mycroft's laptop, and he was checking to see how long it was before the drugs took effect.
  • Mycroft describes Magnussen to Sherlock as "a dragon for [Sherlock] to slay". Sherlock does indeed murder Magnussen in the climax.
  • Mycroft warns Sherlock that "the east wind is coming".
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Magnussen is a criminal mastermind with a pair of rimless glasses.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Magnussen's readings of other characters and their pressure points contain some interesting information:
    • Sherlock apparently has a porn preference. It's normal.
    • Mrs. Hudson's pressure point is marijuana. And she's a former exotic dancer.
  • The other person that gets scanned during the inquest is named Garvey. When Sherlock and John walk into Magnussen's office the TV can be heard reporting that MP Garvey was forced to resign on charges of corruption. Looks like Magnussen got to him.
  • At Christmas the newspapers are reporting that Lord Smallwood committed suicide. Seems Magnussen got to him too.
  • At the drug den, right as Watson gets the tire iron out of the boot, there's a billboard behind him with three different torn up signs peeking through. The most prominent word on each section reads "Information // Is // Power," which is a little important to this episode.
• Friendly Enemy: Janine and Sherlock after she realizes he was never going to marry her.
  Janine: Sherlock Holmes, you are a no-good, backstabbing, manipulative bastard.
  Sherlock: You, as it turns out, are a grasping, opportunistic, publicity-hungry tabloid whore.
  Janine: So we're good, then?
  Sherlock: Yes, of course.
• Given Name Reveal: Magnussen's Stat-O-Vision reveals Mrs. Hudson's full name is Martha Louise Hudson.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: Subverted with Magnussen's glasses. Turns out the Stat-O-Vision comes from inside Magnussen's Mind Palace.
• Hate Sink: Charles Augustus Magnussen. While Moriarty may be far more murderous and involved in acts of terrorism, he is at least Laughably Evil and entertaining, and perhaps mildly sympathetic insofar as he is clearly mentally unstable. Magnussen, though, much like his literary counterpart Charles Augustus Milverton, is flat-out stated by Sherlock to be the worst person he has ever met, a "shark" who preys on peoples' vulnerabilities and blackmails them into letting him exploit and bully them (up to and including sexual assault). A media baron, he claims he is willing to run stories that he can't actually prove in order to ruin a person's life, and even if it puts them and their family in mortal danger. At one point he even has Watson trapped in a fire just to see if Sherlock cared enough about him to save him, though he claimed that he had people ready to save him if he didn't. He is a Dirty Coward who begs for his life when confronted with a killer he tried to blackmail but smugly threatens to expose and destroy said killer and their family and friends the moment he regains the advantage. In the end, Sherlock decides shooting him is the only way to stop him- which he does after Magnussen was childishly flicking Watson in the face just, again, to show that he can.
• Helpful Hallucination: When Sherlock is shot by an assassin, he instantly enters into a not-so Dying Dream, in which first Mycroft appears to help him determine which way to fall down and later Moriarty, of all people, giving him the motivation to come back to life.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Sherlock briefly undergoes one at the climax once Magnussen lets him know how hard he has been outwitted.
  • Mycroft has a minor one when Sherlock shoots Magnussen.
  • Everyone has one when Moriarty's picture shows up on every screen in Britain at the end.
• Heroic Resolve: In Sherlock's mind palace, when Moriarty mentions that John is in danger, it provides Sherlock with the necessary power to make this heart start beating again.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Sherlock might not consider himself a hero, but at the end he knowingly did something that would at worse get him arrested and at best exiled just so Watson and Mary could have a good life. If it wasn't for Moriarty's return, Sherlock would have most likely never seen them again.
• Hero Insurance: Averted. Sherlock's murder of Magnussen has consequences, even Mycroft can't turn a blind eye to that.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Magnussen's fatal mistake was showing Sherlock and John that there is no actual Appledore records vault and that any information he may have on his blackmail targets merely exists within his mind. At first both of them think they're defeated but in reality, the solution is quite simple.
• Hypocrite:
  • Magnussen claims he's not a villain, merely a businessman acquiring resources. But as the No Sense of Personal Space and Evil Is Petty examples show, Magnussen clearly glories in the power he has and abusing it.
