Sherlock & Daughter season 1 episode 5 ending explained: Do Holmes and Amelia suspect Lady Violet's link to the Red thread gang?
Sherlock & Daughter season 1 episode 5, Doubting Thomas, aired on May 21, 2025, on The CW in the United States. Bryn Higgins and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers directed the episode from a screenplay written by Micah Wright.
In the latest installment of the series, Amelia joins the Anderson household as Clara's chaperone while Holmes teams up with the private investigator, Bertie Birtwistle, to search for the missing jewels. Their individual investigations lead them to suspect that Lady Violet may be working for the Red Thread gang.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for Sherlock & Daughter season 1 episode 5.
What happens to Lady Violet in Sherlock & Daughter season 1 episode 5?
Holmes instructs Amelia to move to the Andersons' house to work as Clara's chaperone since Clara is their only link to the Red Thread gang. As per Charlie's statement, Clara's father had handed over some keys to Weams and Magott in exchange for his daughter's return. The famed detective asks Amelia to find out more information regarding the keys during her time there.
Amelia follows Clara to Lady Violet's mansion, where she is training for her debutante ball. Clara joins other young women to learn about the proper etiquette of British high society. Lady Violet emphasizes the importance of having the right posture as it's considered to be synonymous with nobility.
After their training, one of the students, named Emma, suffers an accident and dies. Amelia rushes to her side and calls out to Clara to help her. Later, Lady Violet rebukes Amelia, telling her angrily that "a servant may never demand help of an employer."
Elsewhere, Holmes examines the phone records he obtained from Lord Withersea and the Chief Inspector Whitlock's office. Since someone from Scotland Yard had informed Charlie about the approaching policemen in episode 2, he concludes that a high-ranking member of the police force must be in cahoots with the Red Thread gang.
He calls each number on the phone records to find out about its owner and cross-checks the information to find any common link. To his surprise, one of the numbers belongs to Lady Violet, making Holmes suspect she may be somehow connected to the Red Thread gang.
Furthermore, Lady Violet organizes a debutante ball for the Italian ambassador's daughter at her residence the next day. Michael Wylie shows up as one of the male dancers hired for the ball, to Amelia's surprise. She arrives at the ball with Clara, but is denied entry as she's not on the guest list.
As she waits outside, Amelia runs into Holmes and informs him that Lady Violet has a similar knife to the one that was used to kill her mother. Holmes also shares his suspicions about his old friend being involved with the Red Thread gang, before heading inside the ball.
At the end of Sherlock & Daughter season 1 episode 5, Amelia is kidnapped by two coachmen waiting outside the ball. They are stopped in their tracks by Holmes and Michael, who shoot one of the coachmen as the other escapes. Holmes also finds a button inside the carriage that likely belongs to his kidnapped friend, Watson.
Also read: The moment Lady Violet walked into Sherlock & Daughter episode 4, I knew secrets were about to be exposed
Holmes and Birtwistle work together in Sherlock & Daughter season 1 episode 5
Holmes collaborates with the private investigator Bertie Birtwistle to search for the missing jewels worth £50,000, as they are linked to the Red Thread gang. He brings Bertie up to speed about the mysterious crime syndicate and Lord Withersea's involvement with the gang.
During his investigation, Bertie reveals that he found five sets of footprints and a button at the Withersea estate. Two sets of footprints belonged to a man and a woman who were boarded on a carriage headed to London. He also recovered a mother-of-pearl button, which Holmes deduces belongs to Watson, thus confirming that he and Mrs. Hudson are still alive.
Holmes asks Bertie to find out whether Amelia is Lucia Rojas's biological daughter. Through his overseas connections, Bertie discovers that Lucia gave birth to a daughter six months after wrapping up the Wild West show in London, but does not confirm whether Amelia is the daughter in question.
Michael Wylie's tragic backstory in Sherlock & Daughter season 1 episode 5
At the start of Sherlock & Daughter season 1 episode 5, the titular detective follows the street kids to Michael Wylie's location. He reaches Mrs. Bailey's Teahouse and finds Michael with Amelia, who had shown up for their scheduled meeting.
Back at Holmes' residence, Michael Wylie/Dan Moriarty explains that his father, Jim Moriarty, abandoned him after his mother's death. He was later adopted by a band of thieves and trained to pickpocket, for which he was arrested and carted off to Australia at age nine. The young boy was sold off to work as an indentured servant at an isolated sheep farm and escaped 14 months later.
He created a new identity for himself as Michael Wylie and secured a job as a clerk at the Trading company. On his return to London, he discovered that his father had become a notorious criminal who led a criminal enterprise and was put behind bars by Sherlock Holmes.
Dan explains that he cannot meet Jim in prison as it will affect his employment with Mr. Nigel Parks, adding that he's waiting for his father's release to reunite with him. He approached Amelia to ensure Holmes did not intend to press new charges against Moriarty that would extend his prison sentence.
Holmes warns Dan to stay away from Amelia since she is a foreigner in London and associating with him can put her future in danger.
Watch Sherlock & Daughter season 1 exclusively on The CW in the United States.
