We hope it's not The Final Problem. Sherlock - 9pm Sunday - BBC1

[givemushypeasachance]

I thought it might be an idea to start a new thread for The Reichenbach Fall since The Hounds got its thread up to over 200 pages since last Sunday!

Non-spoilery vague preview description: "Sherlock and John lock horns with their old enemy in one final problem that tests loyalty and courage to their very limits. Sherlock must fight for his reputation, his sanity and his life. But is he all he claims to be?"

BBC link for The Reichenbach Fall

Take note of the later start time of 9pm. Get your deerstalkers and spiffy pocket magnifiers ready!

steven moffat says in the guardian today, series 3 will be on before the end of the year

Ok, I've just watched it again - DH hadn't seen it as he's been away.

Now call me crazy, but ivyhinknive spotted something: Sherlock ALWAYS turns the collar up on his coat. It's turned up when he's on the roof and when he jumps. BUT, when they roll the body over on the pavement the collar is turned down!

Is that it? Have I found it??!! I have no idea what it means, I may even have imagined it!

Maybe the air rushing past him as he fell caused his collar to flop down?

No no no no no!!!

daenerysstormborn - ooh you made me Google for the article here.

"Sherlock will be back for a third series of three 90-minute episodes, hopefully before the year is out, he says."

They have to have done some filming already then, surely? But secrets like Sherlock filming are harder to keep schtum than flights of corpses...

That's a really good article. I like the way he responds to the accusations of sexism from Ep1. I always saw it as Irene Adler winning - she entranced him so much he went out of his way to help her out.

Hello. Just a warning. I've had a drink or two.

I think the handshake thing is something. Don't know what though.

Would he have put three other people ahead of himself? Would he kill himself - the great genius detective - to protect them? Or did he know a way out of it all along?

I'm still very bothered by him throwing his 'phone away.

Anyone got any idea what the picture on the red seal on the envelopes is?

Oh yes, huzzah for the Guardian article!

Oh wow, Moffat wrote Coupling! Now there's a series I could curl up on the sofa and watch back to back again.

I've just watched ep. 3 with a notepad, but I'm none the wiser really. I think my TCP handshake thought earlier (then far better developed than I could have done!) might be too geeky, remember you always want everything to be clever, now shall we finish the game? As JM says on the rooftop

A few interesting things I've picked up. The yellow circle on the wall of 221B (the black flock wallpaper) has been shining out at me all series. I think it's a nod to Red John's graffiti in the Mentalist. The smiley face is also used in the O of Get Sherlock on the crown jewels cabinet. I don't think it means anything, but it's a nod to another Sherlock-off.

In the Hound, SH makes JW a coffee with sugar and JW says you never make coffee. This episode, he makes tea when he knows JM is coming round after the trial. In that conversation the phrases 'I own you', 'I'm going to burn you', and 'I owe you a fall' are all used. At the end of that scene, he picks up the apple with IOU carved in it and very vaguely smirks. I had to... ahem... collect myself at that point.

In the lab "the oil in the kidnapper's footprint will lead us to Moriarty". Eh? who said kidnapping the kids was a grand Moriarty case, could be just another small case. No, SH knows it's part of the set-up. But neither Molly nor JW in the lab call him up on how this case relates to Moriarty.

The wax seal is a bird on a twig. I had to pause. I don't think it's significant if you have to pause to see it.

When they find the kids he explains it - "Murder by remote control, he could be 100 miles away". Same as explaining the oil analysis while doing it, this is quite uncharacteristic perhaps? explaining as he goes rather than waiting for the baffled faces?

The third sealed envelope (the first two being the breadcrumbs and the book) is a Burnt Gingerbread Man. The Hansel and Gretel story involves Hansel detained elsewhere, Gretel realising that the witch means to kill her (specifically burn her in the oven) and asking the witch to demonstrate, which she does, bit of a shove, oven door shut, Gretel home free. Richard Brook was a 'kids TV storyteller'...

I don't think anything happens in the moment of privacy. It's not uncharacteristic either - "go away, I need to think".

When he steps on the ledge for the second time, after JM has shot himself, you see him stand on a blood stain. There has just been a scene of confusion, thinking what to do next and some whirly around camera work (technical term there). Has he pushed JM over perhaps? I think it unlikely but...

I really think that whatever happens does not happen in the rooftop to ground scene. That itself is a 'keep your eyes fixed on me'. However he "did it" was earlier.

And finally, my candidate for Best Line of the series is "no, nobody can fake being such an annoying dick all the time."

And goodnight.

I agree with you Lexilicious.

Are we all overthinking it all now though?

Do we think Sherlock knew there was no key code all along? If he knew that, would he admit to Moriarty that he was wrong?

Bugger. My head's going to explode. Night night.

This is a wonderful thread! Love it! I'm not the only Sherlock geek...

I got retweeted yesterday after I posted a Sherlock joke picture ... I have truly arrived on the twitsphere.

Also loving this thread but have no theories of my own, I agree with all of the above in turn!!

Moffat & Gatiss are LOVING this speculation I am sure of it!

