Episode 2.3, "The Reichenbach Fall"

[jesskayding]

Yeah Arcadia that may be the case for me too. I saw each series back to back with like two weeks in between. They went together wonderfully.

[jesskayding]

 

Okay, has this question ever really been answered?

 

WHY WOULD MORIARTY KILL HIMSELF?

 

Why exactly would he commit suicide?  Suicide is a big deal.  I don't get the sense that he was depressed.  He had a great criminal network that he controlled.  If he shoots himself, he doesn't know if Sherlock ever complied with the suicide, so you would think that would take some of the fun out of it for him.  Staying alive... he had every reason to stay alive... keep doing his thing.  Sherlock being "ordinary" isn't really motivation to kill himself.  Psychopaths are often so narcissistic that suicide wouldn't be on their list of things to do.

 

Well, to begin with, we don't know whether he really did kill himself at all. Series 4 might very well reveal that he is as alive as ever.

 

But if he did kill himself, why? Okay, I'll answer with another question: Why not? What reason does a person like Moriarty have to go on living? That's his big problem, isn't it. The final problem. Staying alive. It's just so boring, isn't it? It's just staying. If Moriarty truly had run out of distractions by the end of series 2, he might very well shoot himself, especially if that means winning the game against Sherlock (and so he thought he had, at least if he really did kill himself).

 

Remember Sherlock at the beginning of the Great Game. Fatally bored. Shooting the wall. Imagine Sherlock lived all on his own and had a gun. No Mrs Hudson to bring tea in the mornings. No John to come home and take the gun away and complain about the holes in the wall and be sulked at and snap back and scold. No Molly at Bart's who would be heartbroken if he never came back to manipulate her into giving him access to corpses and smuggle out body parts. No Lestrade who will surely offer the next case soon. Don't you think in that case, Sherlock himself may be dead by now? I do. Heck, he was nearly dead at the end of A Study in Pink!

 

Sherlock and Moriarty are pretty similar in series 1. But they develop in opposite directions. Sherlock finds more and more reasons to stay alive, and Moriarty just goes on playing his game until it's reached the final act, and then he (thinks he) wins. After winning, there is really nothing left for him to do, so why not kill himself? It makes perfect sense to me...

 

 

 

 

We truly could use a Love button.

[Schlauer Fuchs]

I just re-watched the episode for the... I lost count time. And what stroke me is how Moriarty uses the same image to describe Sherlock as Mycroft does in HLV: Sherlock the dragon slayer. Somehow that seems of utter importance to me. It's such a particular and extraordinary image that I feel it can't be mere coincidence that both of them use it. Maybe John was right and Moriarty and Mycroft do/did meet up for a cuppa every friday.

[Pamela]

I just re-watched the episode for the... I lost count time. And what stroke me is how Moriarty uses the same image to describe Sherlock as Mycroft does in HLV: Sherlock the dragon slayer. Somehow that seems of utter importance to me. It's such a particular and extraordinary image that I feel it can't be mere coincidence that both of them use it. Maybe John was right and Moriarty and Mycroft do/did meet up for a cuppa every friday.

But isn't that when Mycroft meets John for fish & chips?  (Sorry, couldn't resist ...)

[Schlauer Fuchs]

 

I just re-watched the episode for the... I lost count time. And what stroke me is how Moriarty uses the same image to describe Sherlock as Mycroft does in HLV: Sherlock the dragon slayer. Somehow that seems of utter importance to me. It's such a particular and extraordinary image that I feel it can't be mere coincidence that both of them use it. Maybe John was right and Moriarty and Mycroft do/did meet up for a cuppa every friday.

But isn't that when Mycroft meets John for fish & chips?  (Sorry, couldn't resist ...)

 

 

Nice observation skills!   You're right, I was too lazy to check when and how regularly Mycroft and Moriarty meet up to talk about Sherlock; already got the DVD out of the player. Should've known I wouldn't get away with this. Not in this forum

 

[jesskayding]

I just re-watched the episode for the... I lost count time. And what stroke me is how Moriarty uses the same image to describe Sherlock as Mycroft does in HLV: Sherlock the dragon slayer. Somehow that seems of utter importance to me. It's such a particular and extraordinary image that I feel it can't be mere coincidence that both of them use it. Maybe John was right and Moriarty and Mycroft do/did meet up for a cuppa every friday.

