The Empty Hearse

"The Empty Hearse" is the first episode of the third series of the BBC television series Sherlock. It was written by Mark Gatiss and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes, Martin Freeman as Dr John Watson, and Mark Gatiss as Mycroft Holmes.

Inspired by "The Adventure of the Empty House" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the episode follows Sherlock Holmes' return to London and reunion with John Watson, along with an underground terrorist network.

The episode was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC One HD on 1 January 2014.

Plot
Two years after his supposed demise, Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) has been completely exonerated of the slanderous accusations against him originated by Jim Moriarty (Andrew Scott). The opening scene shows a version of how Sherlock might have faked his death: by jumping from the roof with a bungee cable, bouncing back and entering the building through a window, where Molly awaited him. While Sherlock absconded, members of his homeless network put a mask on Moriarty's face so that he would look like Sherlock, dragged the body into the street to the spot where Sherlock would have landed and sprayed him with fake blood. While this happened, John was lying on the ground, his vision obscured, having just been hit by a cyclist, who was in on the plan. Derren Brown then appeared and hypnotised John to give the others extra time to plant the body; this version of events is later shown to be a conspiracy theory invented by Anderson, who feels responsible for Sherlock's death.

Sherlock returns to London, recalled by his brother Mycroft to help uncover a threatened terrorist attack. John now has a girlfriend, Mary Morstan (Amanda Abbington), to whom he intends to propose in a restaurant; at this point, Sherlock, disguised as a French waiter, approaches the couple, but is not immediately recognised by John. When Sherlock reveals his identity, John attacks him physically. When John refuses to accept his explanations, Sherlock enlists Molly to assist him in his next case, that of an underground skeleton behind a desk containing a manuscript: "How I did it" by Jack the Ripper, revealed to be a fake planted by Anderson to lure Sherlock out of hiding. Later that day, Mary receives a text telling her that John has been kidnapped by unknown assailants and will die if he is not rescued in time, along with a coded location. Sherlock and Mary come to his rescue on a motorcycle, and manage to drag him out of a lit bonfire on which a guy was about to be burned.

John and Sherlock set about solving Mycroft's terrorist problem, which is revealed to be planned by an "underground movement"; having discovered that a key figure in the plot is Lord Moran, known by Holmes to be a foreign agent, they realise that the wording indicates a movement based in the London Underground. Moran and his organisation plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament during an all-night sitting on the Fifth of November, to vote on an anti-terrorism bill. Near a never-used Underground station, they manage to find an Underground carriage that had earlier disappeared from CCTV with Moran on it, and find that it is rigged with explosives. Sherlock manages to defuse the bomb by turning the off-switch, but makes John believe that the bomb cannot be defused, causing the latter to admit that he forgives Sherlock.

In another cut-scene interrupting this situation, Sherlock is seen visiting Anderson and revealing to him how he faked his death as part of a plan to round up Moriarty's network. Sherlock tells Anderson that he and Mycroft had anticipated thirteen possible scenarios that could happen on the roof, each of which had a code name and a plan of action attached to it. Sherlock, however, had not anticipated that Moriarty would kill himself. The code name of the scenario eventually selected was "LAZARUS". His homeless network shuts down the entire street while an unsuspecting John is in a cab headed for the hospital. Sherlock ensures that John stands in a spot where his view of the lower half of the building is blocked. The homeless network and Mycroft's people place a large inflated cushion to break Sherlock's fall, and quickly remove it while John approaches. Molly, who is near a window, throws a body double on the ground (the same person Moriarty used to frame Sherlock for the abduction of Rufus Bruhl's children in "The Reichenbach Fall"). John sees only a glimpse of the body before he is intentionally knocked down by a cyclist; the interruption allows Sherlock to take the place of the body double, cover himself in blood, and place a squash ball under his armpit to momentarily stop his pulse. Anderson casts doubt on the veracity of this version of events.

John asks Sherlock who abducted him and why, questions to which Sherlock has no answers yet. In the final scene, a bespectacled face with blue eyes is observed watching footage of Sherlock and Mary rescuing John from the fire.