I really like the Benedict Cumberpatch/Martin Freeman Sherlock series.  The show, which first premiered in 2010, just started its fourth season.  This season, like the others, features only a few “episodes”, in this case four.  The first episode in the fourth season, The Abominable Bride, premiered, if you can believe it, exactly one year before this episode, on January 1, 2016!  Though there are few “episodes” per season, truth be told each one is more like a full feature film.

Anyway, what made Sherlock stand out, at least when it originally premiered in 2010, was the fact that it was set in modern times.  This isn’t a new concept, however.  When the original stories were written, of course, they were set in the then “modern” days.  At least one of the well regarded Basil Rathbone Holmes’ film, 1942’s The Woman in Green, was set in the then present World War II era.

Apart from modern technology and its present setting, what makes Sherlock work so well is the great acting, for the most part great scripts, and the laugh out loud moments.  This is not just a good series, but a great one, in my humble opinion.  The only episode of the run thus far I can think of that disappointed me was, ironically enough, their version of The Hound of the Baskervilles (their version was retitled The Hounds of the Baskerville), arguably the most famous of all of Mr. Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories.

For about 1 hour and 20 or so minutes of season four’s second episode, entitled The Six Thatchers, I was completely engrossed and delighted by what I saw.  This was damn good television, first dealing (I’ll try to be vague here to avoid spoilers, for now) with a leftover from a crime presented last season and its coverup before settling on the main mystery involving six busts which, you guessed it, are of Margaret Thatcher.

There were plenty of twists and turns and things don’t always make a heck of a lot of sense (only six such busts were ever made?  And they can be traced to the six people who bought it years before and they still have them?!), but the fact is that Sherlock works even when the plot get overly busy…or just plain silly.  Again, its the breezy nature of the show, the witty and at times hilarious banter, that keeps everything moving.

But those last eight or so minutes of the episode…

Ugh.

I’ll now, alas, get into SPOILERS so if you haven’t seen the episode and intend to, please stop reading right now.  I’ll get into this after the trailer…

 

SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!

 

Still here?  Ok, I think I’ve offered enough warning.

Between the central mystery, the episode also deals with Watson and his wife Mary (Amanda Abbington) having a child and Sherlock’s (of course) weird reactions/interactions with the child.  As it turns out, the central mystery of the episode winds up involving Mary and, more specifically, her past.

In Sherlock’s reality, the character of Mary Morstan was a highly skilled, super-secret mercenary.  In short, she was a very efficient wetworks officer and part of a group of four who carried on with some very sordid affairs.  She gives this up to be with Watson and has a child but the mystery of the “Six Thatchers” winds up relating directly to her.

In her last mission, things went very bad and Mary thought her fellow mercs were killed.  One was not.  He was tortured for years and, while listening to his captors talk, thought Mary had betrayed the group and therefore he wanted to get her…and get revenge.  I won’t go into more details here, but suffice to say that eventually it is discovered a seemingly mousy secretary was the real culprit and Sherlock and Mary confront her at an aquarium.

Here’s where things get really stupid.

Others show up, including Inspector Lestrade and Mycroft Holmes and several other police.  The woman is surrounded yet she draws a gun.  They talk to her, tell her to put it down, but she’s set off and fires at Sherlock…and Mary jumps in front of Sherlock and takes the bullet intended for him.

She dies.

Christ.

Look, I know the Mary Morstan character dies in the Doyle stories.  Killing off a female, especially one bound to one of a series’ main characters, isn’t a terribly new concept as we then have the characters revert to their original state (check out how many women romance the Cartwright brothers in Bonanza only to either leave at episode’s end or die tragically and be completely forgotten by the next episode of the show).  Boys will be boys and having a “woman” attached to one of the characters can be viewed as problematic to storytelling.

However, the manner in which they kill Mary is so damn stupid.  I mean, is that the best they could come up with?  Have this mousy elder woman completely surrounded by (one has to assume) well armed officers yet she manages to fire off a shot?  In the time it takes her to get the gun out of her purse she could -and should!- have been taken out by either the brainy Sherlock Holmes or the deadly assassin for hire Mary, both of which stood only feet away from her.

Further, Mary “jumping” in front of the bullet also feels dumb.  The way its presented in the episode, she fires and then Mary jumps in front of the bullet.  Sorry, but it just don’t work that way.  The bullet would hit Sherlock well before Mary could react, much less jump in front of him.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

They say familiarity breeds contempt and, granted, we now have several episodes of Sherlock and, perhaps, as a viewer I’m a little more discerning and less forgiving for perceived failures.  Perhaps.

Still, this is the first time an episode ending left me so disappointed.  I’m not giving up on the show, of course.  Even with the terrible (IMHO!) ending, the rest of the episode was delightful.  Let’s just hope the remaining two episodes to come redeem this horrible ending.