There are many clever allusions and references in Netflix's new mystery movie Enola Holmes,
and some of them can be a little hard to spot. But we're here to clue you in. Here are some
of the more amusing little morsels to uncover in Enola Holmes.
Enola Holmes takes place in the same Victorian-era London setting as the classic Sherlock Holmes
stories while maintaining a distinctively modern feel. The movie operates from a feminist
and female-centric perspective, told from the point of view of Sherlock's younger sister
Enola.
It's so focused on women's issues, social liberation, and a feminine perspective that
it ends up being extremely reminiscent of the well-regarded modern series Fleabag, Phoebe
Waller-Bridge's Emmy-winning hit about the messy life of a young English woman dealing
with grief, self-loathing, and family conflict.
Just like in the one-woman show that inspired the series, the title character of Fleabag
constantly breaks the fourth wall to deliver exposition, reflect on plot developments,
and make fun of other characters in the story. Enola Holmes features its title character
doing all those things as well, keeping the audience well-informed of her thoughts throughout
the film.
"I know that was a flaw—" "Shh! Let me think. ...Do you have any ideas?"
The Fleabag connections to Enola Holmes run deeper than a casual disregard for the fourth
wall. Both productions co-starred Fiona Shaw, and Enola Holmes was directed by Harry Bradbeer,
who also helmed 11 episodes of Fleabag.
Enola Holmes reimagines the mystery-solving world of Sherlock Holmes through the eyes
of his teenage sister Enola. The film explains that Enola is much younger than her brothers
Sherlock and Mycroft, raised on the family's remote country estate by their widowed mother.
It's a clever bit of casting to place Millie Bobby Brown in the role. The actor is best
known for her role as telekinetic test subject Eleven on Netflix's Stranger Things. After
escaping from a secret government institution, she falls under the care of small-town sheriff
Jim Hopper. He becomes her de facto father, and in the second season, the two of them
live together in Hopper's remote cabin in the woods outside of Hawkins, Indiana.
In other words, she's got more in common with Enola than you might first believe. For Brown,
portraying a kid bristling against parental control while keeping herself occupied at
home out in the country turned out to be a great way to prepare for Enola Holmes.
Anagrams are an important plot device in Enola Holmes - the titular teen detective states
early on that her name is the word "alone" spelled backward. Later, when her mother disappears
and uses ciphers as clues to her whereabouts, Enola uses Scrabble-like letter tiles to unscramble
the letters and clarify the message.
An anagram is also the method by which Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling reveals the origin
of the series' villain, Voldemort. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets explains that the
letters in the name of former Hogwarts student Tom Marvolo Riddle rearrange to spell out
"I am Lord Voldemort."
Riddle grows up to lead a dark army of wizards, among them Bellatrix Lestrange, portrayed
in the Harry Potter movies by Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Eudoria Holmes in Netflix's
mystery.
The film was also written by Jack Thorne, co-author of the play Harry Potter and the
Cursed Child.
The central mystery of Enola Holmes concerns the sudden disappearance of Eudoria, the mother
of Sherlock, Mycroft, and Enola. Eudoria's mysterious departure occurs on the morning
of Enola's 16th birthday, prompting Sherlock and Mycroft to return to the family's country
home. Mycroft is more annoyed than worried and comments upon his confusion over the situation.
"Perhaps she was mad or senile. Though madness in our family, I would doubt it."
This whole situation connects Enola Holmes to another modern-day reinterpretation of
the Sherlock Holmes universe.
On the BBC series Sherlock, it's revealed that the detective has a sister he doesn't
remember named Eurus. She is evil, imprisoned, and tries to kill Sherlock's assistant, John
Watson. Much like Enola, Sherlock's institutionalized sister was also subjected to a lot of alone
time - but in her case, the isolation was a little bit more justified.
When Enola Holmes ventures into London to try to solve the mystery of her mother's disappearance,
she winds up entangled in another pressing conundrum: why Viscount Tewkesbury, the Marquess
of Basilwether, is on the run from his family, pursued by a violent man who keeps trying
to kill him.
Presenting herself as a 22-year-old woman named May Beatrice Posey, she gains access
to Basilwether by pretending to be the assistant of Sherlock Holmes. Her scheme is nearly foiled
upon the arrival of Inspector Lestrade, the Scotland Yard detective who is Sherlock Holmes'
contact in the English police system. He calls out the so-called Miss Posey on her claim
of being Holmes' assistant, stating matter-of-factly that the detective doesn't have one.
"He doesn't have an assistant. Sherlock Holmes always works alone."
But Sherlock Holmes famously does have a helper; not May Beatrice Posey, but Dr. John Watson.
