Character and BBC's Sherlock: "I Am Sherlocked" Scene

              To me, a character is someone who intrigues you because of their personality, their decisions, their opinions, and their actions, but most importantly, a great character is one who experiences a variety of conflicts and resolves them in unexpected ways. When deciding a character to discuss, for me, it's elementary, my dear Watson...why Sherlock is such a brilliant character.

             To give a little bit of background information, the BBC's Sherlock is a British crime and detective mini-series which focuses on Sherlock Holmes (a "consulting detective") and his partner-in-crime, Dr. John Watson. Even though the original short stories centered on Sherlock Holmes occurred in the 1800's, this version of the stories occurs in modern London, England. This moment is from season 2 of the show, and Sherlock Holmes, played by the brilliant Benedict Cumberbatch (Khan from Star Trek Into Darkness), recently met Irene Adler--THE woman in Sherlock's life--and for the entire episode, he has been trying to unlock her phone in order to receive some important pictures and documents from her phone which may be of use to the British government. At the beginning of the scene, Irene is speaking with Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's older brother, about what she wants in exchange for the information she has on her phone. Irene thinks she has beaten the two Holmes brother; she thinks she's outsmarted them, as you can see in the clip below, but Sherlock has observed something about her that she trying to hide--her true feelings for the detective:

               By the end of this scene, both Irene and Sherlock develop drastically as characters. First of all, Sherlock starts out as rather quiet in this scene, clearly having a conflict centered around his desire to have what he wants: to be "correct" and to solve the mystery of Irene's phone. He also seems to be experiencing deception as a conflict as he hears Irene seemingly become victorious in this moment, therefore revealing her betrayal towards him (he had trusted her previously in the episode). By the end of the scene, however, Sherlock develops even further when he demonstrates his victorious unlocking of Irene's phone, and seems to experience two conflicts: a physical conflict (man v. man) with Irene, and a relationship conflict (should he ruin their relationship?).

              Furthermore, Irene demonstrates a character experiencing and developing from numerous conflicts. At the beginning of this scene, she has a moment of desire where she wants something in return for her phone. Later in the scene, she and Sherlock have a physical/adversity conflict when he begins to prove that he knows how to unlock her phone--it, after all, was tied to whom she cared about most: Sherlock. And, lastly, Irene experiences a fear conflict when she watches in horror as Sherlock unlocks her phone; you can almost see the thoughts whirring past her eyes as she wonders what will happen to her now. He has discovered her feelings for him (as shown by him flashing back to a previous scene between them when she tried to seduce him), which she desperately tried to conceal, and she is terrified as to what will now happen as a result of his discovery.

             At the dramatic ending of this scene--courtesy of the cleverly awesome "I am Sherlocked" reveal--both Sherlock and Irene have revealed numerous conflicts they encounter in a matter of minutes. As watchers, we observe these emotions and conflicts with them, allowing them to be more relatable and interesting to us as watchers.