Not sure if anyone has noticed but during the final episode there were two shots of some graffiti near sherlock’s flat. They read ‘IOU’ and were written on a pair of wings. I am not sure whether these wings and the phrase has anything to do with sherlock’s fall/death but thought it might be an important clue??

There has been people that have said that Sherlock threw Moriarty’s body off the building and she had a concussion and was shaken that’s why John saw Sherlock (personally I think this is false since John saw him jump), and we saw Sherlock (as in Hounds of Baskerville when we saw the creatures as the characters did). I have also seen other theories that Sherlock used the object in his hand to poison Moriarty with the same chemicals (or something similar to them) from the Hounds of Baskerville episode. There’s also speculation that there was a false body and Molly helped him get that body and Sherlock jumped into the truck. What if those are combined in some way? Maybe Sherlock had Molly put some of the Baskerville drug and put it in the body and there was a trigger to release it as John got closer, and combining that gas with the fact that he is shaken by his friends death and a possible concussion, John saw Sherlock when it was just a person that looked similar to him (since it has been pointed put that there are people who look very close by both theorists, and when the little girl creamed at him). This may not be very well thought out, or written, it was just a thought I had. 

Okay, this is a long one, hold on to your death Frisbees…

Sherlock’s ‘death’: We saw a body on the ground identical to Sherlock: yes. John checked and there was no pulse: yes. However, there is no further proof that the body on the ground was Sherlock’s. No further mention of DNA tests or post mortems was given. And THERE is your answer. The body could not have been Sherlock’s. Nobody can fake not having a pulse. So, how did John mistake the body for Sherlock? Easy. We know that John was extremely dazed at this point for two reasons. Reason one: he’s in shock. He believes he just saw his best friend commit suicide so naturally, his head is spinning. Reason two: His head is literally spinning. The cyclist that ran into him knocked him to the ground. I believed this to be deliberate. The cyclist was not there by chance but was organised to be there; his collision with John was timed not only to confuse John and blur his vision but to give the people on the ground more time. Which people on the ground? Excellent question. I am referring, of course, to the people surrounding the body, including the ambulance crew.  Sherlock never made it to the ground; this much we can be certain of because he isn’t dead. So, the people surrounding the body were in on it, they played some part in ensuring that Sherlock made it safely and that the dead body looked convincing. These people also delayed John’s access to the body by forming a large clump around it; more time. Who are they I hear you cry? Why, think my people think. We know Sherlock had many people who would be glad to help him, people who were easily bribed and very obedient. His homeless network of course! They were no strangers, they were arranged to be there, cyclist included.

Now, to the issue of the body. It wasn’t Sherlock’s. Sherlock is alive and the ambulance crew seemed certain that whoever was lying on the ground was very much dead. Who works with dead people? Molly. Who would have been able to remove a body from the morgue? Molly. Who did Sherlock ask for help in his final few hours? Molly. And of course, with Sherlock’s help and a little donated blood from the hospital, they would have been able to ensure that the body was very convincing. But, you’ve another question no doubt, how did they find a body that looked identical to Sherlock. This is very much an overlooked detail my people but it was very much there. We know that there is at least one other person who looks like Sherlock because of the little girl he tried to interview. She screamed and screamed at him as though he was the one who had kidnapped her but we know this to be untrue. This leads us to the conclusion that Moriarty had employed the assistance of a kidnapper who was the same in every way to Sherlock. Of course he wouldn’t have the same intellect but that’s irrelevant because by the time he was found lying in the street, no one would hear him utter a word because he was dead. How he came to be in this state is another detail with very few clues. As such, I cannot draw a conclusion to this yet.

So, why is it that Moriarty had not seen Molly coming? Well, she said it herself: she wasn’t important. Up until the last few hours before the fall, Sherlock had not truly valued Molly and we know that Moriarty knew an awful lot about Sherlock so clearly, he’d have been aware of this. Therefore, Moriarty had no need for his gunmen to target her. That was up until Sherlock had the same thought. After he had realised how the ‘story’ must end, he knew that he would not be able to do it alone. It is for this reason that he began to think of possibilities. Molly had said that she wasn’t important, she didn’t matter which made her the perfect person to ask for help; no one would suspect her, she would not run the risk of being caught.

