So, do you have a theory?  Or do you lean one way or another toward one? 

Well, since you ask...:-) (I actually have lots of them at this point, but I'll spread 'em out...this will still be a tome, though.)

I guess I don't have a single theory of everything, and I in fact feel like pursuit of one is part of what's getting us into trouble. We're all trying to be so linear about the solutions, but there are all these different threads of narrative and portions of different theories can satisfy certain threads while not necessarily all of them. And that's okay. 

My first overall axiom of the entire series is that Moffniss went into this whole thing not with the goal of "let's trick the viewers"--they went in, I am convinced, with the desire to tell a good story, and to tell it well and authentically. This pretty much informs where I stand on all the various theories:

1. Any theory which relies on tricky camera shots and the directors deliberately trying to obfuscate what's happening where, who said what, who did what, etc. --I cannot accept. The narrative is very clear that John and Sherlock were having a conversation between ground level and top of building. And...

2. The narrative is also very clear that they ended the conversation, Sherlock threw down the phone, John yelled, Sherlock fell forward off the building. Sherlock fell flailing down the side of the building, and Something or Someone with Sherlock's coat and Sherlocky brown curly hair landed on the pavement a large split second later. For whatever-it-was to have been anything other than Sherlock would require a time-lag not present in the narrative. (There is, however, that split second from the second floor to the ground when we do not see anything. Whatever-it-was could have happened there, in that blind spot.)

3. When John does make it over to the body, it's a limp human body with Sherlock's bloodied face and BC's inimitable heart-stopping multicolored eyes staring into space. That's him. Not a dummy, not a fake, certainly no Mission-Impossible masks. It's Sherlock.

A second axiom I hold pretty firmly: Canon is clear that Moriarty wasn't just another archvillian Sherlock conquered, he was the one who was as smart as Holmes and had a seriously good shot at defeating our hero, to the extent that ACD's Sherlock was prepared to die to defeat him and very nearly did. Theories which rely on "Sherlock had this all worked out from the beginning, he was never in doubt, he had the whole thing planned and Moriarty was going to lose from the start" fly in the face of this, and I pretty much reject those as well. Sherlock was up against his match, Sherlock knew he could lose, and the best he could do was cover all the bases he could and improvise frantically, which fortunately he's preternaturally good at. But if you watch his face on the roof, especially when no one can see, you can tell there's a lot of emotion there, and I don't buy that he's faking emotions for some random sniper whose location he was clever enough to predict in advance.

So. That's where I stand on what's already out there. Sherlock planned to jump before he went onto the roof, but a lot of what happened up there was unexpected to him and he had to punt a bit and in the end did have to go through with the jump. He jumped. Something and/or many someones between floor 2 and cement level enabled him to, like, not die. I'll get there later.

Anyway, trying to piece through stuff never worked for me until I stopped just looking at the fall itself and went back further in the episode and even in the season--going narrative, and looking at where the narrative could lead and what the thoughts and goals were BEFORE the fact.

I went back to the whole thing where Mycroft interrogated Moriarty and then, for some inexplicable reason, just let him go. Mycroft is way too smart for this to just have been an "oh well, guess it didn't work"--I'd say it's a given that he was turning him over to Sherlock. I will be interested to see whether Sherlock was in on this plan or not, whether Mycroft just did it knowing his brother would play the game out to its conclusion and accomplish what the British government couldn't, or whether there was a conversation between the two of them. (Or, if the former, at what point Sherlock caught or catches on--he didn't seem surprised at JM's "All the king's horses couldn't make me tell" thing, and it could be a fantastic scene somewhere in the next episode when they confront each other and with their usual dysfunctional relational acuity manage to do all the accusing, apologizing, defending, righteous indignation, resentment, and whatever other baggagy dreck they need to spew, in about 3 lines of very clipped British dialogue and some elegantly manipulated eyebrows and sneers...)

So, if we say Sherlock knows Moriarty is his problem, and Mycrosoft has basically washed his hands but is paying attention...Moriarty then pulls Sherlock into the game again with his triple crime and acquittal, and Sherlock plays along perhaps just to see exactly what Moriarty's game plan is--maybe they knew the key was fake, and maybe they didn't, or maybe they knew it was fake but not exactly how he'd pulled it off...but we need to keep in mind that Sherlock didn't defeat Moriarty at the pool; he walked away. So Sherlock wouldn't, I think, be too cocky about this. 

I have other theories about the in-betweenage, but this is already getting long, so skipping ahead--Thinking of Sherlock after the Richard Brook encounter at Kitty's, it seems that he realizes the only way to defeat JM is to follow the game to its deadly conclusion, fake his own death, and then go deep undercover with the freedom and anonymity to defeat Moriarty without his adversary knowing he was even trying. So it seems to me that his plan for the roof of St. Bart's would ultimately be to stage his own death in such a way that Moriarty himself would believe it. Think of it---suppose JM had not killed himself, and Sherlock had jumped during his "moment of privacy." Based on what we saw in the episode, by the time Moriarty made it to the edge of the roof to look down, there the bloody body would be. It was so freaking FAST. Obviously Sherlock would hope that there'd be an alternative, that he wouldn't actually have to make the jump and that he could defeat JM some other way, but he also must have known that it would likely come down to it--as it in fact did. And he didn't have much time to put a plan together--only a few hours. (Another nail in the "Madame Tussaud's theory" coffin.)

