Enola Holmes 2 (2022) Explained: Millie Bobby Brown is back as the titular character in Netflix’s Enola Holmes 2, one of the most anticipated streaming titles of the month. The detective for hire is ready to crack her next case (or should I say the first case?), which involves finding a missing girl who is wrapped in a dangerous conspiracy. The film also reveals Sherlock’s humble side as he opens up a bit with her detective sister.
Directed by Harry Bradbeer, who has also directed the first Enola Holmes movie besides episodes of the popular TV Show Fleabag and Killing Eve. Jack Thorne writes the screenplay, and the film is based on the Enola Holmes Mysteries book series by Nancy Springer. Enola Holmes 2 also stars Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes, David Thewlis as Grail, with Helena Bonham Carter reprising her role as Eudoria Holmes.
In the following article, I take a detailed look at the Enola Holmes 2 plot explaining all possible plot twists and turns, along with an explanation of the ending and THAT credit sequence. Spoiler alert, please read at your own discretion.
Enola Holmes 2 Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
A lot has changed in Enola Holmes’s life after successfully cracking the Tewkesbury case in the first Enola Holmes film. She has opened an agency and is all geared up to follow the path of becoming an independent detective.
Being a young girl, people assume Enola to be a fine woman who can be an excellent homemaker. However, she is determined to get her first case and not follow the conventional path set for her. She has the wit and the skills to make a fine crime investigator, but in a period where misogyny prevailed, she will have to fight to become a detective.
She also has to live up to the reputation of her older brother, Sherlock Holmes – who is now burdened with never-ending cases and is growing tired of upholding the stature. When she thinks nobody has faith in her abilities, a young girl, Bess, comes to her looking for her older sister. And thus, Enola Holmes takes up her very first case – Finding Sarah Chapman.
On a visit to Sarah’s place, Enola learns that Bess and her sister work in a match factory called Lyons. While questioning Bess about her sister’s whereabouts, hot-headed Mae, who happens to be Sarah’s best friend, is not too pleased with Enola looking around the room for clues.
Everyone in the factory assumes that Sarah has run away because she got accused of stealing; Bess, on the other hand, knows that her sister is honest and must be in trouble. Enola accompanies Bess to the factory the following day dressed as a commoner to find out more about Sarah.
On their way in, all the workers are examined for infection as girls in the factory are dying of Typhus – an infectious epidemic fever. Keeping in mind the tricks she learned from her mother, Enola diverts the factory manager’s attention and sneaks into the office to find out that Sarah stole some critical papers from the register.
Enola carefully looks around the office and finds the old match model with red tips instead of white tips. She also overhears a frantic discussion that involves people in the higher rank panicking about the fact that Sarah knows something important that she shouldn’t.
Enola is suspicious of Mae; hence she follows her to the Paragon Theatre, where she works a second job and later discovers that Sarah also worked here without the knowledge of her sister. After bribing the prop manager of the show in the theatre, Enola discovers new clues about Sarah. She gets to know that she had a lover who sent her a love letter with a cryptic message.
She takes the letter with her after Mae sees her fiddling with Sarah’s belongings. On her way home, she notices that someone is following her before she finds her brother Sherlock being thrown out of a pub drunk. She gets him home to Baker Street and realizes that her brother is struggling to solve his latest case.
The following day, a hung-over Sherlock assumes his sister is involved in something dangerous. He warns her not to put herself in danger, just to prove herself. Enola leaves after refusing help from her brother, who consistently doubts her abilities to fight her cases.
Wishing to chance upon encountering Tewkesbury, who may find his way to her while walking to the Lord’s, she gets frustrated about how her brother diminishes her efforts of being an able woman who can become whatever she wants to. At the same time, she cracks the message in the love letter that leads her to the next clue – an address at Whitechapel.
Without wasting her breath, she visits the location only to find Mae stabbed. When she runs to save her, Mae points at something. Unable to save her, she looks for the next clue that Mae pointed at before dying. Upon searching in Mae’s dress, she finds a sheet of paper with a piece of music written on it. However, Superintendent Grail and Inspector Lestrade surround her and accuse her of Mae’s murder.
Enola manages to escape through the window and is chased by the police officers. However, she hides at Sherlock’s place while Inspector Lestrade looks for her. This is where Enola overhears her brother’s conversation with the inspector and learns that his case involves government officials sending money to someone within the system.
After the inspector leaves, Sherlock shares little details about his case with Enola, saying that he cannot trace the person receiving money from the officials. However, sensing that his sister may get involved in something big, Sherlock tells Enola to stay put to avoid drawing any more attention toward her.
Who is Sarah Chapman and what does she know about the Lyon Match factory?
Enola figures out that Sarah’s lover will most likely be at the ball hosted by the prestigious Lyon family. So she heads there, hoping to discover something that would get her close to finding Sarah. Later, at the ball, Enola sees the same people she saw back in the factory when she overheard a panic conversation between Henry Lyon and Charles McIntyre. Enola also learns that when she tries to approach William Lyon, she cannot speak to the Englishmen at the ball without a chaperone.
