#adam jarrell

Charles Augustus Milverton

Alright, straight out the gate I want to say this was a really good adventure. An absolutely excellent combination of mystery, adventure, and fun interactions among the characters. Not to mention some solid meta-narrative building!

First off, I’m really glad it started with Sherlock making a special effort to apologize to Mariana with the fancy breakfast. She deserved it, since he was pretty rude to her too in The Disappearance of Lady Francis Carfax. Honestly, I wouldn’t have blamed the Sherlock & Co. team for leaving that out. The apologies between John and Sherlock already had a lot of focus. But I’m so happy they made a point of including Mariana! She’s part of the team! She matters! Hooray!

This adventure also continues the last adventure’s winks to classic Sherlock Holmes elements. Sherlock wears a deerstalker. John has a mustache and a cane. They even work in calling Sherlock Sherrinford, as a reference to the often theorized third Holmes brother. That one could be just a fun Easter egg, but I do wonder if it could be the result of Mycroft meddling. Misspelling Sherlock’s name in the newspaper could help him keep a low profile.

As far as I know, there’s never been an official Sherlock Holmes adaptation that’s actually included Sherrinford as a character. The closest I’m aware of was on BBC’s Sherlock with that whole Eurus Holmes fiasco. (Oh Eurus. You could have been someone interesting. Why couldn’t you be more like your sister Enola?) It might be interesting to see a Sherrinford someday, ideally in a Victorian setting where he could actually be a squire like folks have imagined.

It was cool to have Penny come back to set up Milverton some more, while also showing what consequences she’s faced for all her lies. But the character I wish we could have met Evan Brackwell’s kick-ass daughter who flashed her boobs at, I assume, Margaret Thatcher’s grave! Fight the fascists, Lady Brackwell!

(Also, what was up with Sherlock being “overly familiar” with the term “wild child”? Did a lot of adults call you that growing up, Sherl? With his academic history and general penchant for chaos as an adult, I wouldn’t be surprised!)

The update to Milverton was solid. He’s an interesting character for me because personally I never thought of him as a stand-out Holmes villain until the BBC show made a big deal about him. I guess it makes sense though. Holmes rarely displays such overt hate for the criminals he faces, so Milverton is a good one to put some spotlight on. I certainly prefer it to the tons of adaptations that just threw Moriarty into every little story.

Here, Sherlock & Co has really shown its chops by coming up with an infinitely better idea than Milverton just having a really good memory. (Which was stupid. That’s such a weak basis for blackmail.) Instead, this version has him collecting verifiable metadata, which is brilliant.

I don’t agree with everything Sherlock and Milverton said about the future of digital technology, but they made enough valid points for Milverton’s MO to be very believable. I also want to give kudos to Adam Jarrell, both the director of the adventure and the voice of Milverton. Congratulations! You successfully portrayed a really unsettling creep!

Seriously though, Jarrell’s acting was very impressive. Milverton came across as slimy, arrogant, intelligent, absolutely amoral, and yet also deeply pathetic and insecure. The layers there were strangely fascinating. I could sense the implication of a very complicated man, where he could have just been a gross scumbag. (Still wish I hadn’t had to hear that voice say “vagina” though...)

Also a shout-out to Joel Emery for writing on this one. It’s excellent in general, but I was especially interested in what Milverton said to John while John was trying to save his life. Why bring up Mary Morsten then? Earlier it was to taunt John about a sensitive subject, but in this scene I think Milverton was sincerely trying to improve the situation. He was trying to motivate John by saying, “This is exactly the sort of wound that killed Mary. If you save me, it will be like growing into someone who would have saved her! You can do it, you great doctor you!” But that intention got so twisted.

It’s clear that no one liked Milverton. He gained all his wealth and power by destroying people’s lives and didn’t seem even capable of attempting kindness. The only way he knew how to get his way was through manipulating his knowledge of people’s most painful secrets. Even when it was his life on the line, the best he could do was less overtly torment John about his deepest regret.

