The BBC’s Sherlock left the audience with some big questions that might never be answered as there are no plans for more seasons or expansions to other media, but these questions have made way for a variety of theories, including one that suggests Sherlock Holmes used to be a secret agent for his brother, Mycroft Holmes. Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes is one of the most popular and beloved literary characters, and his popularity over the years has been such that he has been adapted to all types of media for decades, and one of the most recent and successful adaptations is the BBC’s series Sherlock.
Created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, Sherlock brought the title character and company to modern-day London, mixing some of his most notable cases from Arthur Conan Doyle’s books with more up-to-date stories and settings. Sherlock was led by Benedict Cumberbatch as the Great Detective and Martin Freeman as his friend and partner Dr. John Watson, and through them, the audience met other important characters from the books, such as Irene Adler (Lara Pulver), Jim Moriarty (Andrew Scott), and Mycroft Holmes (Gatiss), Sherlock’s brother. Sherlock also made some big changes to the characters, mostly to Sherlock Holmes himself, and one of those was his relationship with Mycroft.
In Sherlock, Mycroft and Sherlock didn’t have the best relationship and weren’t really fond of each other, yet due to their jobs, they often crossed paths and they even had to work together on different occasions. The strange relationship between the Holmes brothers has made way for a couple of theories, among them one that suggests Sherlock was once a secret agent working for Mycroft.
Mycroft Holmes' Role In The British Government Explained
Sherlock portrayed Mycroft Holmes as a mysterious character who actually had a lot in common with his famous brother, as they were both highly intelligent and weren’t exactly the best at socializing and more. Still, Mycroft was a bit more skilled when it came to social situations (though it was hinted many times throughout the series that his private life was rather lonely), and unlike his brother, he had a job where he didn’t exactly work alone. It’s mentioned in Sherlock that Mycroft occupied a “minor position in the British government”, but just like in the books, this might have been a major understatement and he might have had an even bigger position and role in the British government than he implied.
At one point in the series, Sherlock mentioned that Mycroft is the British government, saying that “when he’s not too busy being the British Secret Service, or the CIA on a freelance basis”, and in the episode “His Last Vow”, Charles Augustus Magnussen (Lars Mikkelsen) revealed Mycroft was in the Secret Intelligence Service and thus was the most important person in the UK. This actually fits what’s known and seen about Mycroft as he’s actually more skilled at deduction than Sherlock and his intellect is borderline superhuman, which along with his better (though not perfect) social skills would have allowed him to have a very important position in the British government, though exactly what it consisted on remains a mystery.
Theory: Sherlock Was A Secret Agent Who Worked For Mycroft
All this mystery around Mycroft Holmes’ job in Sherlock and his turbulent relationship with his brother have made way for different theories about his role in the series and what his job was truly about, and one of those suggests that Sherlock once worked for his brother as a secret agent. Now, taking Magnussen’s words about Mycroft’s real job as true, it has been widely speculated that Sherlock once worked as a secret agent for his brother. Given Sherlock’s incredible intelligence, deduction skills, and wide knowledge of a number of topics, it’s easy to see why Mycroft would have recruited his brother, even if they have never really been close nor gotten along. As this theory emerged before the events of Sherlock season 4, it also suggested that the then-teased third Holmes sibling was also an agent who might have not made it out alive from a dangerous mission, leading Sherlock to quit and further fracturing the relationship between Mycroft and Sherlock.
Why Did Sherlock Then Stop Being A Secret Agent?
Sherlock season 4 introduced the third Holmes sibling, Eurus (Sian Brooke), the most intelligent of the three but also the most dangerous one. Eurus spent years locked at Sherrinford, a maximum security psychiatric facility located on an island, so a third Holmes sibling couldn’t have been the reason why Sherlock stopped being a secret agent. In both the books and the TV series, it was established that Sherlock got bored easily and needed constant intellectual stimulation, so it’s possible that working for the Secret Service wasn’t exciting and stimulating enough for him, leading him to quit and pursue a career as a consulting detective instead – and, of course, quitting his job as a secret agent further damaged his relationship with Mycroft.
Sherlock's Secret Agent Theory Adds To His & Mycroft's Relationship
Little is known about Sherlock and Mycroft’s relationship before the events of Sherlock, except for the casual bits and stories shared by them, such as Mycroft thinking Sherlock was an idiot when they were kids, though he also looked after his brother in his own, cold ways. Sherlock working for Mycroft as a secret agent before the events of Sherlock would add more to their backstory as siblings and their relationship, and could explain better why they don’t get along. No matter the reason why Sherlock would have stopped working for his brother, it would have impacted their relationship negatively, leading to them being estranged and cold to each other every time they were forced to interact.
The Problems With The Sherlock Secret Agent Theory
Although the theory about Sherlock once working as a secret agent for Mycroft is interesting and adds to their relationship, its biggest problem is that it’s a pretty superficial theory, and doesn’t go deeper into what Sherlock could have done as a secret agent, how the siblings got along during that time, and why Sherlock retired to become a consulting detective instead. It’s also unlikely that Sherlock would have taken a job with the Secret Service given that he didn’t get along with authorities, which is why he was his own boss and took the cases he wanted rather than follow someone else’s rules. Working as a secret agent would have also earned him some big enemies and Magnussen wouldn’t have missed the opportunity to expose that part of his life, so while the theory can be fun, it doesn’t have much to it, though it does give a new perspective to Sherlock’s version of the Holmes brothers.