Season 2 of this series starts on 1 January 2012 on BBC One. Two further episodes follow, and the Region 2 DVD will be released on 23 January, just a week after the third episode.

The series won't be shown in America on PBS until May.

Torrents are your friend, Callie!

So, Callie, you *ARE* still around? Where have you been lately? No more NextGen posts for you, huh?

I guess you really dont like me cause I tell it like it is and would be eager and willing to tell the people involved in making bad movies and TV episodes how much they stink!

Is that correct? Or do you just not like Trek anymore, or what?

Andre, do you have nothing better to do than stalk me around the boards? I'll post on NextGen topics when I choose to, but this is the Sherlock board. Go play somewhere else, dear.

I don't need torrents, Rodney, but people in other countries might. Strangely, I've seen people on Tumblr saying that they won't download the episodes because they don't want their first viewing to be on their 19" computer screen.

*Rolls eyes* First world problems, eh? I would watch the episodes on a BlackBerry if I had to!

"Well EX-CUUUSSSEEEEEEEE MEEEE, Princess!!!!"

The first clips from this episode have been released by the BBC and they're brilliant. As they can't be seen from other countries on the BBC page itself, someone has loaded them here.

Just a reminder that Season 2 starts today (1st January) at 8.10 p.m. on BBC1.

We eagerly await your thorough dissection of each episode...

It'll come once I've managed to get myself out of this puddle on the floor. May take a while ... plus I'm typing a transcript, which will be the longest one I've ever done! Stargate eps: 42 minutes; Sherlock eps: 1 hour 29 minutes. I may be some time ...

(I might actually wait until the DVD comes out in 3 weeks' time so that I can incorporate commentary notes as well.)

But very initial comment: wow. Fantastic. There were some very nitpickable moments, especially the opening and the ending, but so many hilarious and gorgeous and heartbreaking moments.

What I did in my tea half-hour:

Transcript of the episode

So this is my first run at commenting on this episode, otherwise I’ll forget everything when the next episode airs tomorrow. There will no doubt be lots more comments from me in due course!

It wasn’t the brightest idea to resume exactly where they left off at the end of Season 1 and to start with a flashback, because all three of the characters looked very different to before. Benedict in particular has put on a load of weight in the eighteen months between Seasons 1 and 2. It didn’t take me very long to adjust to them again, but it will always be a bit irritating to watch the transition.

The resolution of that scene is terrible. Just a few moments ago Sherlock was ready (and had been given permission to do so by John) to blow all three of them (and the snipers) to kingdom come. Why did Sherlock let Jim walk away just because he got a phonecall? It changes the whole dynamic of the end of The Great Game when Sherlock had all the power; and I don’t understand how the power shifted back into Jim’s hands as soon as the phone rang. It’s like Steven Moffat turned to Mark Gatiss (who wrote TGG) and asked, “Well, how were you going to resolve it?” and Mark just shrugged and said, “No idea,” to which Steven replied, “Naah, me neither.”

I love the way that when he’s typing his blog in the living room, John’s typing appears on the wall and part of it disappears behind the cow’s skull.

I cracked up at John’s blog entry called “The Speckled Blonde”! The play on the names of various original Conan Doyle stories throughout this episode is hilarious. However, when Sherlock is being indignant about this entry, he says, “Oh, for God’s sakes,” which is a very American saying. He says it again later in the episode, although he does also say the more British “For God’s sake,” on another occasion.

One of the moments that I raved about in The Great Game – the moment when John walks across the screen and wipes the image behind him from one scene to another – is reproduced a few times in this episode, especially during the visits from the potential clients to Baker Street.

When Lestrade takes the boys to the car with the body in the boot, Sherlock tells him, “We do watch the news,” and John says, “You said ‘boring’ and turned over.” Non-English fangirls went into meltdown at this line, believing that it could only mean that Sherlock turned over in bed where he and John were watching the TV. Sadly I have to advise that in this context, “turned over” means “changed the channel”. *pouts*

In real life, Sherlock’s website The Science of Deduction has been updated since the new series started, as has John’s blog site. Particularly hilarious is the fact that there was a new entry on Sherlock’s site entitled “Analysis of Tobacco Ash” but the entry is now marked, ‘Deleted!!’

