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The Blind Banker
"The Blind Banker" is the second episode of the television series Sherlock, first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 1 August 2010. It was written by Stephen Thompson and directed by Euros Lyn.
Sherlock is a loose adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, set in the modern day. "The Blind Banker" follows Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) and John Watson (Martin Freeman) as they investigate a series of ciphers representing numbers in an ancient Chinese numeral system which have been left by a Chinese smuggling ring who are intent to kill to retrieve an item one of them stole.
It attracted 8.07 million viewers on BBC One and BBC HD. Critical reception was generally positive, though some reviewers felt it was inferior to the first episode. The episode was also criticised for its orientalist clichés.
At the National Antiquities Museum, Chinese pottery expert Soo Lin Yao sees something frightening and disappears. Meanwhile, Sherlock takes John to a high-powered international finance house. There, Sebastian Wilkes, an old university acquaintance of Sherlock's, asks for help. A break-in occurred in which a seemingly meaningless pair of symbols were spray-painted onto a portrait of a banker. Sherlock realises it was a message meant for one man – Edward van Coon of the Hong Kong desk – who has not come to work. Sherlock breaks into van Coon's locked flat and finds him dead. The police, under Detective Inspector Dimmock, regard it as a suicide, though Sherlock sees it as murder. Soon, journalist Brian Lukis (Howard Coggins) is killed inside his locked flat. Sherlock and John investigate, and in a library where Lukis had been, they find the same mysterious symbols painted on a shelf.
John, seeking financial security, obtains a job as locum at a local surgery run by Dr. Sarah Sawyer. Later, Sherlock and John discover a link between the two men; both had just returned from China, and both went to an oriental curio shop, "The Lucky Cat". There, Holmes learns that the symbols are ancient Chinese Hangzhou numerals (correctly Suzhou numerals). Sherlock notices that Soo Lin's flat is empty and snoops around, where he finds an intruder; a brief fight ensues, but the attacker flees. At the museum, they then discover the same symbols on a statue. Then, with the help of graffiti artist "Raz", Sherlock and John find more symbols graffitied on a wall and struggle to decode the message. Back at the museum, Holmes surprises Soo Lin in hiding, who explains the code is linked to the criminal ring "Black Lotus Tong", of which she was once a member. Unfortunately, before she can fully decode the message, she is killed by her brother, another criminal gang member. Sherlock realises Van Coon and Lukis were members of the Tong, involved in smuggling valuable antiquities to sell in London. They were killed because one of them stole something.
Sherlock knows the message is in the form of a book cipher, and he and John spend the night going through the first two victims' books, trying to find the solution. John's first day at work does not go well, but Sarah covers for him, and they organise to go out on a date. Sherlock arranges tickets to a travelling Chinese circus. While John and Sarah enjoy the classic escapology and acrobatics acts, Sherlock snoops around backstage and is attacked, but with Sarah and John's help, the three escape. While Sherlock continues to search for the solution to the book cipher, John and Sarah are kidnapped; John is mistaken for Sherlock by the villains, who want him to reveal the location of the missing "treasure" in return for Sarah's life.
Fortunately, Sherlock cracks the code using an A-Z London Street Atlas guide, and rescues John and Sarah. He also realises the elusive "treasure" has been in plain sight all the time: A jade hairpin belonging to the Chinese royal family, worn by van Coon's secretary/mistress Amanda, who had received it as a gift from van Coon. However, Shan, the Black Lotus Tong's leader, escapes and contacts a person via online "chat" identified only by the initial "M" who had helped the gang to get a foothold in London. The episode ends a moment before a sniper shoots Shan after "M" types that Shan will not fail again.
According to Moffat, the episode takes the concept of coded messages from "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" (using pictorial messages), a story feature directly referenced later, in the series 4 episode The Final Problem.
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The Blind Banker
"The Blind Banker" is the second episode of the television series Sherlock, first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 1 August 2010. It was written by Stephen Thompson and directed by Euros Lyn.
Sherlock is a loose adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, set in the modern day. "The Blind Banker" follows Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) and John Watson (Martin Freeman) as they investigate a series of ciphers representing numbers in an ancient Chinese numeral system which have been left by a Chinese smuggling ring who are intent to kill to retrieve an item one of them stole.
It attracted 8.07 million viewers on BBC One and BBC HD. Critical reception was generally positive, though some reviewers felt it was inferior to the first episode. The episode was also criticised for its orientalist clichés.
At the National Antiquities Museum, Chinese pottery expert Soo Lin Yao sees something frightening and disappears. Meanwhile, Sherlock takes John to a high-powered international finance house. There, Sebastian Wilkes, an old university acquaintance of Sherlock's, asks for help. A break-in occurred in which a seemingly meaningless pair of symbols were spray-painted onto a portrait of a banker. Sherlock realises it was a message meant for one man – Edward van Coon of the Hong Kong desk – who has not come to work. Sherlock breaks into van Coon's locked flat and finds him dead. The police, under Detective Inspector Dimmock, regard it as a suicide, though Sherlock sees it as murder. Soon, journalist Brian Lukis (Howard Coggins) is killed inside his locked flat. Sherlock and John investigate, and in a library where Lukis had been, they find the same mysterious symbols painted on a shelf.
John, seeking financial security, obtains a job as locum at a local surgery run by Dr. Sarah Sawyer. Later, Sherlock and John discover a link between the two men; both had just returned from China, and both went to an oriental curio shop, "The Lucky Cat". There, Holmes learns that the symbols are ancient Chinese Hangzhou numerals (correctly Suzhou numerals). Sherlock notices that Soo Lin's flat is empty and snoops around, where he finds an intruder; a brief fight ensues, but the attacker flees. At the museum, they then discover the same symbols on a statue. Then, with the help of graffiti artist "Raz", Sherlock and John find more symbols graffitied on a wall and struggle to decode the message. Back at the museum, Holmes surprises Soo Lin in hiding, who explains the code is linked to the criminal ring "Black Lotus Tong", of which she was once a member. Unfortunately, before she can fully decode the message, she is killed by her brother, another criminal gang member. Sherlock realises Van Coon and Lukis were members of the Tong, involved in smuggling valuable antiquities to sell in London. They were killed because one of them stole something.
Sherlock knows the message is in the form of a book cipher, and he and John spend the night going through the first two victims' books, trying to find the solution. John's first day at work does not go well, but Sarah covers for him, and they organise to go out on a date. Sherlock arranges tickets to a travelling Chinese circus. While John and Sarah enjoy the classic escapology and acrobatics acts, Sherlock snoops around backstage and is attacked, but with Sarah and John's help, the three escape. While Sherlock continues to search for the solution to the book cipher, John and Sarah are kidnapped; John is mistaken for Sherlock by the villains, who want him to reveal the location of the missing "treasure" in return for Sarah's life.
Fortunately, Sherlock cracks the code using an A-Z London Street Atlas guide, and rescues John and Sarah. He also realises the elusive "treasure" has been in plain sight all the time: A jade hairpin belonging to the Chinese royal family, worn by van Coon's secretary/mistress Amanda, who had received it as a gift from van Coon. However, Shan, the Black Lotus Tong's leader, escapes and contacts a person via online "chat" identified only by the initial "M" who had helped the gang to get a foothold in London. The episode ends a moment before a sniper shoots Shan after "M" types that Shan will not fail again.
According to Moffat, the episode takes the concept of coded messages from "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" (using pictorial messages), a story feature directly referenced later, in the series 4 episode The Final Problem.