John Watson is an English doctor, who hired Bea Cook to solve paranormal mysteries along with her friends.
History[]
Concerned about her sister, Bea meets with her mother's friend, Sister Anna, at her mother's grave. Bea points out that her mother, Alice, had strange dreams also before her death, but Sister Anna dismisses the thought. After she leaves, Bea spots the same man from 221B watching her, and runs away. He chases her, finally catching her in an alley, and offers to pay her for some work. The man introduces himself as a doctor, and reveals that he and his partner run an independent detective agency. He explains that for their current case, they require the help of someone familiar with the disreputable parts of London. Four newborn babies have recently disappeared, with the most recent kidnapping happening the previous night from an upstairs room with a locked window. Neither the older sister, who shared a room with the infant, nor the mother downstairs saw anyone. The only clue was a single raven feather found beneath the crib. The Doctor explains that the sister, Susan Shipley, has now also disappeared, and offers to pay Bea if she can locate the girl. Bea agrees.
Still short of money, Bea is arrested for stealing a bracelet and jailed, where she is visited by Watson. Despite Bea having decided not to work for him again, she is forced to agree to help him when he threatens to have her sent to the workhouse unless she investigates another case. The Doctor informs her of two bizarre recent incidents where all of a child's teeth were stolen out of their mouths by someone whom the press have dubbed the "Tooth Fairy". He provides her with the victim's addresses, and tells her that a ghostly woman was seen at both locations. Bea tells him that Jessie thinks people are getting strange powers from somewhere, and again asks how her employer knew about Jessie's abilities. However, the Doctor refuses to answer either question.
Back on Baker Street, Spike breaks into 221B after the Doctor leaves. He finds a letter addressed to John Watson concerning a group called the Golden Dawn. However, he is interrupted by someone entering the building. Spike hides under the bed, which the man laws down on. The man plays the violin briefly, before stopping and vomiting on the floor. Spike manages to leave after the man passes out, passing a strange room filled with occult artefacts on the way out.
Dr Watson summons Bea and Jessie to 221B. He tells them about the recent murder of a man named Paul Cambridge, whose face was removed by the killer. The murderer had been identified by several witnesses as David Oliver; however, Oliver himself had been found dead several days before the crime, also with a flayed skull. Watson tells them the case is being investigated by the regular police, but that Lestrade, the inspector in charge, has requested Jessie make her abilities available. Before leaving, Bea asks to meet with Holmes. When Watson denies the request, Bea rushes upstairs and discovers that Holmes is missing. To Watson's fury, Bea promises to find Holmes and uncover everything that Watson has been hiding from them.
In Limehouse, Bea looks for Holmes at the opium den. She spots Watson and turns the guards against him by telling them he is with the police. However, she is also forced to flee when another addict reveals that Bea was also asking questions. She and Watson hide in a closet together.
Fifteen years ago, Watson and Alice Cook (Bea and Jessie's mother) rescue the actress Patricia Colman Jones from a mob hypnotized to kill her. They are investigating a series of attacks on West End performers. Alice touches one of the assailants with her psychic powers and realizes Sherlock Holmes is in danger. Holmes, meanwhile, is across town watching a performance by a singer named Linda Langtree. Her singing hypnotizes the audience. She calls Holmes on stage, gives him a long hairpin, and orders him to kill himself. Watson and Alice burst in to stop him, but Holmes reveals that he had wax in his ears all along and jabs Langtree with a sedative. The three three take a bow as the audience applauds.
Sherlock shows Bea a tattoo on his ankle with the initials of "The Irregulars". Alice had got the same tattoo, but Watson had refused. He continues with his story. After solving the Langtree hypnotism case, Holmes celebrates his success with Watson and the police. He begins to explain how he solved the case, but this irritates Alice, who leaves the room. Holmes follows her into the hall, where she confronts him about his arrogance. She says that while people enjoy his deductions because they create the illusion of an orderly world, they are on the brink of something chaotic and without reason. Watson enters just as they kiss. Bea is disturbed to hear Holmes claim that he and her mother loved each other. She confronts him about the evidence Mrs Hudson gave of Alice screaming. However, he says that the screaming was not a result of their experiments, which Alice took part in willingly, but of her nightmares.
