Recap / Sherlock Holmes

Warning: All spoilers are unmarked.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

A Scandal in Bohemia

• Bilingual Bonus: This is one of the only dramatic Holmes adaptations where Irene Adler's name is pronounced as it would be in German. (ee-REN-uh AHD-ler)
• Brick Joke: At the beginning, the King of Bohemia ignores Watson's offer to shake hands; at the end, Holmes ignores the King's offer to shake hands, and Watson caps things off by shaking hands uninvited. And it is hilarious. The look on Watson's face is what really perfects the whole scene.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Watson's voiceover at the beginning and end did not become a trend, although he later would sometimes read aloud from his writing onscreen.
• Establishing Character Moment: Watson and Holmes's first scene together is a beautiful establishing moment for them both. Watson is shown to be soldierly, stern, concerned for Holmes's wellbeing, and willing to listen to and put up with Holmes. Holmes, on the other hand, is shown to be careless with his health, easily bored because of his fast mind, absolutely dependent upon mental stimulation, brilliant, quirky, fond of "his Boswell"... And just look at him when he's sitting all folded up before the fire - it's a powerful image. He's just alone, and he'll always be a bit alone.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Holmes and Watson's first conversation involves Watson tearing into Holmes because of his drug addiction because it will destroy his deductive powers as time goes on.

The Dancing Men

The Naval Treaty

• Rule of Drama: After solving the case, Holmes invites Percy Phelps to breakfast and offers him a covered tray—when Phelps demurs for lack of appetite Holmes resorts to asking Phelps to help him. Beneath the lid: the treaty poor Phelps has been literally fainting over for the past two months. Holmes subsequently has to apologize for almost inducing another attack of nerves.

The Solitary Cyclist

• And Now You Must Marry Me: Woodley and (originally) Carruthers' plan. Holmes, Watson, and Carruthers arrive too late to prevent the priest proclaiming "man and wife." However, Holmes points out that even if they hadn't hired a defrocked priest to do the job, England does not recognized forced marriages and in fact treats the matter as a serious felony.
• The Atoner: Carruthers was originally in on the plot to get Violet Smith to marry Woodley; but he fell in love with her himself and realised how dreadful their plan was, and refused to have anything more to do with it or Woodley. He keeps an eye on Violet over the next few weeks to protect her from his former cronies, and when Woodley abducts her to forcibly wed her, Carruthers shoots him in an effort to free Violet from being married to such a brute. In the end he only has to serve about six months in prison, since the court recognises his reasons for injuring Woodley.
• Brick Joke: At the beginning, Holmes is about to perform a chemistry experiment that a case he's investigating hinges on when Violet shows up with the focus case of the episode. At the end of the episode, Holmes once again attempts the experiment, saying that the reaction it creates will determine the result of the case. The reaction in question is the room filling with smoke, Holmes and Watson shoving their heads out a hastily opened window to get breathable air, and someone in the street below calling the fire department. This was apparently the chemical reaction that Holmes was expecting.
• The Coats Are Off: Woodley slaps Holmes across the face. Holmes proceeds to calmly remove his hat and coat, hang them up, and then lay a serious beatdown on Woodley.
• Double Entendre: A non-sexual version when Holmes and Watson discuss the horse and trap ordered to transport Violet home.
• Evil Redhead: Mr. Woodley, a predatory ruffian who assaults Violet and later attempts to forcibly marry her.
• Exact Words: When arriving at Charlington to protect Violet, Watson asks who would want to harm her on such a fine morning.
  Holmes: I hope nobody.
  Watson: Then why did you bring your revolver?
  Holmes: You talked about my hope, not my expectations.
• Fate Worse than Death: Carruthers calls the plan to marry Violet Hunter "the worst fate that can befall a woman," and it's why he wants to put another bullet in Woodley when Watson pronounces the wound non-fatal—Holmes assures him, however, that the marriage is in no way legally binding.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Basically the gist of Holmes's remonstrance to Watson after Watson's attempted reconnaissance. The adaptation leaves out the line towards the end of the original story where Holmes admits that one observation Watson made during his recon (the mystery cyclist appearing to adjust his necktie) should've told him everything he needed to know about the case, and he also earlier admits that his own visit to the area wasn't much more successful.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:
  • An appropriately Holmsian one after Woodley backhands Holmes and Holmes calmly removes and hangs up his coat.
  "Everybody here will bear witness to the fact that I am acting in self-defense."
  • Carruthers gets a good one at the end of the same episode. It was meant to be a Pre-Mortem One-Liner, but the gunshot proved non-fatal.
  Woodley: You're too late. She's my wife!
  Carruthers: No, she's your widow. [BANG]
• Right Behind Me: Holmes is asking the barman at Surrey about the gentlemen at Charlington Hall and is just getting to the man with the red mustache when who should walk in behind him, but the red-mustached Woodley. Holmes is not at all abashed, even when Woodley backhands him.
• Sinister Minister: The defrocked priest Williamson happily performs a force marriage and keeps a gun in his Bible during the ceremony.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: At first it appears that the villains have won, since Woodley has forced Violet to marry him by the time the heroes find them and Carruthers doesn't manage to kill him — but Holmes points out that firstly, the priest involved in the plot was defrocked and not legally allowed to officiate a wedding, plus they very likely got the marriage license through dishonest means; and second, a forced marriage is not only not recognised by English law, it's a serious felony.

