What if Sherlock used a drug?

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Posted by Arthur Doyle
April 13, 2013 8:59 pm
#1

There are a lot of good theories out there, but -in my opinion- most of them don't explain well enough how John couldn't feel a pulse or why the doctors of St. Bart would declare Sherlock dead.
Then I saw this:


What if he was administering a drug intranasally (instead of wiping his nose) at this moment?
By intranasal administration, a drug is absorbed by the blood vessels in the nose and causes its effects immediately (and not a few hours later, like when you take a pill). 

Now, this won't explain how he survived the fall (no drug can prevent your organs from getting crushed), but there are a few drugs that can make your pulse drop to a minimum and there is even a drug (or better: neurotoxin) that can make you feign death: tetrodotoxin.

Tetrodotoxin (found in pufferfish) stops your breathing, stops your heart and leaves you completely paralysed (but conscious).
A doctor would easily consider you dead.
​It is used by Haitian voodoo priests as a powder to make their victims 'die', be buried and then 'return from the dead'.
This is also how zombie stories were born.

If Sherlock used this, then the only thing Molly had to do was to keep him out of the freezer so he wouldn't die from hypothermia.
Oh, and to not cut him open.
Nobody else would know anything about Sherlock not being really dead.

What are your opinions?

Last edited by Arthur Doyle (April 13, 2013 9:02 pm)

 
Posted by tobeornot221b
April 14, 2013 5:32 am
#2

Interesting theory, Arthur.
But personally I don't believe Sherlock used any drug.
In order to carry out his fake death plan all his mind is required - no way letting it being fogged by drugs in this dangerous situation. After all, he's already made this experience in HOUNDS - and certainly won't repeat it.
It's easier to manipulate John's mind by letting him run over by a cyclist and make his dizzy mind believe what it has to believe.
And: Conceiving the whole matter from its ending - I mean the forthcoming pre-credit solution of how he did it in S3E1 - a whatever complicated drug thing would take to much time to explain to the audience and isn't effective enough to attract a then new audience.
Oh - and its so not canon Reichenbach!


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John: "Have you spoken to Mycroft, Molly, uh, anyone?"
Mrs Hudson: "They don’t matter. You do."


I BELIEVE IN SERIES 5!




                                                                                                                  
 
Posted by Arthur Doyle
April 14, 2013 3:38 pm
#3

You are right that there aren't any direct references in the episode to suspect he used a drug.
But let me try to convince you:

First: The rubber stress ball:
Before Sherlock went to the roof, he kept on pumping and throwing that ball around.
Maybe that was to increase his blood flow so the drug would spread rapidly through his system once he snuffed it up.
Increased muscle activity widens the arteries.

Second: Intranasal:
 There aren't many ways to administer a drug (aerosol, oral, intranasal, sublingual and rectal),
but the writers of Sherlock have already showed that they can be creative with this.
In HOUNDS (as you mentioned) Sherlock keeps asking himself: "How did the drug get into our system?".
In that case the drug was an aerosol.
Maybe the writers learned about intranasal administration as a possibility when they researched it.

Third: Sherlock's tearing up:
Right after the snuffing sequence in the picture, we get the emotional scene with John in which Sherlock can't keep the tears from flowing.
Come on, Sherlock has never been an emotional type.
Plus, why would he cry if he knew he would survive the fall?
By snuffing in the drug, he temporarilly increases his nasal secretion and lacrimation.

Fourth: the empty house:
In the written story of the empty house by Doyle, Sherlock explains to John why he didn't want him and anyone else to know he was still alive:
so his other enemies would move more out in the open.
In the story he says nobody else knew he was alive except Mycroft.
Now, i don't think Mycroft knows about Sherlock still being alive because of the sibling rivalry, Sherlock would never accept Mycroft's help.
But Molly never existed in the stories of Conan Doyle.
What if only Molly knows about Sherlock not being dead. It makes everything a lot simpler:
The doctors of St Bart wouldn't have to be in on it, no homeless network involved, no Mycroft involved.
The less people know about it, the less chance word gets out Sherlock's not really dead, just like Doyle intended it.

Fifth: Molly's a doctor, doctors can prescribe drugs.

Well, that's what I wanted to say.
The theory definitely has some holes and there are still things unexplained.
(but maybe the cyclist was just a cyclist John happened to bump into) 
I could also be wrong about the type of drug used, TTX just seems the best drug to cheat a doctor.
Maybe people reading this have a different drug in mind? (let me know)

Oh, and could you post the link where you found that they're going to show the solution in a pre-credit scene of S3E1, I can't find it.
 