However as we are looking at pedantic details, can I say that in medico/nursing terms the hospital is known as St Bartholomews or Barts, never St Barts. I say this as a Guys gel

My head hurts

The circle on the wall of Baker Street is a nod to the fact that Sherlock Holmes did a tribute to Queen Victoria in bullet holes on his wall one day when he was bored.

I am also in danger of overthinking it. Yes Holmes knew there could never possibly be a key code and therefore, so did Mycroft. It is inconceivable that Mycroft, as big as he was in government, would think that a simple key code could get through all the security. Remember Mycroft didn't use computer wizard to open the doors of the Tower of London, Pentonville Prison or the Bank of England - he used accomplices. There is no key code.

So what the hell is that all about? There is something we are not getting and I still think it's in the handshakes.

Watching it again last night the speech on the rooftop (I am you, I am not an angel, etc) seems to stand out. Moriarty seems to turn very suggestible, repeating everything Sherlock says and then there's the "bless you" which ties in with the angel references. Something about it all bothers me but I can't put my finger on it!

Can someone else confirm the coat issue for me? It just struck me last night that Watson has spent much of this series telling Sherlock not to turn his coat collar up, so it being down would be out of character [clutches at straws]

Series 3 could air later this year says Steven Moffat \o/ \o/

Just wondering.....

Would everyone be so interested in Sherlock if it was Anthony Worral Thompson in the lead role

Nooooooo, I think the main appeal is Mr BC.
Though personally I don't see the appeal.

?

Wouldn't that be a bit cheesy?

Now that's a difficult one to answer. I like Sherlock Holmes - I've read the books, watched numerous films and series and was predisposed to enjoy this version. However, along with the rather excellent writing I do have to admit that BC is one reason why I love it so much. Not because I fancy him (he's easy on the eyes, yes, but not a knee trembler for me sorry) but because I love what he's done with the role and OH GOD I adore the chemistry between him and Martin Freeman. It might have been just as good with different actors but how could you ever tell?

at leBOF

I don't usually do tumblr but I saw this from shaddicted and it was so awesome:

In The Writers' Room Sherlock Series 3

Gatiss: Okay, Steven, everyone's going crazy trying to figure out how Sherlock survived that fall, so we're going to need a really clever solution.
Moffat: Sherlock stood on top of St. Bart's. And then--
Gatiss: Yes?
Moffat: More disco music.
Gatiss: What? No. It was funny at the pool, but--
Moffat: More. Disco. Music.
Gatiss: How does that even explain--
Moffat: Gloria Gaynor.
Gatiss: But you were talking about all the clues being--
Moffat: First I was afraid. I was petrified.
Gatiss: You don't need to sing it. I know the song.
Moffat: Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side.
Gatiss: Molly. Molly definitely has a part in it, right?
Moffat: But I spent so many nights, thinking how you did me wrong, and I grew strong. And I learned how to carry on.
Gatiss: Stop it. Stop it right now. Did the garbage truck break Sherlock's fa--
Moffat: Oh no, not I.
Gatiss: STEVEN. No! He used the ball to stop his pulse! The dummy that was hanging in the flat was wearing a mask! Something! Anything!
Moffat: I WILL SURVIVE. AS LONG AS I KNOW HOW TO LOVE I KNOW I'LL STAY ALIVE.
Gatiss: Please, please, Steven. I'm begging you as your friend--
Moffat: I. Will. Survive.
Gatiss: Fuck it. Fine.

I think a lot of people fancy Benedict/Sherlock partly because of how he plays the role, if that makes sense. He is a very charismatic actor but previously hasn't really played any characters so overtly powerful. I think his natural charisma meeting an infuriating but fascinating, and very powerful, character, is what makes his Sherlock so good. But I think a great deal of the appeal also lies with the chemistry between him and Martin Freeman; they're both terrific actors but both are better with the other one there. Gatiss, Moffat et al must have been thrilled when they saw them together during auditions/casting. It is magic.

LordOfTheFlies - I don't think the TV series is fab because of BC. He's good in role as SH, but doesn't float my boat (IFSWIM) (More a Rupert Graves gal myself).

However, having sat through Guy Ritchie's latest offering in the same week as Moffat's reworking, the Cumberbatch-Freeman interpretations are in a different league. There is far more intelligence, wit, consistency and subtlety in their version than you'll find in A Game of Shadows, despite the fact that the latter has the sublime-on-the-eyes Jude Law.

Moffat manages to update the stories convincingly to 2012, whereas Ritchie's late Victorian setting sits really clumsily with the script - discussions about 're-lay-shun-ships', Robert Downey Jnr camping it up and getting laughs with his 'urban camouflage'.

At the risk of this turning into "methinks they doth protest too much" or whatever it is, my tuppence worth is this:

The concept of the programme is brilliant, updating Sherlock to the 21st century. The writing is sublime, as is the casting. Martin Freeman's Watson is perfect and the chemistry between him and Sherlock is fantastic. BC's Sherlock is also perfectly pitched. The fact that it's BC as Sherlock is, from my point of view, a huge bonus.

I've only seen trailers for the Robert Downey jr Sherlock films. They don't appeal at all as, for me, Sherlock isn't about the mega explosions and the super-flashy special effects. I realise there'll be loads more to the films but like I said I've only seen the trailers.