Sherlock Finale
Yesterday evening over on FarceBørk I mentioned that I thought I’d worked out the sleight of hand in the final scenes of Sherlock. Ms ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kathbad expressed an interest, but I thought it would be a bit naughty to plant spoilers (even if I am completely wrong, it will give stuff away) where I couldn’t use a cut.
So here is the Caddyman explanation of how the finale was staged, recorded for posterity so that you can flag it up, dispute it, tear it to pieces and/or point mockingly back at it when the entirely different reveal is broadcast when series three airs sometime in the future.
Before he went to meet Moriarty, Sherlock spoke to Molly, the woman in the hospital morgue at St Bart’s who has a crush on him. He told her he'd been wrong and that she was important. He also said he thought he was going to die, suggesting he'd worked out what Moriarty was up to. She then asked him what he needed, after he'd asked her if she was still willing to help him if he wasn't the person she thought he was.
We already know from earlier episodes that he uses tramps and bag men/women in a way similar to the original Baker St Irregulars.
When he had got rid of Watson, he had already clearly prepared a plan because he had had time to spin a yarn to Mrs Hudson that he had sorted a problem out with the police. That was when Watson got huffy and caught the taxi back to the hospital.
On the roof where Sherlock was talking to Moriarty, they kept showing Sherlock’s hands in close up. He was either counting time, or palming something (phone perhaps, so that someone could overhear the conversation?). Anyway, he was up to something, while getting a confession (“How I done it”) out of Moriarty. When the time came to jump, he looked over the edge; there was a truck parked full of bin bags or something similar and someone sitting on the bench, wearing a long coat. Everyone else was walking by. Moriarty noticed and said 'at least you'll have an audience'.
After Moriarty killed himself, Sherlock still had to be seen to jump otherwise Watson, Mrs Hudson and Lestrade would have been killed by Moriarty’s hired gang and to get the anonymity he needed from the media spotlight, he needed Watson to believe he was dead, too.
So...
When Watson got back to the area and called him on the mobile, Sherlock ordered him to walk back to where he couldn't see the street directly below where Sherlock was standing and insisted that he kept his eyes on him while he delivered his telephone "suicide note".
While all this is happening, we see Sherlock briefly look over his shoulder at Moriarty's body and shortly afterward he seems to look to one side and acknowledge someone out of shot with a nod. He keeps Watson talking and then when it's time to jump, we see him jump and it clearly looks like him falling, not Moriarty. The camera angle switches and we see him land, but not what he lands on. We are meant to assume it's the street, but I think it may have been either that, with rubbish bags placed by the mysterious man in a coat for him to land on, or maybe (less likely) even the lorry that Watson couldn't see from his perspective.
Anyway, when Watson legs it to go to where Sherlock fell, a cyclist appears out of nowhere and knocks Watson down. It's not clear how long Watson is dazed for, but it gives them enough time to tidy up the pavement Sherlock has fallen on and make it look as though he hit it directly, or if he jumped onto the truck, it gives them time to get him onto the pavement to stage the ‘corpse’. All out of eye shot of Watson (and presumably anyone tailing Watson). When a dazed Watson gets there, there is a crowd of people clustered over the body so he doesn't get a close look until it's all arranged properly, at which point he sees a "dead Sherlock".
We saw a woman's hand with a very fancy bracelet; I wonder whether that was either Molly or (at a stretch), Irene Adler – it was a very fancy bracelet after all, helping out - either way given that Watson is a medical doctor, I suspect that Sherlock was given a tranquiliser or similar to make him appear dead even when he had his pulse taken.
Then everyone was bundled away and that was that.
Sherlock had even said before hand, when he was talking to Watson on the phone prior to his jump, that it (his entire act) was all a "magic trick". I think in this case it was a trick of David Blain proportions, complete with misdirection and set ups!
And thus is Sherlock dead to the world but very much alive.
Phew!
We’ll see.
Feel free to chip in.
kathbad expressed an interest, but I thought it would be a bit naughty to plant spoilers (even if I am completely wrong, it will give stuff away) where I couldn’t use a cut. So here is the Caddyman explanation of how the finale was staged, recorded for posterity so that you can flag it up, dispute it, tear it to pieces and/or point mockingly back at it when the entirely different reveal is broadcast when series three airs sometime in the future.
Before he went to meet Moriarty, Sherlock spoke to Molly, the woman in the hospital morgue at St Bart’s who has a crush on him. He told her he'd been wrong and that she was important. He also said he thought he was going to die, suggesting he'd worked out what Moriarty was up to. She then asked him what he needed, after he'd asked her if she was still willing to help him if he wasn't the person she thought he was.
