As soon as Sherlock knew John was gone, he got to work. He didn't bother finishing the episode now that John wasn't there to force him, because he had already solved the case, and anyway, he could always look up the ending on the internet! Speaking of the internet…
Sherlock quickly sat down with his laptop, opened up a Google tab, and painstakingly typed in his query—well, tried to; he was still adjusting to being an otter! He impatiently waited until the screen loaded and then looked at what was listed.
Ah─two million results for "sherlock holmes detective". He would very busy that day.
John got into a cab two blocks away from 221B, after deciding that walking to the market would require too much exercise. As he sat down, and told the cabbie to head to the greengrocer's, he wondered how Sherlock was faring back at the flat...was he actually finishing the episode, or had he forgotten about it entirely and gone to start an experiment? John suspected it was the latter, but tried to take his mind off it.
"Could you turn the radio on, please?" he said to the cabbie, who grunted and reluctantly pushed the ancient car's radio button. "Thanks," John said, but it sounded like a question, as he was slightly confused by the driver's unfriendliness. Some people... he thought.
Suddenly, John heard a familiar phrase uttered by one of the ubiquitous, chirpy radio hosts.
"...and tonight, make sure to tune in to Sherlock on BBC! Sherlock is an exciting modern take on the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman…"
John raised his eyebrows, shaking his head sadly. Wherever he was, this new program followed him.
Sherlock pondered the search results. Instead of the usual articles on crimes he had solved, he had found a strange assortment of Wikipedia pages, critics' reviews, and fan sites. Wherever his old life had gone, it wasn't coming back soon. On a lark, he clicked "images" on the webpage and frowned. "Always the stupid hat," he muttered.
After learning all about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his doppelganger, Sherlock decided the only way to truly understand John's television show was to read the original stories that inspired it. He put on his scarf, but not his coat—realizing that it was now much too large for him—and crept down the stairs, making sure that Ms. Hudson wouldn't see him as an otter. Then, he stole his way through dark alleys and dumpster-filled parking lots to the front steps of the London Library. It took almost no effort to steal (borrow, he told himself) a book of Sherlock Holmes mysteries from one of the prominent shelves. Child's play. Then, he left the building and went to a peaceful park, settling in to read. But what Sherlock didn't know was that halfway across the city, John was in trouble.