New Sherlock Trailer Teases Dark Secrets and Perhaps a New Romance

So many tricks, games, and plans!

We love you too, Sherlock!

2017 is coming in with a bang according to this new trailer for season four of the PBS and BBC drama, and probably the biggest surprise is that Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) is in love—or at least he's saying "I love you" to some unknown person. 

Sure, this trailer is filled with lots of references to tricks, plans, and games (which this isn't anymore, apparently), but it's the fact that Sherlock is letting out a little emotion for once that's sending the fans into a tizzy. 

Of course, knowing this show, that "I love you" probably is a trick, a plan, or a game, but we'll take it anyway. 

As star Amanda Abbington teased at San Diego Comic Con this year, season four of Sherlock is its darkest yet. Toby Jones is joining the show as its darkest villain yet, Culverton Smith, a classic Arthur Conan Doyle villain who was introduced in the story "The Dying Detective." 

That tale found Holmes faking a deadly illness to get Smith to admit he killed his own nephew (by infecting him with that same deadly illness). That doesn't sound too far off from something our Sherlock would do, but something about this trailer tells us that we're in for something a lot more sinister. 

Sherlock, which also stars Martin Freeman and Mark Gatiss, will return Sunday, January 1 on PBS.