Holmes continues his story. Alice continues trying to find the Rip in her dreams, but is increasingly disturbed by her nightmares. She tries to convince Holmes not to take a new case from Inspector Gregson, saying that it is taking too high a toll on all of them. However, Holmes insists his work is necessary. Gregson shows them several men whose body parts were stolen the previous night. Strangely, all of their wounds have healed completely. Watson notices an unusual residue on the limb, and Alice finds a vial of green liquid. Holmes analyzes the contents and determines it is an herbal mixture containing the incredibly rare plant Snowdonia hawkweed. Watson also asks Holmes to take a break and rest, but Holmes insists the hawkweed is the crucial clue to solving the case. He asks Watson to take the mixture to the Royal Botanical Gardens and find out where the plant could have come from.
To Holmes’ shock, when Watson returns he reports that the head botanist, Edith Dubois, determined that what Holmes thought was hawkweed was merely tarragon. Holmes cannot believe he made a mistake, as without the hawkweed they have no other clues to go off of. Watson tries to convince him to go to a pub like old times, but Holmes insists he has to watch Alice. At this point, back in the present Holmes begins having severe withdrawal symptoms and asks Bea to get him some drugs. Bea refuses and demands to know what was wrong with her mother, but Holmes says he won’t tell her anything else unless she gets him the drugs.
In the past, Alice wakes up after a nightmare and tries to convince Sherlock to leave London before a disaster happens. However, Holmes admits that he wants the fame of being the one to save the world. Alice, however, reminds him that he has her and the two girls now, and convinces Holmes to leave with her for Suffolk. Watson confronts Holmes as he is packing, telling him that Alice has changed him. Sherlock replies that he can’t stay with John forever. However, Watson then reveals that he thinks he knows how to find the Rip, grabbing Sherlock’s attention. Watson explains that the barrier is thinnest in places of mass death, and Alice seeing executioners indicates a site of execution. He had been withholding this information from Holmes until he had figured out the exact spot, hoping to impress him. Holmes immediately realizes the triangle refers to the shape of the infamous Tyburn Gallows. Despite Holmes’ reluctance, Watson persuades him to bring Alice to the site. Bea and Jessie are disgusted that Holmes convinced Alice to go.
Back in the past, Holmes, Watson, and Alice arrive at the former gallows site in Hyde Park. Alice senses the Rip, and entrusts Bea and Jessie to Sherlock. As Alice closes the Rip, it begins to pull her in. Sherlock attempts to rescue her, but finds he isn’t strong enough. He asks John to help, but Watson instead grabs him. His grip on Alice fails, and Alice is pulled into the Rip and vanishes as it closes.
Bea and Leo are trailing Watson hoping to learn more about his involvement with the Rip. They follow him to a hospital, where discover a number of people with missing body parts and the wounds supernaturally healed. Bea realizes this is the same pattern as in Sherlock’s last case, that of the “Collector”, which he never solved.
Bea, Billy, Spike, and Leo visit Edith Dubois’ house and find it abandoned. It has also been partially ransacked, presumably by Watson. Bea finds photographs of Mrs Dubois with her sickly husband, and Billy finds the botanist’s journal. It describes how, faced with her husband’s imminent death, Dubois planned to put him into a coma and somehow rebuild him. They realize Edith must be the Collector. They wonder what Watson was so desperate to find in Dubois’ house, and why he lied to Holmes about the hawkweed being a dead end. Given that hawkweed requires such specific conditions to grow, it could only conceivably grow in the botanical gardens, so the group heads there to investigate.
Watson was held hostage by Edith.
