#6 The Hounds Of Baskerville (Season 2, Episode 2)
Written by Mark Gatiss
"I meant what I said before. I don't have friends; I've just got one." - Sherlock Holmes, to Dr. John Watson This is the one episode out of the six that's genuinely scary not just suspenseful or nerve-wracking, but with moments that have you on the edge of your seat in anxiety, that make you jump and leave you tense, wondering when the next scare is going to happen. The jump-scares are best when John is trapped in the lab and when Henry Knight, Sherlock, and John are on the moor at night, when there's darkness and strange noises all around, a scene made even more eerie by the fact that we still don't know anything about the hound. Another strength of the episode is its visuals. It has a plethora of beautiful landscape shots of the moor, which make it even more unsettling when night descends and the gorgeous landscape becomes dark, mysterious, and vaguely menacing. The two main settings are the Baskerville lab and the moor, both which become incredibly creepy when cloaked in darkness. In regard to Sherlock and John, we get to see them both in states we haven't seen before. Sherlock is at his most animated in this episode, showing his agitation with frustrated facial expressions and wild gestures that are bizarre and sometimes comical to watch. His most animated moments occur in the very beginning when he's searching for his cigarettes, and when he's seated in front of the fireplace with John after he's seen the hound for the first time. As for John, we get to see him pull rank, which is amusing and awesome to watch, and we also get to see him terrified and losing control of his terror when he's trapped in the lab. Obviously in "The Great Game" when Moriarty has him strapped to explosives John is frightened, but here we see John, the brave and level-headed soldier, unable to reign in his fear, as can be heard as his voice cracks as he pleads with Sherlock to save him. This open display of fear is new for John in the show; open terror is new for Sherlock as well. But Sherlock also faces something even more frightening (to him): doubt. Never before has Sherlock been unable to trust his own senses; the one thing he can count on to never fail him is the evidence of his own eyes, and yet that is betraying him in the moment he needs it most. While this episode has its share of clever aspects, its weak points make it the worst out of the six episodes, although I would still give it a 7/10 for quality television. First off, Sherlock and John seem slightly out of character in a couple scenes. At the beginning, Sherlock is begging John to tell him where he hid his cigarettes. The greatest detective in the world cannot find his cigarettes in his own apartment, because John knew where to hide them. I guess that's kind of sweet that John knows Sherlock that well, but I still had a hard time believing that Sherlock wouldn't be able to find them, especially when the cigarettes just ended up being under the skull on the mantle. Then, when Sherlock and John are sitting at the fireplace and Sherlock is visibly shaken from having seen the hound, it takes John an unusually long time to notice how upset Sherlock is. Sherlock has never acted that way before, so I suppose John wouldn't expect him to be affected, but shouldn't John of all people notice that Sherlock is acting strange? John's lack of concern and insight just seemed very odd to me. There are other strange things that pop up throughout the episode. When Sherlock gets into Baskerville by using Mycroft's I.D., why doesn' t anyone check the photo on the I.D. to make sure it's truly Mycroft? When John and Sherlock bump into Lestrade, how does Sherlock, the one who has pick-pocketed Lestrade's I.D. before, not know Lestrade's first name? I suppose the joke may be that the information isn't important enough for Sherlock to remember, but surely the first name of one of the detective inspectors at Scotland Yard wouldn't be something he would want to forget? This may be a sillier question, but in regards to the H. O. U. N. D. T-shirt that made Henry think that his father was killed by an actual hound, why did they have T-shirts when it was supposed to be a classified, top-secret project? As far as new characters, I wasn't a fan of Henry Knight. I have nothing against Russell Tovey as an actor, and I can imagine it would be difficult to procure sympathy for a character who psychologically is "still a child," as Sherlock says, but in the end I just found him irritating. A second point on visuals: the mind palace was a clever idea to integrate into the episode, and definitely a tool I could see Sherlock using, but the way it was carried out was a bit comical. I had to stifle laughter when Sherlock began making strange gestures and rolling his eyes back in his head. I just couldn't help thinking that, during filming, when there are no words or pictures on the screen, Benedict Cumberbatch probably looked like he was having a very strange seizure. In sum, it was a good idea, but I didn't feel the execution was quite right. Mark Gatiss took on an incredibly daunting task when he chose to adapt Sherlock Holmes' most famous mystery for the show. While many things worked, there were many things that didn't, but I still applaud Gatiss for taking on the challenge. While no official air date has been announced, rumors have been circulating that Season 3 will air in January 2014. We have been given the titles of the next three episodes: "The Empty Hearse" (written by Mark Gatiss), "The Sign of Three" (Steve Thompson), and "His Last Vow" (Steven Moffat). If the past is any indication, Season 3 will be even better than its predecessor. As anticipation (and impatience) from fans builds, I can only speculate on where the new episodes will eventually end up on this list!