Last edited by Arthur Doyle (April 14, 2013 3:45 pm)

 
Posted by tobeornot221b
April 14, 2013 4:09 pm
#4

You are very thorough, Arthur!
First of all: There's no link for a solution in a pre-credit scene - it's only my assumption.
Back in July 2012,  I wrote my ideas about how the solution might be in this thread:

http://sherlock.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=1239

But I maintain that, as for Sherlock, no drugs were involved in the roof scene. Finally, the writers don't want to repeat themselves (HOUNDS), drug-use is not pc and canon Sherlock would never use drugs when on a case. Or do you suppose him being so boooooored while standing on the roof?

 


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John: "Have you spoken to Mycroft, Molly, uh, anyone?"
Mrs Hudson: "They don’t matter. You do."


I BELIEVE IN SERIES 5!




                                                                                                                  
 
Posted by veecee
April 15, 2013 1:11 am
#5

Interesting idea.
I have to say that I thought it was odd that Sherlock appeared to be crying, although it could have just been acting to convince John. (Myself, if I had been up on that windy roof, my eyes would have been tearing and my nose running and red.)

 
Posted by Be
April 15, 2013 7:41 am
#6

The idea with an intranasal application might work. I don't know since I have no medical knowledge there. Have you? What do you think of my solution with a muscle relexant? I don't believe for one second in a fearful crying Sherlock. Can be a side effect of some kind of drug. 

http://sherlock.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?pid=63858#p63858

 
Posted by Harriet
April 15, 2013 8:07 am
#7

When I observe the way he falls, I doubt there was a relaxant. Or it would have worked just later - very exactly on time ;-)


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Posted by anjaH_alias
April 15, 2013 12:03 pm
#8

veecee wrote:

Interesting idea.
I have to say that I thought it was odd that Sherlock appeared to be crying, although it could have just been acting to convince John. (Myself, if I had been up on that windy roof, my eyes would have been tearing and my nose running and red.)

This Sherlock crying on the rooftop is not acting! I just can repeat, that the tears and every move from him have a quite another quality than the tears he cried in TGG (they were just fake, here Sherlock acts). But in TRG we have quite a naturalistic way of acting from BC, which means, Sherlock tears are genuine. Jesses, this scene moves the whole Sherlock fandom, it couldn´t, if it wasn´t like that (what Sherlock is going to explain in series 3 might be something else, because Sherlock is Sherlock ).
The tears also refer to John´s sentence "You machine!" - we see a short time later, that he has developed, that he is no machine and was never one!

Last edited by anjaH_alias (April 15, 2013 12:11 pm)

 
Posted by beekeeper
April 15, 2013 6:53 pm
#9

I do like this idea but I think the main problem is that the writers have said all the clues were there, there won't be anything we could not deduce. And there is no point at which a drug is planted or suggested. Is there? While yes there is in HoB, its a very different drug. The only other possibilty I can see is the mercury poisoning but mercury poisoning doesn't relax you.

If he's taken a drug then nasally is deffo the best option here, much faster than anything else he could have done.

Actually, a muscle relaxant might have helped him survive the fall. He'd also need to invoke cartoon physics because he's still falling a little too fast to survive. But being relaxed on impact will help a little, that's why young kids often don't hurt themselves so much when they fall from a height.

Last edited by beekeeper (April 15, 2013 6:54 pm)


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Sherlock Holmes "The question is, has she been working on something deadlier than a rabbit?"
John Watson : "To be fair, that is quite a wide field"

The Hounds of Baskerville
 
Posted by Arthur Doyle
April 16, 2013 9:31 pm
#10

Be wrote:

The idea with an intranasal application might work. I don't know since I have no medical knowledge there. Have you? What do you think of my solution with a muscle relexant? I don't believe for one second in a fearful crying Sherlock. Can be a side effect of some kind of drug. 

http://sherlock.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?pid=63858#p63858

As a matter of fact I'm a medical student.
I really like your idea of a muscle relaxant being used, hadn't thought of that:
As all stuntmen know: relaxed limbs are less likely to break than unrelaxed onces.
Because of that, he might also not receive any spinal injury:
after all, the spine is just a stack of vertebrae, which are interconnected by lots of muscles.
Relax the muscles and the stack of vertebrae would react like a spring and won't break.

I also really adore your comparison to cats. (very clever)
As we all know, cats can survive high falls (up to 19 stories) without a scratch. 
And Sherlock actually does look a lot like a cat when falling: facing to the ground, ready to land on all four. All he needs is his muscles to be just as relaxed as a cat's...

