Sherlock/Awesome

A Study in Pink

Sherlock gives us a preposterous amount of exposition from John entering a room and handing Sherlock a phone.
We knew it was going to happen anyway, but John shooting the cabbie at that distance, through two windows, past Sherlock's shoulder, with a pistol held in only one hand.
- His right hand. John's left handed.
- He also managed to disappear in the two or so seconds it took for Sherlock to reach the window and look out; he then escaped the building and was presumably downstairs waiting for the police to arrive later, looking totally calm, innocent and harmless.
- In the unaired pilot, this is even more awesome- the distance is greater, there's an angle, he gets the cabbie straight through the heart, and misses Sherlock by a couple of inches- Sherlock has the cabbie's blood splattered all over his face. John then apparently flees the scene, without being seen by about fifteen cops, to dispose of the gun in the Thames.
In his interview with the mysterious and vaguely threatening Mycroft, John is so apparently unfazed by the blatant attempt to intimidate him that he ignores him to check his phone twice, prompting the annoyed line "I hope I'm not distracting you?". As Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat remark in the commentary, John had no reason to believe he wasn't about to be executed for refusing the bribe. And yet his refusal is spoken distractedly as he's reading a text from Sherlock.
- Not to mention this exchange:

Mycroft: Do you plan to continue your association with Sherlock Holmes?
John: I could be wrong, but I think that's none of your business.
Mycroft: It could be...
John: It really couldn't.

- Doubles with being quite hilarious - John having the nerve to hit on Anthea, whom he then believes to be associated with a criminal mastermind. Nerves of steel, indeed.
A Study In Pink is one big long Crowning Moment of Awesome for John, really. In the scene with the corpse of the pink lady, the spotlight is on Sherlock's lightning-fast deductions, as well it should be. But that kind of overshadows the fact that John is able to give a cause of death in a ridiculously short amount of time. Presumably he can smell vomit (but no alcohol) on the corpse. He then picks up her hand and examines the fingertips, probably looking for cyanosis, which is the bluish tinge the fingers of an asphyxiated person gets. He's quick to say "probably", but he's never contradicted in his assessment of her cause of death, there or elsewhere in the episode.
In a quiet way, the drug bust was awesomeness from Lestrade. Just for a change, he's outwitted Sherlock, and for a couple of minutes has the usually mouthy consulting detective feeling just a little nervous. The way Lestrade is sprawled out all relaxed and smug on Sherlock's sofa is all you need to know about how pleased he is with himself.
Mycroft has mad stalking skills. In one afternoon he became aware of John, found out that he was a soldier with PTSD who was in therapy, spoke to said therapist, had him followed to a crime scene (probably), definitely followed part of the way back, where he gets his attention by calling every public phone he walks past, then rigs the CCTV cameras to put him in a threatened position, convinces him to voluntarily get into the car with a few choice words, drives him to a secluded location where he's ready with a chair in case John needs it, tries to bribe him, tells him half his life story, psychologically profiles and Sherlock scans him in a way that Sherlock hasn't even got around to doing yet, gives him a reverse-psychology psych lecture, then thoughtfully offers him a government car for a detoured trip back to Baker Street to tell Sherlock all about it. There are pretty much no secrets from Mycroft. None.
This, from Sherlock, after the cabbie points a gun in his face-

Sherlock: Oh, dull.

- We later learn that the gun is fake. It's not clear exactly when Sherlock figured this out, but even if he knew from the first half-second he saw the gun, the comment is still awesome.

The Blind Banker

Sarah is on her first date with John, when it suddenly turns into a brawl between Holmes and some Chinese gangsters. John charges in to help, and what does Sarah do? She beats up the gangster with what appears to be a large wooden stick. Badass.

Sarah: I mean, I love to go out of an evening and wrestle with a bunch of Chinese gangsters, you know, generally, but a girl can get too much.