This changes our concept of what had to happen on the ground, if indeed it's what was part of the plan. For one thing, of course, yes, those people on the ground were part of the homeless network, and of course they weren't real medics. Mollie could, in addition to providing a convenient cadaver for which to write up a nice legal death certificate and send to the mortuary, have gotten access to paramedic uniforms and scrubs. But I keep thinking of that cyclist--what if his job was not to prevent John from getting over to the building, but to prevent anyone from getting there? And who knows how many other BSIs might have been outside of drop range with the express goal of distracting anyone who might otherwise head into visual range? A lot of the theories have hinged on "whatever the plan was it had to look right to any ordinary passerby, not just the guy on the roof." What if there were a plan in place to make sure there were no passersby? (How close to dawn are we at this point, anyway? How early is it? The workman/assassin/inkdude is at 221 already, so it can't be crazy early...how many pedestrians would there be?) What if their only goal was to fool the guy on the roof?

I noticed that when Sherlock plummeted, he did the increase-air-resistance flailing thing on the way down, and you can see him pointing his feet to the ground at the end of that part of the shot. (Which, according to the All-Wise Interwebz, is the best way to land when falling from a distance, and which for me shows his intent to really fall but do it as--erm--safely?--as possible.) And yet he lands torso/headfirst. And others have pointed out the "he fell perpendicular to the building but landed parallel" issue. I think he must have fallen on/along/through something about 8 feet off the ground, but until they tell us (unless it shows up at some other point in the episode and that's the clue we all missed) I think we'll just have to wait and see. 

Once on the ground, there could have been a couple of plans in place--a lot of folks have commented on the "real medics would never just schlep him up onto a gurney if he were injured," and I totally concur--but if he was conscious enough to say "I'm fine, John's coming, get me the hell out of here the second he sees my corpse" they could have taken it from there--that's part of what I like about this plan: if he is conscious enough to direct events from the ground, he could verbally get things moving, and if something went wrong and he landed unconscious or broken or serious injured in some way and it all went to hell they could get him safely into the hospital where Mollie could arrange to have him pronounced dead if necessary a few minutes later...there are improvisatory alternatives. And he would trust Mollie to see to things if he could not. In Mollie, he realized earlier in the episode, he had a smart, trustworth, competent ally whom pretty much everyone overlooks and underestimates.

The thing that has hit me hardest after reading everyone else's theories is one I never thought of but which makes perfect poetic sense--the one about how Richard Brook is the real person, and Moriarty is fake, an invention, a fairy tale. I love love love this, because it's the kind of thing not only did a huge piece of fandom not catch, I can see it as something Sherlock might have completely missed--he was so fixated on Moriarty for so long, I could see how it might never occur even to him that this giant fixture of the criminal world only came into being ephemerally and had a completely normal "regular" life. Which which is to say that--per Sherlock's conversation with John at the end--Sherlock really did create Moriarty. He would not have existed, he would not have perpetrated all those crazy crimes for Sherlock to solve, he would not have murdered the little old lady and 11 others in her apartment, if Sherlock hadn't emerged in the visual field of a brilliant psychopathic narcissistic little creep who wanted to be the star of his own fairy tale, and fed the little s%#t everything he wanted and needed to live his own insane fantasies. Pushed him harder, made him be better, challenged him to be cleverer and more diabolical. Validated him. Mirror images of each other, with one on the side of the angels and the other...not so much. And Sherlock realizes this at the end, and I'm guessing it'll give him no end of guilty conscience in the future. (Though we'll rarely see it, of course.)

So...there's a beginning to the long-windedness that is me. I am delighted to find these forums; no one else seems to share my obsession with figuring this stuff out, and I can't even get my husband to watch the show with me, so this is a valuable outlet and may keep me sane till the next season comes out, not to mention during the next hiatus. 

(p.s. LOVE the spoileryness! It's fabulous. :-))

Gretel wrote:

 So, do you have a theory?  Or do you lean one way or another toward one? 

Well, since you ask...:-) (I actually have lots of them at this point, but I'll spread 'em out...this will still be a tome, though.)

I guess I don't have a single theory of everything, and I in fact feel like pursuit of one is part of what's getting us into trouble. We're all trying to be so linear about the solutions, but there are all these different threads of narrative and portions of different theories can satisfy certain threads while not necessarily all of them. And that's okay. 

My first overall axiom of the entire series is that Moffniss went into this whole thing not with the goal of "let's trick the viewers"--they went in, I am convinced, with the desire to tell a good story, and to tell it well and authentically. This pretty much informs where I stand on all the various theories:

1. Any theory which relies on tricky camera shots and the directors deliberately trying to obfuscate what's happening where, who said what, who did what, etc. --I cannot accept. The narrative is very clear that John and Sherlock were having a conversation between ground level and top of building. And...

2. The narrative is also very clear that they ended the conversation, Sherlock threw down the phone, John yelled, Sherlock fell forward off the building. Sherlock fell flailing down the side of the building, and Something or Someone with Sherlock's coat and Sherlocky brown curly hair landed on the pavement a large split second later. For whatever-it-was to have been anything other than Sherlock would require a time-lag not present in the narrative. (There is, however, that split second from the second floor to the ground when we do not see anything. Whatever-it-was could have happened there, in that blind spot.)

3. When John does make it over to the body, it's a limp human body with Sherlock's bloodied face and BC's inimitable heart-stopping multicolored eyes staring into space. That's him. Not a dummy, not a fake, certainly no Mission-Impossible masks. It's Sherlock.

