Comment on Sherlock (As long as they have Lestrade, technically it has a procedural aspect right?). How did Sherlock get fooled into thinking the corpse was Irene? Either Irene found a corpse who was her twin from the neck down on very short notice, or she found a body double years ago and killed her and mutilated the face when she needed to fake her death. The third explanation is that Sherlock knew it wasn't her, but pretended to be fooled to help Irene survive, and the "heartbreak" was just acting. Any possible explanations besides those three? (Well other than the writers left a plot hole either because they missed it, or because they weren't going let a gaping plot hole get in the way of telling the story they wanted to tell.)

Handwavium? didn't watch, so I have nothing substantive to add.

It didn't make sense to me either - unless he was somehow in on it.

Perhaps he could tell it wasn't her but felt that pretending she was dead was better?

ETA: Possibly to see what she would do next.

He might have had some doubt, not enough to say it wasn't her but enough to let it play. Please he's dealing with feelings he doesn't like in front of his brother.

I was more concerned with where Irene got the body.

Poor, dear John, so jealous and so determined to make Sherlock happy.

What happened to Irene's female assistant? Did we ever see her again?

I thought that she was the one who got John into the car when he went to see Irene. Is Mycrioft's assistant working for Irene, or do they just look alike?

Well, John certainly thought she was Mycroft's assistant.

She wasn't Mycroft's assistant "Anthea". I thought she was, at first. John apparently is accustomed to Mycroft sending beautiful women in fine cars to snatch him off the street! I don't think the woman who got John was the same as Irene's personal assistant, but I'm clearly not so good at recognizing the faces of minor characters... Even if she was, though, the question remains, what happened to Irene's assistant? Did she get killed and used to stand in for Irene's corpse? Did she receive a nice severance package? Did she go on to work for Mycroft? Poor thing, she was clearly not very important.

John apparently is accustomed to Mycroft sending beautiful women in fine cars to snatch him off the street!

Poor John. And they're never interested in him. Perhaps because they all think you're a couple with Sherlock! "Sherlock will kill me if I try anything."

So true.