So Mycroft. Dear Mycroft. We’ve quite forgotten about him haven’t we? Well, no not really. With his knowledge of all criminal activity, his extensive resources supplied by the government and the updated security status of his brother, Sherlock Holmes, and John Watson, we can be fairly sure that he knew exactly what was happening. So why didn’t he intervene? How could he just stand back and let this happen? To be fair, he did give John a warning of sorts by letting him know that Moriarty had been informed of Sherlock’s personal life. Whether all the information given to Moriarty was true or not, we cannot be certain. However, something tells me that not even Mycroft Holmes would be cruel enough to sell out his brother to his arch enemy in return for information he knew that he had no hope of obtaining. Perhaps it was to put Moriarty on a false trail? Perhaps to reinforce the idea that Sherlock was ‘ordinary’ to ensure that the story would have its ending. As we’ve already discussed, Mycroft would have been aware of all of this. Besides, we know Mycroft cares about his brother. That’s why he had his security status updated. That’s why he was always asking John to look after him. However, that still leaves a gap as to why he didn’t interfere. Well, surely he’d have known of the sensitivity of the case.  And I believe that he would not want to further endanger his brother’s life or his own by giving away that he, and perhaps other people, knew what Moriarty was planning. Mycroft, contrary to popular belief, was an intelligent man. Just like his brother, he’d have been able to put the pieces together quickly enough.

Anyway, I’m going off on a tangent. Let’s go back to the rooftop shall we? Now, after Moriarty shot himself, Sherlock hesitated. He’s never faltered before in his life so I don’t believe he’d have reason to even then. I don’t know how long it took him to work out the true nature of Moriarty’s riddle (or even if he has at all) but I do think that he had known in advance the way in which Moriarty had planned for the story to end. That is why he chose the location of the Hospital rooftop. He would then be able to make arrangements prior to the meeting and guarantee that the Hospital was their final location: a mistake on Moriarty’s behalf.  I believe that he waited on the rooftop after Moriarty shot himself in order to allow John time to arrive. Well, that’s a bit cruel isn’t it? Making your friend watch you ‘die’? No, not if it saves his life. You see, Moriarty’s gunmen would only back down if they knew that the people Sherlock cared about believed him to have died in disgrace. If John had not seen Sherlock fall, he’d have been shot regardless of whether Sherlock knew or not. Therefore, it was kinder of Sherlock to wait for John. It also gave him a chance to leave his note because, ‘that’s what people do.’ Notice his use of one of Moriarty’s lines. This references his ‘death’ to Moriarty; a hint that the suicide was not true. 

In the end Moriarty decided that he wasn’t going to live without Sherlock, he planned to see Sherlock die in disgrace but that would mean no distraction for him. Since he believed Sherlock to be ordinary in the end, even if Sherlock lived Moriarty would have no distraction because he didn’t see Sherlock as his equal anymore, therefore he planned to kill himself too but only after they both arrived at the rooftop. We know that Moriarty had planned to live beforehand because he was due to communicate with his gunmen after discrediting Sherlock. He also believed that Sherlock was his equal; that once Sherlock had been discredited he would be able to provide a distraction for Moriarty without the protection of his reputation. However, when Moriarty believes that Sherlock had not figured out his riddle, his plans had to change. He always said he was ‘changeable’ and this is a prime example of this. With Sherlock being ordinary, Moriarty decided that his original plan of discrediting Sherlock would not suffice so he concluded that they both must die.

With Moriarty dead, Sherlock has a brief opportunity to take his phone. With others currently unaware that Moriarty is dead, Sherlock would be gain access to his phone in order to contact, get details on and destroy the ‘web’. Perhaps he took it with him when he jumped. Perhaps he had someone retrieve it from Moriarty’s body when it was found – Molly maybe. Either way, even if it was revealed that Moriarty was dead, his ‘web’ may remain unaware of this fact due to Moriarty’s tendency to keep his identity concealed from his clients. He is described as being distant from them after all so when Sherlock uses Moriarty’s phone, they will be none the wiser.

Ummm… I think that’s everything covered… What do you reckon? Well deduced theory or a bit nuts?

Well this isn’t a theory at all, more a ‘pointing out’ of something. We’ve been told that we’ve missed something. We’ve been told that even the people who have seen the filming of the 1st episode of series 3 still won’t fully understand what has happened - even if they think they do…

The only thing that hasn’t been mentioned (that I can find, this is) is that the garbage truck disappears. This could be a continuity error - but would the makers really let this happen?

