So...
- Which is it to be? - Careful.
You decide.
- Which will it be? - What...?
I told you to let it breathe.
Can you taste the comet?
Why couldn't you just come away with me?
Never.
Madam, I need you to remain calm and trust me, I'm a professional.
But beneath this pillow lies the key to my release.
- She misinterpreted my intention entirely. - Naturally, sir.
That's why I find this modern religious fervor so troubling.
- No latitude for misunderstanding. - Faith runs right over reason, sir.
Indeed. And chambermaids were once such a liberal breed.
My wife's a chambermaid, sir.
Anyhow, a good thing she was offended, or we may never have found you.
The inspector's been over to Baker Street himself this morning, sir.
Just joking about the wife, sir.
We've checked everything, sir.
No sign of a break-in and the butler didn't hear a thing.
So body in the bathtub...
his eyes were wide open, and the only thing missing was...
his ring, sir.
Why did you drain the water?
- Out of common decency. - Crime is common, logic is rare.
The decent thing to do is to catch the killer, not provide comfort for the corpse.
What is that?
- Jasmine bath salts, sir. - Superb.
Probably comes from a larger container. It'll either be in the pantry...
high up where it's warm and dry, or in a linen cupboard with a vent.
Constable, you could do worse...
than to check the ground under the rear windows for any footprints.
Data, data, data. I cannot make bricks without clay.
Mr. Holmes?
Was it in the cupboard or the pantry?
It was in the pantry, sir.
I don't know what to make of this.
Excellent work.
Adieu.
What's the meaning of this, Coward? Why have you called this meeting?
Sir Thomas is dead.
I nominate Lord Blackwood as head of the order.
Have you lost your mind?
You know damn well what he's capable of.
Of course he does.
That's why we're here.
That's why we're all here.
My powers and my assets were given to me for one purpose.
A magnificent but simple purpose.
To create a new future.
A future ruled...
by us.
Tomorrow at noon, we take the first step towards a new chapter in our history.
Magic will lead the way.
Once the people of England see our newfound power...
they'll bow down in fear.
Across the Atlantic lies a colony that was once ours.
It will be again.
The Civil War has made them weak.
Their government is as corrupt and as ineffective as ours...
so we'll take it back.
We will remake the world...
create the future.
These men are with me, Standish...
but...
are you?
No, sir. I am not.
These powers that you're playing with...
no man can control.
Well, gentlemen...
someone has to stop him, even if you won't.
I wouldn't do that if I were you.
Save me!
Gentlemen...
don't be afraid.
As you can see...
we are protected.
Come, drink your allegiance here.
You control the police, now use them.
Didn't know you were here.
Since this room is no longer yours, do you mind if I utilize it?
Be my guest.
- In here, chaps. - Where would you like me...
- to put him, sir? - Anywhere is fine.
- Who is he? - The man who tried to kill you at Reordan's.
His neck didn't survive the impact of Dredger landing on him.
Yes.
Thanks for that, by the way.
There is consolation in the knowledge that he could be of service to his fellow man.
Elbows and arms stained with blood, but it's older than his own injuries.
None of it human.
He's not a butcher, let me see.
Yellow flame, green bursts.
An industrial worker.
Coal.
River silt.
The slag on his trousers should put him squarely in...
- Nine Elms. - Sorry, what?
The area you're looking for is Nine Elms.
I wondered.
Do you remember where I put the Lords Register of members' interests?
It's on the stepladder.
Well, Blackwood's had his hand in just about everything that's corrosive to the spirit.
Woolwich Arsenal. Limehouse Chemical Works.
It'll probably be a factory by the river.
What's that?
Never mind.
You don't know where my rugby ball went, do you?
No, not a clue.
Queenshithe Slaughterhouse.
Nine Elms.
A factory by the river.
Well done. That should lead us to Blackwood, dead or alive.
Not us.
You.
Yes.
Just a figure of speech, old boy.
He's left it there on purpose.
More coal, doctor.
That's a good one. He's such a tit.
God. Yeah.
Glad to see you two are working hard.
And I thought we were trying to be discreet.
You would not last one day in the navy.
