Netflix’s Enola Holmes 3 takes the young detective (played by Millie Bobby Brown) to Malta for what is supposed to be a wedding, but the celebration is quickly derailed when Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill) disappears without a trace. As Enola follows a trail of cryptic clues, she uncovers a decades-old military cover-up, hidden treasure, and a revenge scheme that puts her family in grave danger.
Here’s how Enola Holmes 3 ends, who lives, who dies, and how the final moments tease another mystery for a potential fourth film.Warning: The following post contains spoilers forEnola Holmes 3.
The film opens with a sinister figure dragging a man in chains into a dungeon and asking the question: “Does the name Tewkesbury mean anything to you?” One year later, the story shifts to what should be the happiest day of Enola’s life…
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Cut to Tewkesbury standing alone at the altar, with Enola’s voiceover explaining, “I read somewhere that all good stories start with a wedding. This one certainly does.” Enola is having doubts about becoming a lady, having spent six years becoming worthy of the Holmes name, but she decides to go, albeit very, very late.
However, there is a man in pursuit. It turns out to be Dr. John Watson (Himesh Patel) with news that Sherlock is missing. And he is sure he was kidnapped.
Getting caught up…
Before the events in Malta, Enola is thriving. She joins the Great Detectives Club, occasionally works cases with Sherlock, and falls deeper in love with her beau, Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge). Eventually, Earnest (Ernest in the books) Augustus, Lord Tewkesbury, proposes, and she accepts. At the same time, Sherlock grows increasingly distant as he becomes consumed by a mysterious investigation. Meanwhile, Eudoria remains Britain’s most wanted fugitive, preventing her from attending the wedding, leaving Sherlock set to walk Enola down the aisle.
Why Malta of all places?
The wedding is held in Malta because of the Tewkesbury family’s history there. Tewkesbury’s late father, Peter, served on the island during his military career, spent summers there with his family, and Lady Tewkesbury (Hattie Morahan) was married there. Tewkesbury has fond memories of exploring the caves with his father, playing pirate, and looking for treasure. (Remember this. It’s Chekov’s cave.)
Little do they realize that other forces were at play to bring the couple to Malta for unsavory reasons.
A bad start, a worse wedding, and a mystery unfolds
The engagement reception gets off to a rocky start when Brigadier General Sampson, Tewkesbury’s godfather, mocks Enola during his toast. Later, Enola and Sherlock have a heated argument over her decision to marry into the aristocracy. Sherlock believes she’s abandoning who she is as a Holmes for title and tradition, while Enola insists she’s marrying for love, not status. It’s the last time she sees her brother before he disappears.
Enola and Watson check out Sherlock’s room, and she sees the word “KHOST” written in the mirror and finds a silk patch. She also notices the wedding party returns. She missed her own wedding.
After missing her own wedding, Enola searches for Tewkesbury but instead chases a mysterious man (from the beginning of the film) in a red coat who had been speaking with Sherlock. Before dying from a gunshot wound, he utters the word “Wrath,” giving Enola another clue.
Back at the honeymoon suite, she tells Tewkesbury that Sherlock has been kidnapped, but he is hurt that she was late and had initial doubts about their marriage. Later, after falling asleep on the beach reminiscing about their love, Enola awakens to find Tewkesbury’s residence engulfed in flames. She rescues him and discovers that his mother has been kidnapped after finding signs of a forced entry into her room.
After discovering that both Sherlock and Lady Tewkesbury have been kidnapped, Enola realizes the attackers were searching for something hidden at the Tewkesbury estate. She joins forces with Mikiel Mizzi (Joe Azzopardi), a member of Malta’s Partito Anti-Riformista independence movement, who believes the kidnappings are connected to mysterious Professor Adeline Rathe.
A villain revealed
In Valletta, Enola matches the scrap of local silk she found earlier to a woman’s dress and follows her into an alley during the Summer Carnival. Before the woman can reveal anything, she is shot and, with her dying breath, warns Enola, “She will kill you.”
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Moments later, Enola comes face-to-face with Moriarty (Sharon Duncan-Brewster), a.k.a. Professor Adeline Rathe, who reveals she wants to destroy the Holmes family before Eudoria arrives (Helena Bonham Carter) in the nick of time and saves her daughter, allowing Moriarty to escape in the chaos. Eudoria urges Enola to look beyond the obvious clues. Later, Enola reconciles with Tewkesbury during a swim in the sea, admitting she never doubted marrying him, only whether she was worthy of his title.
Meanwhile, Moriarty is holding both Sherlock and Lady Tewkesbury captive, having orchestrated the wedding in Malta to lure Enola there. As Enola, Eudoria, Watson, and Mizzi work together, they connect military medals to Brigadier Sampson and the Battle of Khost, bringing the conspiracy into focus.
The conspiracy
Breaking into the British Embassy’s records office, Enola, Eudoria, and Mizzi uncover the truth behind the Battle of Khost: British soldiers massacred civilians and stole gold from an Afghan shrine on government orders before secretly hiding it in Malta, with Smith — the chained man from the opening scene — serving as Moriarty’s inside man. Brigadier Sampson (Jason Watkins) admits the operation was led by Tewkesbury’s late father, Peter, who later sank the ship carrying the treasure and claimed the gold was lost rather than allow the crime to be uncovered. They blamed the Maltese soldiers for the missing gold.
Moriarty orchestrated the kidnappings, fire, and trail of clues to manipulate Enola into finding the hidden gold for her.
A happy ending with a possibility of more
Enola ultimately locates the treasure inside a seaside cave (the “pirate” cave), but Moriarty and her men kidnap Watson and force a final confrontation. After a chase across Malta and a fist fight, Enola rescues Sherlock and Lady Tewkesbury. Moriarty is arrested, the stolen Afghan gold is returned, the British military cover-up is exposed, Brigadier Sampson is arrested, and the falsely accused Maltese soldiers who were framed by the British are finally cleared.
With the case solved, Enola and Sherlock repair their fractured relationship, and Tewkesbury tells Enola he doesn’t want her to become Lady Tewkesbury; he simply wants her as his wife.
Renouncing his tarnished title in favor of his family name, Tebbity-Gore, the couple wed in a small cliffside ceremony officiated by Eudoria. As they celebrate their future together, the film’s final shot reveals the sunken ship, The Wrath of Adeline 1833, the ship that Tewkesbury’s father sunk, still resting beneath the sea, teasing another treasure-adventure and possible mystery for a possible Enola Holmes 4.
Enola Holmes 3,Now Streaming, Netflix