Sherlock brought many characters from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s books to the modern world, among those Irene Adler, who just like in the source material, had a brief appearance yet left a big mark in Sherlock Holmes’ life – but what happened to her after season 2? The world’s greatest detective has been adapted to all types of media for over 100 years, and among his most recent adaptations is the BBC’s Sherlock, which brought some of his most notable cases to the modern world.

Created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, Sherlock debuted in 2010 and lived on for three more seasons, officially coming to an end in 2017 and with a special episode (“The Abominable Bride”, set in Victorian London) released in 2016. Sherlock didn’t waste time in bringing classic characters from the books, and season 1’s finale, “The Great Game”, introduced the audience to Sherlock’s archenemy James “Jim” Moriarty (Andrew Scott), with season 2 introducing another important character in Sherlock’s life: Irene Adler.

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Played by Lara Pulver, Irene Adler made her debut in season 2’s first episode, “A Scandal in Belgravia”, based on the short story “A Scandal in Bohemia”, Adler’s first and only appearance in the books. In the series, Adler is a dominatrix known as “The Woman”, and who had been taking pictures of her clients during her job to protect herself from them. Adler was also involved with Moriarty’s schemes, and Sherlock wasn’t counting on her being intelligent enough to deceive him. Adler was left with no protection, making her vulnerable to anyone who wanted revenge. By the end of the episode, Adler was about to be decapitated by extremists in Karachi, with Sherlock being among them in disguise and helping her fake her death.

Irene Adler sitting down and looking up in Sherlock

Unlike in the source material, where her fate was left ambiguous (she escapes and leaves a letter and a photograph for Sherlock, and Watson refers to her as “the late Irene Adler”, which has been speculated to mean “former” rather than “deceased”), Sherlock viewers know that she didn’t die, and she was casually mentioned in subsequent episodes. She appears as a figment of Sherlock’s mind palace in season 3’s “The Sign of the Three”; in “His Last Vow”, her name appears as one of Sherlock’s pressure points; in “The Lying Detective”, Sherlock receives a text message from her, as he still keeps the text alert noise she set for herself; and in “The Final Problem”, Sherlock admits he still receives texts from her, but he never replies.

Exactly where Irene Adler was after season 2 of Sherlock is unknown, as well as what her identity was. Irene Adler’s fate is as mysterious as her backstory, but at least Sherlock fans can move on knowing that she was still alive by the time the series ended, unlike in the books, where readers will never really know what happened to her.

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