Are you sure there isn't an alternative means of water transportation than that?
I guarantee you nobody knows London's waterways better.
- Tanner's practically a fish himself. - He certainly drinks like one.
You found a sense of humor, doctor.
If only just a sense.
I better take over, there. Bit tricky down here.
Come on, come on.
- Look familiar? - Yep.
All that's missing is a ginger midget.
They cleared something away from here not minutes ago.
Like what?
Not sure. Something mechanical.
Holmes.
Look at this.
- 1:18. - Chapter and verse.
Revelations 1:18. "I am he that liveth, and was dead."
"And behold, I'm alive for evermore."
I warned you, Holmes, to accept that this was beyond your control...
beyond what your rational mind could comprehend.
- What a busy afterlife you're having. - I want you to bear witness.
Tomorrow, at midday, the world as you know it will end.
Show me your face, it'll be the end of your world.
Save your bullets, Watson.
A gift for you.
What was that about saving bullets?
She followed you here, Holmes.
You led your lamb to slaughter.
Holmes.
This game was designed to hurt.
Watson!
It's warm in here, Watson.
In over your head yet, darling?
- Hold on there. - I can't.
Let me take your weight.
Give us a leg up, old boy.
These German locks always give me trouble.
It's a band saw.
No matter, we have plenty of time.
Holmes.
- It's not working. - Keep calm.
Holmes, hurry up.
Don't get excited. Turn off that valve.
And we'll bounce in 3, 2...
1.
Thank you.
I'm gonna get after Blackwood.
Thank you.
We should help the doctor.
Holmes!
Mr. Holmes.
Sir.
Mr. Holmes.
Mr. Holmes, we have an order for your arrest, sir.
Sir!
Lord Coward has issued a warrant for your arrest, sir.
Now, Watson's alive.
Just get out of here, sir. Go, sir, go.
Will the train be departing on time?
The train's been delayed, madam.
Shouldn't be long now, though.
The train will depart when I tell it to.
And you will leave my employment when I allow you to.
I fulfilled my contract.
I found Reordan.
He's in Scotland Yard's mortuary.
So that's me, finished.
Your job was to manipulate Holmes' feelings for you...
not succumb to them.
You have fulfilled nothing.
I want what Reordan was making for Blackwood.
Finish the job or the next dead body...
will be Sherlock Holmes.
The surgeon should be along shortly.
He should be able to rest now.
Excuse me.
Is that the best you can do?
Yes, for now.
I must attend to my other patients.
Doctor.
Please.
I know that you care for him as much as I do.
This is not your responsibility, it was his choice.
He'd say that it was worth the wounds.
Solve this.
Whatever it takes.
This is beyond your control.
Sheer bloody panic, sir. Panic.
- It's Lord Blackwood, sir. - I've never been in over my head.
It's nothing to do with me, but I advise you leave the case alone.
- Solve this. - Are you, Holmes?
Accept that this was beyond your control.
- Tomorrow, at midday, the world will end. - I've got a public in frenzy.
Holmes!
Widen your gaze.
You must widen your gaze. Widen your gaze.
You and I are bound together on a journey that will twist the very fabric of nature.
Steel your mind, Holmes. Widen your gaze.
He's gonna raise a force that will alter the world.
- His power grows daily. - This is the source of his power.
I need you.
His secret lies in the book of spells.
3 more will die...
and there is nothing you can do to save them.
We know you don't believe in magic.
Reordan was working with Blackwood.
Is that better?
He clearly felt something was coming to get him.
His eyes were wide open and the only thing missing was his ring.
Give up, Holmes.
This is a riddle you cannot solve.
Good morning.
Now, you need to work.
Familiar artwork.
You look gorgeous.
Somehow I knew you wouldn't leave.
You made the front page.
Only a name and no picture.
So it looks like you'll be needing to work outside the law now...
and that's my area of expertise.
I feel safer already.
You seem to be making a rapid recovery.
Yes.
Took the shrapnel out myself.
Mary said I had a lousy doctor.
Well, I'm...
I'm just so...
very glad that you're...
well...
with us.
