*article contains major spoilers*
Well, here we are again. The end of a series and the beginning of another long wait and my God did they leave us wanting more. I would bet I wasn’t the only one who had reservations that they could pull off another finale quite like the Reichenbach Falls, but I was spectacularly surprised and not just because of that infamous mid-credits ending. We were warned that this finale would “explode the internet” and they weren’t wrong. If you haven’t already watched His Last Vow, then whatever you do, avoid Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, in fact all social media sites, and most importantly don’t read this review. With an episode like this, there are plot points that can’t go undiscussed, so for everyone currently reading, you have been warned of spoilers.
Before we crack into the main action of the episode, first it seems necessary to pay homage to the newest villain to face the Detective. It was never going to be an easy task to present a new nemesis in the shadow of Andrew Scott’s Moriarty, but Lars Mikkelsen’s portrayal of Charles Augustus Magnussen was definitely a worthy contender. I’m not going to compare the two against each other because they are at complete opposite ends of the spectrum. Magnussen is a blackmailer, a business man, who prides himself over his intellect and his ability to control people without the threat of violence, merely exposure. There is nothing violent about him. He finds people’s pressure points and presses hard until he has his victim under his thumb. Mikkelsen himself, with his calm and sophisticated voice and very formal, authorial posture, brings the sinister element, not in the manic, psychopath manner of Scott, but in the sense that you never know what he’s thinking, or what he’ll do next. He keeps his cards very close to his chest. However (and this is where the spoilers come in), despite some unlikable characteristics (such as licking his victims face), Moffat had created a worthy successor to Moriarty, but the episode tends to stray away from Magnussen and focuses on a more primary revelation – Mary Watson.
Mary Watson is an assassin, a retired agent, trying to switch to a normal life with John. In Sherlock’s initial deduction of Mary the word ‘liar’ was embedded in the graphics, which prompted the first suspicions. So when it came to Magnussen, it was assumed that there would be a connection between the two, possibly one of blackmail, but it would appear that they were wrong. Found in Magnussen’s office with a gun to his head, all dressed in black and turning the gun on Sherlock, this was possibly one of the most surrealist moments of the episode, at least at first. Despite the fact clues had been dropped in both The Empty Hearse and The Sign of Three about Mary’s true identity, it seemed a little far-fetched and a bit too ambiguous for even Sherlock. I loved Amanda Abbington’s portrayal of Mary and the chemistry between her and real-life partner Martin Freeman, was lovely and comical and obviously due to the circumstances that was lost, because things had changed. There was bitterness, anger and betrayal and Freeman once again demonstrated what a fantastic actor he is. It’s the conflict between Mary and Watson that seems to give the episode its darker moments, more so than between Sherlock and Magnussen. All in all, it took a bit of getting used to, but in the end, it changed the dynamic of the character and took the story arc in a whole new direction.
The episode in general was a bit of an odd one. Though there were numerous great moments that certainly held the episode together, the direction and style seemed to take a more surreal approach. Aspects such as Sherlock’s supposed relationship with Janine, the bridesmaid from The Sign of Three, were completely bizarre, as they were written to be. There were points where you couldn’t tell whether this was an act or not, but the moments of affection between the two were very uncomfortable to watch; not because of the acting, but because we know Sherlock too well for this to be actually happening. Then there’s the death sequence; Sherlock has been shot and goes to his mind palace in order to calculate the best choice to maximise his chances of survival, inviting Molly, Anderson and various others to voice his deductions. Admittedly, the sequence is very creatively constructed. There are moments which are great to watch and work really well, but the duration makes it seem like mere plot padding, stretching out an experience where we all know, he’s not going to die, because as he put it himself “that’s so two years ago.” These are just two, but there are various others, but the one which I found most difficult to comprehend was the truth of Magnussen’s library of knowledge – there was none. It was his very own “mind palace.” No books, no copies, just memories that he uses to scare his victims into submitting. In honesty, this provided the most vicious kick of the episode, but the plausibility of this solution seemed even more far-fetched than Mary as an assassin, but it did lead us to this moment.
Sherlock had been beaten, quite literally, in the war of intellect. He thought he’d got Magnussen exactly where he wanted him, managed to gain access to his home and destroy the documents that incriminated Mary, but at the point where he realises he got it all wrong, all is lost. For the first time, he is speechless, not knowing what to do, not knowing how to get out. He has to watch as Magnussen flicks John’s cheek and then his eye, tormenting the both of them, with the knowledge he possesses of Mary, and there is nothing either can do to stop him. Surrounded by Mycroft’s assault team, having stolen files that marked an act of treason, Sherlock, Watson and Magnussen are illuminated in spotlight, waiting for the end. So, he has to resort to the old-fashioned way of dealing with villains – with a gun. Knowing the consequences that awaited him, he pulled the trigger anyway, knowing that all the knowledge that he possessed would die with him – that John and Mary would be safe. It was final and fitting testament to demonstrate how much John meant to him.
And after all that drama, all that tension, they just couldn’t resist leaving us with one last treat. Despite having written a spoiler warning, I’m not going to go into this particular moment, because you probably already know thanks to social media, and because there isn’t much to say about it, except perhaps this…
…it’s going to be a horrible wait for Series 4.