 

 

Or they could be tongue in cheek. BC being the voice of that dragon in The Hobbit..

[Schlauer Fuchs]

 

I just re-watched the episode for the... I lost count time. And what stroke me is how Moriarty uses the same image to describe Sherlock as Mycroft does in HLV: Sherlock the dragon slayer. Somehow that seems of utter importance to me. It's such a particular and extraordinary image that I feel it can't be mere coincidence that both of them use it. Maybe John was right and Moriarty and Mycroft do/did meet up for a cuppa every friday.

 

 

Or they could be tongue in cheek. BC being the voice of that dragon in The Hobbit..

 

 

Right

 

Only since I tend to (over-) interpret everything in Sherlock and attribute it to some secret plan/intention of Moftiss', I must say that they'd be very careless to use the same joke twice. And Moftiss being careless? hmm...

 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

"The universe would never be so lazy" as to carelessly or coincidentally use the same joke twice. And since Moftiss controls to some degree the BBC Sherlock universe, they wouldn't be either.

[jesskayding]

TRF... That little girl screams @ Sherlock. Why I don't like Donavon, a good detective would see that obviously they used someone who looked like Sherlock. Sherlock would have avoided @ all cost interviewing a child he supposedly kidnapped apparently unmasked.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I didn't even think about that slip up with Donovan & Sherlock with the girl.  She should have been thinking more.  She had seen enough of Sherlock at work that she should have known better.

[jesskayding]

Right. She, Andersen & Lestrade, should have known he wouldn't have been so careless. But it was like Donovan was waiting for an opportunity to pounce on Sherl.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I think Lestrade had some doubt still but had to do things he didn't want to.  He called Baker St. to let them know.

[T.o.b.y]

TRF... That little girl screams @ Sherlock. Why I don't like Donavon, a good detective would see that obviously they used someone who looked like Sherlock. Sherlock would have avoided @ all cost interviewing a child he supposedly kidnapped apparently unmasked.

 

Very good point, Jess, I must say. I guess Sally was just seeing what she wanted to see. I mean, it was obvious that she'd love it if it turned out that Sherlock wasn't so superior to the "professionals", after all. Her judgement was definitely clouded by her feelings...

 

I am quite disappointed with the lookalike explanation. I was hoping to find out that Moriarty used Sherlock's voice, not his looks. After all, he had a recording handy (what Sherlock growled at Kitty's dictaphone), and the girl didn't scream at him until he began to speak to her.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I am quite disappointed with the lookalike explanation. I was hoping to find out that Moriarty used Sherlock's voice, not his looks. After all, he had a recording handy (what Sherlock growled at Kitty's dictaphone), and the girl didn't scream at him until he began to speak to her.

I didn't care for that explanation either.  Often I'll think two people look a lot alike, but Alex can't see any resemblance at all -- or vice versa.  Apparently the two of us focus on different aspects of a person's appearance.  So unless Moriarty was able to find an exact lookalike (which seems unlikely), how could he be at all confident that Colette would confuse the man with Sherlock?

 

But of course, I have a different pet theory -- Moriarty had his henchman kidnap the kids, and then he himself "rescued" them from the henchman and hid them in the old candy factory, telling them they'd be safe there from the evil man behind the kidnapping (and here he showed them a few photos of Sherlock).

 

You have a good point about the girl not screaming till Sherlock had spoken, but on the other hand, I don't think she looked at him till then either.  I've checked that recollection against Ariane DeVere's transcript:

 

(The little girl is sitting at a table looking down into her lap. A female liaison officer is sitting beside her stroking her arm reassuringly.)

SHERLOCK: Claudette, I ...

(He gets no further because the girl lifts her head, takes one look at him and begins to scream in terror.)

 

So it could be either his face or his voice that freaked her out.  Or both!  Maybe Moriarty used a video recording of Sherlock -- he must have been on the news at least a few times.  Hey, I like that theory even better!

 

[sfmpco]

Just noticed (disclaimer:  I am slow with these episodes!!) that John says in TRF at the very beginning that Sherlock is his best friend.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Just noticed (disclaimer:  I am slow with these episodes!!) that John says in TRF at the very beginning that Sherlock is his best friend.

 

I never paid close attention to that bit and what was actually said, maybe because John was trying to get it out barely above a whisper and I was going through way too many feels.  I understood the Sherlock dead part and missed the best friend as well.

