My DVR let me down and it seems I'm not alone. So, how does this labyrinth end?
The 19th century pair are discussing this fantastic story. Holmes says it's just extrapolation. "From a drop of water, the ocean."
Then what?
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Sign up to join this communityA LiveJournal (apparently that's still a thing...) user called Ariane Devere has posted a transcript of the special episode which, based on my recollection, appears to be accurate (for the ending, at least, which is the only part I checked). You can read the relevant section below, if you wish, though I'd personally suggest finding a way to watch it.
Note: There does appear to be a little bit of personal opinion injected into the commentary of the action, particularly at the very end of the below quote.
WATSON (offscreen): Flying machines; these, er, telephone contraptions ...
(The screen fades up to reveal Holmes and Watson sitting in their armchairs in the sitting room of 221B. Each of them is smoking a pipe.)
WATSON: What sort of lunatic fantasy is that?
HOLMES: It was simply my conjecture of what a future world might look like, and how you and I might fit inside it.
(Watson nods.)
HOLMES: From a drop of water, a logician should be able to infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara.
WATSON: Or a Reichenbach.
HOLMES: Have you written up your account of the case?
WATSON: Yes.
HOLMES: Hmm. Modified to put it down as one of my rare failures, of course?
WATSON: Of course.
(Holmes looks thoughtful for a moment.)
HOLMES: “The Adventure of ... the Invisible Army.”
(Watson looks upwards, considering it.)
HOLMES: “The League of Furies”? (He leans forward, smiling.) “The Monstrous Regiment.”
WATSON: I rather thought ... “The Abominable Bride.”
HOLMES (sitting back): A trifle lurid.
WATSON: It’ll sell. It’s got proper murders in it, too.
HOLMES (pointing his pipe at him): You’re the expert.
WATSON: As for your own tale, are you sure it’s still just a seven percent solution that you take? I think you may have increased the dosage.
HOLMES: Perhaps I was being a little fanciful ...
(He looks down thoughtfully.)
HOLMES: ... but perhaps such things could come to pass.
(He stands up.)
HOLMES: In any case, I know I would be very much at home in such a world.
(Watson chuckles as Holmes walks across the room towards the right-hand window.)
WATSON: Don’t think I would be.
HOLMES: I beg to differ.
(He looks out of the window.)
HOLMES: But then I’ve always known I was a man out of his time.
(He puts his pipe in his mouth and continues to look out of the window. The ‘Pursuit’ theme starts again, this time with a Victorian twist to it, as the camera slowly pulls back. Down in the street below, customers are going into SPEEDY’S Sandwich Bar & Cafe while more people – all dressed in modern-day clothing – walk past, and the road is busy with cars. A black cab passes a number 11 bus – destination Baker Street – as they drive past 221B ...
... where it is always 1895.)