John, who saves the life rather than solving the mystery, and is therefore remarkable in Sherlock's eyes. In the thick of his deduction meltdown, Sherlock envisions Mycroft as the imposing voice of pure, cold reason, and he rejects him in favour of John. There was real exploration, too, of exactly what it is that makes John valuable to Sherlock in his work, and it goes back to the humanity question. After the similarly lovely things John said at his grave, this is such a satisfying payoff, especially the acknowledgement that John has saved Sherlock as much as the reverse.Įverybody's kind of tearful already by this point, and then Sherlock goes and does the 'We will never let you down' bit and even John loses it and has to hug him.

He cops to being an arsehole, calls John 'the bravest and kindest and wisest human being' he's ever known, and expresses gratitude and disbelief that this man has chosen him, of all people, for a best friend. This is going to be a train wreck.Īnd then he turns it around. 'A wedding is nothing short of a celebration of all that is false and specious and irrational and sentimental in this ailing and morally compromised world,' he sneers, before using the phrase 'deathwatch beetle' in a sentence.

Sherlock's speech begins on exactly the abrasive note we expect.

But what this episode is, more than anything else, is a love letter to John Watson. Steve Thompson had a hell of an act to follow with 'The Reichenbach Fall', and this is such an intricate and rich script, using Sherlock's best man speech to weave together flashback, character comedy, emotional exposition and a compelling mystery in The Mayfly Man. Cumberbatch and Freeman can add 'flawless drunk acting' to their already sizeable list of skills - we would watch an entire episode of Sherlock and John drunkenly playing the Post-It Game, if we're honest. That is exactly how Sherlock would do a night out, trying to take in the scientifically perfect volume of alcohol in order to have fun without losing control, and of course John wises up and sabotages him. Let's just take a moment to appreciate the comedy glory that is John's stag night. What's startling is that this melancholy end comes after what might well be the show's funniest outing to date. ('Who leaves a wedding early?' Mrs Hudson asks early on, in a neat piece of foreshadowing.) That lovely exchange as the pregnancy is revealed comes with a heartbreaking sting in the tail, as Sherlock sends John and Mary off to dance before quietly leaving the reception, alone. And for all his attempts to put a brave face on it, it's obvious that Sherlock doesn't see a place for himself in that future. But in fact Mary is pregnant, and the 'three' of the title refers to the hypothetical future Watson family.

The sign of the sherlock