Sherlock: 10 Ridiculous Plot Points Lifted Straight From The Books

7. Opposed To Pure, Cold Reason

Second episode The Sign of Three was ambitiously structured as taking place almost entirely within Sherlock's vaguely autistic best man speech at John and Mary's wedding, another example where the self-branded "high functioning sociopath" seemed a little more inhuman than his literary counterpart. The audience viewing at home probably got a lot more laughs than the wedding party as Sherlock systematically insulted everyone from vicar to bridesmaids to the very concept of marriage, finding himself unable to congratulate the happy couple because: "All emotions, and in particular love, stand opposed to the pure, cold reason I hold above all things. A wedding is, in my considered opinion, nothing short of a celebration of all that is false and specious and irrational and sentimental in this ailing and morally compromised world." This is actually almost a direct quote from the episode's vague source novel The Sign of Four, in which Watson meets and proposes to Mary. Holmes' feelings on marriage are given in terms of: "Love is an emotional thing and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true, cold reason I hold above all things. I should never marry, lest I bias my judgment." And Another Thing: The Sign of Four's plot and the cause of Mary meeting Watson is her possible inheritance from her dead father of the stolen Agra treasure. In His Last Vow, when Mary gives John the memory stick with her real identity, it is labelled A G Ra, presumably her real initials.