When Sherlock falls there is a shot that John sees when he comes around the corner of the building (before the bike hits him) where the garbage truck is in sight, and the body is only just visible beside it. Then the cyclist hits him, knocking him to the floor. As we see John falling to the ground the background of the shot is visible and you can clearly see the people milling around the body on the floor, the bus stop, the road…and no truck.

Then when the shot changes to a view from above, looking at the body and all the people around said body, the truck is clearly visible driving off screen, and in that shot the truck is before the bus stop - so couldn’t have driven out of sight of the previous shot.

This could well be clutching at straws, and it could well be a mistake or error.

However it might be intentional and if it is, what does this mean? Did the original truck drive off to be replaced with a different one? Are they different times? Who knows? 

Also - isn’t there a Sherlock Holmes story (featured in the second feat. Robert Downey Jr in film I believe) where a plastic surgeon can make one man look exactly like another one? It might have been just something created for the movies and I’ve got confused, but if it isn’t this could go some way to explaining something which many people aren’t including in their theories but I think has a lot of importance - The fact the kidnapped little girl (in s02e03) screams crazily when she sees Sherlock for the first time - which is what sews the seeds of doubt in the police force.  

A lot of attention has been focused on how Sherlock faked his own death. In my opinion, Sherlock did not fake his own death. However, Sherlock’s apparent death is not the main mystery - the main mystery is the meaning of the Final Problem. (I will come back to Sherlock’s apparent death.)

The Final Problem is the term used by Moriarty to describe the resolution of his relationship with Sherlock. To understand what Moriarty means, let’s examine what Moriarty wants. Also, let’s take a look at what Sherlock wants in order to understand how he may respond to Moriarty’s schemes.

***

Moriarty Wants:

A) For Moriarty himself: A “diversion”, someone like Sherlock who is a challenging adversary for his schemes. So, Moriarty wants Sherlock to be alive.

B) For Sherlock: A Sherlock who cannot thwart his schemes. So, he wants a Sherlock who does not have public support and does not have the support and resources of the police.

In short, the solution to the Final Problem for Moriarty is that Sherlock continues to challenge Moriarty to provide a diversion, but that Sherlock does not have the public or police support to actually impede Moriarty’s schemes. Moriarty wants to “burn the heart out” of Sherlock, not kill him.

Sherlock Wants:

A) For Sherlock himself: The means and opportunity to dismantle Moriarty’s web. So, he needs to learn about Moriarty’s connections and schemes and be in a position to manipulate those – which effectively means he needs to be able to impersonate Moriarty. (And to live obviously.)

B) For Moriarty: To be disabled and incapacitated. If Sherlock could learn everything there is to know about Moriarty’s network, then ultimately, the goal would be a dead Moriarty.

In short, the solution to the Final Problem for Sherlock is to find something that informs him of Moriarty’s network. (He also could find some way to compel Moriarty to reveal his network, but that is unlikely considering that Mycroft tried and failed already.)

In summary, Moriarty wants a live, but discredited Sherlock (not a dead Sherlock – a dead Sherlock does not provide a diversion). Sherlock wants the means and opportunity to pose as Moriarty in order to dismantle Moriarty’s network.

***

In The Fall episode Moriarty has set up a plan to discredit Sherlock. He posits a riddle “I O U” about how he will discredit Sherlock. I agree with other bloggers who have suggested that I O U is an alpha-numeric code for the stories “The 12 Brothers”, “Hansel and Gretel”, and “Cinderella”, as they appear in the edition of Grimm’s fairytales that Moriarty leaves for Sherlock. The final story is “Cinderella”, a story in which a sudden celebrity is reduced to lowest level – Moriarty’s plan for Sherlock.

In the final scene on the roof with Sherlock, Moriarty schemes to have Sherlock jump from the roof. However, Moriarty has made arrangements to save Sherlock from dying. (I am getting back to the point about the suicide.) If Sherlock were to actually commit suicide, it would not only take away Moriarty’s only “distraction”, but also probably put a large target on Moriarty’s back as Sherlock’s brother Mycroft could very likely have Moriarty assassinated.

