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His Last Vow "His Last Vow" is the third and final episode
of the third series of the BBC Television series Sherlock, which follows the modern-day
adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The episode was first broadcast on 12 January 2014, on
BBC One, and written by Steven Moffat, directed by Nick Hurran with music composed by Michael
Price and David Arnold. The episode is a contemporary adaption of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short
story The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton. In the episode, Sherlock Holmes (Benedict
Cumberbatch) and John Watson (Martin Freeman) take a case about stolen letters. This leads
him into conflict with Charles Augustus Magnussen (Lars Mikkelsen), a "terrifying" villain;
Magnussen was introduced as the main villain of series 3, "the one man Sherlock truly hates".
Holmes and Watson try to get Magnussen arrested; but their attempt fails and Holmes shoots
Magnussen to stop him blackmailing Mary Watson. After its broadcast on BBC One, the episode
received 8.77 million viewers, a 32.1% audience share. Although this was a drop from "The
Sign of Three" and "The Empty Hearse", it was the most tweeted about single episode
of a drama series in the UK. The episode received a positive reception from critics, and Mikkelsen's
role as Magnussen was praised. Plot
Magnussen was called a "terrifying" villain before the episode, as series 3's main villain.
Episode John Watson, whose wife Mary (Amanda Abbington)
is now visibly pregnant, tries to rescue his neighbour's son from a drug den, and he finds
Sherlock high in the same place. With Molly, Anderson, and Mycroft's (Mark Gatiss) help,
he attempts to force him to clean up, but Sherlock insists that he was undercover for
a case. Mycroft realises Sherlock, on behalf of a senior member of the government, is trying
to take on Charles Augustus Magnussen (Lars Mikkelsen), a newspaper owner who blackmails
people ("the one man Sherlock truly hates"), and warns him not to. Magnussen visits Sherlock
to intimidate him and refuses to enter negotiations over his client's stolen letters.
John is also baffled to find Sherlock is now in a relationship with Mary's bridesmaid,
Janine (Yasmine Akram), until he learns that Janine is Magnussen's personal assistant and
the liaison a ruse. With her help, Sherlock breaks into Magnussen's apartment, where he
is shocked to find Mary holding him at gunpoint. Mary shoots Sherlock, who harnesses all his
mental powers to stay conscious. He is taken to hospital, where Mary warns him not to denounce
her. John nonetheless begins to suspect something. Sherlock runs away from the hospital and arranges
a confrontation with Mary, who confesses to having a past as a secret agent and assassin,
for which Magnussen is blackmailing her. She also confirms she intentionally shot Sherlock
in a non-lethal spot and called an ambulance, and she says she is desperate to keep John
in the dark as she loves him. John, however, witnessed the conversation and is in turmoil.
Sherlock points out to him he is addicted to a dangerous lifestyle and was most probably
attracted to Mary because of her hidden past. Mary gives John a memory stick containing
information on her, marked with her true initials. The stick is labelled "A. G. RA" (no full
stop after the R or A). She also tells him the content will destroy his love for her.
After sitting on the memory stick for a few months, John decides to destroy it without
reading it and to love Mary regardless, much to her relief. While the couple spends Christmas
with the Holmes brothers at their parents', Sherlock drugs everyone except John and takes
him to Magnussen's country property, Appledore, which is supposed to contain his blackmailing
archive. During their confrontation, Magnussen explains his purpose in putting pressure on
Mary was to arrive at Mycroft via John and Sherlock. Magnussen also reveals he was the
one who had John abducted and hidden in a bonfire (in "The Empty Hearse") in order to
confirm that John is Sherlock's "pressure point".
Sherlock offers to buy his information on Mary with the state secrets contained in Mycroft's
laptop, which he has just stolen from him. Magnussen realises immediately Sherlock is
setting up a trap: security services looking for the laptop will raid his vaults, find
their contents and arrest him as a blackmailer. He reveals triumphantly this cannot work because
his vaults are empty: he actually relies entirely on his memory and keeps no physical records.