A second axiom I hold pretty firmly: Canon is clear that Moriarty wasn't just another archvillian Sherlock conquered, he was the one who was as smart as Holmes and had a seriously good shot at defeating our hero, to the extent that ACD's Sherlock was prepared to die to defeat him and very nearly did. Theories which rely on "Sherlock had this all worked out from the beginning, he was never in doubt, he had the whole thing planned and Moriarty was going to lose from the start" fly in the face of this, and I pretty much reject those as well. Sherlock was up against his match, Sherlock knew he could lose, and the best he could do was cover all the bases he could and improvise frantically, which fortunately he's preternaturally good at. But if you watch his face on the roof, especially when no one can see, you can tell there's a lot of emotion there, and I don't buy that he's faking emotions for some random sniper whose location he was clever enough to predict in advance.

So. That's where I stand on what's already out there. Sherlock planned to jump before he went onto the roof, but a lot of what happened up there was unexpected to him and he had to punt a bit and in the end did have to go through with the jump. He jumped. Something and/or many someones between floor 2 and cement level enabled him to, like, not die. I'll get there later.

Anyway, trying to piece through stuff never worked for me until I stopped just looking at the fall itself and went back further in the episode and even in the season--going narrative, and looking at where the narrative could lead and what the thoughts and goals were BEFORE the fact.

I went back to the whole thing where Mycroft interrogated Moriarty and then, for some inexplicable reason, just let him go. Mycroft is way too smart for this to just have been an "oh well, guess it didn't work"--I'd say it's a given that he was turning him over to Sherlock. I will be interested to see whether Sherlock was in on this plan or not, whether Mycroft just did it knowing his brother would play the game out to its conclusion and accomplish what the British government couldn't, or whether there was a conversation between the two of them. (Or, if the former, at what point Sherlock caught or catches on--he didn't seem surprised at JM's "All the king's horses couldn't make me tell" thing, and it could be a fantastic scene somewhere in the next episode when they confront each other and with their usual dysfunctional relational acuity manage to do all the accusing, apologizing, defending, righteous indignation, resentment, and whatever other baggagy dreck they need to spew, in about 3 lines of very clipped British dialogue and some elegantly manipulated eyebrows and sneers...)

So, if we say Sherlock knows Moriarty is his problem, and Mycrosoft has basically washed his hands but is paying attention...Moriarty then pulls Sherlock into the game again with his triple crime and acquittal, and Sherlock plays along perhaps just to see exactly what Moriarty's game plan is--maybe they knew the key was fake, and maybe they didn't, or maybe they knew it was fake but not exactly how he'd pulled it off...but we need to keep in mind that Sherlock didn't defeat Moriarty at the pool; he walked away. So Sherlock wouldn't, I think, be too cocky about this. 

I have other theories about the in-betweenage, but this is already getting long, so skipping ahead--Thinking of Sherlock after the Richard Brook encounter at Kitty's, it seems that he realizes the only way to defeat JM is to follow the game to its deadly conclusion, fake his own death, and then go deep undercover with the freedom and anonymity to defeat Moriarty without his adversary knowing he was even trying. So it seems to me that his plan for the roof of St. Bart's would ultimately be to stage his own death in such a way that Moriarty himself would believe it. Think of it---suppose JM had not killed himself, and Sherlock had jumped during his "moment of privacy." Based on what we saw in the episode, by the time Moriarty made it to the edge of the roof to look down, there the bloody body would be. It was so freaking FAST. Obviously Sherlock would hope that there'd be an alternative, that he wouldn't actually have to make the jump and that he could defeat JM some other way, but he also must have known that it would likely come down to it--as it in fact did. And he didn't have much time to put a plan together--only a few hours. (Another nail in the "Madame Tussaud's theory" coffin.)

This changes our concept of what had to happen on the ground, if indeed it's what was part of the plan. For one thing, of course, yes, those people on the ground were part of the homeless network, and of course they weren't real medics. Mollie could, in addition to providing a convenient cadaver for which to write up a nice legal death certificate and send to the mortuary, have gotten access to paramedic uniforms and scrubs. But I keep thinking of that cyclist--what if his job was not to prevent John from getting over to the building, but to prevent anyone from getting there? And who knows how many other BSIs might have been outside of drop range with the express goal of distracting anyone who might otherwise head into visual range? A lot of the theories have hinged on "whatever the plan was it had to look right to any ordinary passerby, not just the guy on the roof." What if there were a plan in place to make sure there were no passersby? (How close to dawn are we at this point, anyway? How early is it? The workman/assassin/inkdude is at 221 already, so it can't be crazy early...how many pedestrians would there be?) What if their only goal was to fool the guy on the roof?

I noticed that when Sherlock plummeted, he did the increase-air-resistance flailing thing on the way down, and you can see him pointing his feet to the ground at the end of that part of the shot. (Which, according to the All-Wise Interwebz, is the best way to land when falling from a distance, and which for me shows his intent to really fall but do it as--erm--safely?--as possible.) And yet he lands torso/headfirst. And others have pointed out the "he fell perpendicular to the building but landed parallel" issue. I think he must have fallen on/along/through something about 8 feet off the ground, but until they tell us (unless it shows up at some other point in the episode and that's the clue we all missed) I think we'll just have to wait and see. 

