Sherlock Forum

Dear Sherlock fans of Screened, Having just finished The Reichenbach Fall, my question for you is as follows:

Whaaaaaaaaaaaattttttt?

I'm specifically referring to the last 5 seconds, or so. I've love to hear theories!

Also, Moriarty was one of the best characters, and I'm disappointed that we won't see him back next season. Then again, it seems anything is possible...

Yea How are they going to talk themselves out of that one? Kinda hard to like fake your death when they show you JUMPING? I guess they could do something with the BAskerville facility.

I;m throwing this out there that the moriarty we have seen for the past 2 series isn't the real Moriarty but a bat shit smart man.

There are a few major theories. Most of them involve the fact that a trash truck pulls away the moment it shows Holmes' apparent body, the fact that he'd just made up with Molly the Mortician, there is a building very specifically blocking view of the pavement where Holmes landed from where he told Watson to stand, and Watson takes a nice blow to the head after being hit by a convenient cyclist.
 
Aside from the part where we heard the crunch, that all adds up pretty well. We can assume there was some time between Sherlock texting the final meeting place (why would he specifically choose a roof?) and his actually meeting Moriarty up there. In that time, a number of things could have been set up, including a body double and Molly agreeing to pronounce him dead, because fuck it, he's Sherlock and he's clever like that.
 
There's another part of the theory going around that in addition to all this, the cyclist was somehow a plant that doses Watson with the Baskerville gas as he hits him, leading Watson to see what he expected to see on the body - Sherlock's face. I dunno where this one came from and it seems like the most farfetched idea.
 
Either way, I think we can pretty reasonably assume Sherlock is not dead for realsies (because I'm sure some people postulated  "Oh, it's his ghost at the end" or something), seeing as in the story the episode is based on, Holmes was supposed to die for real, and then was brought back years later having apparently faked his death due to popular demand for Conan Doyle to write more books. Also Moriarty is for reals dead. He had no sense of self preservation, so long as he was confident that Sherlock was ruined. At that point there was nothing stopping him from shooting himself, his life, he even admitted, would go back to being boring without Sherlock. So his shooting himself works just fine.

Oh, I didn't notice this before, so I'm going to repost my overly-critical post about Sherlock that I typed up earlier. I warn you, it's a little on the negative side, vehemently so. Again, I still enjoyed the last episode and the series in general, but it's far from a water-tight show.

The Guardian has a comment thread for spoilers at the moment: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/shortcuts/2012/jan/16/sherlocks-death-your-theories Some interesting ideas in there!

After the popularity of the Hound of the Baskervilles (which came out after The Final Problem but was set before it) Conan Doyle retconned the ending of The Final Problem in the The Adventure of the Empty House and basically you find out

Gatiss and Moffat both immediately tweeted out at the end of the episode that series 3 had been greenlit at the same time as season 2. I'd imagine that series 3 will start with the end of the last episode but from Sherlocks' perspective.

Say what you want about the episode (I personally loved it) but the last time a show caused this much discussion was LOST and I'm so grateful for it, not enough TV warrants that much discussion these days.

@VaizD said:

There are a few major theories. Most of them involve the fact that a trash truck pulls away the moment it shows Holmes' apparent body, the fact that he'd just made up with Molly the Mortician, there is a building very specifically blocking view of the pavement where Holmes landed from where he told Watson to stand, and Watson takes a nice blow to the head after being hit by a convenient cyclist. Aside from the part where we heard the crunch, that all adds up pretty well. We can assume there was some time between Sherlock texting the final meeting place (why would he specifically choose a roof?) and his actually meeting Moriarty up there. In that time, a number of things could have been set up, including a body double and Molly agreeing to pronounce him dead, because fuck it, he's Sherlock and he's clever like that. There's another part of the theory going around that in addition to all this, the cyclist was somehow a plant that doses Watson with the Baskerville gas as he hits him, leading Watson to see what he expected to see on the body - Sherlock's face. I dunno where this one came from and it seems like the most farfetched idea. Either way, I think we can pretty reasonably assume Sherlock is not dead for realsies (because I'm sure some people postulated "Oh, it's his ghost at the end" or something), seeing as in the story the episode is based on, Holmes was supposed to die for real, and then was brought back years later having apparently faked his death due to popular demand for Conan Doyle to write more books. Also Moriarty is for reals dead. He had no sense of self preservation, so long as he was confident that Sherlock was ruined. At that point there was nothing stopping him from shooting himself, his life, he even admitted, would go back to being boring without Sherlock. So his shooting himself works just fine.

I didn't like the ending, just the part were we see Sherlock in the cemetery. The all episode would be more meaningful if it ended when Watson walks away from Sherlock's grave. Even with the announcement of the third season it would provide the fans of the series with an emotional episode and the expectation to see how will they explain all of that.

The theory of the involvement of Molly seems to make sense, specially after their little talk right before Sherlock texts Moriarty. I loved the show and I'm anxious to know how are they going to explain all of that.

PS: After seeing Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows I have to say that the Moriarty of this show is far more interesting that the one in the movie, specially his motivations.

What with all the odd shots of the fall and Watson getting tripped up the best explanation is just that Mycroft helped him fake it or he survived and wanted to stay dead like in the books. The more important thing about his death is how it's handled in the next season. If they just have it all return to normal right away then it will be incredibly dumb. Thought it was pretty great season but fuck me the ending to the first episode of the season was some Doctor Who ass shit and a really disappointing ending. The second episode was really predictable but still pretty good though.

Still I am happy they are making a new season.

we never saw what Sherlock needed from Molly after they had that moment in the lab. Somehow i think that is the missing piece. I keep on thinking that he threw Moriarty off the roof with a mask or some sort but that is reaching a bit. Great show.

my guess is that she switched the body with the mannequin from their flat seen at the beginning of the show. molly got the doctors and people to pretend it was the real body when they brought it in. the cyclist hits john so he is disoriented and wouldnt be able to properly identify the body.

Bit late to the party,just caught the episode there. I really enjoyed the series and agree that the episode would of had much more of an emotional punch if they had not shown Sherlock at the end, but it was still a fantastic piece of television!

@DMack: There is one Clue