In the final scene, there is a person directly underneath Sherlock and Moriarty with some equipment on the bench. The equipment is an inflatable device (there are two large red inflatable bags with white markings and a gas canister in a green bag strapped across these. The person is on the phone looking up and down the street, waiting for a signal from or through Moriarty to inflate the device in order to catch Sherlock and prevent his death from the fall. This is Moriarty’s plan – to make Sherlock feel so beaten that he attempts to commit suicide, but then to prevent that suicide – thus “burning the heart out” of Sherlock, further solidifying Sherlock’s public disgrace (can’t even kill himself), and not running afoul of Mycroft (and his access to all manner of government resources).

The truck that pulls in after the busses is arranged for by Moriarty to hustle in the landing pad, and hide it from the general public. The people on the ground at the time are partly Moriarty’s people who would keep the public away so that the landing pad can be hidden away. So, the bike rider is actually Moriarty’s helper, not Sherlock’s as some have suggested.

The person under Sherlock and Moriarty may appear to be a person out for some shopping. However, the person does not get on the bus when it pulls in, does not have a purse, and the backs the person has put on the bench are heavier than plastic shopping bags and have large white markings (that is not reflection of the sun, which was behind clouds).

It seems like a rather clever and subtle plan from Moriarty, doesn’t it. But, Sherlock is one step ahead. If Moriarty wants Sherlock to think he is committing suicide, only to save Sherlock, Sherlock can foil that plan by actually making everyone think he has committed suicide. That would actually free Sherlock to infiltrate and destroy Moriarty’s network. As we know from previous stories, Moriarty doesn’t get his hands dirty and runs most of his network through email and texting. So, what would Sherlock need in order to impersonate Moriarty?… Moriarty’s cell phone. So, from Sherlock’s point of view, the last story also becomes Cinderella – if Sherlock can get Moriarty’s phone (like a glass slipper) he can impersonate Moriarty.

***

So, how does Sherlock’s plan play out. First, he has Mycroft kidnap and torture Moriarty in order to spur Moriarty to take decisive action against Sherlock. Second, Sherlock and Mycroft set a trap for Moriarty to find out more about his background and history. The trap is the so-called reporter Kitty Riley. She is not a reporter, but is one of Mycroft’s agents. The evidence is that the story that she shows to Watson at her apartment is bylined “By Kitty Riley”, however, when the story runs in The Sun under the headline about Sherlock’s suicide, it is bylined “From Luka Plumbelow” – so Kitty Riley was simply a cover. The unusual use of the word “from” in the byline and the unique name are cues to Mycroft’s operatives that Sherlock is indeed safe. The ruse with Kitty Riley was a way to learn more about Moriarty, so that Sherlock could better infiltrate his network – as Irene Adler had said – the problem with a disguise is that one is always disguised as oneself. So, we can see that Moriarty has a background with children and with medicine – perhaps he studied as a pediatrician at some point. The cover story clearly provides a lot of leads for Sherlock to investigate.

Let’s get back to what happens on the roof. Sherlock plays Moriarty in order to get Moriarty to reveal more of the contingencies that he has arranged – such as the assassins keyed to Sherlock’s 3 confidantes. Then Sherlock steps to the ledge to get ready to jump, and he sees something and smiles. He sees one of the assassins who have been hounding him and killing the competitors whenever one of them shakes his hand. He smiles at that point because he sees the opportunity to eradicate Moriarty. He steps back off the ledge, engages Moriarity and cues Moriarty with the phrase “shake hands”. He expects that when Moriarty shakes his hand that the assassin will shoot Moriarty as they have other competitors. (These assassins will not know Moriarty as Moriarty – nobody does except for Sherlock. They are likely to see him as another competitor for Sherlock’s supposed decryption key. So, they would shoot Moriarty if necessary.) However, Moriarty surprises Sherlock by killing himself. Sherlock is clearly shocked at this as he yells “No” and literally falls back in shock.

We see Sherlock confused and ready to jump. He is confused because he is not sure if Moriarty’s plan to save his life will be implemented with Moriarty out of the way. Perhaps there was a signal that Moriarty would have need to give. That is why Sherlock takes a long time to jump, and has several gesticulations – in order to alert the supposed Moriarty henchman to get ready.

