Sign of three

In the first scene of the episode, Detective Inspector Lestrade and Sgt. Donovan almost catch the Walter crime family, who beat the police several times. However, when Lestrade receives a message from Sherlock asking for help, he drops everything and drives to Baker Street, calling for all possible reinforcements. Arriving, he discovers that Sherlock only has problems writing the best man’s speech for the upcoming wedding of John and Mary Morsten.

On the morning of the wedding day, Mrs. Hudson reminds Sherlock that marriage changes people. At the reception, John is pleased to see Major Sholto, his former commander. Sholto lives in solitude under the scrutiny of the press, receiving a huge number of death threats due to the fact that in Afghanistan he lost the entire squad of recruits. Sherlock calls Mycroft, who reiterates Mrs. Hudson’s claim that John and Mary’s marriage will change his life.

Sherlock begins to speak his best man’s speech, but he feels insecure. After reading the telegrams, Sherlock expresses his deep respect for John and begins an incoherent story describing the role of John in the case of The Bloodied Guardsman; a guardsman named Bainbridge asks Sherlock for help, as he realizes that he is being watched. By the time Sherlock and John enter the guards' rooms, Bainbridge is recognized dead with a stab wound, but neither the weapons nor the escape route of the alleged killer were found. When asked by Lestrade about the solution to this case, Sherlock admits that he did not disclose it, but notes John's compassion; Instead of trying to solve the Bainbridge murder, which Sherlock was doing, John examined the body and felt for a pulse, and, having ordered an ambulance, he rendered first aid.

Sherlock’s speech moves on to another matter - One-Day Man; a few days after dinner with a young man in his apartment, a woman (who works as a nurse) found the apartment empty, and the man she met has been dead for several weeks now. Sherlock and John, not sobering up after John's bachelor party , are trying to find evidence, but they are being arrested for their drunken tricks. The next morning, the amused Lestrade contributes to their release from prison. Sherlock chats with other women with similar experiences with Tessa, but cannot establish a connection between them, but with the help of John, he concludes that he was a tired man who seeks out recently deceased single men and uses their identities and apartments to meet women .

Continuing his toast, Sherlock suddenly recalls that Tessa knows the middle name of John (Hamish). Knowing that John hates it and never uses it, Sherlock calculates that she saw a wedding invitation. He concludes that all women work for Sholto in different positions, and were connected by a non-disclosure subscription. A one-day man courted them to find and kill Sholto, and the wedding is the perfect place for this. Sherlock hands over a note to Sholto, who returns to his hotel room and takes out a gun for self-defense. Sherlock, John and Mary run to his room to save, but he refuses to open the door until the case is opened. Sherlock understands that the Bloodied Guards case is related to Sholto, and their military uniform belts are a common link. If Bainbridge lost consciousness in the soul, he was stabbed with the finest stylet in the back in the belt - only a tight belt holds the fabrics together until removed; and so thin and accurate puncture is not felt until this moment. Hearing this explanation, Sholto wants to commit suicide by removing his belt. Sherlock convinces him not to, especially at John’s wedding. Sholto opens the door and asks for medical help.

That same evening, Sherlock asks Lestrade to detain the photographer, and introduces him to the inspector as Jonathan Small (aka One-Day Man and a man who killed Bainbridge and Sholto). The photographer turns out to be the brother of one of the recruits who died under the command of Sholto, and on Bainbridge, Small only practiced before the murder of Sholto. After playing Sherlock on the violin for the first dance of John and Mary, he informs them that Mary is pregnant - he noticed her increased appetite, a change in taste perception, and morning sickness - the "sign of three." Sherlock reassures them, saying that they will become excellent parents, since they managed to practice it. Nevertheless, the episode ends with a bitterly sweet moment, when Sherlock leaves early and alone from the wedding, realizing that his relationship with John will never be the same.

The episode is directed by Colm McCarthy, who worked with Moffat on the episode of Doctor Who 's St. John 's Bells . The Radio Times reported that McCarthy was hired after “the departure of director Paul McGuigan , who is responsible for creating a special visual tone for the television series” ^[6] . According to Radio Times ^[6] , The Sign of Three was written by Stephen Thompson, who had previously worked on Sherlock’s episodes Blind Banker and Reichenbach Falls . Although the episode stands out from the overall style of the show, all three main screenwriters are mentioned in the opening credits as the authors of the episode. Stephen Moffat told the BBC Q&A that he wrote most of Sherlock’s best man’s speech ^[7] .

Filming

The wedding scenes were filmed in a conservatory in Goldney Hall , Bristol ^[8] . Other scenes were also shot in Bristol: scenes on the steps of the courthouse were shot in Victoria Rums ^[9] ; a bank robbery occurred in the building of the Bank of England , opposite Castle Park ^[9] ; and scenes of the marriage of John and Mary were filmed at St. Mary's Church in Sneid Park ^[9] .

The episode was first shown on January 5, 2014 on BBC One and BBC One HD from 20:30 to 22:00 GMT ^[10] . During the night, the episode was watched by 8.8 million viewers with a share of 31.9%, which is lower than the previous episode of " Empty Hearse " - 9.2 million (33.8%) ^[11] .

In Russia, the third season of Sherlock was shown simultaneously with Great Britain on Channel One . The "Sign of Three" was broadcast on the night of January 5-6, 2014 at 01:05 Moscow time ^[12] .

Criticism Reviews

The episode received critical acclaim. Neela Debnat from The Independent said that “although this is not the strongest story from the Sherlock saga, the script is just as strong and fresh, and the element with the halls of the mind is softened by a couple of tones. The “Sign of Three” was shot witty and funny. There was a lot of things that made the audience shake with laughter, especially due to Sherlock’s apathetic attitude towards humanity ” ^[13] .

Caroline Frost from The Huffington Post wrote that the episode “Conan Doyle-style recounts some of the strangest things”, and “editing from the memories betrayed the show with unusualness - something like a one-time Christmas, a parody inspired by“ Discharge of laughter “and one of the many special issues Fantasy of Sitcoms ” ^[14] . Also, Olivia Gia from The Punk Effect said that “the episode is undoubtedly out of the canon of Sherlock,” but then called the episode “... a smart, hilarious and exciting example of a good television program” ^[15] .

London Mayor Boris Johnson commented on an allusion to him in articles of a fictional newspaper about the Waters Gang in the first scenes of the episode. On the same page of the fake newspaper, the nameless mayor of London is described in small print as “hesitant, inconsistent and selfish”, pursuing a “weird” policy that “was recently bullied over the proposal to place the airport in the middle of the mouth of the river,” which The Telegraph called an obvious reference to Boris Island ^[16] . Johnson objected that the joke that The Telegraph wrote about was “only visible in a matter of seconds” ^[16] , reflecting his view of the BBC's “left bias” ^[17] . A BBC spokesman said: “Sherlock is a fictional drama television series. Both the mayor and the newspaper mentioned in the episode are completely fictitious and are not politically connected with anyone ” ^[17] .

IGN Daniel Krupa wrote a more negative review. Noting the acting skills of Benedict Cumberbatch and several emotional moments, he was critical of the rhythm of the narrative: “the erratic rhythm did not allow the viewer to really get into the plot”, and also condemned the concentration on the personal lives of the characters, and not on the adventures ^[18] .

• The Sign of the Three on the Internet Movie Database
• Sign of the Three on the BBC website