Page 247 - SHERLOCK transcripts

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JOHN (into phone): Sherlock. Are you listening? He’s out. You-you know he’ll be coming after
you. Sher...
(Sherlock switches off the phone and gets up off the sofa. In the kitchen he switches on the
kettle and slams down a small tray beside it, putting a jug of milk, a sugar bowl, a teapot and
two cups and saucers with teaspoons onto the tray. The kettle comes to the boil and switches
off and Sherlock, now wearing a jacket in place of the dressing gown, makes the tea and takes
the tray to the table beside John’s chair, then walks over to his own chair and picks up his violin
and bow. As he begins to play Bach’s Sonata No. 1 in G minor, downstairs the front door is
expertly lockpicked and pushed open. Jim’s easily-recognisable shadow precedes him as he
slowly walks along the hall and up the stairs. Partway up, one of the stairs creaks noisily and
Jim pauses for a moment, as does Sherlock’s playing. A couple of seconds later Sherlock
resumes from a few notes before where he stopped and Jim starts to climb the stairs again.
Sherlock, standing with his back to the living room door, keeps playing until Jim pushes open
the door, then he stops but doesn’t yet turn around.)
SHERLOCK: Most people knock. (He shrugs.) But then you’re not most people, I suppose.
(He gestures over his shoulder with his bow towards the table.)
SHERLOCK: Kettle’s just boiled.
(Jim walks further into the room and bends to pick up an apple from the bowl on the coffee
table.)
JIM: Johann Sebastian would be appalled.
(Tossing the apple and catching it [in an Arthur Shappey-like attempt to be really happy for a
brief moment], he looks around the living room as if searching for a seat.)
JIM: May I?
SHERLOCK (turning to face him): Please.
(He gestures with the end of his bow towards John’s chair. Jim immediately walks over to
Sherlock’s chair and sits in that one instead. Sherlock looks slightly unnerved. Jim takes out a
small penknife and starts to cut into the apple while Sherlock puts down the violin and begins to
pour tea into the cups.)
JIM: You know when he was on his death bed, Bach, he heard his son at the piano playing one
of his pieces. The boy stopped before he got to the end ...
SHERLOCK: ... and the dying man jumped out of his bed, ran straight to the piano and finished
it.
JIM: Couldn’t cope with an unfinished melody.
SHERLOCK: Neither can you. That’s why you’ve come.
JIM: But be honest: you’re just a tiny bit pleased.
SHERLOCK: What, with the verdict?
(He picks up one of the teacups, adds a splash of milk and turns and offers the cup to Jim, who
sits up straighter and takes it.)
JIM: With me ... (softly) ... back on the streets. (He gazes up into Sherlock’s eyes, smiling.)
Every fairytale needs a good old-fashioned villain.
(He grins. Sherlock turns away and adds milk to his own cup.)
JIM: You need me, or you’re nothing. Because we’re just alike, you and I – except you’re
boring.
(He shakes his head in disappointment.)
JIM: You’re on the side of the angels.
(He sips his tea as Sherlock picks up his own cup and stirs his drink.)
SHERLOCK: Got to the jury, of course.
JIM: I got into the Tower of London; you think I can’t worm my way into twelve hotel rooms?
SHERLOCK: Cable network.
(Flashback to the foreman of the jury in her hotel room sitting on the side of the bed and
looking at her TV screen.)
JIM (voiceover): Every hotel bedroom has a personalised TV screen ...
(Close-up of the TV screen showing the Westhampton Hotel’s Information Service. At the top of
the page the message reads “Hello Ms Williams”. The information underneath instantly changes
to a photograph of two young children and a baby. A message in red above the photograph
reads, “IF YOU WANT YOUR BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN TO STAY BEAUTIFUL THEN FOLLOW MY
INSTRUCTIONS”.)
JIM (voiceover): ... and every person has their pressure point; someone that they want to
protect from harm.
(The foreman stares at the TV screen in horror. At 221B, Jim lifts his teacup to his mouth
again.)

Transcripts by Ariane DeVere (arianedevere@livejournal.com)