When Sherlock jumps, he clearly does expect to survive. We can see that the phone on which he leaves his final note is not his usual phone. The phone he uses at this time and leaves on the roof has a camera – the phone he usually uses does not have a camera. He leaves the “note” so that the public will believe he has, in fact, died. (He also takes Moriarty’s phone with him.)

Sherlock jumps, and is saved by Moriarty’s henchman. The truck blocks John’s view, and serves as a way to bundle off the landing pad. Molly has arranged to have hospital staff rush out to put Sherlock on a stretcher and bring him in quickly, and also to quietly bring Moriarty’s body off the roof. Sherlock likely (as has been suggested elsewhere) took a drug to feign death to fool Watson.

***

So, as a result of Sherlock’s plans – Moriarty is dead, but no one knows that; Sherlock is alive, but everyone thinks he is dead; he has Moriarty’s phone so that he can pose as Moriarty to all of Moriarty’s contacts; and he has lot of biographical material through Kitty Riley to piece together Moriarty’s identity. Sherlock did not fake his death – because he had concluded that Moriarty would actually not let Sherlock die. So, Sherlock (with Mycroft’s help) has everything he needs to infiltrate and destroy Moriarity’s network.

(Incidentally, Sherlock can scour Irene Adler’s phone for messages from Moriarty and follow those back to piece together a schedule of where Moriarty was and as a template to learn how Moriarty communicated with his network.)

Sherlock is holding the little ball behind his back on Barts rooftop.

• Sherlock filled it with Baskerville drug in the lab.
• When Sherlock grabbed Moriarty and whirled him around, he squeezed the drug onto Moriarty’s coat and the drug can evaporate right into Moriarty’s nose (see pix on blog post).
• Then Sherlock intentionally provokes a homicidal crisis in Moriarty using the same techniques described in Hounds of Baskerville.
• Moriarty is finally, completely unhinged and his mental calculus collapses in on itself.
• Moriarty planned how to kill Sherlock, however when Sherlock and Moriarty are the same, then Moriarty’s mind sees his way to suicide because:

It kills Sherlock twice over:

1. It kills Sherlock because they are the same and  
2. It removes Moriarty as a possible savior: ‘uncontrollable aggressive homicide’ per the drug profile. 

See The Art and Logic of Sherlock’s Reichenbach Fall to see how the drama unfolded and why there are so many clues with meaning that were still to be uncovered.

londongypsy:

Alright, here we go…

Remember: this is PURE Setlock, possible HOW HE DID IT stuff so click at your own risk! 
And dont tell me i didnt warn you!!! 

Read More

(via sherlocktheories)

Several people have pointed out that it was strange for Sherlock to call Watson rather than to text. Personally, I’m willing to accept that, half just because it would’ve been so much less dramatic in texts. Plus, Sherlock needed to be able to stress the importance of John standing in a certain place. What bothers me is most everything that was said in the conversation. So buckle up tight, because I have a feeling this might be a long one..

The first thing that popped out at me was that Sherlock said, “This phone call – it’s, er … it’s my note. It’s what people do, don’t they – leave a note?” I’m aware that some other people have pointed out that Sherlock doesn’t know how people behave and thus this line is strange, but that is not my point for I think Sherlock gets people better than we seem to think (how else could he understand people well enough to solve cases?).

What I find confusing is that he’s intentionally acting like a normal person. Sherlock hates the idea of acting normal! At first, I dismissed this as Sherlock trying to convince John he is normal, a fraud. But then why would he ask for confirmation that this was what normal people did? He would want to appear as though he already knew! So maybe he’s trying to tip John off to the fact that he is not actually a fraud? But then what’s the point of telling him that he is in the first place? I am not certain on why he did it - I am better at observing than coming up with theories (because so many are possible and I still feel like I’m missing so much evidence). But my guess would be that he knows that John is currently too emotional to realize what he’s saying but later, when the sniper isn’t watching him, he could figure it out.

The second thing that hit me was their conversation about when they first met.

JOHN: Okay, shut up, Sherlock, shut up. The first time we met … the first time we met, you knew all about my sister, right?
SHERLOCK: Nobody could be that clever.
JOHN: You could.
(Sherlock laughs and gazes down at his friend, a tear dripping from his chin.)
SHERLOCK: I researched you. Before we met I discovered everything that I could to impress you.