  • Magnussen loves threatening people with ruination and does so with the utmost apathy and grace, but as soon as his neck's on the line, he breaks down into a quivering, pleading mess.
  • Also, Mycroft. He's had numerous people killed or tortured to protect British interests. But he calls his own brother a murderer for killing Magnussen, when he's done much worse.
• Hypocritical Humour: Sherlock comments that Mycroft is so OCD that he always adjusts the door-knocker at 221B without even realising he does it. When he returns the knocker to its original position, John asks him why he just did that, to which Sherlock responds, "Do what?"
• I Have Your Wife: And she is John's pressure point, and John is Sherlock's, and Sherlock is Mycroft's.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Sherlock compares Magnussen's eyes to the "dead-eyed" gaze of a shark.
• Idiot Ball: Magnussen makes the following rather serious errors.
  • He decides to blackmail Mary, a recently retired assassin. He presumably knows everything about her, and takes joy in amusing himself with the nature of her assassinations. It never occurs to him that this means she has no difficulty, moral or practical, in just sneaking into his office and putting a bullet between his eyes as soon as she could fit it in her schedule. Which she would have done if not for Sherlock and Watson making an appearance and forcing her to improvise to avoid them being suspected in Magnussen's murder.
  • The big reveal to Sherlock that there's no Appledore blackmail vault, and he controls no records other than what he remembers, renders Magnussen pretty well impotent. We'll assume that the only reason he's alive is that the powerful and/or dangerous people he's blackmailing think that Magnussen has some sort of failsafe in case he's killed, such as physical records that would be disseminated if he should die under mysterious circumstances. Magnussen likes the idea of showing up Sherlock by getting the police to search his home and find nothing incriminating. But he fails to realize this also means revealing to lots of current and future unhappy blackmail victims that it might be better to just kill him instead of pay him. The reveal is intended to demonstrate Magnussen defeating Sherlock's plan to expose him, but it also suggests Magnussen is far and wide the stupidest criminal Sherlock has ever faced, as even after one of his victims attempting to kill him, he seems unaware that any of his victims might attempt to kill him, and therefore made no effort to use his extensive blackmail library to protect himself.
• Immoral Journalist: Magnussen snoops into the dark secrets of major political figures and then uses those secrets to blackmail them. Sherlock considers him so disgusting that he opts to simply shoot him in the head rather than find a way to outsmart him.
• Irony:
  • Mummy Holmes declares that if she ever finds out who shot Sherlock, she shall turn "absolutely monstrous" — right before taking Mary some food.
  • Then there is Magnussen who, in revealing that the fatal flaw in Sherlock's plan to take him down — that his vaults of blackmail material are all in his head and therefore no physical evidence to use against him — unintentionally reveals his own fatal flaw in his plan to Sherlock — that Sherlock has absolutely no reason to let Magnussen live.
  • Magnussen taunts Sherlock with how he never fell for the idea that Sherlock is a druggie. The next episode we discover Sherlock just stopped hiding it briefly.
• Jerkass: Magnussen is a pretty big one. He blackmails people just for the hell of it and because it gives him power over them, consequences (to them) be damned.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Magnussen licks Lady Smallwood's face and pokes John and Janine in the eye simply because he has power over them.
  • After Molly slaps Sherlock for failing a drug test, he comments that she's no longer wearing her engagement ring. Her response is to tell him to just stop it.
• Lack of Empathy: In Magnussen's view, if he hasn't killed anyone, then there's no problem with his blackmail and manipulation, even if it leads someone to commit suicide.
• Laser Sight: After Sherlock shoots Magnussen he is targeted by several laser guns from Mycroft's men.
• Lean and Mean: In conspicuous contrast to the portly Milverton of the original story, Lars Mikkelsen's sharp, angular features help to create the effect.
  • His height helps the sharp, skeletal effect. Mikkelsen at six feet three and a half inches looms over even Cumberbatch and Gatiss, and positively towers over 5'7" Martin Freeman and 5'4" Amanda Abbington.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The credits are stopped by the screen turning to static, which we then see is happening to every screen in the UK. This implies the audience's TVs are being affected by Moriarty, too.