At the botanical gardens, Bea and her friends break into the head botanists’ nursery. There, they find Dubois attending to the corpse of her husband, Samuel. She reveals that her work is complete, and gloats about her powers over life. However, when she injects the serum into her husband to revive him, it fails. Edith muses that the illness must have spread to his organs, and that she needs more body parts. Bea tries to convince her to tell them more about Watson and the Rip. She even offers not to turn Edith over to the police in exchange for information over Spike and Billy’s protests that Edith will go right back to harvesting body parts if she remains free. When Edith realizes that Bea actually hates Watson, she reveals that she has him locked in a back room.
Edith tells the group that after medicine failed to cure her husband, she turned to the occult. In a flashback to fifteen years earlier, Holmes hosts a discussion about contacting the dead with some members of the Golden Dawn. Watson is upset when Holmes dismisses him as not having aptitude for the field. Edith Dubois arrives, looking for Holmes. Watson initially dismisses her, but becomes interested when she reveals she has acquired a relic that allows one to reach the “other side”. He goes to her house, where he convinces her to let him borrow the device. She warns Watson that she heard using the device was dangerous, but he dismisses her.
Watson, of course, had no intention of using the device to help Edith, and instead takes it to the Tyburn Gallows site, where he uses it to open a Rip. Several weeks later, Edith acquires her powers from the Rip, and crafts her plan to save her husband. Watson visits her some months later after Holmes begins investigating the “Collector”. He tells her that he knows she is behind the limb thefts. However, Edith turns the tables on him by revealing she knows that Watson opened the Rip using her device. She threatens to tell Holmes about Watson's involvement if he does not cover up her crimes by lying to Holmes about the hawkweed.
Bea was angry when she found out Watson was behind the rip all along.
In the present, Bea is outraged to find out that Watson was behind the rip that killed her mother all along. Watson tries to apologize, but swears that he is not behind the current Rip. He threw Edith’s device into the Thames after opening the Rip the first time. However, the discussion is interrupted by Edith. She threatens to break a vial of a toxic chemical if any of them move, which will kill them all.
At the botanical gardens, Edith reveals that she plans to use Watson to harvest the missing organs she needs to revive her husband. However, as she prepares to smash the vial and kill them all, her husband suddenly revives. Edith sets down the bottle and rushes to his side. To her surprise, Samuel is angry about Edith’s experiments on him for the last fifteen years, as he only wanted to die. He grabs her by the throat and begins choking her. The group considers whether to leave Watson to his fate, but ultimately free him and escape as Samuel strangles his wife. After killing Edith, Samuel drinks the vial of poison to kill himself permanently.
With the situation in London becoming more dangerous, Bea visits Watson at 221B and demands the truth about why he opened the original Rip. Watson explains his history with Holmes, and how Holmes pulled away from him as he grew more famous. He admits that he opened the Rip accidentally in an attempt to impress Holmes by contacting the spirit world. Bea asks why Watson didn’t save her mother when she was taken by the Rip, and Watson confesses that his is in love with Holmes and was jealous of Alice.
Sherlock brought Jessie to Baker Street after finding her at the docks.
Their conversation is interrupted by Holmes, who enters with Jessie. Holmes tells them that he found her at the docks, and that it seems the Linen Man put Jessie in a magical sleep. Sherlock tells them he believes the man is an ipsissimus, and Watson theorizes he must have come to London to harness the power of the Rip, which would make him incredibly powerful.
Bea, Watson and Holmes were told that the Linen Man had killed the man.
Bea, Holmes, and Watson arrive at Scotland Yard and immediately spot a dead man on the staircase. They are met by Inspector Gregson, who informs them that a man in a linen suit broke in to the archives and stole the files on every case Watson’s group worked on. Bea realizes that the Linen Man plans to use the case files to find a “monster”, as each has the location of the Rip in his or her mind. Watson points out that Arthur Hilton, or the “Bird Master”, is the only they confronted who is one still alive. The group rushes to Bedlam Hospital, where he is imprisoned.
