Enola Holmes (Netflix)

 

Enola Holmes, the youngest sibling in the famous Holmes family, is a multi-talented woman; she is extremely intelligent, observant, and insightful, and defies the social norms for women of the time. Her mother, Eudoria, has cultured in everything, from chess to jujitsu and encouraged her to be a strong-willed and independent young woman.

On the day of her sixteenth birthday, Enola gets up only to find that her mother has disappeared, leaving behind nothing except some birthday gifts. She rushes to her brothers at the train station, Mycroft and Sherlock, who failed to recognize her at first, not having seen her in many years. Sherlock finds her to be a girl of merit and intelligence, whereas Mycroft finds her troublesome. Being her legal guardian, Mycroft intends to send her away to a finishing school run by the stern Miss Harrison. Enola escapes disguised as a boy using the hidden money which she found. This information about money was in a secret message in the flowers left by her mother. She finds the young Viscount Tewkesbury hidden in a travel bag, on the train. She thinks of him as a nincompoop but also warns him that a man in a brown bowler hat (named Linthorn) is searching for him on the train. They jump off the train to escape from this. They have no food, so Tewkesbury forages for edible plants. Now, they travel to London, where they part their ways.

Enola, now disguised as a proper Victorian lady, continues to trace Eudoria and leaves cryptic messages in the newspaper personal advertisements. She discovers pamphlets and a safe house which contains explosives and learns that Eudoria is part of a radical group of suffragettes. But all of a sudden, she is attacked by Linthorn. He tortures Enola for information about Tewkesbury, & attempts to drown her & kill her! They fight for life, but she is able to somehow ignite the explosives present over there and escape her narrow death. Enola, now exhausted, decides to pause the search for her mother and instead find Tewkesbury again to save him because he is not capable of defending himself. Enola visits the Tewkesbury estate at Basilwether Hall to learn more. Meanwhile, Mycroft has an Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard search for Enola.

 Enola, now disguised as a proper Victorian lady, continues to trace Eudoria and leaves cryptic messages in the newspaper personal advertisements. She discovers pamphlets and a safehouse which contains explosives and learns that Eudoria is part of a radical group of suffragettes. But all of a sudden, she is attacked by Linthorn. He tortures Enola for information about Tewkesbury, & attempts to drown her & kill her! They fight for life, but she is able to somehow ignite the explosives present over there and escape her narrow death. Enola, now exhausted, decides to pause the search for her mother and instead find Tewkesbury again to save him because he is not capable of defending himself. Enola visits the Tewkesbury estate at Basilwether Hall to learn more. Meanwhile, Mycroft has an Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard search for Enola.

Enola, after searching for a long time, finds Tewkesbury selling flowers in Covent Garden and immediately warns him of the danger he is up against. She helps him to escape but is caught by Inspector Lestrade, as instructed by Mycroft and is imprisoned in Miss Harrison's finishing school. Now, Sherlock visits Enola and admits that he is impressed by her detective work. Meanwhile, Tewkesbury sneaks into the school, and they escape together, stealing Miss Harrison's motor car. They reach a fork in the road and, rather than returning to London, Enola decides they must go to Basilwether Hall and face Tewkesbury's uncle, who she has deduced & was trying to kill him. The whole estate is seemingly deserted, but Linthorn ambushes them by firing a shotgun. Enola trips him using a jujitsu move, causing a fatal head injury. As this proceeds, Tewkesbury's grandmother is revealed as the real villain who was plotting behind all this; a traditionalist, she did not want him to take his father's place in the House of Lords and vote for the Reform Bill. Now, she shoots her grandson in the chest, but he survives from the bullet, thanks to a plate of armor he had hidden under his clothes. Now, Sherlock arrives at Scotland Yard and Lestrade asks him two questions: first, how he managed to solve the case, and second, how his sister, Enola solved it first.

Enola finds a message in a newspaper and deciphers it. But she deduces that it was not at all sent by her mother. At the rendezvous, Sherlock and Mycroft discuss Enola, and then Sherlock suggests becoming her guardian. They decide to leave altogether, while Sherlock notices a clue, but chooses not to look for Enola. All the while Enola has been watching disguised as a newsboy. Returning to her lodgings, Enola finds her mother waiting over there. They embrace, and Eudoria explains why she had to leave her, and why she must leave again, but she is impressed by what Enola has become. Enola has found her freedom and her purpose in life—she is a detective.

-Susmita Chatterjee