Enola Holmes takes center stage in the new Netflix film Enola Holmes 2, but the sequel is still packed with easter eggs and references that harken back to the original character of Sherlock Holmes. The Enola Holmes movies are adaptations of the spinoff book series of the same name, nonetheless, audiences familiar with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original books will recognize the hidden gems. Although Sherlock plays a ing character to Enola in the film, his familiar backstory to the audience solidifies the film's world-building by alluding to details from Doyle's original books and anchors Enola Holmes's fantastical adventures to real-life Victorian England.
Together, Sherlock and Enola create a juxtaposing but complementary pair of siblings that brings an Enola Holmes film, Enola struggles to establish her own detective agency, having to compete not only against the misogyny and ageism of Victorian England that overlooks her genius, but also against the immense shadow that her older brother's fame cast on her. An unlikely case of a disappearing factory-working girl with no reward, however, gives Enola the chance to prove her capabilities as a detective. Unbeknownst to her, the case is bigger than a missing person and crosses over with another case that her brother is working on.
Sherlock Holmes's Substance Abuse
Enola Holmes 2 alludes to Sherlock Holmes's substance abuse, but does not paint the full picture of the change to a more straight-and-narrow Sherlock in Enola Holmes 2 does not make much sense. With the focus on Sherlock's teenage sister, however, Netflix's Enola Holmes 2 may have chosen a more family-friendly approach to Sherlock's addictions in order to maintain a light comedic tone and appeal to a younger and more impressionable audience.
221B Baker Street
Sherlock Holmes's address is as iconic as the character himself, and although it was not a real address in London when Doyle wrote the books, there has been a museum built near its real-life location in honor of the fictional detective's residence. In Enola Holmes 2, the audience has a first look at Sherlock's apartment at 221B Baker Street when Enola helps an inebriated Sherlock back to his apartment. As one of the biggest potential sequel film Enola Holmes 3.
The state of Sherlock's apartment in the film falls in line with Watson's description of Sherlock as "one of the most untidy men that ever drove a fellow-lodger to distraction" in "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual". Watson goes on to detail Sherlock's erratic habits and lack of organization:
Our chambers were always full of chemicals and of criminal relics, which had a way of wandering into unlikely positions, and of turning up in the butter-dish, or in even less desirable places. But his papers were my great crux. He had a horror of destroying documents, especially those which were connected with his past cases, and yet it was only once in every year or two that he would muster energy to docket and arrange them, for, as I have mentioned somewhere in these incoherent memoirs, the outbursts of ionate energy when he performed the remarkable feats with which his name is associated were followed by reactions of lethargy, during which he would lie about with his violin and his books, hardly moving, save from the sofa to the table. Thus month after month his papers accumulated, until every corner of the room was stacked with bundles of manuscript which were on no to be burned, and which could not be put away save by their owner.
The film stays true to Watson's , showing papers scattered all over the desks and floor in Sherlock's apartment, and an open book that Sherlock carelessly steps on as he collapses into a chair. A testament to Sherlock's true genius, however, there seems to be a method to the madness. When Enola comments on the messiness of the apartment, Sherlock tells her not to touch anything, and upon waking up the next morning, he accuses Enola of moving the documents on his floor, despite them being scattered in an indiscernible manner in the first place.
Sherlock Holmes The Lone Wolf
Despite having Doctor John Watson is arguably his only friend in the books, and even with Watson ing him on his cases, Sherlock is never truly and completely forthcoming to his partner, frequently hiding important information on cases and on his personal life from his friend, colleague, and flatmate. The fact that Sherlock is self-aware of his dysfunctional solitude and his need for companionship both in the books and in Enola Holmes 2 is good news for the spinoff film series, setting up the potential third film Enola Holmes 3 to introduce Doctor John Watson as the cure to Sherlock's chronic loneliness.
Sherlock's Nemesis Moriarty
Moriarty appears in Enola Holmes 2 as a cunning, underestimated woman who loves puzzles and games, as well as toying with Sherlock with intellectual challenges. Moriarty is one of Sherlock Holmes's arch-nemeses in the original books, a clever criminal who appeared in seven of Doyle's stories and evaded Sherlock's capture for a long while—Sherlock's intellectual equal. With the full name of James Moriarty, the villain is a professor of high socioeconomic status in the books, and the character makes appearances in both well-received modern adaptions of Sherlock Holmes starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr. respectively. Enola Holmes 2 takes a twist on the canonical villain by making James Moriarty a Black woman of common status, overlooked and underestimated by her corrupt and elitist employer. She uses the fake name "Mira Troy", an anagram of "Moriarty", and escapes police custody at the end of the film, foreshadowing her return in potential sequels where the audience may witness more of her ongoing rivalry with Sherlock Holmes.
Doctor John Watson
Enola Holmes 2's end-credit scene reveals the beginning of Sherlock and Doctor John Watson's adventures together in the Enola Holmes universe and lays the groundwork for Enola Holmes 3 to include more original content from the Sherlock Holmes canon. Previously having rejected Enola's proposition to be his flatmate, Sherlock opens the door to unit 221B Baker Street to see Doctor John Watson, also seeking a flatmate. All of Sherlock's stories in the original Doyle books are recorded from Watson's perspective, making Watson an indispensable character to Sherlock's adventures. Now that Enola Holmes 2's timeline matches up with the beginning of Doyle's first Sherlock story, "A Study In Scarlet", future Enola Holmes films will have the opportunity to draw on a diverse range of material from historical events, the Enola Holmes books by Nancy Springer, as well as the original Sherlock Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
