besleybean, you have to read page 21and 22 of this thread. Commonwealth pointed it out and Sherlock Holmes picked it up: Sherlock talks to Anderson about a massive terror assault and plot to blow up parliament. But when Sherlock deduced the plot, they IMMEDIATELY proceded to the subway system to find the missing waggon. There was no time at all to go to Anderson of all people and tape a confession of how he faked his death. So, this scene CANNOT be real, as we suspected all along. But it cannot be Anderson's fantasy either, because he cannot know about a terrorist plot. So, it can only be Sherlock, picturing himself talking to Anderson and probably misling him, lol! Which makes him snicker.That explains well the odd placement of this scene, and why he calls Anderson Phillip, which is probably not his first name. This scenario doesn't necessarily imply, that theory 3 is wrong, but we can establish (if the clues in the show are trustworthy, which I'm not sure of atm   ), that the scene cannot be real due to the timeline. And I highly doubt, that Sherlock plans to tell Anderson of all people the truth, nothing but the truth...unless, it's a 'thank you' for believing in him all the time. There is nothing, we can be sure of right now.... By the way, who was this half year old skeleton, posing as Jack the Ripper, which, according to Sherlock, was set up by Anderson and friends, to welcome back Sherlock? Where did Anderson get it from? They really throw around with bodies left and right in this show. Some appear, some disappear. Does nobody keep track of the bodies in Sherlock's London?

Last edited by sherlocked (January 7, 2014 10:35 am)

But, silverblaze, don't you see, it cannot be a flashback, because Sherlock had just found out about the terrorist plot, but in the Anderson confession scene he talks about it! He just cannot have gone to Anderson in between finding out about the plot and rushing to the subway tunnels. And Anderson cannot know either about the plot. So, at the time Sherlock and John are sitting in the subway, this cannot be real. It can be a flashvorward, though. Sherlock PLANS to go to Anderson and tell him things about his fall. Considering the snickering afterwards and that it is Anderson of all people, I wouldn't put too much stock into the truth of the story. If this plan was really the result of an emotional climax in the face of death, he would rather tell John IMO. And don't forget, it wasn't even a live or death situation. He had just misled John with the switched off bomb. It's not so far fetched, that he plans to misle Anderson as well. We just cannot know. He can have planned to tell the truth... or not so much. We probably will never know...

Last edited by sherlocked (January 7, 2014 11:25 am)

Many of you were upset, that Sherlock laughed at John, who had rightfully believed to have been in mortal danger. The theory above would take care (at least partly) of that, too. Maybe, he wasn't ridiculing John, at least not at first. Maybe he laughed about his fantasy, at how he could get back at Anderson for helping to destroy his reputation  and for placing the fake skeleton. He was in a misling mode, so to speak. Then he looked at John's face...

sherlocked wrote:

There's something else in the Anderson/Sherlock scene, which doesn't make sense: Sherlock seems to imply, that Anderson and his hearse club placed the skeleton in the wall, in order to intrigue him. But the skeleton was apparently found, before Anderson or anybody else, with the exception of Mycroft and his personel and coworkers, even knew about Sherlock's return: Mycroft is reading about it in the newspaper, while Sherlock gets a shave in Mycroft's club. Deduction: If this skeleton was a bait for Sherlock, someone else, who knew for some reason much earlier about Sherlock's survival and return to London, must've placed it in the wall. It never made sense to me, why Anderson should've done it. So, who placed it there, and whose skeleton was it? If a baddie placed it there, I think, it's a legit question. Another question is of course, how Sherlock could even think, Anderson was responsible for this. He must have asked, when the skeleton was found. But, hey, he was just getting used to be Sherlock Holmes again.
#questions,questions

The skeleton was not placed to intrigue Sherlock. It was placed to bring him back - they were the believers! One attempt to make him giving up hiding.

Last edited by anjaH_alias (January 7, 2014 2:56 pm)

sherlocked wrote:

But, silverblaze, don't you see, it cannot be a flashback, because Sherlock had just found out about the terrorist plot, but in the Anderson confession scene he talks about it! He just cannot have gone to Anderson in between finding out about the plot and rushing to the subway tunnels..

Actually I am at my work and can´t check the exact words. But in my memory they are not too specific. And of course did Sherlock know about the bomb attack, even before the film music runs. Mycroft is taking him back because of that. And of course would another case distract him from that. And a bomb alert means possible dead bodies. That´s what he said: You planted the skeleton and risked to distract me from the bomb alert. This could have caused a lot of victims. This. I think silverblaze got it exactly right.

Last edited by anjaH_alias (January 7, 2014 3:03 pm)

If it´s really the parliament it´s a mistake then. But I think it was more general. I also have to listen to the sentence later.... or maybe somebody here has access to it now? I´m bored here .

Stayin Alive wrote:

Sherlock Holmes - The possibility of it being Sherlock's fantasy makes much sense because that "fantasy" really did risk distracting him from the bomb. So he played it 2 ways: making fun of both Anderson and John in the same moment. Hence the snickering after the scene! Damn, he really is a devious little devil isn't he? 

