🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐

You’d be hard pressed to find anyone, adult or child, who hasn’t heard of Sherlock Holmes. Finding a way to put a fresh spin on that ubiquitous narrative is tough, and I think that’s part of what made the first Enola Holmes such a hit at our house. I’m not 100% sure how many times we’ve watched Enola Holmes as a family, but it’s got to be somewhere between 10 and 20. The movie has more or less been on repeat since its release in September of 2020. 

How Well Do You Know Enola Holmes?Test your knowledge of the first film with this video quiz.

So when we discovered there was a sequel, my two girls were over the moon to see it. My 8-year-old, Aspen, repeatedly asked the same two questions to the Alexa in our kitchen: “When does Enola Holmes 2 come out?” Followed by, “How many days until Nov. 4?”

Not to state the obvious, but expectations were high for this one, so naturally, on release day, we scheduled a family movie night. My wife sat next to our youngest, while I sat next to our 13-year-old, Norah, who had her standard bowl of popcorn by her side. Our son watched from the kitchen table as he ate a second dinner of cheese ravioli, which is to be expected from a 15-year-old. 

My daughters were captivated. To put this into perspective, Aspen has a daily word quota that’s somewhere between the Grapes of Wrath and Moby Dick — a quota that must be met. So to see her sit ghostly quiet says a lot. There was even one moment when my wife nudged her to ask a question, and Aspen wouldn’t respond. She just put her hand up and said, “Shhh.” And Norah literally sat on the edge of her seat, watching the movie with eyes open wide. 

I’ll be honest. At first, I wasn’t 100% sure what exactly it was about Enola Holmes that had them so excited for the sequel. I assumed that it was just a good movie, which both films are. I thought maybe it was the charm of Millie Bobby Brown, who had everyone giggling every time she paused and looked at the camera to make an astute quip. 

Then there was this moment in Enola 2 when Enola was evading the police after being falsely accused of murder. She was climbing up a rain pipe, clearly shook but managing to escape. Obviously, she wasn’t guilty of any crime. She was going to solve the mystery of the missing girl and clear her name. I looked down and noticed that Norah’s hand was in a tight fist at her side. Then I looked at her younger sister and noticed the same thing. 

If I was going to give their expression a name, the only one I can think of is empowerment.

They watched, the gears turning, both of them clearly in love with the idea of solving the world’s mysteries and feeling empowered to do so. They watched Enola take the lead into intrigue, taking no bull. It was almost like they were viewing a road map of how to take names, kick trash and show the world that Enola could solve crimes just as well as her older brother. 

Maybe even better. 

There’s a scene where Enola, her mother and Edith beat the crap out of a team of police officers as they break Enola free from jail. This had my girls so excited, they were literally making air punches, feeling ready to punch this life in the face with a closed fist and flip kick. They had a similar reaction near the end, in the big fight scene, where Enola goes head-to-head with one villain after another and discovers who Moriarty really is. 

And listen, we’ve watched a lot of movies and shows with strong female protagonists, but none of them have had my girls throwing air punches and smiling with satisfaction quite like Enola Holmes 2. 

I’ll tell you this: The best part, at least for my girls, was when Sherlock Holmes asks Enola if she’d like to be his partner in solving crimes. And what does she do? She turns it down so she can go her own way and not live in her brother’s shadow. 

That was the moment when both Norah and Aspen were no longer making fists. Instead, they were carrying these confident smirks, almost half smiles, that seemed to say, “You go, girl.” 

We finished Enola Holmes 2. We put our popcorn bowls in the sink, and I sent Norah and Aspen up to bed. As they went upstairs, I watched them exchange a confident high five with a giggle, and I honestly couldn’t help but smile.