Maybe that's why at the beginning of Scandal he's decided he won't leave the house for anything less than a 6?

He went to Belarus to consult with the accused man due to utter boredom. He obviously hoped for something juicy, which could have happened due to the setting.
Belarus is considered to be governed in a similar way to a dictatorship, regardless of what politics are claimed to be there. Human Rights is a big issue there, so we in Australia could compare it to one of our people being detained on charged in Bali.
The setting in the prison (no lights, extreme cold) set up the scenario of it being a dingy, nasty place to be imprisoned.
And after hearing the prisoner's story & concerns, we see Sherlock being so bored that he in fact sets his mind to being a Grammar Nazi rather than a consultant.
It shows him as being so clinical, cold & unfeeling for this chap's circumstances as well, that all he can do to help is correct his English.
Had this been a case of any worth, the setting would no doubt have been one of the best challenges to date for the budding consulting detective. He would have had to deal not only with proving innocence, but with a dictatorial Government. - Juicy.

At this stage of the stories, he had not shown that level of boredom, hence he had never considered consulting in anyway other than face to face. It was only later that he devised a plan of not putting too much effort into the initial consultations until he knew the case was worth it.

Last edited by kazza474 (April 11, 2012 3:00 am)

I think Belarus was chosen to be the location because Belarus is - apart from Mexico - the only state where there is a death penalty by hanging. Otherwise the joke wouldn't work.
btw: In the German dubbed version they changed the hanging bit - quite incorrectly - into "here you will be shot".

I forgot that the commentary mentioned about it needing to be in a country that still had capital punishment by hanging or the grammatical joke wouldn't work...yep like in My Fair lady Professor Higgins (I mean Moriarty).

I would very much doubt a country like Belarus would ask Scotland Yard for help.
The guy openly said he did it & wanted Sherlock to help him prove it was an accident. Sherlock wouldn't need to play games with someone such as that to ascertain innocence really. He was there to try & help the guy, but soon worked out it wasn't possible.

Well he was looking for cases, he sussed it out & decided it was worthless.
The scene could have been deleted but it does show his indifference to someone on Death Row. Many would stay & try to fight for a reduced sentence, etc.

Well the guy did say ' they say you are the best" so no doubt someone recommended him probably from reading his blog.

Sherlock Holmes wrote:

Oh God, I do hate it when people say "learnt" instead of "taught" though, grrr!!

Funnily, it's the same in German.
"I taught him" = correctly "Ich lehrte ihn"
but people often go "Ich lernte ihm" 

The whole scene is there for a joke about grammar. The Moftiss says so.

About Sherlock starting paying attention to the grammar because he was bored: I read it differently in so far that Sherlock quickly deduced that the man actually did commit the murder. Thus he had no interest in getting the man of the charges and concentrated on correcting his grammar instead.