So, in summary of the above:

A dead body is dressed up like Sherlock, and dragged out on the sidewalk.  Blood is poured on the sidewalk around the head.  This is to make sure that John sees a dead body on the sidewalk when he runs around the corner.

Sherlock really jumps.  There is no way that a mannequin could flail its arms and legs like that on its way down.  It's just impossible.  And no one is going to take Sherlock' place.

He lands on an airbag underneath him.  He then is helped off, and runs to the opposite side of the building of which John is running around.  John is focused on what he thinks is Sherlock's body, he's not paying attention to anything on the other side of the building.

Sherlock hides there (in front of the red door), applies blood on his face, then when John is knocked over, he runs out and switches places with the body on the sidewalk.  This is why the position of his body does not match the position in which he fell.

He has the squash ball from the lab under his armpit, therefore masking his radial pulse when John tries to take it.  Another "doctor" is keeping his hand on Sherlock's carotid pulse so that John can't take it on his neck (which there's no way to mask without poison or actual death).  Sherlock didn't take any sort of poison for several reasons: it's unpredictable (ie: Sherlock doesn't know when it's going to take effect), it's unreliable (he can't be sure that it would work as planned), and it could actually kill him.  For example, rhododendron toxicity involves the following clincial signs:

Salivation and a burning sensation in the mouth are followed by emesis, diarrhea, muscular weakness and impaired vision. Bradycardia, hypotension (caused by vasodilation) and atrioventricular block are serious cardiovascular effects that may be lethal. Dyspnea, depression, and prostration develop, and death may occur within 1-2 days. Ruminants often bloat. Aspiration pneumonia can develop secondary to emesis.

Even if he took something else, it would still be extremely dangerous because lowering your blood pressure to the point a pulse can't be felt can lead to shock, loss of consciousness, stroke or heart attack (believe me, I suffer from a chronic condition where my blood pressure can suddenly drop and send me into shock if I am sick or injured.  Purposely subjecting yourself to that can lead to severe consequences.  However, using the ball does exactly what Sherlock wants...fooling John.  That's all he needs to do.  Molly can take care of the paperwork and find a body (which it looks like she's already done).

As far as who's watching Sherlock jump...we don't know who is.  It's easy to assume that it's John's would-be assassin, but there's a lot about the assassins we don't know or understand yet...however, I DO know that Sherlock was confident that his plan on the ground would work, so he DOES know who is watching him, and knows that they can't see him.  Which is why any of this works in the first place.


 

Morton wrote:

For and against the use of Rhodendron ponticum.

Against based on it just being a canon nod to a film.

Reality has little bearing. 
In telly-land it rarely makes much difference if something is unsafe even if ACD's  Holmes was first rate in chemistry but there is presumably in telly-land an antidote.

For
If they did use it it'd be an audacious act and Sherlock could accurately claim as Holmes does in ACD canon that he did expect he might die and that the note he left was genuine.


Who's watching Sherlock jump
Moriarty said 3 bullets = 3 assasins we know where each of the 3 are located roughly while Sherlock and Moriarty are on the roof. Only John's assasin is located at Bart's. To know that nothing on the ground could be seen Sherlock has to know where John's assasin is exactly and we know the guy can clearly see John's reaction from where he is located a short distance from where Sherlock's 'dead body' is before being carted away. However Moriarty said he had someone waiting to see Sherlock jump which implies the would be killer doesn't have a view of the pavement and only sees A) Sherlock jumps and B) John's reaction when he is standing upright.

It'd be neat if John's assasin inferred Sherlock jumped and John's reaction confirmed what would happen if Sherlock wasn't That clever.

For there to be bits we don't know goes against the info that all the clues are in the episode.

I doubt that they are going to use a Hollywood style "poisoning good guy but he's a-okay!" because it doesn't fit in with the Sherlock writing.  People get hurt and die in this show, even the good guys.

As far as the assassins go, we only THINK we know who the assassins are...but we're not being told the entire truth.  Mycroft shows 4 assassins in those pictures given to John...but then there are 5 wireless networks watching Sherlock's flat.  Then we don't see some of the assassins, but see others that we don't know who they are (the repairman, the policeman).  We're being fooled into thinking we know who they are...but when you really, really think about it...it doesn't make sense.  The assassin watching John is also one of the four that Mycroft says is watching Sherlock...but if that's the case, wouldn't he be trying to keep Sherlock alive like the others in order to get the keycode?  And why do we never see the female assassin?  Why are the repairman and policeman watching Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade respectively?  I think we are being led to believe we know who they are...but we don't.  And I'm positive that Mycroft has something to do with it.

