I've been wondering the same. I thought it was that John's grief needed to be believable for Moriaty's men to back off, but why didn't he just tell John that?

tobeornot221b wrote:

Here's what ACD wrote:
"I had only one confidant -- my brother Mycroft. I owe you many apologies, my dear Watson, but it was all-important that it should be thought I was dead, and it is quite certain that you would not have written so convincing an account of my unhappy end had you not yourself thought that it was true. Several times during the last three years I have taken up my pen to write to you, but always I feared lest your affectionate regard for me should tempt you to some indiscretion which would betray my secret."

Makes a lot of sense. And , yes-- I think John would have tried to follow Sherlock--  Not Good. 

I just  think it is the practical answer:  the fewer people who know, the less likely the chance the cat will be let out the bag.
Also and I know I sound like a broken record:  John just happened to be there!
Having said that..Moriarty couldn't guarantee that John would be there...
Unless: he did arrange the call about Mrs Hudson and knew then how long it woul take John to find out the truth and also then knew that John would go straight back to Sherlock...

Last edited by besleybean (January 4, 2014 10:13 pm)

I think it's odd for Moriarty's network to use John's grief as a proof of Sherlock's death. John's reactions were important in canon but not in modern-day version of Sherlock, because they could've used many other method like DNA testing instead of watching John for any sign of fake sadness. 

tonnaree wrote:

He did it to protect John.  Full stop.  No matter how they did it, if Moriarty's people discovered Sherlock was not dead they would kill John.
.

Would they do that even after Moriarty's death? They could do it out of loyalty but he didn't seem a very loyalty inspiring person to me. 
 

It's the same reason he uses in the canon so I'm happy to accept it...

Hmm... I don't remember the Reichenbach episode fully, I only saw it on German TV and as I preordered 1-3 on blu-ray I cannot watch it at the moment, so I was wondering, how would Sherlock know, that:  there would be snipers and that Moriaty would force him to jump off that roof?

And finally: I think Sherlock told John, because he says: "It's a trick, just a magic trick", but he does not get it...

Mary Me wrote:

Yeah, well, don't forget that Sherlock and Mycroft are both sociopaths - making John believe Sherlock is dead was the easiest way for them. I'm a bit angry at Mycroft because now we know that Sherlock didn't jump to stop the snipers because it's obvious now that they weren't a real danger. It was all just for John. Making him believe that Sherlock was dead. Maybe it's likely that after the reunion Sherlock saw how hurtful that would have sounded to John and kept quiet. Okay, that's lame but I really have no idea.

Wait...did I miss that? (Everything happens so fast.) I did see Mycroft calling off the snipers...so Sherlock really wasn't saving John's life with his faked suicide?

Back to "telling or not telling,": I have often felt, even with canon, that Sherlock had another ulterior motive for faking his death: showing those who didn't like him (especially those law enforcement) that they needed him, at least to solove crimes. ("See how you like it when you don't have me to turn to when you're out of your depth!")

Last edited by SherlocklivesinOH (January 20, 2014 5:38 pm)