Sherlock, Season 4, episode 3 transcript: The Final Problem, part 4
Sherlock, Season 4, episode 3 transcript: The Final Problem, part 4
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Sherlock, Season 4, episode 3 transcript: The Final Problem, part 4
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Very brief flashbacks of young Sherlock running across the meadow, then a close-up of the gravestone of Nemo Holmes and its impossible dates, then a fuzzy out-of-focus shot of something round and dark blue, then of young Sherlock sitting in the graveyard reading a book, then of Redbeard barking and running through the water at the beach, and young Sherlock running towards him while his little sister stands nearby and watches. Fade to black.
GIRL’s VOICE (offscreen): Hello?
(Lights come on and an overhead shot shows that Sherlock is in a very small rectangular room with black walls and floor. Most of the room is taken up by a rectangular wooden table, about six feet long and maybe three feet wide. There are chairs either side and a lit lantern is on the floor. Sherlock is sprawled face down on top of the table. Some time since he was rendered unconscious, someone has dressed him in his greatcoat. He starts to wake up.)
GIRL’s VOICE (offscreen): Hello? Are you still there?
(Groaning, Sherlock pushes himself up onto his arms, putting one hand to the side of his head. It seems that the girl’s voice is coming from an earpiece rather than from speakers in the room.)
SHERLOCK (weakly): Yes. Yeah; no, I’m-I’m still here. I’m here.
(On the plane, the girl is sitting on the floor outside the open door of one of the toilets.)
GIRL (into phone, still sounding upset and tearful): You went away. You said you’d help me and you went away.
SHERLOCK (turning onto one elbow, his other hand still at his ear): Yes, I know. Well, I’m sorry about that. We-we-we must have got cut off. Um ...
(He looks around the room, then screws up his eyes and shakes his head hard, probably trying to clear his mind of the effects of the sedative. He starts to sit up.)
SHERLOCK: How-how-how long was I away?
GIRL: Hours. Hours and hours. Why don’t grown-ups tell the truth?
SHERLOCK (his hand now lowered from his ear): No, I-I am telling the truth. You can trust me.
GIRL: Where did you go?
(Sherlock looks up. There is a large metal grille in the ceiling and the night sky can be seen above it. Although the sky is mostly cloudy, part of it is clear and shows a full moon.)
SHERLOCK (sliding his legs around to the side of the table): I’m not completely sure.
(He sits on the edge of the table and looks around at the walls, then slowly stands.)
SHERLOCK: Um, now, I tell you what. You-you’ve got to be really, really brave for me.
(He leans down and picks up the lantern from the floor. He keeps talking as he walks across to one of the walls, holding up the lantern.)
SHERLOCK: Can you go to the front of the plane? Can you do that?
GIRL: The front?
SHERLOCK: Yes.
(The light from the lantern shows that many pictures have been stuck to the walls. All of the nearby ones are large photographs of young Sherlock. Some of them have had part of the photo ripped off.)
SHERLOCK: That’s right; the front.
GIRL: You mean where the driver is?
SHERLOCK (continuing to walk around the room, shining the lantern on the many photos): Yes, that’s it.
GIRL: Okay. (She starts to get up from the floor.) I’m going.
(She starts to walk down the aisle, pausing and looking down at the unconscious flight attendant lying in her way. Sherlock continues looking at the photos. Some of them are of Sherlock at older ages than his young pirate self and a few pictures are of other members of the Holmes family.)
SHERLOCK: Are you there yet?
(It’s not the girl who replies but John, who jerks awake somewhere dark. The wall behind him is bare rock.)
JOHN: Yeah, I’m here.
(He stands up abruptly when he realises that he’s sitting in water up to his waist.)
SHERLOCK: John!
JOHN (his voice coming from Sherlock’s earpiece): Yeah.
SHERLOCK: Where are you?
JOHN: I don’t know. I’ve just woken up. Where are you?
SHERLOCK: I’m in another cell. I just spoke to the girl on the plane again. We’ve been out for hours.
JOHN: What, she’s still up there?
SHERLOCK: Yes. (His voice comes over John’s earpiece.) The plane will keep flying until it runs out of fuel.
(John looks around and raises his head to look upwards.)
SHERLOCK: Is Mycroft with you?
JOHN: I have no idea. I can hardly see anything. (He calls out.) Mycroft? Mycroft?
(Sherlock runs his hand over his face, looking worried when there’s no reply.)
SHERLOCK: Are you okay?
JOHN: Yeah.
SHERLOCK: All right. Well, just keep exploring. Tell me anything you can about where you are.
(As Sherlock continues walking around the room and looking at the photos, John turns and squints through the darkness behind him.)
JOHN: The walls are ... (he puts a hand on the wall and feels it) ... rough. They’re rock, I guess.
SHERLOCK: What are you standing on?
JOHN (looking down): Uh, stone, I think. But listen: there’s about two feet of water.
(He tries to lift one of his feet, but then feels resistance as the camera closes in towards his foot under the water and shows what’s causing the resistance.)
JOHN: Chains. (He shakes his head.) Yeah, my feet are chained up. I can feel something.
(He bends down and moves his hand blindly through the water until his fingers touch something floating there. Clasping his hand around what he’s found, he straightens up and runs the fingers of his other hand over his discovery.)
JOHN: Bones, Sherlock.
(Sherlock sees something under the table and turns to look at it.)
JOHN: There are bones in here.
(Sherlock kneels down, puts the lantern onto the floor and reaches towards the round ceramic bowl under the table.)
SHERLOCK: What kind of bones?
JOHN: Uh, I dunno. S-small.
(Sherlock lifts up the bowl and holds it in both hands as he looks at it in shock. Painted on the side of the bowl is the word “Redbeard”. Clearly this is a dog’s water bowl.)
SHERLOCK (softly): Redbeard.
(He closes his eyes.)
GIRL’s VOICE (in his earpiece): Who’s Redbeard?
(Sherlock jolts, sinking his face into one hand as he replies to her.)
SHERLOCK: Oh, hello. Are you at the front of the plane now?
GIRL (in the flight deck, shaking the arm of the unconscious pilot): Yeah. I still can’t wake the driver up.
(In front of the pilot the control column is jerking around under its automatic controls, and an automated voice repeatedly calls out warnings.)
SHERLOCK (wiping the corner of one eye): That’s all right. What can you see now?
GIRL (looking through the front windshield): I can see a river. (She steps over the co-pilot lying on the floor to get closer to the front.) And there’s-there’s-there’s a big wheel.
SHERLOCK: All right. Well, you and I are going to have to drive this plane together. (He slowly stands, looking up towards the sky.) Just you and me.
GIRL (nervously): We are?
SHERLOCK (smiling so as to sound confident): Yeah, there’s nothing to it. We just need to get in touch with some people on the ground.
(He bends down to pick up the lantern.)
SHERLOCK: Now, um, can you see anything that looks like a radio?
(The girl, now sitting in the co-pilot’s seat, looks around at all the dials and switches above her head. Alarms continue to beep and the automated warnings continue to sound.)
GIRL: No.
SHERLOCK: That’s all right. Well, we ... keep looking. We’ve got plenty of time.
(In the flight deck more alarms sound and the automated voice calls out more warnings. The plane jolts violently and the girl screams.)
SHERLOCK: What’s wrong?
GIRL: The whole plane’s shaking.
(Sherlock grimaces but keeps his voice soothing. He is walking around the room as he talks.)
SHERLOCK: It’s just turbulence. It’s nothing to worry about.
GIRL: My ears hurt.
SHERLOCK: Does the river look like it’s getting closer?
GIRL: A-a little bit.
SHERLOCK: All right, then. That means you’re nearly home.
(He puts his hand to his head.)
JOHN (over earpiece): Sherlock?
(High above John’s head, clouds in the night sky drift past and the full moon comes into view. Its light now shows John’s location more clearly. He stares upwards.)
JOHN: I’m in a well. That’s where I am; I’m in the bottom of a well.
(Sherlock turns, frowning.)
SHERLOCK: Why would there be a well in Sherrinford?
(He raises the lantern and looks more closely at the array of photographs on the wall in front of him.)
SHERLOCK: Why is there a draught?
(He zooms in on where two panels of the wall have a small gap between them and a photo of a teenage Sherlock stuck across the gap is fluttering slightly. Frowning, he lowers his gaze to the bottom of the wall. There’s a small gap between the wall and the floor.)
SHERLOCK: Walls don’t contract after you’ve painted them.
(He lifts his eyes.)
SHERLOCK (softly, intensely): Not real ones.
(Offscreen, he has put the lantern onto the floor. Now he raises both hands and slams them hard against the wall. The entire wall falls outwards and drops to the ground outside. In front of him is a very familiar burnt-out house. He stares at it wide-eyed.)
SHERLOCK: I’m home. Musgrave Hall.
EURUS (over his earpiece): Me and Jim Moriarty, we got on like a house on fire ...
(Sherlock bends and picks up the lantern and walks out of the ‘room.’ Behind him the other three walls fall out and crash to the ground.)
EURUS: ... which reminded me of home.
SHERLOCK (walking towards the house): Yeah, it’s just an old building. I don’t care. The plane; tell me about the plane NOW!
EURUS (over earpiece): Sweet Jim. He was never very interested in being alive, especially if he could make more trouble being dead.
SHERLOCK: Yeah, still not interested. The plane!
EURUS: You knew he’d take his revenge. His revenge apparently is me.
SHERLOCK (reaching the front door, opening it and going inside): Eurus, let me speak to the little girl on the plane and I’ll play any game you like.
EURUS (slowly, precisely): First find Redbeard.
(Beside the stairs in the hallway a screen is standing on top of a bureau or low cupboard which is covered with a sheet. The image of water is pouring down the screen but now is replaced by Eurus’ face looking into the camera. The area behind her is dark.)
EURUS: I’m letting the water in now. You don’t want me to drown another one of your pets, do you? At long last, Sherlock Holmes, it’s time to solve the Musgrave ritual.
(Sherlock stumbles back from the screen.)
EURUS: Your very first case! And the final problem. (Her voice drops to a whisper.) Oh. Bye-bye.
(In the well, water is pouring down from the top.)
JOHN: Sherlock?
(Eurus’ voice sings from his earpiece.)
EURUS’ VOICE: ♪ I that am lost / Oh, who will find me / Deep down below ...
JOHN: Sherlock!
EURUS’ VOICE: ♪ The old beech tree?
(Perhaps hearing John’s voice from nearby as well as over his earpiece, Sherlock walks across the hall and opens the door to a room.)
EURUS’ VOICE: ♪ Help succour me now ...
(Going into the room, he stares at what he sees.)
SHERLOCK: John.
EURUS’ VOICE: ♪ The East winds blow ...
(Putting the lantern on the floor he hurries across the room and stares in shock at the screen on the wall. It shows that a camera is set partway up the well and is looking downwards as the water pours down onto his friend.)
SHERLOCK: John. (Shouting) John? Can you hear me? John!
EURUS’ VOICE: ♪ Sixteen by six, brother, and under we go ...
(In the flight deck of the plane, the girl screams again as the plane continues to shake violently.)
GIRL: Help me! Help me, please!
JOHN (from the screen): Sherlock!
(Sherlock had his hand to his earpiece as the girl spoke but now he lowers it, staring intensely at the screen.)
EURUS’ VOICE: ♪ Be not afraid ...
(Her song continues as the boys talk.)
SHERLOCK: John.
JOHN (loudly over the sound of the water pouring down): Yeah, it’s flooding. The well is flooding.
(We see that the image on the screen is being sent to it from a projector behind Sherlock, set up on a stand amidst all the fallen stonework.)
SHERLOCK (gesturing towards the screen even though he knows that John probably can’t see him): Try as long as possible not to drown.