Moriarty says "his people" are watching...but we don't know who they are, where they are, or how they can see them.  No one else is up there, that's obvious.  And Sherlock picked the place...so how much time would Moriarty have to set something up?  Personally, I think Sherlock has set up the wireless camera from his flat on the roof and is recording their entire conversation.  I also think that he may have that video evidence on his phone (remember, he drops it on the roof to make sure that it isn't destroyed in the fall).  Somehow, Sherlock has recorded the evidence, because it is the only way he can clear his name in the eyes of the law...and in the eyes of his friends.

Last edited by sj4iy (July 7, 2013 6:20 pm)

He looks like Pilot batch!

sj4iy wrote:

besleybean wrote:

He looks like Pilot batch!

LOL, very true!  It probably is...but man, would I love to see this redone, lol.

This picture isn't new. I saw it months ago. I think it's a manip. Sherlock grumpily buying milk or something like that...

Has anyone else seen the stuff with Derren Brown hypnotizing Martin Freeman?  Personally, I think it's the producers trolling the fans, but I wondered what others thought?

I also think they may be trolling us with Moriarty talking with Mycroft as they walk out of Bart's, too...but only because Moriarty is wearing Sherlock's coat.

Also, we don't know which scenes will end up on the cutting room floor!

I think we are all being fooled by TPTB. Why would they film it again if not to troll us and put us off? I sometimes think I have an idea of how they did it but I will never figure it out. The above theory is a good one and I've always thought an airbag  stopped his fall but now I see the picture of them running round the corner with a massive blue bag I think it's a false lead. If Sherlock knew exactly where the sniper had to position himself he could fool him, however, there are plenty of windows around where members of the public can see the airbag from and all it takes is for someone to see it and tweet it or put it on a news site then the pretence could be blown.

It's not too far fetched for the public to do that either. Last year a man committed suicide by jumping off a roof near where I work. Before he jumped we saw him on the roof and we wondered what was going on. He actually jumped even though we couldn't see it, thankfully. Within minutes it was reported online and people started commentating on what they saw.

We can imagine then if someone commented 'I was in work. I saw him jump but not hit the pavement. A few people ran towards the scene and I saw a massive blue bag being dragged away.' It wouldn't be too hard to figure out he faked it.

sj4iy wrote:

nicbooful wrote:

I think we are all being fooled by TPTB. Why would they film it again if not to troll us and put us off? I sometimes think I have an idea of how they did it but I will never figure it out. The above theory is a good one and I've always thought an airbag stopped his fall but now I see the picture of them running round the corner with a massive blue bag I think it's a false lead. If Sherlock knew exactly where the sniper had to position himself he could fool him, however, there are plenty of windows around where members of the public can see the airbag from and all it takes is for someone to see it and tweet it or put it on a news site then the pretence could be blown.

It's not too far fetched for the public to do that either. Last year a man committed suicide by jumping off a roof near where I work. Before he jumped we saw him on the roof and we wondered what was going on. He actually jumped even though we couldn't see it, thankfully. Within minutes it was reported online and people started commentating on what they saw.

We can imagine then if someone commented 'I was in work. I saw him jump but not hit the pavement. A few people ran towards the scene and I saw a massive blue bag being dragged away.' It wouldn't be too hard to figure out he faked it.

I'm sure they took the airbag into something...a building, perhaps.  I'm pretty positive they aren't going to waste a lot of their budget filming for several days just to film something they've already filmed before...because all of that stuff they did is expensive and very dangerous...especially in the rain, which they filmed in one day.

They might have been able to take the airbag into this building through these doors, for example (as a guess, but just making theories):

I did think about them filming false leads and not having the budget for it and it seems unlikely they would set up a whole scenario again just to do that. But, what if they did need to film something, therefore would already be set up to film anyway, then filmed extra scenes just to fool us? It is very far fetched but not impossible.

Your theory fits best with what I believe and you have added parts to it I hadn't thought of before. It's driving.me up the wall not knowing.

I am about to post a few comments on theories already stated.
 

nicbooful wrote:

I did think about them filming false leads and not having the budget for it and it seems unlikely they would set up a whole scenario again just to do that. But, what if they did need to film something, therefore would already be set up to film anyway, then filmed extra scenes just to fool us? It is very far fetched but not impossible.

Your theory fits best with what I believe and you have added parts to it I hadn't thought of before. It's driving.me up the wall not knowing.

I am about to post a few comments on theories already stated.

Yay  That's really all I'm trying to do here, because like others, I definitely don't know exactly what happened...I'm just trying to construct a narrative based on what I initially thought happened (Sherlock landed on something and pretended to be dead) and then what I saw during filming.  I'm glad that I can start a dialogue about it, though :D