• Lecherous Licking: Magnussen licks Lady Smallwood's face because he can.
• Let's Wait a While: Apparently what Sherlock was telling Janine.
  Janine: Just once would have been nice.
  Sherlock: Oh. I was waiting until we got married.
  Janine: Which was never gonna happen!
• Marrying the Mark: Sherlock romances and gets engaged to a young woman named Janine, who happens to be the personal assistant to media mogul (and master blackmailer) Charles Augustus Magnussen. He uses this to gain access to his office early in the episode. Later on, she calls him out on this, calling him a "no-good, backstabbing, manipulative bastard. "
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": Greg, Mrs Hudson, and Molly are visibly unnerved when Moriarty reveals himself on all the TVs in the UK.
• Meaningful Background Event: When John gets the tyre lever from the boot, the signs behind the car collectively say "information is power". Or as Magnussen puts it: "knowing is owning".
• Meaningful Echo:
  • "I'm a high-functioning sociopath, do your research."
  • "If you're looking for baby names," also from "A Scandal In Belgravia".
  • "I'm not a hero," a reference to either his "heroes don't exist" line or "I'm on the side of the angels, but don't think for one second that I am one of them" line.
• Meaningful Name: "Charles Magnussen" is an allusion to Scandinavian chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen, as befits The Chessmaster. The middle name "Augustus" is more about his very high opinion of himself, alluding to the Roman Emperor.
• Musical Spoiler:
  • Pay attention to the music when Sherlock runs into Moriarty's cell during the mind palace scene; it's the same music played as Moriarty approached the Tower of London before his triple heist in "The Reichenbach Fall" and it plays just before we see Moriarty's face. ("Grimm Fairy Tales" on the Season 2 soundtrack)
  • When all the screens start dissolving to static at the end, the same music plays again right when we can barely make out a figure on the TV, about a minute before we get confirmation that it is indeed Moriarty.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Magnussen is put under the gun of a woman he has blackmailed, exactly how his literary counterpart Charles Augustus Milverton died in "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton." Sherlock's description of his repulsion for Magnussen also comes from that story.
  • As in the original story, Sherlock seduces and gets engaged with a member of CAM's staff to gain access to CAM.
  • The dummy from "The Empty House" (the story) as well as the empty house itself, show up in this episode, except the "dummy" is John.
  • Also Janine mentions moving to a cottage in Sussex and the fact that there are beehives there. In the final Sherlock book, His Last Bow, Sherlock ends up retiring to a small cottage in Sussex, keeping (what else?) bees.
  • John walking into a drug den to find the neighbour's son only to find Sherlock as well is copied from The Man with the Twisted Lip. Originally it was a wayward husband in an opium den.
  • Mary's real initials are A.G.R.A. The Agra treasure featured in The Sign of (the) Four the case that Mary Morstan first appears in.
  • Sherlock's new protégé Billy Wiggins is based on Wiggins, the leader of the Baker Street Irregulars. His first name may be a shout out to Billy, the page at 221B Baker Street.
  • Mycroft references having another brother at the end of the episode. In the expanded Sherlock Homes universe Sherrinford Holmes (originally an alternate name for Sherlock before Arthur Conan Doyle changed his mind) is the eldest and smartest of the Holmes children. The rationale being that as Holmes come from the gentry class and both Sherlock and Mycroft have salaried careers, then there has to be another Holmes who inherited the family estate and is responsible for running it.
  • Sherlock's mother (named Violet in expanded continuity) is a gifted mathematician. In "The Final Problem", Sherlock describes Moriarty as particularly having "a phenomenal mathematical faculty" and perhaps could have gone into a career in mathematics. Moriarty also wrote a paper entitled "The Dynamics of an Asteroid", mentioned in "The Valley of Fear". Sherlock's mother wrote a book titled "The Dynamics of Combustion".
  • The east wind line is from the canon. In "His Last Bow" Holmes says it, referring to the German threat of the first world war.
  • Sherlock reveals his full name to be William Sherlock Scott Holmes, popularized by Philip José Farmer in The Wold Newton family, and used in the 1977 film Sherlock Holmes in New York, starring Roger Moore.
