‘Sherlock’ Season 4 Spoilers: Creator Hints Toby Jones’ Culverton Smith is “Pure Evil” as Darker Episodes Expected; Shocking Death at End of “The Six Thatchers” Explained

‘Sherlock’ season 4 is set to introduced the latest antagonist, portrayed by Toby Jones. Co-creator Mark Gatiss described Jones’ Culverton Smith as “pure evil” as darker episodes are expected. Meanwhile, Steven Moffat explained the shocking death at the end of episode 1, titled “The Six Thatchers.”

According to Deadline, season 4’s premiere episode brought in 8.1 million viewers for the highly-anticipated return of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes and his friend and sidekick Dr. John Watson, portrayed by Martin Freeman. It was deemed the most watched television show in the U.K. on New Year’s Day.

However, it failed to top the series’ highest rated episode “The Empty House,” which aired on New Year’s Day in 2014. Season 3’s premiere took in 1.1 million more viewers. “The Six Thatchers” picked up immediately after the events of the preceding season’s finale episode, titled “His Last Vow,” and promised the introduction of a sinister new villain played by Toby Jones.

During an interview with Vanity Fair, creator Mark Gatiss hinted that Jones’ Culverton Smith will be the “purest evil.” He said, “The danger with anyone other than Moriarty is you run the risk of them appearing as a diluted version… Thus our other villains are very different: Magnussen was a businessman in the Murdoch vein—not evil as far he’s concerned. Just totally amoral.”

He continued, “Culverton Smith is different again—you’ll have to wait and see!—but very much a man of these strange, rootless, dark times. What can you not do if you have power?”

Gatiss added, “What’s very exciting about these three episodes is to really play the repercussions of the last season… There are lots of things that come to fruition this season which we have been seeding for a while. We knew we were going to get here. And, with the things that we’ve been planning, the darkness was sort of inevitable. They’re not things that could have happened any time, and where we get to is a very different place to where we’ve been before. He said, elliptically.”

Season 4’s opening episode also featured the shocking death of John’s wife, Mary. Mary was shot to death by the end of the episode when she stepped in to save Sherlock’s life.

During another interview with Entertainment Weekly, co-showrunner Steven Moffat confirmed that Mary has definitely passed away and that they were not “playing games.”

Moffat explained the character’s inevitable death saying, “The reality of this, of course, is that Sherlock Holmes is about Sherlock and Dr. Watson and it’s always going to come back to that — always always always. They had fun making it a trio but it doesn’t work long term.”

He continued, “Mary was always going to go and we were always going to get back to the two blokes. That’s the format. [Sherlock writer-producer-actor] Mark Gatiss and I do not have the delusion that we know better than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. That’s how the show works and always will. We reset to the most traditional and famous version of the format.”

‘Sherlock’ season 4’s episode 2, titled "The Lying Detective," is scheduled to air on BBC One HD in the U.K. and PBS in the U.S. on January 8, 2017. It was directed by Nick Hurran and written by Steven Moffat. It will be followed by episode 3, titled "The Final Problem," scheduled for January 15.