Now that you're sitting comfortably, I shall begin.
My initial approach was far too narrow.
When Blackwood invited me to Pentonville Prison...
he suggested I widen my gaze and, at minimum, I have done just that.
In fact, I may well have reconciled thousands of years of theological disparity.
But that's for another time.
Blackwood's method is based on a ritualistic mystical system...
that's been employed by the Temple of the Four Orders for centuries.
To fully understand the system, to get inside it...
I reenacted the ceremony we interrupted at the crypt...
with a few enhancements of my own.
My journey took me somewhat further down the rabbit hole than I had intended...
and though I dirtied my fluffy white tail, I have emerged enlightened.
The fraternity who silently control the empire...
share the belief with the kings, pharaohs and emperors of old...
that the sphinx was a door to another dimension...
a gateway to immeasurable power.
It's made up of 4 parts: the foot of a lion, the tail of an ox...
the wings of an eagle, and the head of a man.
In Sir Thomas's secret chamber, I found the bone of an ox...
the tooth of a lion, the feather of an eagle and hair of a man.
Map.
The points of the star represent the 5 murdered girls...
but the cross is what we're now interested in.
It's a widely held belief...
that within the architecture of the great cities...
are coded references to this system.
Since he rose from the grave, Blackwood has killed 3 men...
each committed at a location that has a connection with the temple...
therefore the system.
Reordan, the ginger midget, represents man.
We found his body here.
Sir Thomas, master of the temple, wore the ox ring.
He died here.
Standish, ambassador to America...
where the eagle has been the national emblem for over 100 years.
The headquarters of the Temple of the Four Orders where he died...
is here.
Correspondingly, the map will tell us the location of Blackwood's final act.
So we have man, the ox, eagle.
Only the lion remaining.
Right here.
Parliament.
Right.
You 4 stay here and the rest of you come with me.
- Get out of the way, you lowlifes! - Right this way.
Ladies first.
Now.
Follow these instructions.
- Aren't you...? - Go.
Hello, hello, hello.
Did the devil turn up?
Well...
never mind.
You got the next best thing.
Beg your pardon, my Lord. I know that it's unorthodox...
but Mr. Holmes here...
he's been making some serious accusations about you...
and the order.
I see.
Well, at least that solves the great mystery as to how you became inspector.
Excuse me, my Lord...
but I've been wanting to do that for a long time.
Well, inspector, I have 5 minutes before my next engagement...
so why don't you regale me with your stories of conspiracy?
Thank you, Lestrade.
My Lord.
I'm curious, Coward. Did you assist Blackwood in all the murders...
or just the one I prevented?
Very distinctive, those handmade shoes of yours.
But the price of quality is often the unique imprint they leave.
Nonetheless, I confess to being completely outmatched.
I could deduce very little from my investigation.
Fortunately, there's nothing more stimulating...
than a case where everything goes against you.
How many members of Parliament do you intend to murder at noon today?
Man, ox, eagle, lion.
The lion is Parliament, isn't it?
Very clever.
But it's not murder, Mr. Holmes.
It's mercy.
We are giving the weak masses a strong shepherd.
Don't you see that it's for their own...?
No, but I don't care much what you think.
I simply wanted to know the location of Blackwood's ceremony...
and you've given it to me.
I've told you nothing.
But your clothes say infinitely more than you could ever hope.
The mud on your boots from where you've been walking.
A touch of red brick dust on your knee from where you've been kneeling.
A small bandage on your thumb from where you've been vowing.
A faint aroma of excrement from where you've been standing.
You and Blackwood laid the final touches to your ceremony...
in the sewers beneath Parliament less than an hour ago.
Both houses meet today.
The whole government will be present.
It's a shame you made an enemy out of Blackwood, Holmes.
You would have made a valuable ally.
How terrible is wisdom...
when it brings no profit to the wise.
We take power at noon.
There isn't any time to waste then, is there?
I told you he'd be coming out the top window.
There isn't any way he'd be coming over that terrace.
Technically, that isn't the top window, is it, sailor boy?
- What is it? - Well, it's the middle window.
Anyway.
You'll be pleased to know Lestrade performed perfectly.
