Diksha Sundriyal
Over the course of eight episodes, Prime Video’s ‘Young Sherlock’ unravels several mysteries, which eventually lead to its grand conclusion. It begins with Sherlock being taken to Oxford by his older brother, Mycroft, who wants to contain his chaos, even if for a little bit. At first, the stealing of some ancient Chinese scrolls feels like the thing that starts to unravel Sherlock’s life, the victim of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. However, the more he digs into it, the more he discovers that the events transpiring now had been put into motion years ago. In truth, it all started with the tragic death of his sister, Beatrice, which holds more secrets and mysteries than previously imagined. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Beatrice’s Death was Part of a Cunning Plan
For Sherlock, his sister Beatrice’s death was a result of his refusing to play with her. She kept asking him to join her, and because he didn’t, she went off to play by herself in the water, where she drowned. She went missing for several hours, and it wasn’t until the later hours of the night that her body was found by the groundskeeper. The sight of her corpse threw her mother, Cordelia, into such a state of grief that her husband, Silas, had to admit her into an asylum to keep her sane. Or at least, that’s what it looked like in the beginning. When Sherlock discovers his mother is being monitored, he breaks her out of the asylum and brings her back home to Appleton Manor, where he and Moriarty start looking into his father.
After a lot of shocking and heartbreaking revelations, which include digging up his sister’s grave, it is revealed that Silas was the one who planned Beatrice’s death. Or, at least, the show of her death. Because the estate was inherited by Cordelia from her family, Silas didn’t have any control over it. Several of his businesses had failed, and he found himself at his wits’ end about how to get the resources to fuel his ventures. In the end, he set his eyes on Cordelia’s inheritance, but that meant getting her out of the way. He knew that losing one of her children, especially her daughter, would break her psyche, making it easier to control her. So, he came up with the plan to make it look like Beatrice drowned while playing in the water.
In reality, he sent her away with the groundskeeper, who took her to a family that lived far enough so that no one who knew the Holmes family or had seen Beatrice could accidentally end up there. Meanwhile, the corpse of some other girl close to Beatrice’s age and physique was wrapped in her dress, so that when she was brought in, it looked like it was the youngest Holmes. As expected, Cordelia broke into tears and became hysterical with grief, which allowed Silas to get the body inside the house without his wife getting a look at the girl’s face. Then, instead of calling in the family doctor, who had known Beatrice since birth, another doctor from a different village was called in to pronounce her dead. Even then, her face was covered by a white sheet, so Cordelia never got to see the dead girl’s face and realise that it was not her daughter.
Beatrice Becomes Silas’ Pawn in His Villainous Schemes
Once the fact of Beatrice’s death was established, Silas started working on the second part of his plan. He started painting Cordelia as a woman of delicate composition, prone to episodes of hysterics. He made it look like sending her to an asylum was the only way to save her. Once she was gone, he found a way to send his sons away as well. He found a place for Mycroft in the civil services and sent Sherlock to a boarding school. He knew his sons were smart enough to sense something amiss once the veil of grief was removed from their eyes. He didn’t want anyone nosing around his business, and once the boys were gone, he was free to handle the estate as he wished.
Meanwhile, Beatrice grew up with the family, who were aware that she was Silas’ daughter. She was told that there was a fire in the house, which resulted in the loss of her family. Despite sending her away, Silas couldn’t help sending her butterflies for her birthday, which made her realise that there was more to the story than she was being told. Once she turned fourteen, she decided to find the person sending her the butterflies, and bright as she was, she found her father. Silas was impressed by the fact that she found her, but now, he had to tell her why she was sent away. So, he cooked up a story where he painted Cordelia as the villain who didn’t want her daughter to be around and made up the story about the fire to send Beatrice away.
Silas’ manipulations worked so well that Beatrice never tried to find the truth for herself. She also became entangled in his nefarious schemes, especially when Professor Malik’s research into the deadly nerve agent came to light, posing as Edie. It isn’t until she comes face to face with the rest of her family, including her mother, in Constantinople, and hears her father planning to place Sherlock as his heir, that she realizes he is a master manipulator and has been lying to her all these years. It doesn’t change her own villainous turn, but it does make her hate her father for keeping her away from her mother and lying to her all these years just because he wanted control of his wife’s wealth.
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