Every Episode of ‘Sherlock,’ Ranked
Across seven years, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman played consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson on the BBC series. Based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, Sherlock, which premiered 15 years ago (on July 25, 2010), was only 13 episodes (it doesn’t look like there will ever be more), but each installment was feature-length, running 85-90 minutes, and it worked.
The series began with John meeting Sherlock, getting caught up in a case with him, and moving in to 221B Baker Street, and after that, well, it was history. As they tackled cases, John wrote about them on his blog, iconic imagery made its way into the series (including the deerstalker), Andrew Scott both charmed and disturbed as the villain James Moriarty, and the series took some turns that didn’t always work as well as others.
Below, we’re ranking all 13 episodes of Sherlock. Let us know your ranking in the comments section.
Sherlock, Complete Series, Streaming Now, BritBox
13. "The Six Thatchers" (Season 4 Episode 1)
Here was the problem: Sherlock made the trio of Sherlock, John, and John’s wife Mary (Amanda Abbington) a great crime-solving group, complete with the couple handing off their baby so one could team up with the sleuth. But that couldn’t last too long, with the show really about Sherlock and John as a duo, and so when Mary’s past as a spy came back to haunt her, that led to a somewhat convoluted case, a tragic death, and a resulting divide between Sherlock and John.
12. "The Blind Banker" (Season 1 Episode 2)
Confession: Besides the opening of this episode — John getting into a fight with the self-checkout at a grocery store, while Sherlock’s own scuffle back at the flat involved a sword — the rest of it was pretty boring. The case itself, involving a mysterious cipher heralding death which ends up interrupting John’s date, wasn’t engaging, though it did at least tease Moriarty’s introduction.
11. "The Hounds of Baskerville" (Season 2 Episode 2)
This was an interesting take on The Hound of the Baskervilles — H.O.U.N.D., a science project involving hallucinogenic gas — and Russell Tovey (always great) guest starred as the man who, after seeing a monstrous hound, brought the case to Sherlock. But compared to the rest of the episodes, it was average, though fun to see Sherlock messing with John (using said gas) as well as the detective’s mind palace, a memory technique to sort through information. (But it is not the best use of his mind palace.)
10. "The Final Problem" (Season 4 Episode 3)
Surprise: Sherlock and Mycroft (Mark Gatiss) have a sister! All the foreshadowing about the “east wind” and the mentions of Redbeard (not Sherlock’s dog) led up to the reveal of Eurus Holmes (Sian Brooke), who, despite being held in a maximum-security facility, used her advanced intellect and lack of emotion to not only bring everyone there under her control, but also escape and pose as other people (including John’s therapist and Sherlock’s client). Furthermore, Mycroft brought Moriarty to her as a Christmas present, and he recorded videos for her. In the final episode, Eurus captured and tortured Sherlock, John, and Mycroft with a series of disturbing puzzles that featured standout performances from the cast but had some problems with logic and was then wrapped up too neatly.
9. "The Lying Detective" (Season 4 Episode 2)
Both John and Sherlock struggled in the aftermath of Mary’s death, with the former seeing a therapist and the latter becoming obsessed with proving that entrepreneur and philanthropist Culverton Smith (Toby Jones) was a murderer, after his daughter (or, rather, a woman the sleuth thought was his daughter) said he’d revealed his plans to kill. Cumberbatch and Jones in scenes together, Mrs. Hudson (Una Stubbs) delivering Sherlock in the trunk of her car to John in the middle of his therapy appointment, Sherlock showing off how well he knew his friend by predicting where he’d be and when, as well as his next moves — including calling Molly (Louise Brealey) to give him a medical exam — and the reveal of Eurus made for an entertaining episode, easily the strongest of the final season.
8. "The Abominable Bride" (Special)
Sherlock was a modern take on the sleuth and the doctor, but for this one-off special, the setting moved to the 19th century, as was the case in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories. The usual players were all present, with a couple twists (including Molly posing as man so she could work), and the case tied back to the main question of the present day (“Miss me?”) as Sherlock, under the influence of drugs, pondered: How could someone die, then return, as Moriarty seemingly had? Adding in the Sherlock and Moriarty face-off at Reichenbach Falls, and it was a satisfying departure from the norm for the series.