Bea, Holmes, Watson, and Gregson arrive at Bedlam, and are shown to the otherwise empty wing where Hilton is imprisoned. Gregson orders guards positioned on the roof and warns the chief doctor that the Linen Man will soon be coming. Bea is let into Hilton’s cell, and tells him they need his help. She tells him that when the Linen Man arrives, he will enter his head to find the Rip. She gives Hilton a syringe, and asks him to use it on the Linen Man after he does so.
Watson and Holmes reminisced about the past while waiting for the Linen Man.
Night has fallen at Bedlam, while Bea and the police wait for the Linen Man to arrive. Holmes and Watson reminisce about the old days. Watson tells Holmes that he was right about the Snowdonia hawkweed and that Edith Dubois was behind the “Collector” case, though he lies to cover up his involvement in the deception. However, Holmes doesn’t care much, saying there are more important things than being right. They are surprised when one of the guards from the roof falls from the balcony, followed shortly by the other. Everyone hides as the Linen Man enters. He goes straight for Hilton’s cell and enters his memories, where he learns the location of the Rip. However, he realizes Hilton is hiding something. Bea and the group hear a struggle, and hurry to the cell. They find Hilton holding the syringe and the Linen Man laying on his cot. However, Hilton begins to accuse Gregson of stealing his baby, and attacks him. While Watson and Holmes attempt restrain Hilton, Bea enters the cell. She checks to see if the Linen Man is dead, but he grabs her and puts her under a trance. Having sedated Hilton, Watson notices the Linen Man escaping and Holmes sends him after him. Holmes checks on Bea, and instructs Gregson to watch her after seeing she has been touched.
Sherlock stopped the Linen Man, but left with him in the end.
Watson chases the Linen Man, who seems about to escape until he comes to a door he cannot open. Holmes appears and locks a gate behind him, revealing the Linen Man has fallen into his trap. He demands that the Linen man tell him where the Rip is. Bea, Watson, and Gregson arrive, but cannot reach Holmes due to another locked gate. They see the Linen Man talking to Holmes, and are shocked when Sherlock opens the gate and allows the Linen Man to leave before following after him.
Back at Baker Street, Bea and Watson check on Jessie. They cannot understand why Holmes would join the Linen Man, and Bea is particularly upset by his betrayal. As a result of the Linen Man’s touch, she finds herself having visions of her mother, and remembers when her mother left her and Jessie with Sister Anna. Spike arrives at the house with Billy and Leo, who managed to secure Billy’s release. Together, the four friends talk to Jessie, reaching her in her nightmare. This gives her the strength to climb out of the grave and destroy the plague doctors. She also has a vision of workers accidentally breaking into the cavern as part of excavations for the new London Underground, and learns that the cavern is located near Aldgate Station on the Inner Circle Line. Jessie wakes up and tells her friends about her discover, and warns them they have to hurry. Meanwhile, the Linen Man and Holmes break into the construction site at Aldgate, where they find the expanding Rip.
Leo, Billy, and Spike geared up so they could fight if necessary.
In another room, Watson is preparing the boys for the battle to come. He tries to solve the riddle to unlock the weapon's cabinet when Billy takes a smalls statue and breaks the lock. Billy grabs his weapon of choice and then passes a rifle back to Spike. Leo declines a weapon at first, but the rest of the group tells him he will need it and not let himself get caught short. Once the group is armed and ready, they set out to the Rip. The city has fallen to mayhem and Watson warns them that the larger the Rip gets, the worse the mayhem will become. He tells them that he was apprehensive when he first asked for their help because they were children, but Bea reminds him that they still are. At the Rip, we see that The Linen Man has begun the ritual to grant him his god-like powers.
As Bea and the gang make their way through the streets, London goes up in flames. The gang arrives at Aldgate to find the door barricaded shut. Watson has another plan, though. He had checked the construction ordinance before leaving and knows that the old sewer line will run straight into the tunnels. Bea praises him for his smart thinking and he sarcastically replies that she didn’t bring him along for his charm.
Bea broke down crying when she remembered when she found out her mother was dead.
