Sherlock (Steven Moffat BBC series)

[Purdy Bear]

Im absolutely seething about this last episode.

Iv studied Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for his Metaphysical works, and Iv read just about every bio on him and by him, so I feel I know him pretty well.

What was the Stephen Moffat thinking! Not only to bring the fraud thing in, then Moriarty's suicide, and then supposedly Sherlocks. All these things Sir ACD would never have done. He would be turning over in his grave. With his religious background he would never have included suicide in it.

Where was the struggle and fight between the two adversaries, the fall into the water below - it wasnt even remotely like it.

I can understand modernising the novels etc, and some have been nicely done but I feel Stephen wayyyyyyyyyyyyy overstepped the mark.

By the way I do know how it was done, and if you think about it, it was really easy.
You want me to tell you!


Ok

Heres my theory. Sherlock looks back and sees Moriarty dead, so changes clothes, and then chucks his body over, deliverabtely so it hits the face. The dead guy had gell in his hair so he could have easily made it look curley. He kept John back because he knew that he was the only person who would recognise him. Was the guy on the bike Sherlocks brother - I didnt get a good enough look!

He then changed into a blue suit - provided by his brother and even attended the body, before it was wheeled away. Just because people approach with a gerny and with Ambulance uniforms on doesnt mean they are real so I suspect that was his brothers doing.

If you look at the end you see Sherlock watching John at the graveyard.

 

[Vertigo]

Only problem Purdy is that the guy falling was definitely Holmes and definitely alive; they shot that clearly enough to be sure and the actual start of the jump/fall is shot in a continuous take that started with his face. Also when they turned the body over it was definitely Holmes (or at least a body with a Holmes mask). However I think it was Holmes, otherwise why show so clearly Watson being prevented from taking his pulse? I suspect the lorry with the rubbish bags is the key (it is definitely there and drives off whilst everyone is rushing to the scene).

I suspect they showed Holmes watching at the end to prevent an outcry but I suspect there was considerable debate as to whether that should have been included.

 

[Cayal]

I suspect they showed Holmes watching at the end to prevent an outcry but I suspect there was considerable debate as to whether that should have been included.

If they are doing a series 3, which seems likely (as someone mentioned before it was agreed when series 2 was agreed upon), then this was planned.

All these things Sir ACD would never have done

If you want things that ACD would have done, read the books.

Heres my theory. Sherlock looks back and sees Moriarty dead, so changes clothes, and then chucks his body over, deliverabtely so it hits the face. The dead guy had gell in his hair so he could have easily made it look curley. He kept John back because he knew that he was the only person who would recognise him. Was the guy on the bike Sherlocks brother - I didnt get a good enough look!

This is not at all possible.

Watson was watching Sherlock the entire time he was on the ledge. He couldn't have changed the body. The face (as we saw) was perfectly seeable and perfectly Sherlock.

The bike is key I am sure, but I don't think it was his brother.

But at least we now know the significance of the last scene in last week's episode.

It was explained. Mycroft had Moriaty and interrogated him but got nothing from him.

Crash mat theories are all ruled out because a/ Sherlock did not know he would have to "commit suicide" and b/ how could he or Molly or anyone else know where he was going to jump/be pushed from?

I thought Moriaty picked the hospital but when Sherlock got there he said along the lines of 'Good choice, the highest building in London'. So perhaps Sherlock did pick it.

On the tears: could be that such an unemotional chap was lying to his friend about both being a fraud and dying.

I would say it was because Moriaty had beat him.

 

[Vertigo]

If they are doing a series 3, which seems likely (as someone mentioned before it was agreed when series 2 was agreed upon), then this was planned.

Planned for him to survive sure but I bet there was some debate as to whether or not to show the viewers.

The bike is key I am sure, but I don't think it was his brother.

Agreed I believe the bike was a distraction/delaying tactic whilst the bodies were switched from, I'm betting, the lorry with the rubbish bags.

I thought Moriaty picked the hospital but when Sherlock got there he said along the lines of 'Good choice, the highest building in London'. So perhaps Sherlock did pick it.

I wasn't sure but I recorded it and went back to check. Sherlock sent the initial message to Moriarty after Watson left the lab. Moriarty replied a little later.

I would say it was because Moriaty had beat him.

Yes but that's my point, if Sherlock had all this planned then Moriarty hadn't beaten him.

 

[Ursa major]

It was explained. Mycroft had Moriaty and interrogated him but got nothing from him.

Yes it was explained. But by Mycroft....

 

[Cayal]

Planned for him to survive sure but I bet there was some debate as to whether or not to show the viewers.

I agree but I think they did it to have the questions going/people talking about it since I would imagine a lot of people didn't know there was a series 3 (I didn't. I thought this was it).

Agreed I believe the bike was a distraction/delaying tactic whilst the bodies were switched from, I'm betting, the lorry with the rubbish bags.

I agree. I saw the rubbish truck and thought he jumped into it (then they showed the body).

Yes but that's my point, if Sherlock had all this planned then Moriarty hadn't beaten him.

I think it's a wash. Moriaty has Sherlock pinned as a fake and he told Watson that. Sherlock can't prove people/Moriaty wrong (at the moment at least) because he is meant to be dead.

 

[Cayal]

Yes it was explained. But by Mycroft....

I suppose he is a shifty bugger.

 

[CyBeR]

I've yet to see the last episode...but this came way out of left field for me. I saw it by utter coincidence on TV during Christmas, didn't even know what the Hell I was watching until someone finally says "Sherlock" and I was literally hooked from the get go.

Really fun, amusing and pretty damn smart at most times.

Does anyone get a House MD vibe out of the characters?