Sarah has another Badass moment in The Blind Banker. After John answers the door to the kidnappers and is knocked out cold, there's a shot of the kitchen, where he'd left Sarah. Sarah is gone, but the kitchen light is swinging. It's implied she wasn't taken unaware and did put up a fight.
John's greatest Crowning Moment of Awesome from The Blind Banker is the end, where he manages to move and trigger the crossbow, thus averting the danger from Sarah and killing Sherlock's attacker in one movement. One movement of his foot. Which was, like the rest of him, tied to a chair at the time.
- The fact that he then, while tied up and bleeding on the ground, assumes a second date is going to happen is awesome. Especially when he's right.
A rare dual moment of awesome from Sherlock and John: in The Blind Banker, John returns home from a job interview to find Sherlock demanding he pass him a pen (he's too lazy to get one himself and preferred to wait an hour for John to pick up the pen six feet away and give it to him.) John throws him the pen and Sherlock catches it- no big deal, right? Except that John picks it up and throws it to him without looking at either the pen or Sherlock. And Sherlock catches it, despite the fact that he isn't looking at John or the pen either. It's epic- and according to everyone involved, is real, with no camera tricks or special effects. Perhaps a good indication that at this stage of their relationship, Sherlock and John are now perfectly in sync with one another.
- For the moment, you can see the epic pen toss here.
John's first day at work at the clinic is an absolute disaster, thanks in part to Sherlock's keeping him up running around London and deciphering book codes for at least two days without sleep. Sarah lets him know she's unimpressed, and agrees that it's "not very professional"- but that she's covered him anyway, and taken "five or six" of his patients. Then John manages to turn what should have been an epic bollocking (and firing) into a flustered date acceptance, simply by being charming. Now that is skill. Old army friend Bill wasn't kidding when he joking calls John "Casanova" in his blog.
Sherlock accidentally knocks the ABC guide out of some tourists' hands; he then (being surprisingly polite) picks it back up and gives it to them, excusing himself in German, and later goes back to them continuing on in that language. Apart from knowing that "Rache" was German for revenge, nowhere else do we see that Sherlock is, at the least, bilingual (and let's face it, this is Sherlock Holmes we're talking about. He probably speaks seventeen fluent languages.)
- Doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny for native German speakers, because, quite frankly, Sherlock's German is terrible. Still pretty impressive.
  - YMMV on the "Sherlock's German is terrible" bit. Not exactly accent-less, yeah, but far from cringe-worthy, at least by on-screen standards.
It's a bit of a rewind/pause DVD bonus, but John's resume. Apart from some of it being hilarious, (he specifically mentions time management skills, which turns into a Brick Joke that most people wouldn't even see) but Sarah wasn't kidding about him being overqualified for locum work. He refers to himself as simply a 'doctor', but his resume indicates he's not just a GP- he's a trauma surgeon.

The Great Game

Sherlock working out why the Vermeer was a fake- on a countdown of ten, the conclusion of which could have been the murder of a small child. Bonus points when it's revealed how he solves it... by remembering a line from a presentation that just happened to have been playing while he was getting an ass-kicking from an eight-foot-tall Czech hitman.
John grabbing Jim while wearing a bomb-rigged jacket, screaming "Sherlock, run!". He points out that if Jim's snipers shoot at him, they'll kill Jim as well.It doesn't work, since Jim gets the snipers to train their sights on Sherlock instead. But it's awesome, as well as being a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming
From the same scene, and on a similar note. We've so far heard from four of Moriarty's hostages. The first three (the woman, the young man, the old lady) were crying almost hysterically (and who the hell can blame them?) The little boy was frightened and pleaded for help, but was probably too young to really understand what was happening to him. John, on the other hand, is remarkably calm about the ordeal. No whimpering, no tears, no pleading, he just stands there, speaks calmly and clearly, and does what he's told. Of course, he's an ex-soldier, who's served in Afghanistan, and has probably been trained in what to do if someone takes you hostage/makes you into a bomb mule. But it's still awesome, especially when, after Moriarty leaves and Sherlock gets the bomb jacket off him and throws it away, he more or less collapses on the spot. It wasn't that he wasn't scared or stressed- he very clearly was. He just managed to keep control of himself, probably partly for Sherlock's sake and partly as a middle finger to Moriarty's attempts to intimidate him.
- There's one moment in particular: Sherlock asks John if he's all right. John remains silent. Moriarty mockingly tells him that he's allowed to talk, and urges "go on." John simply nods at Sherlock. He wanted to give Sherlock an answer, but the hell was he going to talk just because Moriarty told him he could. (He really had no choice earlier but to relay Moriarty's words, but even so, his tone of voice while repeating what he's told to say is the best he can do at the aforementioned middle finger to Moriarty.)
The final scene in the swimming pool, was one giant Crowning Moment of Awesome for Moriarty. The guy is freakin' held at gun point, and still manages to be in complete control of the situation.

