- Sherlock must confiscate something of importance from a mysterious woman named Irene Adler.
- Following a bizarre stand-off with master criminal Moriarty, ended when the villain responds to a phone call, Sherlock interrupts his investigation of a rural slaying when summoned to Buckingham Palace. Dominatrix Irene Adler has incriminating photos of a royal princess which Sherlock is engaged to retrieve; however, having engineered a meeting with Irene, Sherlock realizes that she has far more dangerous evidence in her possession, sought by rogue CIA agents, which causes her to fake her death and pass the facts, encrypted in her camera phone, to Sherlock. Having deciphered the explosive result and discovered a government plot, Sherlock has to consider if Irene can be trusted and indeed if she is in league with Moriarty.—don @ minifie-1
- Sherlock Holmes and his Internet-blogging friend Dr. John Watson are summoned to Buckingham Palace to deal with a matter of national importance. Sherlock's brother, Mycroft Holmes, tells them that dominatrix Irene Adler has been in touch with Palace officials to tell them she has in her possession embarrassing photos of one of the younger royals, a regular client. She hasn't asked for money and there has been no suggestion from her that she is blackmailing anyone. Holmes meets her and is fascinated by her intellect and boldness. She's obviously in trouble however and clearly has something that a CIA black ops team is out to retrieve.—garykmcd
- Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are visited by some no-nonsense types who whisk them away to Buckingham Palace. There they are met by Mycroft Holmes and a representative of a royal person, though which one is not disclosed. A dominatrix, Irene Adler, has compromising photographs of important government officials, stored in a camera phone, and the palace wants Holmes to track down the phone and secure it. Holmes takes the case, but, in dealing with Ms Adler, he starts to show signs of deeper feelings for her.—grantss
- The standoff between Sherlock and Moriarty is interrupted by a phone call to the latter. Following the call, Moriarty, having "received a better offer", lets Sherlock and John leave alive. In the following weeks, Sherlock becomes a minor celebrity after John blogs about his activities. While investigating a case where a man died in the countryside, Sherlock and John are brought before Sherlock's brother Mycroft (Mark Gatiss) in Buckingham Palace. He and a palace official reveal that Irene Adler (Lara Pulver), a dominatrix known professionally as "The Woman", took compromising photographs of her and a female member of the royal family. They want the pair to retrieve her mobile phone. Sherlock and John attempt to use deception to get into Adler's home. However Adler has been expecting them, and appears to them completely naked, leaving Sherlock unable to deduce anything about her, but through a ruse he finds that she keeps her phone in a safe. Several Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives led by Nielson (Todd Boyce) break into the house and demand that Sherlock open the safe, which he does after realising the combination is Adler's measurements. The safe is booby-trapped with a handgun that kills one of the assailants. After the rest are disarmed, Sherlock takes the phone which also contains other valuable information. However, Adler sedates him and steals the phone back before escaping. Sherlock later wakes up in his bed to find that Adler tampered with his phone, by adding a personalised ringtone of Adler sighing erotically that is sounded whenever she sends him a text.
Six months later, Sherlock learns (via text message) that Adler has sent him her phone (which requires a code that he does not know to unlock), and realises she will be found dead; her mutilated body is later found and identified. Some time later, John is contacted by Mycroft Holmes' assistant, who takes him to the abandoned Battersea Power Station. Expecting to see Mycroft, he is surprised to find Adler, who faked her death to shake off the people who are out to kill her for the phone. Sherlock, having followed him, is now also aware of Adler's survival. Sherlock returns home to find that Nielson's team are making another attempt to take the phone, by imprisoning his landlady Mrs Hudson (Una Stubbs). Sherlock tricks and overpowers Nielson and throws him out a window. Later on, Adler reveals that she is still being hunted and asks Sherlock to decipher a code she stole from a Ministry of Defence (MOD) official. He effortlessly cracks the code, revealing it to be an airline seat allocation number. Adler secretly texts the flight information to her contact, Moriarty, who in turn texts Mycroft, revealing that he is now aware of the MOD ploy to fool a terrorist cell that was attempting to bomb a plane.
Adler's attempts to seduce Sherlock are interrupted by government officials who have come to collect him and deliver him to Heathrow Airport. Sherlock remembers Mycroft mentioning "Coventry" on the phone and reminisces about the allegations that the British government allowed the Coventry Blitz to happen, so as not to alert the Germans that their military codes had been cracked. His suspicions that a similar situation is occurring are confirmed by Mycroft; the US and UK governments have decided to fly a "dummy plane" full of corpses so as not to alert the terrorists while avoiding casualties. However, as Sherlock unwittingly helped Adler and therefore Moriarty crack the code, the scheme was foiled. Adler reveals a list of demands to Mycroft, including protection, in exchange for the release of the information on her phone. Adler further taunts Sherlock by revealing that he meant nothing to her. However Sherlock realises she is lying, as he previously took her pulse that proved otherwise. He opens the phone with the password "SHER" (so that its screen reads "I am Sher-locked"), which he finally figured out. With her leverage gone, Adler pleads for protection, as she is unlikely to outrun her enemies, but Sherlock and Mycroft turn her down.
Some months later, Mycroft informs John that Adler has been beheaded by a terrorist cell in Karachi, Pakistan, but asks him to tell Sherlock instead that she has entered a witness protection program in America. Sherlock appears to accept this and asks John to give him Adler's phone. After John leaves, it is revealed in a flashback that Sherlock actually went to Pakistan to pose as her executioner, revealed himself to her, and rescued her.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content