"His Last Vow" is the third and final episode of the third series of the BBC Television
series Sherlock, which follows the modern-day adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The episode
was first broadcast on 12 January 2014, on BBC One. It was written by Steven Moffat and
directed by Nick Hurran with music composed by Michael Price and David Arnold. The episode
is a contemporary adaption of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "The Adventure of Charles
Augustus Milverton". In the episode, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson
take on a case about stolen letters. This leads the pair into conflict with villain
Charles Augustus Magnussen, a character which was introduced as the main villain of series
3, whom Sherlock despises. Holmes and Watson try to get Magnussen arrested, but their attempt
fails and they confront him at Appledore, Magnussen's home.
On its first broadcast on BBC One, the episode received 8.77 million viewers, a 32.1% audience
share. Although this was a drop from "The Sign of Three" and "The Empty Hearse", it
became the most tweeted-about single episode of a drama series in the UK. The episode received
a positive reception from critics, and Mikkelsen's performance as Magnussen, in particular, was
praised.
Plot John Watson, whose wife Mary is now visibly
pregnant, finds a dishevelled Sherlock, under the influence of drugs. John attempts to force
him to rehabilitate, but Sherlock insists that he was undercover for a case. Mycroft
realises that Sherlock, on behalf of a senior member of the government, is trying to take
on Charles Augustus Magnussen, a newspaper owner who blackmails people, and warns him
not to. Magnussen visits Sherlock to intimidate him and refuses to enter negotiations over
the stolen letters. John is also baffled to find Sherlock is now
in a relationship with Mary's bridesmaid, Janine, until he learns that Janine is Magnussen's
personal assistant and the liaison a ruse. With her help, Sherlock breaks into Magnussen's
apartment, where he is shocked to find Mary holding Magnussen at gunpoint. Mary shoots
Sherlock, who harnesses all his mental powers to stay conscious. He is taken to hospital,
where Mary warns him not to denounce her. John nonetheless begins to suspect something.
Sherlock runs away from the hospital and arranges a confrontation with Mary, who confesses to
having a past as a secret agent and assassin with which Magnussen is blackmailing her.
Sherlock deduces that she intentionally shot him in a non-lethal spot and called an ambulance.
She says she is desperate to keep John in the dark as she loves him. John, however,
witnesses the conversation and is left in turmoil. Sherlock tells John that he observes
John's addiction to danger and that John was most probably attracted to Mary because of
her hidden past. Mary gives John a memory stick containing information on her, marked
with her true initials A. G. RA., telling him the contents will destroy his love for
her. After not viewing the memory stick for a few months, John decides to destroy it without
reading it and, to her relief, to love Mary regardless. While the couple spend Christmas
with the Holmes brothers at their parents' home, Sherlock takes John to meet Magnussen
at Magnussen's property, Appledore, which Holmes believes contains Magnussen's blackmailing
archive. During their confrontation, Magnussen explains his purpose in putting pressure on
Mary was to arrive at Mycroft via John and Sherlock.
Sherlock offers to buy Magnussen's information on Mary with the state secrets contained in
Mycroft's laptop, which he has stolen. Magnussen, however, is aware that Sherlock is setting
up a trap: security services looking for the laptop will raid his vaults, find their contents
and arrest him as a blackmailer, thereby vindicating Sherlock and John. Magnussen reveals that
this will not work because there are no vaults: he actually relies entirely on his memory
and keeps no physical records. By giving Magnussen the laptop, Sherlock and John are now guilty
of attempting to sell government secrets, whereas Magnussen cannot be charged with anything.
When Mycroft and the police arrive, Sherlock shoots Magnussen in the head, realising that
he has no alternative if he is to protect the Watsons from Mary's past, and save John
from being charged with high treason. Mycroft convinces the government to spare
Sherlock a trial and, as an alternative punishment, press him into a highly dangerous mission
in Eastern Europe. He is, however, recalled within minutes when TV screens all over Great
Britain are hacked to broadcast a loop of a static image of Jim Moriarty asking "Did
you miss me?" Sources and allusions
The plot is primarily drawn from the original short story "The Adventure of Charles Augustus
Milverton", the titular Milverton being a blackmailer adapted into the character of
Magnussen. In both stories, "Appledore" is the name of the antagonist's vaults, and,
in both, Holmes becomes engaged to an employee of the villain to gain access. Both stories
culminate with Milverton/Magnussen's death, although in the original story Milverton is
killed by one of his victims. The title of "His Last Vow" is a play on the
title of "His Last Bow", the final Sherlock Holmes story chronologically. The title is
not explained within the episode, but is a reference to dialogue from the previous episode,
"The Sign of Three", in which Sherlock makes his last vow to always be there for John and
Mary Watson. The plot of the episode is unrelated to the short story, although there are allusions
present. The original story sees the detective having retired to keep bees in a Sussex cottage
and, in the episode, Janine mentions that she is planning to buy a Sussex cottage from
which she will remove some beehives. In the closing dialogue of the episode, a story Mycroft
told Sherlock about "the East wind" during their childhood, is similar to a speech from
the original story. Mary reveals her true identity in what Sherlock
calls "the empty house", an alleyway hidden behind what are apparently the fronts of two
houses in Leinster Gardens, in the "house", Mary thinks Sherlock has tricked her by positioning
a dummy of himself at the end of the alley: in "The Adventure of the Empty House" a dummy
is used to fool assassin Colonel Sebastian Moran in an empty house. The letters A. G.
