Page 248 - SHERLOCK transcripts
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JIM (softly): Easy-peasy.
(By now Sherlock has unbuttoned his jacket and sat down in John’s chair. In a perhaps
unconscious mimicking of the man seated opposite him, he too has his cup lifted close to his
mouth.)
SHERLOCK: So how’re you going to do it ...
(He pointedly blows gently on his tea.)
SHERLOCK: ... burn me?
JIM (softly): Oh, that’s the problem – the final problem. Have you worked out what it is yet?
(Sherlock has taken a sip of his tea and looks across his cup to the other man.)
JIM: What’s the final problem?
(He smiles across his own cup.)
JIM: I did tell you ... (sing-song but still softly) ... but did you listen?
(He takes another sip of tea and then puts the cup down into the saucer. Putting his hand onto
his knee, he starts idly drumming his fingers. Sherlock’s eyes lower to watch the movement.)
JIM (still drumming his fingers): How hard do you find it, having to say “I don’t know”?
(Sherlock puts his cup into its saucer and shrugs.)
SHERLOCK (nonchalantly): I dunno.
JIM: Oh, that’s clever; that’s very clever; awfully clever.
(He chuckles in an upper class tone. Sherlock smiles humourlessly while putting his cup back
onto the tray.)
JIM: Speaking of clever, have you told your little friends yet?
SHERLOCK: Told them what?
JIM: Why I broke into all those places and never took anything.
SHERLOCK: No.
JIM: But you understand.
SHERLOCK: Obviously.
JIM: Off you go, then.
(He has carved a piece off his apple and puts it into his mouth with the flat of his penknife.)
SHERLOCK: You want me to tell you what you already know?
JIM: No; I want you to prove that you know it.
SHERLOCK: You didn’t take anything because you don’t need to.
JIM (softly): Good.
SHERLOCK: You’ll never need to take anything ever again.
JIM: Very good. Because ...?
SHERLOCK: Because nothing ... nothing in the Bank of England, the Tower of London or
Pentonville Prison could possibly match the value of the key that could get you into all three.
JIM: I can open any door anywhere with a few tiny lines of computer code. No such thing as a
private bank account now – they’re all mine. No such thing as secrecy – I own secrecy. Nuclear
codes – I could blow up NATO in alphabetical order. In a world with locked rooms, the man with
the key is king; and honey, you should see me in a crown.
(He smiles in delight at Sherlock.)
SHERLOCK: You were advertising all the way through the trial. You were showing the world
what you can do.
JIM: And you were helping. Big client list: rogue governments, intelligence communities ...
terrorist cells. They all want me.
(He lifts another piece of apple to his mouth with the penknife.)
JIM: Suddenly, I’m Mr Sex.
SHERLOCK: If you could break any bank, what do you care about the highest bidder?
JIM: I don’t. I just like to watch them all competing. “Daddy loves me the best!” Aren’t ordinary
people adorable? Well, you know: you’ve got John. I should get myself a live-in one.
SHERLOCK: Why are you doing all of this?
JIM (still thinking about having a live-in ordinary person): It’d be so funny.
SHERLOCK: You don’t want money or power – not really.
(Jim digs the point of his penknife into the apple.)
SHERLOCK: What is it all for?
JIM (sitting forward and speaking softly): I want to solve the problem – our problem; the final
problem.
(He lowers his head.)
JIM: It’s gonna start very soon, Sherlock: the fall.
(In a cut-away moment, he raises his head and whistles a slowly descending note while
simultaneously lowering his gaze towards the floor.)
Transcripts by Ariane DeVere (arianedevere@livejournal.com)