  • Mrs. Hudson's first name of Martha may be an allusion to Von Bork's elderly maid from "His Last Bow", who some theorise was Mrs. Hudson who, like Watson, had been roped into Holmes' undercover operation.
  • Likewise, Mrs. Hudson's ex-husband being a drug kingpin may be a reference to "The Adventure of the Gloria Scott", where Holmes recalls facing a criminal named "Hudson" in his first case.
  • Magnussen's nickname, "The Napoleon of Blackmail," is a reference to Moriarty being labelled "The Napoleon of Crime" in his first appearance in "The Final Problem". As mentioned above (see Composite Character), Magnussen's portrayal takes many cues from the literary version of Moriarty, to the point that he's arguably more similar to Sir Arthur's Moriarty than Jim Moriarty was.
• Necessarily Evil: Magnussen for the British government, as described by Mycroft:
  He's a businessman, that's all. And occasionally useful to us. A necessary evil.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Downplayed when Sherlock busts into Magnussen's flat only to discover Mary beat him to it and already had him at gunpoint. Downplayed because it's hard to say what the result of that would have been had Sherlock not been there.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: An odd example. Dying Dream mind palace Moriarty taunts Holmes with how when he dies, he'll fail everyone... including John Watson. This is what brings Sherlock back to action, to the hallucination's confusion.
  • Once again—-as if this hasn't been stated enough—-Magnussen revealing that the Appledore vaults were all in his mind, and that there was absolutely no physical evidence for all the information he'd gathered. Once Sherlock found this out, he realized there was no reason to keep him alive, seeing as all of his secrets would die with him.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: To wit, MP Garvie asks Magnussen in the opening scene, "Do you think it right that a newspaper proprietor, a private individual and, in fact, a foreign national should have such regular access to our Prime Minister?"
• Noodle Incident:
  • What did happen to "the other one", Mikey?
  • What were Sherlock and Janine doing in the bathroom?
  • The incident where Sherlock won a building façade covering a Tube railway in a poker game with a cannibal.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Oh, Magnussen probably has one, but he takes perverse pleasure in violating other people's because he knows he can get away with it. He'll lick people's faces, flick them in the eye, or root through their food with his bare hands, after making it clear they can't react in any way without him exposing their secrets.
• Not Quite Dead: Moriarty uses every television in the country to reveal himself.
• Off the Wagon: Sherlock. John and Molly are absolutely livid with him, despite his claims that he's deliberately relapsed for a case he's working on.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Sherlock is completely floored when he sees it's Mary holding the gun.
  • Also when he learns that the Appledore Vaults do not exist.
  • Mary has one when she realises the dummy she thought was Sherlock is actually John, and who has heard her whole conversation with Sherlock about her past.
• Old Media Are Evil: Magnussen is an international newspaper magnate who blackmails people as a sideline.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Why Mary shoots Sherlock in the sternum rather than the head. Realizing that if she killed Sherlock for walking in on her standoff, John would be blamed for the murders of Sherlock and Magnussen. Thus she neutralizes Sherlock in the most non-lethal way she could manage. Sherlock helps his own situation as well by quickly calculating the most effective way to fall based on the circumstances of the shot and the lack of an exit wound.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Enforced. Mikkelsen, who is capable of speaking with a London accent, was asked to sound more Danish. This is particularly obvious in the opening scene when Magnussen states his own name.
• Out-Gambitted: Sherlock just barely comes out on top between him and Magnussen, before that, Magnussen played Sherlock like a harp by tricking him into thinking that there were actually physical records of everything inside vaults.
• Pædo Hunt: Magnussen exploits this to blackmail Lady Smallwood using Lord Smallwood's romantic correspondence that was (unknowingly) sent to an underage subject.

• The Patient Has Left the Building: Soon after coming back to life, Sherlock escapes from the hospital bed via window.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Sherlock executing Magnussen.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Mycroft admits that he actually is fond of his little brother.
  • Sherlock pets Redbeard (revealed to be his childhood dog) while in his mind palace in order to calm himself down and pull himself out of shock.
