Jeff Hope



Jeff Hope was the main antagonist of the Sherlock episode "A Study in Pink". He was a serial killer masquerading as a taxi driver, and was sponsored by Jim Moriarty. He was portrayed by Phil Davis, who also portrayed Lucius Petrus Dextrus in the Doctor Who episode "The Fires of Pompeii".

Hope kills his victims by kidnapping people that get into his cab and taking them to an empty building. There he makes them play his game. His game is to offer his victims the choice of which pill they want to take out of two identical pills. One pill, referred to as the "good pill," will not kill them, however the "bad pill" will.

Hope gives his victims the choice of which pill to take. In turn, he takes the pill they don't choose. If the victim refuses to take either pill, he opts for them to take a bullet from his gun, which they never choose. In actuality, this gun is merely a lighter and therefore a ruse to coax them into ingesting the pill. Only Hope himself is aware of which pill is the good pill and which is the bad pill.

Hope's method of killing confuses the police as they see the deaths as suicides and don't see how suicides can be linked in any way. All they know is that four people committed suicide using the same poison with each victim being found in a location in which they had no business being. The police bring Sherlock in to see the Jennifer Wilson crime scene, where Sherlock deduces that the deaths are murder.