Transcript of 3GAR Segment of Sherlock’s The Final Problem Episode

“… an interesting story to tell…”

– The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger (VEIL)

In addition to the numismatics of Sherlock Holmes, we do like to celebrate items that relate to our namesake story, The Adventure of the Three Garridebs. In this post, we will feature a transcription of The Final Problem, the third episode of the BBC television series Sherlock fourth season.

Shortly after the 52-minute mark into the episode, a plot twist occurs and is based on the 3GAR story. Eurus, the previously unknown (to us) sister of Sherlock and Mycroft, are having those two and John Watson solve mysteries as part of an experiment (now on its second level). This segment introduces us to the Brothers Garridebs – Nathan, Alex and Howard.  As we know, in the original story, these men are not brothers and one is totally fictitious.

Now, the transcript:

SHERLOCK: No, I mean what airport are you …

(There’s a click as he speaks, and Eurus’ image reappears on the screen at the end of the room.)

EURUS (sing-song): Enough for now. (She leans close to the camera, her eyes wide.) Time to play a new game.

(Sherlock turns away in frustration.)

EURUS (sitting back in her chair): Look on the table in front of you.

(Sherlock and John are standing either side of the glass table. Mycroft stands a few feet away with his arms still folded.)

EURUS (more sternly): Open the envelope! If you want to speak to the girl again, earn yourself some phone time!

(Putting the pistol on the table, Sherlock picks up the envelope.)

MYCROFT: This is inhuman; this is insane!

JOHN (firmly, looking at him): Mycroft, we know.

(Mycroft lowers his eyes, looking exasperated. Sherlock has opened the envelope and taken out the contents.)

EURUS: Six months ago, a man called Evans was murdered; unsolved except by me.

(Sherlock starts laying three glossy photographs side by side on the table. As Eurus continues to speak, a bright light comes on at the end of a beam above Sherlock’s head. He looks up and sees a hunting rifle resting in a rack which has been attached to the side of the beam.)

EURUS: He was shot from a distance of three hundred metres with this rifle.

(Sherlock stretches up and takes down the gun.)

EURUS: Now, if the police had any brains they’d realise there are three suspects, all brothers. Nathan Garrideb, Alex Garrideb and Howard Garrideb.

(Sherlock has been looking towards the screen while she spoke but now looks down at the photos spread out on the table. Each one is of a different man. The first, wearing grey trousers, a blue shirt, a brown corduroy jacket and glasses, is in an outdoor car park and the word “NATHAN” has been written on the picture; the second man, wearing a dark blue suit, is standing talking on his phone, perhaps in an office environment, and the photo is labelled “ALEX”; and the third man, wearing a white T-shirt and black jumper with a dark jacket and trousers, is walking near rocky cliffs and his picture is labelled “HOWARD”. Above the three photos the envelope, laid face-up, has the word “EVANS” written on it.)

EURUS: All these photos are up-to-date, but which one pulled the trigger, Sherlock? Which one?

JOHN (looking towards the screen): What’s this? W-we’re supposed to solve this based on what?

SHERLOCK (looking at the photos): This. This is all we get.

EURUS: Please, make use of your friends, Sherlock. I want to see you interact with people that you’re close to. Also, you may have to choose which one to keep.

(John frowns and glances towards Mycroft. Sherlock turns and holds out the rifle in both hands, looking at his brother. We see that it’s not a modern rifle and much of it is made of dark wood. A telescopic sight is attached to the top.)

SHERLOCK: What do you make of it?

MYCROFT: Am I being asked to prove my usefulness?

SHERLOCK: Yes, I should think you are.

MYCROFT: I will not be manipulated like this.

SHERLOCK: Fine. John?

(He turns to him, offering him the rifle. Mycroft bites his lip and turns his head away.)

SHERLOCK (more firmly): John?

(John has been looking at Mycroft but now turns and takes the rifle.)

JOHN: Yeah, I think I’ve seen one of these. It’s a buffalo gun. (He raises the rifle and aims it towards the floor at the other end of the room, looking into the telescopic sight.) I’d say nineteen forties, old-fashioned sight, no crosshairs.

(Sherlock takes back the rifle and looks down at the photos.)

SHERLOCK: Glasses, glasses. (He points to the first photograph.) Nathan wears glasses. Evans was shot from three hundred metres.