Sherlock wearing a deerstalker was utterly hilarious! I can’t give enough kudos to Moffat for coming up with the idea of how to make good on his promise during the commentary for Season 1 that he would get Sherlock into a deerstalker somehow.

Close scrutiny of the newspaper articles shows that they aren’t very well produced (I mean by the show’s production team, not the news agencies). Some of them have got repeated text in them (i.e. the same paragraphs repeated throughout the article) and there are some dire misprints. Because of this, I’m not confident that whoever produced the articles actually consulted with the Executive Producers for confirmation that John is 37 years old.

I wonder if there was some kind of in-joke reason for the Cluedo board stabbed into the flat’s living room wall next to the mirror? Fans have speculated that Sherlock had a tantrum when he couldn’t understand the rules.

I couldn’t help noticing that (despite the fact that it’s definitely established later in this episode that Sherlock’s bedroom is behind the kitchen) when the man (Phil) comes in and faints in front of Mrs Hudson in the kitchen, she yells upwards “Boys, you’ve got another one!” Now why would she think that both of the boys are upstairs – and why would they both be upstairs? *whistles casually*

And that door on the left of the corridor between the kitchen and Sherlock’s bedroom still doesn’t make sense. It makes no sense to have two doors into what must be a tiny en suite bathroom; and I still think that the door should open straight onto the stairs in mid-air.

Someone elsewhere pointed out that the reflection in Lestrade’s car window as he’s talking on the phone to DI Carter appears to be the houses in Baker Street. But if he’s there he has presumably been inside and so would know that Sherlock’s there, so why does he tell Carter to try not to punch him? I suspect that they just filmed that moment while Rupert Graves was already there to film other scenes and didn’t think the logic through.

Additionally, this has made me realise that in this series they’ve allowed us to see that that row of buildings in North Gower Street Baker Street is FOUR storeys high. So either the boys have got more space upstairs than we may have previously assumed, or the top floor is closed off to them and incorporated into a separate flat.

If DI Carter thinks that Phil is a suspect in the death of the hiker, why did he let him go so quickly?

It was only on the third time of viewing that I realised that the “three small dogs” that Sherlock deduces on Plummer’s suit are probably corgis!! In fact, that’s presumably how he knew where he was going in the first place.

The whole Buckingham Palace scene is utterly adorable, and not just because of Sherlock’s state of (un)dress – or, as someone on Tumblr adorably captioned an animated gif of the moment, “No sheet Sherlock”. I particularly love the bit after their first fit of giggles, when John asks, “What are we doing here, Sherlock?” and Sherlock is still silently fighting off laughter.

Best lines of the episode:
JOHN: Here to see the Queen?
(At that moment Mycroft walks in from the next room.)
SHERLOCK: Oh, apparently yes.
(Followed by even more gorgeous giggling from the boys!)

Mycroft reveals that Irene’s ‘client’ is female and John freezes in surprised shock. A couple of lines later Sherlock suggests that John ought to put his cup back in his saucer. However, shortly after John freezes, the camera cuts away from him and there’s the distinct offscreen sound of a cup clinking into the saucer; and John’s the only one holding a cup and saucer during that scene.

I love John’s delighted laugh in the taxi when Sherlock reveals that he has indeed stolen an ashtray from Buckingham Palace.

Great lines:
SHERLOCK (gesturing to his own left cheek): Punch me in the face.
JOHN: Punch you?
SHERLOCK: Yes. Punch me, in the face. Didn’t you hear me?
JOHN: I always hear ‘punch me in the face’ when you’re speaking, but it’s usually sub-text.