JOHN (putting his finger to his earpiece, finding it hard to hear over the sound of the water and Eurus’ singing): What?
SHERLOCK (still gesturing pointlessly): I’m going to find you. I am finding you!
JOHN (loudly): Well, hurry up, please, because I don’t have long!
(The girl on the plane screams again as it begins to bank hard to the right.)
GIRL: It’s leaning over, the whole plane!
(Sherlock glances behind him to the door, then turns towards the screen again and claps his hand over his mouth, desperately trying to work out who to try and save first. In the well, John turns and tries to get handholds on the rocks lining it in an attempt to hold himself above the rising water. He lifts his left leg as high as it will go to try to climb up the wall a little but the chain tugs at his foot - or his fingers slide off the slippery stones - and he falls backwards and into the water with a loud cry.
In the plane the girl stares in terror out of the windscreen.
Sherlock turns and runs out into the hall as his sister continues to sing.)
SHERLOCK: Eurus, you said the answer’s in the song ...
(He turns to the screen in the hall. Offscreen, she stops singing.)
SHERLOCK: ... but I went through the song line by line all those years ago ...
(Brief cut-away of young pirate Sherlock searching in the meadow.)
SHERLOCK: ... and I found nothing. I couldn’t find anything. And there-there was a beech tree in the grounds and I dug.
(Brief cut-away to young Sherlock in the meadow, carrying a spade.)
SHERLOCK: I dug and dug and dug and dug. Sixteen feet by six; sixteen yards; sixteen metres - and I found nothing. No-one.
JOHN (over earpiece): Sherlock?
EURUS (on the screen): It was a clever little puzzle, wasn’t it? So why couldn’t you work it out, Sherlock?
(Sherlock raises both hands to cover his mouth.)
JOHN (over earpiece): Sherlock? There’s something you need to know.
(Sherlock lowers his hands, breathing heavily.)
EURUS: Emotional context. And he-e-e-e-re it comes.
JOHN: Sherlock? (He’s standing up in the water staring in anguish at something we can’t yet see.) The bones I found.
SHERLOCK (turning and walking back into the nearby room to look at the other screen): Yes? They’re dogs’ bones. That’s Redbeard.
JOHN: Mycroft’s been lying to you; to both of us.
(Sherlock frowns in confusion.)
JOHN: They’re not dogs’ bones.
EURUS: Remember Daddy’s allergy? What was he allergic to?
(Sherlock stares towards the screen, which is presumably now showing her rather than John.)
EURUS: What would he never let you have all those times you begged? Well, he’d never let you have a dog.
(Inside Sherlock’s mind, a dog barks. He screws his eyes shut and sees his younger self running through the shallows on the beach.)
YOUNG SHERLOCK’s VOICE (offscreen): Come on, Redbeard!
(Nearby, young Eurus runs around, smiling. In one hand she has a plastic toy aeroplane and she holds it up and ‘flies’ it through the air as she goes.)
ADULT EURUS (offscreen): What a funny little memory, Sherlock.
(Little Eurus runs offscreen, revealing the Irish setter sitting on the pebbles with a purple bandana tied around its neck. Some distance away, young Sherlock, wearing his yellow jumper, raises his plastic sword and swoops it downwards, smiling towards his dog.)
ADULT EURUS (offscreen): You were upset ...
(Young Eurus runs around behind the dog.)
ADULT EURUS (offscreen): ... so you told yourself a better story.
(Still clutching her toy, young Eurus continues trotting around in a circle.)
ADULT EURUS (offscreen, emphasising each word): ... but we never had a dog.
(Eurus runs across in front of Redbeard, briefly obscuring him from our view. As she trots away, the Irish setter has gone. In its place a young boy is kneeling on the beach. The same age as young Sherlock, he has red hair and he is wearing a thick checked shirt and has the purple bandana tied around his neck. He is wearing a black plastic eyepatch over one eye. He stands up, wielding his own plastic sword. Young Sherlock turns to look at him. As young Mycroft continues trying to skim pebbles on the stepping stones some distance away, the red-headed boy runs towards Sherlock, who turns and trots away across the beach with the other boy following him. Little Eurus turns to watch them, and the red-headed boy stops and turns back to her. They look at each other for a long moment. There is no friendliness in their expressions.
In the well, John lifts what he’s holding in both hands. It’s a small human skull.
In the house, Sherlock stares downwards towards the floor in front of him.)
SHERLOCK (in a whisper): Victor.
EURUS (softly, on the screen): Now it’s coming.
SHERLOCK (softly, his voice shaking): Victor Trevor.
(He frowns a little as the memories keep coming. On the beach the two boys trot away together. Young Eurus turns her head away, a sad look on her face.)
SHERLOCK: We played pirates. I was Yellowbeard and he was ...
(Eurus looks into the screen, her mouth slightly open and an expectant look on her face. Sherlock raises his tear-filled eyes to her.)
SHERLOCK: ... he was Redbeard.
EURUS: You were inseparable. But I wanted to play too.
(Sherlock looks away as he begins to realise what started his sister’s behaviour. Eventually he sighs and lowers his head, closing his eyes.)
SHERLOCK: Oh. Oh God.
(He cries softly.)
SHERLOCK: What ... (he pulls in several breaths before he can continue) ... what did you do?
EURUS (singing softly, and more slowly than usual): ♪ I that am lost / Oh, who will find me / Deep down below / The old beech tree? ♪
(During the last line of her song, we cut away to young Victor, sopping wet and almost up to his waist in water, standing at the bottom of the well. His toy sword is floating beside him. He stares upwards and calls out desperately.)
VICTOR: Please let me out! Please, someone help me! Please.
(The camera pulls upwards, leaving him lost and abandoned at the bottom of the well.
In the house, adult Sherlock gazes downwards, lost in grief.
Young Sherlock walks across the meadow, disconsolate at the loss of his friend.
Adult Sherlock hears his younger self.)
YOUNG SHERLOCK (calling out worriedly offscreen): Come on, Redbeard!
(Lights seem to flicker across adult Sherlock’s face.
Young Sherlock continues searching in the meadow, his face anguished.
Adult Sherlock stands in the hall, surrounded by darkness and lost in memories.
Young Sherlock now seems to be in the same position, surrounded by darkness, his face sad.
Adult Sherlock gazes tearfully across the hall.
Young Sherlock, tears pouring down his face, softly speaks the name of his best friend, but it’s his adult voice that we hear.)
SHERLOCK’s VOICE (in a whisper): Victor.
(Flashback to a long view of the gently rippling water in the swimming pool where Sherlock and Jim had their stand-off at the end of the “The Great Game.”)
EURUS (softly, offscreen): Deep waters, Sherlock, all your life.
(Sherlock’s distraught face is briefly overlaid with dark blue rippling water.)
EURUS (softly, offscreen): In all your dreams.
(Flashback to Victorian Holmes lying on the rocky ledge while the Reichenbach Falls thunder downwards behind him.)
EURUS (softly, offscreen): Deep waters.
(In the hall, Sherlock stares ahead of himself, his face covered with tears.)
SHERLOCK (devastated): You killed him.
(Dark rippling water overlays his face and for a moment a merged image of adult and young Sherlock stares sadly across the hall with tears on his face.
Adult Sherlock lifts his head, looking towards the screen.)
SHERLOCK: You killed my best friend.
EURUS (quietly but with a hint of anger in her voice): I never had a best friend. I had no-one.
(Sherlock raises his head towards the ceiling.
In the well, John struggles to keep his footing, the water now up to the top of his chest as more pours down.
Sherlock gazes upwards, his face anguished. He closes his eyes.
Flashback to little Eurus running around on the beach, flying her toy aeroplane beside her. Adult Sherlock stands nearby watching her. Smiling, she runs around him with her plane. She looks up at him.)
YOUNG EURUS (offscreen): Play with me, Sherlock! Play with me!
(She continues to run around him.)
ADULT EURUS (on the screen, bitterly): No-one.
(In the hall, adult Sherlock lowers his head, his eyes still closed.
Young Sherlock runs across the graveyard towards the house. The camera pans across the gravestone of Nemo Holmes and its impossible dates.)
EURUS (offscreen, in a whisper): No-one.
(The camera focuses in on the gravestone and writing overlays the top line.
NEMO
n. [nee-moh]
Latin - no one, nobody
In the hall, Sherlock bites his lip and raises his head, looking towards the screen with determination.)
SHERLOCK (more strongly): Okay. Okay, let’s play.
(He turns and picks up the lantern from the floor and runs outside, hurrying around the side of the house, through an open gate and into the graveyard at the back of the house. As he runs around, bending down and shining his light closely onto various gravestones, the little girl’s voice comes over his earpiece.)
GIRL (offscreen): Hello? Are you there?
SHERLOCK: Need your help. I’m trying to solve a puzzle.
GIRL (offscreen): But what about the plane?
SHERLOCK: Well, the puzzle will save the plane.
(He runs to another gravestone and looks at the inscription. The bottom two lines read “1818 / Aged 24 and 26 Years”.)
SHERLOCK: The wrong dates. She used the wrong dates on the gravestones as the key to the cipher ... (he runs to shine the lantern on Nemo Holmes’ gravestone) ... and the cipher was the song.
JOHN (shouting above the noise of the rising water): Is this strictly relevant?
SHERLOCK: Yes, it is. I’ll be with you in a minute.
(He puts the lantern on the ground and focuses in on another, very old and worn, gravestone which gives dates of “134 - 1719”. The numbers “134” and “1719” appear in the air in front of his eyes. He looks across to other gravestones, mentally pulling the numbers from each of them, including those from Nemo Holmes’ grave, and putting them beside the first set until he has a long string of numbers in front of him. Rubbing his hands over his nose and mouth, he lowers them and breathes in sharply.)
GIRL (from the plane’s flight deck): The lights are getting closer.
SHERLOCK (gesturing dismissively to one side): Hush, now. Working.
(The words of Eurus’ song appear in front of his eyes. Two verses side by side read
I that am lost, oh who will find me?
Deep down below the old beech tree
Help succour me now the east winds blow
Sixteen by six, brother, and under we go!
Without your love, he’ll be gone before
Save pity for strangers, show love the door.
My soul seek the shade of my willow’s bloom
Inside, brother mine -
Let Death make a room.
Two further verses are underneath but in much smaller print. According to this person on Tumblr, who may have a better quality recording than me, they read
Be not afraid to walk in the shade
Save one, save all, come try!
My steps - five by seven
Life is closer to Heaven
Look down, with dark gaze, from on high.
Before he was gone - right back over my (h)ill
Who now will find him?
Why, nobody will
Doom shall I bring to him, I that am queen
Lost forever, nine by nineteen.
SHERLOCK: Let’s number the words of the song.
(The row of numbers whooshes away and individual numbers appear above each word in the four verses. Sherlock screws his eyes shut. The words and their accompanying numbers start to roll round in his mind.)
SHERLOCK: Then rearrange the numbered words to match the sequence on the gravestones.
(The words and numbers spin around in front of him, some of them stopping briefly in front of his eyes before spinning on. The sequences which stop read
1 3 4
I am lost
17 19
Help me
28
brother
Sherlock’s head snaps up and he opens his eyes with a gasp. He looks at the verses and the numbered words in front of him and the majority of the letters and their accompanying numbers shatter and the fragments fall away to the ground. He breathes heavily, looking at the remaining words floating in the air, then reaches out and starts swiping each word out of the air in the correct order, saying each word as he removes it. [Transcriber’s note: for this to work, we have to assume that the second large verse is actually the fourth verse of the song.])
SHERLOCK: I ... am ... lost ... Help ... me ... brother ... Save ... My ... Life ... Before ... my ... Doom.
