10 Controversial TV Show Retcons That Pissed Off Fans
8. Sherlock - Did You Miss Me?
The ending of the 2016 Sherlock Christmas Special - The Abominable Bride - sees the return of Moriarty in digital form. His face is flashed all across London with the iconic "did you miss me?" being repeated over and over to taunt Sherlock and the rest of the world on his potential disruption from beyond the grave.
The ending of this episode being dedicated entirely to this enormous cliffhanger - including a fan service post-credits scene where Moriarty turns directly to the camera and says "miss me?" to the audience - suggested that Moriarty would be a large player in the show's grand final season. Sherlock seems to think so himself, as he states: "Moriarty's dead. And I know exactly what he's going to do next".
Well it turns out it was all one big pointless publicity grab leading into the final season, as the start of season 4 immediately retcons this cliffhanger as Sherlock is shown to have no idea what Moriarty is going to do next, mainly because Moriarty has absolutely nothing to do next and the public had no reason to miss him while awaiting his return. Moriarty's role in season 4 is tiny, and is shown solely through flashbacks secretly planning his games alongside Sherlock's long lost sister Eurus - aka all things we've already seen.
"Did you miss me?" was essentially a cheap ploy by the writers in order to intrigue fans into believing Moriarty would play a pivotal role in the final season, when really he had no part to play at all and Sherlock's Abominable Bride dialogue was immediately retconned.
Considering fans largely did not enjoy season 4 and found the rushed introduction of Eurus to be riddled with exposition, the non-involvement of Moriarty after what would have been such a well executed return to glory for one last outing royally pissed them off.