Sherlock Recap: “The Great Game”

by Kimmie Chameleon:

Sherlock Recap: “The Great Game”
Original Air Date (BBC One): August 8, 2010
Series 1 Episode 3

Bored!

It seems as though Sherlock is becoming increasingly bored with the lack of challenging cases. (Oh you criminals need to be more creative!) After a quick trip to Minsk, Belarus to see whether or not he would accept a new case, Sherlock turns it down and returns home. John is irritated by Sherlock’s boredom because not only does it cause Sherlock to shoot bullets for no reason into their walls, but also allows for random objects to be collected and studied by Sherlock…namely, a severed human head stored in their refrigerator. John has tolerated about all he can handle after Sherlock confronts him about portraying him as being ignorant on simple things such as the Earth’s rotation. Sherlock dismisses such elementary things as being unimportant. The only thing that matters is his work. John is completely insulted and storms off. To the forever curious landlady Mrs. Hudson, the two are having a domestic squabble… and truly they are. Sherlock is just bored and grumpy.  Just as everything is a bit too quiet for Sherlock, a huge explosion occurs across the street from his flat. John finds out about the explosion the next day while watching the news at his girlfriend’s house. John returns home and finds a flippant Sherlock refusing to accept an intriguing case from his brother, Mycroft. As soon as Mycroft leaves, Sherlock receives a phone call from DI Lestrade. Sherlock proclaims he has been summoned, and invites John to join him.

Holmes and Watson arrive at Scotland Yard and are briefed by DI Lestrade about the gas leak explosion across the street from their flat. It was no accident and was firmly intended to catch Sherlock’s attention. The only salvageable item was a strongbox that held an envelope addressed to Sherlock. Holmes carefully analyzes the envelope, noting that it was written by a woman on paper from the Czech Republic. Inside he finds a cell phone that looks the same as the pink cell phone from the “A Study in Pink”case. The phone is new but has a voicemail. Sherlock listens and hears 5 pips and then sees a photo on the phone of an empty room. Sherlock explains to John and DI Lestrade that pips used to be used by secret societies to send messages. He also tells them that he recognizes the room in the photo.

Sherlock leads the investigating team back to 221C Baker St. It is an unrented flat just below Sherlock and John’s flat. This is the room in the photo that was on the cell phone. The empty room only has a pair of sneakers in it. The pink cell phone rings and Sherlock answers it. A sobbing woman on the other end is reading a message to Sherlock. She is being coerced into telling him that he has 12 hours to solve the puzzle of this case, or the bomb that is strapped to her body will detonate.

Sherlock studies the sneakers at the lab. The ever relentless flirt, Molly, introduces her new boyfriend to Sherlock. His name is Jim and he is a new IT employee. Jim is transfixed on Sherlock and proclaims how he is impressed with everything he has heard from Molly about Sherlock. As soon as Jim is out of the room, Sherlock informs Molly that Jim is gay and proves his point with deduction. Molly storms out and John has to remind Sherlock that people have feelings. Sherlock deduces that the sneakers were cherished shoes worn by a young owner that had eczema. Suddenly it hits Sherlock that the sneakers belonged to Carl Powers, a young lad that drowned over 20 years ago while swimming.

Wrong Side of the Tracks

Sherlock refuses to answer any of the messages that Mycroft has been sending. John is curious about the case so Sherlock suggests that he go see Mycroft himself. John meets up with Mycroft and learns that a civil servant named Andrew West was found on the Battersea railroad tracks dead with his head bashed in. Andrew had been a part of the Bruce Partington plan which is part of a highly classified missile defense system and had a memory stick containing a copy of the secret plans on him the night he died. The memory stick is missing and this could prove dangerous in the wrong hands. Mycroft wants them to solve how West got to Battersea and wound up dead on the tracks.

