Sherlock recovered. Sherlock did not.
Undoubtedly, Steven Moffat's most consistent failure as the producer of Sherlock is his total inability to let characters face the consequences of their actions. In and of itself, this would not be a ruinous flaw (it is still a pretty bad one), but unfortunately, Steven Moffat is also fairly talented at writing characters into corners from which they cannot possibly escape. The point of raising the stakes in a given show is to give the action resonance; in this regard, Sherlock has had several highlights – during the first episode, where Sherlock is about to swallow a deadly pill; in the third episode, where Watson is made to wear a suicide vest; and in the sixth episode, where Sherlock fakes his death. As the audience comes to see the consequences of these actions, all of those consequences contribute in some meaningful way to the emotional resonance that comes with such high tension and stakes. However, with the onset of series 3, this completely stops being the case.
