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Speculation: How Did Sherlock Do It?


Banshee

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And by "it" I mean...

the whole "appearing to jump off a very high building and then actually being alive and well".

 

We know that Sherlock can trick people into believing others are dead. He did it with Irene Adler (and I firmly believe that is the reason why the end of Irene's story was changed - to prove that Sherlock could pull something like that off.

 

However, having been at the actual location where that scene was shot, I can tell you that building is as high as it looks in the scene...

 

 

So, here we go. Post your theories, ideas and speculations here! No doubt when next series airs, we'll all be proven wrong, but it doesn't mean we can't have fun trying! :D

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Can we post theories that others have found?

 

There is one that I found on Tumblr that I think checks out pretty well. Not only does it seem solid on its own, but it also fits in line with a "hint" that Moffat posted on his twitter feed a while back:

 

 

He mentioned that he was reading all of the theories people posted on twitter/tumblr, but there was something that Sherlock did that was VERY out of character that people seemed to have missed.

 

 

Because pictures better explain it, I'll put a link to it here (of course, spoilers lie within!): http://finalproblem....game-a-slightly

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Lots of very good points :) Will need to re-read it when my brain is awake. At the moment, it just keep playing with different scenarios of how Watson will react in series 3 when things are revealed...

I'm finding it hard to decide whether John is going to stop speaking to Sherlock ("how dare you do this to me?" kind of thing), or be dragged into trying to figure out how Sherlock did it, or both. Which would be hilarious to see, John not talking to Sherlock except to check wether his theory is correct, and Shelock being his usual self an only making John angrier...

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Hi all, I'm new here and thought I might contribute...

 

I reckon Molly helped Sherlock in some way to enable Sherlock to seem dead (eg. to give him such a weak pulse that this could not have been detected when somebody where to check). Plus, Watson being run over was deliberate to make him woozy, woozy enough not to notice that Sherlock was not actually dead. I may have been influenced by facebook chatter :P but this seems to me like it makes sense, what do you guys think?

 

xxo non_sequitor

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The space he fell on the pavement was marked. My theory is that he fell into the truck or a matress laid out on the marked space (from where he was standing, John wouldn't be able to see if he did, there was a smaller building in front) he then pulled out a fake body (like he did for Irene) and left on the truck or as a pedestrian. The ciclist purposly hit Joihn to delay him so that he reached the place too late to see that. Molly either helped provide the body, blood samples or later in the morgue.

 

What intrigues me is the whole "out of character thing". Sherlock was crying, reaching out to Watson, lying, and jumping out of a rooftop...all of which are out of character for him...

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What intrigues me is the whole "out of character thing". Sherlock was crying, reaching out to Watson, lying, and jumping out of a rooftop...all of which are out of character for him...

 

And he made tea for Moriarty. And he asked Molly for help. None of which are in character either... *ponders*

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I have nothing concrete to add but Molly definitely plays a part.

 

One thing I did think about...

 

I've seen a lot of people going on about the squash ball Sherlock was messing around with and a trick with sticking it in his armpit to impede circulation. Wouldn't have needed to do that - to count a decent pulse you have to be connected to that pulse for at lease 10 seconds, less than that and you won't necessarily feel one (something that is taught in life support classes if you have medical professionals) John was checking for a pulse for well less than 5 seconds before he was pulled off, plus he won't have been at his best anyway - if you've got adrenaline in your system it can be very difficult to feel a radial pulse. A single dose of a beta blocker can drop someones heart rate into the 30s and will also tend to make your extremeties quite cold as well as dropping blood pressure. Drop the BP low enough and you'll not get a radial pulse. In a hospital getting hold of those sorts of drugs would not be a problem.

 

 

Talking of the OoC stuff a friend and I rewatched the ep and ended up up shouting 'out of character!' at so many things it was getting silly.

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And he made tea for Moriarty. And he asked Molly for help. None of which are in character either... *ponders*

 

Did Moffat specify when Sherlock did something out of character? Like, was it on the roof or are we supposed to look through the whole episode?

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I don't think Moffat was very specific...

 

There is also the possibility that he just said that to send us all in a wild goose chase so that we concentrate on the out of character stuff and entirely miss the really important clues...

