after TWO years of obsessive debate..it's crappy writing to have an audience still NOT know how he did it.  I was really looking forward to the chapter being closed so that I could go back to enjoying the show...but these authors love to yank the chain....after awhile it gets old and frustrating and the joy of watching Sherlock decreases to the point where I won't tune in.

If the season 3 episode 3 ends with a huge cliffhanger and I have to wait ANOTHER two years for another vague explanation...I won't be as enthusiastic to keep watching this show..

and vague explanations are bad writing..

IMPO  I think Moffat and Gatiss are done and dusted with solutions to Sherlock's survival because of the brief exchange of dialogue between Anderson and Sherlock towards the end of that scene. The co-creators appear to enjoy being a bit cheeky during interviews.
I was very caught up in the show last night, but did anyone notice if Sherlock removed the memory card from the camera before he disappeared?

I watched the whole darn thing again on a good stream by now...and I got the feeling, we have to make do with theory No 3, like it or not. In contrast to the other ones, it was too elaborately presented, and it covered a lot of ground. Like many of you, I had come to the conclusion, that Sherlock wasn't played by Moriarty and that he was the player instead. He wasn't making it up as he went along, since  a scenario with a spur of the moment solution would have been too unlikely. And the visuals of TRF do give clues hinting at a second sniper: so maybe that's the clue most fans missed. I was glad, that Moriarty's suicide was NOT anticipated or deliberately triggered by Sherlock, because that scenario seemed always ludicrous to me. I also like the idea with the 'good' sniper taking out the bad. Since Moriarty had used snipers before, it was logical to anticipate one. My hunch is now, that Mofftiss kept the solution close to what they had to film anyway: Evacuate the street and place an airbag on the ground, into which the actor or stuntman can jump. Throw some kind of dummy (the corpse is basically a dummy) on the ground in order to film the crash. That's exactly, how you would film a suicidal jump from a roof! Sherlock basically staged a Making Of. A film insider's solution. Since this couldn't possibly live up to the scrutinization of the long time expert fans, they invented Anderson and his fan club, and played the cheeky card. I didn't get the feeling, that Sherlock was a hallucination of Anderson. Anderson's disappointment, doubts and subsequent breakdown was mirroring our reactions: We lived so long with our elaborate theories, and had seen so many clues, real or imagined in TRF, that we don't want to believe in Moftiss' solution. The Anderson Fanclub device is rather clever and leaves the door open for all, who don't like that solution. Personally, I'm with Anderson whom I really started to like in that episode. I still hope, we will learn more. TRF was sooo elaborately set up and riddled with clues and hints, like the enigmatic IOU with black wings (stage rule: if you place a gun as prop in the first act, you better use it in the third act). Or the long mysterious talk and handshake with Moriarty on the roof top would have been completely wasted in it's chilling brilliance, if it was only a device to give Sherlock's helpers enough time to set up the blue pillow. There were many more 'props' in TRF, which were not used or explained in the new episode. If they leave it at that, it's a bit of a disappointing cop out, and it would influence my appreciation of TRF considerably. I never expected Mofftiss to give everything away in the first new episode so I postpone judgement until after the third episode of the new season.

Last edited by sherlocked (January 3, 2014 7:08 am)

My big problem with this last theory is: The way it has been explained looks as if John should be the one to fool. But he wasn't. Some of you mentioned it already in other posts. Moriarty's snipers had to be convinced about Sherlock's death. At TRF we saw John's sniper take his position in the staircase of a building during the roof scene. After Sherlock's fall we saw the sniper again at the same staircase targeting John before he puts the weapon away. But in this scene John was already at the pavement where Sherlock had landed. So the sniper had to be in a position to see Sherlock's fall porperly. He  would have seen the airbag and the dummy corpse and would have realised everything was a fake. Sherlock explained to Anderson that Mycroft's men took care of the snipers before they could shoot. Well, even if that is true, even if he puts the weapon away because of the intervention of Mycroft then where is the whole point of Sherlock faking his death? If it was so easy to put the snipers out of the way and erase the danger from his friends then it was unnecessary for Shelrock to "die", be away for two years and fool his friends.
For me this is the big hole in this theory and that's why I don't think it's true.
To be honest, I believe that Moftiss had a vague idea how the faked death should took place. But over the time with all the theories going through the internet, maybe they realised that there will never be an explanation which is 100% convincing. That's why they made the episode the way it is now. With no real answer. Disappointing in some way, but also very clever. Sherlock said to John at the end of TEH "You know my methods, John, I am known to be indestructible." I suppose that's the best answer we'll get, Sherlock survived because he is Sherlock Holmes .

