Sherlock is being strangled at Soo Lin’s flat; pretty badly too. It looks like he passes out for a few moments and can barely talk afterwards. The attacker simply stops for some reason. Why? Because John, sarcastically bitching outside, has just said that he is Sherlock Holmes. Good luck for Sherlock that John is a Grand Master of Snark and the Black Lotus is entirely populated with total morons. It saved his life.
This always makes me laugh, because apparently the Black Lotus thinks that Sherlock has the kind of ego where he would in fact shout through a post slot, “I’M SHERLOCK HOLMES AND NO ONE CAN COMPETE WITH MY MASSIVE INTELLECT.”
Or. Oh god. Maybe they thought Sherlock and John were having a spat after the taller John ditched Sherlock at the fire escape to go poke through the flat by himself. Ahahahahaha.