What? Did you think Sherlock Holmes solved all those cases on his own?
The Irregulars, which launched its first eight-episode season on Netflix on Friday, takes viewers behind the closed doors of 221B Baker Street. Or at least across the street, where the young heroes who help Holmes (played by Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Killing Eve) and Dr. John Watson (Royce Pierreson, The magician) resolve some of London’s most dangerous and disconcerting cases living in poverty and misery. Led by astute Bea (Thaddea Graham, The Letter to the King), the group includes soft-spoken Spike (McKell David, Black mirror), the hot-headed Billy (Jojo Macari, Sex education) and Bea’s younger sister, Jessie (Darcy Shaw, The Bay), which suffers from horrible and hellish nightmares.
However, Jessie’s night terrors are quite elementary compared to the dangers that London reserves for these unsuspecting teenagers. Continue reading for a recap of the premiere.
THE MYSTERY OF DISAPPEARED NEWBORNS | We met the group before they started working for Holmes and Watson. Fighting to survive, Billy tries to earn some money on the battlefield. Meanwhile, Jessie’s dreams are getting worse, leading her to a semi-somnambulism around the city. She is almost run over by a carriage carrying the wealthy and privileged Leopold, who is intrigued by the disorganized group of friends.
Bea visits her mother’s grave, where she is received by Dr. Watson, who is looking for someone who can help him with the crimes that happen in the least “suitable” parts of the city. The case in point is four missing newborns, the last of which was removed from a locked room while his sister slept next to the crib. Watson promises to make up for Bea, who accepts the case.
IN CASE | Bea, Spike and Billy manage to track down the baby’s sister, Susan, who reveals that she lied to the police. In fact, she went out with her boyfriend the night of the disappearance. When she returned, her younger sister was already missing. However, before the group could obtain more information from her, they are attacked by a cruelty of crows from Alfred Hitchcock’s home. The birds. Bea, Spike and Billy manage to escape, but Susan has pecked eyes and is killed.
Bea visits 221B Baker Street and notices a man passed out on a lounge chair. However, before she can take a closer look, Watson arrives with new information about the other three missing babies. Meanwhile, Leopold falls in love with Bea, but remains trapped in his villa due to hemophilia. Tired of being confined, he runs away and finds Bea, but does not tell him his true identity, passing by Leo. Based on Watson’s records, Leo is able to determine that the babies were all born on the same day in the same hospital and that there is a last baby with the same attributes that has not yet been kidnapped.
BIRD MEN | The group arrives at the home of their fifth child, but Bea sends Jessie angrily home, believing that she is too unstable for the mission. However, this is of no use, as Jessie has another nightmare in which she is attacked by a dark figure in a bird mask. The figure begins to strangle Jessie, who feels the pain of the real world. When all seems lost, Jessie is transferred to Louisiana and meets the Linen Man (The Wire(Clarke Peters), who reveals that Jessie is not crazy and that she has the ability to see in people’s memories. He is tasked with finding out who is behind the kidnappings, believing that a more sinister power is at stake.
Meanwhile, back in London, Bea, Billy and Leo find the kidnapper (The Game of Thrones‘Rory McCann) while trying to save the child and realizes that he is somehow controlling the birds through supernatural abilities. They track him down to the London Zoo, where he drops his flocks on them. Jessie arrives and uses her new skills to enter the memories of the Bird Master, revealing that his wife and newborn daughter died during labor on the same day in the same hospital as the kidnapped children, and her refusal to accept the death of his son drove him crazy. At one point, he even tried to contact his dead wife with an Ouija, which is what gave him his powers. Realizing his own delusions, the Bird Master sends the birds away and returns the children to their families, unharmed.
Bea finally realizes that Watson knew about Jessie’s skills and confronts him about it. However, she gets no answers, just a warning that more horrors are on the horizon.
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