In fact, I think he enjoyed it.
I hope you know what you're doing.
Here's the key.
- You got all you needed from Coward? - Yes, I smoked him out with relative ease.
- Tanner? - Sir?
If you would, captain...
take us under the bridge, port side, 100 yards.
Beyond that you'll find the tunnel that leads us to the sewers.
Right away, sir.
The end is nigh.
Blackwood's come back from hell and laid a curse upon this land.
He walks in every shadow and every puff of smoke.
Behold, he cometh with clouds...
and every eye shall see him...
and every soul shall wail because of him.
You cannot stop him! No one can!
Behold, Blackwood's magic revealed.
- What does it do? - It's a chemical weapon.
The first of its kind.
You deduced that how?
From my pocket.
I snipped this off a rather recumbent rat at the slaughterhouse.
Note the blue discoloration, the faint smell of bitter almonds.
- Telltale traces of cyanide. - Cyanide.
Now we know what the ginger midget was working on.
It'll revolutionize warfare.
Yes, killing a lot of people.
Now, it's 7 minutes to noon. What are we gonna do?
Right. How many men did you count on the...?
She loves an entrance, your muse.
Woman!
Shoot him. Now, please.
My lords.
The time has come...
for only those who believe to remain.
Behold...
Lord Blackwood.
You seem surprised.
I have returned from beyond the grave to fulfill England's destiny...
and extend the boundaries of this great empire.
Listen to the rabble outside.
Listen...
to the fear.
I will use that as a weapon...
to control them...
and then the world.
I've never seen anything like it. Look at this.
Specifically designed to prevent us from disarming it.
These appear to be designed to receive a signal of some sort.
Electromagnetic waves?
When triggered, the electrodes...
will send a charge converting the chemical into gas.
The gas will travel up that shaft and filter through the ventilation system...
that leads directly to Parliament. Within seconds...
the most powerful men in the world will be choking on death.
Blackwood must have some transmitter that he can activate remotely.
3 minutes, 10 seconds.
I will create an empire that will endure for millennia...
indestructible...
and eternal.
Move it. Move it.
We don't actually have to disarm the device...
we just have to remove the cylinders.
Yes, except that they're welded in.
What we need is a controlled explosion.
We'll need a container to direct the blast. My clay pipe should service that ambition.
I rather wish you hadn't done that, Irene.
On the 12th chime, I will summon the dark powers.
All those of you who are with me shall be protected.
All others...
will perish.
I need your pipe.
Nut him!
- Right. - What?
- Coat. - Got it.
The new order...
begins now.
Woman.
What are you waiting for?
That.
Apprehend Lord Coward.
- Can you manage? - Course I can.
Relax...
I'm a doctor.
Did you take a wrong turning somewhere?
We're safe now.
Interesting assessment.
Run off.
I won't be chasing you anymore.
Fare thee well.
I don't want to run anymore.
- I'll tell you everything. - I wish you would.
No!
There was never any magic.
Only conjuring tricks.
The simplest involved paying people off...
like the guard who pretended to be possessed outside your cell.
Your reputation and the inmates' fear did the rest.
Others required more elaborate preparations...
like the sandstone slab that covered your tomb.
You had it broken before your burial, then put back together using an adhesive.
An ancient Egyptian recipe, I believe...
a mixture of egg and honey...
designed to be washed away by the rain.
Holmes!
Arranging for your father to drown in his own bathtub...
required more modern science.
Very clever of Reordan to find a paralytic...
that was activated by the combination of copper and water...
and was therefore undetectable once the bath water was drained.
That might've been a challenge for me...
had he not also tested it on some unfortunate amphibians.
The death of Standish was a real mystery...
until you used the same compound to blow up the wharf.
An odorless, tasteless flammable liquid...
yet it burned with an unusual pinkish hue.
Did Standish mistake it for rain as he entered the temple?
All it took was a spark.
A simple rigged bullet in his gun.
Ingenious.
Like all great performers, you saved your pièce de résistance for the end:
A chemical weapon distilled from cyanide and refined in the bellies of swine.
