BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » The theory he told Anderson

sherlocked · January 3, 2014 4:21 pm

The reason, why they choose Anderson as Sherlock's foil, when he reveiled the big solution, could've been, that this way it could be done quickly, without the emotional baggage, a John/Sherlock tete a tete would've carried. And can you picture John expressing disappointment, because the big solution was too pedestrian and full of logical holes, lol? He might have complained about many things, but not about that! So, it had to be Anderson.... until further notice.

January 3, 2014 4:24 pm

Maybe the Anderson version is supposed to be just the official version. A mirror image compared to that one in TRF when Mycroft looked as if he was to blame. Now it is the opposite. It looks as if Mycroft is the new Sherlock who planned it all in advance. After TRF Mycroft possibly had to face a lot from his collegues and superiors about why he was unable to do the "full time business" and supervise his little brother.

With this official version Anderson will get his job back, gets rid of his guilt and Mycroft looks like the mastermind behind it all.
Everbody is happy now.

sherlocked · January 3, 2014 4:30 pm

Mattlocked, I agree, if they come up with a cliff hanger of epic proportions, they should know, what was coming in the age of the world wide web and technically unlimited viewing possibilities. But do you agree, that the whole thing would've been much less effective, if they hadn't shown us the actual crash of the body?

KKKKK · January 3, 2014 6:09 pm

I can just see Moffat and Gatiss sitting in a pub with fish and chips talking over a pint of beer and saying... Ah our plan has worked, look at them all they are so confused, I wonder what it is like in their tiny brains?

sherlocked · January 3, 2014 6:14 pm

swanpride, if you want to read more about the logics (or illogics) of the lookalike body, you should visit finalproblem.tumblr.com. The author is set to cover the ground and tries to detect holes or at least continuity problems with theory No 3 in a pretty convincing fashion. It's an ongoing process right now. She has maintained this tumblr for almost two years, with a hiatus of activities, when all possible lines of discussions were exhausted. It's fun to read, if you still want to linger. If not, she advises herself to move on and not read it .

Stayin Alive · January 3, 2014 6:31 pm

I believe that the creaters were actually paying "homage" to all of the popular theories of the fandom and wanted to include a little of everything: dumping Moriarty's body, the mask, the squash ball, the dummy, inflatable cushion, etc. In this way, they exposed the holes in all of those theories while showing us how they would all look. A pretty genious way of showing us all the theories without making it look odd!

tonnaree · January 3, 2014 8:16 pm

For myself, I believe that the 3rd version was what actually happened and will believe so until someone with the show tells me otherwise.

silverblaze · January 3, 2014 8:17 pm

I'm not bothered by the body at all. I suppose the trick could have worked without, my own theory was pretty much this but without the body and Mycroft, but it's just a bit of extra complication. No one said that the solution had to be as lean as possible. It's not a plot hole, if you're looking for plot holes in Sherlock, watch Baskerville, there's a big one that is stuffed with an 8 minute mind palace sequence.

I think it's kinda elegant because I'm pretty sure the person who played the crashing body in Reichenbach and in TEH is Benedict's stunt double while the person on the ground on his back is obviously Benedict. That's why I had a hard time with all the body double theories, it's Benedict so it must be Sherlock, anything else is cheating, but this way it's perfect.

I'm happy with this theory and it was guessed, all the elements were guessed, by various fans on the web, which is not a surprise. I really hope the Moftiss throw us a new bone when they piss off again because it's been fun but for me no more Reichenbach theories. (I want to see them react to our reactions, though.)

As to the why, it's quite an elaborate scheme to fool one person and I found it a bit hard to believe, However, canon Holmes pulls something like that in The Dying Detective so it's in character. And like some other people suggested here, it had to be real to him or he would just blow the cover, terrible liar as he is. At least that was the explanation in the story. And John had to convince the rest of the world, like in the book he had to convince the villain. Interestingly, in Milverton he's in on the scheme, so we might see a nice reversal of this in HLV.

Stayin Alive · January 3, 2014 8:35 pm

I don't believe the 3rd theory one bit! First of all, if you look back at TRF, you will see that the sniper aiming at John observed John's reaction, became convinced and VOLUNTARILY packed up his gun and left. But my main contention is that Sherlock had no clue Moriarty would "shoot himself" therefore, his plan had to be fool proof in case Moriarty was watching him as he fell. Sherlock would have no idea where Moriarty's people are but he knew they would be watching, so his plan had to be angle-proof to a certain extent. I also believe that if the entire explaination is revealed, it would clearly show that Moriarty isn't dead, therefore, it has to be saved for a future season when they will bring Moriarty back. When that happens, they will show the necessary flashbacks. Bringing him back this soon would ruin the show. So they choose to distract us for this season and probably the next, with the "lesser" criminal class and save the big guy up for last...maybe when they plan on retiring the show (I hope not!).

besleybean · January 3, 2014 8:37 pm

If nothing else, I am conviced Moriarty is dead.

Stayin Alive · January 3, 2014 9:08 pm

besleybean wrote:
If nothing else, I am conviced Moriarty is dead.

Watch my signature closely or replay that scene in slow motion and tell me if you don't see that gun slowly coming TOWARDS the opening of the mouth and then turning OUTWARDS...

The ultimate clue that everyone except me missed?

silverblaze · January 3, 2014 9:13 pm

@ staying alive No, you see -a- sniper moving away. Mycroft's sniper. And surely theory 3 was one of the 13 (or what was it) possibilities that Mycroft and Sherlock could come up with, one of which included an ancient Japanese fighting technique and chucking Moriarty over the edge. (And no, I don't think Moftiss actually wrote all 13 solutions, maybe they will when they are retired and very very bored.)

silverblaze · January 3, 2014 9:16 pm

Actually, my favorite theory is theory 2 'cause that's got a 'happy ending'.

tonnaree · January 3, 2014 9:22 pm

Moriarty is dead.
Looking at your gif the only thing it makes me think is maybe no one wanted Andrew to actually put a gun in his mouth. Not even a prop. Remember Brandon Lee.

