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Do you think Sherlock knew that Moriarty would back down or was he really prepared to pull the trigger and blow them all up?
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Interesting question.
It was early days in their 'relationship' that we knew of. But I think they were aware of each other from an early age (the Carl Powers things). So the question is did Sherlock know how 'insane' Moriarty was? I would think he knew he was evil from the games he had been playing with peoples' lives and he had been directly responsible for killing the blind lady.
I would think Sherlock believed there was a way out, but he hadn't thought of it as yet.
First thoughts would be that he & John dived into the doorways on their lefthandside, thus stopping the marksman from getting them. After that, Moriarty wouldn't be insane enough to go after them, he had no weapon.
Interesting though. I am not sure Sherlock would have risked John's life; he'd only ever risked his own before this.
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In Study in Pink Lestrade remarks: "Sherlock Holmes is a great man and one day, if we’re very very lucky he might even be a good one."
At the pool scene, Sherlock seems to be very close to this status.
He sees that John is willing to die for him but doesn’t run to save his own life.
It seems to me that he is even about to pull the trigger in order to stop Moriarty.
He obtains John’s consent by making eye contact and receives a slight nod of approval by him.
The "great man" is developing into what Lestrade has hoped to see one day.
Fortunately it was the wrong day to die.
At this point Sherlock doesn’t know that there will be another occasion for him at the end of series two…
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This scene is a direct reference to the original ACD story of The Reichenbach Fall.