(He continues swiping the words away.)
SHERLOCK: I ... am ... Lost ... Without ... your ... love ... Save ... My ... soul ... seek ... my ... room.
(He stops dead on the last word, staring up as the last three phrases float in front of him, the most prominent being the final three words, “Seek my room”. He looks past them towards the house.)
SHERLOCK (in a whisper, wide-eyed): Oh God.
(Grabbing the lantern he races back towards the house.
In the well, John stares upwards as the water continues to rise.
In the plane, the girl cries out panic-stricken.)
GIRL: We’re going to crash! I’m going to die!
(She screams.
John grunts with effort, his arms under the water and apparently tugging at the chains around his feet.
Sherlock races through the gateway beside the house, runs round the side to the front and then bursts through the front door, then runs up the stairs.)
SHERLOCK: I think it’s time you told me your real name.
GIRL (on the plane): I’m not allowed to tell my name to strangers.
(Sherlock reaches a closed door on the landing and stops in front of it.)
SHERLOCK (quietly): But I’m not a stranger, am I?
(He opens the door and, from the other side, we see him open the door to the flight deck of the plane and step inside. He stares intensely at what he sees.)
SHERLOCK: I’m your brother.
(The girl turns around in the co-pilot’s seat and looks at him. But Sherlock isn’t on the flight deck and there is no little girl. He’s in a burnt-out bedroom in his family home and he lowers the lantern to the floor and holds out his other hand towards the figure in front of him.)
SHERLOCK (reassuringly): I’m here, Eurus.
(Still wearing the clothes she wore in Sherrinford, Eurus is sitting on the floor with her knees drawn up in front of her and her hands wrapped around them. Her eyes are closed.
The footage of the girl on the plane goes into fast reverse back through all the scenes we’ve seen of her until she’s back in her seat, looking uneasily out of the window. The footage rapidly reverses even further and slows down to the very first moment where, in reverse of what we first saw, we see a close-up of her eye closing.
Flashback of young Eurus running around the beach with her toy aeroplane.
In her bedroom, adult Eurus keeps her eyes closed and speaks with a child-like voice.)
EURUS: You’re playing with me, Sherlock. We’re playing the game.
SHERLOCK: The game, yes. I get it now. (He steps closer to her.) The song was never a set of directions.
EURUS (her eyes still closed and her voice child-like and frightened): I’m in the plane, and I’m going to crash.
(Sherlock crouches down in front of her.)
EURUS (child-like): And you’re going to save me.
SHERLOCK: Look how brilliant you are. Your mind has created the perfect metaphor. You’re high above us, all alone in the sky, and you understand everything except how to land. (He shifts round and sits down in front of her, breathless and anxious.) Now, I’m just an idiot, but I’m on the ground. (He reaches out and puts his fingers onto her hands.) I can bring you home.
EURUS (her eyes still closed, plaintively): No.
(Her voice reverts to its adult tone.)
EURUS: No, no. (She shivers.) It’s too late now.
SHERLOCK (shifting closer to her and lowering his hand): No it’s not. It’s not too late.
(She cries, her eyes screwed tight and her face twisted with fear.)
EURUS: Every time I close my eyes, I’m on the plane. I’m lost, lost in the sky and ... no-one can hear me.
(She pulls her knees closer to herself, crying silently. Sherlock reaches out and gently puts his hand onto hers again.)
SHERLOCK (in a whisper): Open your eyes. I’m here.
(She opens her eyes and slowly raises her head.)
SHERLOCK (in a whisper): You’re not lost any more.
(He shifts even closer and reaches out to embrace her. She shuffles forward and wraps her arms around him and they hug each other tightly while she cries.)
SHERLOCK (softly, stroking her hair): Now, you ... you just ... you just went the wrong way last time, that’s all. (His voice becomes tearful.) This time, get it right. (Still softly but more clearly) Tell me how to save my friend.
(In the well, John groans with the effort of trying to keep his head above the water.
In the bedroom Sherlock pulls back a little.)
SHERLOCK: Eurus ...
(He cradles his sister’s head with one hand and gazes pleadingly into her eyes.)
SHERLOCK: Help me save John Watson.
(She stares at him, trembling and tearful as he gently strokes her hair.
In the well, John grimaces and then groans, tilting his chin up out of the water as he strains with the effort of trying to pull the chains free. Then a light shines down onto him from the top of the well and a rope is thrown down to him. Gasping with relief, he takes hold of it.)
[Your transcriber butts in here - sorry for the interruption - to frown sternly at the many people online who bitched about what possible use the rope could be and asked snidely whether John was about to rip off his feet and climb up the rope. Even on first viewing it seemed obvious to me that (1) someone was then going to climb down the rope with a bloody great set of bolt cutters and (2) John grabbed the rope because he now had some support to pull himself up just a little - i.e. to the full extent of the chains - and keep above the water until his rescuer arrived. Anyway, moving on ...]
Later, Eurus is being led away from the house by two police officers. She still looks tearful. Police cars and vans are parked all around and a helicopter’s rotors can be heard nearby. Some distance away, Sherlock watches her. John is beside him, wrapped in a grey blanket. Greg walks over to them.
LESTRADE: I just spoke to your brother.
SHERLOCK (as he and John turn to him): How is he?
LESTRADE: He’s a bit shaken up, that’s all. She didn’t hurt him; she just locked him in her old cell.
JOHN: What goes around comes around.
LESTRADE: Yeah. Give me a moment, boys.
(He starts to walk past them but turns back when Sherlock speaks quietly.)
SHERLOCK: Oh, um. Mycroft - make sure he’s looked after. He’s not as strong as he thinks he is.
LESTRADE (nodding): Yeah, I’ll take care of it.
(He turns to walk away again, while Mystrade fans squee so loudly that nearby dogs cower and cover their ears with their paws.)
SHERLOCK: Thanks, Greg.
(John, who has been huddling into his blanket, lifts his head and Greg turns back again and looks at him in surprise before walking away.
Eurus has been loaded into a reinforced cell inside one of the police vans. She sits on a side bench as a police officer closes the door.)
LESTRADE (to a nearby male police officer): The helicopter ready?
POLICE OFFICER: Mm-hm.
LESTRADE: Let’s move her, then.
(The officer nods in the direction of Sherlock.)
POLICE OFFICER: Is that him, sir? Sherlock Holmes?
(Greg looks back to where Sherlock has turned to face John, who looks round at him.)
LESTRADE: Fan, are you?
POLICE OFFICER: Well, he’s a great man, sir.
LESTRADE: No, he’s better than that. (He looks towards Sherlock for a moment.) He’s a good one.
[Your transcriber bursts into tears.]
(The two officers look towards our boys for a little longer, then turn and walk away.)
JOHN (quietly to Sherlock): You okay?
SHERLOCK (quietly, thoughtfully): I said I’d bring her home. I can’t, can I?
JOHN: Well, you gave her what she was looking for: context.
SHERLOCK (looking round at him): Is that good?
JOHN: It’s not good, it’s not bad. It’s ...
(He looks away and screws up his face, searching for the right words, then turns back to his friend.)
JOHN: It is what it is.
MRS HOLMES (offscreen, sounding shocked): Alive?! For all these years?
(She and her husband are in Mycroft’s Diogenes office. Mycroft sits behind his desk and his father is sitting on a chair on the other side while Mrs Holmes stands at the other end of the desk staring in shock at her oldest son. Her younger son is standing at the far end of the room leaning against the closed office door with his arms folded and his head lowered.)
MRS HOLMES (to Mycroft): How is that even possible?!
MYCROFT: What Uncle Rudy began ... (he hesitates slightly, his eyes lowered) ... I thought it best to continue.
MRS HOLMES (angrily): I’m not asking how you did it, idiot boy, I’m asking how could you?
MYCROFT: I was trying to be kind.
(He raises his eyes to hers at the end of his sentence.)
MRS HOLMES: Kind?! (She gasps in a pained breath.) Kind? (She becomes tearful as she continues.) You told us that our daughter was dead.
MYCROFT: Better that than tell you what she had become.
(She stares at him wide-eyed.)
MYCROFT: I’m sorry.
(His father stands up and leans his hands on the table.)
MR HOLMES: Whatever she became, whatever she is now, Mycroft ...
(Cut-away of a helicopter flying towards Sherrinford Island.)
MR HOLMES (offscreen): ... she remains our daughter.
MYCROFT: And my sister.
MRS HOLMES: Then you should have done better.
SHERLOCK (quietly): He did his best.
MRS HOLMES: Then he’s very limited.
(Mycroft looks towards his brother, unable to meet his parents’ eyes.)
MR HOLMES: Where is she?
(Cut-away of the helicopter coming in to land on the beach of the island.)
MYCROFT: Back in Sherrinford; secure, this time. (He looks at his father.) People have died.
(Sherlock gets out of the helicopter, carrying a holdall, and walks away across the beach.)
MYCROFT (offscreen): Without doubt she will kill again if she has the opportunity. There’s no possibility she’ll ever be able to leave.
(Mr Holmes has straightened up a little but now leans down again and speaks firmly.)
MR HOLMES: When can we see her?
(Mycroft looks at him.
At Sherrinford, Sherlock comes out of the lift on the upper level of the Control Room and trots down the stairs.)
MYCROFT (offscreen): There’s no point.
MRS HOLMES (upset): How dare you say that?
MYCROFT (closing his eyes and speaking more firmly): She won’t talk. She won’t communicate with anyone in any way.
(At Sherrinford, Sherlock swipes a card through a card reader and the door in front of him opens. He walks through.)
MYCROFT: She has passed beyond our view.
(Still leaning against Mycroft’s office door, Sherlock gazes down at the floor in front of him.)
MYCROFT (looking at his mother): There are no words that can reach her now.
(She turns to look at her other son.
At Sherrinford, Sherlock walks out of another lift.)
MRS HOLMES (offscreen): Sherlock.
(In Mycroft’s office, Sherlock raises his head.
At Sherrinford, he walks along the long corridor towards the Secure Unit.
In the office, Mrs Holmes shrugs questioningly at Sherlock.)
MRS HOLMES: Well?
(At Sherrinford, Sherlock stops at the end of the corridor and the lights on the scanner above his head begin to oscillate back and forth.)
MRS HOLMES (offscreen): You were always the grown-up.
(Mycroft raises his head a little and looks towards his brother.)
MRS HOLMES (offscreen): What do we do now?
(Sherlock turns his head away slightly, looking thoughtful.
At Sherrinford, the lift door at the front of Eurus’ cell slides open and Sherlock, having presumably left his coat upstairs, walks out. He walks a few paces forward, looking at his sister inside the glass-walled cell. Her face is turned away from him and she doesn’t react to the sound of his footsteps. He bends down and puts the holdall on the floor. Behind him the lift door closes and the green lights in the room turn white. Sitting on the seat at the side of the room, she still doesn’t react. Sherlock unzips the bag and then stands up holding his violin and bow. He plucks at the strings and Eurus blinks. Once he’s sure the violin is tuned properly, he lifts his bow and plays a simple tune. He stops at the end of the first phrase and lifts his bow a little, looking towards Eurus. She doesn’t respond or move in any way.
In the burnt-out living room of 221B Baker Street, Sherlock - in shirt and trousers - walks across the floor, stepping over the ruined books and debris. The sound of him playing the same tune in Eurus’ cell can be heard offscreen as he starts it again and this time continues the tune. In 221B he picks up a random item from the floor, then walks across to where the skull which is usually on the wall between the windows is lying on the burnt rug. John turns around from where he’s standing near the fireplace and holds up what he’s just found - the earphones which usually adorn the skull’s head. Sherlock lifts the skull so that John can put the earphones back onto it and then loop the cable over the top. Sherlock turns away with it and looks for somewhere to put it.