It also points to Milverton not really understanding people. Somehow he got good at finding secret information, but he only wielded it bluntly. He couldn’t understand what might make someone act nobly, like a doctor springing into action just because it’s the right thing to do. And I suppose it makes sense, since he was someone who had clearly long hardened his heart to any kind of compassion. It must have made him a deeply lonely man.

Another interesting change was how Sherlock & Co adapted the storyline about Sherlock getting engaged to Milverton’s cleaning woman. The series has still yet to explicitly say that this Sherlock is gay, though it was heavily implied in The Sign of Four and confirmed when Joel Emery himself answered my question about it in an AMA(!). But Sherlock’s insistence (and failure) at being able to play a straight man was pretty close to saying it out-right.

The maid’s role in Charles Augustus Milverton has always been a sad one, since originally Holmes deliberately wooed her for several weeks to get information, then ditched her. His only assurance was that there was another guy who was actually in love with her and that would all work out fine. Here, we got the fun of Agatha being just as mercenary as Sherlock and him being completely oblivious about it. I’m a little concerned that it plays into some xenophobic stereotypes, but in my opinion it’s still leagues better than the original version.

But...Agatha wasn’t the only notable lady this adventure, was she? Because there was another woman. You might even say...the woman.

Hell yeah, we’ve finally got Irene! My first impression is that I absolutely love her. She’s got charm, poise, smarts, and some fierce ruthlessness. 10/10, can’t wait to see more!

I’m very curious how Sherlock & Co. is going to handle Irene and her story. Incorporating her into Charles Augustus Milverton was clever and intriguing, but putting her so close to Agatha is bringing up some questions for me.

In the original canon, Holmes was pretty sexist. I think that was the most visible with the fiancee business in Milverton and of course at the start of A Scandal in Bohemia. Obviously at least partially a product of its time, but it still always felt weird to me. Why would Sherlock friggin’ Holmes find women so alien and baffling? His whole thing is learning about all different kinds of people and how to deduce their lives and motivations. And some boobs are the limit there? Holmes, I get that you lived in a time of very separate gendered social spheres, but come on! You understand dozens of professions, nationalities, and people from every class. Why the fuck would you let yourself be held back from understand half the human race??

So, in light of this modern Sherlock having the benefit of several waves of feminism, what relationship does he have to the concept of “women”? Is he still kind of sexist? Is he particularly oblivious? If he is, I seriously hope that Irene and Mariana lock him in a room until he’s read all of The Second Sex.

The whole heist section of the adventure was also a lot of fun. I liked all the stages of it and how intricate it felt. It’s interesting that Sherlock still wanted John along for it, even though John was hindered by his limp. Sherlock, are you coming to rely on John’s support in your work? That’s so sweet!

I was also delighted to hear Sherlock allude to his super-hacker cousin. It’s cool that we actually got to hear about a family member of his besides Mycroft. What I didn’t know until later was that A.J. Raffles was another Easter egg! I hadn’t heard of the character before, but Raffles was actually another popular literary hero from the turn of the 20th century. He was a man and a gentleman-thief figure, written by E.W. Hornung who was the brother-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle! Apparently the story of Charles Augustus Milverton was inspired by a Raffles adventure called Wilful Murder. Very cool!

However, is it going to stay just an Easter egg, or will this modern, female, cousin version of A.J. make an official appearance at some point? I vote yes! And she should definitely be a trans woman!

I loved how they worked in Moriarty’s appearance. It took me a moment to realize John had forgotten his recorder. I thought something was wrong with my volume as John’s voice faded, but then I realized that Milverton’s labored breathing was still right in my ears. It felt unnerving. Like my friends and thus my safety had gone away. That was certainly what happened to Milverton!

