Sherlock Reactions: The Hounds of Baskerville

This is actually the first reaction I wrote, as it didn't occur to me to do so until just after watching this episode. You can also read my reactions on Scandal in Belgravia and The Reichenbach Fall. Remember, this post will be spoilerific, so if you haven't seen the episode I'd suggest reading my Sherlock Two-Season Review instead.

The second episode of this season continues on this season's trend of bringing out more emotion in our title character, something I'm sure everyone is loving. It also seems to be repeating the formula from the first season a bit, with the second episode taking a bit of a break from the main story of the first and third episodes.

I haven't seen anyone else online mention it, but immediately upon finishing this episode I noted that this was the first episode in which Molly Hooper didn't make an appearance. So far, she's been occupying that strange space between 'main character' and 'major reoccurring character', and now that she's finally missed an episode she can be pushed into the second category. That space is now solely occupied by Mrs. Hudson, who's definitely not on our main team but hasn't missed an episode yet, and DI Lestrade, who's one of the most important non-duo characters despite being completely absent from Season 1 Episode 2.

"Are you my mummy?"

This episode seemed to be trying for a more fearful atmosphere, which I'm sure would have worked on me if I hadn't been reading a horrible Creepypasta just the day before. There were a few scenes I found a bit frightful, the most frightening of which being when Sherlock broke down after finally seeing the Hound. There's something inherently terrifying about seeing a strong-minded character lose their cool.

Some of my favorite moments from this episode include, but are not limited to:

-John checking in at the bed and breakfast, when the innkeeper assumes he and Sherlock are together. John starts to say "No, we're not-" but stops himself when he realizes that the man isn't going to believe him anyway. You can tell John is getting tired of having to explain himself, and is resigning himself to not caring what other people think.

I love this scene especially because it made me realize how much I love Martin Freeman as an actor. There's a large pool of actors I consider 'good' and a somewhat smaller pool of actors I consider 'very good', but there are only a handful of actors who, I've noticed, have this amazing ability to let the audience know exactly what their character is thinking without having to say anything. Freeman pulls this off wonderfully not just in this scene but throughout the show and realizing this only makes me that much more excited for An Unexpected Journey next December.

-Sherlock climbing on top of the Dartmoor mound. It was visually impressive (as this series has a tendency to be), but also completely pointless, which strangely only made me like the shot more. Not only does he have a slightly better view up there, there's also the added bonus of feeling like you're the king of the world, which seems very Sherlock-esque to me.

-Favorite Quote: "Can we not do this?" "What?" "You being all mysterious, with your cheekbones, and turning your collar up so you look cool."

-Sherlock's attempts to apologize to John after yelling at him. Unless I'm mistaken, the only other apology we've seen from Sherlock was the one directed towards Molly in Scandal in Belgravia, and it's obvious he isn't very familiar or comfortable with asking for forgiveness. The scene is so awkward for Sherlock that it's almost cute, especially when he makes John the cup of coffee (which we only discover later was an attempt to drug him for an experiment), and John's reaction seems spot on.

-Learning Detective Inspector Lestrade's first name, Greg. In fact, everything about Lestrade Greg in this episode was great, except for maybe the fact that I couldn't help thinking he looked way too much like George Clooney. Why has no one else on the internet mentioned this yet?

DI Lestrade totally looks like George Clooney.

Something else I want to mention is the scene with Sherlock's Mind Palace. The start of the scene was humorous, with Sherlock kicking Dr. Stapleton out of her lab and John awkwardly trying to explain why, but the actual Mind Palace sequence itself was a bit... awkward. I love the on-screen text giving us a peek into Sherlock's mental process, but this sequence seemed a bit overdone.

Overall, however, another great episode.The writing for the first season was amazing and it doesn't seem to be lessening in quality at all this year. I'm a bit sad that we're only getting three episodes per season, but three episodes of Sherlock seems to be worth any other show's 24-episode run, and more.

I'm still following John's online blog, which I've discovered seems to be updating whenever a new episode airs. This means it probably wont update during the long breaks, which makes me sad, but oh well; it's interesting enough to read now, and if definitely adding a little something extra to the season run. You can go here to watch the [somewhat creepy] video Moriarty posted after hacking onto John's blog after the events of The Hounds of Baskerville, which is definitely making me more excited and anxious for The Reichenbach Fall to air.