Elizabeth Hardy was Sherlock Holmes's first love.
Biography[]
Elizabeth was the niece of Professor Rupert T. Waxflatter, a brilliant inventor and the former schoolmaster at London's Brompton Academy, where she has lived with her uncle and her beloved dog Uncus, in Waxflatter's attic in the grounds of the school, ever since her parents' unexplained death. Sherlock Holmes was a student at the academy and it was there that they met and fell deeply in love. Professor Waxflatter was regarded locally as a lunatic but looked up to as a mentor by Holmes on account of his genius. Holmes is often hosted in Waxflatter's and Elizabeth's attic, where he owned many inventions, including a flying machine. When John Watson was transferred to Brompton from his school in the country, the three became friends. Holmes's interest was arrested by two suspicious suicides in the city, which he brought to the attention of Scotland Yard's Inspector Lestrade, who brushed off his theories as paranoia. Waxflatter was shot with a poisoned dart that caused him to hallucinate and fatally stab himself. With his dying breath, he whispered one word to Holmes: "Eh Tar". Holmes vowed to avenge his mentor. Wanting justice for her uncle's death, Elizabeth allowed Holmes to stay in Waxflatter's attic and work on the case, even though he has been expelled from Brompton after being framed for cheating by a jealous fellow student who was romantically interested in Elizabeth. The two of them shared a moment in which Holmes tenderly carressed Elizabeth's cheek and the two admitted their feelings to one another. Elizabeth assisted Holmes and Watson in investigating the murders. The three uncovered the existence of a fanatical ancient Egyptian cult of Osiris worshippers called the Rame-Tep. They tracked the cult to a London paraffin house beneath which they discovered a giant underground wooden pyramid where they interrupted the gruesome sacrifice of a young girl by the insane Rame-Tep. The cult pursued them and shoot them with poisoned darts that caused them to hallucinate. Elizabeth slipped into a trance and wanders into a graveyard where she becomes the first to succumb to the darts hallucinogenic poison, having a vivid and terrifying vision of herself being buried alive. Upon defeating their own hallucinations, Holmes and Watson rescued Elizabeth and calmed her down, and she passed out. Elizabeth slept off the effects of the poison in a hammock in her attic where Holmes and Watson found a drawing of Waxflatter's, depicting six men, including Waxflatter himself, the other two victims and a mysterious man named Chester Cragwitch. Unfortunately the three were discovered by Holmes's fencing teacher Professor Rathe and the flirtatious school nurse, Mrs. Dribb. When Elizabeth awoke, she was rebuked along with Holmes and Watson for allowing Holmes to stay in her attic when he had been banished from the school grounds. The normally benevolent staff members showed an uncharacteristic and shockingly cold cruelty, with Rathe chauvinistically admonishing Elizabeth for her "unladylike conduct" and Mrs. Dribb suggesting sending Uncus to a pound as schools do not allow dogs, despite the fact that Uncus was perfectly well-behaved, the school had never had any problem with him before and sending him to a pound would have been theft as he was the private property of Elizabeth. That night, Elizabeth was gathering her things when she was attacked by Mrs. Dribb. The two of them struggled and Dribb restrained a terrified Elizabeth by grabbing her face. Uncus bit Mrs. Dribb, causing her to fall over, taking Elizabeth with her, then Uncus pulled off her hair, revealing it to be a wig. As a frenzied Mrs. Dribb grabbed the dog, Elizabeth tried to crawl away but was stopped by Rathe, revealed to be the High Priest of the Rame-Tep. Using his golden ring, Rathe hypnotised Elizabeth and demanded to know where Holmes and Watson were. Elizabeth kept softly whispering "You'll never find them" and slipped into a deep trance. Rathe and Mrs. Dribb, who was his sister and second-in-command, as well as the assassin for the Rame-Tep took the entranced Elizabeth away to be "the fifth princess". Elsewhere, Holmes and Watson interviewed and restrained the drugged and hallucinating Chester Cragwitch and learned that the Rame-Tep came form a village where Cragwitch, along with Waxflatter and their four friends wanted to build the world's grandest hotel. There they plundered a pyramid containing the bodies of five Egyptian princesses. The villagers grew angry and fearing for their lives, Cragwitch, Waxflatter and their companions summoned in the British Army who violently killed the villagers. A local boy named Eh Tar and his sister, vowed to avenge their family and village and replace the bodies of the five princesses. Having murdered five men and presumably four girls, they intended for Elizabeth to be the fifth. An off-the-cuff remark by Watson caused Holmes to realise that Rathe is Eh Tar. Using the flying machine in Waxflatter's laboratory, Holmes and Watson got to the warehouse and gained access to the Rame-Tep's pyramid where Elizabeth, still in a deeply mesmerised state, was bandaged and about to be sacrificed the same way as the other girls, via mummification in boiling wax. Holmes killed Mrs. Dribb with her own poisoned dart and the pyramid was damaged. Elizabeth awakened from her trance and escaped with Holmes and Watson but a determined Eh Tar pursued them and attempted to shoot Holmes. Elizabeth took the bullet for her beloved and Watson unsuccessfully attempted to treat her while Holmes dueled Eh Tar. Holmes defeated Eh Tar and then Elizabeth died in his arms. In her final moments, Holmes told her that he would see her again in the afterlife. Elizabeth smiles and tells him with her dying breath "You'll be late as usual."