But recall when they first met. Sherlock didn’t know all about John’s sister! He thought that Harry was a boy, John’s brother. If he’d researched him and wanted to impress him, then why would he have made a silly mistake like that? Of course, there was also not a lot that Sherlock could’ve said as an alibi for that, and John seemed to have forgotten. But, again, perhaps Sherlock intentionally didn’t fill in that piece of the puzzle so that John could later figure it out when he wasn’t so emotional.

The next thing that popped out at me was this: “The newspapers were right all along. I want you to tell Lestrade; I want you to tell Mrs Hudson, and Molly … in fact, tell anyone who will listen to you that I created Moriarty for my own purposes.” But (and correct me if I’m wrong) I don’t think that they have actually published the article saying that Sherlock is a fraud yet. And, even if they have, they definitely haven’t been saying it “all along”. In fact, “all along” they have been saying how amazing the super-sleuth Sherlock is until very recently, if at all. Of course, John knows about the story that is meant to come out, so he would interpret the comment as being about that article, because Sherlock then followed up by saying that he “created Moriarty for [his] own purposes.” But maybe Sherlock was hoping that, later, he would realize this wasn’t what they’d been saying all along and Sherlock was actually confirming that he was a ‘super-sleuth’ rather than a fraud.

Don’t worry, I’m almost done, this is the last thing:

JOHN: Why are you saying this?
(Sherlock turns back to look down at him. His voice breaks.)
SHERLOCK: I’m a fake.

Sherlock did not seem like he was actually answering John but rather having an emotional meltdown, as is expected before someone commits suicide. But Sherlock knew he wasn’t actually going to kill himself and I, personally, believe that Sherlock hears everything and says everything for a reason. So what if it actually was an answer to the question? Obviously, he’s not saying he was a fake through out the whole of every case, because he would not tell John that he invented Moriarty because he’s a fake. Plenty of fakes don’t confess, and they certainly don’t confess for no other reason than that they are a fake.

A much more likely meaning of his words, if they are an answer to the question, is that he is saying all of this because he is a fake right then: he is faking the conversation. Everything he says about inventing Moriarty is fake, a lie. Also, the allusions to committing suicide are equally false. Again, something John probably won’t think about in the moment - that it’s more than just being emotional. But Sherlock’s entire personality could not be fake. If it was, John would know seeing as how they spend so much time together - I mean, they even share a flat, so of course they spend all their leisure time together! So, yet again, this is something that John might figure out after the fact, especially if he put together the other clues and knows that Sherlock is not a fake.

Hey, know how I said at the beginning I didn’t actually have a grand theory, just observations? Well, I started to realize the pattern in my own words, and put together an actual theory for you lot :)

I’m sure some of you have put it together before I did, but if not, then here it is: Sherlock wants John to figure it out. Sherlock has, presumably, already told Molly, Mrs. Hudson, and Mycroft that it was a faux-suicide. So why is John, the only other person he’s truly close to (save maybe Lestrade, arguably) the only one he didn’t tell?

Do you remember during The Great Game how Sherlock had John working on the case of the stolen missile plans? He was doing it himself, but he waited for John to put together the evidence himself before coming in to finish it. He wanted John to learn how to observe and deduce, as he did. So maybe it’s the same kind of thing again? Maybe Sherlock wanted John to piece together that he’d faked his death, and so gave him as many clues as possible disguised as a suicide note.

For, if John pieced it together, Sherlock essentially told him everything, save how he did it (and he made clear in The Great Game that he doesn’t see the point in proving things): This is not actually Sherlock’s suicide note, there’s something else John has to find in it. Also, he did not make things up when he first met John - he has never lied to him, well before now (and thus the apology). The press was right, he is actually a super-sleuth, not a fake. And he faked his death, it was just a magic trick.

Or am I just off my rocker?

(Credit to http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/31651.html for the pieces of the script I used)

People, we need to move on from Moriarty. I’ve read a lot of theories on Reichnbach Falls and there are just as many about how Moriarty lived as there are about Sherlock! Don’t get me wrong, I loved Moriarty - brilliantly acted. And I’d love to bask in denial and hop on board that Jim really hasn’t been seen yet, or didn’t really kill himself, or some other theory. But the truth is, Moftiss has already told us that they’re finding new villains… so, as sad as it is, we should probably focus on the things we actually know, like Sherlock surviving…