Sherlock gestures to his left cheek and John, obeying orders as always, therefore punches him on the left cheek with his right hand, despite the fact that he is actually left-handed. Mind you, he punches him in the stomach with his right hand too, so I wonder if John is deliberately fighting with the wrong hand so as not to kill his annoying flatmate.

Great lines (during John’s attack on Sherlock):
SHERLOCK (half-choking): Okay! I think we’re done now, John.
JOHN (savagely): You wanna remember, Sherlock: I was a soldier. I killed people.
SHERLOCK: You were a doctor!
JOHN: I had bad days!

I know he gets engrossed in his deducing, but why doesn’t Sherlock notice the sound of the gunshot from the hallway at Irene’s? The beeping of the smoke alarm isn’t that loud.

I have been reliably informed that “Vatican cameos” – which Sherlock says to warn John to duck before he opens the safe – is a canonical quote from Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, being a passing reference to a case which Holmes undertook but which is never told in detail.

Sherlock takes the silencer off Neilson’s pistol before he leaves the sitting room – but is unscrewing it a second time as he goes out of the front door.

Lara Pulver has said in an interview that Benedict told her to really lash into him when Irene flogs Sherlock in the bedroom, and Ben said in another interview that it really hurt! I’m not surprised – if you watch closely the second time she hits him, she really hits him hard. If he had lifted his head at the wrong moment she’d have cut his face open. Until I read the interviews, I wasn’t sure if Lara had aimed to miss and then the CGI people had extended the crop, but from the way that Ben’s hair moves, it’s clear that it was a genuine hit.

Love the transition from the field to Sherlock’s bedroom and the way the bed rises up to meet him.

Great lines:
MYCROFT: Oh, shut up, Mrs Hudson.
SHERLOCK and JOHN (simultaneously and furiously): MYCROFT!
(Mycroft looks at their angry faces glaring at him, then cringes and looks contritely at Mrs Hudson.)
MYCROFT: Apologies.
MRS HUDSON: Thank you.
SHERLOCK: Though do, in fact, shut up.

I keep getting drawn back to the headline on the newspaper that Sherlock’s reading while Mycroft is at the flat. It reads: “Refit for Historical Hospital”. Foreshadowing much? Anyone wanna take any bets on the name of the hospital being ‘Reichenbach’? *whimpers*

However, shouldn’t it say “Historic Hospital” rather than “Historical”?

I cringed all through Sherlock’s deduction of Molly, especially when I began to realise who the Christmas present was for. But I love that sweet little moment of humanity when Sherlock apologises for what he’s done.

The implication of Mycroft instructing John and Mrs H to search the flat for drugs while he and Sherlock are at the morgue – and especially John’s comment of “we’ve tried all the usual places” – suggests that Sherlock has done drugs since John met him.

After Irene’s ‘death’, Sherlock is at the flat playing a mournful tune on his violin. John comes into the room, exchanges a significant glance with Mrs H and then puts his jacket on. The camera angle changes and John puts his jacket on again.

Benedict had some violin lessons in order to be able to hold the violin and bow correctly, and he really did play the annoying repeated phrase in The Great Game. So it’s particularly irritating how badly Sherlock’s bowing fits the music during this episode, suggesting that maybe Benedict hadn’t been given the music to practise in advance and/or it wasn’t being played into the studio when he was faking it.
[ETA: Some of the times when Ben was playing the (muted) violin near the window of 221, a real violinist was up on a cherry picker outside the window playing the tune properly so that he could mimic her. So presumably it was bad editing which made it look like Sherlock wasn’t playing anything like the proper notes.]

My fangirl obsession with shipping John and Sherlock noted with glee that Sherlock continues to play his lament as John leaves the flat, but he stops playing the moment John starts flirting with the woman waiting outside. He was probably halfway down the stairs and ready to rip her throat out but they drove away before he could get there. But no wonder he then followed them!

And once again it does my fangirl heart good to see that John’s first priority on seeing Irene is to demand that she ease Sherlock’s depression by telling him that she’s alive.

