Why did John start texting the woman on the bus? Now we know. The woozy opening, meanwhile, establishes a neat theme of confession being good for the soul, which not only makes for a tight piece of storytelling, but also allows us to have exactly the conversations that were missing last week. The direction matches him every step, using the old trick of text on the screen to illustrate his mental process, but never over-station or intruding upon the story – a slow-motion handbag throw to judge its contents adds weight to both his wits and his smack habit. It’s just enough to keep him in that limbo of being either a genius or a genuine mess – by the time the tension is dripping into your bloodstream in the finale, you genuinely aren’t sure who’s turning the tables on whom. It’s a masterstroke that gives us the most astutely written episode of Sherlock since Season 2, one that sees Sherlock jump to a deduction, then spends the next 90 minutes waiting to see if it’s true or not.Ĭumberbatch is marvellous, managing to do a convincing job of pretending to be out of it on drugs – and even reciting Henry V at full tilt, while destroying a room. Crucially, that balance extends to the main narrative too: The Six Thatchers was so concerned with tying up character cliffhangers that it didn’t have the kind of mystery we could puzzle over, but The Lying Detective makes Smith’s character the conundrum. Where The Six Thatchers was unbalanced in its abundance of Mary and deficit of John (his sort-of affair jarred partly because there was no time taken to explain it or build up to it), The Lying Detective has the balance just right: after her death last episode, Mary haunts John, while he and Sherlock grudgingly begin down the awkward path to reunion. Steven Moffat takes over writing duties from Mark Gatiss this episode and runs with it in the best possible way.
Could he really be up to his elbows in murder pie too? “A cereal killer!” He has his fingers in any number of pies, we discover, from entrepreneurial start-ups to charity work. Smith, a rich, self-made businessman, responds in kind: “I’m a killer!” he confesses to the camera with a grin. Here, he dives into the role of Smith with horrifying relish, as Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) accuses him of being a killer.
One of Britain’s best actors working today, Jones has always been able to inhabit any character thrown at him. That smug satisfaction was embodied by the series’ best villain yet: Culverton Smith, brought hideously to life by Toby Jones. How’s about that then? If that’s what the opening episode of Sherlock Season 4 seemed to be saying, as it wrapped up one of its weakest subplots, Episode 2 says it in an entirely different way.
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