As most anglophiles are only too painfully aware, Sherlock season four doesn’t return until January 2017, nearly three years after season three’s last episode, “His Last Vow.” Cumberbatch fans are no longer waiting patiently, so much so that a season four teaser at Comic Con and the TCAs this summer was met with an impassioned response, even though it didn’t really reveal much.
Continuing the BBC’s cruel method of doling out granular facts to rabid Sherlock fans, Mashable reports today that the titles of the first two Sherlock season four episodes have been released. In keeping with the show’s tradition of tweaking Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story titles slightly, said titles are “‘The Six Thatchers,’ which likely comes from ‘The Six Napoleons,’ followed by ‘The Lying Detective,’ which is close to Doyle’s ‘The Dying Detective.’” Six words may not be much to predict an entire new season on with three-plus months left before the season, but Sherlock fans will take what they can get. Mashable also helpfully reports on the single word Sherlock’s creators would use to describe season four: “Thatcher,” “Smith,” and “Sherrinford,” whatever those names may mean to you (although that last is Sherlock and Mycroft’s elder brother). Let the speculation commence.