The Crooked Man

• Asshole Victim: Inverted. At first Colonel James Barclay seems like a good man and a respected soldier who was tragically murdered. Then it’s revealed he set up an Uriah Gambit to get rid of his comrade Corporal Henry Wood so he could marry his girlfriend Nancy, and Colonel Barclay’s death was accidental. Nobody sheds a tear for Colonel Barclay, especially not his wife.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Colonel Barclay was noted to sometimes go quiet and distant when discussing old campaigns. This is not uncommon for soldiers of long service, but in his case it's lingering guilt.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: The original ending has Holmes casually giving Watson the chapter and verse of King David's Uriah Gambit. Here, Watson looks it up and catches Holmes out for looking up the reference beforehand, although the clue that tipped him off — he'd marked the page with a recent receipt — is so obvious as to look like a deliberate giveaway.
• Up Through the Ranks: Colonel Barclay began as a private sergeant who gained officership during an uprising in India. His second-in-command notes that his rise through the ranks subsequently has been unusually rapid.
• Uriah Gambit: This is how Colonel Barclay came to marry Nancy, and the reason she shouts "David" during their argument—she's not talking about a lover, she is calling him David for sending her other suitor to be killed (the Uriah).

The Speckled Band

• Artistic License – Biology: From the original text, the "swamp adder". There was and is no snake with that common name, although the cobra is considered the most likely candidate.
• Impoverished Patrician: Roylott is the scion of an ancient Saxon family and had a rich wife, but the investments that formed his income have tanked. Each of his stepdaughters could claim a fair chunk of the estate if they married. Dr. Roylott would have almost nothing if they both married, while the marriage of even one would seriously hinder him.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: The men of the Roylott family have long been known for their violent tempers, and Dr. Grimesby is no different.
• Mad Doctor: Dr. Grimesby Roylott doesn't actually use medicine for evil, but Holmes believes anyone clever enough to be a doctor is particularly dangerous when they turn to evil.
• Money Dumb: The Roylotts were once one of the richest families in England, but several of Dr. Roylott's forefathers squandered almost all of it until the family was nearly broke. Dr. Roylott's father lived like a pauper.
• Old, Dark House: Roylott's ancient Saxon seat. He keeps it surrounded with his dangerous menagerie from India and allows Roma to live on the property (thanks to Values Dissonance this is a mark of his wickedness).
• Old Friend: Watson has an unseen man named Coombes who was in Calcutta around the same time that Dr. Roylott was, and it is he who tells Watson about Roylott's behaviour outside of England.
• Smart People Play Chess: Dr. Roylett. His stepdaughter's fiance promises to try and improve his own chess game for his next visit to the estate.
• Wicked Stepfather: Dr. Roylett dominates his stepdaughters, kills one, and plots to kill the other so their marriages don't take away his portion of their mother's inheritance.

