A Murder Mystery with Moffat

Oooo. Alliteration. And hey, spoilers ahead.

First of all, I would not consider myself a full-fledged Sherlockian (okay, who’s the wise guy who decided to call the Sherlock fandom “Sherlockians” instead of “Holmies?”) Tumblr keeps me away from a lot of fandoms and the Sherlock and Cumberbatch fandoms specifically are complicated. And by complicated I mean...

 ...stinking weird. But luckily all you need to know about Sherlock you can learn in just a few minutes and it’s that Moffat is ruthless with his characters and likes to take long awkward gaps in between Sherlock episodes (probably to focus on his other show “The Time Travelling Alien That’s Been on TV for 50 Years and Still Has Crap Graphics) which leaves Sherlockians at their wits end.

The fandom celebrated earlier this summer when it was announced that season 4 and a Christmas special is in the works, but recently another interview has surfaced that put a damper on things:

 Sherlock co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss appear to have one heck of a plan up their sleeves for series four of the BBC drama, admitting even their cast were shocked when they heard the news.
“We have a plan to top it,” Moffat told press backstage at last night's Emmys after the success of series three saw the show scoop three awards “Actually, I do think our plan is devastating.
“We practically reduced our cast to tears by telling them the plan. Honestly, Mark [Gatiss] and myself are so excited with what we’ve got coming up, probably more excited than we’ve ever been about Sherlock… honestly, I think we can [top the last season].”

Meanwhile, any fans fearing an imminent conclusion to the popular detective series can breathe a deep sigh of relief as the showrunners have no plans to give the show a rest anytime soon.
“What’s happening with Sherlock is unusual,” says Moffat. “We will keep coming back to it.”

Okay, Moffat's and Gatniss' grasp of human feelz is bad. How bad? So bad that emotional response  from the rooftop scene resulted in the actors’ actually crying while filming “The Reichenbach Fall ” and they left it in like that full of real human sad. That’s what it’s like to work with these two.

So let me get this straight: the guys who heartrendingly killed off the main character, miraculously revived him, only to have his best friend’s wife shoot him through the chest and didn't even bat an eye, were "devastated" over what’s coming this season? Oh my gosh. Someone hold my hand. We’re all going to die.

So what are my predictions over the coming season? I have considered everyone dying. Characters like Mrs. Hudson and Molly and Mary and even Mycroft. But what could possibly top last season? Whatever it is, it ain’t gonna be pretty. They already killed the main character. Bringing him back again is a bit redundant and you can’t have a show without the title character. So there goes that. The whole show is written from the perspective of Watson, so killing him off wouldn't work for the show and indeed would be a discredit to the original books.

Or would it?

Check out this excerpt from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s mystery “The Adventure of the Three Garridebs”

In an instant he had whisked out a revolver from his breast and had fired two shots. I felt a sudden hot sear as if a red-hot iron had been pressed to my thigh. There was a crash as Holmes’s pistol came down on the man’s head. I had a vision of him sprawling upon the floor with blood running down his face while Holmes rummaged him for weapons. Then my friend’s wiry arms were round me, and he was leading me to a chair.

“You’re not hurt, Watson? For God‘s sake, say that you are not hurt!”

It was worth a wound — it was worth many wounds — to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation. 

That’s right kiddies: next to being a traveler, real life crime solver, and literary genius, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was also a huge emotional troll. Since all the Sherlock shows are loosely based off of the actual books, my deduction is that we can expect some variation of the mystery “The Adventure of the Three Garridebs” in the upcoming season in which Watson gets hurt. Presumably very badly.

I haven't quite had time to think about how I feel about this, but as someone who has been a fan of Sherlock Holmes stories since I was 12, I can safely say that I am no stranger to devastation. Wherever there is a fandom, there is someone who feeds off of your tears. On the bright side, maybe we'll finally see an end to all the creepy "Johnlock" fandoms?