The only problem I see is that, when falling at 70 km per hour (45mph) and suddenly crashing, you are probably going to have deceleration trauma's:
your organs are still falling when your body has stopped, thus causing them to smash into their cavity wall and bleed.
Then again: cats don't have this problem.
It helps that Sherlock is still young: his organs and arteries can stand a hit

This theory of mine seems more and more plausible. Did I mention TTX is a muscle relaxant?
And then there's Botulinum toxin, like you, Be, say in the link: Sherlock has researched Botox before...

Last edited by Arthur Doyle (April 16, 2013 9:46 pm)

 
Posted by Be
April 17, 2013 7:17 am
#11

I don't want to be too thick here about ways to administer a muscle relexant, but look at TGG and what Moriarty did: subcutan
Maybe Sherlock used several plasters. We know that he uses nicotin patches.

 
Posted by Tantalus
April 17, 2013 9:07 pm
#12

Haven't you all been over to #setlock? That's not how he did it. This is what happened...









...just kidding!

Howdy, everyone!


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"Perfectly sound analysis. I was hoping you would go a little deeper."
 
Posted by Gretel
July 16, 2013 9:50 pm
#13

Okay, this is so far my favorite "long shot" theory...I'll be shocked if it turns out to be true, but I sort of love it anyway...

Any chance Sherlock found a way to administer some of the Baskerville drug--we know he obtained some an episode ago, and him being him he might well have hung onto some--not to John but to Moriarty on the roof? The drug we've already encountered that makes one paranoid, fearful, extremely succestible to suggestion, and prone to hallucination?

I read someone's post suggesting that he'd injected the rubber ball with the stuff and taken that moment when he sort of oddly grabbed Moriarty's lapels and sort of shook him to squeeze the drug out of the ball onto JM's clothes. I agree that that grab-and-shake (followed by one of the more inane Sherlock lines of all time, "You're insane"--though I loved JM's puzzled, "you're just now getting that?" rejoinder) is extremely out of character for Sherlock, and I haven't seen it often mentioned among the "Sherlock did something very out of character" suggestions. What was that supposed to accomplish?

Anyway, following that moment, a couple of things happened...we saw a lot more of Sherlock sort of panting and breathing hard when not close to JM. And then, after the almost-jump-I-don't-have-to-die-if-i've-got-you bit, JM sort of starts losing it...in the end there, it really kind of looks like he's having visions or something--notice his sort of weird blinking, and saying, "You're me"--it could be just a realization thing, of course, but what if he's actually seeing himself in Sherlock through his own eyes, after Sherlock has just told him again and again, "I'm you. We are the same."

Yeah, I know--TOTAL long shot, explains very little, and really would give Sherlock only the smallest advantage, but maybe he thought that might be all he needed?

(This also addresses Sherlock's unwonted emotionalism at the end in his conversation with John--if JM had the stuff on his clothes and was inhaling it that way, Sherlock would have gotten some as well...)

I'm not saying I believe this one...but part of me sort of likes it. Any thoughts? About this, or about what that whole grab-by-the-lapels thing was about, or all the panting and hyperventilating?


"I always hear 'punch me in the face' when you're speaking, but usually it's subtext."
 
Posted by sj4iy
July 16, 2013 10:01 pm
#14

I'm not sold on him using any drugs.  I just don't see why he should when he can do it all without them.  It could overly complicate things and even cause unforseen and unpredictable side affects.


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Posted by Lupin
July 18, 2013 5:56 am
#15

I can try to address the second part of your concern. Molly's there to declare him dead. She's a coroner and knows him personally so she could also ID the body. It's rather easy for Sherlock to have St. Bart's declare him dead.


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Is the foil of a detective a thief or a magician?

My Theory on the Fall: http://sherlock.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?pid=21539#p21539
 
Posted by anjaH_alias
July 18, 2013 6:41 pm
#16

I think she´s not only there to declare him dead. At least she provided him with the blood on the pavement, and - maybe - another body if there was one (like before with thumbs, a severed head e.g.). And I can also imagine that she had the final idea of how to appear dead (she should know!) - only manipulating the papers seems too less to me.

 
Posted by Lupin
July 19, 2013 2:43 am
#17

Well, yes, I agree with you. I just meant that would explain how St. Bart's would declare Sherlock dead, not the extent to which Molly played a role.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is the foil of a detective a thief or a magician?

My Theory on the Fall: http://sherlock.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?pid=21539#p21539
 


 
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