"Sherlock" Season 3 is scheduled to air on BBC during the television's festive fortnight, which is from December 21, 2013 to January 04, 2014. The first episode of the new season is "Empty Hearse." The episode will bring back Sherlock to Baker Street and reveal to the audience how he escaped death when he jumped from the roof of St Bartholomew's Hospital.

According to the official synopsis posted by Den of Geek: the season 3 of "Shelock" will begin two years after Sherlock's death. London is bracing itself for a huge terrorist attack and Sherlock returns to find that things are not same, anymore.

Written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Jeremy Lovering, "The Empty Hearse" is loosely based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" short story, "The Adventure of the Empty House.

The Official Synopsis of BBC's "Sherlock" Season 3 Episode 1 "The Empty Hearse": "Two years after the devastating effects of [Series 2's finale] The Reichenbach Fall, Dr John Watson has got on with his life. New horizons, romance and a comforting domestic future beckon. But, with London under threat of a huge terrorist attack, Sherlock Holmes is about to rise from the grave with all the theatricality that comes so naturally to him. It's what his best friend wanted more than anything, but for John Watson it might well be a case of 'be careful what you wish for'! If Sherlock thinks everything will be just as he left it though, he's in for a very big surprise..."

The third season of "Sherlock" is expected to be more epic than the previous two seasons, and "jaw dropping." Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of Masterpiece, has called the upcoming season "best season yet of Sherlock."

The second episode of "Sherlock" Season 3 is "The Sign of Three," written by Steve Thompson and directed by Colm McCarthy. The third episode is called "His Last Vow," written by Steven Moffat and directed by Nick Hurran.

The upcoming season will follow the motif 'Rat', 'Wedding', 'Bow'. Charles Augustus Magnussen will be introduced as the new antagonist of Sherlock.