With anticipation for BBC’s "Sherlock" Season 4 at fever pitch and the airing of the one-off Victorian New Year's Day special "The Abominable Bride" fanning the flame, now might be the right time to look back at some of the highlights of “Sherlock” Season 3.

After Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) seemingly jumped to his death in the final episode of "Sherlock" Season 2, titled "The Reichenbach Fall," most fans knew that he would be back in Season 3. After all, when Sherlock had plunged to death with Moriarty (Andrew Scott) in Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story "The Final Problem," Doyle was pressured by fans to bring back Sherlock Holmes.

Surely enough, Sherlock returned from the dead in the book aptly titled "The Return of Sherlock Holmes." It included stories like "The Empty House" and "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton." Both these stories got their television adaptation in "Sherlock" Season 3 as "The Empty Hearse" and "His Last Vow," respectively.

"Sherlock" Season 3 opens with Watson (Martin Freeman) having moved on from Sherlock's supposed demise. He has also moved out of 221B Baker Street. He is sporting a Victorian moustache in Episode 1, titled "The Empty Hearse." The episode deals with the return of Sherlock to London and his pathetically funny, bittersweet reunion with Watson at a restaurant, in the guise of a moustached French waiter wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a bow tie. They spend the rest of the episode chasing an underground terrorist network.

The highlight of this "Sherlock" Season 3 premiere is the relationship between Sherlock and Watson that goes through many trials and tribulations, including one where the latter is kidnapped to be burnt alive in the bonfire of Guy Fawkes Night celebrations. In the opening episode of "Sherlock" Season 3, both of them try to defuse a bomb on a London Underground train car. Sherlock also explains how he had faked his own death.

In "The Sign of Three," Sherlock faces the challenge of delivering both the Best Man’s speech at Watson and Mary’s (Amanda Abbington) wedding and stopping a murderer whose methods of killing remain a mystery until the end. At the reception, Sherlock is at a loss for words, as he is not used to socialising much at all. He recounts funny stories about him and Watson and his utter bewilderment at being asked by his friend to be the Best Man at his wedding.

The episode ends with Sherlock exposing the murderer who appears in the guise of a photographer and was the mastermind behind the attempted murder of a Royal Guardsman who is saved by Watson. He had also planned to kill Watson’s old Army Commander James Sholto to avenge his brother’s death. The episode ends with Sherlock indicating that Mary is pregnant, to the surprise of the newlywed couple.

"His Last Vow" is the most thrilling of the three episodes. Sherlock is up against Charles Augustus Magnussen (Lars Mikkelsen), a newspaper owner and blackmailer. He knows intimate details about his victims as well as their sensitive secrets. Magnussen reveals that it was he who got Watson kidnapped in "Sherlock" Season 2 to find out his weakness.

The highlight of this episode is the revelation that Mary, John’s wife, is a former spy and assassin: the reason behind Magnussen blackmailing her. This is shocking to John. Following a few months of ignoring each other, John and Mary finally decide to accept each other as they are. It is also shocking to see Sherlock shooting Magnussen when he finds no way out to save all those dear to him.

Mycroft (Mark Gatiss) convinces the Government to spare Sherlock a trial and instead punish him by sending him off to an extremely dangerous MI6 mission to Eastern Europe. As Sherlock’s plane is ready to take off, Moriarty appears on the television screens across England, asking "Did you miss me?"

Like all the preceding two seasons, "Sherlock" Season 3 had the same charm, wit and tension. In addition, it had some very unusual surprises and some shocking revelations. However, the most significant development of the previous season was the way the writers treated Shelock and Watson's camaraderie, with Cumberbatch and Freeman brilliantly playing off each other. The emotional resonance of the bromance appeared genuine and all fans can hope to see it develop further in "Sherlock" Season 4, which is expected to begin filming in spring 2016.

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