RA. seen on the memory stick are Mary Watson's actual initials, in The Sign of Four, the
first original Holmes story to feature Mary Morstan, the Agra Treasure is a main focal
point and cause of dispute, and in the same story Bill Wiggins, a drug addict in "His
Last Vow", is one of the Baker Street Irregulars. The opening sequence, in which John travels
to a drug den to retrieve the son of a family friend and finds Sherlock as well, is derived
from the opening of "The Man with the Twisted Lip".
Production Casting
In July 2013, it was announced that Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen would star as the main
villain of the third series of Sherlock. Mikkelsen first appeared in a non-speaking cameo appearance
at the end of "The Empty Hearse". The portrayal of Magnussen was described by Steven Moffat
as "terrifying". Mikkelsen was suggested for the role by producer Sue Vertue and recorded
an audition video for the production team in which he urinated in his barn. Mikkelsen
was starring in a film set in East London at the time and had picked up a London accent,
so he had to "Dane-ify" his accent. Moffat and Vertue's son, Louis Moffat, played
a young Sherlock in two scenes and Benedict Cumberbatch's real-life parents, Timothy Carlton
and Wanda Ventham, reprised their roles as Sherlock's parents from "The Empty Hearse".
Steven Moffat has commented that Sherlock "runs on nepotism".
Writing Steven Moffat confirmed that the cliffhanger,
the return of Moriarty, had been planned as far back as series two, when he discussed
the plan for Moriarty's character with actor Andrew Scott. However, he joked that he was
as surprised as the viewers to see Moriarty return, noting that it is impossible to fake
shooting oneself in the head. Scott appeared in a short post-credits scene talking to the
camera, both firsts for the show. Moffat has commented that viewers will have to wait "years"
to see the resolution of the cliffhanger. Gatiss and Moffat had considered adapting
the character of Charles Augustus Milverton for some time, considering him to be a "brilliantly
realised" villain. Moffat viewed Magnussen as Sherlock's "intellectual mirror" and a
"unique baddy", and stated that he fell in love with him. The character of Magnussen
was originally conceived as an American retaining the name of Milverton, but Moffat changed
both his nationality and name when Mikkelsen was cast. He found the name Magnussen on a
website of Danish names, looking for one that resembled Milverton, the name of the original
character from Doyle's short story. Gatiss noted that the character is a "fascinating
new place to go" due to his differences from Moriarty. When Mikkelsen received the script,
he stated that that his first impression was that it was "the best script I've ever read".
Contrasting Magnussen to Moriarty, Cumberbatch stated that he was "so chilling because of
how real he is, how normal he is", and that he is "not driven by a mad, chaotic joker's
energy that Moriarty has". On the introduction of young Sherlock, Moffat
noted that it was the logical course to take after the introduction of the Holmes parents:
"Once you've got the parents in and you've got the sibling rivalry and stuff, people
start to think, 'well what was young Sherlock like?' You just want those things, you want
to see those things, it's part of updating it."
Filming
Director Nick Hurran had previously worked with Steven Moffat on several episodes of
Doctor Who, including the fiftieth anniversary special. Abbington noted that he was a "very
hands-on" director. Filming for "His Last Vow" began on 29 July
2013. Some filming was in Cardiff, and part in Leinster Gardens, where houses 23 and 24
were shown to be mere façades. Scenes set at 'Appledore', Magnussen's house, were filmed
at Swinhay House in Gloucestershire, owned by Sir David McMurtry, boss of Renishaw engineering.
The post-credits scene—depicting Moriarty saying "Did you miss me?" to the camera—was
originally longer, but was cut at Gatiss's recommendation to tease the audience.
Broadcast and reception The last Sherlock episode of series 3, "His
Last Vow" was first broadcast on BBC One on Sunday 12 January 2014 between 8:30pm and
10:00pm GMT. Overnight, the episode was watched by 8.77 million viewers, a 31.9% share, which
was down from 9.2 million for the opening episode of the series, "The Empty Hearse".
However, when final ratings were factored, it increased to 11.38 million, the same as
"The Sign of Three", but still down from "The Empty Hearse". The episode was later repeated
on the digital channel BBC Three on Friday, 17 January 2014 from 9pm GMT.
The British Board of Film Classification gave the episode a 12 certificate, for "moderate
violence, drug references and one use of strong language". The episode was released in the
UK on DVD and Blu-ray Disc with the other episodes in the series on 20 January 2014.
Critical reception "His Last Vow" received critical acclaim,
with Louisa Mellor of Den of Geek saying that the episode was "as good a finale as Sherlock's
ever had", with a very strong plot. Mark Jefferies of The Mirror called the episode "easily the
best yet in this run", with a "fascinating" plot. He also praised Mikkelsen as "brilliant".
