The episode starts off with Mycroft and Sherlock in a top secret meeting with government officials. Mycroft is saying, that they have edited the video of Sherlock shooting Magnussen, so that it looks like a soldier shot Magnussen. So Sherlock is now a free man and he can figure out the whole Moriarty video.
Lady Smallwood asks Sherlock how he is going to handle Moriarty. Sherlock reply's that he is going to wait, since he figures he is Moriarty's target.
Now onto the little things that I did not like and did like about this episode. So during this whole top secret meeting Sherlock is acting like an idiot, because he is still high from "The Abominable Bride", this episode apparently happens right after that episode.
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/78/63/d2/7863d2dd16a608a42ad51dd89fc21a99.jpg)
I know they were trying to be funny here being like, "Look how funny Sherlock is when he is high! HAHA!" But this is inconsistent. We have seen Sherlock high on two other occasions. He was high in "His Last Vow" and he was not acting like this. He was also high in "The Abominable Bride" which this high is a continuation of, and he most certainly was not acting like this.
Ok also this is a small thing I don't like, it just seemed out of character. Why is Sherlock tweeting? He seems like the last person in the world who would have a Twitter account.
(https://mobile.twitter.com/Anythingbatch/status/815704797215158272?s=09)
Also in this episode they throw in this random fact that Sherlock is afraid of death, even though Sherlock has almost died on multiple occasions and it never seemed to bother him to much before.
This episode also has very weird editing, it distracted me from the episode.
(https://www.instagram.com/p/BOv5kUWh36r/)
(http://screenrant.com/sherlock-six-thatchers-easter-eggs-references/)
This episode does have some funny moments. Like Mary going into labor. This is just hilarious.
(https://www.instagram.com/p/BOxUv0dg-7r/)
Or that time Sherlock was trying to rationalize with baby Watson.
(http://scatteredquotes.com/30-best-sherlock-quotes-4x01/)
Or that other time Sherlock didn't realize that John had been a balloon for hours.
(http://scatteredquotes.com/30-best-sherlock-quotes-4x01/)
Anyways back to the story of the episode. Really the episode doesn't start till eleven minutes in. Lestrade comes to Baker Street with a case. Michael Gregson (yes, it is the same actor who played Lady Edith's lover) he is having a birthday party, and his son Charlie is video calling him from Tibet. He tells Michael Gregson to take a picture of a Power Ranger he has on his car. He does it and loses connection with his son. A week later a man trying to get away from the police runs his car into Charlie's parked car. The cars explode and they find Charlie's skeleton in the front seat. Charlie had apparently been dead for a week.
John, Sherlock, and Lestrade head off to talk to Michael Gregson and not Lady Edith. Sherlock solve's the case in a matter of minutes.
However while there Sherlock becomes fixated on a smashed Margaret Thatcher bust. They tell him that someone broke into their house and smashed the bust. Sherlock thinks however that Moriarty is somehow connected to it.
Sherlock discovers that there are more Thatcher busts. The other four get smashed like the first one. Sherlock finds the address of the last one and goes there to wait for the person who has been smashing the busts.
Then Ajay, the one who has been smashing the busts, comes. Sherlock and Ajay then have a fight scene. I have heard that some people didn't like this scene. I however liked it, because I felt like we got a glimpse of what Sherlock had been doing the two years he was dead. I feel like we are watching him use the skills he acquired while trying to dismantle Moriarty's web.
Sherlock finally gets the upper hand and smashed the Thatcher bust himself, expecting to find the Black Pearl, which Moriarty wanted. However he finds a memory stick that is identical to the one Mary had.
(http://www.aminoapps.com/page/sherlock/3905005/the-six-thatchers-a-discussion-iamsherlocked)
Turns out that Ajay used to work with Mary. Ajay says that Mary betrayed their team and he wants revenge.
We then get a flashback of Mary and her spy squad trying to save hostages. It ends up going wrong and Mary was the only one who made it out.
