Recap: Sherlock 'The Blind Banker'

By Ian Cullen Aug 6, 2010, 2:08 GMT

Synopsis: A mysterious cipher is being scrawled on walls around London, and the first person to see it dies within hours of reading it. Can Sherlock and John solve the case?

Synopsis: A mysterious cipher is being scrawled on walls around London, and the first person to see it dies within hours of reading it. Can Sherlock and John solve the case?

Whereas the first episode ‘A Study In Pink’ introduced us to Holmes and Watson and told us the story of how they first met, this second story of the series sees the beginnings of Holmes and Watson working together, and the story presents Sherlock with quite a difficult puzzle to solve. The answer to which will eventually uncover the murderer.

The story begins with a brief scene in a museum where we see a Chinese lady working on chinese artifacts, some of which are thousands of years old.

Then things flip to John Watson arguing with a chip n pin machine, which is a common native behavior here in the UK, but none the less fun to see that the writers are using Martin Freeman’s talents for comedy as well as drama.

The action kicks off when Sherlock is called into investigate how some criminals gained access to a bank, when all their high tech security measures somehow failed to pick up on someone gaining access and writing an obscure message on the wall.

Only it’s the message that peaks Sherlock’s interest, and the fact that a similar type of message is seen at a murder scene, again, which the police try to write off as a suicide.

The investigation sees Sherlock and Watson dashing all over London to uncover clues, and its Watson that finds a fairly big clue, which helps Sherlock eventually crack the code, which is an obscure chinese method of numbering.

One thing leads to another, and we eventually learn that the numbers are references to various books that both murder victims own. The first number representing the persons indexing system, the second being the page number, and third being the word.

After eventually assembling all the clues Holmes figures out that the murders are being committed by a Chinese smuggling ring, who are after a missing artifact, which is worth £9 Million pounds.

This story lacked the pace of the opening episode, but some of the cerebral things going on with the puzzles and stuff was pure Sherlock Holmes, and an element that I really enjoyed.

We get a humorous moment when Watson takes his new girlfriend a Doctor out on a date only to learn that Sherlock has sneakily ordered a third ticket, and while Watson’s girlfriend is in the ladies or getting food we witness a fun confrontation between Holmes and Watson where the latter expresses his annoyance at the fact that he was hoping to get laid. Only to have his new found love turn up as he says to Holmes, “I was hoping to get my leg over.”

This episode though a little slower and sagging in the middle slightly was still a very entertaining watch, though it didn’t quite live up to the standard set by the pilot episode. Which was exceptionally high given that it was the highest rated premiere for a drama on BBC One since Russell T. Davies pilot episode for Doctor Who.

Monsters and Critics' contributing writer Ian Cullen is a former actor and community artist, and a lifetime fan of Science Fiction and television. He runs www.scifipulse.net  - a site, which follows the trends of science fiction television and movies.  He lives in Manchester, England.