I think the only reason why people in this fandom have lost their faith is because there was no hint when and where a possible 4^th episode could appear.

Or was there?

Again, the only source (that alone should make every journalist suspicious by the way) that points out a connection no one mentions before, is radio times with this article:

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-01-15/what-is-sherlocks-musgrave-ritual

This article was uploaded at 10:30 yesterday – the exact ending time of Sherlock. If the author didn’t see the last episode beforehand, he must be the quickest writer in history.

Anyway, the article explains why the last episode of Sherlock S4 is based on the short story ‘The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual’ (the original title by Conan Doyle).

But this is not what I want to talk about.

If you do a quick search for ‘The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual’ you will find the Wikipedia article for it.

The very first description on Wikipedia contains this:

’Unlike the majority of Holmes stories, the main narrator is not Doctor Watson, but Sherlock Holmes himself. With Watson providing an introduction, the story-within-a-story is a classic example of a frame tale. It is one of the earliest recorded cases investigated by Holmes, and establishes his problem solving skills.’

Okay…so this is originally a story that was told by Sherlock himself. Let’s make a note of that.

This is the short synopsis (wikipedia):

‘In the story, Holmes recounts to Watson the events arising after a visit from a university acquaintance, Reginald Musgrave. Musgrave visits Holmes after the disappearance of two of his domestic staff, Rachel Howells, a maid, and Richard Brunton, the longtime butler. The pair vanished after Musgrave had dismissed Brunton for secretly reading a family document, the Musgrave Ritual. The Ritual, which dates from the 17th century, is a riddle set in verse form.’

Okay, the ritual involves a riddle. Good, let’s also make a note of that.

The further story is about Sherlock solving the riddle and what does he deduce?

That it is ’a meaningless, absurd tradition to Musgrave, and apparently to all his ancestors going back more than two centuries, but Holmes (…) saw it as something very different. He quickly realized that it was a set of instructions for finding something.’

Okay, the riddle gives him instructions to find something. Good. Let’s move on.

The Sherlock in the short story attempts to follow the instructions together with the the house owner Musgrave.He has nearly found whatever the riddle tells him to find but there is a dead end.

It goes that way (wikipedia):

‘The two men found themselves inside a doorway, momentarily disappointed, until they realized that there was the last instruction, “and so under”. There was a cellar under where they were standing, as old as the house. Finding their way into it, they saw that the floor had been cleared to expose a stone slab with an iron ring on it.’

And what do they find in the end?

‘Holmes thought it wise to bring the police in at this point. He and a burly Sussex policeman manage to lift the slab off the little hole that it was covering, and inside, they found an empty, rotten chest, and Brunton, who had been dead for several days.’

So they are almost standing in an empy chest, aren’t they?

NOW I can’t find this tumblr post anywhere and it’s driving me crazy! There was a post with someone pointing out that Sherlock and John are standing in a cardiographic heart on one of the promo pictures. Where is it? If you have it please share it.

And then: If you look at the adaptions of this short story we find (wikipedia):

‘The story was adapted for the 1965 BBC series Sherlock Holmes with Peter Cushing. The episode is now lost.’

Makes Steven Moffat’s phrasing in the radio times article I mentioned before sound a lot more interesting, doesn’t it?

‘It doesn’t reflect the fact that there’s gong to be a fourth episode – for heaven’s sake, what kind of secrets do you think we’re keeping?!“Let’s go home and check. Oh look episode four… the lost special…“’

(Source: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-01-15/steven-moffat-responds-to-fan-theory-about-a-secret-fourth-sherlock-episode)

So the ‘real’ story is:

‘The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual’ aka ‘The Final Problem’ is about a ritual that is actually meaningless (the whole Euros/Saw life or death scenario is meaningless) but includes a riddle that is a set of instructions for finding something.’

So what is it that Sherlock wants to find so badly in TFP against all odds? John Watson.

Johnlock all the way.

Don’t loose your hope yet. The game is not over yet.

For those of you who are still in doubt. These are the last lines of the Musgrave riddle:

‘What shall we give for it?’ ‘All that is ours.’

‘Why should we give it?’ ‘For the sake of the trust.’

‘For the sake of the trust.’

PLEASE SHARE! Tagging again: @deducingbbcsherlock, @loudest-subtext-in-tv, @inevitably-johnlocked, @quietlyprim @skulls-and-tea @vanetti

(btw. also mere minutes after the last episode was aired someone added this to the Wikipedia article of the Musgrave ritual: 'The Musgrave Ritual is adapted as part of the storyline of the final episode of the fourth season of Sherlock, ”The Final Problem“; as children, the Holmes family lived in an old house called Musgrave, but after Sherlock and Mycroft’s sister Eurus was involved in the disappearance of Sherlock’s dog/best friend (Sherlock had for years believed it was a dog as he buried the memory due to the scale of the mental trauma), all Eurus would provide as a clue was a strange song. Years later, with John Watson’s life at stake as he is trapped in the same location where Eurus left her first victim, Sherlock deduces that the song relates to the unusual dates on various fake gravestones around the house, the resulting 'code’ leading him to Euru’s old room to make an emotional appeal to his sister to spare John.’ -  Like, this is some well-written stuff and someone had the time to add this a few minutes after the last episode? If I had to bet, I would say this is part of an elaborate genius move and it was definitely planned in advance.)