The Blue Carbuncle

• Christmas Episode: Played with. The story takes place on Christmas Eve and various characters including Holmes and Watson are seen celebrating the holiday or talking about their Christmas celebrations. However, the plot has nothing to do with the holiday except for the titular blue carbuncle being hidden inside a Christmas goose. Remove Christmas and change the hiding place to another livestock, and the plot will remain largely the same.
• Get Out!: The terrified and guilt-stricken culprit begs Holmes for mercy. Holmes tells him, somewhat disgustedly, simply to get out (meaning that he will not report the crime).
• Scare 'Em Straight: Jeremy Brett's performance in climax is probably infamous for this - dashed if Holmes isn't going all out for scaring James Ryder straight!
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Holmes' retort to Watson's mild remonstrance at the end. After a startling outburst, Holmes explains that he "may be commuting a felony, but I am saving a soul."

The Copper Beeches

• Adaptation Decay: Invoked when Holmes lectures Watson on emphasizing the details of crimes rather than Holmes' deductions—since crime is ubiquitous, he thinks that the logic is the key feature of his adventures.
• Book Ends: The episode opens with Holmes complaining bitterly about Watson's writing. It ends with Watson reading out his narrative of the titular case and Holmes declaring it an admirable account.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After repeatedly threatening people with the mastiff, Rucastle gets mauled by his own guard dog at the end. Watson even seems to hesitate for a few moments before shooting the beast.
• Old, Dark House: The Copper Beeches in Hampshire. Actually it's occupied and well-kept, but the goings-on within are quite sinister. In this story, Holmes expresses his belief that all country manor houses are liable to be more dangerous than the city. In crowded places, aggravated neighbors will report screams, but in the quiet isolation of the country, criminals can act with impunity.
• Shipper on Deck: Averted. In the original version, Watson remarks at the end of his narrative that he was disappointed that Holmes didn't get romantically involved with Violet Hunter. At the end of the Granada version, Watson is reading his tale aloud to Holmes, and so the only hint we get as to any romantic sparks between Holmes and Ms. Hunter is the way he can't seem to help touching her hair.
• Shoot Out the Lock: Watson shoots out the lock to the turret room when Rucastle locks him, Holmes and Violet Hunter there.

The Greek Interpreter

• Adaptational Villainy: Sophy Kratides in the original story avenges her brother's death in the end. Whereas here she still remains loyal to her boyfriend even after learning that he killed her brother, which causes Sherlock to remark that she is cold and without compassion.
• Affectionate Pickpocket: Mycroft combines this with Percussive Pickpocket, sharing a close handshake with Kemp after an amiable dinner and then pretending to be shaken by the train into pulling him close, lifting his revolver.
• Bilingual Bonus: The episode is made of this trope. Lots of Greek spoken here - even Holmes can speak modern, conversational Greek!
• *Click* Hello: Wilson Kemp gets one from Mycroft during. With his own weapon.
  Mycroft: I believe this is your revolver, sir.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • Paul Kratides was gassed to death in the original story. Here it's stated he was beaten to death.
  • Harold Latimer was stabbed off-page after escaping England. Here, he attempts to escape Holmes by jumping off a train... and the door swings into another train's path.
• Faux Affably Evil: Wilson Kemp just doesn't stop smiling, even when he's threatening terrible things!
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Wilson Kemp is perhaps the creepiest villain in the entire series, what with his constant grin, wicked snicker, sudden outbursts of rage, and a vocal delivery that has hints of Peter Lorre.
• Gory Discretion Shot: We don't actually see Harold Latimer get torn apart by an oncoming train, but you know it happens when the door he was hanging from swings shut, devoid of Latimer and quite a bit of the window glass.
• Newspaper-Thin Disguise: Harold Lattimer is revealed to have sneaked into the Diogenes Club, using a newspaper to conceal his face.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Mycroft places a missing persons notice in the paper after hearing Mr. Melas' story. This, of course, alerts Kemp and Latimer that Melas has betrayed their secret and they abduct him at gunpoint.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the original story, Kemp was Killed Offscreen, presumably by Sophie. Here, he is arrested, along with Sophie.
• Unexplained Accent: Wilson Kemp, a British almost Dickensian name, played by George Costigan, a British actor. So What the Hell Is That Accent?? Sounds like Jim Broadbent in Blackadder.