By giving Magnussen Mycroft's laptop, Sherlock and John are now guilty of attempting to sell
government secrets whereas Magnussen cannot be charged with anything. To pass the time,
until Mycroft's government forces arrive, he demonstrates his control over Sherlock
and John by taunting them while repeatedly flicking John's face. When Mycroft and the
police arrive, a distraught Sherlock shoots Magnussen in the head realising he has no
alternative if he is to securely protect the Watsons from Mary's past, and save John from
being charged with high treason. Mycroft convinces the government to spare
Sherlock a trial and, as an alternative punishment, press him into a highly dangerous MI6 mission
to Eastern Europe. He is, however, recalled within minutes when TV screens all over Great
Britain are hacked to broadcast a loop of Jim Moriarty (Andrew Scott) asking "Did you
miss me?" Sources and allusions
"His Last Vow" is a play on "His Last Bow", the final Holmes story by Conan Doyle, in
which the detective has retired to Sussex to keep bees. The plot is unrelated, though
Janine mentions she is planning to buy a cottage in Sussex which contains beehives she wants
to remove. The dialogue also echoes Holmes' reference in that story to a wind from the
east to signify upcoming danger. The plot is similar to "The Adventure of Charles
Augustus Milverton", as Charles Augustus Magnussen's name is taken from the title character of
the short story and "Appledore" is the name of the character's house in both the original
and the episode. In both stories, Holmes gets engaged to the villain's employee in order
to gain access to his inner sanctum. Mary reveals her true identity in what Sherlock
calls "the empty house", an alleyway hidden behind the supposed fronts of two houses in
Leinster Gardens. Mary also thinks Sherlock has tricked her by positioning a dummy of
himself at the end of the alley to confuse her as to his actual location. In "The Adventure
of the Empty House" a dummy is actually used to fool assassin Colonel Sebastian Moran in
an empty house. The letters A. G. RA are said to be Mary Watson's
true initials. In The Sign of Four, the first original Holmes story to feature Mary Morstan,
the Agra Treasure is a main focal point and cause of dispute. A close examination of the
memory stick shows it is actually labelled "A. G. RA" (no full stop after the R or A).
The drug addict Bill Wiggins is one of the Baker Street Irregulars in the same novel.
The opening, where John travels to a drug den to retrieve the son of a family friend
and finds Sherlock Holmes as well, comes from the opening of "The Man with the Twisted Lip".
Production Casting
In July 2013, it was announced that Mikkelsen would star in an episode in the third series,
but it was not stated which episode. He stated that when he received the script, his first
impression was that it was "the best script I’ve ever read".
Benedict Cumberbatch's real-life parents, Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham, play the
parts of Sherlock's parents. Filming
Filming for "His Last Vow" began on 29 July 2013. Some filming was in Cardiff, and some
in Leinster Gardens, where houses 23 and 24 were shown to be mere façades.
Scenes set at 'Appledore', Magnussen's house, were filmed at Swinhay House in Gloucestershire,
owned by Sir David McMurtry, boss of Renishaw engineering.
Broadcast and reception The last Sherlock episode of series 3; "His
Last Vow" was first broadcast on BBC One on Sunday 12 January 2014 between 8:30pm and
10:00pm GMT. Overnight, the episode was watched by 8.77 million viewers, a 31.9% share, which
was down from 9.2 million (33.8%) for the opening episode of the series, "The Empty
Hearse". However, when final ratings were factored, it increased to 11.38 million, the
same as "The Sign of Three", but still down from "The Empty Hearse". The episode was later
repeated on the digital channel BBC Three on Friday, 17 January 2014 from 9pm GMT.
The episode was aired in the United States of America on 2 February 2014, on PBS Masterpiece.
The British Board of Film Classification gave the episode a 12 certificate, for "moderate
violence, drug references and one use of strong language". The episode was released in the
UK on DVD and Blu-ray Disc with the other episodes in the series ("The Empty Hearse"
and "The Sign of Three") on 20 January 2014. Critical reception
"His Last Vow" received critical acclaim, with Louisa Mellor of Den of Geek said the
episode was "as good a finale as Sherlock's ever had", and admired the plot. Mark Jefferies
of The Mirror called the episode "easily the best yet in this run", with a "fascinating"
plot, he also praised Mikkelsen as "brilliant". Josh Wilding, also of The Mirror, said the
episode "was in many ways the best episode of Sherlock yet" and called it "simply one
of the greatest TV shows of all-time", giving it 5/5. Oliver Jia of The Punk Effect lauded
the episode stating, "His Last Vow brings everything full circle, with its themes of
friendship, love, and deception... I’ve come to the conclusion that Sherlock is one
of the greatest television series ever created. It uses the limitations of the medium to its
utmost advantage, outshining some of the best Hollywood has to offer." Serana Davies of
The Telegraph called the episode "the best of the lot" and gave 4 out of 5 stars, calling
Moffat "the superior Sherlock writer". Although her review was mainly positive, she criticised
the show a bit for becoming "a little vain, rather a show-off". Lucy Mangan of The Guardian
said the episode was "perfect", and a "ceaseless flow of wit, invention and intelligence".
However, The Independent's Neela Debnath said that the episode was "trying far too hard
and is coming across a tad foolish", and consequently "failed to hit new heights". However, she
did praise Mikkelsen as Magnussen, calling his performance "sterling".
Tabloid newspaper the Daily Mail claimed the episode was symptomatic of what they perceive
as the BBC's "left-wing bias", arguing the episode's villain, Charles Augustus Magnussen,
was portrayed as a capitalist, foreign-born newspaper baron, with similarities, they suggest,
to Rupert Murdoch. Media commentator Roy Greenslade, however, contextualised the criticism by suggesting
the BBC is the Daily Mail's "real enemy". As of 26 January 2014 "His Last Vow" has acquired
a 9.6 rating on IMDb with more than 8,000 votes.