Back in present time, Sherlock texted Mary to meet him in his creepy little hideout. He shows Mary the memory stick, and she tells Sherlock a bit about her past. Sherlock tells her that Ajay wants to kill her. Mary then drugs Sherlock and takes the memory stick and goes all Jason Bourne on us.
(http://oncenerd.com/sherlock-33-nerdy-spots-in-the-six-thatchers/)
(https://www.instagram.com/p/BOxBy6KjRBh/)
We find out later that Sherlock put a tracker into the memory stick, however it is implied when she comes back that she has been gone for a while. What were Sherlock and John doing this whole time? Playing Mario Kart? I don't understand why they waited so long to actually go and get her.
Sherlock and John find Mary in Morocco, and they have a confrontation with Ajay who was following Sherlock and John. Ajay ends up dying and Sherlock, John, and Mary go back to London.
On the plane ride back to London, we get a flashback of John having an emotional affair, with a woman he met on the bus. He had this affair before Mary left to protect him and their daughter. Now John having an affair seems very out of character to me. Since up until this point they have portrayed John to be the most loyal person to have ever lived.
Is he doing this because he is still mad at Mary for shooting Sherlock? Or because she lied to him about her past? I don't know, and we are never given a reason for his actions.
This would have made more sense to me, if John had had his emotional affair after Mary left. Because he would have felt sad, hurt, betrayed, and it would have made more sense to me at least if this is when it had happened. Instead of John doing it when they were happy and everything was great.
Basically this picture is how I felt about this whole thing.
(https://www.instagram.com/p/BOxhnngFSoR/)
Back in London we see that Sherlock suspects it was Lady Smallwood who betrayed Mary and her team. However Lady Smallwood is proved to be innocent.
Then from a throw away line Mary said early on in the episode, Sherlock figures out that it was Lady Smallwood's secretary, Vivian Norbury. Norbury had only been in two scenes in the whole episode and she only talked once.
Sherlock and Mary confront Norbury. Norbury tells them how she was selling secrets and how one of the hostages Mary's team was sent to save knew about it. Norbury was also in contact with the terrorist who were holding the hostages. She ordered the terrorist to kill everyone.
Sherlock who doesn't know when to shut up, keeps on antagonizing Norbury. Norbury wanting to prove Sherlock wrong tries to shoot him. Mary jumps in front of Sherlock, and takes a bullet to the chest.
John then arrives, and Mary is able to say goodbye before she dies.
( https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/d5/ff/1d/d5ff1de51de75e019146da4f8203bcc1.jpg)
John then blames Sherlock for Mary's death. To that I reply with this.
(https://www.instagram.com/p/BOwlbOqDlOS/)
My only complaint about this scene is John's sobbing or screaming, just the weird noises Martin Freeman made during this scene. This was a really well acted scene and it was a very tense scene and then you hear that noise and it takes you out of the moment. It makes a sad scene silly.
https://youtu.be/GcLtjIhOUnw
Sherlock goes to John's house and Molly opens the door, and gives him a message from John.
(https://www.instagram.com/p/BOvxAcZhh9Y/)
Sherlock back at Baker Street asks Mrs. Hudson if whenever she see's him getting cocky if she will say Norbury to him.
Now I really like this scene, it shows that Sherlock really did care about Mary, and that sadly like John he is blaming himself for his friends death.
Sherlock then finds a DVD.
(https://thestoryfever.wordpress.com/tag/sherlock/)
Sherlock thinking that it is from Moriarty puts it on to watch it. Turns out to be from Mary. When did she make this? When did she send it? We are never given an answer to this.
On the video, Mary gives Sherlock a case.
(http://scatteredquotes.com/30-best-sherlock-quotes-4x01/)
So that was "The Six Thatchers" overall I think it was an ok episode. It had a some laughs, a lot of drama, John Watson being out of character, and a lot of flashbacks.
All in all I give "The Six Thatchers" 6/10