Obviously, there’s still plenty of mystery around Moriarty in this version, but the build-up is going really well. I wonder if Milverton was directly working for him or was more of an associate. Was Moriarty angry? Or just coldly calculating that Milverton was no longer useful? I like to imagine that Moriarty was already pissed because of how Milverton named-dropped the “spider” earlier.

Did Moriarty know that John’s recorder was still there? It might have still been in the wardrobe, but who knows with deadly criminal masterminds. Either way, there had to be a reason he didn’t say anything. Whether by plan or coincidence, Sherlock (and us) have plenty of tantalizing clues to chew on!

So, again, Charles Augustus Milverton was an excellent set of episodes. Great job, gang! I just have a few little things I want to ask about...

1. How much longer until the other shoe drops?

I’m still not entirely sure how much Sherlock & Co. wants me to hand-wave about the many clearly documented crimes John, Sherlock, and Mariana commit. But to add to the list, as of this adventure we also have assault, breaking and entering, possibly identity fraud, theft, a really detailed second breaking and entering, fleeing the scene of a murder, and withholding evidence from the police. Moriarty, my boy, you have got to do something with this!

My theory is still a certain amount of Mycroft interference and also the podcast not being especially popular in-universe. Though that doesn’t explain why Mariana and John allowed their trash-talking of Sherlock’s breakfast to be recorded, let alone make the final edit!

I actually have a theory there too. It’s been well-established that John always has his mic on. It would be easy for any of them to forget it was there from day-to-day. But I’ve also chided John for making himself look like an idiot in a lot of episodes that he edited. As I’ve said before, I think John is deeply insecure and often feels like he can only be engrossing if he’s the butt of the joke. I’ll take that a step further though. What if John is so insecure and desperate for his podcast to be a success, that he’s regularly including elements against his better judgment.

The crimes the gang has committed and then published accounts of have gotten more and more overt throughout the series. And they’re certainly exciting! The more complex and dangerous the adventure, the more it will please the audience, and the more money and praise it will bring in, right? And it’s not like he’s gotten in trouble yet, so it’s probably fine! (Extra dark if this also applies to what slice-of-life and emotional moments he chooses to include.)

But there are cracks showing. John was worried about being caught on camera breaking into Milverton’s. He was clearly nervous at the idea of the police listening to the adventure at the end of episode three. He knows these recordings could get him in a lot of trouble, especially as the podcast gets more popular, but he doesn’t want to confront that. He’s doing his best to just keep pretending everything is a-ok. Meanwhile I doubt it’s occurred to Sherlock to worry, as he’s been getting bailed out of trouble all his life. I’m not sure about Mariana though. She’s the most sensible of the team, but she’s still got secrets of her own. Maybe she has her own motives at play.

2. Gay? Gay please?

My campaign continues! And was it just me, or was there a visible uptick in the possible flirting this adventure? There was John sarcastically calling Sherlock darling. Sherlock’s quips about John needing to control his jealousy (about Sherlock’s sham engagement). John keeping calm and controlled under Milverton’s insults, but snapping when Sherlock was being threatened. Sherlock’s clear joy about their growing affections for each other’s idiosyncrasies.

Finally, there was one last little thing…

“Do we know a James?”

To the team of Sherlock & Co., are you personally trying to kill me? Was that a goddamned GOOD OMENS REFERENCE?? An overt, near-quote about Good Omens, season 2 and Gabriel/James/Jim??

Do I now have to live with a constant tinfoil hat on? Because this feels like a subtle wink at me specifically!

Or it’s nothing. Or everything. Damn these conniving bastards!

Sherlock & Co QnA with Joel Emery

GUYS THIS WAS AN AMAZING EVENT!

We learned so much stuff: behind the scenes process, how they approach adapting the stories, where they're going (no spoilers), and what they hope for the future.

Also, I got a question answered at about the halfway mark.

Go take a listen! It's really great!

“Your cheque-book is locked in my drawer, and you have not asked for the key.” - The Adventure of the Dancing Men