Once on the ground, there could have been a couple of plans in place--a lot of folks have commented on the "real medics would never just schlep him up onto a gurney if he were injured," and I totally concur--but if he was conscious enough to say "I'm fine, John's coming, get me the hell out of here the second he sees my corpse" they could have taken it from there--that's part of what I like about this plan: if he is conscious enough to direct events from the ground, he could verbally get things moving, and if something went wrong and he landed unconscious or broken or serious injured in some way and it all went to hell they could get him safely into the hospital where Mollie could arrange to have him pronounced dead if necessary a few minutes later...there are improvisatory alternatives. And he would trust Mollie to see to things if he could not. In Mollie, he realized earlier in the episode, he had a smart, trustworth, competent ally whom pretty much everyone overlooks and underestimates.

The thing that has hit me hardest after reading everyone else's theories is one I never thought of but which makes perfect poetic sense--the one about how Richard Brook is the real person, and Moriarty is fake, an invention, a fairy tale. I love love love this, because it's the kind of thing not only did a huge piece of fandom not catch, I can see it as something Sherlock might have completely missed--he was so fixated on Moriarty for so long, I could see how it might never occur even to him that this giant fixture of the criminal world only came into being ephemerally and had a completely normal "regular" life. Which which is to say that--per Sherlock's conversation with John at the end--Sherlock really did create Moriarty. He would not have existed, he would not have perpetrated all those crazy crimes for Sherlock to solve, he would not have murdered the little old lady and 11 others in her apartment, if Sherlock hadn't emerged in the visual field of a brilliant psychopathic narcissistic little creep who wanted to be the star of his own fairy tale, and fed the little s%#t everything he wanted and needed to live his own insane fantasies. Pushed him harder, made him be better, challenged him to be cleverer and more diabolical. Validated him. Mirror images of each other, with one on the side of the angels and the other...not so much. And Sherlock realizes this at the end, and I'm guessing it'll give him no end of guilty conscience in the future. (Though we'll rarely see it, of course.)

So...there's a beginning to the long-windedness that is me. I am delighted to find these forums; no one else seems to share my obsession with figuring this stuff out, and I can't even get my husband to watch the show with me, so this is a valuable outlet and may keep me sane till the next season comes out, not to mention during the next hiatus. 

(p.s. LOVE the spoileryness! It's fabulous. :-))

Wow. what a long post . I like your ideas because they are not so complicated - it´s more the style Moffat and Gatiss use in my eyes. It summarizes exactly what I thought some months ago.
The only thing I have problems with is the name changing thing: Moriarty is Richard Brook. Simply, because in the foreground story Moriarty has chosen that name because the case of Turner´s painture made Sherlock famous. The other way around it makes no sense to me.

Gretel wrote:

 

Wow. what a long post . I like your ideas because they are not so complicated - it´s more the style Moffat and Gatiss use in my eyes. It summarizes exactly what I thought some months ago.
The only thing I have problems with is the name changing thing: Moriarty is Richard Brook. Simply, because in the foreground story Moriarty has chosen that name because the case of Turner´s painture made Sherlock famous. The other way around it makes no sense to me.

You're right, I wasn't clear...it's not so much that I think Brook was the name the guy was born with, maybe he changed it along the way, maybe, hell, he dreamed up the name for the hell of it based on visiting the actual falls when skulking around Europe--the Falls are real, and the paintings were around for a long time. So yeah, I'm sure that wasn't the name he was born with--I'm just saying that Richard Brook the actor probably really was Richard Brook the actor, doing a lot of kiddie-work (which our heroes would never really have seen) and there was just that one mention of a medical drama...Rich Brooks was Clark Kent, and Moriarty was his supervillain alter-ego, if you like. I mean, as idiotic as Kitty was, you've gotta assume that she did at least a little checking up on this actor guy. If he were a famous actor, he couldn't've done it, but his story was based on his being an out-of-work actor, so he wouldn't be all that likely to be recognized. Remember, we don't even have anything concrete saying that he did join the cast of that medical drama, just that he was slated to.  (And remember the only reason Sherlock became famous due to the painting being recovered was Moriarty's causing--in whatever way--its being stolen to begin with. With all the paintings in the world...why that one?)

It just makes more sense on a lot of levels...it would take a lot more work to create a working actor's portfolio than to simply have that life to begin with and take it from there. 

It's also the only way I was able to reconcile Sherlock's final conversation with John, when he tells him to tell "anyone who will listen" that he "created Moriarty." Notice he (of the incredibly precise dialogue) doesn't say "I made Moriarty up" or "Moriarty doesn't exist." He said, "I created [him]" And the way Sherlock literally seemed to feed on Moriarty's games, wouldn't Moriarty have been doing the same thing on his side? Like some loathsome union of matter and dark matter, circling closer to each other until they unmake the universe...until Sherlock opted out, realizing too late what he'd had a part in creating.

Yes, I know. Shaping facts to support the theory. But I geek out over the writer stuff, and character-arc wise, this stuff is GOLD.

I would say that Sherlock has had much longer to plan than a few hours, though.  He went to see Molly long before John showed up. and then John fell asleep (for we know not how long).  But he would know which favors to pull in, and he could easily get as much help as he needed.  I can't imagine that the medical personel don't already know what his plan is and are counting on it, otherwise, they would be very confused, starting resuscitation efforts and stuff like that...they'd have to know ahead of time, and Sherlock wants it to go smoothly, so that there are no questions asked.

MysteriaSleuthbedder wrote:

For a second there I thought I was in the wrong thread.

