Sherlock: His Last Vow - Review
Spoilers? Of course there are!
Sherlock has to fight against his most powerful enemy, Charles Augustus Magnussen, the owner of different newspapers and an expert at blackmailing. He had numerous meetings with the Prime Minister and, after he blackmails one of the members of the inquiry board, he starts being investigated by Sherlock Holmes, who has been missing for one month and reappears at a drug house saying he was "undercover". Once John finds him there, he discovers something no one could have ever expected, Sherlock has a girlfriend. The lucky woman is Janine and, while no one could understand that change of thinking in the detective (even John Watson doesn't know what to think), we feel better once we discover Janine is Magnussen personal assistant and it was just a way to get to his personal office. But everything turns upside down when Sherlock sees a person trying to kill the "Napoleon of Blackmail" and that murderer is no one but John's new wife, Mary Watson. At that moment, Mary threatens Sherlock to shoot him but he says that would never happen but then she shoots him without thinking twice...while we see Sherlock trying to stay calm inside his mind palace and think how to survive, he's being taken to a hospital by John.
After all this happens, Sherlock shows John what Mary really, he doesn't know what to think or do and, while Sherlock is still hurt after the gunshoot, they discuss on what to do next and try to forgive her.
Once John decides to forgive her and keep on the live they have, Sherlock sees that the only way to make them have a safe life is to talk with Magnussen and trade secret information from the country in exchange of Mary's secret past, that doesn't go quite well as the detective does a wrong deduction in front of him claiming his glasses were a small computer where he could see everybody's historial but that was not true.
Then the ending comes, Sherlock brings Mycroft computer to Magnussen's house for the exchange but we discover there's no secret room for all his knowledge, everything he knows about people is in his head, in his mind palace (the same technique Sherlock uses all the time). The blackmailer then reveals they will be arrested as they tried to sell him secret information from the country and nothing will happen to him as he doesn't have any proves against him (everything is in his head). The police comes to arrest them but Sherlock doesn't know what to do, tries to thing in different options but there's only one thing he can do to solve that problem: Sherlock takes John's gun and shoots Magnussen in the head in front of all the policemen and his own brother.
Mycroft knows he did that for a reason and helps him hidding Sherlock far away from London...or that was the plan as after Sherlock and John say good-bye to each other, a familiar face comes in all TV's of the city...Jim Moriarty appears saying "Miss Me?".
Now, this is the best episode from this season and the darkest one from all series, we see here a different Sherlock, played perfectly by Benedict Cumberbatch as always, who plays with some else's feelings and who doesn't have a plan as everything that happens to him in this episode is unexpected, being shoot my Mary and discovering Magnussen's secret. But I must admit the one who shines in "His Last Vow" is Martin Freeman as John Watson, don't get me wrong, he has done an excellet job always but he shines even more in this episode as he has to face the fact Mary was an assassin and his feelings of missing his past dangerous life (like in the first episode of the series, "Study in Pink).
Magnussen is the most disgusting character ever created in Sherlock's universe, he's being played perfectly by Lars Mikkelsen, he's a great match to Sherlock and a great enemy that you'll hate the way he acts. The only bad thing about his character is that he doesn't appear as much as I wanted to, he has a great story and I 'd love to see more of his past life.
Then there's the "small" secret of Mary Watson, played by Martin Freeman's real wife Amanda Abbington...I never trusted her character since her first appaerance at "The Empty Hearse" so that small twist wasn't a surprise to me but it was the part when she shoots the detective.
The plot is quite interesting, it has no mysterious case at all but it's more about learning about Magnussen and how he does what he does, we also a new way to see Sherlock and Mycroft's real relationship as you will see how the older brother of the family cares more than ever about his younger. The reveal of Mary and John's reaction is put together very good and, as I said before, Freeman shines in that scene.
The ending was great, to see Magnussen "playing" with John's face and Holmes with no clue on what to do until he decides to end the man's life in front of everyone, it was the climax scene! And once you see everything ends, someone from the past appears again with an instant classic line "Miss me?" by Moriarty. It seems like Jim didn't kill himself after all OR he prepared a few things, some crimes and a few videos before he really died...we'll have to wait for next season!
· What I liked was just everything, from start until end, perfect episode!
· What I didn't like was the way they used Magnussen, he didn't have that much screentime and he was a very interesting character, they could have appeared in another episode...it seems like they wanted to get rid of this character too fast.