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Probably, and specially because Reichenbach could be renamed: "Sherlock out of character the episode".

 

I wonder at what point he realized he'd have to disappear? I mean, after the talk with Moriarty in 221B he starts "looking sad when John isn't looking". At first I thought it was because he was worried he wouldn't be able to beat Moriarty, but what if he was already planning to play dead?

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I wonder at what point he realized he'd have to disappear?

 

That is a very good question. I do wonder how far back he knew... I suspect he might have suspected for a lot longer than we think. After all, he knew the whole being known and recognise wouldn't work for him... After all, the first time we see him in a deer stalker (what episode was that? I can't remember off hand), he's trying to hide from the press...

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That is a very good question. I do wonder how far back he knew... I suspect he might have suspected for a lot longer than we think. After all, he knew the whole being known and recognise wouldn't work for him... After all, the first time we see him in a deer stalker (what episode was that? I can't remember off hand), he's trying to hide from the press...

 

Ooh, that is such a good point! I never even thought of the idea that Sherlock might have known he'd have to hide even before. The first deerstalker scene was at the beginning A Scandal in Belgravia, and according to John's blog entry for that it occurred in August, almost a year before The Fall (June 16). It's possible he knew that might have to happen after the pool scene.
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It's possible he knew that might have to happen after the pool scene.

 

Yep, entirely possible. That's the thing, I'm not sure how far back we need to look for clues, or for this out of character thing that Moffat mentioned... it's so hard to figure anything out!

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Rewatching Reichenbach, I've been wondering about the crimes we see him solve at the beginning: they're not his usual cup of tea are they? He loves murders and psychos but we see him: retrieve a famous painting, save kidnapped famous person, find famous fugitive. In other words: crimes that call a lot of attention but aren't what he normally call interesting. This coming from the guy that hardly enjoyed the many people that started looking for him at the start. Worst, John has to point out he is no longer a private detective and Sherlock didn't mind.

 

So, if my guess that Sherlock knew his fate for a while is correct, then his sudden change in atitude towards the crime he solves might have been purposedly done to call the attention to the press, maybe hoping Moriarty would take the bait and use the publicity as his downfall? Or simply to hurry up the plans he already new Moriarty had...

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Hm... That's a very good point, particularly when you put that against the beginning of A Scandal in Belgravia, when Sherlock refuses to leave the house for a murder he didn't consider interesting enough... *ponders*

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Holmes' sudden fame makes some sense, because of Watson's blog....but I agree with the questioning about Holmes' allowing himself to be on public display in the opening montage of cases. He's clearly ill at ease (never mind Watson's having to remind him to feign graciousness)--except when Lestrade mocks him; when he leaves for the court, he literally has to brace himself before he exits Baker Street.

I do wonder how much of this has been orchestrated by and coordinated with Mycroft? Was all this bait to get Moriarity to come out into the open, to target Sherlock for interfering (it's what Moriarity was on about in the swimming pool scene in "The Great Game")?

Vote for the 'out of character' moment: Holmes' request for a "moment of privacy" at the edge of the rooftop....Seems an ideal moment to signal any compatriots, and it seems extremely odd for Holmes to ask for such a thing.

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Vote for the 'out of character' moment: Holmes' request for a "moment of privacy" at the edge of the rooftop....Seems an ideal moment to signal any compatriots, and it seems extremely odd for Holmes to ask for such a thing.

 

This! It stuck out the very first time I saw it, alarm bells started ringing.

 

 

Although I was familiar with the plot of "The Final Problem."

 

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I agree, the 'moment alone' makes a lot of sense if he wanted to signal someone...

 

Yep, I did think that as well. Plus the way he starts almost laughing after that...

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I thinkt he did that in relief when he realized there was another way, since Moriarty "was just like him". But I guess it could be a signal too...