Billy tries to send Spike down first, but he is too afraid to until something rather large starts heading their way. Once safely in the sewers, Watson warns the group to be as quiet as possible and they begin heading towards the Rip. As they get closer, Bea begins to lag behind. She begins to hear whispers again, but this time they aren’t her mother's. In this new memory, she sees Watson speaking with Sister Anna. She isn’t sure what they are saying, but then Sister Anna turns to her and tells her that something has happened to her mom. Bea breaks down and beings to scream as she relives the memory of finding out her mother was dead. Watson and the rest overhear her and he backtracks to try and help her calm down. Sherlock can hear her cries as well and tells The Linen Man that they have arrived. The Linen Man warns Sherlock that he isn’t done but pauses the ritual to deal with them. Watson helps Bea get back on her feet and the group continues to make their way through the tunnels.
Leo imagined having a nosebleed, which scared him.
The group begins to separate little by little and a white flash passes by Spike and touches his shoulder. In the next moment, Vic Collins makes his way towards him. The same white flash passes and touches Leo, who instantly gets a nosebleed.The same thing happens to Spike, who instantly falls to the ground terrified. Jessie, Bea and Watson overhear Billy and Spike's screams and Watson realizes that The Linen Man has come for them.
Just before the same white flash moves past them, Watson fires and stops The Linen Man from coming close. Jessie tells them to stay where they are and that she will handle him. Watson tries to stop her, but she runs after The Linen Man. He stays behind to try and help Bea break out of The Linen Man's control. Meanwhile, Leo is bleeding profusely out of his nose, mouth and ears following by Spike screaming out for someone to "help her; she’s dying". It then jumps to Billy being taunted by Vic.
Everyone tries to regroup, but the tunnel collapses and separates Billy, Spike and Leopold from Bea, Jessie and Watson. Billy's leg is broken in the collapse and Bea tells them to head back to the cellar and keep each other safe. Billy is reluctant to go at first but eventually agrees. Spike and Leopold help Billy out of the tunnels while Bea and Watson continue on to find Jessie, who had made her way down to The Linen Man. He is somehow still alive and warns Jessie that if she tries to close the Rip, she will die.
Bea and Watson follow behind her and find Sherlock and the Rip. They all watch as Alice makes her way out of the Rip and breaks it open further. Bea believes this is all in her head, but Jessie tells her that this is real. Above ground, we can see that the streets have gotten far worse as Spike, Billy and Leopold navigate past a cannibal feasting on another man’s flesh. Down at the Rip, we get a sweet family reunion until the topic of the girl’s upbringing comes up. Sherlock apologizes for not being there for the girls and claims he tried, but Bea believes he is lying and that he abandoned her just last night.
Sherlock claims that they are just alike. He and Bea would do anything to be with Alice again, which is why he did it. Alice promises Bea that she is never going to leave her again and from here on out, she will take care of her. Jessie begins to realize that the Rip is only getting worse the longer Alice is outside of it. She asks Alice whys he is opening the Rip.
Alice, explains that she opened the Rip to return to the world of the living. That once it is completely open, she will no longer be trapped there. Jessie understands her motives but is upset that her mother knew this would make monsters out of people. Alice explains that it is only temporary and when the barrier between both worlds collapses, the chaos will be gone. Watson realizes what she is trying to do and speaks up. He knows that when the barrier collapses, this world will cease to exist.
He asks Alice what world she came from. She explains it's a world where spirits who aren't ready to move on remain – purgatory. Watson realizes that she wants to turn the world into purgatory and Alice tells him it will be the end of death. Jessie disagrees with her mother, knowing that this isn't worth the cost they have to pay. Sherlock agrees with Alice, though Jessie realizes they have both been warped by their sadness. She knows she needs to close the Rip, but Alice warns her that it will force her back into the other world if she does. She tries to make her way up to it, but Bea stops her.