Poor continuity as Sherlock arrives back at 221B after that previous scene: he sees that the front door has been jemmied open and slowly reaches up to put his hand on the door – but he touches the inside door without the transition of him going through the main door first. I found that momentarily distracting.

However, I challenge anybody to watch the rest of the scene in the hallway and then say that Benedict Cumberbatch isn’t one of the best actors of our time. After he has deduced how Mrs Hudson has been dragged upstairs, he gazes up the stairs and – without a single muscle on his face moving – his expression slowly morphs from deductive to outright murderous. I weep every time I watch that moment – and the background music throughout that entire scene is awesome as well.

Sherlock gets the spray can from Mrs Hudson’s bucket of cleaning material and I assume he secretes it up his right sleeve. But how does he keep it up there firmly enough that he can reach out and touch Mrs Hudson’s hands, but is able to flick it down into his hand without us even noticing? Or did he have it tucked inside his scarf somehow? He does begin to bend his right arm before he spins and sprays Neilson.

Crossing the living room to get to Mrs Hudson sitting on the sofa, John walks in front of the gun that Sherlock is aiming at Neilson. For a trained soldier, that’s not a sensible thing to do.

Sherlock tells Lestrade to send his least irritating officer. As somebody on Tumblr pointed out, apparently Lestrade’s least irritating officer is Lestrade!

Mrs Hudson’s kitchen clock shows 9.32 p.m. when Neilson is finally taken to hospital but the timing must be wrong (or the clock has stopped) unless Lestrade understood what Sherlock was implying about the burglar falling out of the window and deliberately took his time going to Baker Street. But it’s the end of December and broad daylight when Sherlock phones him (and therefore no later than 3.30 p.m.) and Lestrade just wouldn’t leave the ‘burglar’ in Sherlock’s hands for that long.

(Actually, I suppose it’s possible that the scene between Sherlock and Lestrade takes place at, say 4.30, by which time it would be dark, and Sherlock then disappears off somewhere for several hours before coming into Mrs H’s kitchen. But the implication is that he goes straight from the street to the kitchen, and that’s reinforced by the sound of more police sirens outside.)

(Actually actually, the clock might say 6.32 rather than 9.32 – it might just be part of a pattern on the clock near the 9. However, it’s still three hours after Sherlock’s phonecall and therefore still too long!)

For a high-functioning sociopath who wouldn’t normally care about such things, Sherlock very fastidiously wipes his feet on the doormat before coming further into the kitchen. However, I can accept this, because Mrs H has probably nagged him about not doing so in the past!

Sherlock raids Mrs H’s fridge and then scoffs a mince pie. Is this proof of how shaken he was by her attack? Then again, he does eat a lot during this episode. Maybe John has been a good influence on him.

That is the quietest New Year in London ever. If they can hear Big Ben from the flat, they should definitely be able to hear the massive firework display going off around the London Eye.

Sherlock spends most of this episode flipping things into the air – the ashtray, Neilson’s pistol, the camera phone, the spray can, his bow ... I wonder if that was scripted or something Benedict developed (or the director encouraged) during the episode?

How many planes (in real life, I mean) have been exploded by remote? Or was the terrorist meant to be allowed to check in normally and would walk onto the plane before being restrained? But how long had those bodies been there, and why was Mycroft allowed to leave them there just so that he could shout at his brother?

The bit when Irene walks past Sherlock calling him Junior is painful.

I can’t even talk about the scene where Sherlock finally works out the passcode. I just disintegrate into a wibbling heap every time – both through Sherlock’s agony at having been played so badly, and the way that he eyesexes the hell out of her once he knows he can beat her.

It’s a shame they couldn’t have filmed the rainy scene outside Speedy’s on a less sunny day! I know you can get sunshine and rain at the same time but this did look rather unconvincing.