Sherlock: What if I was to just shoot you now? Right now?

Moriarty: Well then you could cherish the look of surprise on my face (adopts a mock lock of shock). Because I'd be surprised Sherlock, really I would, and just a little bit, disappointed, and of course, you wouldn't be able to cherish it for very long.

- His first appearence, may have established him as The Chessmaster, but that scene CEMENTED his status as a Magnificent Bastard.
  - He tops it all of by being Dangerously Genre Savvy: He leaves them alone on an impulse, but comes back just a few minutes later, probably realising that Holmes really won't stop prying.
The cliffhanger for season 1:

Moriarty: Sorry boys, I'm so changeable. It is a weakness with me, but to be fair to myself, it is my only weakness. You can't be allowed to continue, you just can't. I would try to convince you, but everything I have to say has already crossed your mind.
Sherlock: (sniper rifles trained on him and John) Probably my answer's crossed yours. (he points his gun at the bomb jacket lying between him and Moriarty, both of whom stare each other down, as the episode ends.)

- How about the quick look Sherlock and John exchange during that scene? Sherlock holds the bomb at gunpoint and is ready to shoot. Still he glances over to John, as if to ask for permission and/or forgiveness. And John just nods. Sherlock not simply shoots but he takes a moment to ask John if he agrees (even though this is a foregone conclusion; John probably can't run and even if he tried, the snipers would get him in an instant.) And John, though terrified and probably still in PTSD, just gives his silent agreement. Doubles with Crowning Moment of Heartwarming and Tear Jerker.

A Scandal in Belgravia

Moriarty is still being awesome when the cliffhanger picks up where it left off. Not only does he have the stones to answer his phone, at one point he turns his back on Sherlock- and the gun Sherlock has pointed at him. His calling off the snipers by casually clicking his fingers is pretty damn awesome too.
Then we see the phone call was from Irene. Despite the fact that an incredibly powerful and psychotic criminal mastermind has just screamed abuse down the phone at her and threatened to hunt her down and skin her, she's totally unbothered by Moriarty's theatrics and simply gets back to work.
Sherlock solves a case where he never visits the crime scene- however, he interviews the witness in person, along with the investigating officer, and examines the crime scene using wifi and a webcam. Mycroft solves the same case simply by glancing at the case notes.
When the CIA charge down the stairs at Irene's and hold John at gunpoint, his sole comment is "Thank you." (For taking care of the smoke alarm he'd just set off and which Sherlock had told him to turn off.) A few minutes later, kneeling on the floor with a freaking gun to the back of his head, John snaps this at them:

John: For God's sake, she's the one who knows the code, ask her!

- That's quite a lot of attitude to give someone who may or may not decide to kill you if you give them trouble.
Don't hurt or upset Mrs Hudson. Sherlock really doesn't like that. You think for a second that he's going to go across the kitchen table after Mycroft for daring to tell her to "shut up" earlier in the episode. But later when a thug actually hurts her...the viewer is treated to a Sherlock-scan of all of the thugs possible weak points (eyes, arteries, etc)...and there's no doubt know that Sherlock is going to really mess this guy up.

Sherlock: I dislike being outnumbered. It makes for too much stupid in the room.

- Sherlock then solves a hostage situation with three armed men with a few snarky remarks, a spray can and a deliciously well-placed head-butt. He even has time to roll his eyes as the gunman lets his guard down to frisk him.

Sherlock::Moron.

- As the man is bound and gagged with duct tape, held at gunpoint by Sherlock, John returns to see a note saying "CRIME IN PROGRESS, PLEASE DISTURB". He races up to the flat and asks what the hell is going on, and Sherlock simply says, "Mrs Hudson was attacked by an American. I am restoring balance to the universe."
- And then very calmly phones:

Sherlock: Lestrade. We’ve had a break-in at Baker Street. Send your least irritating officers and an ambulance. Oh, no no, we’re fine, it’s the burglar. He’s got himself rather badly injured. Few broken ribs, fractured skull… suspected punctured lung. *smirks* He fell out of a window.

