Prepare your shock blankets, Sherlock fans. BBC One just revealed the title for the final episode of Series 3: “His Last Vow.”
The announcement did not fail to live up to the precedent set by Sherlock; it’s mysterious, it’s clever, and it’s just enough to get fans excited. And as a fan of both the show and the original stories, I have my own ideas as to what this could mean.
(Note: for those who don’t know-and don’t want to know- the contents of the Doyle stories, spoilers lie ahead. Read at your own risk)
We know the episode doesn’t have anything to do with Sherlock re-entering John’s life. Mark Gatiss, co-creator and writer, said he wants to get that over with by the second episode. So what is it? We can look to the contents of the recent Comic-Con panel to get a better idea.
It’s been affirmed that John will be married in the upcoming series. (Sorry, Johnlock fans, Mary Morstan will be the one walking down the aisle). The “wedding” hint for the episode, as well as the novel it’s based on, “The Sign of Four,” where book Watson meets his future wife, were pretty strong hints if you looked for them. But the SDCC Sherlock panel really topped it off: Steven Moffat himself confirmed it to an audience of 5,000 fans, and showed a clip from the series that proved it beyond any fans doubt.
All in all, it’s been a pretty obvious route. But then we get this game-changer: “His Last Vow.” Now, this could mean a variety of things, but I’ve been to enough weddings to connect the dots-and to remember the last of the wedding vows. “’til death do us part”.
Ooh. Not good.
Even more not good is this: in the canon, many of the references to John’s married life surround him and his second wife. Which would that be? Oh right, the one he marries after Mary Morstan dies.
But how would this fit in with the rest of the episode? We know Steven Moffat penned the script for “His Last Vow.” Of the three Sherlock writers, he has stuck the closest to the original stories, so that could give some hints. “His Last Bow” is the last mystery Holmes solves before he goes into retirement. But we know that’s not the case for the show; the cast is being optioned for a fourth series. And that’s not the only incongruity from page to screen. At the point where “His Last Bow” falls in the canon, Dr. Watson has already remarried. There’s going to be more than a little tweaking on this one.
Alas, the story itself doesn’t offer much, so the only things to go on here are some hints from Moffat. He had this to say regarding the end of the series: “We’ve got a climax to the next series that will have people just as frustrated as they ever were.” and “You’ll be watching the end of the last episode thinking, ‘They wouldn’t stop it there?! Oh my God, they wouldn’t stop it there?!’”
Remember, “The Great Game” wasn’t finished until “A Scandal in Belgravia” aired, and we still haven’t wrapped up the infuriating loose ends of “The Reichenbach Fall.” Will this be a similar case? Will Moffat break the trend of sticking to the stories and surprise us all? And if Mary does die, how will Sherlock and John react?
This raises many more questions than it answers (speculate in the comments!). And while there’s not much that’s definite, I have this to say for sure. If Morstan dies, given Martin Freemans performance in “The Reichenbach Fall” (not to mention the fact that she will likely be played by Amanda Abbington, his real-life partner), I can predict with confidence that whatever happens, the end of series three will be just as frustrating as the last.