SPOILERS ABOUND in this Easter-egg hunt through the very final-feeling finale “The Final Problem”. And did anyone think there weren’t nearly as many Easter eggs to choose from this time around? Not counting the over-arching Saw reference that was the entire plot…

1) Redbeard = Sherlock’s First Friend

In “The Final Problem”, Sherlock finds out that his memory of his childhood dog Redbeard is actually a corrupted memory of his childhood best friend Victor Trevor.

In the canon, Victor Trevor is famously Holmes’ friend and brought him the very first case he ever solved, as revealed in “The Adventure of Gloria Scott.” Back when Sherlock was in school, he wasn’t even considering deduction as a career until Trevor’s mysterious father mentioned he should, after he had deduced waaay too much about his past.

The only thing this Victor Trevor shares with the canon one is the fact that he was Sherlock’s first friend. After that, he becomes a little more like the unfortunate John Openshaw from “The Five Orange Pips” (killed by nefarious secret killers) or perhaps he’s a much more hapless version of Brunton from…

2) The Musgrave Ritual

In this episode, the problem of “the Musgrave ritual” was described as Sherlock’s first case, as which it was also described in the canon – though really “The Gloria Scott” was technically Holmes’ very first. Maybe they mean his first official case.

Anyway, in this episode, “The Gloria Scott” and “Musgrave Ritual” are rather mushed together, as the ancestral home of the Holmes’ becomes Musgrave, and the chanted ritual passed down through generations in the canon become Euros’ girlhood song, both to mock and supply clues to Sherlock.

Who, besides me, kept yelling at the screen: “You forgot ‘and so under!!!’? … Just me? *Pushes nerd glasses up on nose.*

3) The Three Garridebs

Like Victor Trevor and the Musgrave Ritual, the Three Garridebs is referenced in name only in this episode. Those three guys that Eurus dangles over the sea in a bid to force Sherlock to deduce which is a killer is a pretty puzzle but their predicament has nothing whatever to do with the story of Doyle’s “The Three Garridebs.”

4) Baker Street Boys

“My Baker Street boys,” says Mary in her oh-wait-this-is-the-last-words-of-mine-this-time-I-mean-it DVD message.

This could be a reference to The Baker Street Boys, an old British TV series starring the Baker Street Irregulars, or maybe it’s a nod to The Fabulous Baker Boys. 

1980s Michelle Pfeiffer draped over a piano in a slinky red dress? Anyone? Anyone?

5) Rathbone Place

Our heroes’ last appearance in the finale sees them running heroically into presumably the next case, scarf and big coat flapping in the slo-mo breeze. The portico from which they are running? Rathbone Place.

Need I elaborate on that reference? Hm? Nope, didn’t think so.

Got any more easter eggs? Let us know in the comments.