History Recap / SherlockS01E03TheGreatGame

The third episode of the first series of Sherlock. The episode starts in Belarus, with Sherlock declining a case from a grammatically-challenged prisoner. Return to London, and Sherlock is bored. Very bored. So bored that he starts shooting walls which, naturally, John isn't very happy about. John decamps to Sarah's house just before a massive explosion blasts out the windows of 221b.

John returns to the flat to find Mycroft requesting that Sherlock find some missing missile defence plans. Despite having nothing on, Sherlock claims to be busy -- a claim which comes true minutes later when he receives a phone call from Scotland Yard. Turns out that the explosion was a bomb which destroyed the whole house across the road -- all save a strongbox containing a [[Recap/SherlockS01E01AStudyInPink rather familiar phone]]. The phone plays five pips (the sound of the Greenwich Time Signal) before displaying an image of the flat below Sherlock and John's.

In the flat is a pair of shoes, Sherlock's examination of which is interrupted by a phone call from a woman with explosives strapped to her -- or, more accurately, someone using her as a voice to disguise their own. Sherlock has twelve hours to solve the mystery of the shoes before the woman blows up.

Sherlock goes to the lab at Bart's to analyse the mud on the shoes, where he is joined by John and, later, Molly. Molly has brought along her ostentatiously camp new boyfriend, Jim from IT. Sherlock breaks Molly's dreams of romance by informing her, in a typically Sherlocky manner, that her Jim is gay causing her to run from the room. Poor lamb. However, don't let that keep you down for long, as Sherlock solves the case and informs the bomber via blog post. The woman is saved and cut loose, and Sherlock receives another message.

Sherlock solves the problem and another two, along with recovering the missile plans on the side. John goes out to Sarah's place while Sherlock, being Sherlock, decides to arrange a meeting with the mysterious bomber. Of course, it's not all that straightforward -- first it seems that the bomber is John, then that John's been stuck in a bomb. And they're surrounded by snipers.

We finally meet the mysterious Moriarty, who turns out to be Jim from IT. A "consulting criminal" who's spent years solving other people's problems, he's delighted to have found a proper challenge, and couldn't care less about the missile plans. All of this has been for his own amusement, and to show Sherlock exactly what he's capable of. He fully intends to kill Sherlock someday, but doesn't want to end his fun just yet; he's saving that up for something truly special. However, if Sherlock keeps interfering in his affairs, he will do ''worse'' than kill him. "I will burn the HEART out of you."

** At the beginning of the episode, Sherlock is so bored he's using a handgun to shoot holes into the wall to form a smiley face. This is incredibly reckless and dangerous because it would only take one resilient bullet to make it through that wall and hit someone on the other side -- one of the reasons it's against the law to practice shooting in a residential area outside of a shooting range. John is suitably appalled. Not only that but in the commentary for this episode, Creator/BenedictCumberbatch mentioned that he had managed to shoot a hole in the dressing gown that was his costume for that scene.

** Moriarty seems to be putting on a generic English accent in the scene where he meets Sherlock while pretending to be "Jim from I.T.", but then reverts back to Andrew Scott's natural Irish brogue when he reveals himself.[[note]]This was lost on many American viewers because that Irish accent isn't well-known in the US and sounds like a funny mix of American and RP accents. Most of them assumed Scott was trying to do an American accent and failing spectacularly.[[/note]] [[AxCrazy It's hard to understand his motivations.]]

* BystanderSyndrome: At least two of the hostages were visibly crying and frightened in public. If one person stopped to say "Are you okay?", Moriarty's plan wouldn't have worked. Granted, Moriarty being Moriarty means he probably had a failsafe he could implement if this happened.

* ChekhovsNews: A bypass mention of an art display opening on the morning news later becomes a plot point.

* CoincidentalBroadcast: While sitting at a diner Sherlock and John overhear a TV news report about the death of Connie Prince which provides them with another lead in their investigation.

* CrocodileTears: Sherlock is apparently able to cry on cue. He pretends to be a grieved friend when speaking to a victim's wife, purposely getting things wrong about her husband to get her to reveal information by contradicting him. Once he has his information, Sherlock instantly drops the act and wipes away his fake tears as he and John leave.

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: Moriarty is revealed to be Molly's boyfriend Jim, who showed up briefly earlier in the episode. Though this last was guessable, considering "Jim" is a nickname for "James".

* GasLeakCoverUp: Played with, as the explosion that tore through Baker Street in "The Great Game" is initially thought to be a gas leak, but was later discovered to be a bombing made to look like one.

* LaserSight: The visible dots are used to intimidate the hostages and later John and then Sherlock himself. These were also foreshadowed in the dénouement of "The Blind Banker".

** Sherlock, John and Lestrade when the child's voice is first heard over the phone at the art gallery, giving a ten-second countdown. Lestrade and John completely freak out, while trying not to distract Sherlock; Lestrade ends up ''screaming'' at him to just stop dicking around and solve the puzzle, and John is so relieved after that he's actually gasping for breath.
** Sherlock's facial expression when John enters the pool just ''screams'' this trope, in combination with HeroicBSOD. His face shows a slightly more minor one when he sees that John actually has bombs strapped to him.

** Also a rare moment of vulnerability from Sherlock: His panicked "Are you all right? ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?!" to John after his "Catch ... you ... later" swagger to Jim. Followed by him distractedly pacing, and trying to stammer out a thanks to John, while he [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety scratches the back of his head with a loaded gun]].

* RealityIsUnrealistic: It may seem at first like a continuity error. The TV report on Connie Prince's death lists her age as 48, yet in the next scene, when Sherlock, John and Lestrade go to the morgue, Lestrade reads the patient record which says her age is 54. It's actually not unheard of that celebrities will lie about their age. The media reports give the age she was claiming to be, while her medical records show her real age.