Had it worked...
your followers in Parliament would have watched unharmed...
as their colleagues were dying around them.
They didn't know you'd given them the antidote.
Instead, they would've believed it was magic...
and that you'd harnessed the ultimate power.
And the world would've followed, fear being the most powerful weapon of all.
You'd better hope that it's nothing more than superstition...
as you performed all the rituals perfectly.
The devil is due a soul, I'd say.
For God's sake, Holmes, cut me loose.
First, the world will see you for what you are. A fraud.
Then you'll be hanged.
Properly, this time.
It's a long journey from here to the rope.
I've never woken up in handcuffs before.
I have.
Naked.
Storm's coming.
Well, we've still got a moment.
Moriarty.
What?
That's his name.
And he is a professor.
Everyone has a weak spot...
and he found mine.
Where was it, precisely?
Please don't underestimate him.
He's just as brilliant as you are...
and infinitely more devious.
We'll see about that.
You'll miss me, Sherlock.
Sadly...
yes.
Just keep it under your hat.
Afternoon, sir. I put the notebooks in this one, sir.
- Thank you. - What's in these, John?
Scribbles.
- Scribbles? - Notes.
They're your adventures. I'd like to read them.
Come on, what's wrong?
Do you think he's come to terms with you leaving?
Mary, look at the ring he's given us.
Now, 5 minutes here and we'll go home.
Our home.
Get up those stairs.
Don't worry, dear.
Suicide is not in his repertoire.
He's far too fond of himself for that.
Holmes.
Good afternoon.
I was trying to deduce the manner in which Blackwood survived his execution.
Clearing your good name, as it were.
But it had a surprisingly soporific effect...
and I was carried off in the arms of Morpheus like a caterpillar in a cocoon.
Good afternoon, dear.
Get on with it, Holmes.
Cleverly concealed in the hangman's knot was a hook.
Dear, my legs have fallen asleep. I should come down.
John, shouldn't we help him down?
No, no, no, I hate to cut him off midstream.
Carry on.
Well, the executioner attached it to a harness...
allowing the weight to be distributed around the waist...
and the neck to remain intact.
My Lord, I can't feel my cheeks. Might we continue this at ground level?
How did you manage it, Holmes?
I managed it with braces, belts and a coat hook.
Please, my tongue is going, I'll be of no use to you at all.
- Worse things could happen. - John.
Yet none of this explains Blackwood's lack of pulse.
Right.
Now, the medical mystery. We must restore your reputation, Watson.
There is a toxin refined from the nectar of the rhododendron ponticum.
It's infamous in the region of Turkey bordering the Black Sea...
for its ability to induce an apparently mortal paralysis.
Enough to mislead a medical mind even as well-trained as your own.
- It's known as... - What's wrong with Gladstone?
Mad honey disease.
He's demonstrating the very effect I've just described.
He doesn't mind.
Mary, don't worry, he's seen far worse.
Mr. Holmes?
Doctor. Miss Mary.
Sir, Inspector Lestrade asks that you come with me right away.
- What is it is this time, Clarkie? - It's one of our sergeants, sir.
He went missing the day you stopped Lord Blackwood.
I'm afraid sewage workers found his body just this morning, sir.
We believe the sergeant was our first man on the scene.
Can I help you, officer?
Shot in the head.
Was it a small caliber bullet?
Yes.
Were there powder burns on his eyebrows?
Indeed, sir.
Point blank range?
Moriarty.
Professor Moriarty.
There's a good boy.
Everything's gonna be fine.
Where is Blackwood's device now?
Secret Service have it, sir. They've taken over the case.
I'd wager there's a piece missing.
So Moriarty was after a piece of the machine...
not the poison.
There's nothing more elusive than an obvious fact.
The wire-free invention was the game all along.
And Adler was just the diversion.
He knew I'd chase her, leaving the machine accessible.
A technology of that kind would be worth an untold fortune.
Imagine being able to control any device...
simply by sending a command via radio waves.
It's the future, Watson.
I've loaded the last of your boxes, sir.
Well...
- Gladstone. - Stop him before he gets to the front door.
Clarkie.
Case reopened.