I've Totally Fallen for "The Reichenbach Fall"!

[rusty_armour]

I had all these things I wanted to say, ideas I was formulating in my mind while watching "The Reichenbach Fall". However, I was so blown away by the ending that I'm just sitting here in shock and amazement. Actually, I'm still trying to work out how the fuck Sherlock did it? How did he fake his own death when to all appearances he was dead -- and in front of witnesses, no less? I did notice that the staff of Bart's wouldn't let John get too close -- in much the same way Holmes made sure Watson wouldn't get too close to him in "The Adventure of the Dying Detective" because he knew Watson (as a doctor) would figure out that he wasn't really ill. I wonder if this is what Sherlock asked Molly to do? Help him fake his death? I thought Sherlock looked surprised and stunned when Moriarty told him he would have to commit suicide, but, then, "Richard Brook" isn't the only one who's an actor. And, after all, Sherlock and Moriarty are the same person, right?

I feel as if nothing I could write could possibly do justice to this episode, so I'll just record some of my geeky fangirl observations. Okay, the first observation isn't really Sherlockian, but just my glee over the fact that Sherlock retrieved that painting of the Reichenbach Falls from my favourite painter of all time, J.M.W. Turner! Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. However, the next moment of excitement for me was Sherlockian because Moriarty breaking into the Tower of London had to be an allusion to the Tower of London jewel heist Moriarty carried out in my second favourite Basil Rathbone film, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. For that matter, Moriarity was on trial at the beginning of that film, but he got off because Holmes didn't arrive in time with the crucial evidence. Hmm...Of course, the main source material for the episode was "The Final Problem". I loved the way Moriarty kept referring to "the final problem," which was a nice nod to canon Holmes fans. This episode also included what I believe was almost an exact quote from "The Final Problem," that famous comparison Holmes makes to Moriarty being like a spider in a web:

He sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them.

Stephen Thompson also recreates that confrontation scene between Holmes and Moriarty at Baker Street, though it plays out quite differently in "The Reichenbach Fall". Nevertheless, Moriarty's message is the same: I'm going to destroy you. And, speaking of destruction, I thought it was brilliant that Sherlock's downfall didn't involve his death but the total annihilation of his reputation. As a shameless Lestrade fan, I really enjoyed watching our poor DI fight against the seeds of doubt that had been planted in his head. I'm not sure if he entirely believed that Sherlock was involved in the kidnapping. He did try to warn Sherlock and wasn't happy about the arrest. Of course, that was nothing compared to that final conversation between Sherlock and John. It was heartbreaking to see Sherlock tearfully tell John that he was a fraud, sacrificing himself in order to save his three friends. It's fantastic that the note left at Reichenbach Falls in "The Final Problem" became a phone call here. I wonder if it was worse for John to see Sherlock "die" than it was for Watson to imagine what Holmes's "death" was like at Reichenbach Falls. Lastly, it was fabulous to see John give his own version of the "best and wisest man whom I have ever known" canon quote at the cemetary and catch that glimpse of Sherlock watching John, much as Holmes watched Watson at Reichenbach Falls after he faked his death.

I'll be waiting with bated breath until the next new episode is broadcast.

Comments

[alysscarlet.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, there are lots of theories on the 'out of character' clue here: http://sherlockbbc.livejournal.com/3765607.html#comments

and at the Radio Times here:

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-01-18/steven-moffat-nobodys-spotted-crucial-sherlock-clue

I reckon it is him asking for a 'moment of privacy' - that's never really been an issue for Sherlock before. So what did he do during that moment of privacy???

[rusty-armour.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for the links! :-) Asking for that moment of privacy would have been a good opportunity to set something up. However, my only problem with it is that Holmes asks for a moment of privacy in "The Final Problem" in order to write a note to Watson. Well, actually, he didn't ask for "a moment of privacy" just some time to write the note, so maybe the "moment of privacy" argument is valid. *g*

[alysscarlet.livejournal.com]

There is even more discussion here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/jan/16/sherlock-how-fake-own-death?commentpage=13#start-of-comments
(interesting because a non-fandom forum)

and

http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showtopic=3197080&st=2445

You can tell I haven't been doing any work this afternoon. :-)

My main problem is, Moffat lies. He admits it. And it is very hard to see on screen the borderline between the artifice of TV (stuntmen, editing, camera angles etc) and the artifice of Sherlock faking his own death. I suspect when all is revealed there will be some retconning and things won't happen exactly the way we've just seen them.

