Review TV Series : “Sherlock – The Abominable Bride”

Yesterday morning, “Sherlock” is back. Our dearest TV series came again with a new episode. The questions are : Why’re there so many people (in my circle) that didn’t aware about the comeback show of this greatest detective in the century? How could they miss the date? They said they’re fans, didn’t they? Am I the only one here who has internet connection to know what’s going on around the world? Okay, enough with the judgmental statements, by this post, I’ll talk about the newest episode of Sherlock. It’s not the 4th season yet, it’s a christmas (or new year?) special episode. The sub-title is “The Abominable Bride”, I’m sure I’m not the only one here who heard the “Abominable” word for the first time when watching this episode. According to Cambridge Dictionaries Online, ‘Abominable’ means ‘very bad’ or ‘unpleasant’, on the contrary, this special episode of “Sherlock” is really fascinating. Let me explain.

[WARNING : THIS POST IS FULL OF “Sherlock – The Abominable Bride” SPOILERS. YOU SHOULDN’T READ IT BEFORE WATCHING THE EPISODE.]

At the very beginning of the episode, you watched a kind of recap of what happened since the first season (don’t you realize that it’s already 5 years since the first episode’s airing?). Then we went back in time, alternatively, to the 1800’s. England in the past! Long before ‘And Then There Were None’ and ‘Downton Abbey’. Benedict Cumberbatch was wearing Sherlock’s classic costum! My dream was coming true! The case that they tried to solve in this episode is about Emilia Ricoletti, a woman who shot herself in front of public (with a creepy “You! You! You!” speech before she did it), the night after she blew her own head, she came back from dead, like a ghost, then killed her husband. Quoted from what Watson, Mary and Sherlock said respectively : Extraordinary. Impossible. Superb.

I spontaneously thought that it must be twin or secret twin, exactly like what Watson said. And then Sherlock said not, it is never twins. After the Ricoletti’s event, there were five murders that occurred with the same killer, the bride ghost. But actually it’s not Ricoletti, it’s just the people who pretended to be Ricoletti (“to confuse the impossibly imbecilic Scotland Yard”. LOL). In the next moment, Sherlock and Watson invited by Mycroft, in a (literally) expanded version of himself. This brother of Sherlock gave them a case, a client, Lady Carmichael, a woman whose the husband, sir Eustace, was feeling a paranoia and getting a death threat from the bride ghost. The night after the client meeting, Sherlock and Watson kept a watch on Carmichael’s house. The ghost promised to come back and do the murder that night. Then the ghost really came back (it really freaked me out when it suddenly appeared behind Watson’s back and whispered “do nooot forgeett meee~”). Eustace was killed, with a message left in his body : “MISS ME?”. IT’S THE FUCKING “MISS ME”!! Moriarty is back!! I’m not the only one here who really excited about him, aren’t I?

After arguing with Mycroft about whether Moriarty was back or not, Sherlock went to his Mind Palace, this time with the amazing flying newspaper pieces, and then suddenly, Moriarty appeared in Sherlock’s apartment, THIS IS THE BEST PART OF THE EPISODE! Andrew Scott is incredible! ("Would a comb over work?").

And then here comes the twist : all of that, all of those 1800’s things, are just a dream. It’s just a really astonishing sequence in Sherlock’s Mind Palace. Sherlock is back from his way to the prison (if you forget, you should watch again the last episode of third season), knowing Moriarty is back, he’s trying to get himself high to be in his Mind Palace. By this moment we knew that Ricoletti’s case is a real case but still unsolved, Sherlock wants to solve the case because what happened with Ricoletti looks like what happened with Moriarty, they shot themselves but managed to still be alive.

Not long after that, he’s back again to 1800’s, which means he’s into the Mind Palace again. This time, Sherlock solved the Ricoletti’s case, it’s turned out that Ricoletti was really dead, but after she killed her husband, she didn’t actually shoot herself in the first time, with some tricks (preparing a body double that has resemblances with her, holding two guns, one up & one down, pretending to get a gun into her mouth but firing the one that down, with the help of an accomplice spraying the blood to the curtains in the exact same time with the firing so people would think that she really killed herself), she then slipped away from the crime scene. The night after that, she killed her husband and then killed herself for real. Eventually, Ricoletti was part of a group of women that willing to bring justice by spreading terrors to the world. It’s turned out that Lady Carmichael was part of the group too but when she supposed to reveal herself, Moriarty shows up instead, in a freaking bride’s costume, HOW COULD HE BE THAT GOOD?!!

After that, Sherlock wakes up in the hospital, the women army and Moriarty’s scene is just part of his mind palace (again). Sherlock wants to prove his deduction about Ricoletti’s case by digging the Ricoletti’s grave to look for the body that substituted Ricoletti’s when the first so-called suicide happened. He’s not yet to find the body untill Ricoletti’s corpse suddenly whispers “Do not forget meee~~” and makes a move. (Why did “Sherlock” become a horror series??).

Suddenly, Sherlock’s back again to his mind palace, this time in front of Reichenbach fall. IT’S REICHENBACH FALL!! Looks exactly same like what I imagined years ago when reading “The Final Problem”. I nearly cried at this point, my teenager memories came up. The square off between Sherlock and Moriarty on that fall is one of greatest  Sherlock Holmes stories in history and this serial brings it up to the TV scenes, well done! Very well done! (Actually RDJ version of Sherlock already did this scene in the second movie, but it’s not as good as this one). After a small sequence of hand-to-hand combat between Sherlock and Moriarty, Watson suddenly showed up, just to kick Moriarty down to the fall. LMAO. After that, Sherlock is back again to the reality.

This time, we're REALLY back to present version of Sherlock Holmes, all scenes that we watched before are just the mind palace (including the one with Ricoletti’s grave digging). Inception!! This episode is the inception version of “Sherlock”. Mind palace inside mind palace, we should call it “Mind-Palace-ception”.

One thing that I didn’t get is the closing scene after the final revelation, with Sherlock and Watson talking in 1800’s costume. What does that mean? I’m still looking up for it at google to get further explanation but didn’t come with anything yet. This is my own explanation : that scene is part of Sherlock’s 1800’s mind palace, Watson was writing the story about Ricoletti’s case and Sherlock tells Watson the moment he wakes up in the future (“Flying machines, these, er, telephone contraptions?”), once again, it’s still in his mind palace and then the producers intentionally made us confused by showing that it’s all happened in present 221B Baker Street. I don’t know if my guess is right or not, it doesn’t really matter. We just have to wait untill the next year. FYI, 4th season of this series will be aired in 2017.

Overall, “Sherlock Special – The Abominable Bride” is an incredible episode of the series. If you didn’t get what’s going on in this episode, you should watch it again, it really gets better in second viewing.  This episode sets up a very high standard for the next season. Although I was, like, super confused about what’s going on when watching it for the first time, this episode amused me a lot. The jokes are hilarious. The casts give their best performances, Andrew Scott is the best! Cumberbatch never leaves us disappointed, Martin Freeman nailed it with his mustache and what the make up division did to Gatiss is amazing.

I can’t wait for the 4th season!! If you have comments about this episode or this review or anything, feel free to write on the comment box.

P.S : From this episode, I found about 24 words that I didn’t sure about its meaning (including “Abhorrent”, “Culpable”, “Botch”, “Cobwebs”, “Impish”, “Trifle lurid”, etc). I searched for those words’ meanings afterward. What I’m trying to say is, you can improve your vocabulary while watching TV series. Ehe. :)