- Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson find themselves in 1890s London in this Christmas special.
- Imagining himself back in the 1890s, Sherlock is visited by Inspector Lestrade after newlywed Emelia Ricoletti, having apparently killed herself in public, murders her husband Thomas in front of witnesses before vanishing. Some months later Holmes is approached by Lady Carmichael, who tells him that her husband Sir Eustace has been threatened by Emelia, who then seemingly does away with him. With an intrusive Moriarty crossing him, Holmes attempts to solve the enigma, with unexpected help from Watson's wife Mary and evidence of a conspiracy involving half the population of the country.—don @ minifie-1
- Like any Sherlock story, there is an actual case that the detective and his partner are tasked with investigating. This time around, the case is the Abominable Bride, and follows the peculiar, seemingly supernatural event that occurs after a bride rises from the dead following her public suicide and murders her husband. And it is basically set in 1890s London.
- Imagining himself back in 1890s London, Sherlock investigates the unsolved case of an abominable bride: newlywed Emilia Ricoletti goes mad and publicly shoots herself dead before returning as a vengeful ghost to strike down her husband Thomas. Thus begins a string of murders credited to a wedding-gowned ghost preying upon brutal, wayward or neglectful husbands. Sherlock doesn't believe in ghosts and, in seeking out an enemy to whom Mycroft warns he must lose, confronts an old "ghost" adversary of his own.—statmanjeff
- In a Sherlock Holmes mind trip he is taken back to the 1890s. In a setting very much like that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have envisaged, Holmes is a private detective, operating out of 221B Baker Street. Assisting him is Dr Watson. They are presented with a very baffling case. A woman, Emelia Ricoletti, publicly shoots and kills herself, only to appear a few hours later and kill her husband. Within the next few months other murders are committed by woman appearing to be Mrs Ricoletti. Even the police are thinking that paranormal activity is afoot. Then Sir Eustace Carmichael is threatened by such an apparition and his wife calls in Holmes and Watson.—grantss
- The plot revolves around Victorian England and the present day, with incongruities accepted in good faith. In the 19th century, Dr. John Watson has been medically discharged from the Army and moves to London. Watson is introduced to Sherlock Holmes by a fellow student of Bart's, and becomes interested in his investigative principles. Holmes invites Watson to share his new flat in Baker Street, which Watson accepts.
In 1895, Inspector Lestrade arrives and presents Holmes and Watson with a puzzling case: Emelia Ricoletti, a consumptive bride, had fired on by-passers in the street from a balcony before fatally shooting herself. Later that evening, Mr. Ricoletti was confronted by Emelia, who shot him dead before disappearing into the fog. Fascinated by Emelia's apparent survival, Holmes takes the case. At the morgue, Dr. Hooper informs Holmes that the woman who killed herself, the woman who murdered Mr. Ricoletti and the body on hand have all been positively identified as Emelia Ricoletti. Confused, Holmes loses interest in the case. When the bride apparently returns to murder other men, he deduces that these are copycat crimes.
Months later, Holmes' brother Mycroft refers to him a case: Lady Carmichael's husband, Sir Eustace Carmichael, received a threatening warning in the form of an envelope full of orange pips. Sir Eustace is uncooperative, describing his wife as "hysterical"; Holmes and Watson stake out the house for the evening. A ghostly-looking bride appears and disappears in front of them, and the pair hear the sound of breaking glass, followed by screams from both Sir Eustace and Lady Carmichael. They discover Sir Eustace, stabbed to death, by what appears to be Emelia, who then escapes through a broken window. Lestrade arrives and observes a note attached to the dagger, which Holmes says wasn't there when he found the body. The note reads, "Miss me?", a phrase used by the modern-day James Moriarty. After insisting that the case's solution is so simple that even Lestrade could solve it, Holmes meditates. Moriarty appears and insults Holmes about the mystery of Emelia's seeming-suicide-revival, alluding to his similar apparent-death in the present. Moriarty appears to shoot himself in the head but remains alive.
In the present day, it is revealed that the events of Victorian England are actually occurring within Sherlock's drug-laden Mind Palace. The plane has returned to England minutes after taking off after Moriarty's broadcast, and Mycroft, John, and Mary enter the plane to find a frustrated Sherlock rambling about the unsolved Ricoletti case. Sherlock explains he had hoped to solve the case, believing it would prove crucial to solving Moriarty's return.
Victorian Holmes awakens, with an awareness of events of the present as a seeming hallucination induced by cocaine. Holmes receives a telegram from Mrs Watson saying she has found Emelia's co-conspirators at a desanctified church. There, Holmes and Watson discover and interrupt a secret group of the Women's Rights Movement (similar to the Suffragette movement in the late 19th century), whose members include Dr. Hooper, Janine Hawkins, and Watson's maidservant. Holmes explains that they used a double to fake Emelia's death, allowing her to kill her husband and create the persona of the avenging ghost bride. Already dying, she was later killed at her request by being shot through the mouth; the duplicate corpse was replaced by her actual corpse, the one Holmes and Watson saw at the morgue, for a positive identification. Since then, the women have used the persona of the bride to murder men who wronged them. Sherlock surmises that Lady Carmichael, being a member of the society, killed her husband. He makes his accusation to the approaching bride, assuming that it is Lady Carmichael. When he lifts the bride's veil, however, he finds that the "bride" is actually Moriarty.
Sherlock reawakens in the present, where he insists on finding Emelia's grave to prove that her body-double was buried under the coffin. While digging, he hears Emelia's corpse repeatedly whisper "Do not forget me". The corpse moves to attack him, then Holmes awakens in the past on a ledge next to the Reichenbach Falls. Moriarty appears and tells Holmes he is still trapped in his Mind Palace - Holmes realises that the incident at the grave was just another episode in the same dream. The men fight and Moriarty gains the upper hand, but Watson appears and holds Moriarty at gunpoint. Watson kicks Moriarty off the ledge and then asks Holmes how he can waken into the present. Holmes decides to fall over the ledge, having confidence he will survive.
Sherlock wakes up in the present on the plane. Mycroft asks John to look after Sherlock, hoping he will not use drugs again. After John leaves the plane, Mycroft opens Sherlock's notebook, revealing the word "Redbeard". Sherlock concludes that, like Ricoletti, Moriarty did indeed die but arranged with others to carry out plans after his death. The episode ends with Victorian Holmes describing his visions of aeroplanes and mobile telephones to a cynical Watson, before looking out the window onto Baker Street in the present day.
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