As the world continues to wait and wait for Series 3 of the BBC crime drama Sherlock (premiere date in the U.S. is January 19, 2014), Sherlockians and Cumberbitches are eagerly anticipating the return of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson.
The Latin Times has posted a rundown of several spoilers for the upcoming season, which will include the episodes "The Empty Hearse" written by Mark Gatiss, "The Sign of Three" by Stephen Thompson, and "His Last Vow" by Steven Moffat.
First and foremost, there's the pesky matter of Sherlock's faked death to resolve. When last we left Holmes and Watson at the end of "The Reichenbach Fall," Sherlock was seen throwing himself off St. Bartholomew's Hospital, but the last scene showed Sherlock alive and well. "How did he survive the fall?" inquired Freeman. "All the clues were on screen. It's not going to be a cheat -- Everything that we saw on that final episode offers hints as to how he did it." Viewers saw Sherlock asking pathology lab assistant Molly Hooper for help with something, hinting that she helped Sherlock fake his death. "There really are only a few ways you can fall from a roof and survive," said Gatiss at the San Diego Comic Con. "It's not black magic."
Sherlock, it turns out, has been hiding in plain sight. "He actually has a line in [Series One finale] 'The Great Game,' which is 'The art of disguise is knowing how to hide in plain sight' and that was because, right from the start, I thought modern day Sherlock Holmes would not put putty noses on, he would basically be standing behind you now and you wouldn't know he was there," said Gatiss. In the original short story "The Adventure of the Empty House" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock disguises himself as an elderly book collector so he can get into 221B Baker Street before revealing his true identity. "I always found it a little unlikely that Dr. Watson's only reaction was to faint...as opposed to possibly a stream of terrible swear words," remarked Gatiss.
As for Holmes' archnemesis Jim Moriarty, he's back as well...but only as a corpse. Fans have been wondering if Moriarty would've also faked his own death, but Moffat has turned down the notion of Moriarty being alive. "He can't come back from that," said Moffat. "He shot himself in the face. What more do you want?"
So that means Holmes will be in the market for a new archnemesis, who makes his debut in "His Last Vow." The villain's name is Charles Augustus Magnussen (played by Dutch actor Lars Mikkelsen) and is presumably based on the character from the short story "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton." In the story, Milverton was "The king of blackmailers" and blackmails Lady Eva Blackwell, threatening her with a scandal that would end her marriage engagement.
However, it's not certain who will say "His Last Vow," because Dr. Watson will be getting married in Series 3 to Mary Moirstan (Amanda Abbington, Freeman's real-life girlfriend) and Sherlock will be his best man. "Hot off the presses from 110 years ago, John does get married," joked Moffat. "We hoped that you wouldn't sneak ahead and read the books." Remarked Abbington, "Working with Martin on Sherlock is really quite inspiring, 'cause he's so good at his job. And he and [Benedict Cumberbatch] have this fantastic chemistry. Coming into Sherlock, you have to up your game, 'cause they're so good together."
And perhaps the best news of all, there will be a Series Four...someday. "All I know at the moment is I'm doing these three [episodes of the upcoming series] and another three," said Moffat. "We had to inform the BBC that Martin and Benedict had commissioned a new series. They signed themselves up. They both announced that they were carrying on -- so that's good. Benedict, at some red carpet event somewhere, said he was carrying on forever. Martin, at another one, said, 'Yep, Series Four is happening.' The BBC can do what they like. They're massively powerful, don't provoke them! But I assume that unless we've really screwed up Sherlock [Series Three] -- which we haven't -- it's a big success and it will carry on, so long as Benedict and Martin want to do it."