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I took Holmes' laugh as his realization that Moriarity had inadvertently revealed there was a way out--that there was a signal to call off the snipers, without Sherlock's suicide. He had Moriarity backed into a corner, knew it, and thought that meant he didn't have to go through with the elaborate ruse of his suicide....After all, the ruse was dangerous--it could go wrong; plus, no matter what Holmes landed on....it was going to hurt. (And, yeah--hurt Watson as well.) Then that gave us the incredible, chilling "angel" speech, delivered to absolute perfection by Cumberbatch, which resulted in Moriarity's realization that he'd been beaten--except if he played his final card. Which meant Holmes had to go back to his original plan and arrangement.

ETA...Something else that Holmes does which is rather odd, up on the rooftop: before he jumps, he deliberately tosses his phone aside. Interesting, after he tells Watson, "This is my note." Someone, somewhere on LJ, who also noticed this suggested that Holmes had recorded the conversation with Moriarity. It does seem that the phone was left on the rooftop for a purpose--there's no logical reason for his tossing it rather than keeping it in his coat, except that he wanted someone to find it.

Edited by subtle science
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  • 2 weeks later...

Rewatching Reichenbach, I've been wondering about the crimes we see him solve at the beginning: they're not his usual cup of tea are they? He loves murders and psychos but we see him: retrieve a famous painting, save kidnapped famous person, find famous fugitive. In other words: crimes that call a lot of attention but aren't what he normally call interesting. This coming from the guy that hardly enjoyed the many people that started looking for him at the start. Worst, John has to point out he is no longer a private detective and Sherlock didn't mind.

 

So, if my guess that Sherlock knew his fate for a while is correct, then his sudden change in atitude towards the crime he solves might have been purposedly done to call the attention to the press, maybe hoping Moriarty would take the bait and use the publicity as his downfall? Or simply to hurry up the plans he already new Moriarty had...

 

This is my theory exactly. The out of character thing was accepting fame. "I'm a private detective, the last thing I need is a public image" and "don't make people into heroes John...I'm not one of them" - he's allowing himself to be made a hero. Why? Because he knows it will draw out Moriarty into playing his final end game, something that was mentioned at the end of Great Game. I also don't think Mycroft would have purposely given away info about his little bro. He's not that stupid. He also did it on purpose to lure Moriarty. Mycroft and Sherlock were in on it together very early on.

 

I don't think he knew he would have to die/disappear until after the Richard Brook incident at Kitty's flat. That was when he clicked exactly what had to be done and that was when he went to see Molly immediately to arrange the specifics. I think everyone accepts now that Molly was involved. Mycroft is definitely invovled too IMO.

 

He didn't jump into the dumpster truck, the pavement is way too wide for that and he wouldn't take that big a risk - what if he missed? Also he didn't "leap" out, he just allowed himself to fall straight down. If he was planning to land in the truck he would have had to make more of a running jump. I'd say it's more likely that he had Homeless Network arranged with some kind of landing net. Notice how everyone surrounded the body really quickly afterwards. The net was probably thrown into the dumpster truck which then drove away, also pre-arranged as an extra block to John's view (as well as the building in the middle of the road - Sherlock told John to stay "right where you are" so his view would be sufficiently obscured, and then arranged for him to be ran over by the bike so he would miss other vital details). The gang would then put a load of fake blood on Sherlock and he could just lie there playing dead until he was carried away.

 

It was definitely a "live" body falling too, dead bodies don't fall like that and it was definitely Sherlock lying on the pavement. Even John after the being knocked over would have been able to spot a stone cold corpse from a freshly "dead" one. Even if he didn't pick up on it immediately he would have thought about it afterwards when something didn't quite ring true and started to question the events. I don't think he used a rubber ball. That's just a red herring. Too risky, it could have just fallen out for example when he was falling, why take that chance. I read somewhere that there's a particular drug that can really slow down your pulse and seeing as he was already at a hospital, he could have easily got hold of something like that; although John only held his hand for a few split seconds before being pulled away (conveniently I might add). The sight of the blood and the fact that he'd just fell from a really tall building would be enough to convince him that his friend was dead. He was really only feeling the pulse out of desperation, common sense would be telling him that no one can survive a fall like that.

 

Mycroft made the arrangements for Sherlock to get away and Molly would have done the death certificates and had another body put in Sherlock's coffin for the funeral. Anyway, I'll probably be too embarrassed to read this when S3 comes out.

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