In the cell Sherlock continues playing. After a while, Eurus stands up and turns to face him. Sherlock stops playing, and the two of them look at each other for a long while.
In 221B Sherlock, still holding the skull and headphones, lifts his overturned chair with the other hand and sets it upright. As he gazes upwards, the violin starts up again offscreen.
A helicopter heads towards Sherrinford Island again and, in the cell, Sherlock plays on. Eurus stands silently, watching him with a trace of interest on her face.
In 221B Sherlock picks up one of the dining chairs and sets it on its feet. John is over near the right-hand window.
Sherlock gets out of the helicopter again on the beach at Sherrinford with his holdall in one hand. We start to realise that he is making repeated visits to play to his sister.
In the cell, while he continues to play, Eurus picks up her own violin and bow and walks towards the glass wall. Sherlock stops in mid-phrase. She puts the violin to her chin. Sherlock watches her, and she begins to play the same piece from the beginning. The sound from her violin is richer - either she’s a better player or she has her Strad back. Or possibly it’s a bit of both because she plays the first phrase with more flair than her brother, running the notes together differently at one point. Sherlock blinks rapidly as she ends the phrase and stops, lowering her bow. He lifts his own bow and plays the phrase again, still using his own interpretation of the notes.
While the music continues offscreen, John is standing in his own living room sorting through his mail. He stops when he gets to a white padded envelope sent by Special Delivery.
Shortly afterwards he walks aimlessly around the room while he speaks into his phone.)
JOHN: Uh, yeah, I-I think you’d better get round here.
(In his other hand he is holding what he found in the envelope. Inside a clear plastic wallet is a white DVD. Handwritten on the disc are the words “MISS YOU”.
In the cell, Eurus closes her eyes and begins to play the tune again but this time Sherlock joins in with a counterpart. They stand either side of the glass, harmonising with each other.
At John’s home, the disc slides into the DVD player. Sherlock has now arrived and stands near the sofa, still wearing his coat, while John sits down. They look at each other for a moment, then Sherlock turns away to look towards the TV while John lifts the remote control and starts the playback. Mary’s face smiles at them from the screen. Sherlock blinks and John stares at the TV in surprise, his mouth falling open a little.)
MARY: P.S.
(As the music from the violin duet continues, Sherlock again walks along the corridor towards the Special Unit.)
MARY (voiceover initially, then on the screen): I know you two; and if I’m gone, I know what you could become.
(Sherlock turns to look down at John. John smiles briefly at the screen, his eyes full of tears, and Sherlock turns back to the TV as Mary continues.)
MARY (voiceover): ... because I know who you really are.
(Flashback to our very first sight of Sherlock all those years ago, his face upside down on the screen as he unzips a body bag and looks inside.)
MARY (voiceover): A junkie who solves crimes to get high ...
(In the flashback Sherlock looks down at the body and wrinkles his nose a little as he sniffs.
Flashback to our very first sight of John, jolting up in bed in his lonely bedsit after his latest nightmare.)
MARY (voiceover): ... and the doctor who never came home from the war.
(Sherlock walks to the door of the Secure Unit and swipes his card through the reader.
In the cell, the siblings’ duet becomes more complicated and intricate.)
MARY (on the TV screen): Well, you listen to me: who you really are, it doesn’t matter.
(In the dark burnt ruin of 221B, a workman is sweeping up while another one stuffs rubbish into a black plastic bag. Standing in front of the fireplace, John looks around the room and tiredly rubs the back of his neck as if despairing of ever getting the place back to normal. Oblivious to what’s going on around him, Sherlock is sitting in his chair texting.)
MARY (voiceover): It’s all about the legend, the stories, the adventures.
(At Sherrinford, Sherlock comes out of the lift and walks across the green-lit room towards where his sister is sitting on the seat with her back to the room.
The Holmes siblings face each other through the glass, playing together beautifully.
In 221B, Mrs Hudson comes through the door and looks across the room. While the workmen tidy up and John stands at the fireplace, Sherlock types onto his phone “You know where to find me.” and adds underneath “SH”.)
MARY (voiceover): There is a last refuge for the desperate, the unloved, the persecuted.
(Again Sherlock walks along the corridor towards the Secure Unit.
In the cell, Eurus and Sherlock play on.)
MARY (voiceover): There is a final court of appeal for everyone.
(In 221B, most of the burnt debris has been removed and workmen are now redecorating. Our boys have decided to restore the flat exactly as it was, and the wallpaper on the fireplace wall is the same as it was before. Sherlock, wearing his camel dressing gown, is standing facing the fireplace. At the sofa wall, John sprays a circle of yellow paint onto the wallpaper and then adds two dots inside near the top of the circle. He turns round and we see that the wallpaper on that wall is also the same as it was before and John has now added the smiley face to it. He looks across expectantly towards Sherlock and then walks out of the way. Sherlock, now facing into the room, raises his long-muzzled pistol, spins the chamber and then flicks it into place, then aims towards the spray-painted face and fires twice. He smiles, then lifts the muzzle and blows across the top.
The siblings’ tune resolves into the familiar “Pursuit” music, now played offscreen by an ensemble of stringed instruments.
Sherlock, now wearing his blue dressing gown, stabs his knife down into an open letter on the mantelpiece as John stands beside him holding the piece of paper in position. They turn as Mrs Hudson comes into the room and looks at them in exasperation. The room is now fully restored to its former glory and all the familiar items have either been repaired or replaced with identical copies.
Sherlock and Eurus play on. Without stopping, he raises his eyes to hers and she looks back at him. For the first time, there is emotion in her eyes as she gazes at her brother. She smiles just a little and they continue their duet.
In 221B a montage of scenes rolls out. Even though there is no segue between them, they clearly take place over a period of time. Sherlock, in his camel dressing gown, walks around behind the client chair. Sitting in the chair is an old-fashioned ventriloquist’s dummy dressed in a black and red jacket with a white shirt and black bowtie. Its operator seems to be crouched behind the chair, as evidenced by a black-sleeved arm poking round from the back of the chair and disappearing into the dummy’s back. John walks through the living room door wearing his jacket and carrying his briefcase. He frowns briefly at the scene as he goes across the room. Sitting down in his chair he looks up at a blackboard set up on an easel in front of the fireplace and frowns at the ‘dancing men’ figures chalked on it [see here for the translation].)
MARY (voiceover): When life gets too strange, too impossible ...
(At the other side of the blackboard, sitting in his chair wearing his suit jacket, Sherlock frowns across the room and gets up to walk over and stand at the feet of a man lying on his back in the middle of the floor in front of the door. The man is dressed in Viking costume. His eyes are closed. John, wearing a brown cardigan, is on his knees beside the man, patting his face with one hand and peeling one eyelid open with his other thumb. [For anyone who missed the end credits, the man is played by musician Paul Weller.])
MARY (voiceover): ... too frightening, there is always one last hope.
(Mrs Hudson comes to the living room door holding a can of air freshener. Pulling a face, she sprays the can into the air and then turns to spray another blast towards John’s chair.)
MARY (voiceover): When all else fails ...
(Sitting in his chair and looking down in disgust at something grubby and possibly vomit-soaked in his hands, John - still in his brown cardigan - raises his head as Sherlock picks up Rosie and straightens up. She now has a full head of hair and is dressed in a pink top with denim short-legged dungarees over the top. Her mouth is grubby, so presumably she has just thrown up into whatever John is holding.)
MARY (voiceover): ... there are two men sitting arguing in a scruffy flat ...
(Tucking his goddaughter closely into his body with one hand while she makes a valiant attempt to stick her finger up her nose, Sherlock smiles and points across the room with the other.)
SHERLOCK: Oh, there’s Daddy!
(The music resolves into a fuller, slower and even more orchestral version of “Pursuit”.
Sherlock waves across the room and then walks forward to hand Rosie down to John, who is kneeling on the floor and wearing a pale grey shirt. John smiles in delight as he takes hold of his daughter and kisses her cheek.)
MARY (voiceover): ... like they’ve always been there ...
(Nearby, Greg stands looking towards Sherlock with one hand raised to his head and a harassed look on his face. He gestures beckoningly towards him as he turns to the door.)
MARY (voiceover): ... and they always will.
(In the doorway as Greg leaves, Molly comes in smiling happily and walks across the room.)
MARY (voiceover): The best and wisest men I have ever known.
(In the cell, Sherlock smiles at his sister as he continues to duet with her. Their parents and big brother are sitting on chairs to one side of Sherlock. With her eyes lowered while she listens to her children play, their mother reaches across to take Mycroft’s hand. He looks down at their hands and then turns to look at her.)
MARY (voiceover): My Baker Street boys.
(She smiles from the TV screen.)
MARY: Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.
(And in slow motion Sherlock and John - our Baker Street boys - run side-by-side out of the entrance of a large stone building, identified by plaques either side of the porch as “Rathbone Place,” and race off towards their next adventure.)
[Transcriber’s note: For anybody who’s wondering after reading mis-information spread online, there was no clip of Moriarty after the end credits. That clip actually appeared at the end of a behind-the-scenes documentary released after the episode was aired.]
The Final Transcriber’s Note: There simply aren’t the words to express my love, devotion and gratitude to my beta team who put so much care and effort into carefully checking every word I wrote for these three episodes (and I just did a quick word count and there are over 99,200 of them). The team’s meticulous attention to detail - each one of them spotting errors or suggesting improvements which none of the others did - has made these transcripts so much better than they would have been if I’d done them alone. (Not to mention that I would have added some howling mistakes in my own perception of what was happening on the screen which would have had my readers burying their heads in their hands and wondering what the hell I was smoking.) You are amazing, you are fantastic, and as conductors of light you are unbeatable. And a special shout-out to lauramcewan who commented on every single part.
I should also give a mention to the many people - particularly on Tumblr - whose blog posts and reblogs of others’ blog posts, screencaps and gifs alerted me to so much extra detail that I hadn’t noticed and which hopefully helped to enrich the transcripts.
I know that a frighteningly large number of people despised one or more of these Season 4 episodes. I even understand why they did. Despite going through each moment with a fine-toothed comb, I’m still not sure what I make of them myself. I particularly think that making Culverton Smith so horrifically similar to a real-life British monster was a huge mistake and was the main reason why the general British viewing public abandoned the show in droves after that. And that, for me, is a tragedy because the cinematography in that episode was sensational and Nick Hurran is a genius. It’s so sad that his second episode for the show will never be looked back at fondly.
But I believe in Sherlock. I’ve loved this series since the day that A Study in Pink aired, and without fail I have watched at least fifteen minutes of the series every weekday since the day after that episode was shown, starting each day from where I left off the day before. Nothing about this latest series has changed my mind about that and I’ll continue watching all four seasons for the foreseeable future. In my opinion - and YMMV - it’s the best British drama series that’s ever been made, and I’m so grateful to everyone who was involved with the making of it. I’m also eternally grateful to this wonderful show for bringing me lifelong friends who I would never have met any other way, several of whom I meet in person whenever possible.
Keep the faith, Sherlock fans.
Love and hugs
Ariane xx
A full list of episode transcripts, DVD commentary summaries/transcripts, and transcripts of the DVD special features can be found here.
Direct links to episode transcripts:
A Study in Pink (pilot) / A Study in Pink (broadcast) / The Blind Banker / The Great Game
A Scandal in Belgravia / The Hounds of Baskerville / The Reichenbach Fall
Many Happy Returns / The Empty Hearse / The Sign of Three / His Last Vow
The Abominable Bride
The Six Thatchers / The Lying Detective / The Final Problem
Or, to download the Episode Transcripts in Word or PDF, click here.