Back at home, Sherlock solves the Carl Powers case with 3 hours to spare. He quickly posts on his website that Carl Powers had been poisoned by someone that injected a deadly substance in his eczema medication and this is why he had a fit in the pool which caused him to drown. DI Lestrade calls in Holmes and Watson to Scotland Yard and informs them that the hostage has been recovered and is now safe. The pink cell phone rings again but this time the sound of 4 pips chime and a photo of an abandoned car is shown. Sherlock also receives a call at the station from a new hostage that instructs Sherlock to solve this next case in 8 hours or he will explode the guy.

DI Lestrade is able to trace the abandoned car. Upon investigation, they discover that this car has been rented by Ian Monkford who is nowhere to be found, but the interior of the car has his blood splattered in it. Ian Monkford’s wife is at the scene and is questioned by Sherlock. He suspects something fishy about her answers. John and Sherlock now head to the car rental agency and question the owner. Sherlock works his deduction powers and concludes that the owner is lying. The guys make their way to lab and Sherlock learns that the blood that was found in the rental car is in fact, Ian’s. Sherlock also observes that the amount of blood that was splattered in the car was probably exactly a pint and that the blood had previously been frozen. Sherlock concludes that Ian hired the owner of the car rental agency to help him fake his suspicious disappearance so that Ian’s wife could collect from his insurance policy and relocate to where the car agency owner relocated Ian. Ian’s wife would pay the car agency owner half of the policy money. Sherlock points out that Ian is in Columbia because he saw that the car agency owner had Columbian money in his wallet. Sherlock is overly pleased by solving this riddle and the hostage is safely released.

Queen Prince

John and Sherlock grab a bite to eat at a diner. John asks Sherlock if he thinks the bomber is Moriarty and Sherlock believes that it might be. The pink cell phone chimes in 3 pips and reveals a photo of a woman that Sherlock does not recognize. Sherlock then receives a phone call from the latest hostage who reveals that she is blind and that he has 12 hours to solve this case. John immediately recognizes the lady displayed in the cell phone picture as being Connie Prince, a famous T.V. makeover Queen. John flips on the telly in the diner and sees that Connie Prince has died.

Sherlock and John are now at the morgue to examine Connie Prince’s body. It has been determined that Connie cut her hand while gardening and died of tetanus. Sherlock does not agree with this and points out to John that the cut in Connie’s hand is fresh and occurred after her death. Sherlock sends John to go investigate at Connie’s house. John believes that he has solved the case himself and asks Sherlock to assist him at the house. John has concluded that Connie’s brother, Kenny, killed Connie by delivering the tetanus bacteria with his cat’s claws because he could smell disinfectant on the cat. As they leave, Sherlock informs John that he is wrong.

Watson and Holmes arrived at Scotland Yard and Sherlock explains to DI Lestrade that Connie died of a Botox overdose. Connie had hired her brother’s lover, Raoul, to regularly inject her with Botox. Raoul had become increasingly irritated with Connie’s incessant humiliation of Kenny on T.V.so he stockpiled Botox and administered a lethal dose as revenge. Sherlock admits that he solved this riddle earlier but used his extra time trying to figure out who the bomber is. Sherlock posts the answer to the case online and receives a call from the blind hostage. The hostage begins to describe the bomber’s voice, so the bomber detonates the bomb in response. Sherlock is now convinced that the bomber must arrange these crimes like the disappearance of Ian and Connie Prince’s untimely death.

The Golem 

Two pips now sound in Sherlock’s ear as he answers the pink cell phone. A photo of the Thames presents itself and Holmes quickly figures out where exactly the picture was snapped. Sure enough, a dead body is found on the shore. Sherlock is perplexed as to why he has not received a phone call from another hostage. Giving the body a once over, Sherlock proclaims that the man was a security guard working at an art gallery by an infamous assassin named Golem, who was hired to kill this guard after he discovered that a Vermeer painting was a fake. To back up these claims, Sherlock confronts the owner of the Vermeer painting, a Czech woman named Wenceslas. She vehemently denies that the painting is a fake. Sherlock receives a phone call from a child hostage. The bomber wants Sherlock to prove in 10 seconds that the painting is a fake. With no time to spare, Sherlock realizes that the painting displays the Van Buren supernova on it, and that supernova didn’t happen until 200 hundred years after the original work was painted. Wenceslas now admits to the fraud and also divulges the name of her contact is Moriarty. Sherlock gloats in his mere existence.

