Page 455 - SHERLOCK transcripts

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floor on his side. There is something sticking out of the man’s chest. Holmes walks forward and
bends down to the man, his face full of dread. He gently rolls him onto his back and reveals Sir
Eustace. A large ornately-handled dagger is in his chest, and Eustace’s eyes are fixed and
horrified. Behind him, a woman screams as she catches sight of the body.
Downstairs, a breeze blows out the candle which Watson is holding. His eyes widen and he
breathes heavily. He looks down to strike another match and he re-lights the candle, blows out
the match and then picks up his revolver again and turns towards the hall. As he peers into the
darkness, he is unaware that behind him stands the Bride. She slowly drifts towards him.)
BRIDE (whispering harshly in the same rhythm as the song): Do not forget me.
(Watson’s eyes widen. The Bride comes to a halt just a pace or two behind him.)
BRIDE (in the same harsh whisper): Do not forget me.
(His face full of terror, Watson turns around. Instantly the Bride lifts both her arms high and
displays her bloodstained fingers, the nails long and pointed as if they are claws, and she lets
out a savage half-hiss half-scream. Dropping the candle, Watson turns and runs into the hall,
turning around to run backwards as he looks for the Bride, just as Holmes races down the
stairs. They bump into each other.)
HOLMES: Watson!
WATSON (pointing to the corridor): She’s there! She’s down there!
HOLMES: Don’t tell me you abandoned your post.
WATSON: What? Holmes, she’s there! (He points with his revolver.) I saw her!
(Aiming his lantern ahead of him, Holmes runs into the corridor. Watson chases after him.
Holmes arrives at the broken window and angrily turns back to Watson.)
HOLMES: Empty, thanks to you! Our bird is flown.
WATSON: No! No, Holmes, it wasn’t what you think. I saw her – the ghost.
HOLMES (furiously): THERE ARE NO GHOSTS!
(He glares at Watson for a moment, then calms down.)
WATSON: What happened? Where is Sir Eustace?
HOLMES: Dead.

Some time later, a police photographer removes the cap from the lens of his camera and takes
a photograph of Sir Eustace’s body, still lying where it was found, with the dagger still stuck in
his chest. Holmes, Watson and Lestrade are standing at the top of the nearby stairs.
LESTRADE: You really mustn’t blame yourself, you know.
(Holmes pulls in a long breath through his nose.)
HOLMES: No, you’re quite right.
WATSON: I’m glad you’re seeing sense.
HOLMES: Watson is equally culpable. Between us, we’ve managed to botch this whole case. I
gave an undertaking to protect that man; now he’s lying there with a dagger in his breast.
WATSON (walking towards the body and squatting down to it): In fact, you gave an undertaking
to investigate his murder.
HOLMES (angrily): In the confident expectation I would not have to.
LESTRADE: Anything you can tell us, Doctor?
WATSON: Well, he’s been stabbed with considerable force.
LESTRADE: It’s a man, then.
WATSON: Possibly.
LESTRADE: A very keen blade, so it could conceivably have been a woman.
WATSON (angrily standing up and walking back to the other two): In theory, yes, but we know
who it was. I saw her.
HOLMES: Watson.
WATSON (loudly): I saw the ghost with my own eyes.
HOLMES (angrily): You saw nothing. You saw what you were supposed to see.
WATSON: You said yourself: I have no imagination.
HOLMES: Then use your brain, such as it is, to eliminate the impossible – which in this case is
the ghost – and observe what remains – which in this case is a solution so blindingly obvious,
even Lestrade could work it out.
LESTRADE: Thank you(!)
HOLMES (angrily, to Watson): Forget spectres from the otherworld. (More calmly) There is only
one suspect with motive and opportunity. They might as well have left a note.
LESTRADE: They did leave a note.
HOLMES (to Watson): And then there’s the matter of the other broken window.
LESTRADE: What other broken window?

Transcripts by Ariane DeVere (arianedevere@livejournal.com)