Retrospective Review #12
Episode 4.2: THE LYING DETECTIVE
Normally I would warn you about spoilers and that you should watch these episodes before reading these retro-reviews, but. Yeah no don’t watch these. Not unless you’re a completist or are still such a huge fan that you actually want to. Which. If you haven’t seen them by now, don’t bother, seriously.
But! Do keep in mind that I’ll be talking about twists and cliffhanger reveals and endings and such, not only in this episode, but in the season and even the series as a whole. And if you do choose to put yourself through it, cheers. I drink to your health. You’re gonna need it. 🥃
“The Lying Detective” includes Watson exasperatedly asking his therapist, “Why does everything have to be understandable?”
Yeah. No shit, Sherlock. I mean, Watson. Sigh…
Let’s see if we can pin down the basic plot, shall we? Ahem: /cracks knuckles/
Culverton Smith is a serial killer and only Sherlock knows this. Also friend-drama because wife-death? There’s a bunch of “Dying Detective” canon story adaptation through a lot of it. And…there’s a mysterious insane woman who dons many disguises and …something about dead Mary having, um, assigned, Sherlock? to… do this whole thing? I guess? Oh, and the mysterious disguised woman is actually the Holmes brothers’ sister Eurus, who’s so intelligent she’s murderously dangerous. So. Yeah. Pretty sure that’s that.
Since this is one rare episode that stays pretty nearly close to a direct story adaptation through much of its A-plot, let’s look at the canon echoes throughout.
“The Dying Detective” is the canon version of this story, which is tense, gross, scary, and pretty simple. The premise? Sherlock Holmes fakes a deathly illness in order to a) scare Watson into doing what he needs him to do re: an investigation, and b) to convince Culverton Smith to come give him a deathbed confession. Sherlock’s deathbed, not Smith’s.
This ep plays out very similarly, with Culverton Smith appearing as an equally slimy chemist as his canon counterpart, but in this version he’s got more public support and money to back him up and pad his secret murder castle. In this case, unlike in canon, Smith is a serial killer. In the original, he has killed once before and still harbors bitterness towards Holmes for accusing him of same. He’s a chemist and a poisoner in both versions, though in this modernization, there’s a sort of pornographic glee in showing his vileness, and the story goes far over the top to show us this—the drugged meeting with its eerie hanging IVs is operatic in its horror. Also, whatever happened to that drugged meeting? Once we find out the daughter wasn’t really her, that’s the last we hear of it, which seems a weirdly enormous thing to sweep under the rug.
Sherlock being obviously (too) high is the modern version of deathly ill in this ep, which is fine, actually, since we’re going whole-hog with the drug thing in this entire series’ interpretation of Holmes. In the 1800s it wouldn’t have been such a big deal that Holmes occasionally takes cocaine (Watson freaking out about it was actually far weirder), but today it’s a completely different monster. And instead of morphine it’s heroin, but tomato/tomahto.
The (fake) deathbed confession is the way it goes in the original as well, though in that one, Holmes is faking his illness. Here, it’s laid out that he’s actually been using, in order to land him here. Which, again, I can appreciate as a necessity in a modernization.
Some more things that did NOT work:
“I don’t know anything anymore.” Yeah neither do we, Watson. Also: When did Watson get truly stupid? Or actually useless? This show is no longer about mysteries anymore, sure (hasn’t been for a while now) but it’s no longer about the relationship between Sherlock and John either? Why am I still watching this, again?
I know I keep repeating how tired I am but it really is exhausting to keep watching a clever asshole not give a shit about anyone that cares about him (or he pretends not to care—that might actually be worse).
No to Ghost!Mary too. They use her too much—if they needed her presence to this extent, why did they kill her off in the first place? This is an example of another silly almost non-conclusion to a cliffhanger (her death). ALSO! I do NOT like her reaction to Watson’s adultery confession. I know, I know, it’s all in his head, but. Really? All she does is smile weakly, and then everything’s fine because he doesn’t see her ghost anymore after that? What a copout.
A few things that actually DID work:
Okay so Sherlock walking “fuck off” in a pattern for his brother to see on the surveillance map is delightful.
Still teasing with the name Sherrinford is good—however, we are getting accustomed to these Deep Threads with Weighted Meaning that lead Ultimately Nowhere. The conclusion of this particular tease is…fine, I guess. But we don’t get that till next ep. So for now? Ehh okay.
Am I allowed to enjoy Unhinged!Cumberbatch doing the Agincourt Speech from Henry V, waving a gun around? I’m just going to. Give me something.
Interesting commentary on the sensationalism and popularity of true crime as entertainment. This theme would be even more relevant today.
All these neurotic men trying to navigate relationships with strong women is sort of the best way Mofftiss have ever dealt with their female characters, if you think about it. Which is kinda depressing.
I’m going to confess something: I actually liked the therapist/insane sister revealing all her disguises, one by one. I did. I’m sorry, it was jaw-dropping the first time I saw this episode back in the day, and it still made me squiggle with a bit of glee upon this viewing. It had smackings of the reveal at the end of Usual Suspects, which I appreciate. What I don’t appreciate whatsoever is all the hand-waving away of how on earth it could have been possible that Eurus was able to get in and out of her Arkham Asylum digs so readily, or her weird supervillain manipulation of Moriarty, BUT! that’s for the next episode, which is THE WORST AND LAST ONE IN THE SERIES, so do buckle up.
Rating: 1.5 bowls of Cereal Killer cereal out of 5
EASTER EGGS
From “Veiled Lodger”: “Your life is not your own; keep your hands off it.”
The speech Sherlock gives to the kids in the hospital is partly verbatim from a few things in early canon Holmes says to Watson about his over-written, sensationalized story versions of his cases. So like, yeah. Listen to yourselves, Moffitss, could ya?
A mention of a killer orangutan is not from Sherlock Holmes canon, but from even earlier. It’s from ”Murders in the Rue Morgue,” by Edgar Allan Poe, long agreed upon by literature scholars as the first detective/murder mystery ever written.
Thanks honey for the review. I agreed about a lot of it as I watched but now see more gaps and lapses.