This means that, in the Sherlock Holmes chronology, Enola Holmes takes place after Sherlock Holmes
becomes famous, but before he meets his assistant, best friend, and partner in crime-solving.
Enola Holmes is the latest high-profile take on the literary creations that Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle brought to life in the late 1800s. Even though Enola herself was created by author
Nancy Springer in 2006, the movie pays homage to its predecessors. When Enola runs off to
follow a lead on a case, a pivotal moment in the film, she declares,
"The game is afoot!"
This is a phrase coined by William Shakespeare, but it became closely associated with Enola's
brother, Sherlock. One of the most famous and prolific onscreen portrayers of Sherlock
Holmes is actor Basil Rathbone, who played the detective in 15 movies in the 1930s and
1940s. The folks behind Enola Holmes threw out a nod to the star, using his first name
as part of a character's family estate, a detail you may pick up on as Enola helps out
the distressed Marquess of Basilwether.
Dates flash onscreen quickly in Enola Holmes, so it's easy to miss exactly when the film's
storyline takes place. Audiences with at least a passing familiarity with the Sherlock Holmes
stories can tell that the movie, like most other fiction about the character, takes place
in London during the reign of Queen Victoria in the Industrial Age, sometime before the
turn of the 20th century. A couple of small clues from the political climate that forms
a backdrop of the plot of Enola Holmes indicates to the audience that the film takes place
specifically in 1884.
Enola pursues two cases over the course of the film: the disappearance of her mother,
and the motivation for the attacks on the Marquess of Basilwether. Although they begin
as seemingly unrelated mysteries, the two cases ultimately dovetail by the story's end.
Enola's mother Eudoria takes off for London to influence Parliament through extreme tactics
to enact progressive new policies, aimed at ultimately extending voting rights to women.
The Marquess, meanwhile, inherited a seat in Parliament's House of Lords from his deceased
father. Parties opposed to a progressive new law to significantly expand the voting electorate
aim to make sure he doesn't vote in favor of it, by killing him before he has the chance.
Not many details of this law are provided, but Enola Holmes is referring to the Representation
of the People Act of 1884, also called the 1884 Reform Act, which expanded voting rights
throughout the United Kingdom.
The plot of Enola Holmes grows more complicated when Enola gets sidetracked from her mission
to find her mother by the situation involving Viscount Tewkesbury, Marquess of Basilwether.
After Enola discovers him hidden in a piece of luggage in her train compartment, they
jump off the moving locomotive together to escape a hitman trying to kill the young nobleman.
Enola vows to help determine why exactly her new friend has a bounty on his head, momentarily
pausing her quest to locate her mother.
It's a little curious why Enola Holmes would take this path, and something as simple as
a crush on the Marquess feels far too basic for such a self-assured, independent character.
The real reason Enola Holmes helps the Marquess is because she sees a lot of herself in him.
By helping him with his predicament, she's also bettering her understanding of who she
is. After poking around his family's estate, she finds the Marquess' treehouse refuge,
and it's clear that his happiest moments as a child were spent in the countryside, bopping
around the woods outside the well-appointed home of a rich, prominent family. Enola experienced
a similar upbringing — she was a "wild child," raised in a country home of the rich, prominent
Holmes family.
Arthur Conan Doyle debuted the character of Sherlock Holmes with the story "A Study in
Scarlet" in 1887. Just over 50 years later, another enduring, larger-than-life character
made his first appearance in an issue of Action Comics: Superman, an alien who comes to Earth
and becomes a superhero.
Over the decades, both Sherlock and Superman have been the central characters of numerous
books, television shows, and movies. Most recently, Superman has figured prominently
in movies like Justice League and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice - both of which
saw him portrayed by Henry Cavill.
Cavill takes on a supporting role in Enola Holmes as the supportive Sherlock, but when
his character is introduced early in the film, it's done so via a splashy montage lauding
him as a famous detective, as well as a...
"scholar, chemist, virtuoso violinist, expert marksman, swordsman, singlestick fighter,
pugilist, and brilliant deductive thinker."
It's a resume that rivals Superman, reminiscent of the announcer's breathless description
of the classic superhero from the 1950s TV series Adventures of Superman. He's faster
than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to change the course of
mighty rivers and bend steel with his bare hands.
"Yes, it's Superman, strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers
and abilities far beyond those of normal men."
This movie's Sherlock is, in other words, pretty much the Superman of the 19th century.
Especially Cavill's strong-jawed, barrel-chested version. It's almost unbelievable. Did they
have gyms that good in Victorian England?
"It's possible."
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