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- Mycroft's Contact
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- Registered: April 30, 2014
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What particular queue were the shooters waiting for?
I’m confused as to what their strategy was or what their general intructions were
Were they prepared to shoot their Sherlock’s friends until they got the green light from Moriarty? or Were they already going to kill them unless Moriarty had said otherwise?
Also, were they suppose to wait and see whether or not Sherlock would actually jump before making a decision to shoot? Did the snipers watching the roof know that Moriarty was going to kill himself? What I’m wondering in general is what was putting them on hold?
Maybe it is a plothole or perhaps a plot loophole or I’m just overthinking things but I’m curious if anyone had wondered about this. I will certainly have to watch this episode again.
- Wholocked
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Re: What particular queue were the shooters waiting for?
If you do watch it again, pay attention to the conversation on the roof. Sherlock deduces it as "unless they see me jump".
So basically, there are snipers on his friends who will shoot them if he doesn't do what Moriarty wants (i.e kill himself)
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I dislike being outnumbered. It makes for too much stupid in the room
- Liberty
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Re: What particular queue were the shooters waiting for?
That's a good point, BrettHolmes. Presumably they didn't need any signal to shoot. So when were they going to do it - after 5 more minutes? An hour? Longer? Because it wouldn't be good to rush it (if they didn't know Moriarty was dead) as the threat is Moriarty's bargaining tool. Once they were shot, they'd be no reason for Sherlock to jump. So if Sherlock hadn't jumped, when were they going to shoot?
Sherlock moves quite quickly after Moriarty's death, so I suppose he thought it might happen soon ... or it could be just that he's taking his timing from John's arrival. Or that he wants to get the thing done quickly and the scene back to normal to avoid suspicion.
It's also implied that John, Mrs Hudson and LeStrade were still under threat after the jump, because Sherlock doesn't let them know he's alive. (Whereas other people close to him, including his parents, know what's going on). If the third scenario is to be believed, Mycroft had to get rid of the snipers, so Sherlock's fall wasn't enough to be sure that they wouldn't shoot.