* SuspiciouslySpecificTense: At a potential crime scene where a blood-soaked car has been discovered, Sherlock questions a woman as to her husband's supposed state of mind leading up to the presumed suicide. She uses past tense when describing him, something he finds suspicious considering they've only just found the car. John figures that she might have killed him, but Sherlock brushes off the tense as something a murderer would specifically know to get "wrong". Turns out the husband had faked his own death to avoid money troubles; his wife was in on it and spreading the idea that he was deeply depressed.

* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Moriarty, having seemingly left Sherlock and John unharmed following a tense showdown involving explosives and a sniper, returns at the last minute, declaring "I'm so changeable!" as additional snipers reveal themselves. At this, Sherlock aims a handgun at the previously mentioned explosives, before the shot cuts to a BlackScreenOfDeath... Cue a year-long wait for Series 2.

* OrAreYouJustHappyToSeeMe: "''Is that a British Army Browning [=L9A1=] in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?''" [[FoeYay "Both."]]

* YouMakeMeSic: Sherlock is talking to a prisoner and is more annoyed with the man's crimes against good grammar than the murder he committed. At the end the prisoner begs him to help, otherwise he'll get hung. Holmes responds: "No, not at all. Hanged? Yes".

John returns to the flat to find Mycroft requesting that Sherlock find some missing missile defence plans. Despite having nothing on, Sherlock claims to be busy -- a claim which comes true minutes later when he receives a phone call from Scotland Yard. Turns out that the explosion was a bomb which destroyed the whole house across the road -- all save a strong box containing a [[Recap/SherlockS01E01AStudyInPink rather familiar phone]]. The phone plays five pips (the sound of the Greenwich Time Signal) before displaying an image of the flat below Sherlock and John's.

** At the beginning of the episode, Sherlock is so bored he's using a handgun to shoot holes into the wall to form a smiley face. This is incredibly reckless and dangerous because it would only take one resilient bullet to make it through that wall and hit someone on the other side — one of the reasons it's against the law to practice shooting in a residential area outside of a shooting range. John is suitably appalled. Not only that, but in the commentary for this episode, Creator/BenedictCumberbatch mentioned that he had managed to shoot a hole in the dressing gown that was his costume for that scene.

** Moriarty seems to be putting on a generic English accent in the scene where he meets Sherlock while pretending to be "Jim from I.T.", but then reverts back to Andrew Scott's natural Irish brogue when he reveals himself.[[note]]This was lost on many American viewers, because that Irish accent isn't well-known in the US and sounds like a funny mix of American and RP accents. Most of them assumed Scott was trying to do an American accent and failing spectacularly.[[/note]] [[AxCrazy It's hard to understand his motivations.]]

** He never quite finishes his reaction of "Aw sh-" when he realises he hasn't got his gun on him, when he and Sherlock go after the Golem.
* DeathGlare: Surprisingly, this is what we saw during the fight with the [[ProfessionalKiller Golem]] in the planetarium when Sherlock is in a headlock [[BerserkButton in an attempt to strangle him or snap his neck]]-and to make matters more scary? [[BadassAdorable John's]] DOING it. Uh-oh. Unfortunately, the gun was knocked out but MAN, he was [[BewareTheNiceOnes PISSED OFF]].

* EnvironmentalSymbolism: When Moriarty first comes around the corner, he’s in front of a sign that says “Deep End”.

* SoapWithinAShow: Implied when Sherlock watches day-time TV and winds up yelling at it.

* SuspiciouslySpecificTense: At a potential crime scene where an filled with blood has been discovered, Sherlock questions a woman as to her husband's supposed state of mind leading up to the presumed suicide. She uses past tense when describing him, something he finds suspicious considering they've only just found the car. John figures that she might have killed him, but Sherlock brushes off the tense as something a murderer would specifically know to get "wrong". Turns out the husband had faked his own death to avoid money troubles; his wife was in on it and spreading the idea that he was deeply depressed.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography:

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety:

* ArtisticLicenseSpace:

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Moriarty mockingly feigns an expression of shock, after commenting that if Sherlock ''did'' decide to shoot him in the face, all he'd get to enjoy is his look of genuine surprise. In season 2 episode 3, [[spoiler:Moriarty adopts the same expression when he decides to spite Sherlock, by turning his gun on himself.]]

* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Moriarty, having seemingly left Sherlock and John unharmed following a tense showdown involving explosives and a sniper, returns at the last minute, declaring "I'm so changeable!" as additional snipers reveal themselves. At this, Sherlock aims a handgun at the previously mentioned explosives, before the shot cuts to a BlackScreenOfDeath... Cue a year-long wait for season 2.

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy:
** Sherlock and John look up at a sky that one would only see in the very best viewing conditions (like in a park on a clear night out in the middle of nowhere)—certainly ''not'' in the downtown area of modern, light-polluted London.
** The snippet of a planetarium show we see says the Earth would fit into Jupiter 11 times. It's actually Jupiter's ''diameter'' that's 11 times Earth's, not its volume (which is about 1,300 Earths).
** The Van Buren Supernova is completely fictional. There is no supernova whose light reached the Earth in 1858 and was visible to the naked eye (at least not in this universe).

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Moriarty mockingly feigns an expression of shock, after commenting that if Sherlock ''did'' decide to shoot him in the face, all he'd get to enjoy is his look of genuine surprise. In "The Reichenbach Fall", Moriarty adopts the same expression when he decides to spite Sherlock, by turning his gun on himself.

* FacePalm:

%%* HannibalLecture