Polite request: If you take extracts from this transcript for use elsewhere, and especially if you repost my own words, it would be kind if you would acknowledge the source and/or give a link back to this transcript. Thanks.
Sherlock, Season 4, episode 3 transcript: The Final Problem, part 4
Return to Part 1 / Return to Part 2 / Return to Part 3
Very brief flashbacks of young Sherlock running across the meadow, then a close-up of the gravestone of Nemo Holmes and its impossible dates, then a fuzzy out-of-focus shot of something round and dark blue, then of young Sherlock sitting in the graveyard reading a book, then of Redbeard barking and running through the water at the beach, and young Sherlock running towards him while his little sister stands nearby and watches. Fade to black.
GIRL’s VOICE (offscreen): Hello?
(Lights come on and an overhead shot shows that Sherlock is in a very small rectangular room with black walls and floor. Most of the room is taken up by a rectangular wooden table, about six feet long and maybe three feet wide. There are chairs either side and a lit lantern is on the floor. Sherlock is sprawled face down on top of the table. Some time since he was rendered unconscious, someone has dressed him in his greatcoat. He starts to wake up.)
GIRL’s VOICE (offscreen): Hello? Are you still there?
(Groaning, Sherlock pushes himself up onto his arms, putting one hand to the side of his head. It seems that the girl’s voice is coming from an earpiece rather than from speakers in the room.)
SHERLOCK (weakly): Yes. Yeah; no, I’m-I’m still here. I’m here.
(On the plane, the girl is sitting on the floor outside the open door of one of the toilets.)
GIRL (into phone, still sounding upset and tearful): You went away. You said you’d help me and you went away.
SHERLOCK (turning onto one elbow, his other hand still at his ear): Yes, I know. Well, I’m sorry about that. We-we-we must have got cut off. Um ...
(He looks around the room, then screws up his eyes and shakes his head hard, probably trying to clear his mind of the effects of the sedative. He starts to sit up.)
SHERLOCK: How-how-how long was I away?
GIRL: Hours. Hours and hours. Why don’t grown-ups tell the truth?
SHERLOCK (his hand now lowered from his ear): No, I-I am telling the truth. You can trust me.
GIRL: Where did you go?
(Sherlock looks up. There is a large metal grille in the ceiling and the night sky can be seen above it. Although the sky is mostly cloudy, part of it is clear and shows a full moon.)
SHERLOCK (sliding his legs around to the side of the table): I’m not completely sure.
(He sits on the edge of the table and looks around at the walls, then slowly stands.)
SHERLOCK: Um, now, I tell you what. You-you’ve got to be really, really brave for me.
(He leans down and picks up the lantern from the floor. He keeps talking as he walks across to one of the walls, holding up the lantern.)
SHERLOCK: Can you go to the front of the plane? Can you do that?
GIRL: The front?
SHERLOCK: Yes.
(The light from the lantern shows that many pictures have been stuck to the walls. All of the nearby ones are large photographs of young Sherlock. Some of them have had part of the photo ripped off.)
SHERLOCK: That’s right; the front.
GIRL: You mean where the driver is?
SHERLOCK (continuing to walk around the room, shining the lantern on the many photos): Yes, that’s it.
GIRL: Okay. (She starts to get up from the floor.) I’m going.
(She starts to walk down the aisle, pausing and looking down at the unconscious flight attendant lying in her way. Sherlock continues looking at the photos. Some of them are of Sherlock at older ages than his young pirate self and a few pictures are of other members of the Holmes family.)
SHERLOCK: Are you there yet?
(It’s not the girl who replies but John, who jerks awake somewhere dark. The wall behind him is bare rock.)
JOHN: Yeah, I’m here.
(He stands up abruptly when he realises that he’s sitting in water up to his waist.)
SHERLOCK: John!
JOHN (his voice coming from Sherlock’s earpiece): Yeah.
SHERLOCK: Where are you?
JOHN: I don’t know. I’ve just woken up. Where are you?
SHERLOCK: I’m in another cell. I just spoke to the girl on the plane again. We’ve been out for hours.
JOHN: What, she’s still up there?
SHERLOCK: Yes. (His voice comes over John’s earpiece.) The plane will keep flying until it runs out of fuel.
(John looks around and raises his head to look upwards.)
SHERLOCK: Is Mycroft with you?
JOHN: I have no idea. I can hardly see anything. (He calls out.) Mycroft? Mycroft?
(Sherlock runs his hand over his face, looking worried when there’s no reply.)
SHERLOCK: Are you okay?
JOHN: Yeah.
SHERLOCK: All right. Well, just keep exploring. Tell me anything you can about where you are.
(As Sherlock continues walking around the room and looking at the photos, John turns and squints through the darkness behind him.)
JOHN: The walls are ... (he puts a hand on the wall and feels it) ... rough. They’re rock, I guess.
SHERLOCK: What are you standing on?
JOHN (looking down): Uh, stone, I think. But listen: there’s about two feet of water.
(He tries to lift one of his feet, but then feels resistance as the camera closes in towards his foot under the water and shows what’s causing the resistance.)
JOHN: Chains. (He shakes his head.) Yeah, my feet are chained up. I can feel something.
(He bends down and moves his hand blindly through the water until his fingers touch something floating there. Clasping his hand around what he’s found, he straightens up and runs the fingers of his other hand over his discovery.)
JOHN: Bones, Sherlock.
(Sherlock sees something under the table and turns to look at it.)
JOHN: There are bones in here.
(Sherlock kneels down, puts the lantern onto the floor and reaches towards the round ceramic bowl under the table.)
SHERLOCK: What kind of bones?
JOHN: Uh, I dunno. S-small.
(Sherlock lifts up the bowl and holds it in both hands as he looks at it in shock. Painted on the side of the bowl is the word “Redbeard”. Clearly this is a dog’s water bowl.)
SHERLOCK (softly): Redbeard.
(He closes his eyes.)
GIRL’s VOICE (in his earpiece): Who’s Redbeard?
(Sherlock jolts, sinking his face into one hand as he replies to her.)
SHERLOCK: Oh, hello. Are you at the front of the plane now?
GIRL (in the flight deck, shaking the arm of the unconscious pilot): Yeah. I still can’t wake the driver up.
(In front of the pilot the control column is jerking around under its automatic controls, and an automated voice repeatedly calls out warnings.)
SHERLOCK (wiping the corner of one eye): That’s all right. What can you see now?
GIRL (looking through the front windshield): I can see a river. (She steps over the co-pilot lying on the floor to get closer to the front.) And there’s-there’s-there’s a big wheel.
SHERLOCK: All right. Well, you and I are going to have to drive this plane together. (He slowly stands, looking up towards the sky.) Just you and me.
GIRL (nervously): We are?
SHERLOCK (smiling so as to sound confident): Yeah, there’s nothing to it. We just need to get in touch with some people on the ground.
(He bends down to pick up the lantern.)
SHERLOCK: Now, um, can you see anything that looks like a radio?
(The girl, now sitting in the co-pilot’s seat, looks around at all the dials and switches above her head. Alarms continue to beep and the automated warnings continue to sound.)
GIRL: No.
SHERLOCK: That’s all right. Well, we ... keep looking. We’ve got plenty of time.
(In the flight deck more alarms sound and the automated voice calls out more warnings. The plane jolts violently and the girl screams.)
SHERLOCK: What’s wrong?
GIRL: The whole plane’s shaking.
(Sherlock grimaces but keeps his voice soothing. He is walking around the room as he talks.)
SHERLOCK: It’s just turbulence. It’s nothing to worry about.
GIRL: My ears hurt.
SHERLOCK: Does the river look like it’s getting closer?
GIRL: A-a little bit.
SHERLOCK: All right, then. That means you’re nearly home.
(He puts his hand to his head.)
JOHN (over earpiece): Sherlock?
(High above John’s head, clouds in the night sky drift past and the full moon comes into view. Its light now shows John’s location more clearly. He stares upwards.)
JOHN: I’m in a well. That’s where I am; I’m in the bottom of a well.
(Sherlock turns, frowning.)
SHERLOCK: Why would there be a well in Sherrinford?
(He raises the lantern and looks more closely at the array of photographs on the wall in front of him.)
SHERLOCK: Why is there a draught?
(He zooms in on where two panels of the wall have a small gap between them and a photo of a teenage Sherlock stuck across the gap is fluttering slightly. Frowning, he lowers his gaze to the bottom of the wall. There’s a small gap between the wall and the floor.)
SHERLOCK: Walls don’t contract after you’ve painted them.
(He lifts his eyes.)
SHERLOCK (softly, intensely): Not real ones.
(Offscreen, he has put the lantern onto the floor. Now he raises both hands and slams them hard against the wall. The entire wall falls outwards and drops to the ground outside. In front of him is a very familiar burnt-out house. He stares at it wide-eyed.)
SHERLOCK: I’m home. Musgrave Hall.
EURUS (over his earpiece): Me and Jim Moriarty, we got on like a house on fire ...
(Sherlock bends and picks up the lantern and walks out of the ‘room.’ Behind him the other three walls fall out and crash to the ground.)
EURUS: ... which reminded me of home.
SHERLOCK (walking towards the house): Yeah, it’s just an old building. I don’t care. The plane; tell me about the plane NOW!
EURUS (over earpiece): Sweet Jim. He was never very interested in being alive, especially if he could make more trouble being dead.
SHERLOCK: Yeah, still not interested. The plane!
EURUS: You knew he’d take his revenge. His revenge apparently is me.
SHERLOCK (reaching the front door, opening it and going inside): Eurus, let me speak to the little girl on the plane and I’ll play any game you like.
EURUS (slowly, precisely): First find Redbeard.
(Beside the stairs in the hallway a screen is standing on top of a bureau or low cupboard which is covered with a sheet. The image of water is pouring down the screen but now is replaced by Eurus’ face looking into the camera. The area behind her is dark.)
EURUS: I’m letting the water in now. You don’t want me to drown another one of your pets, do you? At long last, Sherlock Holmes, it’s time to solve the Musgrave ritual.
(Sherlock stumbles back from the screen.)
EURUS: Your very first case! And the final problem. (Her voice drops to a whisper.) Oh. Bye-bye.
(In the well, water is pouring down from the top.)
JOHN: Sherlock?
(Eurus’ voice sings from his earpiece.)
EURUS’ VOICE: ♪ I that am lost / Oh, who will find me / Deep down below ...
JOHN: Sherlock!
EURUS’ VOICE: ♪ The old beech tree?
(Perhaps hearing John’s voice from nearby as well as over his earpiece, Sherlock walks across the hall and opens the door to a room.)
EURUS’ VOICE: ♪ Help succour me now ...
(Going into the room, he stares at what he sees.)
SHERLOCK: John.
EURUS’ VOICE: ♪ The East winds blow ...
(Putting the lantern on the floor he hurries across the room and stares in shock at the screen on the wall. It shows that a camera is set partway up the well and is looking downwards as the water pours down onto his friend.)
SHERLOCK: John. (Shouting) John? Can you hear me? John!
EURUS’ VOICE: ♪ Sixteen by six, brother, and under we go ...
(In the flight deck of the plane, the girl screams again as the plane continues to shake violently.)
GIRL: Help me! Help me, please!
JOHN (from the screen): Sherlock!
(Sherlock had his hand to his earpiece as the girl spoke but now he lowers it, staring intensely at the screen.)
EURUS’ VOICE: ♪ Be not afraid ...
(Her song continues as the boys talk.)
SHERLOCK: John.
JOHN (loudly over the sound of the water pouring down): Yeah, it’s flooding. The well is flooding.
(We see that the image on the screen is being sent to it from a projector behind Sherlock, set up on a stand amidst all the fallen stonework.)
