10 Questions about The Abominable Bride | Television

Answer: A mustache

The Watson of the late 1800s wore a bushy mustache. Mrs. Hudson told Watson that she didn't like his stories because in the stories, she didn't do anything but show people in and serve breakfast. When she complained that he made the room "so drab and dingy" in his stories, Watson responded, "Blame it on the illustrator; he's out of control. I've had to grow this mustache just so people would recognize me".

After Mrs. Hudson later gave Holmes a bit of attitude, he told Watson to "give her some lines, she's perfectly capable of starving us".

Answer: Her perfume

Before the woman could speak, Holmes proceeded to explain why she was there: "You have recently married a man of seemingly kindly disposition who has now abandoned you for an unsavory companion of dubious morals. You have come to this agency as a last resort in the hope that reconciliation may still be possible. All of this is, of course, perfectly evident from your perfume". Watson was shocked that Holmes could have gathered all of that information from a woman's perfume, something which Holmes said didn't bode well for Watson since he didn't recognize his own wife's fragrance.

Answer: Emelia Ricoletti was already dead.

The previous morning, a deranged Emelia Ricoletti had been seen on a balcony, wearing her wedding dress and shooting wildly at passers-by while exclaiming "You! You! You! Or Me?" She then put the gun toward her mouth and shot herself, with the blood spatter visible on the curtains behind her. Lestrade said her body was taken to the morgue, but a few hours later, as Thomas Ricoletti was leaving an opium den, his wife arrived in a hansom cab and killed him with a shotgun.

She then turned away, the back of her bloodied head visible to a policeman who witnessed the crime, and she walked off in the fog.

Answer: He was a woman

On the way to the mortuary, Holmes asked Lestrade who was the duty officer at the mortuary and wasn't pleased to hear "you know who". Dr. Hooper and Holmes apparently had an acrimonious relationship, and they snipped at each other while discussing the case.

As they were leaving, Watson pointed out to Hooper that even though Ricoletti had died from the gunshot, she had signs of consumption and suggested an autopsy. Hooper responded with a snide comment about Watson being "observant now that daddy's gone", which made Watson confirm that he WAS observant because he realized that it was "amazing what one has to do to get ahead in a man's world".

Answer: When Mycroft will die

The corpulent Mycroft was surrounded by food, which drew a rebuke from Watson who informed him that his eating habits were dangerous for his health and heart. No need to worry about the latter, Sherlock informed Watson, "There's only a large cavity where that organ should reside". "It's a family trait", retorted Mycroft.

When Watson estimated he only had five years left if he continued eating at that rate, Mycroft and Sherlock seemed surprised, with Mycroft stating that they thought it was three years, while Sherlock added he thought it was four.

After Mycroft pointed out the damage to his eyes, Sherlock changed his bet to "three years, four months and eleven days" and then changed it to "three years flat if you eat that plum pudding".

Answer: Women

Mycroft said, "Our way of life is under threat from an invisible enemy, one that hovers at our elbow on a daily basis. These enemies are everywhere, undetected and unstoppable". Mycroft told Sherlock that it was "a conjecture" of his and he wanted Sherlock to confirm it by investigating a case involving a Lady Carmichael. Watson wanted to know who the enemy was and threw out some guesses: "Socialists? Anarchists? The French? The Suffragists? The Scots!" When he asked Mycroft how they were to defeat the enemy if they didn't know who it was, Mycroft responded that they wouldn't defeat them "because they are right and we are wrong". Unbeknownst to Sherlock and Watson, Mycroft also asked Mary Watson to investigate his theory, and she ultimately led Sherlock and Watson to a meeting of women where Sherlock revealed the solution to the case.

Answer: Five orange pips

"The Five Orange Pips" was the title of one of the original "Sherlock Holmes" stories, but only the title and the concept of the five orange pips as a harbinger of death were borrowed; Sir Eustace didn't appear in the original story. Lady Carmichael told Holmes that her husband had received an envelope containing only the five pips and that he had been terrified.

When she asked him what it meant, he said it meant death. A couple days later, she found her husband staring out the window, claiming to have seen the bride, and then the morning that she met with Holmes and Watson, Lady Carmichael herself had seen the bride in their garden maze.

The bride told Sir Eustace that he would die that evening, so Holmes and Watson went to the Carmichael estate but were unable to prevent Sir Eustace's death.

Answer: Drugs he had taken

Mycroft had asked Sherlock for the list during the Victorian escapade also, but Sherlock refused to give it to him, telling him that he hadn't finished yet. When the plane landed, Sherlock was upset because he felt he had nearly had the answer and was awaken too soon: "Not now, not now!".

Sherlock stated that it had been five minutes since Mycroft called and that he'd been in his "mind palace" trying to solve the Ricoletti case. Mycroft immediately knew that Sherlock had some pharmaceutical assistance in researching the case.

When Sherlock said he'd been immersed in the case, Mycroft sadly noted, "Of course you were". When he asked Sherlock if he had made a list of everything that he had taken, Watson defended Sherlock, saying that he'd seen Sherlock go into a trance before.

Then Sherlock handed over the list, which stunned Watson because of the number of drugs on it. Mycroft told Watson that he and Sherlock had an agreement that whenever Sherlock took drugs, he'd make a list for Mycroft.

Answer: How Moriarty could have faked his death

Throughout the episode, we had hints that all was not as it seemed. When Holmes was at the mortuary, he wondered aloud how "he" could have survived blowing his head off. Holmes had seen Moriarty kill himself in a similar manner to the case of Amelia Ricoletti so he "went back" to the 1800s (with the help of some pharmaceuticals) to investigate the original case. Just before Holmes was awaken from his trance, Moriarty visited him to torment him, "You need to know how".

Then Moriarty shot off the back of his head. "How can you be alive?" asked Holmes, "I saw you die. Why aren't you dead?" When Holmes "returned" to the present day, Watson asked Holmes if Moriarty was really dead, to which Holmes responded, "Moriarty is dead, no question.

But more importantly, I know exactly what he is going to do next".

Answer: He dived off a cliff at the Reichenbach Falls.

Moriarty and Holmes were wrestling on the cliff but then Watson arrived and pulled a gun on Moriarty. "That's not fair! There's two of you!" lamented Moriarty. Watson ordered Moriarty to get on his knees and then pushed him over the edge. Watson told Holmes that it was time to wake up: "I'm a storyteller; I know when I'm in one", and when he asked Holmes how he was going to do it, Holmes prepared to swan dive off the cliff. Holmes told him that he "always survived a fall", and when Watson asked how, Holmes responded, "Elementary, my dear Watson!"