Episode one of season 4 was The Six Thatchers (TST). A bit of an odd episode; a much different style compared to the rest of the show. And generally had some fishy stuff. The second episode, The Lying Detective (TLD), was amazing. It was back to the traditional Sherlock we know and have come to love. And left us on a big cliff hanger, as the writers are fond of doing. And then this past Sunday was the season finale: The Final Problem (TFP). There have been some rumours that this season would be the last season*, and the episode title seemed to echo that.
Going into this episode, I was expecting a lot. There were a lot of loose ends that needed to be tied up, and they only had 90mins to do it in. The people on tumblr have created countless theories explaining what we've seen so far, why TST was so wacky, and what they predicted would happen in TFP. It's amazing what these people come up with, but it's also an identifying factor of the fans, and the writers know that. One theory stood out from all the rest, and proposed that TFP would tell us something along the lines that TST and TLD never happened, they were a dream/result of drugged/other altered mind state/unreliable narrator.
I go to turn the TV on at 8:55pm, ready for the 9pm airing of TFP, only to find that for this episode, the show got a 'special time slot' and had actually aired at 7pm. I was crushed. I had so many questions that needed answers and now I wouldn't get them. Luckily, after some hunting I discovered that PBS had already posted the episode online. So I was still able to watch the episode (thank goodness).
The episode starts, and immediately we're off. I was sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time. I didn't know I could hold my breath for 90mins, but apparently I can. TFP is go-go-go throughout the entire episode. We're racing through this mystery that seems to never end and suddenly I think to myself, "they're running out of time. There's so much they need to go over still and they only have so much time left." I hardly give it a second thought, lest I miss something important. (You literally need to give Sherlock your undivided attention because it's definitely a blink-and-you'll-miss-one-line-that-the-rest-of-the-episode-rides-on situation).
The mystery ends, we're given a montage of life after the mystery, and the credits role. Immediately I'm furious. Absolutely none of my questions were answered. None of the theories the fans came up with were true (there have been some disturbingly accurate theories created before, so I've learned to take them just a bit seriously). The episode didn't even mention half the things we (the fans) were expecting it to. I'd even go so far as to say that TFP contradicts some of the previous episodes. And above all else, TFP was the most atypical episode of Sherlock that has ever been created. We thought TST was off; TFP was never 'on' to begin with. Not that I've seen these movies, but people are comparing it to Saw and James Bond.
I immediately go to tumblr to see what the fans are thinking. As expected, there is outrage, disappointment, even hate for the writers for ruining the show. But what I did not expect was a split: half the fans were against the episode and the other half loved it. They couldn't stop singing its praises! (There was also a small number of people, myself included, who wondered what this would do to the fandom, if we were so split over this episode). After some time went by, I began to see where the other side was coming from. It was a good episode: never before had I been so captivated by a single episode before; it was exciting and got my pulse racing; I felt the pain of the characters. The actors did a lovely job. But it still didn't feel right. It completely disregarded everything we had been shown up until this point. One fan put it beautifully:
Great story, wrong place and time.
Wow, I've rambled on and haven't even got to the main point yet. But what good story doesn't have a backstory? Here's my main point:
fans think there's another episode.
Wild, right? I thought, you're off your rocker. You just want to try and justify this mess of an episode by thinking there will magically be another episode to explain everything. There can't possibly be another episode. But over the past two days (TWO DAYS - Sherlock fans never cease to amaze me in how fast they can come up with things), the fans on tumblr have gathered enough tidbits and facts to make me think, there might actually be a secret episode! Now I'm not one to get my hopes up easily regarding things I'm invested in so much, but they have a compelling case:
To start, before any of season 4 aired, the writers said "If we pull this off, we'll make television history." "It's kind of groundbreaking, they've done something that's never been done before." "Love conquers all." And, if you happened to skip everything I've written up until this point, TFP was certainly not groundbreaking and it was most definitely not something that's never been done before. And in some people's opinions, love decidedly did not conquer all. This is their jumping point: all of these quotes make a lot more sense with a secret episode than with what we watched on Sunday.
The remaining points can be summed up as such:
- they raved about some music written for the show and we haven't heard it yet
- a mysterious deleted tweet from writer of said music
- the DVD isn't being released until the end of January (why wait unless there was something else coming?)
- TFP took twice as long to shoot as other episodes
- numerous scenes that were shot and we haven't seen yet
- they talk about 'the lost special' offhand sometimes
- a promo picture was leaked prematurely and was very quietly and seriously taken care of, but the ENTIRE EPISODE of TFP is leaked early and they tweet and write news articles about it and make no action to take them down
And perhaps my favourite point of all, in TLD Sherlock says, and I quote, "Must be something comforting about the number three. People always give up after three..."
The writers have been known to lie in order to keep Sherlock secrets, so I'm not even going to mention them denying another episode.
Now up until this point I was still skeptical. Yes, there's lots of things that could point to a fourth episode. But I've found that if you're grasping at straws, you'll tell yourself you've found what you are looking for. But then this happened:
There are reportedly 3 separate TV provider websites that have a fourth episode listed (I say reportedly because I only actually looked at one to check). 'Why not check the cable listings then?', you may be thinking, 'Surely that will give you your answer'. As always, the fans have thought of this. And this is what they found:
In Sherlock's supposed time slot, there is a new series called Apple Tree Yard (ATY) airing. Most people would have stopped there and said, 'ah well that settles it. No secret episode'. But Sherlock fans are not most people. I did a little digging myself even, and this is what I found. There is a trailer on youtube (only posted a couple of weeks ago...) for ATY with legitimate actors and storyline. It has an imdb page. It doesn't have a ton of information on it, but there's a list of cast and crew. It has a storyline, as all imdb entries do, but this one was written by BBC Media, whereas most summaries on imdb are written by users. Thus begins the fake show cover up theory.
It seems a little extravagant to make up an entire TV series to keep a secret. But as I said before, the writers are known for lying to keep Sherlock secrets. I was getting a little skeptical due to the amount of information I was finding about ATY. However, I bring you my biggest supporting point: if you google the actors in ATY, nothing pops up about them being in ATY, or even being in a new TV show. And it's not like these are nobody actors. Emily Watson is one of them, who is a well known actor, having been in The Theory of Everything and War Horse, among many others. Wouldn't news sites be writing about a new project staring such a big actress? Surely there would be at least one google result that talked about the upcoming ATY show airing in less than a week. (Some people have also gone so far as to mention that a apple tree wall decal shown in TST indicates that ATY is fake, because the writers love those kinds of connections).
One last point (I promise). TFP didn't end on a cliff hanger. Every single season finale of Sherlock ends on a cliffhanger. Some say this supports the idea that there won't be any more Sherlock. I'm adding it to the list of things that makes TFP abnormal.
I don't know what to think. I know what I want to think. I also don't want to be crushed come Sunday evening. If there is another episode, that would truly be groundbreaking and television history, as they've been saying.
I'll get back to you on Monday. Regardless of what happens, I will surely have lots of feelings to tell you about.
*This may or may not be true. As you may or may not know, Sherlock has a sporadic production schedule and is infamous for its notoriously long waits between seasons. This is primarily due to the fact that Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman have hit the big screen and just don't have the time to film Sherlock anymore. However, the entire cast and crew enjoys the show, enjoys making the show, and wants it to continue. It is just a tad difficult to make it happen. The writers have said nothing about season 5, other than the fact that they'd like for it to happen.