SHERLOCK (gesturing towards the screen even though he knows that John probably can’t see him): Try as long as possible not to drown.
JOHN (putting his finger to his earpiece, finding it hard to hear over the sound of the water and Eurus’ singing): What?
SHERLOCK (still gesturing pointlessly): I’m going to find you. I am finding you!
JOHN (loudly): Well, hurry up, please, because I don’t have long!
(The girl on the plane screams again as it begins to bank hard to the right.)
GIRL: It’s leaning over, the whole plane!
(Sherlock glances behind him to the door, then turns towards the screen again and claps his hand over his mouth, desperately trying to work out who to try and save first. In the well, John turns and tries to get handholds on the rocks lining it in an attempt to hold himself above the rising water. He lifts his left leg as high as it will go to try to climb up the wall a little but the chain tugs at his foot - or his fingers slide off the slippery stones - and he falls backwards and into the water with a loud cry.
In the plane the girl stares in terror out of the windscreen.
Sherlock turns and runs out into the hall as his sister continues to sing.)
SHERLOCK: Eurus, you said the answer’s in the song ...
(He turns to the screen in the hall. Offscreen, she stops singing.)
SHERLOCK: ... but I went through the song line by line all those years ago ...
(Brief cut-away of young pirate Sherlock searching in the meadow.)
SHERLOCK: ... and I found nothing. I couldn’t find anything. And there-there was a beech tree in the grounds and I dug.
(Brief cut-away to young Sherlock in the meadow, carrying a spade.)
SHERLOCK: I dug and dug and dug and dug. Sixteen feet by six; sixteen yards; sixteen metres - and I found nothing. No-one.
JOHN (over earpiece): Sherlock?
EURUS (on the screen): It was a clever little puzzle, wasn’t it? So why couldn’t you work it out, Sherlock?
(Sherlock raises both hands to cover his mouth.)
JOHN (over earpiece): Sherlock? There’s something you need to know.
(Sherlock lowers his hands, breathing heavily.)
EURUS: Emotional context. And he-e-e-e-re it comes.
JOHN: Sherlock? (He’s standing up in the water staring in anguish at something we can’t yet see.) The bones I found.
SHERLOCK (turning and walking back into the nearby room to look at the other screen): Yes? They’re dogs’ bones. That’s Redbeard.
JOHN: Mycroft’s been lying to you; to both of us.
(Sherlock frowns in confusion.)
JOHN: They’re not dogs’ bones.
EURUS: Remember Daddy’s allergy? What was he allergic to?
(Sherlock stares towards the screen, which is presumably now showing her rather than John.)
EURUS: What would he never let you have all those times you begged? Well, he’d never let you have a dog.
(Inside Sherlock’s mind, a dog barks. He screws his eyes shut and sees his younger self running through the shallows on the beach.)
YOUNG SHERLOCK’s VOICE (offscreen): Come on, Redbeard!
(Nearby, young Eurus runs around, smiling. In one hand she has a plastic toy aeroplane and she holds it up and ‘flies’ it through the air as she goes.)
ADULT EURUS (offscreen): What a funny little memory, Sherlock.
(Little Eurus runs offscreen, revealing the Irish setter sitting on the pebbles with a purple bandana tied around its neck. Some distance away, young Sherlock, wearing his yellow jumper, raises his plastic sword and swoops it downwards, smiling towards his dog.)
ADULT EURUS (offscreen): You were upset ...
(Young Eurus runs around behind the dog.)
ADULT EURUS (offscreen): ... so you told yourself a better story.
(Still clutching her toy, young Eurus continues trotting around in a circle.)
ADULT EURUS (offscreen, emphasising each word): ... but we never had a dog.
(Eurus runs across in front of Redbeard, briefly obscuring him from our view. As she trots away, the Irish setter has gone. In its place a young boy is kneeling on the beach. The same age as young Sherlock, he has red hair and he is wearing a thick checked shirt and has the purple bandana tied around his neck. He is wearing a black plastic eyepatch over one eye. He stands up, wielding his own plastic sword. Young Sherlock turns to look at him. As young Mycroft continues trying to skim pebbles on the stepping stones some distance away, the red-headed boy runs towards Sherlock, who turns and trots away across the beach with the other boy following him. Little Eurus turns to watch them, and the red-headed boy stops and turns back to her. They look at each other for a long moment. There is no friendliness in their expressions.
In the well, John lifts what he’s holding in both hands. It’s a small human skull.
In the house, Sherlock stares downwards towards the floor in front of him.)
SHERLOCK (in a whisper): Victor.
EURUS (softly, on the screen): Now it’s coming.
SHERLOCK (softly, his voice shaking): Victor Trevor.
(He frowns a little as the memories keep coming. On the beach the two boys trot away together. Young Eurus turns her head away, a sad look on her face.)
SHERLOCK: We played pirates. I was Yellowbeard and he was ...
(Eurus looks into the screen, her mouth slightly open and an expectant look on her face. Sherlock raises his tear-filled eyes to her.)
SHERLOCK: ... he was Redbeard.
EURUS: You were inseparable. But I wanted to play too.
(Sherlock looks away as he begins to realise what started his sister’s behaviour. Eventually he sighs and lowers his head, closing his eyes.)
SHERLOCK: Oh. Oh God.
(He cries softly.)
SHERLOCK: What ... (he pulls in several breaths before he can continue) ... what did you do?
EURUS (singing softly, and more slowly than usual): ♪ I that am lost / Oh, who will find me / Deep down below / The old beech tree? ♪
(During the last line of her song, we cut away to young Victor, sopping wet and almost up to his waist in water, standing at the bottom of the well. His toy sword is floating beside him. He stares upwards and calls out desperately.)
VICTOR: Please let me out! Please, someone help me! Please.
(The camera pulls upwards, leaving him lost and abandoned at the bottom of the well.
In the house, adult Sherlock gazes downwards, lost in grief.
Young Sherlock walks across the meadow, disconsolate at the loss of his friend.
Adult Sherlock hears his younger self.)
YOUNG SHERLOCK (calling out worriedly offscreen): Come on, Redbeard!
(Lights seem to flicker across adult Sherlock’s face.
Young Sherlock continues searching in the meadow, his face anguished.
Adult Sherlock stands in the hall, surrounded by darkness and lost in memories.
Young Sherlock now seems to be in the same position, surrounded by darkness, his face sad.
Adult Sherlock gazes tearfully across the hall.
Young Sherlock, tears pouring down his face, softly speaks the name of his best friend, but it’s his adult voice that we hear.)
SHERLOCK’s VOICE (in a whisper): Victor.
(Flashback to a long view of the gently rippling water in the swimming pool where Sherlock and Jim had their stand-off at the end of the “The Great Game.”)
EURUS (softly, offscreen): Deep waters, Sherlock, all your life.
(Sherlock’s distraught face is briefly overlaid with dark blue rippling water.)
EURUS (softly, offscreen): In all your dreams.
(Flashback to Victorian Holmes lying on the rocky ledge while the Reichenbach Falls thunder downwards behind him.)
EURUS (softly, offscreen): Deep waters.
(In the hall, Sherlock stares ahead of himself, his face covered with tears.)
SHERLOCK (devastated): You killed him.
(Dark rippling water overlays his face and for a moment a merged image of adult and young Sherlock stares sadly across the hall with tears on his face.
Adult Sherlock lifts his head, looking towards the screen.)
SHERLOCK: You killed my best friend.
EURUS (quietly but with a hint of anger in her voice): I never had a best friend. I had no-one.
(Sherlock raises his head towards the ceiling.
In the well, John struggles to keep his footing, the water now up to the top of his chest as more pours down.
Sherlock gazes upwards, his face anguished. He closes his eyes.
Flashback to little Eurus running around on the beach, flying her toy aeroplane beside her. Adult Sherlock stands nearby watching her. Smiling, she runs around him with her plane. She looks up at him.)
YOUNG EURUS (offscreen): Play with me, Sherlock! Play with me!
(She continues to run around him.)
ADULT EURUS (on the screen, bitterly): No-one.
(In the hall, adult Sherlock lowers his head, his eyes still closed.
Young Sherlock runs across the graveyard towards the house. The camera pans across the gravestone of Nemo Holmes and its impossible dates.)
EURUS (offscreen, in a whisper): No-one.
(The camera focuses in on the gravestone and writing overlays the top line.
NEMO
n. [nee-moh]
Latin - no one, nobody
In the hall, Sherlock bites his lip and raises his head, looking towards the screen with determination.)
SHERLOCK (more strongly): Okay. Okay, let’s play.
(He turns and picks up the lantern from the floor and runs outside, hurrying around the side of the house, through an open gate and into the graveyard at the back of the house. As he runs around, bending down and shining his light closely onto various gravestones, the little girl’s voice comes over his earpiece.)
GIRL (offscreen): Hello? Are you there?
SHERLOCK: Need your help. I’m trying to solve a puzzle.
GIRL (offscreen): But what about the plane?
SHERLOCK: Well, the puzzle will save the plane.
(He runs to another gravestone and looks at the inscription. The bottom two lines read “1818 / Aged 24 and 26 Years”.)
SHERLOCK: The wrong dates. She used the wrong dates on the gravestones as the key to the cipher ... (he runs to shine the lantern on Nemo Holmes’ gravestone) ... and the cipher was the song.
JOHN (shouting above the noise of the rising water): Is this strictly relevant?
SHERLOCK: Yes, it is. I’ll be with you in a minute.
(He puts the lantern on the ground and focuses in on another, very old and worn, gravestone which gives dates of “134 - 1719”. The numbers “134” and “1719” appear in the air in front of his eyes. He looks across to other gravestones, mentally pulling the numbers from each of them, including those from Nemo Holmes’ grave, and putting them beside the first set until he has a long string of numbers in front of him. Rubbing his hands over his nose and mouth, he lowers them and breathes in sharply.)
GIRL (from the plane’s flight deck): The lights are getting closer.
SHERLOCK (gesturing dismissively to one side): Hush, now. Working.
(The words of Eurus’ song appear in front of his eyes. Two verses side by side read
I that am lost, oh who will find me?
Deep down below the old beech tree
Help succour me now the east winds blow
Sixteen by six, brother, and under we go!
Without your love, he’ll be gone before
Save pity for strangers, show love the door.
My soul seek the shade of my willow’s bloom
Inside, brother mine -
Let Death make a room.
Two further verses are underneath but in much smaller print. According to this person on Tumblr, who may have a better quality recording than me, they read
Be not afraid to walk in the shade
Save one, save all, come try!
My steps - five by seven
Life is closer to Heaven
Look down, with dark gaze, from on high.
Before he was gone - right back over my (h)ill
Who now will find him?
Why, nobody will
Doom shall I bring to him, I that am queen
Lost forever, nine by nineteen.
SHERLOCK: Let’s number the words of the song.
(The row of numbers whooshes away and individual numbers appear above each word in the four verses. Sherlock screws his eyes shut. The words and their accompanying numbers start to roll round in his mind.)
SHERLOCK: Then rearrange the numbered words to match the sequence on the gravestones.
(The words and numbers spin around in front of him, some of them stopping briefly in front of his eyes before spinning on. The sequences which stop read
1 3 4
I am lost
17 19
Help me
28
brother
Sherlock’s head snaps up and he opens his eyes with a gasp. He looks at the verses and the numbered words in front of him and the majority of the letters and their accompanying numbers shatter and the fragments fall away to the ground. He breathes heavily, looking at the remaining words floating in the air, then reaches out and starts swiping each word out of the air in the correct order, saying each word as he removes it. [Transcriber’s note: for this to work, we have to assume that the second large verse is actually the fourth verse of the song.])
SHERLOCK: I ... am ... lost ... Help ... me ... brother ... Save ... My ... Life ... Before ... my ... Doom.