And then later:

Lestrade: Exactly how many times did he fall out of the window?
Sherlock: Oh, it's all a bit of a blur, Detective Inspector. I lost count.

- Hudson herself turns out to have been faking her distress well enough to fool the CIA, John, and the audience.
- And managed to snaffle the phone and hide it from the CIA while they thought she was crying.
At the end of A Scandal in Belgravia, Sherlock pulls it out--no innuendo intended--at the last second to both get into Irene's phone and tell her she really was interested in him, no matter what she says.
John finally getting in an excuse to beat up Sherlock (a season's worth of repressed rage?) and pointing out that he was in the army, and does know how to handle himself. Also, he manages through all that to not break Sherlock's face.
Irene Adler enters the room, completely naked, make-up applied, and Sherlock's infamous scanning system can't make anything out about her. Is it blatant Fan Service? Yes. Is it an excellent way of showing what kind of foe Sherlock is up against? Oh God, yes!
Small and mild-mannered Dr John Watson explodes at Irene Adler, at about thirty paces away, causing her to back down, cross her arms and get defensive. She's a dominatrix, for heaven's sake, strong willed and not easily intimidated by anything.

Irene: What do I say?
John: What do you normally say?! You've texted him a lot!
Irene:... Just the usual stuff...
John: There is no "usual" in this case.

Neither John nor Mrs Hudson so much as blink when the CIA agent crashes into the bins just outside after Sherlock throws him through the window. Heavily implied that both of them, John especially, knew that if they left that guy alone with Sherlock he was in for a world of pain in some way.
The last scene, when Irene is about to be beheaded by a terrorist cell.

Irene: *texts* Goodbye, Mr Holmes
*The Executioner walks up to her with a sword. Fade to Black. Then we hear her ringtone. Fade back in*
Sherlock-as-Executioner: When I say run... RUN!
*Irene's face blossoms with a smile as Sherlock raises the sword and charges at the terrorists*

Mycroft's "neat" solution to the impending terrorist attack. He filled a plane full of corpses to fool the terrorists into thinking they'd killed a bunch of people. If that's not completely awesome I don't know what is.
How Sherlock wins in Scandal in Belgravia. Irene has just handed over her list of demands to Mycroft, has delivered a Hannibal Lecture that completely humiliates Sherlock and is about to leave when Sherlock interrupts.

Sherlock: Sentiment is a chemical defect found in the losing side.
Irene: Sentiment? What are you talking about?
Sherlock: You.
Irene: Oh dear god. Look at the poor man. You don’t actually think I was interested in you? Why? Because you’re the great Sherlock Holmes, the clever detective in the funny hat?
Sherlock: No... because I took your pulse. Elevated. Your pupils dilated. I imagine John Watson thinks love’s a mystery to me, but the chemistry is incredibly simple and very destructive. When we first met, you told me that a disguise is always a self portrait, how true of you, the combination to your safe – your measurements. (Holds up her phone) But this, this is far more intimate. This is your heart, and you should never let it rule your head. (He starts entering digits) You could have chosen any random number and walked out of here today with everything you worked for. But you just couldn’t resist it, could you? I’ve always assumed that love is a dangerous disadvantage. Thank you for the final proof.
Irene: Everything I said. It’s not real. I was just playing the game.
Sherlock: I know. And this is just losing.
He holds up her phone. The password reads: I AM S-H-E-R LOCKED.