Great lines:
MYCROFT: My brother has the brain of a scientist or a philosopher, yet he elects to be a detective. What might we deduce about his heart?
JOHN: I don’t know.
MYCROFT: Neither do I ... but initially he wanted to be a pirate.

How could Mycroft ever believe that he or John could be convincing enough to make Sherlock believe that they were telling the truth about Irene going to America? Why not tell John that she’s in America, let him tell Sherlock convincingly and then – if Mycroft felt it necessary – tell John the truth?

ETA: my genius friend came up with a brilliant theory that Mycroft knows that Sherlock won’t believe John and that’s the point: Mycroft wants Sherlock to believe that John’s lying about America and will therefore conclude that Irene must be dead.

Mycroft pushes the folder across the table to John, folds his hands and puts his chin on top of them. The camera angle changes and his chin is above his hands and not touching them.

So how come John didn’t notice/remember that Sherlock had been away from home for at least a few days around the same time that Irene was allegedly beheaded?

And just why the heck did Sherlock go to the effort of tracking Irene down and rescuing her? There’s been some suggestion that maybe this was his attempt to make good on his terrible error in letting the terrorists know about the Coventry conundrum, and so he went off to take out the relevant terrorist cells on his own and pretty much just happened to still be there when they captured Irene. (I am not the only one who adores this show so much that we’ll do anything we can to explain away bad moments in the script!)

It seems unlikely that Sherlock would have left his phone switched on during the rescue attempt in Karachi, but I suppose it’s possible that he arrogantly (and correctly) assumed that her final text would be to him rather than, say, to her mother, and so he covertly switched the phone on again.

With only his eyes showing, Sherlock looks way too much like Benedict Cumberbatch! That may sound odd to anyone who’s not a fangirl ...

Unexplained moment: How did the body of the plane passenger end up in a car boot in Southwark?

I did a summary and partial transcript of the DVD commentary to this episode here.

Irene is a lot cruder here than in the original story.

Oddly enough when I read the original story I felt that a lot of what I had heard about Irene Adler & Sherlock Holmes was just literary types shipping.

One annoying thing about this episode was the way it seemed to have three different endings throughout the story.

Would x-raying (or whatever tech they used) be a good thing to use on a phone that you want to get information off of?

As for the password when I first saw the wording I thought it was pretty obvious, then the second time they showed it I realized the final word was Locked not Blocked. Ahem.

Airing in the USA on Sunday 6th May on PBS Masterpiece. Enjoy!

Would x-raying (or whatever tech they used) be a good thing to use on a phone that you want to get information off of?

I thought the same thing: I would have thought that x-rays would wipe most (if not all) the information on the phone.

As for the password when I first saw the wording I thought it was pretty obvious, then the second time they showed it I realized the final word was Locked not Blocked. Ahem.

Well, the four letters of the code could have been COKB ...

Others suggested that if only all of Irene's texts to Sherlock had been in capital letters, the code could have been CAPS. ;-)

Watching this for the four zillionth time, I suddenly realised yet another nit: when Irene arrives on the plane, she shows her 'camera phone' to Mycroft. How did she get hold of it? Surely Sherlock didn't get so excited when Plummer arrived to collect him that he just left it lying around? The whole purpose of this 'game' was to get the Royal photos back and Sherlock shouldn't be so careless as to leave the phone unattended when he left Baker Street.

One of the newspaper articles showing Sherlock in his deerstalker hat gives John’s age as 37 (in 2012). Recently a fan bought the official prop of John’s birth certificate which Sherlock was looking at in The Sign of Three. That gives John’s birth date as 23 April 1971, making him 43 in 2014.

The production team are notorious for making mistakes in any printed material which appears onscreen, and similarly with props like the above which aren’t seen in detail (or at all) onscreen but are displayed at Sherlock conventions and the like, so I’m not confident that either of the ages is canonical. The team may have used 1971 on the birth certificate simply to match Martin Freeman’s age (he was born in September ’71), and clearly they didn’t remember that they’d made John younger than that in an earlier episode.