Since Captain Gregson is playing the Inspector Lestrade role in NYC, the actual Lestrade is still there in London and will eventually make an appearance.
It's also worth remembering that while literary!Holmes considered literary!Gregson to be the finest and most intelligent of the Scotland Yard Inspectors (an appraisal this Holmes seems to share of his own Gregson), he considered literary!Lestrade to be somewhat lazy and dull, content to allow Holmes to solve the crimes and then take credit, which Holmes was okay with. Given that characterization, Elementary!Lestrade will probably be sent over for some international case, come off as arrogant and boorish with how "he" solved so many of their old cases, then be humbled when he needs Holmes to straighten out his mess — again.- Confirmed. Lestrade is played by Sean Pertwee in season 2 and his role involves Scotland Yard.
Holmes will figure out that Watson wasn't being paid by his father any more.
- Holmes has a habit of using Watson's phone without her permission. He might come across the email and deduced that she lied about his father agreeing to extend her service.
- Not to mention, he's probably been around her long enough to figure out her tells.
- Confirmed.
Irene is alive.
- When Sherlock says that she's dead, he does so only after a very long pause, and seems as if he's trying to very carefully pick his words— furthermore, if he did indeed receive those letters while he was in rehab, she would have to have still been alive. Rather, she did something so unspeakable as to render her a complete non-person to him, and when he said she died, he meant it in more of a "she's dead to me" kind of way.
- Alternatively, Irene faked her death, and it possibly had something to do with Moriarty. Whether or not Sherlock knows Irene is Not Quite Dead is up for debate.
- Even "M." doesn't necessarily discount this theory. While Irene's blood was found at the crime scene, Holmes does mention that a few of the victims were a case of Never Found the Body. Adler or Moriarty could easily have taken pints of her blood away over a long period of time and simulated her death.
- Furthermore, the same episode revealed that everything Sherlock thought he knew about Irene's death was wrong— Moran wasn't involved, and who knows what kind of trickery Moriarty himself could have pulled?
- Irene Adler's claim to fame in the books is that she's the one who tricked Holmes. What better trick than convincing the Great Detective that she's dead when she's really alive?
- CBS has announced that Irene will appear in the show, being played by Natalie Dormer. However, they have not said whether she will appear in the show's present or just in flashbacks. Her first appearance will be May 9.
- Confirmed. In "Risk Management" she's shown to be very much alive and in "The Woman/Heroine" we discover that she is, in fact, Moriarty.
- Alternatively, Irene faked her death, and it possibly had something to do with Moriarty. Whether or not Sherlock knows Irene is Not Quite Dead is up for debate.
It wasn't Irene Adler that drove Holmes to his breakdown in London.
- It was genderswapped!Moriarty. Because genderswapping Moriarty and Adler would be interesting.
- They already Gender Flipped Watson, so sure, why not?
- Jossed as of "M." Moriarty had Irene killed, which led to Holmes' breakdown.
- Not Jossed, if Irene Adler and Moriarty are the same person. And remember: there was no body.
- Confirmed, since Irene and Moriarty are the same.
- They already Gender Flipped Watson, so sure, why not?
"M" from the episode of the same name will be Sebastian Moran, not Moriarty.
- Vinnie Jones is playing M, and he appears to be a man of action, or at the very least a leg man. This isn't to say that Moriarty isn't active, but Sebastian Moran is always the man doing most of the leg work for the criminal network. And Vinnie Jones, while a talented actor, is more of a Moran type. If anything, there will be a reference to Moriarty, but not Moriarty himself.
- The only other major villain named M in Holmes cannon is Charles Augustus Milverton, and his M.O. does not fit with this M. It is likely Moran.
- Completely and utterly confirmed, to the last detail.
Irene Adler is Moriarty.
- Moran doesn't know anything about "Moriarity" except "his" name, so it is quite possible that "he" is a woman. When Holmes started getting to close too "Moriarity", she inserted herself into Holmes's life using the alias "Irene Adler" in order to learn more about him. For whatever reason, instead of killing Holmes she decided to destroy him by making him fall in love with him then faking her own death. Assuming they Never Found the Body, she could have easily faked her own death either by collecting her own blood over a long period of time or else murdering some other woman and planting that woman's D.N.A. in her own hairbrush, so that when the police got a sample to compare D.N.A. to the blood at the crime scene they would misidentify it.
- Confirmed.