We already know from earlier episodes that he uses tramps and bag men/women in a way similar to the original Baker St Irregulars.
When he had got rid of Watson, he had already clearly prepared a plan because he had had time to spin a yarn to Mrs Hudson that he had sorted a problem out with the police. That was when Watson got huffy and caught the taxi back to the hospital.
On the roof where Sherlock was talking to Moriarty, they kept showing Sherlock’s hands in close up. He was either counting time, or palming something (phone perhaps, so that someone could overhear the conversation?). Anyway, he was up to something, while getting a confession (“How I done it”) out of Moriarty. When the time came to jump, he looked over the edge; there was a truck parked full of bin bags or something similar and someone sitting on the bench, wearing a long coat. Everyone else was walking by. Moriarty noticed and said 'at least you'll have an audience'.
After Moriarty killed himself, Sherlock still had to be seen to jump otherwise Watson, Mrs Hudson and Lestrade would have been killed by Moriarty’s hired gang and to get the anonymity he needed from the media spotlight, he needed Watson to believe he was dead, too.
So...
When Watson got back to the area and called him on the mobile, Sherlock ordered him to walk back to where he couldn't see the street directly below where Sherlock was standing and insisted that he kept his eyes on him while he delivered his telephone "suicide note".
While all this is happening, we see Sherlock briefly look over his shoulder at Moriarty's body and shortly afterward he seems to look to one side and acknowledge someone out of shot with a nod. He keeps Watson talking and then when it's time to jump, we see him jump and it clearly looks like him falling, not Moriarty. The camera angle switches and we see him land, but not what he lands on. We are meant to assume it's the street, but I think it may have been either that, with rubbish bags placed by the mysterious man in a coat for him to land on, or maybe (less likely) even the lorry that Watson couldn't see from his perspective.
Anyway, when Watson legs it to go to where Sherlock fell, a cyclist appears out of nowhere and knocks Watson down. It's not clear how long Watson is dazed for, but it gives them enough time to tidy up the pavement Sherlock has fallen on and make it look as though he hit it directly, or if he jumped onto the truck, it gives them time to get him onto the pavement to stage the ‘corpse’. All out of eye shot of Watson (and presumably anyone tailing Watson). When a dazed Watson gets there, there is a crowd of people clustered over the body so he doesn't get a close look until it's all arranged properly, at which point he sees a "dead Sherlock".
We saw a woman's hand with a very fancy bracelet; I wonder whether that was either Molly or (at a stretch), Irene Adler – it was a very fancy bracelet after all, helping out - either way given that Watson is a medical doctor, I suspect that Sherlock was given a tranquiliser or similar to make him appear dead even when he had his pulse taken.
Then everyone was bundled away and that was that.
Sherlock had even said before hand, when he was talking to Watson on the phone prior to his jump, that it (his entire act) was all a "magic trick". I think in this case it was a trick of David Blain proportions, complete with misdirection and set ups!
And thus is Sherlock dead to the world but very much alive.
Phew!
We’ll see.
Feel free to chip in.
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Another option is that the cyclist managed to drug Watson with the gas from the previous episode (where it makes you see what you want to see), meaning that by the time he got to the body, he saw what he wanted to see - dead Sherlock.
Also, I don't think that the body on the pavement was Sherlock pretending to be dead. I think that was a cadaver (perhaps provided by Molly or by Mycroft, who we know can get hold of lots of dead bodies - i.e. the aircraft) either made to look like Sherlock or wearing some kind of Sherlock mask - we know that the abducted kids were terrified of Sherlock, which means that perhaps the kidnapper wore some kind of Sherlock mask? But it was definitely a live body that fell - the arms were pinwheeling, whereas a cadaver would just drop motionless. So I think it was swapped over by the paid crowd before Watson got there.
There's a massive debate going on at the Guardian website with lots of interesting ideas too...
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I think a rewatch is in order...
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As he prepared to jump Holmes had Watson stand where he couldn't see the lower floors of the hospital, so that's where the switch was. Holmes jumped, I assume into the truck full of bags (laundry or something soft) and Molly pushed the prepared body from a lower window to hit the pavement right after.
Watson was staggered to make sure he wasn't first at the scene and some or all of the people who crowded in were in on it - Notice Watson was prevented from taking the bodies pulse.
What did the sniper that was watching Watson see? his view point may have given him a better view, but scopes narrow your field of vision a lot.
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