The Norwood Builder

• Adaptational Villainy: The titular character is an actual murderer, who killed a tramp to provide a corpse so that he could fake his death, which didn't happen in Doyle's original story.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: Because the story was adapted for the second series of the Adventures rather than the Return, the adaptation drops Holmes' reference to Professor Moriarty (who hasn’t yet been introduced in the show), but retains Holmes' complaint that there are no more interesting crimes in London. Two episodes later, in The Red-Headed League, Holmes displays clear and presumably long-standing familiarity with Moriarty's work, painting him as the backbone of the criminal world and one of his most formidable antagonists, which rather undercuts his earlier complaints of boredom.
  • This is compounded by Holmes making a very similar complaint in "The Copper Beeches", just two episodes prior.
• Brits Love Tea: Watson returns home to find Holmes in utter despair over the case and refusing to eat. Watson's first move is to pour him a cup of tea.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Oldacre was once engaged to young McFarlane's mother, but she broke it off after realizing his two-faced cruelty and married a kind man. On her wedding day, Oldacre sent her picture back with the face burnt off.
• Faking the Dead: Jonas Oldacre fakes his murder and with plans to start a new life under a new name.
• Forensic Accounting: Watson searches through Oldacre's documents while Holmes examines the rest of the property and discovers that there are a number of papers which should be there but aren't.
• Good Is Not Nice: Lestrade fits this trope for most of the story. True, he's doing his job, but he comes across as a definite Smug Snake until Holmes reveals the true perpetrator.
• Revenge by Proxy: Years ago, Jonas' fiancée ended their engagement after seeing how cruel Jonas was and marries a man named McFarlane. Fast forward to the present, Jonas frames her son John Hector McFarlanefor his murder of vengeance against his former fiancée.
• Starting a New Life: What Jonas planned to do if he weren’t caught by Sherlock Holmes and the police.
• You Dont Have To Say Anything: Lestrade arrives to arrest McFarlane before he can tell his story. Holmes asks him to do so, but advises him that everything he says will be entered into evidence since the police are there.

The Resident Patient

• Homage: Holmes and Watson's first scene is a retelling of a Doyle-written parody called "Watson Learns the Trick". In both versions, Watson is trying to apply Holmes's methods to deduce what is wrong with the detective. He has a bit more success in the Granada scene.

The Red Headed League

• Adaptational Villainy: Moriarty becomes the mastermind as a nice bit of foreshadowing before the next episode, ''The Final Problem".
• Bad Boss: When Moriarty's subordinate reports failure, just look at how scared the man is, and compare that to his earlier smugness.
• Bilingual Bonus: Holmes makes two separate quotes in Latin and then French.
• Chekhov's Gun: There's really no reason why we should see Holmes's silver cigarette case at the end... except for the fact that we then recognize it for what it is at the climax of "The Final Problem".

The Final Problem

• Action Prologue: Holmes dodges carriages, masonry, and ruffians, all bent on killing him. Eesh.
• After Action Patch Up: Watson for Holmes after the chase. Well, he is a doctor after all.
• Aside Comment: In the closing narration, Watson speaks directly to the viewer when he offers his final summation of Holmes' character.
• Bittersweet Ending: The "sweet" part comes in when Watson demonstrates just how much Holmes has meant to him.
• Disney Death: Holmes, although we don't know this for certain until "The Empty House" - apparently, Granada ended the episode with the possibility that Holmes was dead in case their ratings weren't high enough to continue the series.
• Precision F-Strike: Holmes rarely swore in the canon, and Jeremy Brett as Holmes swore even less. Thus, his spat-out "g-dd—n" after seeing the sniper across the street carries a motherload of weight.
• Ripped from the Headlines: A somewhat unusual example; Moriarty's plot to steal the Mona Lisa in order to sell multiple copies to several bidders (which does not appear in the original short story) seems to have been inspired by a real-life plot to do exactly the same— in 1911, 73 years before this series' adaptation of the story was released (the incident had previously been the basis for the 1979 Doctor Who serial "City of Death").
• Taking You with Me: When Moriarty literally pulls Holmes off the cliff with him in this version of the Reichenbach fight ("The Empty House" shows us an entirely different conclusion).