(He continues swiping the words away.)
SHERLOCK: I ... am ... Lost ... Without ... your ... love ... Save ... My ... soul ... seek ... my ... room.
(He stops dead on the last word, staring up as the last three phrases float in front of him, the most prominent being the final three words, “Seek my room”. He looks past them towards the house.)
SHERLOCK (in a whisper, wide-eyed): Oh God.
(Grabbing the lantern he races back towards the house.
In the well, John stares upwards as the water continues to rise.
In the plane, the girl cries out panic-stricken.)
GIRL: We’re going to crash! I’m going to die!
(She screams.
John grunts with effort, his arms under the water and apparently tugging at the chains around his feet.
Sherlock races through the gateway beside the house, runs round the side to the front and then bursts through the front door, then runs up the stairs.)
SHERLOCK: I think it’s time you told me your real name.
GIRL (on the plane): I’m not allowed to tell my name to strangers.
(Sherlock reaches a closed door on the landing and stops in front of it.)
SHERLOCK (quietly): But I’m not a stranger, am I?
(He opens the door and, from the other side, we see him open the door to the flight deck of the plane and step inside. He stares intensely at what he sees.)
SHERLOCK: I’m your brother.
(The girl turns around in the co-pilot’s seat and looks at him. But Sherlock isn’t on the flight deck and there is no little girl. He’s in a burnt-out bedroom in his family home and he lowers the lantern to the floor and holds out his other hand towards the figure in front of him.)
SHERLOCK (reassuringly): I’m here, Eurus.
(Still wearing the clothes she wore in Sherrinford, Eurus is sitting on the floor with her knees drawn up in front of her and her hands wrapped around them. Her eyes are closed.
The footage of the girl on the plane goes into fast reverse back through all the scenes we’ve seen of her until she’s back in her seat, looking uneasily out of the window. The footage rapidly reverses even further and slows down to the very first moment where, in reverse of what we first saw, we see a close-up of her eye closing.
Flashback of young Eurus running around the beach with her toy aeroplane.
In her bedroom, adult Eurus keeps her eyes closed and speaks with a child-like voice.)
EURUS: You’re playing with me, Sherlock. We’re playing the game.
SHERLOCK: The game, yes. I get it now. (He steps closer to her.) The song was never a set of directions.
EURUS (her eyes still closed and her voice child-like and frightened): I’m in the plane, and I’m going to crash.
(Sherlock crouches down in front of her.)
EURUS (child-like): And you’re going to save me.
SHERLOCK: Look how brilliant you are. Your mind has created the perfect metaphor. You’re high above us, all alone in the sky, and you understand everything except how to land. (He shifts round and sits down in front of her, breathless and anxious.) Now, I’m just an idiot, but I’m on the ground. (He reaches out and puts his fingers onto her hands.) I can bring you home.
EURUS (her eyes still closed, plaintively): No.
(Her voice reverts to its adult tone.)
EURUS: No, no. (She shivers.) It’s too late now.
SHERLOCK (shifting closer to her and lowering his hand): No it’s not. It’s not too late.
(She cries, her eyes screwed tight and her face twisted with fear.)
EURUS: Every time I close my eyes, I’m on the plane. I’m lost, lost in the sky and ... no-one can hear me.
(She pulls her knees closer to herself, crying silently. Sherlock reaches out and gently puts his hand onto hers again.)
SHERLOCK (in a whisper): Open your eyes. I’m here.
(She opens her eyes and slowly raises her head.)
SHERLOCK (in a whisper): You’re not lost any more.
(He shifts even closer and reaches out to embrace her. She shuffles forward and wraps her arms around him and they hug each other tightly while she cries.)
SHERLOCK (softly, stroking her hair): Now, you ... you just ... you just went the wrong way last time, that’s all. (His voice becomes tearful.) This time, get it right. (Still softly but more clearly) Tell me how to save my friend.
(In the well, John groans with the effort of trying to keep his head above the water.
In the bedroom Sherlock pulls back a little.)
SHERLOCK: Eurus ...
(He cradles his sister’s head with one hand and gazes pleadingly into her eyes.)
SHERLOCK: Help me save John Watson.
(She stares at him, trembling and tearful as he gently strokes her hair.
In the well, John grimaces and then groans, tilting his chin up out of the water as he strains with the effort of trying to pull the chains free. Then a light shines down onto him from the top of the well and a rope is thrown down to him. Gasping with relief, he takes hold of it.)
[Your transcriber butts in here - sorry for the interruption - to frown sternly at the many people online who bitched about what possible use the rope could be and asked snidely whether John was about to rip off his feet and climb up the rope. Even on first viewing it seemed obvious to me that (1) someone was then going to climb down the rope with a bloody great set of bolt cutters and (2) John grabbed the rope because he now had some support to pull himself up just a little - i.e. to the full extent of the chains - and keep above the water until his rescuer arrived. Anyway, moving on ...]
Later, Eurus is being led away from the house by two police officers. She still looks tearful. Police cars and vans are parked all around and a helicopter’s rotors can be heard nearby. Some distance away, Sherlock watches her. John is beside him, wrapped in a grey blanket. Greg walks over to them.
LESTRADE: I just spoke to your brother.
SHERLOCK (as he and John turn to him): How is he?
LESTRADE: He’s a bit shaken up, that’s all. She didn’t hurt him; she just locked him in her old cell.
JOHN: What goes around comes around.
LESTRADE: Yeah. Give me a moment, boys.
(He starts to walk past them but turns back when Sherlock speaks quietly.)
SHERLOCK: Oh, um. Mycroft - make sure he’s looked after. He’s not as strong as he thinks he is.
LESTRADE (nodding): Yeah, I’ll take care of it.
(He turns to walk away again, while Mystrade fans squee so loudly that nearby dogs cower and cover their ears with their paws.)
SHERLOCK: Thanks, Greg.
(John, who has been huddling into his blanket, lifts his head and Greg turns back again and looks at him in surprise before walking away.
Eurus has been loaded into a reinforced cell inside one of the police vans. She sits on a side bench as a police officer closes the door.)
LESTRADE (to a nearby male police officer): The helicopter ready?
POLICE OFFICER: Mm-hm.
LESTRADE: Let’s move her, then.
(The officer nods in the direction of Sherlock.)
POLICE OFFICER: Is that him, sir? Sherlock Holmes?
(Greg looks back to where Sherlock has turned to face John, who looks round at him.)
LESTRADE: Fan, are you?
POLICE OFFICER: Well, he’s a great man, sir.
LESTRADE: No, he’s better than that. (He looks towards Sherlock for a moment.) He’s a good one.
[Your transcriber bursts into tears.]
(The two officers look towards our boys for a little longer, then turn and walk away.)
JOHN (quietly to Sherlock): You okay?
SHERLOCK (quietly, thoughtfully): I said I’d bring her home. I can’t, can I?
JOHN: Well, you gave her what she was looking for: context.
SHERLOCK (looking round at him): Is that good?
JOHN: It’s not good, it’s not bad. It’s ...
(He looks away and screws up his face, searching for the right words, then turns back to his friend.)
JOHN: It is what it is.
MRS HOLMES (offscreen, sounding shocked): Alive?! For all these years?
(She and her husband are in Mycroft’s Diogenes office. Mycroft sits behind his desk and his father is sitting on a chair on the other side while Mrs Holmes stands at the other end of the desk staring in shock at her oldest son. Her younger son is standing at the far end of the room leaning against the closed office door with his arms folded and his head lowered.)
MRS HOLMES (to Mycroft): How is that even possible?!
MYCROFT: What Uncle Rudy began ... (he hesitates slightly, his eyes lowered) ... I thought it best to continue.
MRS HOLMES (angrily): I’m not asking how you did it, idiot boy, I’m asking how could you?
MYCROFT: I was trying to be kind.
(He raises his eyes to hers at the end of his sentence.)
MRS HOLMES: Kind?! (She gasps in a pained breath.) Kind? (She becomes tearful as she continues.) You told us that our daughter was dead.
MYCROFT: Better that than tell you what she had become.
(She stares at him wide-eyed.)
MYCROFT: I’m sorry.
(His father stands up and leans his hands on the table.)
MR HOLMES: Whatever she became, whatever she is now, Mycroft ...
(Cut-away of a helicopter flying towards Sherrinford Island.)
MR HOLMES (offscreen): ... she remains our daughter.
MYCROFT: And my sister.
MRS HOLMES: Then you should have done better.
SHERLOCK (quietly): He did his best.
MRS HOLMES: Then he’s very limited.
(Mycroft looks towards his brother, unable to meet his parents’ eyes.)
MR HOLMES: Where is she?
(Cut-away of the helicopter coming in to land on the beach of the island.)
MYCROFT: Back in Sherrinford; secure, this time. (He looks at his father.) People have died.
(Sherlock gets out of the helicopter, carrying a holdall, and walks away across the beach.)
MYCROFT (offscreen): Without doubt she will kill again if she has the opportunity. There’s no possibility she’ll ever be able to leave.
(Mr Holmes has straightened up a little but now leans down again and speaks firmly.)
MR HOLMES: When can we see her?
(Mycroft looks at him.
At Sherrinford, Sherlock comes out of the lift on the upper level of the Control Room and trots down the stairs.)
MYCROFT (offscreen): There’s no point.
MRS HOLMES (upset): How dare you say that?
MYCROFT (closing his eyes and speaking more firmly): She won’t talk. She won’t communicate with anyone in any way.
(At Sherrinford, Sherlock swipes a card through a card reader and the door in front of him opens. He walks through.)
MYCROFT: She has passed beyond our view.
(Still leaning against Mycroft’s office door, Sherlock gazes down at the floor in front of him.)
MYCROFT (looking at his mother): There are no words that can reach her now.
(She turns to look at her other son.
At Sherrinford, Sherlock walks out of another lift.)
MRS HOLMES (offscreen): Sherlock.
(In Mycroft’s office, Sherlock raises his head.
At Sherrinford, he walks along the long corridor towards the Secure Unit.
In the office, Mrs Holmes shrugs questioningly at Sherlock.)
MRS HOLMES: Well?
(At Sherrinford, Sherlock stops at the end of the corridor and the lights on the scanner above his head begin to oscillate back and forth.)
MRS HOLMES (offscreen): You were always the grown-up.
(Mycroft raises his head a little and looks towards his brother.)
MRS HOLMES (offscreen): What do we do now?
(Sherlock turns his head away slightly, looking thoughtful.
At Sherrinford, the lift door at the front of Eurus’ cell slides open and Sherlock, having presumably left his coat upstairs, walks out. He walks a few paces forward, looking at his sister inside the glass-walled cell. Her face is turned away from him and she doesn’t react to the sound of his footsteps. He bends down and puts the holdall on the floor. Behind him the lift door closes and the green lights in the room turn white. Sitting on the seat at the side of the room, she still doesn’t react. Sherlock unzips the bag and then stands up holding his violin and bow. He plucks at the strings and Eurus blinks. Once he’s sure the violin is tuned properly, he lifts his bow and plays a simple tune. He stops at the end of the first phrase and lifts his bow a little, looking towards Eurus. She doesn’t respond or move in any way.
In the burnt-out living room of 221B Baker Street, Sherlock - in shirt and trousers - walks across the floor, stepping over the ruined books and debris. The sound of him playing the same tune in Eurus’ cell can be heard offscreen as he starts it again and this time continues the tune. In 221B he picks up a random item from the floor, then walks across to where the skull which is usually on the wall between the windows is lying on the burnt rug. John turns around from where he’s standing near the fireplace and holds up what he’s just found - the earphones which usually adorn the skull’s head. Sherlock lifts the skull so that John can put the earphones back onto it and then loop the cable over the top. Sherlock turns away with it and looks for somewhere to put it.
