Sherlock timeline

The canon timeline of the BBC "Sherlock", and a couple of thoughts thereon.

Quite long and with complete spoilers, so hidden under the cut:



Series 1

 January 29th, 2011 - Sherlock and John meet, move in together, solve the "Study in Pink"

Off-camera: two months

March 23 -27 - John starts dating Sarah, Sherlock breaks up the smuggling ring in "The Blind Banker"

just a few days later

April 1 - Moriarty's attention fully caught, he engages Sherlock in "The Great Game" (end of series 1, first scene of series 2)

Series 2

Off-camera, interspersed with montage scenes from beginning of series 2: four months

August 1 - Scene in "Scandal in Belgravia" where Lestrade shows Sherlock the mysterious corpse of the air traveler in the car boot

Off-camera, more montage: month and a half

September 15 - Sherlock and John meet Irene Adler and fail to retrieve her phone

Off-camera: three and a half months, during which Irene texts Sherlock

December 25 - Christmas: Sherlock and John have a Christmas party, John's latest girlfriend dumps him, Sherlock receives Irene's phone in the mail and believes her dead

just a few days later

December 31, 2011 - New Year's Eve: Irene brings John to the Battersea Power Station, the CIA attacks Mrs. Hudson

Off-camera: two months, plus a bit

UNKNOWN - Somewhere between January and March: Irene returns and Sherlock cracks the code, she tells Moriarty and Mycroft is furious, Sherlock cracks her phone and she disappears again

March 12, 2012 - Mycroft tells John that Irene is dead, they tell Sherlock she's in the witness protection program. End of "Scandal in Belgravia."

apparently just a few days later (?)

Mid-March - "Hounds of Baskerville," all of which takes place within a couple of days.

Off-camera: three months, during which Mycroft interrogates and releases Moriarty and the Reichenbach Falls case occurs

June, 2012 - Culmination of "The Reichenbach Fall." Timeline of most of the episode is somewhat unclear, but by June 16, Sherlock has fallen.


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Consideration 1: Sherlock and John have only been living together for two months when Moriarty kidnaps John and they meet at the pool. but they have lived together for almost a year and a half before Sherlock dies.

Consideration 2: The whole of the first series takes almost exactly two months, from Jan 29 to Apr 1. The second series spans over a year (Apr 1 to June 16), almost entirely due to "Scandal in Belgravia" (even without the bridging montage, the Irene-specific story alone covered six months).

Consideration 3: In that year and a half, John dates at least four people. While we only see the breakup with Jeannette on Christmas, it is very likely that it is indicative of the end of the other relationships: his focus on his relationship with Sherlock at the complete expense of his romantic relationships. There is no indication that he dates anyone in the six months between when Jeannette breaks up with him and when Sherlock dies. (N.B.: Unless she has gone by a pseudonym, we have not yet met Mary Morstan.)

If I can find additional detail on this (particularly the timelines for when Irene returns and asks Sherlock to crack the DoD code, and for when Moriarty breaks into the Tower of London), I will update.



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