7. "The Empty Hearse" (Season 3 Episode 1)
Heading into Season 3, we knew that Sherlock was alive, but there were certainly questions about how he’d return and be received by those who weren’t in the know about how he faked his death. (That how was also much-debated, both on and off the show.) Lestrade’s (Rupert Graves) reaction particularly stood out. John was understandably upset, especially considering how his friend revealed himself (a disguise, in the middle of the dinner during which he was going to propose to Mary), but the resolution to that as they faced on a bomb on a train — as well as the first hints that there was more to Mary than met the eye and the uncertainty left over just how Sherlock staged his death — was classic Sherlock.
6. "The Sign of Three" (Season 3 Episode 2)
There couldn’t be a wedding — John and Mary’s — without a case or two to solve. In this instance, the two were connected (how can you stab someone without them realizing?), and Sherlock used his Best Man speech (which, despite concerns, was more good and the right levels of touching than not) to analyze the guests and solve a murder. Sherlock texting Lestrade for urgent help, which was just to write the aforementioned speech, as well as flashbacks to John’s bachelor party made for some of the most comedic scenes of the series.
5. "His Last Vow" (Season 3 Episode 3)
How do you follow up Moriarty, played as brilliantly as he was by Scott? Lars Mikkelsen as Charles Augustus Magnussen was chilling enough to fit the bill. Like Sherlock, he, too, had a mind palace, his vaults of blackmail material to use against whomever he wanted, and the sleuth got mixed up in his business — using a relationship with Mary’s bridesmaid Janine (Yasmine Akram) to his advantage — when Lady Smallwood (Lindsay Duncan) turned to him to retrieve some letters. But Magnussen also had incriminating information about Mary, leading to her shooting Sherlock (and saving his life), the best use of the mind palace in the immediate aftermath (including Moriarty locked away and taunting him), the reveal of just what she’d been hiding, and one shocking moment after another to cap off the episode.
4. "The Great Game" (Season 1 Episode 3)
The Season 1 finale might have started out with Sherlock bored and brushing off an investigation from his brother, but that was certainly not true by the end of it. An unknown man forced him to solve a series of cases to free random people from bombs — the one victim who tried to relay information about him was killed — all leading up to the reveal of Moriarty, with the consulting detective and consulting criminal facing off after the latter had wired John with an explosive. While there was no way Sherlock was going to kill off Watson, it was a proper cliffhanger and a perfect introduction for the villain.
3. "A Scandal in Belgravia" (Season 2 Episode 1)
Sherlock needed someone who could go head-to-head with Cumberbatch as Irene Adler (and make it feel like the sleuth was unbalanced), and Lara Pulver did just that, from the scenes in which the two prepared to meet (after the sleuth, refusing to put on clothes and in just a sheet, was summoned to Buckingham Palace to be enlisted to retrieve compromising photos) to their first conversations and flirting, all the way through him getting the upper hand and unlocking her phone by correctly guessing her password (above). With the two so good together, the Moriarty connection, and the humor in John as a third wheel, it was easily one of the best episodes of the show.
2. "A Study in Pink" (Season 1 Episode 1)
The series got off to a strong start, with Sherlock and John’s introduction and the former using his observational skills on the latter, who did get one up on him with the reveal of his sister, not brother. Plus, the first case was engaging — puzzling deaths called “serial suicides” — with the man responsible, a cab driver, actually walking into Sherlock’s flat to lure him into his game, and the show built out the surrounding world, of police and Mycroft properly.
1. "The Reichenbach Fall" (Season 2 Episode 3)
Could any other episode have topped this list? Benedict Cumberbatch and Andrew Scott were so good as Sherlock and Moriarty faced off both in 221B Baker Street, then on the roof, that those two scenes alone would’ve made the episode perfect. But it was also the rest of it — Moriarty was arrested but manipulated the jury to be freed, then set out to discredit Sherlock in the public’s eye and succeeded — as well as the shock of the villain’s death, then, seemingly, Sherlock’s (with his friends’ lives in danger) that makes this one of the best episodes of television.
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