(Brief cut-away to Nathan’s hands – as evidenced by the corduroy jacket – raising the rifle in front of him and moving his finger towards the trigger.

In the small room Sherlock raises the rifle and aims it towards the opposite wall as if he’s about to fire it.)

SHERLOCK: Kickback from a gun with this calibre …

(Cut-away to Nathan holding the rifle to the firing position and pulling the trigger. As it fires, the gun jolts backwards towards his face and the sight smashes into the right lens of his glasses and shatters it.)

SHERLOCK (lowering the gun): … would be massive.

(He bends down and puts his finger onto the photo of Nathan, tapping it a couple of times.)

SHERLOCK: No cuts, no scarring. Not Nathan, then. (He turns the photo over.) Who’s next?

(He moves his fingers across to the next picture.)

MYCROFT (sarcastically): Well done, Doctor Watson. How useful you are.

(John looks up at him.)

MYCROFT: Do you have a suspicion we’re being made to compete?

JOHN (stepping towards him): No, we’re not competing. There’s a plane in the air that’s gonna crash, so what we’re doing is actually trying to save a little girl. Today we have to be soldiers, Mycroft, soldiers …

(Sherlock, who had been looking at the remaining photographs, lifts his head to watch John. John’s voice, while still fairly low, becomes more firm.)

JOHN: … and that means to hell with what happens to us.

(Sherlock lowers his head again while John walks away towards the other end of the table. Mycroft raises his eyebrows briefly.)

MYCROFT (sounding genuine): Your priorities do you credit.

JOHN (angrily, turning back to face him): No, my priorities just got a woman killed.

EURUS (from the screen): Now, as I understand it, Sherlock, you try to repress your emotions to refine your reasoning. I’d like to see how that works, so, if you don’t mind, I’m going to apply some context to your deductions.

(There’s a noise from behind the boys and they turn to look. Outside the window three men drop into view, each suspended from a rope attached to a harness. The ropes tighten and the men are left dangling in mid-air, each behind one of the three panes of glass. Their hands are bound in front of them with rope and white scarves are tied around their mouths. Each man has a large card hung around his neck with string. The cards flutter in the wind as the men struggle against their bonds.)

MYCROFT: Oh, dear God.

EURUS: Two of the Garridebs work here as orderlies, so getting the third along really wasn’t too difficult.

(Our boys walk towards the window, staring out of it.)

EURUS: Once you bring in your verdict, let me know and justice will be done.

(We now see that the signs around the struggling men’s necks have their names on them.)

SHERLOCK: Justice?

JOHN: What will you do with them?

EURUS: Early release.

(Sherlock’s eyes lower towards the water below the men. He turns away from the window.)

SHERLOCK: You’ll drop them into the sea.

EURUS: Sink, or swim.

JOHN (angrily, turning to look at the screen): They’re tied up!

EURUS: Exactly! Now there is context.

(Sherlock lays the rifle on the table and bends to the photos, resting his hands on the glass at either side.)

EURUS: Please, continue with your deductions. I’m now focusing on the difference to your mental capacity a specified consequence can make.

[She’s a Holmes, all right, because she loudly clicks the ‘k’ on the last word. Your transcriber, who usually giggles and squees at a k-click, grimaces this time.]

MYCROFT (angrily): Why should we bother?

(John glances back to the men outside the window.)

MYCROFT: What if we’re disinclined to play your games, little sister?

(Eurus chuckles, not very humorously.)

EURUS: I have – if you remember – provided you with some motivation.

(There’s a click on the speaker.)

GIRL’s VOICE (frightened): We’re going through the clouds, like cotton wool.

(Mycroft clasps his hands behind his head, lowering it in frustration. Sherlock, who had been bent over the table looking closely at the photographs, straightens up and closes his eyes as he speaks.)

SHERLOCK: Oh. That’s nice. Try to tell me more about the plane.

GIRL: Why won’t my mummy wake up?

(The speaker clicks again. The image of water has been pouring down the screen at the end of the room but now Eurus reappears. Sherlock lowers his head and moves his fingers across the photographs on the table.)

SHERLOCK (softly, intensely): So it’s got to be one of the other two.

(He turns and looks at the men outside the window.)

SHERLOCK (louder): Now, Howard.

(He walks closer and stares at the man on the left who has that name card around his neck.)