• Photographic Memory: There are hints that Magnussen is using some sort of Google Glass-esque Heads-Up Display, and that's the conclusion Sherlock initially comes to, but it's a Red Herring. He keeps all his secrets in his "mind palace", with no backup whatsoever.
• Pistol Whip: Mary pistol whips Magnussen after Sherlock foiled her assassination attempt.
• The Power of Love: Sherlock manages to pull himself back from death, because of mind-palace Moriarty's words: "John will cry buckets and buckets. It's him that I worry about the most. That wife... You're letting him down, Sherlock. John Watson is definitely in danger."
• Pragmatic Villainy: Magnussen invokes this, claiming that he's not some evil man for them to thwart, just a businessman. His main use of his store of blackmail information seems to be to remove threats to his business. As Mycroft points out, he "never causes too much damage". On the other hand, he utterly relishes the control he has over people and when Sherlock offers up Magnussen Mycroft's personal laptop, he's more than eager to get his hands on it.
• Precision F-Strike: John lets out a "Jesus!" when Magnussen leaves 221B. Understandable since he just urinated in the fireplace.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "Oh, do your research! I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Merry Christmas!"
• Pretty Little Headshots:
  • Sherlock's imagination of getting shot in the head just leaves a neat hole.
  • Averted with Magnussen, as the camera never gets close enough to show the effect, and there's quite a lot of blood visible on the ground beneath him at a distance.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Magnussen is the most powerful man in the world, but he acts like a Spoiled Brat or Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up, since he uses said power mainly to bully and humiliate people For the Evulz.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Molly delivers one when it's revealed Sherlock was on drugs in "His Last Vow".
    Molly: How dare you ruin your precious gift? [looks at John] And how dare you betray the love of your friends?
  • Which turns out to be sweet when Sherlock stops himself from being clinically dead since he thought John was in danger.
  • Magnussen stupidly gives a supposed one to Sherlock.
    Magnussen: Very hard to find a pressure point on you, Mr Holmes. The drugs thing I never believed for a moment. Anyway, you wouldn't care if it was exposed, would you? But look how you care about John Watson. Your damsel in distress.
  • This, in turn, really pisses off Sherlock and leads to this:
    Magnussen: Sorry, no chance for you to be a hero this time, Mr. Holmes!
    Sherlock: Oh, do your research. I'm not a hero, I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Merry Christmas!
• Red Baron: Subverted for laughs with Bill Wiggins.
  Bill: They call me "The Wig".
  Sherlock: No they don't.
  Bill: They call me "Wiggy".
  Sherlock: Nope.
  [Beat]
  Bill: Bill. Bill Wiggins.
  Sherlock: Excellent deductions, Billy.
• Red Herring: Magnussen's glasses. At first the audience is led to believe the glasses contain a concealed flash drive or wireless, so he can read information about whoever he looks at. Sherlock assumes the same thing until he inspects the glasses and finds out they're perfectly ordinary.
• Red Right Hand: In his interaction with Lady Smallwood in Claridge's, Magnussen reveals that he suffers from hyperhydrosis.
• Remember the New Guy?: Magnussen has been in England for a while and Sherlock has clearly studied him long enough to hate him, yet he played no part in previous seasons.
• The Reveal:
  • There's no vault in Appledore. Magnussen stores his blackmail information in his mind, because he's able to use the same "mind palace" technique that Sherlock uses.
  • Mary is actually a former assassin.
  • Moriarty is possibly Not Quite Dead.
• Ripped from the Headlines: A non-British media mogul who has access to people's personal information who tried to pressure the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Sounds a lot like the News of the World hacking scandal.
• Rule of Symbolism: There appear to be angel wings on the floor of Moriarty's cell in Sherlock's mind palace.
• Sadist: Magnussen absolutely revels in the power his information, influence and public standing gives him over other people- to the point of forcefully licking the arm and face of a government minister or pissing in Sherlock's fireplace, just because he can.
• Screaming Woman: Mrs Hudson freaks out when Moriarty pops back on the telly.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Even though he's seen blackmailing MP's (and it's implied the Prime Minister) Mycroft wants Magnussen left alone for reasons that are unclear.