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

The Empty House

• Animal Assassin: Discussed when Watson and Lestrade note the fact that the murderer of Ronald Adair left no markings, sarcastically suggesting that the murderer was either a monkey or had wings.
• Dead-Hand Shot: An inversion is used when Ronald Adair is seen sitting down with his hands on a desk, counting coins. Then a groan is heard, and Adair's hands disappear...
• Flashback with the Other Darrin: This was the first episode to feature Edward Hardwicke as Watson. He reenacted a scene from "The Final Problem" in a flashback, consisting of Watson at the waterfall shouting to Holmes and reading his letter, which had been performed by David Burke.
• Gory Discretion Shot: From Watson's reaction, the victim is in an unsightly state at the beginning, but all we see is the bloody sheet covering him.
• Hollywood Darkness: The titular building is much more well lit than its pitch black book counterpart.
• Reaction Shot: We never actually see the corpse, but from how everyone reacts to his fatal headshot, it's a horrible sight.

The Priory School

• Adaptational Nice Guy: In the original short story, Duke of Holdernesse is so desperate to avoid scandal that he makes his kidnapped son stay at an inn for three days after he's found before bringing him home and allows Hayes, one of the boy's abductors, to flee justice. In the TV series, the Duke is also concerned about preventing scandal and demands the police to keep a low profile, but Sherlock Holmes talks the Duke into putting his son's life over his reputation and allows greater freedom of movement for the police and Sherlock Holmes to continue his investigation.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: In both the original story and the episode, Holmes snarkily taunts the Duke, first over his reluctance for Holmes to investigate his son's disappearance, and later when demanding payment for solving the case before telling the Duke the solution. In the story, Holmes does so as a strategy, because he has already deduced the Duke has recovered his son and is shielding the kidnapper. The episode changes this but keeps the snarking, making Holmes seem needlessly cruel.^note However, Holmes' snarking could also be recontextualized as that he still knows that the Duke knows who the kidnapper is.
• Bastard Bastard: James Wilder - the bastard son of the Duke of Holdernesse and a woman of lower status named Francesca. The Duke raises James like a son but never acknowledges his relation to him. As a result James kidnaps his younger legitimate brother Lord Saltire to force the Duke into making James his heir instead of his brother. In addition, the Duke reveals to Sherlock that James liked having power over him, and the Duke tried to change his son's ways.
• Dead-Hand Shot: Used when Holmes and Watson find Heidegger.
  Watson: The German master.
  Holmes: What's left of him.
• Death by Adaptation: James Wilder falls to his death. In the original short story "The Adventure of the Priory School", he leaves for Australia.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Heidegger is beaten to death by Reuben Hayes in the original short story. Here, he's strangled.

The Second Stain

• Chekhov's Gun: Lady Hilda's card is later shown by Holmes to MacPherson, the constable outside the Lucas house. When the constable recognizes it, Holmes ascertains that Lady Hilda was the one responsible for moving the carpet and stole the document he's been tracking.

The Musgrave Ritual

The Abbey Grange

• Even Evil Has Standards: Discussed as Holmes and Inspector Hopkins wonder why Lady Brackenstall wasn't killed like her husband.
  The criminal mind has its quirks of conscience and scruples, in that respect it is as individual and curious as any other. A noted miser may be secretly charitable, so this violent Randall may draw the line at murdering an unconscious woman.

The Man With the Twisted Lip

The Six Napoleons

• Bilingual Bonus: An interesting example - in the original story, Pietro Venucci is killed between scenes and his sister Lucrezia is mentioned once. In the Granada adaptation, Lucrezia has her own subplot, having several conversations with her father in Italian.
• Covert Pervert: The episode opens with the Venucci patriarch watching a woman washing herself from across the street while his children argue.
• Named by the Adaptation: In the original story, Beppo had no surname. Here, in a Freeze-Frame Bonus of his execution notice in the final scene, his full name is Beppo Cicollini.