[sfmpco]

Okay, maybe this has been addressed before, but I'm not going to try to find it... so when Moriarty spells "Get Sherlock" on the case containting the Crown Jewels, he puts a smiley face inside the "O" - and it's very similar to the yellow paint smiley inside 221B which shows up in TGG.  The yellow paint seems to have come from TBB as that's the only reference to yellow spray paint, but could smiley have been put on the wall by one of Moriarty's people?  

[Carol the Dabbler]

I've always assumed that Sherlock had picked up the can of yellow paint in the dressing room at the Chinese circus in "Blind Banker" and brought it home.  In "Great Game," what I assume to be the same can is sitting on the coffee table and Sherlock is firing John's gun at a yellow smiley face on the wall.  I assume that Sherlock painted the face there himself, to use for target practice.  I realize that's a lot of assumptions, but it nevertheless seems to me like the simplest explanation.

 

I do like your idea of a connection between the two smileys, though.  How's this -- Irene Adler took a photo of the one in 221B with her camera phone and showed it to Moriarty, who then replicated it in the Crown Jewels room as an additional taunt?

 

[sfmpco]

I've always assumed that Sherlock had picked up the can of yellow paint in the dressing room at the Chinese circus in "Blind Banker" and brought it home.  In "Great Game," what I assume to be the same can is sitting on the coffee table and Sherlock is firing John's gun at a yellow smiley face on the wall.  I assume that Sherlock painted the face there himself, to use for target practice.  I realize that's a lot of assumptions, but it nevertheless seems to me like the simplest explanation.

 

I do like your idea of a connection between the two smileys, though.  How's this -- Irene Adler took a photo of the one in 221B with her camera phone and showed it to Moriarty, who then replicated it in the Crown Jewels room as an additional taunt?

 

You just never know.  Irene is the first one who said, "Off you pop" though which was echoed twice by Moriarty although once was in the mind palace.

[Arcadia]

Then there was all that stuff about looking for the video camera hidden in the bookshelf. I never understood who was supposed to have planted that, and why (and how it could have shown anything hidden behind those books) or in fact what it had to do with the plot at all .... but maybe somehow Jim say the smiley face on the wall by such means?

 

Since I've brought it up ... anyone have an explanation for the hidden video camera?

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Possible options for the camera: find the code that Moriarty never actually planted, to track Sherlock to learn about him better, get a better layout of the flat for the jump related blackmail, or just to throw Sherlock off.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Irene is the first one who said, "Off you pop" though which was echoed twice by Moriarty although once was in the mind palace.

Isn't that just a fairly common British expression, though? I tried Googling it, and didn't come up with any obvious Sherlock references.

 

Then there was all that stuff about looking for the video camera hidden in the bookshelf. I never understood who was supposed to have planted that, and why ... anyone have an explanation for the hidden video camera?

 

Possible options for the camera: find the code that Moriarty never actually planted, to track Sherlock to learn about him better, get a better layout of the flat for the jump related blackmail, or just to throw Sherlock off.

I agree with CAMPer's first idea -- one of the new neighbors planted it, hoping that Sherlock would say or do something to show them where the "computer key code" was hidden.

[T.o.b.y]

Then there was all that stuff about looking for the video camera hidden in the bookshelf. I never understood who was supposed to have planted that, and why (and how it could have shown anything hidden behind those books) or in fact what it had to do with the plot at all .... but maybe somehow Jim say the smiley face on the wall by such means?

 

Since I've brought it up ... anyone have an explanation for the hidden video camera?

 

Not really. I've wondered about that pretty much the same way you describe. My best guess is that it was put there by one of the assassins, in the hope of picking up something about the key code.

 

[Arcadia]

Ohhh, I never thought about the assassins planting the camera, for the first time it kind of makes sense to me. Thanks, gang!

I still don't understand how the camera saw anything planted behind that book, though....

[Carol the Dabbler]

Wasn't it kinda between the books?

 

Lemme see what St. Ariane says:

 

Checking the books on the top shelf, he seems to realise that the one on the far right has more movement around it than it ought and he pushes it deeper into the shelf, revealing a camera stuck on the side of the bookshelf.

 

OK, so between the last book and the side of the bookcase, apparently.  That might give it a somewhat narrow field of view, but wouldn't block it completely.