So I love the series and just got my girlfriend to watch them all as well.  Now that I have mulitple viewings I've developed some questions and observations about the season 2 finale.  

The biggest issue in this episode is the apparent creation of a computer hack that Moriarty has developed that allows him access to everything.  Now before this episode we caught a glimpse of Moriarty imprisoned and being released, leaving a cryptic message of Get Sherlock.  Later we find out that Mycroft had imprisoned Moriarty because of the code and they couldn't crack him.  He apparently got him to talk about something by talking about Sherlock's history, but exactly what he said wasn't learned.  My problem with that is this.  Moriarty didn't reveal to the world that he had such a code until he commited the break in.  So how did Mycroft know Moriarty had such a code?  Did Moriarty start a rumour he had it?  Furthermore the idea that something as simple as a few lines of code breaking into anything is far fetched.  Moriarty reveals this at the end of the episode. It was nothing more than a few people paid off to help him make it look like the code existed. So why did Mycroft and the British government even arrest Moriarty?  There was no evidence of the code and it hadn't been "used" yet.  It would have made more sense if Moriarty had been arrested as a result of Irene Adler's cell phone being broken into by Sherlock.  Moriarty after all had contacted Mycroft to tell him he knew about the false terror attack in the first episode of season 2.  Irene had been in contact with Moriarty and no doubt had kept some sort of info on him to assist her in the future.  So as fall out from the cancelled operation the British government would have put pressure on Mycroft to get rid of Moriarty who had played a role in cancelling a large and no doubt costly operation.  But that wasn't the reason Mycroft gave for imprisoning Moriarty, it was the code.  Also why did they let Moriarty out?  In a post 9/11 world it's been revealed that the US and British government have no problem secretly arresting people and holding them indefinitely.  So we have a man who is at the epicenter of international crime and the British goverment has him.  Who cares if he talks.  Just keeping him locked up puts a huge dent in the criminal network.  Hell they could have killed him and no one would have known about it.  If they can cover up fake terror plots surely they can make Moriarty dissappear forever.  So why release him?  The only reason I can think of is they wanted to see what he would do.  That the British government had a grand plan where they were hoping to use Moriarty.  What exactly they were hoping to accomplish I'm not sure.  But if it was done on purpose and they saw the message Moriarty left, Get Sherlock, then Mycroft knew he was going after Sherlock in a big way.  Why not warn him or protect him?  All Mycroft did was ask Watson to keep an eye on things.  Mycroft, the man who according to Sherlock practically is the British government, has to rely on John Watson to protect his brother?  Something doesn't smell right...

Next there was something said by the series creators that there was a clue we had all missed in the last episode.  I'm not sure exactly what it was, but I was wondering if Mycroft was working with Sherlock the entire time.  They may have a strained relationship, but giving up his brother to Moriarty?  That seems to be a bit much.  Who knows?

How are they going to clear up Sherlock's fake death?  I'm looking at this from a legal perspective.  The police force wants to investigate him for faking cases.  He has now faked his own death which as far as I know is illegal.  When it is revealed he's still alive he will still be under investigation.  He also ran from the police and pointed a gun at them.  Still more charges he will have to face. Now that his reputation is in question the police will no doubt have to revaluate every case Sherlock was allowed to work on.  I'm sure the lawyers for all those in jail are submitting paperwork for retrials.  Lastly, Moriarty is dead and from what I've read online from the shows creators he is in fact dead.  So how is he going to clear his name from all the charges? 

Much fanfare is made in the season finale about Sherlock's new celebrity as a result of solving the case of the painting of Reichenbach Falls at the start of the episode.  Yet Sherlock was already a celebrity and widely known.  This is more of an observation I guess.  He had solved a serial murder case in the first episode and was texting everyone at the press conference so he knew of them and surely they knew of him.  He was involved with other high profile cases.  I'm sure the Blind Baker episode put him in the news.  Then there is The Great Game.  Several cases being solved while at the same time people being wired to blow up and he solved the murder of a TV personality and revealed a famous painting was fake.  Also he had solved the case of the Baskerville Hound.  A story so well known there had been a news show aired about it at the start of the episode.  It was also so well known that the town nearby had become a tourist attraction.  So after solving it people still didn't know who Sherlock was on a much wider basis?  Also there's Watson's blog which had become extermemly popular.  They are constantly running into people who read it.