AH!! SPOILERS!! RUN AWAY!! AWAY!!

No 5, do you mean Moriarty?!
I think Sherlock gets Molly to fake a death certficate for him,...or such like.
Other than that, I think you're pretty spot onl.
Tho I'm not sure if Moriarty didn't intend to kill himself anyway.

Here is some of my theory: I have to get this set before season 3 because my family are having a contest to see who gets closer to the plot as well as the design of how Sherlock faked his death.

So this is the Plot only and takes us to the ledge where Sherlock jumps:

1. Sherlock exchanges his services to his brother-Mycroft- to gain access to the Baskerville again.  Sherlock agrees to help destroy/catch Moriarty.  Mycroft grants access to Baskerville and then at the end of the show lets Moriarty go.  So this starts RF. (check out the scene where Sherlock tells the Captain the he " ex...negotiated" the baskerville time.

2. Step 1 in Sherlock's plan. Become public figure to draw Moriarty out.  (High profile cases equals Moriarty watching) Scene where John tells Sherlock to find a quite case and Sherlock looks frustrated)
3. Step in Moriarty's plan-steal Turner's RF painting- setting up the RF HERO TERM. Great foreshadowing by the writer here: a picture of Germanic waterfalls and Sherlock getting ready for his fall.  (this metaphor is all over RF episode) 
4. Moriarty plan:  3 high profile break ins and Sherlock attending the trial (this move is probably the equivalent of moving a bishop in the opening sequence of chess) Get your opponent in defensive mode.
5.Next step for BOTH players, Tea Scene: draw out opponent by use of force (Intelligence meeting intelligence). A posturing by both to entice the player to make a move.
6. Moriarty Step: Kidnapping.  This is used to drop a hint of doubt to take out Sherlock's support system and also to start to encourage the destruction of Sherlock's reputation. Moriarty does this by Kidnapping the children and making sure that they are stimulated to fear Sherlock.  I don't think anyone can really know how Moriarty does this- I don't see any clues but I can theorize that it probably has to due with imagery. i.e. Kidnapper wears the coat, the hat and resembles Sherlock to ellicite reaction from kid.  She only reacts when she sees sherlock not when she hears him.
7.Mycroft Move: Tell John about Terrorist Bad Guys- an evasive maneuver on Mycroft's part to get Sherlock's attention back on finding the "Code" instead of playing Moriarty's game.  like the BP's plans in the Great Game)
8. Moriarty Move(s)- plant bribed person in police dept. donovan? to get the handcuffed picture of Sherlock or force Sherlock to step outside the law and away from support system. Kitty article expose.  IOU's to unravel Sherlock some more.
9. Sherlock Move- use the found video to tell Moriarty that he is still not playing and also to encourage M that his plan is working by elliciting John's doubtful reactions.
10. Sherlock Move-do what Moriarty wants and become outlaw. get ahead of Moriarty. tries two ways 1. assassins (finding out what they want) 2 Kitty's Informant.  Both provide Sherlock with essential information. 1. the code is advertised and Sherlock is the key to it. 2. the informant turns out to be Moriarty..allowing Sherlock to come to the conclusion that the destruction of Sherlock's Reputation and his person is the end game.
12. Sherlock Move-castleing. Move a new underused player into the game. Molly. Someone Moriarty has overlooked. Sherlock uses Molly for faciliation of faking his death in all of the obvious ways. Oversee medical treatment of Corpse, death certificate, arranging for body for grave. fake blood. ect.  I am still thinking about a way Molly may have been used in addition to this and may add on.

Forgot to put in Moriarty's move: 3 assassins 3 bullets to increase Sherlock pressure to jump.

13.  Sherlock Move-find a code that can be applicable to what he needs Moriarty to buy into.  He knows there is no Code. Mycroft needs to know how Moriarty got into the 3 break-ins. But how to get Moriarty to spill the beans.?Que-stupid Doofus methodology. John helps with the tapping of his fingers. Sherlock realizes that Moriarty would love to contradict and point out Sherlock being stupid. (think Janus Cars and the Wife who contradicted Sherlock-same method here) He uses Bach's Piece to tell Moriarty that that is the code! Sherlock can't think ordinary which is why John is helpful. How to think up something truly Doofus worthy?...John:-) 
14. Sherlock Move-make Moriarty think he's even more ordinary.  Kill Richard Brook and bring back Moriarty.  Shelock knows that Richard Brook is the real and that Sherlock helped to create Moriarty.  But he needs to get M to spill so  the "but how did you...How did I get into the tower..yada yada..daylight robbery."  End game on code- Mycroft will be happy with the tape conversation on sher's phone.. now for the Final Problem...
15. Sherlock's move-find out how many pressure points are out there so he knows if his faked death as been compromised by M holding a gun over Molly's head.  3 guns 3 bullets...nope we're good to go..Molly is safe.
16. Que the Homeless Network below to begin set-up of mechanism that will catch Sherlock in fall.
17. Sherlock's move to ask for Privacy-1st thought remove Moriarty to allow enough time for Sherlock fall and landing not be witnessed by Moriarty. Brainfart here on Sherlock's part.  "i'm not going to call it off" so it can be called off? stop fake suicide and time to go after Moriarty...
18. Sherlock's move (have you notice by now how many moves Sherlock has made to none being made by Moriarty- a good indication that your opponent is going into check mate don't ya think?)  Get to Moriarty. How? Even when Mycroft couldn't. Punching a psychopath in the face doesn't work Mycroft so... Mind F**k time. It all comes down to the "final problem" Staying Alive.   I think if anyone can swing someone into a suicidal psychosis it is Sherlock. How? "I am U" combined with "I may be on the side of the angels but don't think for one moment that I am one of them" In short, I am just as smart as you.  I will battle you and see you in hell if I have to. And that this game only ends with our deaths. And living is overrated now isn't it? This is the best Moriarty your life will ever be with me because Sherlock says in short that he won't be playing anymore. For a guy who is already insane..having your last destraction tell you that he won't be playing anymore is end of the world time. 