1. The Empty Hearse (9.0)
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| Magnussen and Sherlock use the same mind techniques for their own purposes |
Sherlock has to fight against his most powerful enemy, Charles Augustus Magnussen, the owner of different newspapers and an expert at blackmailing. He had numerous meetings with the Prime Minister and, after he blackmails one of the members of the inquiry board, he starts being investigated by Sherlock Holmes, who has been missing for one month and reappears at a drug house saying he was "undercover". Once John finds him there, he discovers something no one could have ever expected, Sherlock has a girlfriend. The lucky woman is Janine and, while no one could understand that change of thinking in the detective (even John Watson doesn't know what to think), we feel better once we discover Janine is Magnussen personal assistant and it was just a way to get to his personal office. But everything turns upside down when Sherlock sees a person trying to kill the "Napoleon of Blackmail" and that murderer is no one but John's new wife, Mary Watson. At that moment, Mary threatens Sherlock to shoot him but he says that would never happen but then she shoots him without thinking twice...while we see Sherlock trying to stay calm inside his mind palace and think how to survive, he's being taken to a hospital by John.
After all this happens, Sherlock shows John what Mary really, he doesn't know what to think or do and, while Sherlock is still hurt after the gunshoot, they discuss on what to do next and try to forgive her.
Once John decides to forgive her and keep on the live they have, Sherlock sees that the only way to make them have a safe life is to talk with Magnussen and trade secret information from the country in exchange of Mary's secret past, that doesn't go quite well as the detective does a wrong deduction in front of him claiming his glasses were a small computer where he could see everybody's historial but that was not true.
Then the ending comes, Sherlock brings Mycroft computer to Magnussen's house for the exchange but we discover there's no secret room for all his knowledge, everything he knows about people is in his head, in his mind palace (the same technique Sherlock uses all the time). The blackmailer then reveals they will be arrested as they tried to sell him secret information from the country and nothing will happen to him as he doesn't have any proves against him (everything is in his head). The police comes to arrest them but Sherlock doesn't know what to do, tries to thing in different options but there's only one thing he can do to solve that problem: Sherlock takes John's gun and shoots Magnussen in the head in front of all the policemen and his own brother.
Mycroft knows he did that for a reason and helps him hidding Sherlock far away from London...or that was the plan as after Sherlock and John say good-bye to each other, a familiar face comes in all TV's of the city...Jim Moriarty appears saying "Miss Me?".
 |
| The ending was amazing, better than first season, still not a match for the amazing cliffhanger of season 2! |
Now, this is the best episode from this season and the darkest one from all series, we see here a different Sherlock, played perfectly by Benedict Cumberbatch as always, who plays with some else's feelings and who doesn't have a plan as everything that happens to him in this episode is unexpected, being shoot my Mary and discovering Magnussen's secret. But I must admit the one who shines in "His Last Vow" is Martin Freeman as John Watson, don't get me wrong, he has done an excellet job always but he shines even more in this episode as he has to face the fact Mary was an assassin and his feelings of missing his past dangerous life (like in the first episode of the series, "Study in Pink).
Magnussen is the most disgusting character ever created in Sherlock's universe, he's being played perfectly by Lars Mikkelsen, he's a great match to Sherlock and a great enemy that you'll hate the way he acts. The only bad thing about his character is that he doesn't appear as much as I wanted to, he has a great story and I 'd love to see more of his past life.
Then there's the "small" secret of Mary Watson, played by Martin Freeman's real wife Amanda Abbington...I never trusted her character since her first appaerance at "The Empty Hearse" so that small twist wasn't a surprise to me but it was the part when she shoots the detective.
The plot is quite interesting, it has no mysterious case at all but it's more about learning about Magnussen and how he does what he does, we also a new way to see Sherlock and Mycroft's real relationship as you will see how the older brother of the family cares more than ever about his younger. The reveal of Mary and John's reaction is put together very good and, as I said before, Freeman shines in that scene.
The ending was great, to see Magnussen "playing" with John's face and Holmes with no clue on what to do until he decides to end the man's life in front of everyone, it was the climax scene! And once you see everything ends, someone from the past appears again with an instant classic line "Miss me?" by Moriarty. It seems like Jim didn't kill himself after all OR he prepared a few things, some crimes and a few videos before he really died...we'll have to wait for next season!
· What I liked was just everything, from start until end, perfect episode!
· What I didn't like was the way they used Magnussen, he didn't have that much screentime and he was a very interesting character, they could have appeared in another episode...it seems like they wanted to get rid of this character too fast.
9.8
:: Sherlock - Season 3 ::
1. The Empty Hearse (9.0)
2. The Sign of Three (9.2)
3. His Last Vow (9.8)
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| It seems like Season 4 will be Moriarty's comeback! |