The Hounds of Baskerville

The "Mind Palace". That is all.
Between Sherlock stealing Mycroft's identity and John awesomely pulling his Captain's rank, the two of them get themselves invited into a top secret military base and spend 20 minutes doing an "inspection" before they're figured out. Even when they are figured out, John in particular coolly just keeps pretending everything is normal. He starts scolding a Major about the paperwork he's going to have to fill out.
- This cannot be emphasized enough: John Watson, who up until this point in the show has proven a spectacularly bad liar, pulls rank to get himself and his friend shown around a top-secret military base - and does it so effectively that even Sherlock himself merely shuts up, sits back, and watches him work.
- What's so awesome about what John does is exactly as you point out: he's a horrible liar, so not one word out of his mouth during the whole tour is a lie. He introduces himself using his real name, real rank, and shows his real and valid military ID. He never claims they're doing a "spot check", he simply asks the corporal if he's ever heard of one, etc. He even works around Sherlock's lies by addressing him as "Mr Holmes." "It'll have to go in the report"? There certainly had been a mistake somewhere, and that two unauthorised people, one a civilian, managed to con their way into Baskerville was certainly going to have to go on somebody's report.
- When they first meet Dr Frankland, who asks who they are, John goes for his wallet again. It's not as if he pulled rank the first time on an impulse and promptly realised it was a bad idea- he was prepared to keep doing it if it prolonged their visit to the base or made them seem more legit. And although he can't pull rank on the scary angry Major, he's the first to approach him as they exit the lift, refusing to let the guy intimidate him (and he's intimidating everyone at this point.)
- Sherlock himself is pretty awesome in this scene, especially when he starts channeling Mycroft and coolly demanding to be called "sir."
Another thing about the abovementioned scene. John looks carefully at Corporal Lyons, who has yet to identify himself. He then can hardly wait for the corporal to finish speaking, and cuts off Sherlock before he can begin. He Sherlock scanned Corporal Lyons! Perhaps not as well as Sherlock himself could, if he knew what he was looking for, but John has military experience. In only a few seconds, he clearly saw: young, lower rank, skittish (he practically fell out of the jeep) easily intimidated (Sherlock ticks him for not calling him 'sir' and he freaks out a tad.) As far as John saw, this translated to "will be easy to con into letting us look around the place, the second he realises I outrank him." He was right.
Mycroft apparently putting a phone call to Baskerville to get Sherlock and John unrestricted access to the place for 24 hours. Baskerville is so secretive that the government doesn't even do inspections on it. The mind boggles as to what exactly Mycroft did or said to make it happen.
- The awesome implication being that Mycroft could, and probably did, simply use his position and say something along the lines of "because I said so", and that this was enough to completely turn Baskerville upside down so that Sherlock and John- neither of whom have any official role or position that would justify them being there- have the run of Baskerville. The government doesn't inspect Baskerville because it's so hush-hush, but Mycroft can get on the phone and say "You're going to let my civilian, amateur detective brother and his ex-serviceman friend into Baskerville to do some undisclosed snooping around that's apparently connected to a 20 year old disappearance, because I said so. Thanks."
Sherlock demonstrating that his observational skills still work a charm, despite his being terrified and drugged. Especially when, the next day, he remembers the random sequence of morse code letters that John rattled off once when he was apparently not listening.
John chatting up Louise Mortimer. Despite having already had a rough night of it and not being in the mood, he approached a strange woman and convinced her to get drunk and chatty with him. She completely catches him out lying about being an "old friend" of Henry's; he so charming in admitting it she apparently doesn't care. She also apparently doesn't care that he's "trying to get her drunk", though she seems (understandably) to think this is more to do with John trying to pick her up than it is to do with getting information out of her. It's heavily implied that the only thing she's really cross about is finding out that the guy she was probably planning on sleeping with later is apparently gay. Poor John. He was so close...
In the last scene, Lestrade is the first of all of them to get himself together enough to shoot at the hound. He fires three times, but all shots miss. Then John fires; at least one of the two shots he fires hits the hound square, despite it being lit only by torchlight and everyone there being absolutely terrified (which, along with the fact that what they were seeing was technically a hallucination, has got to affect one's judgement somewhat). He later shoots the hound again, twice, and at least one if not both of those shots connect. Without using a torch this time, and at some distance, he hit a moving target in the dark. While he was drugged. Badass.
- Despite his terror earlier on that afternoon, John seems less freaked out than anyone else here- probably because unlike the incident in the lab, he has a clear escape route and a weapon.
- Not to mention, when the hound first makes an appearance and everyone is pretty much packing collective death, John turns around and politely asks Lestrade "Are you seeing this...?" When Lestrade nods, he says "Right, he [Lestrade] is not drugged, Sherlock, so what is that?" In that moment of high terror, it's John who's able to use a process of elimination to deduce that the hound is real. He's right. Somewhat.
When you think about it, John's reactions while locked in the lab are pretty awesome. He's not just terrified, he's been drugged to be terrified. He's got absolutely no control over the levels of fear he's experiencing. Instead of becoming paralysed and totally irrational with fear, instead of going into a meltdown, he does everything to get himself out as rationally and calmly as possible. He's able to fully explain to Sherlock where exactly he is, that he wants out now, and then is able to go on to explain what he's apparently hearing and seeing. He's able to judge that the cage is probably the safest place to be in the entire lab. This is extra awesome when you remember that the original purpose of the drug was specifically as a weapon that would render enemy soldiers completely unable to fight or defend themselves.

