Sherlock Review: “The Sign of Three” (Season 3, Episode 2)

The main story that Sherlock decides to tell, and the one that he inadvertently ends up solving during the speech itself, is your typical locked-room murder scenario. A locked shower, with no way in our out, in which they found a soldier with a single stab wound to the abdomen. Watson was just next door, and Sherlock was casing the joint, but neither saw anyone escape; no sign of a weapon, or motive. As such it baffles both our heroes and remains, until Sherlock’s speech, unsolved. The turning point in the case comes slightly later on when Sherlock connects that murder with that of another case involving a women who thought she might have gone on a date with a ghost. After some investigation it transpires that the man has done this to a number of women, seemingly with the aim of getting at someone in particular. But whom? And how does this relate to the attempted murder of a young soldier in the shower? Well, the serial dater – called the Mayfly Man in the episode – is the man who attempted to murder the soldier, and he plans on murdering Watson’s old commanding officer for his part in the death of his brother.

Now, I’m not a medical man. Really, I’m not. Watson goes on to save the man’s life – oddly, we hear nothing of the victim ever again, a boon of the crime being told as a story in a speech, rather than in supposed real time. But the eventual reveal that the soldier was stabbed much earlier on in the day, as practice for a later murder, surviving by dint of the incredibly tight belt on his military uniform holding his body together like a giant pressure-bandage, didn’t seem plausible to me. Are those belts so tight that you wouldn’t feel a blade actually piercing your body? Really? I’d love to be able to defer to a medical expert right now, but unfortunately we don’t keep doctors on retainer. If anyone with medical training wants to get in contact to correct me about the finer medical points of a Sherlock reveal via the comments section of a leading pop culture website, then feel free, but I just don’t buy it. Not at all.

I did like the Major’s moment by himself in the locked room, and how appropriate it would be for him to die in the uniform, but again he just disappears once his scenes are over. It’s like the actual crime needs to be gotten out of the way, so the dancing and drunkenness can begin again. Just a little bit of further exposition with regards to the crime, or the victim, or the impact of the crime on the wedding, would have been nice. A quick chat with the murderer about his motives, who handily for Sherlock and Watson doesn’t argue with them – keep in mind they had no evidence at all – in the back room before going for the bride and groom’s first dance just didn’t do it for me.