As for Sherlock not knowing Moriarty would shoot himself, Sherlock says that they had a bunch of different plans set up with code names. He also even admits that there was no way he couldn've predicted what Moriarty did. So he just had to choose the plan most likely to work in that scenario.

KKKKK · January 3, 2014 9:27 pm

Stayin Alive wrote:
I don't believe the 3rd theory one bit! First of all, if you look back at TRF, you will see that the sniper aiming at John observed John's reaction, became convinced and VOLUNTARILY packed up his gun and left. But my main contention is that Sherlock had no clue Moriarty would "shoot himself" therefore, his plan had to be fool proof in case Moriarty was watching him as he fell. Sherlock would have no idea where Moriarty's people are but he knew they would be watching, so his plan had to be angle-proof to a certain extent. I also believe that if the entire explaination is revealed, it would clearly show that Moriarty isn't dead, therefore, it has to be saved for a future season when they will bring Moriarty back. When that happens, they will show the necessary flashbacks. Bringing him back this soon would ruin the show. So they choose to distract us for this season and probably the next, with the "lesser" criminal class and save the big guy up for last...maybe when they plan on retiring the show (I hope not!).

i agree, although there were 13 possible soloutions, Sherlock did say that he never predicted Moriarty would fake his own death, eventhough looking back at it, it was quite obvious to him. However the other soloutions he exlained like the laundry van would also have allowed Moriarty to see that he was faking it, I suppose Sherlock's plan relied on Moriarty giving the code word to hold off his snipers and Mycroft or someone coming in to arrest Moriarty... I don't think we'll ever know! (hope we do find out though) what I didn't get was that if Moriarty was still alive half of Sherlock's soloutions possibly wouldn't work. I think Moffat and Gatiss have done this to cause this reaction, I bet they are loving all of this, it's what they wanted. But i really do hope Moriarty comes back... it won't be the same without him!

sherlocked · January 3, 2014 9:29 pm

stayin alive, I don't share your optimism re: Moriarty's eventual comeback, but you've got a few points: My biggest gripe with ALL theories was always, that Moriarty had to be dead or out of the way somehow. What, if he hadn't killed himself obligingly? Do we really think, he wouldn't have taken a look after Sherlock jumped? Did Mycroft's people plan to take him down? What then? Many fans believed, that Sherlock had planned all along to talk Moriarty into committing suicide. I'm glad, that the writers didn't go down that alley and shut the door on that theory, by having Sherlock say, that he didn't know about Moriarty's suicidal state of mind, even if there might have been a lingering death wish. I won't go into detail here, because it opens up a whole new can of worms, and most people don't want to discuss TRF anymore in debth. But it may well be, that the version, Sherlock told Anderson, is intended to be an 'official' or 'understood to be true' version for a while. An important clue may be, that it was taped. Such a version has to be at least semi plausible and cover some ground. But who knows, what Mofftiss have in mind for future episodes or seasons. But if there is more to the jump than we were told so far, we will certainly get a hint at the end of this season. If such a hint won't be given, I will believe in theory No 3, however flawed it may be.

tonnaree · January 3, 2014 9:38 pm

Moriarty is dead. If the placement of the gun looks a little strange maybe no one wanted Andrew to actually put it in his mouth, even if it was a prop. Remember Brandon Lee.

Sherlock admited that he had no way of predicting Moriarty shooting himself. He also said that he and Mycroft had worked out multiple plans. So when Moriarty killed himself he choose the plan he thought was most likely to suceed at that time.

sherlocked · January 3, 2014 9:58 pm

I also believe, Moriarty is dead. But I for one am mightily interested, what kind of back up plan they had in store, if Moriarty hadn't been such a team player and offed himself. Remember, Sherlock didn't want Moriarty to get arrested or just killed. Sherlock wanted to 'die' in order to dismantle Moriarty's net incognito. It is all good and well, to be told about 13 different plans. You could say, it's just a tv show, and if they tell us, there were plans, we have to take it. But I find it very unsatisfying, because I have a very hard time to think of other workable plans, which have at least some plausibility.

KKKKK · January 3, 2014 10:09 pm

Swanpride wrote:
Who says that all the plans involved Sherlock "dying"? I think this was more the "last way out" and not specifically designed just in case that Moriarty would try to force him off a roof, but initially created in case Sherlock had to vanish off the radar for a while.

hmm... i like that... all he said was that he wanted to avoid dying if at all possible, maybe and as crazy as it seems Moriarty may have been in on it too, but he wont tell anyone because it would make him look weak. at the end of the day its fiction therefore they could change it whenever they want, we may not fully understand what happened until years later (i hope not though). either way I don't think we will be left disappointed in the end, but i would like to hear the rest of the 13 possibilites before the series finishes, even if it isnt mentioned in the series and the writers tell us themselves. im satisfied with the theory he gave Anderson, it works, but Anderson's reaction made me think is it real and left me with the nagging sensation that I think everyone else has been left with

KKKKK · January 3, 2014 10:14 pm

i think because of the way mofftiss writes we are expecting more, because we know they have left us without clues in the past, i really do hope the topic is brought up again in the series, but i think this time they really are leaving us uncertain.... thats the thing, they know how us fans work, i bet they are laughing away right now at the fact we think there will be more... i really hope there is though... like most people I am still not 100% if that theory is the one they are using as the 'real' one, but I dont see why they would have spent so long explaining it if it wasnt