However, she soon meets a friendly woman named Cicely, who seems to be drawn by the charismatic appeal of Tewkesbury. Enola, in the meantime, also befriends Mira Troy, the secretary to treasury minister Lord Charles Mcintyre. Mira tells Enola to read between the lines and be careful with how things run at the ball. Enola later approaches Tewkesbury and asks him to teach her how to dance so she can find the perfect opportunity to speak to William Lyon, the son of the Lyon match factory and Sarah’s lover.
Enola manages to share a dance at the ball with William, and he tells her not to question her too much as they are both being watched by people. He tells her to meet him in the library at midnight. When she waits for him, she gets arrested and taken away by the police in front of everyone.
She is then sentenced to be hanged for Mae’s murder and trespassing; however, her mother, Eudoria Holmes, gets a hint that her daughter is in danger and comes to her rescue. Eudoria and Edith help Enola fight Superintendent Grail and the police officers after an exciting cat-and-mouse chase with the women winning.
When she closely escapes the police officers, Enola shares a brief emotional meeting with her mother, who encourages her to choose her battle and win them over on her terms. Later, Enola goes to Sarah’s house to warn Bess but when there, she realizes that Sarah had found out the real reason why the match girls were getting sick.
The women fell ill and died because of the cheap white phosphorus used in the match sticks. Enola rushes to Tewkesbury to share this news, but Cicely drops by his place unannounced. When Cicily leaves, Enola quickly realizes that Cicely is Sarah and, along with her lover, William Lyon, they were planning to expose the people who have become wealthy due to the use of low-grade phosphorus.
At the same time, Tewksbury and Enola profess their love and leave for the match factory to find more clues to the case. When there, Enola encounters Sherlock, who is confident that his case is related to that of Enola. After going over their traces, they understand that Lord McIntyre joined hands with William’s father to use cheap phosphorus, so as to make more profits. It ultimately resulted in killing a lot of the match girls, but the Lords in charge were more concerned about getting rich than saving the lives of the poor hardworking girls.
Enola Holmes 2 Movie Ending, Explained:
Who is Moriarty?
Enola, along with her now-boyfriend Tewkesbury and brother Sherlock head to the meeting room of the factory, but sadly find William murdered. They find a piece of the same sheet of music that Enola found on Mae’s dress when she died. Sherlock smoothly decrypts the sheet music as the map of the Paragon Theatre where they finally meet Sarah, dressed as Cicely.
Sarah, Mae, and William wanted to expose the owners of the Lyon factory and the people who profited at the cost of young girls’ death. Sarah congratulates Enola for solving the case and being an excellent detective. She also shares that she stole the papers from the register in the factory office, as it mentioned 100 names of the girls who died due to the use of cheap phosphorus. She also says that she needed Tewkesbury’s help in exposing these monsters.
As Enola breaks the news of William’s death to Sarah, several policemen surround them with Superintendent Grail holding Bess as his hostage. Grail then instructs Enola to hand him the paper that is in her possession and contains major proof against them. While giving the documents, Bess bites Grail and escapes with Sarah. At the same time, Enola, Sherlock, and Tewkesbury fight the officers, ultimately resulting in Grail dying.
Lord McIntyre, Lestrade, and Mira Troy arrive at the scene soon after. Sherlock and Enola learn that Mira Troy is actually Moriarty and she has been blackmailing McIntyre and the Lyons and getting a share of their profits under her alias. When Mira, a.k.a Moriarty, learns that Sarah, William, and Mae were on the verge of exposing the factory, she killed William and Mae to keep her blackmailing scheme under wraps. Realizing that Mira Troy is also a rat in the system, Lord McIntyre commands inspector Lestrade to arrest Troy for being a traitor.
After Troy gets arrested and taken away, Lord McIntyre burns the evidence to avoid further suspicion against him. The next day, Sarah, Bess, and Enola successfully manage to call a strike along with the factory workers; revealing the real reason for the girls dying. On the other hand, Tewkesbury gets McIntyre arrested for being an accomplice to Lyon’s cheap activities.
Will there be an Enola Holmes 3? Who knocks on the door in the end?
On the one hand, Eudoria and Edith smile at Enola’s victory in starting a reform on her terms, on the other hand, Sherlock finds out in the morning news that Troy has escaped police custody. After successfully cracking her first case as an independent detective, Enola sets up a new office at Edith’s shop. Sherlock offers her a partnership as he has grown tired of solving the case alone, but Enola politely refuses.
She says that she is pleased to see his humble side, but she doesn’t want to be in his shadows all her life. However, they both agree to meet on Thursday at 4 in the evening. The ending of Enola Holmes 2 shows us Tewkesbury inviting Enola to the ball.
In a sort of pre-credit sequence, we see Sherlock waiting for Enola on a Thursday. When he hears a knock on his door, he opens it and finds a man instead. The man tells him that Enola sent him to the address because apparently, Sherlock is looking for a roommate. When Sherlock asks for his name, the man introduces himself as Doctor John Watson.