Physical appearance[]
Elizabeth was a beautiful, willowy young woman with smooth, clear skin, long blonde tresses and vivid green eyes. She dressed elegantly in dresses, petticoats and high-heeled boots and was often seen walking her dog in the grounds of Brompton School. Her beauty often captured the attention of other males, particularly Sherlock Holmes who was not given to sentiment but who would sometimes be captivated simply watching Elizabeth's graceful movements from afar.
Personality and skills[]
Elizabeth was a highly intelligent individual, easily able to keep track of Sherlock Holmes's thought processes, even when John Watson, who went on to become a doctor, had difficulty. It is possible that her intellect was on a par with that of Holmes himself. Cleverness evidently ran in Elizabeth's family as her uncle, Professor Rupert T. Waxflatter was a genius inventor. Elizabeth's intelligence may have earned her Holmes's love as much as her beauty and sweet, gentle personality. Elizabeth had a pure and innocent soul, often wearing her heart on her sleeve, in contrast with the highly cerebral Holmes. An example of this would be when she breathed on the glass of the window of the attic she shared with her uncle, just so that she could write "I love you" in the mist as a message to Holmes. She was extremely brave, with a passion for adventure, fearlessly accompanying Holmes and Watson on their quest to uncover the Rame-Tep, even when Watson was afraid. Elizabeth was lively and enthusiastic with a passion for life, but a deep fear of death, which may have stemmed from the death of her parents, and been exacerbated by that of her uncle. Her worst fear was being buried alive, which she vividly hallucinated after being shot by Mrs. Dribb's poisoned dart. Despite her intellect, Elizabeth seemed highly suggestible, succumbing to the effects of the Rame-Tep's venom far more quickly than Holmes or Watson, experiencing it more intensely and taking longer to recover, even sleeping deeply after she had done so. She was also effortlessly and deeply mesmerised by Eh Tar and took a long while to be broken out of her hypnotic trance, only awakening when the Temple was collapsing around her. In the face of her suggestibility, Elizabeth was intensely strong-willed, resisting Eh Tar's questioning whilst under his mind control and refusing to give up the location of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Elizabeth's defining trait may have been her intense loyalty to her friends. Her courage and deep love and loyalty to Sherlock Holmes caused her to sacrifice her life to save him.
Trivia[]
- Elizabeth was one of two women Holmes is known to have loved, the other being Irene Adler.
- It is possible that the trauma of Elizabeth's death caused Holmes to shut down emotionally, becoming the cold, reclusive man he is known to be in adulthood, as his younger self, although still aloof, was significantly more openly passionate, a trait for which he was all too frequently rebuked by Rathe, who went on to become Moriarty.
- As Rathe was revealed to have survived his icy defeat and become Moriarty, it has been speculated that Elizabeth survived the bullet and went on to become Irene Adler. This is highly unlikely however as she was shown to be have been buried in a funeral, unless a surrogate, perhaps one of the Rame-Tep's other victims, was buried in her place.
- The cause of Elizabeth's parents deaths was never revealed.
Behind the scenes[]
- Elizabeth is Mary Watson's middle name in Sherlock, in a possible homage to the character. It is also the first name of Lady Smallwood and one of the aliases of Eurus Holmes in which she attempted to seduce John Watson, leading some fans to speculate that she was an adaptation of the character for the series.
- Elizabeth was an original invention for the film, Young Sherlock Holmes and has no direct counterpart in the Arthur Conan Doyle novels.