I feel like the grumpy fan every time i say this, but Irene's death felt like a fridging to me. "Oh gosh, Irene Adler's head's in the refrigerator! Sherlock, how does that make you feel?!" And while i love the things that Guy Ritchie does with men (Holmes and Watson's relationship/partnership, naked!Mycroft, Handsome Bob), he's really yet to impress me with the way he thinks of women, when he bothers to think of them at all. And that's sort of the thing, right. Women always seem like something of an afterthought to Ritchie.

(Although Mary was awesome.)

Regardless, i totally agree that Irene was all but wasted in these two movies.