 

[Cayal]

I rather liked the simple white text 'tooltips' that showed text messages, or what the character was thinking (reminded me of Heavy Rain, to some extent).
http://bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t8wp0/Sherlock_A_Study_in_Pink/

Funnily enough someone did an article on that -

http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/news_ps3_heavyrain.htm

 

[Dave]

Hmm! I've loved what they have done with this series, but I didn't like the staged suicide either. Not from a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, religious point of view though. It is just more difficult to explain it than them both falling over the waterfall and bodies being washed away. We saw the body and it was Sherlock Holmes. Of, course they will explain it all next year, but right now I can't see how they can. The man on the bike will be important. He prevented John Watson from seeing what really happened. It will also have something to do with Molly. I hope it doesn't involve cloning or something equally fantastic. Holmes had to fake his death though, otherwise one of the remaining hit men would have killed John. If there was really no secret key they would never leave Sherlock alone attempting to get it from him.

 

[Cayal]

Two points I was reminded about

1. The girl screamed when she saw Sherlock - so a mask is possible.

2. The fake body hanging in 221B, possible for a fake death?

 

[PTeppic]

I'm sure the start of next "season" will be Sherlock revealing how early he deduced how he was going to be burned by Moriarty and thus that he would have to commit suicide. And that is why he chose the hospital, sent Watson away and then kept him in a certain position when he returned. We already know Mycroft's people can arrange major scale events, plus Sherlock really was getting too public.

Almost the entire six episodes, where he was featured, Moriarty was steps ahead of Holmes. I think this time Sherlock got back on top.

 

[Dave]

We already know Mycroft's people can arrange major scale events, plus Sherlock really was getting too public.

You're right, there were pointers to both those things - arranging Sherlock's death would have been child's play for Mycroft compared to the staged aircraft bombing.

When Sherlock came back again in the books, people said that he was never the same. Somehow, I don't think this series will be the same.

 

[Bugg]

I'm sure the start of next "season" will be Sherlock revealing how early he deduced how he was going to be burned by Moriarty and thus that he would have to commit suicide. And that is why he chose the hospital, sent Watson away and then kept him in a certain position when he returned. We already know Mycroft's people can arrange major scale events, plus Sherlock really was getting too public.

Almost the entire six episodes, where he was featured, Moriarty was steps ahead of Holmes. I think this time Sherlock got back on top.

I think you're probably right. I think Sherlock had all this worked out from the moment he heard the name Rich Brook, he knew how it would play out, and that's why Molly noticed he looked sad when Watson wasn't looking - because he knew how his faked death and fall from grace would affect his friend.

As to how he survived, I suspect Moffatt and co are sitting there reading everyone's theories and cherry-picking the best ideas - I bet they haven't really decided how he did it themselves yet, lol!

 

[Moonbat]

I wondered how the three hitmen all knew that Sherlock had died?
Moriarty said he could recall/stop the hitmen once Sherlock had jumped, but Moriarty was dead so he couldn't send any message

One of the hit men (the one watching John) was well placed to see Sherlock die, but the other two, one at 221b baker st, and one a bent cop in the police station, how would they have known NOT to kill thier targets?

 

[Cayal]

One of the hit men (the one watching John) was well placed to see Sherlock die, but the other two, one at 221b baker st, and one a bent cop in the police station, how would they have known NOT to kill thier targets?

Might have been told to contact the others? But a valid question.

 

[Ursa major]

...plus Sherlock really was getting too public.

Which would have only increased when the Moriarty-planted stories flooded the media. This would be no holds barred, if only because dead men can't sue.

I wonder how the next series will handle this, or whether it'll all be "forgotten". I can't see how it can. It's one thing returning from being "dead"**, it's an entirely different proposition resurrecting one's trashed reputation, which in Sherlock's case, assuming he returns in a years time, will still be well in the public's consciousness.

And even if Moriarty's demise is covered up, people might assume that the reason Sherlock jumped was at least partly due to his disposing of the actor playing the "supervillain".




** - The public will know that Sherlock's faking of his own death would have required a good deal of collusion: at the very least, I'm assuming Mycroft would have had to formally identified the body. And as pointed out in an earlier post, this isn't merely the absence of a body in the middle of nowhere (as alpine Switzerland would have seemed when ACD was writing Sherlock's demise).

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Maybe they'lll take inspiration from another show with detectives and Sherlock will be a ghost.

Rename it Watson and Holmes (deceased). Personally think Sherlock would make a good ghost detective and John will make a good apparent mad man lol

 

[purple_kathryn]

I had to go straight to Facebook with "How the hell did he do it?!"

 

[ctg]

From Silver Blaze, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:

“It is one of those cases where the art of the reasoner should be used rather for the sifting of details than for the acquiring of fresh evidence. The tragedy has been so uncommon, so complete, and of such personal importance to so many people that we are suffering from a plethora of surmise, conjecture, and hypothesis. The difficulty is to detach the framework of fact – of absolute undeniable fact – from the embellishments of theorists and reporters.”


You can say that again. Sherlock Holmes may have been on about a disappeared horse when he uttered the above, but a plethora of surmise, conjecture, and hypothesis is a pretty spot-on description of what the internet has steadily been filling up with since Sunday night.


The tragedy of Sherlock’s flappy coat seeming to have flapped its last flap in The Reichenbach Fall was of such personal importance to so many people that, unwilling to wait eighteen months or longer for an explanation, the web’s hive mind set about doing some deducing of its own. And by Jove, I think they’ve got it.


This round-up is indebted to the tireless work of the commenters on this site who have sifted through details to provide theories and observations galore. Here goes then, just how did Sherlock pull off the mother of all fake-outs?


http://www.denofgeek.com/television/1208177/explaining_the_ending_of_sherlock_series_2.html