The Sign of Four

The Devil's Foot

• Asshole Victim: Mortimer Tregennis, to the point where Holmes and Watson actually let his murderer go free.

Silver Blaze

Wisteria Lodge

The Bruce-Partington Plans

The Hound of the Baskervilles

The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes

The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

The Problem of Thor Bridge

Shoscombe Old Place

The Boscombe Valley Mystery

• Let Off by the Detective: After learning that John Turner killed Charles to protect his daughter Alice, and that Turner has only a few months to live, he decides to keep his guilt secret, though he does have Turner write a confession in case it proves necessary to exonerate James of the murder.
• Papa Wolf: John Turner towards his daughter Alice. Since Alice was a baby, he has been blackmailed by Charles McCarthy who provisions for himself and his son James in exchange for keeping John’s sordid past a secret. John complied, but when Charles demands that Alice marries James, John absolutely refused. He originally planned to talk to Charles and resolve the matter peacefully, but when he overheard Charles and James arguing over Alice, he murdered Charles to protect Alice and maintain his freedom. When Sherlock Holmes confronts John with the truth, John begs Sherlock not to reveal to Alice the truth because it will break her heart.

The Illustrious Client

• Adaptational Villainy: Downplayed. Baron Adelbert Gruner is a shameless philanderer and a murderer both in the original source material and the Granada adaptation, but in the original source material, he never threw oil of vitriol (sulfuric acid) at his ex-mistress Kitty Winters. In the TV adaptation, he did which permanently scarred her.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Baron Adelbert Gruner. He murdered his previous wife (only being acquitted on a technicality) and threatened a woman to kill the only witness or suffer an acid attack, threw acid at Kitty, and is manipulating his current fiancée Violet de Merville into staying with him.
• Papa Wolf: Violet’s father General de Merville is very concerned that his daughter will be in mortal danger if she marries Baron Adelbert Gruner and has her meet with Sherlock Holmes and Kitty Winters in hopes they can convince her to break off the engagement. In a way, Sherlock Holmes himself. As he explains to Violet, he does not have a daughter, but if he had one, he would be just as concerned for her as General de Merville is of Violet.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Downplayed. The newspaper greatly exaggerated Holmes's injuries from an attack as near-fatal with Holmes falling gravely ill, but in actuality, they were only serious but survivable and no grave illness followed suit. Holmes merely stayed in bed for a few days to recover while taking advantage of the false report to retrieve Baron Adelbert Gruner's book of conquests.

The Creeping Man

• Immortality Immorality: Professor Presbury's use of a rejuvenation drug causes him to exhibit animal-like behavior. Holmes' comment indicates that he disapproves of immortality in and of itself.
  "When one tries to rise above Nature one is liable to fall below it... Consider, Watson, that the material, the sensual, the worldly would all prolong their worthless lives. The spiritual would not avoid the call to something higher. It would be the survival of the least fit. What sort of cesspool may not our poor world become?"

The Master Blackmailer

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the original canon, Sherlock is cheerful by the end of the story, joking around with Lestrade. In the TV series, Sherlock is somber by the ending and asks John not to chronicle the case because it is too painful.
• One Degree of Separation: Several of Milverton's victims are connected to one another and to Milverton. Lady Swinstead is the aunt of Lady Eva Blackwell, Holmes' current client. Eva's friend Miss Miles is the fianceé of Colonel Dorking, another blackmail victim. Another of Holmes' clients had a footman who was attacked by her grandsons for allegedly blackmailing her; that footman is now Milverton's butler Hepworth.
• Red Right Hand: Hepworth, Milverton's butler, has a scar on the right side of his face from getting shot in the face non-fatally.

The Last Vampyre

• Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed with Jack Ferguson. In the original canon, Jack poisons his baby brother out of sheer jealousy. In the TV series, Jack poisons the maid because he suffers from delusions of being a vampire stemming from a childhood accident.