[rusty-armour.livejournal.com]

Ooooh! Thanks again! I really like it when you haven't been doing any work if this is the result! *g*

I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that what we saw on screen wasn't what actually happened. radiogaga80 thinks that we saw what John thought he was seeing. I suppose if you're talking to your best friend one moment and then a man fitting his description jumps off a building (or, at least, appears to jump) then that man might end up resembling your best friend. I actually hope that there's some really clever slight-of-hand optical illusion type explanation, but I suspect that it is a matter of things not happening the way we saw them happen.

[puckrobin.livejournal.com]

I haven't read all those messages. And so I'm sure someone must have come up with this idea before me. But when I read that Moffat interview and thought about, I hit upon a very uncharacteristic thing Sherlock did.

To quote from "A Study in Pink", "I prefer to text." He *called* John this time.

And I'll have to watch the scene again, but I wonder if he actually recorded that message beforehand. That the scenes of him speaking into the phone happened before John arrived on the scene and that it was a recorded message.

[rusty-armour.livejournal.com]

Sherlock did call Mycroft in "The Hounds of Baskerville" and I'm pretty sure he made at least one phone call to Lestrade in "The Great Game". However, I don't think he's ever phoned John before this episode, so I suppose that could be it...But didn't Sherlock have an actual conversation with John in which he responded to things John said? And that did look like Sherlock standing on top of the building and speaking into the phone. I'll have to rewatch the scene -- something I keep saying, I know.

[alysscarlet.livejournal.com]

I haven't rewatched the episode yet, but in the retcon I wouldn't be surprised if Sherlock has pre-recorded that message. It's just hard to know what we are seeing at face value and what is the artifice of TV.

[puckrobin.livejournal.com]

There was a short story by science fiction writer Robert J Sawyer regarding the sheer impossibility of Holmes' survival in the original "Final Problem".

I see it's online for free.

http://www.sfwriter.com/styousee.htm

[alysscarlet.livejournal.com]

Thanks for looking this out for me! I'll have a sneaky look at it at work. :-)

[alysscarlet.livejournal.com]

I read it on the train last night! Very entertaining and neat. Although I've never been a subscriber to the whole Schroedinger's Cat thing, as I think that things 'are', independent of whether we perceive them or not.

I rewatched The Reichenbach Fall on Monday and I'm none the wiser about how it all happened. But at the moment I am favouring the theory that virtually the whole episode was an elaborate plan hatched by Sherlock and Mycroft to eliminate Moriarty, and that Sherlock was acting the part throughout. He planned his jump with Molly (and did indeed jump) but into the lorry of rubbish bags. I'm not sure he expected Moriarty to blow his brains out though. His reaction to that was quite strong, but I suppose it could be for the benefit of the watching assassins.

Either that, or there has been a rip in the space-time continuum somewhere....

[puckrobin.livejournal.com]

I suppose Sherlock telling John to make sure if everyone knew that he was a fake could have been to protect his friends from Moriarty's assassins, but I don't think so. I don't recall Moriarty asking for that. That's why I think he must be using this as a bid to take over Moriarty's gang and destroy it. ("Hey, you know this group commits real crimes, but the Sun was right that Moriarty was just an actor I hired to front my operation. Now do as I say.")

I'm skeptical that the solution will live up to the mystery. It didn't in Moffat's other series.

[alysscarlet.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that the gang/spider's web of Moriarty's associates will function without him, but would just melt away.

I totally agree with you that the solution will NOT live up to the mystery. That's a sad fact of life, and drama generally. And Moffat hasn't delivered on this in the past, as you say.