REVIEW: Sherlock, Series 3 Episode Four 'The Abominable Bride'

 REVIEW: Sherlock, Series 3 Episode Four 'The Abominable Bride'

Ever since Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss started Sherlock, you'd imagine the temptation was there to make an episode set in Victorian times. Sherlock Holmes, after all, was written by Arthur Conan Doyle in the 1800s, and therefore is very rarely a modern day story. It makes a one-off Victorian episode such an obvious thing to do, as a way to pay tribute to what came before.

This episode, set in 1895, does not disappoint. It really plays fast and loose with the Victorian era gimmick, with its impressive attention to detail. Instead of cars, we have horse and carriages. Instead of taxis, we have steam trains. More importantly, the episode goes to great lengths to recreate how John Watson (Martin Freeman) initially met Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch), showing how in this version he returned from fighting in the second Afghan war rather than the Afghanistan war of the 2010s. Both Sherlock and Watson's looks are more reminiscent of their more traditional counterparts, Sherlock with the short hair and Watson with the moustache. They even recreate the title sequence so it shows Victorian rather than modern injury, which is an incredible effort to go to for the sake of one episode.

The case itself is such an interesting one. It concerns a bride Emelia Ricoletti (Natasha O'Keeffe), who supposedly committed suicide only to seemingly return from the dead and kill her husband Thomas (Gerald Kyd). A string of other male victims follow, all people who claim to have seen Emelia's ghost. Only Sherlock doesn't believe in ghosts. In some respects, this story reminds me of 'The Hounds Of Baskerville', in that it constantly teases a supernatural connection, even though we know that there will be a rational explanation.  It allows for some striking imagery, such as Emelia stalking her victims through a maze, or popping up out of a coffin to grab Sherlock, and it helps to create this really chilling atmosphere. 

There's some brilliant postmodern gags here too. Mrs Hudson's (Una Stubbs) complaints to John that she never gets much to do, for instance, and that she seems to only be there to serve the tea, are very funny, because we as viewers know that it's what her basic function in the stories amounts to majority of the time. As is John ordering Sherlock to wear the dear-stalker precisely because he's Sherlock Holmes, a direct in-joke at the dear-stalker being synonymous as Sherlock's iconic look. 

Probably the funniest part of the entire episode, however, is Mycroft's (Mark Gatiss) appearance in the Victorian world. In the Victorian version, Mycroft is a fat slob eating himself to death just for the thrill of living on the edge of danger, and it just looks so wrong seeing Mark Gatiss with this ridiculously gigantic stomach. It's the equivalent of Fat Thor in Avengers Endgame; you just can't help but laugh at the absurdity of it.

Sherlock is approached by a client, Lady Carmichael (Catherine McCormack), who believes the bride is going to kill her husband Eustace (Tim McInnerny), and wants Sherlock to prevent his murder. Sherlock fails and Eustace dies, and we see how much this affects Sherlock on an emotional level. He seems to view this as a sign of failure, blaming both himself and Watson for messing up the case, and it's a great showing of Sherlock's vulnerabilities. He's essentially a showman who always has to be right - not dissimilar from the Doctor in that respect - and so when he's wrong it frustrates him. 

The resolution of the case is extremely clever. It ties into the idea of women's rights, and the sexist attitudes prevalent in the time period, as Sherlock, Watson and Mary (Amanda Abbington) expose a cult of women dedicated to taking down the men who wrong them in Emelia's name. Emelia survived her initial suicide, but her only actual murder was her husband's, after which she killed herself for real. Similarly, Lady Carmichael murdered her husband, despite bringing Sherlock and Watson on the case to protect him. It's a neat way to continue the theme present throughout the episode of women being neglected purely to the duties of maids, and gives it a pay-off that's ultimately very satisfying.

I also really like the way it links into the Present-Day Sherlock, with Sherlock still on the plane. The entire episode takes place within the confines of Sherlock's mind palace, and the clues peppered throughout that this is the case are so very well done. There's hints at everything from Sherlock using phrases that wouldn't have been common in the time period to references to 'data' and 'viruses' (which of course wouldn't have been words spoken aloud in the Victorian era either). Characters such as John Watson and Moriarty (Andrew Scott) even become self-aware that they are inside Sherlock's mind, which is really quite a genius method of forcing Sherlock into seeing that this world isn't real. But then there's the glorious hint at the end that it's actually the Victorian Sherlock that is the 'real' world, as Sherlock tells Watson that he dreamed of being on a 'flying machine'. It's all very Inception, and a little similar to Steven Moffat's Doctor Who episode 'Last Christmas', but it works so well.

Overall, 'The Abominable Bride' is without a doubt one of Sherlock's best episodes. It has a unique and vivid style that sets it apart immediately from the other episodes within this series, whilst offering some really strong imagery and some hilarious pieces of self-referential comedy. The Abominable Bride is quite simply enormous fun, and it's a shame that it remains to date the only episode of Sherlock to date to explore what the series would be like in a Victorian setting.

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What are your thoughts on the third episode of The Abominable Bride? Let me know in the comments.