Enola Holmes 3 began streaming on Netflix today, marking the third film in the hit franchise. This family-friendly spin on Sherlock Holmes stars Millie Bobby Brown as Sherlock’s younger sister, a detective in her own right. Between this and Stranger Things, Millie Bobby Brown is truly the queen of Netflix!
Directed by Philip Barantini, with a screenplay written by Jack Thorne (who also adapted the first two films, from the Enola Holmes book series by Nancy Springer), Enola Holmes 3 opens with Enola gearing up to marry the dashing Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge). Enola isn’t sure if she’s up to the task of being a formal Lady, but she is sure that she loves Tewkesbury. But the wedding is put on hold when Enola’s brother Sherlock (Henry Cavill) goes missing. Enola, Tewkesbury, and the recently introduced Dr. Watson (Himesh Patel), must work together to figure out who kidnapped the famed detective.
Also starring Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Helena Bonham Carter, and Susan Wokoma, the Enola Holmes 3 plot follows a complicated, and at times, convoluted mystery. If you got lost along the way, we don’t blame you. Lucky for you, Decider is here to help. Read on for a full breakdown of the Enola Holmes 3 movie plot summary and the Enola Holmes 3 ending explained.
Enola Holmes 3 plot summary:
Enola (Millie Bobby Brown) is getting read to marry Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge)—whose first name, it turns out, is Earnest—in Malta. Why a wedding in Malta? Tewkesbury’s mother requested the location, because Malta meant a lot to Tewkesbury’s late father, who served in the military there as part of the English imperialistic rule over the island nation.
Sherlock (Henry Cavill), does not approve of the marriage. He sees it as Enola giving up her career and freedom. Enola maintains that she will still work as a detective, but that Tewkesbury must take a wife, now that his a lord. And so, she will become a Lady. Sherlock is also up to something mysterious in Malta that doesn’t have to do with the wedding, but he won’t tell Enola what it is.
On the morning of the wedding, Dr. Watson (Himesh Patel) reports that Sherlock has been kidnapped. He and Enola rush to Sherlock’s hotel room where they find several clues, including Sherlock’s notebook written in code, a squiggly bit of fabric, and the word “KHOST” written in Morse code smudged onto the mirror. Enola believes this to be a message from Sherlock, and that perhaps he has been taken to Khost, a city in eastern Afghanistan.
Enola chases down a British soldier who flees the crime scene, whom she saw Sherlock following the previous night. But before she can interrogate him, he is shot by an unseen sniper. As he dies, the soldier whispers the word, “Wrath.”
The next kidnapping victim is Tewkesbury’s mother. This time, the kidnapper burns down the Tewkesbury family home on the way out. In the burnt wreckage, Enola finds another clue: medals of honor from war.
She also meets a Maltese freedom fighter named Mikiel, who believes in a Malta free from English rule. Mikiel informs Enola that he thinks both Sherlock and Mama Tewks were kidnapped by someone named Prof. Adeline Rathe. The dying soldier was saying “Rathe,” not “wrath.” Mikiel wants to find Adeline Rathe, because he believe she can help convince the governor to free Malta from British rule.
Enola is slowly starting to realize that the Maltese people are treated like second-class citizens in their own country. She also identifies the squiggly bit of fabric she found in Sherlock’s room as being part of a dress worn by a mysterious woman. Enola chases the woman down, but the woman is once again shot before Enola can speak to her. As the woman dies, she tells Enola, “She will kill you.”
This time, Enola chases down the gunman, and figures out that the “she” who will kill her is Professor Moriarty (Sharon Duncan-Brewster), a ruthless criminal mastermind whom Enola and Sherlock apprehended in the second movie. If you watched Enola Holmes 2, you know Moriarty escaped police custody at the end of the movie.
Now she’s back under a new alias, “Adeline Rathe,” and she has kidnapped Sherlock. Why? For revenge? Something more? Enola intends to find out. Enola and Moriarty fight, but Enola escapes with some help from her mother, Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter).
Meanwhile, tied up alongside Mama Tewks, Sherlock informs Moriarty what he knows. Moriarty came to Malta over a year ago, after someone high up in the government helped get her released from prison. Moriarty arranged for Enola’s wedding to take place in Malta. You know that woman that Enola was just chasing? She was working for Moriarty, and planted the idea in Mama Tewkesbury’s head to have the wedding in Malta. Moriarty then kidnapped Sherlock to torment Enola, knowing the younger Holmes would follow the clues left by Moriarty to rescue her brother.
Enola remembers that mysterious woman she was chasing had been speaking to two men before she died: The British governor, and a man in a mask wearing war medals—medals that looked just like the ones that belonged to Tewkesbury’s late father, which Enola found in his mother’s room. Enola realizes the man in the mask is the brigadier, aka Tewkewbury’s godfather, aka Tewkesbury’s late father’s BFF. The two men served together in the war of Afghanistan, in the battle of Khost. Aha! Khost!
So, Tewkesbury pays a visit to his godfather, the brigadier. The brigadier admits that during the Battle of Khost, the British soldiers stole gold from an Afghan shrine. They hid the stolen gold somewhere in Malta. The gold was meant to be used to pay for the cost of war. But Tewkesbury’s father felt guilty about stealing and had second thoughts. Papa Tewks purposely sunk his ship transporting the gold, and claimed the gold went down with it. However, the brigadier suspects that Papa Tewks hid the gold somewhere instead. Hm… maybe it’s in the cave that Tewkesbury’s father used to say was hiding “buried treasure” when Tewkesbury was little.
Enola realizes that Moriarty knows about the gold, and wants to kill two birds with one stone: torment the Holmes siblings and collect the stolen gold. But Moriarty didn’t know where the gold was. So, she laid all these clues for Enola to solve—including the “KHOST” message—in the hopes that Enola would solve the case, and lead Moriarty to the hidden treasure.
Enola Holmes 3 ending explained:
Enola, Tewkesbury, and Watson travel to the cave where the gold is hidden. Enola knows Moriarty will have been following them, and she’s right. After Enola retrieves the treasure chest from the cave, she and Dr. Watson find themselves surrounded by Maltese soldiers, hired by Moriarty. Luckily, they had a plan for this. Tewkesbury and their freedom fighter friend Mikiel swoop in to save them, with the help of Mikiel’s fellow freedom fighters.
Moriarty flees, and Enola follows on horseback. Moriarty takes them both to where she has Sherlock and Mama Tewks tied up. After a struggle, Enola gets the better of Moriarty, and rushes to free her brother and future mother-in-law. In one final showdown between Moriarty, Enola, and Sherlock, a tortured Sherlock very nearly kills Moriarty. However, Enola convinces him to hand her over to the authorities, instead.
The gold is returned to Afghanistan. The brigadier owns up to his crimes. He and other British soldiers go to prison for stealing the gold. Mikiel hopes this will help turn the tide on the fight for Maltese freedom from Britain.
Enola and Sherlock hug and makeup, and Enola and Tewkesbury finally have their wedding. Tewkesbury— shaken by what he has learned about the evils of British imperialism—decides to give up his title as Lord and his given name. He will now go by his birth name, Earnest Tebbity-Gore. (Yes, really.) Enola will stay Enola Holmes.
In the final shot of the movie, the camera pans down to the ocean floor. We see a sunken ship that is named “The Wrath of Adeline 1833.” This must be the ship that Tewkesbury’s father sunk while transporting the gold. Presumably, Moriarty found that ship, and that’s where she got the alias “Professor Adeline Rathe” from. Or maybe it means there is still someone out there named Adeline, and we’ll learn more about that in potential future films. You’ll have to wait and see!