At the Rip, Bea explains that while she and Sherlock might hurt the same, they are different. Alice doesn't want Jessie to close the Rip and be forced to leave, but Bea knows now that it must be done. She realizes it wasn't the grieving that hurt them but the fact that they didn’t grieve at all that did. Bea hugs her mother and thanks her for giving her the chance to say goodbye. Alice turns to Sherlock, asking for help, but he understands now that it isn't about them anymore but about the girls. He tells Alice she needs to go back as well. Watson warns Jessie that the Rip is collapsing and she needs to close it. Jessie beings to close the Rip as the scene flashing back to the basement.
Jessie continues to close the Rip, with Bea anchoring her to this side. Alice says goodbye to them and tells them that she loves them before she gets sucked in. Sherlock then turns to Watson and tells him that he has been a better friend than he ever deserved. Confused, he watches Sherlock run-up to the Rip and put his hand in as well. Jessie cries out to him to stop and calls him dad for the first time. Watson tries to hold him back as Bea fights to keep Jessie on this side as well.
After letting Holmes go, Watson was able to help Bea save Jessie.
Watson and Bea are still struggling to hold onto Bea and Sherlock. Jessie loses her footing and Bea struggles to keep her steady. She calls out to Watson to help her, but he refuses to let go of Sherlock. Bea continues to beg, telling him that he can let Sherlock go, that she needs his help to save her. He finally lets go of Sherlock, who is pulled into the Rip and grabs ahold of Jessie. The scene then flashes back and forth between Leo and Sister Anna to Jessie, Bea and Watson until Jessie can finally close the Rip. With Watson's help, Bea keeps her sister from being dragged in.
With the Rip closed, Sister Anna comes to before she was successful in drowning Leopold. Bea struggles to come to terms with what happened and Watson tells her that they're gone. At the cellar, Billy finally comes to completely and he and Leo realize that Jessie was successful. The two go to check on Spike and are worried he might be dead, but he slowly comes to as well. Spike asks if it is finally over and they share the good news with him.
The next morning, Billy, Spike, Jessie, Bea, Leopold and Watson meet at Alice's grave and place flowers on her tombstone. Bea gives a beautiful eulogy for Alice and Sherlock. The group gets ready to take their leave and Bea and Watson are left at the grave. Bea asks Waston what he will do now. He isn't sure what he will do, but he thinks he can find something. Bea invites him to come over for fish and chips, but he declines and says he has dinner plans.
Back at the cellar, the group digs into their dinner. Leo asks Bea if she would take a step outside with him. Leo tells Bea that he can't stay for dinner and has to return to the palace. He promised his mother he would go to Europe and leaves the next day. He explains that because he is a royal, he has expectations of who he needs to marry. Leopold says that he likes Bea, but he has to marry who he is told even if he doesn't like her. Bea is confused with why Leo is going along with this. He explains that he loves her, but he has to go along with this. Bea tells him that he can do whatever he wants, that after spending all this time, she thought he would have changed. But Leo shares that he has to do it because this was the only way he could get them to agree to help Billy. He gave up his freedom for Billy's. If he doesn’t go back, they will arrest Billy again. He doesn't want Billy to know, though and asks Bea to keep it a secret. Bea finally understands why Leo has no choice. He explains that he didn't try to trick her but was trying to be his real self around her and the rest of the group. That he was happy that she liked him when she didn't even know he was a prince. She asks him if this was real and he reminds her that this was all real. Leo heads off to the palace and Bea finds herself at 221B. She finds Watson home alone, having lied about having dinner plans. She offers to share her fish and chips with him.
Watson comforted Bea and told her he would be there for her.
Bea and Watson are sharing the fish and chips as they talk about his past. She asks him if he didn't get an Irregulars tattoo because he felt guilty, but he says it is because they are vulgar. Bea thought it might have been because Watson is kind of a chicken. He tells her that if she gets a tattoo, he will and Bea shares with him that she already has one. Bea then asks him how to stop loving someone because it hurts too much. Watson responds that you don't and Bea breaks down. Watson gets up to leave but turns back and comforts her instead. Bea tells him that everyone leaves her, but Watson promises that he is here and won't be going anywhere.