Well that was silly, wasn't it: moustaches, a game of Operation and a bomb made out of a tube train. But it was the reactions to Sherlock's death that were at the heart of the episode. In the Conan Doyle stories, Watson says, of his discovery that Sherlock is alive: "I rose to my feet, stared at him for some seconds in utter amazement, and then it appears that I must have fainted." After that they both get on with their day.
Here, you got the full spectrum of emotional responses to seeing a ghost. Lestrade gave a laddish exclamation of "you bastard!", as if Sherlock had last been seen tied to lampost on his stag do. Molly, who was meekly poking around on her Sherlock'll Fix It day of minor mystery-solving. And of course, John, who at first lamped Sherlock out of sheer rage, then awkwardly blanked him to focus on his patient's thrush, before eventually giving in to a teary and grief-ridBut before that, the question we all wanted answered: how did he do it? Sherlock's creators wrote themselves into a corner at the end of the last series. Sherlock had to kill himself or Moriarty's assassins would have killed John, Mrs Hudson and Lestrade. Sherlock fell to his death, in front of John and a bunch of other witnesses. Yet at the end of the episode, we'd seen him scurrying around his own grave.
Rumours and theories have abounded ever since, but as co-creator Mark Gatiss acknowledged at Comic Con earlier this year, "There's only so many ways you can fall off a roof and survive. It's not black magic."
The real issue then, was not how Sherlock managed to survive a four-story fall, but how to make the reveal – after two years of waiting and such great expectations – not feel like a disappointment.
So instead of one explanation for Sherlock's survival, we got three. In the explosive episode opener, Sherlock bungee-jumps off the building and through a window and has a passionate snog with Molly, while Derren Brown hypnotises John into a slumber for just long enough to fit Moriarty's body with a Sherlock prosthetic mask.
Alas, this turns out to be just one of Anderson's conspiracies. The forensics expert, we learn, has become swivel-eyed and ridden with guilt at his role in Sherlock's undoing. Later we see Sherlock drop a dummy version of himself before it is revealed that he and Moriarty were in on the whole thing together. They stare into each other's eyes for a moment, then begin kissing. But again, this is revealed to be a theory from someone in Anderson's conspiracy club, The Empty Hearse, and a nod to some of the saucy slash-fiction written by the more devoted fans.
In the end, the real explanation is almost exactly as the internet had predicted – involving obscured views, a large inflatable cushion, the bloke who looked like Sherlock who had scared the kidnapped children, and – well done if you spotted it – the squash ball he was bouncing in the hospital which was used to stop his pulse. The inevitable anti-climax was dodged because it was playful with the internet furore. When Sherlock finally reveals how he did it to Anderson, Anderson stares back, frustrated. "Well it's not how I would have done it. Bit ... disappointed."den forgiveness (which Sherlock immediately mocks).For me, the relationship that blossomed the most in this episode was between Mycroft and Sherlock. Their sibling rivalry is compelling. We learn that Mycroft was crucial in preventing Sherlock's death and allowing him to remain a fugitive; meanwhile, Sherlock is concerned for his brother's lack of companionship, so it's plain that relations have thawed between the pair. Yet their competitive spirit and almost mutual disdain is enough to rival that of Sherlock and Moriarty. Mycroft sat unflinching while a Russian torturer beat Sherlock bloody. Sherlock later returned the favour by refusing to save Mycroft from seeing Les Misérables with their parents.
There are new relationships too, with both John and Molly finding partners in Sherlock's absence. Clearly there's something dodgy going on with Molly's boyfriend but I wonder too about Watson's Mary, played by Martin Freeman's wife Amanda Abbington. Rarely does TV let off-screen love play out so simply on-screen, and I'm not sure why Mary is so immediately enamoured with Sherlock. Those who have read the Conan Doyle stories will be aware of how he uses Mary, so it may not be plain sailing.
I also think we might finally see something happen between Sherlock and Molly this series. Sherlock's admission to Molly that Moriarty's greatest slip-up was that "the one person that he thought didn't matter at all to me, was the one person who mattered the most," felt like the first time we've seen him showing genuine unchecked feeling for someone else.Among all that, there was an actual plot to this episode, but it felt like a bit of an afterthought, once all of the character loose ends were tied up. Bizarrely for New Year's Day, this was a modern day Guy Fawkes story, led by a cabinet member and peer who – and we're told this as if this sort of thing happens all the time – has been spying for North Korea since 1996. He was planning to blow up parliament using a bomb hidden in a tube carriage. But once Sherlock had worked that out, all they had to do was find it and switch it off. Oh, and John was minutes away from being burned on a bonfire as a real-life Guy,
• John ended up screaming at Mrs Hudson: "Listen to me! I am not gay!" Perhaps there have been one too many knowing references to the Watson and Sherlock rumours. Whatever happened to a bit of will-they-won't-they?
• The episode's title, The Empty Hearse, is a (terrible) pun on the Conan Doyle story on which it was based, The Adventure of the Empty House.
• "Only child. Shortsighted. Guardian" – some of the descriptors that flashed up when Sherlock popped Watson's fiancee Mary into his mind palace.
• Unreduced testicles, thrush, crazy men with white bears – has Dr Watson been left with Dr House's rejected patients?
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