Mary Me - As much as the "Moriarty is dead"-crowd may like your comment, I must say on a serious note that your response makes no sense and you have done nothing to prove or disprove anything that I've said. So I'll take it as light humor and encourage you all to "let's wait it out" and see what happens in the future series before forming too many conclusions. Remember that Moriarty's body was never found in the canon, but Doyle still made references to his past exploits in the later stories. Doyle himself admitted he lost interest and wanted to pursue more "meaningful" writing other than Holmes. Otherwise he could've easily resurrected Moriarty.

Let's just see how this plays out. If Moriarty is dead and no further "fall" explaination is given, then I would gladly accept Theory #1!!! 

In the canon Moriarty dies and never comes back. Andrew Scott confirmed that he won't come back as well as the writers of the show. What more do you actually need. I really would love to leave you in your fantasy but you are going to be incredibly disappointed.

silverblaze wrote:

It's not a fantasy, it's a flashback.

Really, didn't you catch that? It's a classic screenwriter's trick: bring the characters in a hopeless situation, and just as everything goes horribly wrong, you cut away to a flashback. This raises the tension even further. (And the audience wants to throw something at the tv.) 

Therefore, timeline wise, the conversation happened off-screen, somewhere after the reunion but before the final clue. Probably before the bonfire but that doesn't have to be. 

Why is the scene in that spot? There are good reasons. There are three narrative 'drivers', or whatever you want to call them, that push the story forward. 
1. How did Sherlock fake his death?
2. (How) Will John forgive him?
3. (How) Will Sherlock solve the case?
You must resolve all three at the same time or the remaining story will dramatically lose power. That's what Mark did, resolved them all at the same time, at the climax scene of the story, where it should be. 

That very placement also gives away that this is what the writers see as the solution, you don't have a flashback at the climax point unless it's very important and a resolution of a story

sherlocked wrote:

But, silverblaze, don't you see, it cannot be a flashback, because Sherlock had just found out about the terrorist plot, but in the Anderson confession scene he talks about it! He just cannot have gone to Anderson in between finding out about the plot and rushing to the subway tunnels. And Anderson cannot know either about the plot. So, at the time Sherlock and John are sitting in the subway, this cannot be real. It can be a flashvorward, though. Sherlock PLANS to go to Anderson and tell him things about his fall. Considering the snickering afterwards and that it is Anderson of all people, I wouldn't put too much stock into the truth of the story. If this plan was really the result of an emotional climax in the face of death, he would rather tell John IMO. And don't forget, it wasn't even a live or death situation. He had just misled John with the switched off bomb. It's not so far fetched, that he plans to misle Anderson as well. We just cannot know. He can have planned to tell the truth... or not so much. We probably will never know...

Guys, you are both right. You know what. It has to be a flashforward or whatever you call it.

SHERLOCK (stopping and looking down at him): Of course you’ve wasted police time, perverted the course of justice, risked distracting me from a massive terrorist assault that could have both destroyed Parliament and caused the death of hundreds of people.

You are right, sherlocked, given that Sherlock tells him that implies that the train scene is already over. But it simply cannot be a fantasy because there are good reasons for it like silverblaze already mentioned. 
 

Using Sherlock s methods,  I do not believe the solution he gave Anderson.The three theories are a gentle mock at all the theories..some possible..some improbable...and others just plain crazy.
I think that after all this time , and all the theories that have been put forward being so easily debunked and discounted , only one thing remains.

Sherlock didn't fake it , he jumped , for real.
Impossibe? No, Moriarty told him how.
Falling is just like flying .......
So how did Sherlock fly?simply put the sci3nce means Sherlock had to do everything possible to reduce  speed and impact , add drag , and work out what kind of damage his transport may take.

Observe sherlock just b4 he jumps and as he falls , he has changed clothes , the suits gone , jeans , a jumper a hideous silver metal belt, the wierd way his coat doesn't move , the flapping arms , kicking legs etc.....?
All designed to reduce speed of fall and impact on landing.It seems impossible, but didn't Sherlock hint at it in his... indestuctable comment to John.
(And btw SH in jeans and a jumper.....how ooc .)
Earlier in the series , Wasn't John reading books popularised by Dan Brown , in the aptly  titled Angels and Demons remember how Langden jumped from a helicopter and flew/fell survived a much greater fall using a piece of cloth.

Easy then for his apparently dead body to end up in the morgue and Molly to treat and complete the charade of death.

Sherlock could not risk faking it with all the possible watchers...so he didn't.
I think later in the series.... as in canon it will be revealed that his last note , and the fall were very real, the damage he took and how he risked everything for his friends.

" ... Whatever remains, however improbable , must be the truth.."

edit -whoops post shld be in theories since TEH thread -apologies.

Last edited by lil (January 7, 2014 4:52 pm)

Of course we can agree, that it was a flashforward . That doesn't say anything, though, about Sherlock planning to tell Anderson the truth...or not. That isn't proven one way or another, and very much open to interpretation, as the writers probably wanted it to be, IMO, especially, if I go with what Mofftiss had to say about that subject afterwards.
What I find interesting, is the theme of misling someone, which comes together in one moment: Sherlock, of course having misled everybody with his faked death, having misled John about the bomb, Anderson &Co having planted the skeleton. It would just fit, if Sherlock thinks now about misling Anderson... and starts to laugh about that at first, and not John. Only, when he looks the at John's face....
That's my interpretation of the dramaturgy, silverblaze's one is another possibility.

Last edited by sherlocked (January 7, 2014 3:44 pm)