  • Mycroft himself claims that Magnussen's intel network is sometimes of use to the British government, possibly making him another "consultant" like Moriarty. If that is true, then it's very clear most of the British government is not happy with the arrangement.
  • Sherlock accuses Mycroft of also being blackmailed by Magnussen. It's implied that he actually got to Mycroft by threatening to use his papers to go after Sherlock.
• Self-Plagiarism: To Steven Moffat's Doctor Who tenure:
  • Sherlock refers to Mary as "the Doctor's wife" and later asks Mrs. Hudson "Then what, exactly, is the point of you?!", a line almost word-for-word lifted from Amy Pond. The Eleventh Doctor says something similar in "The Impossible Astronaut". Moffat certainly had fun with this one.
  • Not to mention Mary's "mixed messages" of shooting Sherlock, then saving his life, alongside being madly in love with John were very familiar to River's erratic "I love him / I have to kill him" flirting/psychopath behaviour in "Let's Kill Hitler."
  • The Christmas Day outfit of the elder Mr Holmes (Sherlock and Mycroft's dad) screams the Series 5 outfit of the Eleventh Doctor.
  • Sherlock uses the sentence "hidden in plain sight" when discussing his hideout with Mary. Said hideout is a house whose interior does not match the exterior, which could be reminiscent of Craig's house or a certain blue box.
  • John dismissing the fact that he does not know Mary's real name and that her name is the one she chose is reminiscent of Clara's conclusion in "The time of the Doctor".
• Sexy Shirt Switch: Janine walks out of Sherlock's bedroom wearing one of his shirts and not visibly anything else.
• Shadow Archetype:
  • If Moriarty is the more chaotic, wild counterpart to Sherlock, Magnussen is Sherlock to his absolute coldest depths. He is also a more smug, sadistic, and unprincipled version of Mycroft, what the latter could be if he stopped caring about the defence of the realm and instead decided to rub its face in the mud.
  • Also, Sherlock apparently isn't the only one who faked his death. Moriarty seems to have as well.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Magnussen always dresses in suits and despite having a condition that makes him sweat constantly, he always looks immaculate from his hair to his clothes.
• Sherlock Scan:
  • Magnussen has a variety, he doesn't see every minute detail about a person, but he does have a form of perfect recall so he knows everything that person has in the form of Stat-O-Vision.
  • Bill pulls it on Watson, recognizing his shirt wrinkles imply he folds all his shirts in that manner because it makes them easier to pack, thus he dresses at the office once he's showered there. Holmes is impressed by this, so Billy tries to show off some more but gets it wrong on account of not knowing Watson personally.
• Shirtless Scene: When Sherlock is in the hospital.
• Shoot the Dog: Sherlock, upon realizing that the information that Magnussen is using to blackmail Mary and torment John is only in his head, grabs John's gun and shoots Magnussen in the head in front of John, Mycroft and several armed police officers. That was more of shooting the son of a bitch, though.
• Shout-Out:
  • Mycroft mentions a colleague fond of England having a "blunt instrument". Perhaps his or her name also starts with M. There's even a shot reminiscent of one of the rooftop scene of Skyfall in the stinger.
  • Several Doctor Who references:
    • When Sherlock is in his mind palace after getting shot and on the brink of death, his friends urge him to stay alive while Moriarty urges him to die. Just like the Fifth Doctor. Coincidentally, the author of the Doctor Who episode that happens in was called "Robert Holmes".
    • John and Sherlock's farewell to each other at the end is very reminiscent of the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler's farewell in "Doomsday", with at least two lines pulled from it. ("I can't think of what to say." and "If it's my last chance to say it...")
  • An ambiguous mention of "Redbeard" turns out to refer to a childhood memory. Sound familiar?
  • If you've seen Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, then you may note that the film's climactic moment involves the villain displaying an ability previously demonstrated only by Sherlock, and Sherlock defeating him by killing him and sacrificing himself for Watson, something the self-centred villain might have trouble anticipating.
  • Sherlock won a fake-front block of buildings playing poker with a cannibal? One kind of wonders if this was a dig at Magnussen having a more famous brother?