Did Sherlock expect Moriarty to kill himself..No. maybe...Walk away again...yes.  But Moriarty plays one last move. He makes a Back Rank Mate..forcing Sherlock into stalemate. I kill myself and you have to kill yourself. 

So this is the plot that gets us to the faked death scene which is a whole other analogy that I will post when I have time.  Sorry this is so long...just skip it if you don't have the time. I am sick and have nothing better to do....laterz!

Last edited by sirlockofthesher (November 12, 2013 7:42 pm)

I think the rational of just forcing Sherlock to jump by suicide was the motive behind Moriarty' suicide needs something more...

the key is the apparent slide of Moriarty's psychology during the "Thank you Bless you" scene.

Moriarty hit some sort-of psychosis that promoted his suicide. Like Moriarty said 'all the kings horsemen" couldnt make him talk.

There is something I like about your theory that resonates.  Sherlock can read people. could he have deducted Moriarty's code from just looking? perhaps Moriarty feared that given enough time Sherlock could have walked off the roof tracked down the killers contact info after deducing the code from moriarty.  So moriarty presses him to act in the now by enacting the suicide. ^ nice theory perhaps.

However I think that if I were Moriarty-killing myself would require more impetous than just forcing Sherlock to jump.  (3 guns and  3 of S' friends was adequate motivation).  Something snapped in Moriarty otherwise he would have stuck around for the show.

Here is the actual post I wrote--I hope the links pass this time.

Hello--
   I'm completely new to forums of any kind and relatively new to "Sherlock"--thanks, Netflix Canada--and I must begin by confessing I haven't read all the 62 pages here.  But what I have read sounds (mostly) cogent and reasonable.  I haven't seen anything, though, that seems to reference as 'facts' some Setlock photos that I recently stumbled onto.  Recognizing that Moffiss have said they've filmed red-herring shots to fool the on-set audiences, I nonetheless think these photos must be useful--and possibly real--in part because they often reinforce the theories folk here have been proposing.  Just hoping I can make the links work.  And hoping that those of you who feel the urgency to get this solved before the BFI members get to see the real deal next month (and some of them will tell--and many of us will look) will find the info you need here:

http://cassietaylor.tumblr.com/post/57061949445/hey-listen-up-here-second-edit-aug-6-2013
 
and here:

http://socialitelife.com/photos/benedict-cumberbatch-films-sherlock-in-london/benedict-cumberbatch-shoots-scenes-for-the-new-series-of-doctor-who-in-london-15
 
If the socialitelife.com gallery comes up in the wrong place, go further down the page until you can search through the thumbnails, beginning with a picture of Benedict with his back against a red door with a P sign that says 'Ambulances Only'.  (I have no idea why they think he's filming "Doctor Who".)
   Cassie Taylor, Tumblr-poster of the first link (via an acquaintance named Frankie), has a full-fledged theory to flog (not too unreasonable), but you can ignore her and just source the photos, which are amazing.  I like the ones from socialitelife.com best because I don't think they know what they've got re: the theory.  They're clearly out of order--so you folk will have to make sense out of them.
    Some things about the latter even a non-theorist noted: (a) Sherlock is at one point making a very fast run (from the crash scene?) to an ambulance entrance out of sight (necessary to make a retreat while John recovers?); (b) he is bleeding heavily from a head wound which is exactly where he seemed to have landed in the cliffhanger; (c) in two versions of the same photo, he seems to be sagging on his knees as if he has just suffered pretty serious bodily shock (how was he hurt?  did he indeed fall all the way?); (d) the people tending to him do indeed seem to be the homeless network.  (Note that in the CassieTaylor/Frankie theory, it would take several weeks to mount a headstone, during which Sherlock could've recovered from some bodily harm.)  I'd also like to point out that Benedict is making two jumps on this day:  a short one from a ladder and a longer one from the raised platform--which he has to watch a stunt double perform (that's BC with a parka over the famous coat on the riser's platform) to get it right before he does it himself.   Some portion of that instruction must be how his body has to be turned to show how Sherlock survived the fall.  (For one of the jumps, he's falling back-down . . . .)
   And why are we discussing whether Mycroft is in on it?  Of course he is.  There has to be someone to claim and identify the body, someone to ready the funeral arrangements with the mortuary.  Molly  might be able to provide a body but she certainly can't do the rest.  I'd like to take another theory I read here  (that Mycroft let Moriarity go because there was nothing more he could do with the incarcerated Jim and so he knew Sherlock would handle it) a step further.  There may have been a great deal of collusion between the brothers to fix Moriarity once and for all.  Remember that, when we first see Sherlock's name written backwards on glass, it's in that final scene in "Hounds": when we come into the cell with Mycroft, Sherlock's name is everywhere, but one on the 2-way mirror is written so that Mycroft could see it on his side of the glass earlier--just as Moriarity writes it in the Tower of London.  Then after Mycroft says, "All right, let him go", the remaining  functionary stands in a room already covered with handwritten "Sherlocks", and yet both the whispery voices and the on-screen text repeat "Sherlock" again and again.  What if that wasn't an incarceration but a mental treatment of some sort arranged by Mycroft to force Jim's obsession on the Final Problem--getting Sherlock out of the way--which the brothers already have some rudimentary plans about handling? ("All right--let him go" means he's been fully indoctrinated, not 'we're giving up on breaking him'.)  Why, for instance, does Sherlock say, while handcuffed to John and on the run, in answer to John's suggestion that they seek help from Mycroft, this is not a time for a reconcilation.  But there is no need for reconcilation:  Mycroft has agreed that Sherlock's opening Irene's phone "more than makes up" for his mistakes with her in that episode, and in "Hounds"  Mycroft actually texts Sherlock a couple of times while he is using M's stolen ID to penetrate a secret government installation, thereby preventing his being thrown out.  And by the next day, they go in under M's aegis.  WHAT reconcilation?  He just wants to fulfill Moriarity's plans by becoming a fugitive and to keep John from seeing Mycroft as a co-collaborator as the plot hurtles toward its seemingly grim end.




