It feels like only a few days since the last review because, oh yeah, it has. This week’s and next I’m endeavoring to get the recap up on Monday afternoon. Let’s take another moment to appreciate that PBS has this week’s episode the morning after it airs on BBC America. Click here. 

All I know is that John is getting married! Of course, there’s actual crime to be had, in the way of a montage of the infamous ‘Walters Gang’ escaping prison several times. They are bank robbers, and the montage ends with them in the act. They wear clown masks. However, of course, as they head in, Sherlock texts “Help” to Lestrade, and Lestrade in turn abandons his greatest arrest ever to provide full backup at Baker Street. Sherlock, of course, is merely writing his Best Man’s Speech. It’s a bit of a heavy handed gag for the show, honestly.  This leads into more wedding preparations, of course filled with Sherlock’s social ineptitudes, which, aside from being a bit stale, are kind of adorable when he gets all protective. He bonds with a small child over murders.

D’awwwww!

A bridesmaid uses Sherlock to sniff out potential lays. John’s sister does not show, but an old war friend does. A stiff, scarred, vet. Sherlock gets jealous. I am continually pleased by how delightful Mary is. She sasses Sherlock. It’s honestly the best thing.

Cut to Mycroft getting svelt on a treadmill. There’s a bit of a beautiful series of cuts as Mycroft berates Sherlock about the end of an ‘era’, aka that John may need to quit now that he’s wed. Sherlock has clearly considered it, but is having trouble coming to terms with it. He accomplishes this with quiet denial and bickering with Mycroft. Cut to the toast. Apparently we are just going to have to get used to the new rapid pace of Season 3. Now, surrounding the toast–Season 3 also treats us to something nice and new, which is that the people around Sherlock are also becoming aware of him and his tweaks. Adjusting. It’s cute, because that used to be the epic bromance of John and Sherlock, but now he gets to have super cute bromance moments with everyone! None so cute as the best friend moment.  The speech itself is pure delight, in no small part due to Benedict Cumberbatch’s delivery.

Now, in the midst of all this character development, we do get a supercut of several cases solved by the pair, followed by an actual case – “The Bloody Guard.” A Palace Guard notices someone stalking him, photographing him every day. It’s quite disconcerting. Naturally it doesn’t end well. John pulls rank though, and it’s quite, well, it’s quite sexy. Later, Sherlock takes John out for drinking in some sort of Bachelor’s party. It’s, again, cute.

Honestly though, I’m missing the mysteries. It’s like an inundation of all the pieces of charm from every other episode thrown into one episode, including John and Sherlock getting drunk together. It’s adorable, but it’s not what I came to see. It feels kind of cheap to betray the fans like this–or maybe to cater to the fanbase that prefers to ogle Cumberbatch than solve mysteries. A case does come along, but Sherlock and John are both still too drunk to process it properly. His thinking subtitles get drunk too, which is funny, but, still.

Eventually, an hour into the episode, we get our mystery in the form of the drunk client. She dated a ghost. And possibly with John’s weird Army buddy. This is all in the context of Sherlock’s best man speech, of course, and the resolution isn’t quite there. At this point, I’m expecting something to go horrendously wrong. We briefly get to see Irene Adler, which is a delight because she’s my favorite.   

And then it’s mystery time, so I shall hush up, but I suppose it’s worth the wait.

And now for the tea.  I actually watched this in the morning, so I started my day with the Amandine Rose Black Tea from Teavana. The story of how I came across this tea involves some very aggressive salesmanship that has made me wary of Teavana ever since–but the tea itself is sweet and does taste a lot like almonds. This is good if you like to occasionally put cream and sugar into your tea, which I occasionally do. The rose flavor, though, is completely lost, which is a shame.