• Shower of Love: Alluded to when Janice sneaks into the bathroom after Sherlock. Turns out there was no sex between them.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Magnussen claims "ownership" over people he has information on, and makes it quite clear he can and will do anything he wants to them.
• Smug Snake: Magnussen in spades:
  • He considers John and Mrs Hudson to be "unimportant".
  • He tends to underestimate the people he blackmails. Some like Lady Smallwood and Mary refuse to put up with it and act to bring him down.
  • All his information is memorized, so there's no hard copy of it. But he tells this all to Sherlock, thinking he got one up on him, which is a rare but severe miscalculation on his part. Sherlock has no problem putting a bullet in his brain when he threatens John and Mary's happiness.
  • He dismisses Sherlock as a hero who can't do anything to stop him. Sherlock calls him out on this and shoots him.
• The Sociopath: Magnussen likes to use blackmail to control others, and even if he doesn't kill them, he doesn't care at all about how his manipulation affects them mentally and emotionally. He is not shown to have any genuine good relationships at all, and views everyone around him with a cold and clinical Lack of Empathy.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Magnussen is always soft-spoken, even when pleading for his life. Also, he torments people he doesn't need to just because he enjoys it.
• Stat-O-Vision: Every time we view through Magnussen's eyes when he's wearing his glasses, we see a nifty view of stats about characters he views and their weaknesses. Such as Mrs Hudson's marijuana and history as an exotic dancer, and Irene Adler, Moriarty and Redbeard for Sherlock (among many others for the detective. Actually, it looks like a lot more, but the list is just rotated around to make it look like more. It goes Redbeard, Hounds of The Baskerville, Opium, John Watson, Irene Adler, Jim Moriarty.) Turns out that Magnussen doesn't have a HUD: it's all in his head.
• Staying Alive: Just layer another one on the meanings of Jim Moriarty's ringtone.
• The Stinger: Jim Moriarty asking the audience, "Miss me?" after the credits finish.
• A Storm Is Coming: In Sherlock's mind palace after Mary shoots him, Mycroft tells Sherlock that an east wind is coming (reference to an exchange between Holmes and Watson in the original story "His Last Bow"). Sherlock tells John the same thing when they say goodbye, explaining that this is a story that Mycroft told him as a child; "The East Wind; this terrifying force that lays waste to all in its path. It seeks out the unworthy and plucks them from the Earth. That was generally me. He was a rubbish big brother." At the end, when Moriarty's return leads to Sherlock's exile being curtailed, John comments that if Moriarty is alive, "he'd better wrap up warm. There's an East Wind coming."
• Suddenly Shouting: "Why is everything always... MY FAULT?!" Made all the more effective due to John kicking a table in his rage at the same time.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Janine is an attractive, witty brunette who manipulates Sherlock to her benefit but also seems to have some sort of feelings for him. He manipulates her in turn. They part on good terms. Sounds a lot like Irene.
• That Man Is Dead: Or rather, that woman: Mary's past identity.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Bill tries to pull it off by claiming to have a codename amongst the druggies as "The Wig." Sherlock doesn't buy it.
• This Is the Part Where...: Magnusson pulls this sarcastically on Sherlock and John, revealing that he knows their plan and it won't work.
• Too Dumb to Live: After putting Sherlock and John through hell and threatening to destroy their lives and that of the people they love, Magnussen decides to do some Evil Gloating and reveal that all the information he uses to blackmail people is in his head, no need for external storage. Cue Sherlock blowing his brains out.
• Torment by Annoyance: Magnusson spends some time tormenting a helpless John Watson by flicking him in the face. Because of the blackmail material he has on John's wife, he has no choice but to stand there and take it. Even when the villain moves on to flicking him in the eye. "Try to keep it open, John. Try to keep it open!"
• Tranquil Fury: John after Mary is revealed as a former assassin and has lied to him since the day they met. He slips into Unstoppable Rage for a moment when he suddenly shouts and kicks a table.
• Twisted Christmas: Christmas at the Holmes, um, home, starts off ordinarily enough... until Sherlock drugs his family, steals a laptop containing national security secrets, and rushes off to meet a master blackmailer whom he ends up shooting dead.