In the cell Sherlock continues playing. After a while, Eurus stands up and turns to face him. Sherlock stops playing, and the two of them look at each other for a long while.
In 221B Sherlock, still holding the skull and headphones, lifts his overturned chair with the other hand and sets it upright. As he gazes upwards, the violin starts up again offscreen.
A helicopter heads towards Sherrinford Island again and, in the cell, Sherlock plays on. Eurus stands silently, watching him with a trace of interest on her face.
In 221B Sherlock picks up one of the dining chairs and sets it on its feet. John is over near the right-hand window.
Sherlock gets out of the helicopter again on the beach at Sherrinford with his holdall in one hand. We start to realise that he is making repeated visits to play to his sister.
In the cell, while he continues to play, Eurus picks up her own violin and bow and walks towards the glass wall. Sherlock stops in mid-phrase. She puts the violin to her chin. Sherlock watches her, and she begins to play the same piece from the beginning. The sound from her violin is richer - either she’s a better player or she has her Strad back. Or possibly it’s a bit of both because she plays the first phrase with more flair than her brother, running the notes together differently at one point. Sherlock blinks rapidly as she ends the phrase and stops, lowering her bow. He lifts his own bow and plays the phrase again, still using his own interpretation of the notes.
While the music continues offscreen, John is standing in his own living room sorting through his mail. He stops when he gets to a white padded envelope sent by Special Delivery.
Shortly afterwards he walks aimlessly around the room while he speaks into his phone.)
JOHN: Uh, yeah, I-I think you’d better get round here.
(In his other hand he is holding what he found in the envelope. Inside a clear plastic wallet is a white DVD. Handwritten on the disc are the words “MISS YOU”.
In the cell, Eurus closes her eyes and begins to play the tune again but this time Sherlock joins in with a counterpart. They stand either side of the glass, harmonising with each other.
At John’s home, the disc slides into the DVD player. Sherlock has now arrived and stands near the sofa, still wearing his coat, while John sits down. They look at each other for a moment, then Sherlock turns away to look towards the TV while John lifts the remote control and starts the playback. Mary’s face smiles at them from the screen. Sherlock blinks and John stares at the TV in surprise, his mouth falling open a little.)
MARY: P.S.
(As the music from the violin duet continues, Sherlock again walks along the corridor towards the Special Unit.)
MARY (voiceover initially, then on the screen): I know you two; and if I’m gone, I know what you could become.
(Sherlock turns to look down at John. John smiles briefly at the screen, his eyes full of tears, and Sherlock turns back to the TV as Mary continues.)
MARY (voiceover): ... because I know who you really are.
(Flashback to our very first sight of Sherlock all those years ago, his face upside down on the screen as he unzips a body bag and looks inside.)
MARY (voiceover): A junkie who solves crimes to get high ...
(In the flashback Sherlock looks down at the body and wrinkles his nose a little as he sniffs.
Flashback to our very first sight of John, jolting up in bed in his lonely bedsit after his latest nightmare.)
MARY (voiceover): ... and the doctor who never came home from the war.
(Sherlock walks to the door of the Secure Unit and swipes his card through the reader.
In the cell, the siblings’ duet becomes more complicated and intricate.)
MARY (on the TV screen): Well, you listen to me: who you really are, it doesn’t matter.
(In the dark burnt ruin of 221B, a workman is sweeping up while another one stuffs rubbish into a black plastic bag. Standing in front of the fireplace, John looks around the room and tiredly rubs the back of his neck as if despairing of ever getting the place back to normal. Oblivious to what’s going on around him, Sherlock is sitting in his chair texting.)
MARY (voiceover): It’s all about the legend, the stories, the adventures.
(At Sherrinford, Sherlock comes out of the lift and walks across the green-lit room towards where his sister is sitting on the seat with her back to the room.
The Holmes siblings face each other through the glass, playing together beautifully.
In 221B, Mrs Hudson comes through the door and looks across the room. While the workmen tidy up and John stands at the fireplace, Sherlock types onto his phone “You know where to find me.” and adds underneath “SH”.)
MARY (voiceover): There is a last refuge for the desperate, the unloved, the persecuted.
(Again Sherlock walks along the corridor towards the Secure Unit.
In the cell, Eurus and Sherlock play on.)
MARY (voiceover): There is a final court of appeal for everyone.
(In 221B, most of the burnt debris has been removed and workmen are now redecorating. Our boys have decided to restore the flat exactly as it was, and the wallpaper on the fireplace wall is the same as it was before. Sherlock, wearing his camel dressing gown, is standing facing the fireplace. At the sofa wall, John sprays a circle of yellow paint onto the wallpaper and then adds two dots inside near the top of the circle. He turns round and we see that the wallpaper on that wall is also the same as it was before and John has now added the smiley face to it. He looks across expectantly towards Sherlock and then walks out of the way. Sherlock, now facing into the room, raises his long-muzzled pistol, spins the chamber and then flicks it into place, then aims towards the spray-painted face and fires twice. He smiles, then lifts the muzzle and blows across the top.
The siblings’ tune resolves into the familiar “Pursuit” music, now played offscreen by an ensemble of stringed instruments.
Sherlock, now wearing his blue dressing gown, stabs his knife down into an open letter on the mantelpiece as John stands beside him holding the piece of paper in position. They turn as Mrs Hudson comes into the room and looks at them in exasperation. The room is now fully restored to its former glory and all the familiar items have either been repaired or replaced with identical copies.
Sherlock and Eurus play on. Without stopping, he raises his eyes to hers and she looks back at him. For the first time, there is emotion in her eyes as she gazes at her brother. She smiles just a little and they continue their duet.
In 221B a montage of scenes rolls out. Even though there is no segue between them, they clearly take place over a period of time. Sherlock, in his camel dressing gown, walks around behind the client chair. Sitting in the chair is an old-fashioned ventriloquist’s dummy dressed in a black and red jacket with a white shirt and black bowtie. Its operator seems to be crouched behind the chair, as evidenced by a black-sleeved arm poking round from the back of the chair and disappearing into the dummy’s back. John walks through the living room door wearing his jacket and carrying his briefcase. He frowns briefly at the scene as he goes across the room. Sitting down in his chair he looks up at a blackboard set up on an easel in front of the fireplace and frowns at the ‘dancing men’ figures chalked on it [see here for the translation].)
MARY (voiceover): When life gets too strange, too impossible ...
(At the other side of the blackboard, sitting in his chair wearing his suit jacket, Sherlock frowns across the room and gets up to walk over and stand at the feet of a man lying on his back in the middle of the floor in front of the door. The man is dressed in Viking costume. His eyes are closed. John, wearing a brown cardigan, is on his knees beside the man, patting his face with one hand and peeling one eyelid open with his other thumb. [For anyone who missed the end credits, the man is played by musician Paul Weller.])
MARY (voiceover): ... too frightening, there is always one last hope.
(Mrs Hudson comes to the living room door holding a can of air freshener. Pulling a face, she sprays the can into the air and then turns to spray another blast towards John’s chair.)
MARY (voiceover): When all else fails ...
(Sitting in his chair and looking down in disgust at something grubby and possibly vomit-soaked in his hands, John - still in his brown cardigan - raises his head as Sherlock picks up Rosie and straightens up. She now has a full head of hair and is dressed in a pink top with denim short-legged dungarees over the top. Her mouth is grubby, so presumably she has just thrown up into whatever John is holding.)
MARY (voiceover): ... there are two men sitting arguing in a scruffy flat ...
(Tucking his goddaughter closely into his body with one hand while she makes a valiant attempt to stick her finger up her nose, Sherlock smiles and points across the room with the other.)
SHERLOCK: Oh, there’s Daddy!
(The music resolves into a fuller, slower and even more orchestral version of “Pursuit”.
Sherlock waves across the room and then walks forward to hand Rosie down to John, who is kneeling on the floor and wearing a pale grey shirt. John smiles in delight as he takes hold of his daughter and kisses her cheek.)
MARY (voiceover): ... like they’ve always been there ...
(Nearby, Greg stands looking towards Sherlock with one hand raised to his head and a harassed look on his face. He gestures beckoningly towards him as he turns to the door.)
MARY (voiceover): ... and they always will.
(In the doorway as Greg leaves, Molly comes in smiling happily and walks across the room.)
MARY (voiceover): The best and wisest men I have ever known.
(In the cell, Sherlock smiles at his sister as he continues to duet with her. Their parents and big brother are sitting on chairs to one side of Sherlock. With her eyes lowered while she listens to her children play, their mother reaches across to take Mycroft’s hand. He looks down at their hands and then turns to look at her.)
MARY (voiceover): My Baker Street boys.
(She smiles from the TV screen.)
MARY: Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.
(And in slow motion Sherlock and John - our Baker Street boys - run side-by-side out of the entrance of a large stone building, identified by plaques either side of the porch as “Rathbone Place,” and race off towards their next adventure.)
[Transcriber’s note: For anybody who’s wondering after reading mis-information spread online, there was no clip of Moriarty after the end credits. That clip actually appeared at the end of a behind-the-scenes documentary released after the episode was aired.]
The Final Transcriber’s Note: There simply aren’t the words to express my love, devotion and gratitude to my beta team who put so much care and effort into carefully checking every word I wrote for these three episodes (and I just did a quick word count and there are over 99,200 of them). The team’s meticulous attention to detail - each one of them spotting errors or suggesting improvements which none of the others did - has made these transcripts so much better than they would have been if I’d done them alone. (Not to mention that I would have added some howling mistakes in my own perception of what was happening on the screen which would have had my readers burying their heads in their hands and wondering what the hell I was smoking.) You are amazing, you are fantastic, and as conductors of light you are unbeatable. And a special shout-out to lauramcewan who commented on every single part.
I should also give a mention to the many people - particularly on Tumblr - whose blog posts and reblogs of others’ blog posts, screencaps and gifs alerted me to so much extra detail that I hadn’t noticed and which hopefully helped to enrich the transcripts.
I know that a frighteningly large number of people despised one or more of these Season 4 episodes. I even understand why they did. Despite going through each moment with a fine-toothed comb, I’m still not sure what I make of them myself. I particularly think that making Culverton Smith so horrifically similar to a real-life British monster was a huge mistake and was the main reason why the general British viewing public abandoned the show in droves after that. And that, for me, is a tragedy because the cinematography in that episode was sensational and Nick Hurran is a genius. It’s so sad that his second episode for the show will never be looked back at fondly.
But I believe in Sherlock. I’ve loved this series since the day that A Study in Pink aired, and without fail I have watched at least fifteen minutes of the series every weekday since the day after that episode was shown, starting each day from where I left off the day before. Nothing about this latest series has changed my mind about that and I’ll continue watching all four seasons for the foreseeable future. In my opinion - and YMMV - it’s the best British drama series that’s ever been made, and I’m so grateful to everyone who was involved with the making of it. I’m also eternally grateful to this wonderful show for bringing me lifelong friends who I would never have met any other way, several of whom I meet in person whenever possible.
Keep the faith, Sherlock fans.
Love and hugs
Ariane xx
A full list of episode transcripts, DVD commentary summaries/transcripts, and transcripts of the DVD special features can be found here.
Direct links to episode transcripts:
A Study in Pink (pilot) / A Study in Pink (broadcast) / The Blind Banker / The Great Game
A Scandal in Belgravia / The Hounds of Baskerville / The Reichenbach Fall
Many Happy Returns / The Empty Hearse / The Sign of Three / His Last Vow
The Abominable Bride
The Six Thatchers / The Lying Detective / The Final Problem
Or, to download the Episode Transcripts in Word or PDF, click here.