The Reichenbach Fall

Major awesome from the terrified little boy, who while being kidnapped had enough presence of mind to write in linseed oil on the wall and use it to leave a trail, which is pretty much the only reason he and his sister were found and rescued.
- Even more Fridge Awesome from him if such a thing exists. In the classic Hansel and Gretel fairy tail, Hansel is clever enough to see that the witch is fattening them up and takes precautions against her, outsmarting the wicth before throwing her in the fire. No way the allusion to Hansel and Gretel is a coincidence. Yet the first time we see the two in the factory, they're munching the sweets like crazy. Why? It's only been a day or so since they were kidnapped, right? Probably because that boy, that brilliant boy who loved detective and spy stories, and left a message for the police to follow, saw through Moriarty's plan, and realized that candy from strangers was a bad idea, but the girl wouldn't have it. Possibly the only way to save her, was to eat the majority of the candy himself so that she couldn't have any (when the police enter, all they find of the piles of candy are wrappers). If this is true, then the boy saved the girl from a death trap that Moriarty himself devised.
John Watson punches Lestrade's boss for disrespecting Sherlock. And is promptly arrested for it.
- And the actual punch is never shown. It simply cuts to the commissioner walking around with a broken face, blood streaming from his nose, and John being slammed up against the police car beside Sherlock. This leaves the audience able to fill in the gap with as awesome a scene as they like, from John getting in one good shot to him straight-up going crazy and attacking this guy.
- Watch John's body language right before the scene cuts: He goes from "passive, but alert" to "right cross incoming!" just before the scene cuts. The blow would have landed literally half a second later. If you've ever been taught how to properly throw a punch, the next shot was no surprise at all (but no less delicious).
Mycroft has gone from commandeering every CCTV camera in London to hacking the ATM that John tries to use.
When John finds out that it was Mycroft who gave Jim Moriarty all the information about Sherlock, he gives him a lengthy piece of his mind that is the owning of the century. He's so taken aback that he even falters and struggles to explain himself:

Mycroft: I never inten- I never dreamt-
John: This- see, this- is what you were trying to tell me, isn't it. "Watch his back, 'cause I've made a mistake."

I think we can all agree that Sherlock faking his own death when he jumped off a building in full public view was pretty damn awesome. However it was done.
- Kudos to Molly for her heavily-implied role in it. All that time spent being the butt of his jokes, and in the end he couldn't have done what he needed to without her.
  - And double points to Sherlock for choosing her. When Moriarty is listing John, Mrs Hudson and Lestrade as targets he says they are "everyone." He never suspected Sherlock would trust Molly so no-one was watching her.
Moriarty hacking into the Tower of London, the Bank of England and Pentonville Prison simultaneously. Although he actually doesn't, the latter two are just opened thanks to bribing the right people. But the greatest moment is when the police arrest him, finding him sitting in the Queen's throne in the Tower, wearing the jewels, completely nonchalant.

Moriarty: Honey, you should see me in a crown.

This exchange when Sherock realises that he can force Moriarty to call off the snipers:

Moriarty: Nah... you talk big... Nah, you're ordinary, you're ordinary, you're on the side of the angels.
Sherlock: Oh, I may be on the side of the angels, but don't think for one second that I am one of them.

- This is probably the first time throughout the episode, that Sherlock has Moriarty cornered, and while it does prompt Moriarty to commit suicide so that there's no other way to save the others, it's good to see Sherlock gain the upper hand, if only for a few moments.

Blogs/Commentaries/Other

John's blog describes this incident in "The Geek Interpreter". What ISN'T awesome about:

Which is why Sherlock and I ended up, dressed as ninjas, fighting a comic book geek in Soho.

The sheer amount of real world people saying "I believe in Sherlock Holmes."

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