 

Last edited by OOthoon13 (November 19, 2013 12:26 am)

What if the number to call off the 3 assassins is Bach's  song or the binary code sequence? And Sherlock figured it out and that is why he sang "If I've got you?"

sirlockofthesher wrote:

Here is some of my theory: I have to get this set before season 3 because my family are having a contest to see who gets closer to the plot as well as the design of how Sherlock faked his death.

So this is the Plot only and takes us to the ledge where Sherlock jumps:

1. Sherlock exchanges his services to his brother-Mycroft- to gain access to the Baskerville again.  Sherlock agrees to help destroy/catch Moriarty.  Mycroft grants access to Baskerville and then at the end of the show lets Moriarty go.  So this starts RF. (check out the scene where Sherlock tells the Captain the he " ex...negotiated" the baskerville time.

2. Step 1 in Sherlock's plan. Become public figure to draw Moriarty out.  (High profile cases equals Moriarty watching) Scene where John tells Sherlock to find a quite case and Sherlock looks frustrated)
3. Step in Moriarty's plan-steal Turner's RF painting- setting up the RF HERO TERM. Great foreshadowing by the writer here uhm referring to ACD of course: a picture of Germanic waterfalls and Sherlock getting ready for his fall.  (this metaphor is all over RF episode) 
4. Moriarty plan:  3 high profile break ins and Sherlock attending the trial (this move is probably the equivalent of moving a bishop in the opening sequence of chess) Get your opponent in defensive mode. ALSO PLANTS MOLE IN POLICE DEPT.
5.Next step for BOTH players, Tea Scene: draw out opponent by use of force (Intelligence meeting intelligence). A posturing by both to entice the player to make a move.
6. Moriarty Step: Kidnapping.  This is used to drop a hint of doubt to take out Sherlock's support system and also to start to encourage the destruction of Sherlock's reputation. Moriarty does this by Kidnapping the children and making sure that they are stimulated to fear Sherlock.  I don't think anyone can really know how Moriarty does this- I don't see any clues regarding a mask but I can theorize that it probably has to due with imagery. i.e. Kidnapper wears the coat, the hat and resembles Sherlock to ellicite reaction from kid.  She only reacts when she sees sherlock not when she hears him.
7.Mycroft Move: Tell John about Terrorist Bad Guys- an evasive maneuver on Mycroft's part to get Sherlock's attention back on finding the "Code" instead of playing Moriarty's game.  like the BP's plans in the Great Game)
8. Moriarty Move(s)- Mole in police dept encourages donovan to supect sherlock- to get the handcuffed picture of Sherlock or force Sherlock to step outside the law and away from support system. Kitty article expose.  IOU's to unravel Sherlock some more.
9. Sherlock Move- use the found video to tell Moriarty that he is still not playing and also to encourage M that his plan is working by elliciting John's doubtful reactions.
10. Sherlock Move-do what Moriarty wants and become outlaw. get ahead of Moriarty. tries two ways 1. assassins (finding out what they want) 2 Kitty's Informant.  Both provide Sherlock with essential information. 1. the code is advertised and Sherlock is the key to it. 2. the informant turns out to be Moriarty..allowing Sherlock to come to the conclusion that the destruction of Sherlock's Reputation and his person is the end game.
12. Sherlock Move-castleing. Move a new underused player into the game. Molly. Someone Moriarty has overlooked. Sherlock uses Molly for faciliation of faking his death in all of the obvious ways. Oversee medical treatment of Corpse, death certificate, arranging for body for grave. fake blood. ect.  I am still thinking about a way Molly may have been used in addition to this and may add on.

Forgot to put in Moriarty's move: 3 assassins 3 bullets to increase Sherlock pressure to jump.