  John: It's Christmas!
  Sherlock: I feel the same way too... oh you mean it's actually Christmas.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • Mycroft has him under protection, yet Magnussen has no problem stealing data from British Intelligence if it gives him more power. But he's savvy enough to not get caught doing it.
  • Mycroft and the British Government. Sherlock killed Magnussen. Instead of pardoning Sherlock, or hushing the whole thing up, they send him on a suicide mission for MI-6 because he would just cause prison riots. The MP who hired Sherlock to bring down Magnussen, Lady Smallwood, is the one who signs the order. They only change their minds when Moriarty comes back, and realize how much they need Sherlock.
• Unstoppable Rage: For a few seconds after Mary is revealed as a former assassin, John loses his shit, slipping from Tranquil Fury into this trope, raising his voice and kicking a table aside before he is able to calm down.
• Uriah Gambit: Sherlock has, in order to save Watson from a possible treason charge, killed Big Bad Charles Magnussen in cold blood. The government bigwigs quickly realize that, given Holmes saved the entire country from Moriarty last series and is the most popular man in Britain, imprisoning him for this crime would be political suicide for everyone involved. Instead they decide to send him on an extremely difficult mission for MI-6 in the Middle East, presumably hoping he'd die "heroically" and thus keep the public happy. But before his plane even leaves the ground, Moriarty turns out to be not nearly as dead as he seemed.
• Villain Ball: While he goes out of his way to look clean in terms of blackmail materials, Magnussen does openly admit to kidnapping John Watson and recklessly endangering him as well as admitting to blackmailing whole countries in front of Sherlock and Watson. Had either of them had a recording device, his Evil Gloating would have been his end.
• Villain with Good Publicity: To the general public, Magnussen is simply a businessman with some good connections.
• Villains Want Mercy: Magnussen is even more of a Dirty Coward than his literary counterpart, who was obviously also terrified to face some who would Just Shoot Him but never quite stooped to invoking her (husband's) better nature.
• Was It All a Lie?: For Mary, no. For Janine, no. For Sherlock, yes.
• Wham Episode: Mary was a professional killer. Sherlock is shot and nearly dies. Sherlock kills Magnussen to solve the issue. Holmes's subsequent reassignment to East Europe is halted by the return of a seemingly Not Quite Dead Moriarty. Also, Sherlock has another sibling.
• Wham Line:
  • "That's not Lady Smallwood, Mister Holmes."
  • A wham line more for Sherlock which gives him the drive not to die: "You're letting him down Sherlock, John Watson is definitely in danger."
  • "The Appledore vaults are my mind palace."
  • "Don't be absurd. I'm not given to outbursts of brotherly compassion. You know what happened to the other one."
  • "Did you miss me?"
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Watson gives Sherlock this when he discovers that Sherlock toyed with Janine's feelings (proposed to her) to gain access to Magnussen.
  • Before that, Molly gives him one when he tests positive for drugs.
  • While the occasional killing and injuring of villains is often treated as no big deal in-universe, it's very quickly clear that Sherlock's murder of Magnussen is a very big deal. John is stunned and the only thing he manages to say is "CHRIST, SHERLOCK." Mycroft rips off his headset after frantically instructing his men not to fire on Sherlock, and says quietly to himself "Oh, Sherlock, what have you done?"
• White Void Room: Magnussen's "vault", which helps him in accessing his mind palace.
• With a Foot on the Bus: Sherlock is forced to leave England for killing Magnussen. However, his plane is barely in the air when Moriarty announces his return, and Sherlock is quickly pardoned and the plane turns around.
• Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: Mary's proposed solution to Magnussen. It's Sherlock who pulls the trigger at the end.
• Worth Living For: When Mary shoots Sherlock, he goes into in his mind palace, and, when he hears John's in danger, cue him stopping himself from being in this position for his friend.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Magnussen labels Sherlock a "hero", and assumes that Thou Shalt Not Kill is in place. This leads to his downfall when Sherlock straight-up shoots him.

• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Sherlock thinks this of Mary, so he ignores her warning and takes a step into her direction. Wrong deduction, Sherlock.

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Miss me?

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