Sherlock Review: Series 3 Episode 2 "The Sign of Three"

By: Stephen Thompson, Mark Gatiss, & Steven Moffat

**SPOILERS**

If you have not yet watched this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.

             Where do I even start with this one? It's like Moffat, Thompson, and Gatiss looked into the very depths of our souls and plucked forth the things we most wanted to see. This episode was definitely fanservice personified...all wrapped up and neatly delivered in the form of a rom-com containing a murder mystery. It is honestly the funniest and fluffiest episode of Sherlock we have seen yet and, while I wouldn't want the show to look like this always, I don't feel that it was a bad move for the writers to make.

Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- What makes the opening so funny is the fact we all know that it is coming. We know that Greg is going to get to 221B and discover that Sherlock was just yanking his chain (although in this case, I'd be willing to bet that it wasn't deliberately) and that knowledge just makes the build-up funnier than ever. The best part is the helicopter heard to be flying overhead. Just what did Greg's 'maximum backup' entail...?

- It is rather (hilariously) cute, though, to see the way Lestrade drops everything and panics the moment he sees Sherlock using the words 'help' and 'please'. He really does care about that arrogant sod despite it all.

- Sherlock does have an interesting point in this sentence: "Two people who currently live together are about to attend Church, have a party, go on a short holiday, and then carry on living together. What's big about that?" Hmmm...

- Those wedding photos are absolutely gorgeous and become even more impressive whenever you see the complicated rig of 60+ cameras that were required for each shot.

- First thing you need to know about this episode going in is that it is very nonlinear. It is not so much one story as it is a series of vignettes that eventually all tie together a the end. The first of these occurred at the wedding reception receiving line where we see just how seriously Sherlock has taken his Best Man duties. He interrogates Mary's ex (not because he doesn't trust Mary, but because he is trying to avoid any trouble for the happy couple) and bribes the reluctant ringbearer with crime scene photographs.

- The scene with the two of them sitting there bonding over maggots is one of the cutest things I have ever seen.

- It probably shouldn't be as funny as it is, but the sight of Mycroft jogging on a treadmill in that very unforgiving outfit sent me into an uncontrollable fit of giggles. 

- My mother and I were in stitches over the truly dreadful way that Sherlock begins his speech. I think that he managed to insult every single person in that room (including the catering staff) and yet turned it around into a rather bizarre, if completely heartfelt, compliment for John.

- Can we just stop here for a moment and talk about the fact that John is tearing up in public over Sherlock's speech? This is the man that, at the beginning of A Study in Pink never even really smiled (the only ones he did were painfully contrived and empty) and that in The Reichenbach Fall refused to cry in front of his therapist. Now we see him not only getting a bit sniffly over the speech, but we also hear from his conversation with Major Sholto that he still goes and visits his therapist from time to time...though now it seems to be more because they are on good terms than out of desperation. People always focus on how disconnected from reality and emotion Sherlock was, but we often forget that John was just as bad or perhaps even worse!

- For everyone who thinks that Sherlock is being too kind and too human this series, I just want you to look at the scene where he looks up and sees that everyone in the room is crying. Instantly he panics, not knowing why or how to 'make it better'...this is different from the 'old' Sherlock only in the sense that instead of sneering and going on he is worried about the reaction because he thinks he did something wrong. Sherlock heard John say that the wedding was the most important day of his life and so Sherlock is doing his best to make certain that everything is perfect.

- Oh. And the hug. Darn it all! I waited three series' for that hug!

- Even in a speech meant to extol the virtues of Doctor Watson, Sherlock can't resist getting in a crack about the infamous blog he so tries to hate.

- The Bloody Guardsman was a portion of the episode I enjoyed very much (personally I prefer the vignettes to the actual speech part) although at first I did find it a bit odd that it was Sherlock who was taking care of the wedding preparation help rather than Janine (the chief bridesmaid). But then I remembered that this is Sherlock...the man who obsesses over everything to catch his eye as important. The man who has a sock index. Of course he would insist on being the one to help out. And it is quite funny the way Mary uses his deduction skills to ferret out which guests secretly hate her.

- "I will solve your murder, but it takes John Watson to save your life."

- Would the attempted murder on Bainbridge (Dean Thomas for you Potterheads out there) actually have worked? It seems rather ludicrous that being stabbed through the belt wouldn't be felt and if it was truly a blade small enough for a person to write it off as a clothing article snagging on something how could you possibly bleed to death that fast? Why wasn't there a trail of blood to the shower?

- I guess it all comes down to the fact that it was an attempted murder. 

- And now I absolutely have to talk about the Stag Night!!!

- So Sherlock is going to take John on a pub crawl through all the streets that they've found a corpse in. And that just settled my feelings about whether weddingplanner!Sherlock was still our beloved Sherlock right away. Even Molly (the girl who makes jokes about postmortems) looked a bit disturbed.

- For some reason it just cracks me up that Sherlock and John walk into a barand Sherlock orders a precise amount of beer in two graduated cylinders. The poor bartender!

- The dubstep version of the iconic theme song that plays during the drunken montage is absolutely priceless. I want that for my ringtone!

- Why did Mrs. Hudson let Tessa up into the flat when she knew that Sherlock and John were drinking? It is also hilarious, but a bit sketchy, that Tessa (a nurse) didn't see anything wrong with two obviously inebriated men trying to solve her crime. Guess she was pretty desperate!

- The drunken deductions. Oh gosh...the drunken deductions! I still laugh when I think about Sherlock's infamous scan descending into Buffy Speak!

- "He's clueing for looks."

- Everything about that scene was perfection. From John fall asleep on the sofa, to Sherlock chiding him for being rude, to Tessa calmly taking them into the flat crime scene, to Sherlock puking on the rug after scolding someone for compromising the integrity of said crime scene, to John then looking for a high five because he finished Sherlock's sentence. HAHAHA!

- Thay also mangled their catchphrase: "The game is...SOMETHING!" "On?" "Yeah...that."

- Why didn't they invite Lestrade to the Stag Night?

-  I have to admit that around the time the actual case shows up, things start to fall apart. It's not the story telling is off (I mean...the whole thing was beautifully foreshadowed and set up) it's just that things really start to drag. They could have cut the whole 'deduce the guests' and 'stop Major Sholto' bit in half and it really would have helped.

- We had a cameo from Irene Adler too.

- I did enjoy the bit where Sherlock listens to the ringbearer, Archie, and gets the missing piece to the puzzle. Remember that Sherlock was once that kid who had the answer and the police wouldn't listen to him. He's not about to make the same mistake. And the kid got a headless nun picture out of it all...bet his mother LOVED that!

- Sherlock playing the violin for John and Mary's first waltz was just the icing on the cake for me. Also, as a violinist, I can say that Cumberbatch has gotten markedly better at miming his playing. I'm not certain if it's actually him playing along to the soundtrack there or if he actually is just pretending. He's always been good...but this was a treat to watch, especially the second time when I was actually trying to catch him out.

- And the episode title refers to the fact that the Watsons are going to be parents. D'awww!

            So what do I think of this episode? Personally I loved it. It gave us some more much-needed character development (because you can't have a hiatus like Sherlock pulled and just resolve it in one story) and set a nice, deliberate, fluffy tone that left us ill-prepared and nervous for the series finale. Whatever else you can say about Moffat, he is a master at manipulating emotion. There were some pacing issues, especially towards the end, and the flashback vignette format probably isn't for everyone, but I had fun with it. The Sign of Three is a 4/5.

What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?