Welp, that first scene sure was [spoiler]an epic fucking troll. I was almost really mad that I waited two years for that bullshit, and then BAM, unreliable narrator. Well-played, Gatiss.[/spoiler]
On the whole, quite good. I mean, the "main" plot about the terrorist attack felt kind of incidental; it never felt high-stakes. [spoiler]And did Gatiss just watch V for Vendetta, or is the Guy Fawkes imagery/train full of explosives set to blow up Parliament thing just a coincidence?[/spoiler] But of course that's not what the episode was about. It was about Sherlock coming back, Watson having mixed emotions about it, and the mystery of how he faked his death in the first place. I think it mostly succeeded. [spoiler]Guess I'm irritated we don't get a straight answer on the latter, but Sherlock's version certainly seems the most plausible -- even considering it involves a giant inflatable mat and the entire street being taken over by the Baker Street Irregulars, and the guy immediately breaks down assuming it has to be bullshit. And hey, it explicitly reinforces my theory about the corpse being a lookalike who scared that little girl, so there's that.[/spoiler]
The Sherlock/Mycroft scenes were the highlight, and funnier if you know the episode was written by the guy who plays Mycroft. Definitely one of Gatiss's stronger scripts.
Glad to have the boys back -- for a little bit, anyway. I haven't kept track closely enough to see whether there's confirmation that this is the last season, but I'm guessing it is between the finale's title (His Last Vow) and the fact that Cumberbatch and Freeman are both huge fucking movie stars now. I mean, Luther is over because Idris Elba's too bigtime for BBC now, and they're both bigger than he is.