In this episode, *frowny face*.
Recap!
If you recall, last episode ends with Sherlock busting into Mycroft’s apartment as Joan and Mycroft are finishing up uh… hooking up, and telling them Mycroft is being framed as the mole at MI6, and for murdering former-MI6 analyst, Arthur West. Joan and Mycroft are less than convinced, until Sherlock uses the remote starter for Mycroft’s car and it explodes in the street below.
He and Joan take Mycroft to a little hidey-hole to lay low while they find out who the real mole is. In order to do that, Sherlock plans to feign working for MI6 to find Mycroft, running off to meet with the top men at the agency. He is disappointed to find they are actually less convinced that Mycroft is the mole than he thought they would be.
In the meantime, Mycroft reflects on some hard-hitting truths about himself, reminiscing on some cutting words Sherlock said about him when they were young. Joan assures him he’s not the man Sherlock and their father believe him to be. He’s a successful businessman who has done some amazing things for his country. Mycroft responds by confessing that the only reason he agreed to work for MI6 in the first place was to prove Sherlock and his father wrong.
That night, Sherlock and Joan break into a bookstore, the owner of which, one Julian Avkami, they believe is an Iranian spy and also the mole’s contact. They find a scrambler, hidden as a surge protector, which Avkami is using to hide his conversations with the mole, and while they’re able to puzzle when and from where the mole contacted the bookstore owner, that information only incriminates Mycroft more, since he was in all the same places, at the same time as the mole. And that’s how they figure out the mole is Mycroft’s handler, Sherrington.
Well then, if they’re going to take down Mycroft’s superior, they’re going to need some hard proof. Sherlock pulls an all-nighter and deduces what exactly Sherrington and Avkami talked about each time they contacted each other, fielding a call from Sherrington himself and denying Joan’s help in order to ‘grow accustomed to working without [her] input in the evenings.’ Y’know. Since she’s moving out and all.
Sherlock is able to match each date of contact with an international incident of murder, political intrigue, or debacle, except for one. He leaves Joan to figure it out, in order to meet with Captain Gregson, who is rather unhappy with Sherlock for not telling him about Mycroft’s involvement in the Arthur West case, which the NYPD are investigating.
Joan’s deducing is interrupted by Sherrington dropping by unannounced. She lets him in, and tells him she’s inspecting a Skype call from one of her contacts on another case. Sherrington asks some pointed questions about her and Mycroft’s relationship, but she denies knowing anything about where he is. When he catches her in a lie (her story about where they believe Mycroft has run off to doesn’t match up with the one Sherlock gave him earlier on), he begins threatening her with torture, but Joan reveals the Skype call she was waiting for is already on. She has been video chatting with a few representatives from the ever-so-helpful, anonymous internet hacktivist group, Everyone. Sherrington thus has his hands tied, and leaves in a huff.
When Sherlock returns, Joan explains what she found out about the missing corresponding event for Sherrington’s and Avkami’s super-secret-spy-info-trading calls. It turns out that an Iranian ex-patriot, Nadir Kadem, was brutally beaten just two days after the call between Sherrington and Avkami. Sherlock is more bothered by the fact that Joan was just threatened by Sherrington, even though she said she was fine.When Sherlock attempts to put the blame for Joan being in danger squarely on Mycroft, Joan fires back by telling him why Mycroft was forced to work with MI6 again after getting out of the life: to protect Sherlock’s freedom. Sherlock visits Mycroft, touched (and disturbed that he’s touched, because WHAT ARE EMOTIONS?) by the truth and vowing to fix everything.
Yeah, Joan Watson is no goddess. Rhys Ifans was the best part of Season two. And I guess I just don’t get why some of your vitriol isn’t directed towards Joan, because SHE TOO, went behind Sherlock’s back in order to “take care of him”. And in fact, has said things about him behind his back that indicates she thinks he needs a handler. Which is true, he does. And both Joan and Mycroft understand that, which is why I don’t fault them for it.