John decides to do some footwork on the Battersea case that Mycroft inquired about. He studies the railroad tracks and doesn’t believe that the victim, West, committed suicide. Sherlock shows up and gives John his 2 cents about the case. Holmes believes that West was killed somewhere else and was dumped there. They want to now question West’s future brother-in-law, Joe. After confronting Joe about West, he finally admits that he stole the memory stick because he knew it was valuable and needed money. He explains that when West confronted him about it they got into a scuffle and West fell down the stairs and smashed his head in. It was all an accident. Joe threw West’s body on top of a train, so the body must’ve slipped off in Battersea. Joe gives the memory stick to Holmes and Watson.

Back at home at 221B Baker St., Sherlock informs John that he returned the memory stick to Mycroft. Once John leave to go visit his girlfriend, Sherlock jumps on his computer and posts the evidence of the Bruce Parington case onto to his website. He tells the bomber to meet him at the pool.

Pool Party!

Sherlock arrives at the pool and announces to Moriarty that he has the memory stick. To his surprise, John walks out draped head to toe in explosives. Moriarty now reveals himself. It is Jim, the IT guy that was dating Molly. Moriarty takes great pleasure in mocking Sherlock and compliments his efforts on trying to capture him. Moriarty admits that he is a consulting criminal, quite the opposite of Sherlock who is a consulting detective. Moriarty warns Sherlock that he needs to back off from chasing and solving his crimes. Sherlock has no choice but to let Moriarty go or else John will be blown to bits. Moriarty walks away and Sherlock rips the bombs off of John. Just as all seems safe, Moriarty shows back up laughing and tells them that he has changed his mind…John and Sherlock must die. Sherlock picks up a gun and first aims it at Moriarty, and then at the explosives. We leave off with an intense moment wondering if Sherlock will obliterate them all with one shot to the bombs.

Quotable Quotes:

John to Sherlock: “What the hell are you doing?”
Sherlock to John: “Bored.”
John to Sherlock: “What?”
Sherlock to John: “Bored! Bored! I don’t know what’s got into the criminal classes. Good job I’m not one of them.”
John to Sherlock: “So you take it out on the wall?”
Sherlock to John: “Ahh…the wall had it coming.” 

John to Sherlock: “I’m starving. Do we have anything in?…(Opens refrigerator and sees a severed head.)  A severed head.”
Sherlock to John: “Just tea for me. Thanks.”
John to Sherlock: “No, there is a severed head in the fridge.”
Sherlock to John: “Yes.”
John to Sherlock: “A bloody head!”
Sherlock to John: “Where else was I supposed to put it? You don’t mind do you?” 

Sherlock to Mrs. Hudson: “Look at that, Mrs. Hudson. Quiet. Calm. Peaceful. Isn’t it hateful?”

Moriarty to Sherlock: “If you don’t stop prying, I’ll burn you. I’ll burn the heart out of you.”
Holmes to Moriarty: “I have been reliably informed that I don’t have one.”
Moriarty to Sherlock: “But we both know that’s not quite true.” 

John to Sherlock: “I’m glad no-one saw that.”
Sherlock to John: “Hmm?”
John to Sherlock: “You ripping my clothes off in a darkened swimming pool. People might talk.”
Sherlock to John: “They do little else.” 

Sherlock to John: “Don’t make people into heroes John. Heroes don’t exist and if they did I wouldn’t be one of them.”

John to Sherlock: “Why is he doing this then? Playing this game with you. Do you think he wants to be caught?”
Sherlock to John: “I think he wants to be distracted.”
John to Sherlock: “Oh, you’ll be very happy together.”

Sherlock to John: “Don’t make people into heroes.”