Josh Wilding, also writing for The Mirror, said the episode "was in many ways the best
episode of Sherlock yet" and called it "simply one of the greatest TV shows of all-time",
giving it 5/5. Caroline Frost of the Huffington Post called it a "fitting finale to the series,
with writers and actors all saving their best for last", despite the third series' "patchy"
performances. Serana Davies of The Telegraph called the episode "the best of the lot" and
gave 4 out of 5 stars, calling Moffat "the superior Sherlock writer". Although her review
was mainly positive, she questioned whether the programme had become "a little vain, rather
a show-off". Lucy Mangan of The Guardian said the episode was "perfect", and a "ceaseless
flow of wit, invention and intelligence", a sentiment echoed by Ellen Jones of The Independent,
who stated that it contained "intelligence, humour and obscure fanboy references galore"
which "delivered the goods". She went on to state that it is "enough detail in this episode
to justifying watching it again and again, once weekly, until series four". Chris Harvey
of The Telegraph praised the "beautifully done" conclusion of the episode featuring
Moriarty, saying it was "very playful, very neat. And very unexpected". Sandipan Deb,
writing in Indian newspaper Mint, was positive about the episode, calling it "the best" episode
in the series, and praised its "stunning twists and turns, its thrilling upending of what
we have known about the characters for a lifetime, an emotional depth not seen before, and its
clever throwaway references to the Canon". Deb also praised the "uber-cool cinematic
technique", singling out the moment when Sherlock has been shot and falls to the floor as an
"extraordinary leap of the imagination and cinematic bravura". However, it was stated
that the writers were "influenced by the zoned-out Holmes films directed by Guy Ritchie".
However, Neela Debnath, also of The Independent, said that the episode was "trying far too
hard and is coming across a tad foolish", and consequently "failed to hit new heights".
Despite this, she did praise Mikkelsen as Magnussen, calling his performance "sterling".
Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly took issue with Sherlock killing Magnussen at the end,
instead of outsmarting him, viewing it as out of character: "He [Sherlock] had the smarts
to brainstorm more inspired solutions to the problem of Magnusson [sic], and the seasoning
to resist a degrading one". An article in the Daily Mail penned by Tom Kelly, claimed
that the episode was symptomatic of the BBC's "left-wing bias", arguing the episode's villain,
Charles Augustus Magnussen, was portrayed as a capitalist, foreign-born newspaper baron,
with similarities to Rupert Murdoch. Media commentator Roy Greenslade contextualised
the criticism by suggesting the BBC, rather than Sherlock, is the Daily Mail's "real enemy".
The episode angered fans as it had removed the woman who, in Doyle's story, had shot
Milverton. After the airing of "His Last Vow", Moffat and Gatiss said in an interview with
Empire Cinemas:
Moffat: Also, if you read [The Adventure Of] Charles Augustus Milverton, Dr. Watson in
the opening paragraph tells you that he’s about to tell you a porkie. He says, ‘I
even now must be very reticent.’ I think what Doyle is hinting at is that Sherlock
Holmes and Dr. Watson sat in Baker Street and said, ‘Right, we’re going to have
to go and kill him, aren’t we? That’s the only way we can do this.’ So they break
in, kill him, and then Dr. Watson writes up a version of the story that puts the murder
[on someone else]. Gatiss: They’re hiding in their burglar
masks behind the curtain, and this random woman comes and shoots Milverton in the face
and then grinds her heel into his face. It’s odd, isn’t it? So I mean really, it’s
just an extrapolation of saying, ‘Well, he probably did it, I think.’
Moffat: If Sherlock Holmes decided that somebody should die, he would kill them. I don’t
think he’d have any problem with that. Gatiss: He regards Milverton as a sort of
plague, something that should be eradicated. Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, writing in The Daily
Dot, said that the removal of a female character was "An unfortunate occurrence that neatly
fits in with Moffat’s track record with female characters in both Doctor Who and Sherlock",
Baker-Whitelaw goes on to question whether Mary could have killed Mikkelsen, instead
of "playing right into the hands of fans who believe Moffat is a misogynist who writes
all of his female characters into the same corner", and questions whether Moffat is indeed
a misogynist. Steven Moffat's writing, said Emma Dibdin
of Digital Spy, is "a few degrees colder than his colleagues'", which helped the episode
go back to the "cerebral, mystery-driven tone some viewers have been left craving". Paul
Jones, of the Radio Times, praised Moffat's "grand, filmic episode", whilst Daniel Krupa,
writing for IGN, said the episode was a reminder of "just how brilliant Sherlock [...] can
be". Accolades
"His Last Vow" was nominated for several Emmy Awards and several Critics' Choice Television
Awards. At the 4th Critics' Choice Television Awards, the episode was nominated in four
categories. At the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards, "His Last Vow" won seven Emmys, the most for
any TV programme. Notes
References
External links "His Last Vow" at the Internet Movie Database
"His Last Vow" at the BBC