The Eligible Bachelor

• Adaptational Job Change: In the original story Flora Miller was a dancer. Here she's an actress and she uses this talent to impersonate Helena, St. Simon's second wife, and make everyone think Helena has gone insane. This allows St. Simon to have the real Helena institutionalized and get his marriage to her annulled.
• Adaptation Title Change: The story this was based on was originally called The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor.
• Adaptational Villainy: The episode turns the title character from simply an arrogant aristocrat into a sadistic villain who kills his first wife and imprisons his second.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Played straight with Lord St. Simon; he marries wealthy women and disposes of them once he has their fortune. Downplayed with his aunts who are disdainful of the lower classes but harmless. Averted with his mother who is eccentric and kind.
• Big Fancy House: St. Simon has one but it's fallen into disrepair and mortgaged to the hilt.
• The Bluebeard: St. Simon courts and marries wealthy women and then disposes of them once he has their fortune.
• Darker and Edgier: The episode transforms the story from a villainy-free comedic romance into a very dark gothic horror piece involving multiple murders, insanity, imprisonment and physical and psychological torture.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • St. Simon is killed by his second wife whom he'd been keeping captive.
  • Flora Miller is murdered by St. Simon when she threatens to reveal his villainy.
• Happily Ever After: At the end Hatty and Francis acquire St. Simon's country house with the intention of restoring it and raising a family there.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: Instead of using facts, observation, and logic as is typical of a Holmes story, Holmes instead largely relies on inspiration from a series of strange nightmares he has to help solve the case.
• Mad Woman In The Attic: St. Simon has his second wife, Helena, declared insane and he's kept her imprisoned in a makeshift dungeon at his country estate for the past seven years. The long term confinement appears to have really driven her insane but it turns out she's just pretending.
• Named by the Adaptation: In the original story St. Simon's mother is unnamed and only mentioned in passing as a guest at his wedding. Here she's given the name Amelia and some modest characterization.
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Holmes is plagued by nightmares that show him glimpses of events yet to come.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: According to Agnes, Helena's sister, St. Simon gets away with his villainy because his uncle is a Duke.
• Self-Made Man: Francis Moulton became rich by finding gold in the American Frontier.
• Smoky Gentlemen's Club: St. Simon is a member of such a club and he spends much of his free time there.
• Too Dumb to Live: When Hatty learns of what St. Simon had planned for her she decides to confront him, by herself, at his country estate.
• "Ugly American" Stereotype: Aloysius refuses to drink what he's offered and only drinks American made whiskey which he travels with.
• Upper-Class Equestrian: St. Simon and Hatty are first shown horseback riding together in the English countryside shortly before their wedding.

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

The Three Gables

The Dying Detective

• Related Differently in the Adaptation: In the original source material, Victor Savage and Culverton Smith are nephew and uncle, respectively. In the TV series, they are cousins.

The Golden Pince-Nez

The Red Circle

The Mazarin Stone

• Plot Hole: Count Sylvius visits a jeweler asking if the title gem can be cut ... only for it to be established the Count had no intention of ever having the stone cut.

The Cardboard Box

• A Deadly Affair: Mary Brown and her affair partner Alec Fairbairn were murdered by her husband Jim Browner. Jim cut their ears and sent them to Mary’s sister Sarah (though their other sister Susan received them first since Jim didn’t know Sarah moved out) because she manipulated Mary into starting the affair.
• A Family Affair: Averted. Sarah tried to start an affair with her brother-in-law, but he rejected her.
• Adaptation Expansion: the episode opens up with the meddling of Mary Cushing and Jim Browner and chronicled their fallout through flashbacks. In the source material, the marriage is only briefly mentioned and the fallout is summarized in a written confession by Jim Browne.
• Christmas Episode: The episode is set during Christmas time. It's during the opening of gifts that the pair of severed ears are found.
• Recovered Addict: Jim Browner until he fell off the wagon when his marriage with Mary deteriorated.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Mary. Her relationship with her husband Jim Browner soured because Sarah manipulated her to distrust him out of vengeance for Jim spurning Sarah’s advances. This drove Mary to have an affair with a man named Alec Fairbairn. Because of the affair, they were murdered by Jim.
• Woman Scorned: Gender-inversion. Jim becomes so enraged at his wife’s betrayal that he murdered her and her affair partner and sent their ears to her sister Sarah out of vengeance for manipulating Mary into starting the affair.