This is also police related.  After Moriarty sets in motion the plan to make it look like Sherlock had kidnapped the children Lestrad and his coworkers approach their boss about investigating Sherlock.  The man in charge has no idea who Sherlock is or that he's been working cases with the police deparment.  That makes no sense.  Once again Sherlock is famous.  Also from watching years of police procedurals on TV anytime someone is used on a case they have to file paperwork and get permission.  So there is no way the entire chain of command didn't know about Sherlock and what he had been doing for them.  When Lestrad is asked how many cases Sherlock has worked on Anderson says 20 or 30.  30 cases and they don't know about him?

Lastly this episode is present as a revenge tale.  Moriarty wants Sherlock to fall, but why?  In the season 1 finale Sherlock assumes that everything is about the secrets containted on the flash drive.  Moriarty throws it in the pool.  He was just bored and wanted to play.  Nothing Sherlock did actually got in Moriarty's way.  In the Blind Baker it's revealed that the Black Lotus had enlisted Moriarty to help them retrieve the treasure.  That's what he does.  He is a consulting criminal.  As much of a bastard as he is I'm sure he takes payment up front.  So his client didn't get the treasure back and then he killed the woman in charge of the Black Lotus so she coudn't talk about their deal.  However this still didn't get in the way of Moriarty, just one of his clients.  Irene Adler told Moriarty about the fake terror plot which allowed him the pleasure telling Mycroft and the bombing being called off.  Moriarty won that one.  All Sherlock did was mess up Irene Adler's life, Moriarty got what he wanted.  So once again what did Sherlock do to make Moriarty mad?  Moriarty was imprisoned by Mycroft, but this seems to have been part of Moriarty's plan all along.  He used his time to get information on Sherlock.  So this was a pretty well thought out scheme that took months of planning and execution.  But why?  Moriarty seemed to like having Sherlock around to a point.  They had a weird symbiotic relationship.  Sherlock got the thrill of cases while Moriarty enjoyed making Sherlock "dance" around trying to solve them.  The only time Sherlock actually stopped something of Moriarty's is the first eisode of the series.  The cab driver was being paid by Moriarty to kill people.  So when Sherlock stopped the cab driver the murders stopped.  So is this entire thing about that?  Well not really.  The cab driver told Sherlock he had a fan, Moriarty.  He already knew about Sherlock and wanted a higher class of adversary to play with.  This would mean Moriarty set the whole thing up just to play with Sherlock.  So he got what he wanted and furthered that game in the Season 1 finale.  So if Sherlock is the source of Moriarty's entertainment and everything was done on purpose to make Sherlock run around why would Moriarty want revenge?  Sherlock hasn't actually wronged him in any way.  So is this just a chess match on a grand scale to see who's the better player?  Maybe so, but that wasn't the way it was presented in the episode.  IOU is constantly brought up.  Moriarty owes Sherlock a fall, but what fall did Moriarty suffer?  None that I can tell.  Everything that Moriarty does seems to be on purpose and part of his grand design.  Moriarty comments to Sherlock that there was no code, but that Sherlock missed that because he wants everything to have some bigger meaning.  So with that in mind is the entire episode misleading?  If there was no revenge plot, then what was it really all about.  Are we all just so caught in the grand nature of the episode that we have missed a very simple clue or reason why this all happened?

Anyway these are just some of my thoughts.  I won't even get into how Sherlock faked his death, but like everyone else on here I have a few ideas.  Fell free to chime in on my ramblings.
 

Last edited by JuanJack1979 (July 24, 2013 7:01 am)