Swanpride wrote:

Who said that the sniper was the only one of Moriarty's men in the area? Moriarty spoke of "my people" - plural. So I guess there were more of his men around, at least one person who would give the three snipers the signal to take action. But I guess, unlike the sniper, he was not in a position to see the whole street but, like John, in a position were he could see the jump but not the landing. Perhaps he watched from afar....or per street camera.

Yes, could be. But there would still be the other sniper who had the position to see Sherlock's landing.

@tobeornot: Well, that could be the conclusion! The sniper just paid no attention any more after Sherlock stepped of the roof .

Yes, but Sherlock said that Mycroft "took care of" that sniper before he could act.

stoertebeker wrote:

But you noticed something? TEH as been aired and we are still discussing and theorizing of the fall. They are two very clever little bastards, Moftiss, are they?

Agreed! Though Mark's quite tall. 

I think the final explanation was the correct one, it's the most simple and has all the clues from TRF in it. Occam's razor anyone? And the holes, c'mon it's just fiction. I believed this was the explanation that was plotted out by the Moftisson while they wrote series three. But maybe after that they may have gotten a tiny little bit nervous with all the theories and elaborated a bit. (I just loved the trolling opening sequence!) Telling it to Anderson? There are so many things happening offscreen in TEH that, honestly, that doesn't bother me at all.

Anderson's reaction is just lampshading the reactions of part of the fandom and keeping it mysterious is really the only way they could avoid being too disappointing. Doesn't he even say so in the series that after two years of wild theories, everything  would be disappointing? 

What I found more difficult to catch is the why. I missed quite a bit of dialogue because Benedict talks so bloody fast, but did they explain that at all? Why fake it to John, the sniper didn't need to be fooled cuz he'd gonna be a dead sniper very soon. My guess is that it's Moriarty's network that had to be fooled, if they weren't, they'd kill them in another way later. That's why Sherlock needed to be in hiding. Still the whole thing was set up to fool John, that doesn't actually make sense. 

The 'clue everyone missed': well I guess we could ask Moftiss now, couldn't we? 

The 'out of character moment': it's Mycroft being fooled by Moriarty! 
 

silverblaze wrote:

What I found more difficult to catch is the why. I missed quite a bit of dialogue because Benedict talks so bloody fast, but did they explain that at all? Why fake it to John, the sniper didn't need to be fooled cuz he'd gonna be a dead sniper very soon. My guess is that it's Moriarty's network that had to be fooled, if they weren't, they'd kill them in another way later. That's why Sherlock needed to be in hiding. Still the whole thing was set up to fool John, that doesn't actually make sense. 

No, unfortunatly they didn't. Would have been nice to see it in the show though, to see John's reaction when he learned that Sherlock did it to save him. But maybe we'll get some more talking stuff between the boys in the next episodes.
I am still not convinced about the theory , but well it doesn't matter, I am OK with the resolution we got. I am perfectly content with Sherlock's "I am known to be indestructible" .

that´s what they want us to do  

Interesting point and you could be right.
I don't agree here, though: ....When we all started to analyze the situation at leisure for almost two years (a situation, Mofftiss may not have foreseen)....

After the airing of S1 they got an idea already and I am quite sure they knew what would come after the cliff hanger when Sherlock jumped off the roof.