SHERLOCK (quick fire): Howard’s a lifelong drunk. Pallor of his skin, terminal gin blossoms on his red nose … (he zooms in on the man’s face and then lowers his gaze to his hands) … and – terror notwithstanding – a bad case of the DTs.

[Delirium tremens.]

(Cut-away of Howard raising the rifle in front of him and cocking it with his thumb. As he moves his finger towards the trigger, his hand is shaking. The camera closes in on his face which twitches as he tries to squint into the telescopic sight. He fires the rifle and the bullet flies in slow motion towards a man in a white T-shirt – presumably Evans – but misses and goes past his head by quite a distance.)

SHERLOCK: There’s no way he could have taken that shot from three hundred metres away.

(He walks across the window to face the man dangling between the other two.)

SHERLOCK: So that leaves us with Alex.

(He squints at him.)

SHERLOCK (quick fire): Indentations on the temples suggest he habitually wears glasses. Frown lines suggest a lifetime of peering.

MYCROFT: He’s shortsighted, or he was. His recent laser surgery has done the trick.

SHERLOCK (briefly glancing round to him): Laser surgery?

MYCROFT: Look at his clothes. He’s made an effort.

(Sherlock looks at Alex’s suit.)

JOHN (softly): That’s very good.

SHERLOCK (softly, intensely): Excellent. Suddenly he sees himself in quite a different light now that he’s dumped the specs. Even has a spray tan. But he’s clearly not used to his new personal grooming ritual.

(He zooms in on the man’s dirty fingernails.)

SHERLOCK (quick fire): That can be told by the state of his fingernails and the fact that there’s hair growing in his ears. (He has focused on the left side of the man’s head and the tufts of hair coming from his ear.) So, it’s a superficial job, then.

(His tone becomes firmer.)

SHERLOCK: But he got his eyes fixed. His hands were steady. He pulled the trigger.

(He turns to the screen, pointing back towards Alex.)

SHERLOCK: He killed Evans.

EURUS: Are you ready to condemn the prisoner?

MYCROFT: Sherlock, we can’t do this.

SHERLOCK (lowering his hand and turning back towards the window): The plane, remember?

EURUS (more firmly): Sherlock? Are you ready?

(Sherlock turns his head a little. John turns to look at him. Sherlock bites his lip for a moment, then speaks softly.)

SHERLOCK: Alex.

EURUS: Say it. Condemn him.

(Looking grim, John turns to look at the man outside the window.)

EURUS: Condemn him in the knowledge of what will happen to the man you name.

(Sherlock turns to face the window, looking into Alex’s face. He pauses for a long moment.)

SHERLOCK (quietly but determinedly): I condemn Alex Garrideb.

(Instantly the ropes holding the other two men release and they plunge downwards out of sight. The men inside the room look shocked.)

JIM’s VOICE (softly, from the speakers): Mind the gap.

EURUS: Congratulations.

(Sherlock closes his eyes briefly, and all three of them turn towards the screen.)

EURUS: You got the right one.

(As Sherlock walks slowly towards the screen, Eurus tilts her head towards the door to the right of the screen, which starts to slide open.)

EURUS: Now, go through the door.

JOHN (walking towards the screen, his voice quiet but angry): You dropped the other two. Why?

EURUS (looking curiously towards the camera): Interesting.

JOHN (furiously, loudly): WHY?

EURUS: Does it really make a difference, killing the innocent instead of the guilty? (She looks down thoughtfully.) Let’s see.

(She stabs a finger down onto the remote control lying on the desk. John turns to look out of the window just as Alex’s rope releases and he plunges downwards. Jim’s voice can be heard and his red-lit face appears on the screen briefly.)

JIM: The train has left the station!

EURUS (thoughtfully): No. That felt pretty much the same.

(Sherlock had been walking towards the open doorway but has turned back and walks to stand behind John who is staring towards the window, his teeth bared, breathing heavily.)

By the way, that transcript was prepared by Ariane DeVere, aka Callie Sullivan, and can be found HERE. The clip matches up shortly after the start of her transcript, which is the third of four parts, for that episode.

It’s interesting to see the creative team of the series including an “easter egg” reference to the 3GAR into this plot that had many easter eggs as well for the other stories of the original Canon. What are your thoughts on how they handled this?