13.  Sherlock Move-find a code that can be applicable to what he needs Moriarty to buy into.  He knows there is no Code. Mycroft needs to know how Moriarty got into the 3 break-ins. But how to get Moriarty to spill the beans.?Que-stupid Doofus methodology. John helps with the tapping of his fingers. Sherlock realizes that Moriarty would love to contradict and point out Sherlock being stupid. (think Janus Cars and the Wife who contradicted Sherlock-same method here) He uses Bach's Piece to tell Moriarty that that is the code! Sherlock can't think ordinary which is why John is helpful. How to think up something truly Doofus worthy?...John:-) 
14. Sherlock Move-make Moriarty think he's even more ordinary.  Kill Richard Brook and bring back Moriarty.  Shelock knows that Richard Brook is the real and that Sherlock helped to create Moriarty.  But he needs to get M to spill so  the "but how did you...How did I get into the tower..yada yada..daylight robbery."  End game on code- Mycroft will be happy with the tape conversation on sher's phone.. now for the Final Problem...
15. Sherlock's move-find out how many pressure points are out there so he knows if his faked death as been compromised by M holding a gun over Molly's head.  3 guns 3 bullets...nope we're good to go..Molly is safe. (this I am adding: if the HofB drug was used-this is where it was administered with the two shakes Sherlock performs on Moriarty while hanging him over the edge of the building.  Signs that lead me to believe the theory is true are the blinking of the eyes by both S and M as well as the tears of S to expel the drug and M's quick erosion into a suicidal psychosis-what did he see when Sherlock said "I am you?")
16. Que the Homeless Network below to begin set-up of mechanism that will catch Sherlock in fall.
17. Sherlock's move to ask for Privacy-1st thought remove Moriarty to allow enough time for Sherlock fall and landing not be witnessed by Moriarty. Brainfart here on Sherlock's part.  "i'm not going to call it off" so it can be called off? stop fake suicide and time to go after Moriarty...
18. Sherlock's move (have you notice by now how many moves Sherlock has made to none being made by Moriarty- a good indication that your opponent is going into check mate don't ya think?)  Get to Moriarty. How? Even when Mycroft couldn't? Punching a psychopath in the face doesn't work Mycroft so... Mind F**k time. It all comes down to the "final problem" Staying Alive.   I think if anyone can swing someone into a suicidal psychosis it is Sherlock. How? "I am U" combined with "I may be on the side of the angels but don't think for one moment that I am one of them" In short, I am just as smart as you.  I will battle you and see you in hell if I have to. And that this game only ends with our deaths. And living is overrated now isn't it? This is the best Moriarty your life will ever be with me because Sherlock says in short that he won't be playing anymore. For a guy who is already insane..having your last destraction tell you that he won't be playing anymore is end of the world time. 

Did Sherlock expect Moriarty to kill himself\?..No. maybe...Walk away again...yes.  But Moriarty plays one last move. He makes a Back Rank Mate..forcing Sherlock into stalemate. I kill myself and you have to kill yourself.  Yes. That guy on the roof (moriarty or Richard Brook) is dead.  You cannot expel a fake bullet that close to your head without the air concussion killing you.

Interesting symmetry of the rooftop scene: when Moriarty thinks he's got Sherlock right where he wants him he circles Sherlock and when Sherlock realizes he can beat Moriarty he starts cirling Moriarty. And when Sherlock has to jump the camera circles him;-)

So this is the plot that gets us to the faked death scene which is a whole other analogy that I will post when I have time.  Sorry this is so long...just skip it if you don't have the time. I am sick and have nothing better to do....laterz!

Ok. Part 2 of THE FALL 

Sherlock is attached to a bungee rope type device that slows his fall. Below is a picture of the remnants of this "rope"  I believe that holes in S' jacket were disguised by Sherlock having his hands and arms behind his back when Moriarty circles him.  (I really wanted it to be a net but I am under the firm belief that the show would show us the mechanism is some way or form and I did not see any net referenced through all 6 of the shows-this was the only mechanism that is shown in anyway on site of the fall-a rope)



The side of the red truck with the bags in it was folded down over the chalk square on the sidewalk with the bags put on the unfolded side- to slow impact more. Sherlock bounces of this and he jumps off and onto the sidewalk, lies down and a homeless network person squirts blood onto Sherlock's head.



Last items that I think we can all agree on:

1. The biker was meant to hit John to delay him to getting to Sherlock
2. The Homeless Network was there to prevent John from getting too close a look.  The "Doctor" prevented john from taking a pulse anywhere except the right arm.
3.  Another Homeless network person was responsible for the blood being put on Sherlock's head.
4.  Molly fakes Sherlock's death report.
5. The homeless network take Sherlock into entryway of hospital on guerney.
6. The grey ball that Sherlock is playing with in the lab is the ball used to stop the pulse in his arm.
7. Sherlock's position during the fall indicates that he should have landed perpendicular to the building but landed parallel instead.
8. John was to stand where Sherlock directed him to so as not to see the mechanism that would stop Sherlock from crashing into the sidewalk. 


Other items that I believe happened:

1. Molly provided a dead body because Sherlock got off that guerney the moment it took the corner.
into the hospital.
2. Sherlock goes after John's sniper moments after faking his death. Also, the Sniper is positioned in the "Red Building" and cannot see over the carriage building in between the hospital and the Red Building so the Sniper also does not see Sherlock land due to building and bag truck. 
3. Mycroft removes Jim's body and retrieves the cellphone.
4. Red Herrings: Hanging Body (introduce a faked suicide theory  pretty early on as foreshadowing)
5. Someone else thought this up but the Kitty scene in the courthouse bathroom "you repel me"  a clue on how Sherlock faked his death? The missed clue perhaps that the Mofgiss referred to? I am going to go out on a  limb and say yes. 

Ok so that is it. I may add on a few more items. Sorry it's so long.

Last edited by sirlockofthesher (November 21, 2013 3:54 am)