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!

Just watched this on iplayer before the kids get up...still wiping tears from my eyes at Watson's scenes next to the grave at the very end.

This is the best thing to be on TV for years.

I cried at the end but only because I was so relieved that he wasn't dead and there would be more in the future!

i love the way martin freeman walks in this
he marches like old solider would
he even stands tall like a solider would

I've been pondering all night [saddo]. I'm convinced there is something we've missed! Gattis and Moffat will be watching Twitter and the like and saying "Nearly, but not quite!", I'm sure of it

I knew Sherlock couldn't be dead, but oh my, my heart twisted for poor John at the graveside when he reached out and gave that tentative little pat to the headstone

I do have to say though that it throws me out of shows a bit when they do that ; have the headstone up straight after the funeral that is. You can't do that, you have to let the ground settle before you can put big heavy stone markers up. We had to wait months for FILs.

It really was amazing, and the acting at the graveside choked me up too, but if you listen to the dialogue I think it sounds actually like Watson and the landlady know that Sherlock is alive and well somewhere and they just want him to come back.
On another MN thread there is a theory that Sherlock jumped into a bin van to escape but I need to re-watch to check it out.

Slightly annoying though as they are clearly lining it up for both Sherlock and moriarty to come back, but moriarty's death was pretty conclusive, and the body on the ground after sherlock's jump was dressed in the correct scarf and accessories (yes I rewound and checked), so I won't be happy unless they come up with some pretty convincing explanations for that lot.

Might just have to read the books as cannot wait a whole year for the next series to find out!!

Ohh Benedict - many [fwoar] emoticons needed

Moriarty is coming back??!!

Although in the books I don´t think that his body is ever found-but when Sherlock "comes back", Moriarty is never in any of the books that follow, I don´t think.

Does seem odd that Moriarty would kill himself as a way of forcing Sherlock to, though-especially as he never waited long enough to see it happen!

Perhaps either outcome was good for him-a living or dead Sherlock, but either way exposed as a fake?

I don't think he did kill himself - he was sniped wasn't he?

Poor Conan Doyle would have loved Sherlock to stay dead - he killed him because he was truly fed up of everyone ignoring all his other novels. He was only known for Sherlock. But public demand insisted that he bring back Holmes!

I enjoyed it, but wouldn't someone at some point spotted that this wasn't actually Sherlock? You know, the undertaker, the coroner or whoever?

I'd assumed he'd pushed Moriarty off but I like the explanation about the rubbish bin better.

The other thing that puzzled me...the computer code. I kept thinking "there's no such thing as a bit of code that will unlock those things" and when Moriarty revealed that there was indeed no such thing, Sherlock seemed surprised. Was he really surprised or was he just pretending?

martin freeman was brilliant. i did wonder if moriarty faked, the gun could have fired a blank, all he needed to do was fall and pop a bag of blood behind his head.

Yes, good one, daenerysstormborn - I hadn't thought of that. I do hope Moriarty isn't dead as he is such a fantastic character.

He was probably pretending. They led each other a dance but Sherlock was slowly planning things. There may have been other people 'in' on the deception...

I thought the way Lestrade got taken in by the "Sherlock's a fraud" thing was too fast. Granted Donovan (?) never liked Sherlock and he was bitingly rude to them all.
Still, wouldn't it have occurred to anyone that someone as clever as SH (even if a fraud, he was clever enough to work that all out) wouldn't have shown his face to a child he was kidnapping? Would have done it by proxy?

What was the bit about mercury in the sweets? Missed that.

I loved it. MF was excellent. Liked the Molly bit too.

Sherlock directs Watsons position in the phone call he may also have paid the cyclist to knock Watson down so he does not get to the scene where he has thrown Moriarty's body off (conveniently dressed in Holmes coat and scarf). Paramedics were on scene VERY quickly-maybe in on it). Holmes' brother is heavily involved in the cover up (he realised to get Moriarty to talk he had to sacrifice Sherlocks personal info). Molly very involved in PM etc and knoing the processes involved. Odd none of the paper headlines mentioned Moriarty's death in them. Holmes' brother would have lots of control in publishing via strings and connections. How much would Watson have seen at that distance.

in my head as i was watching sherlock on the phone to watson, i though moriarty was going to get up, run at sherlock, who would just step to the side, out the way, sending moriarty off the roof. it all happening so fast, everyone assumes it's holmes who fell. but the scene where he jumps is pretty clear it's definitely holmes so it must have been something to do with the truck on the ground. holmes could have easily arranged it with molly, given it was holmes idea to meet him on the roof, going over the edge was a bit of a given.

and yes, thought it was odd there was no mention of moriarty in the papers or his body being found on the roof.

firing a blank shot is still dangerous. Air guns can be fatal at close range (numerous tragic stories of kids blinding siblings etc). so firing into the roof of your mouth is going to do you proper damage one way or the other.

I was taken in by the jump although when they rolled him over I did say to DH that he didn't look smashed enough for that height of fall, and the favour from Molly came back to me later, but just as a body swop.

I just assumed people were on the scene quickly because he jumped off a hospital roof? There couldn't have been that many people in on it because it would have leaked that he was still alive.

Molly was involved but I don't think John or Mrs Hudson knew

He chose the location , I do not think Watson and Hudson were in on it (yet!) , Molly yes. The cyclist was the most staged delaying tactic.

1. I don't think Moriarty was dead, all we saw was a puddle of blood under his head and Sherlock didn't check. And it would be a terrible waste of a truly inspired villain.

1. It was someone alive who fell from the building, the limbs were flailing too much to be a dead body (I think. I've not pushed many dead bodies off buildings so I can't be completely certain).

1. How did the sniper who was assigned to Watson know he'd be at the scene? He set up in the stairwell before Watson arrived back, yet no-one arranged for Watson to be there, he made that decision himself.

1. All the stuff that was in the footprint could have been picked up at the school!

The sniper for Watson may have been intended for somone else (I think I will rewatch).

Going against the grain here slightly, but not sure I like any of this series at all. Found it a bit too fantasical. Each episode went unecessarily too far. In the first episode, the plane of the dead was laughable. In the second episode the hound at the end was just daft. Last night's episode was better but the whole "Sherlock's a fake" stuff plastered across the national papers based on details supplied to Morriarty by Mycroft struck me as far fetched. The doubt would have been more convincing on an intimate scale - attacking the relationship between Sherlock and the police and Sherlock and Watson.

Would like to see a third series tone it down a bit.

Also bored by the endless asides on the nature of the relationship between Watson and Holmes. It seems much more convincing to me to view Holmes as a-sexual and Watson as simply mesmerised by Holmes' intellect and wanting to be part of something so amazing. The idea of a possible sexual relationship between them distorts the dynamic.

Goosey, but isn't the whole Holmes/Watson are they/aren't they gay thing playing up to modern realities? How many times have we seen newspaper allegations that such and such a politician/actor must be gay because we've not seen him with a woman on his arm or with kids? Look at what happened with William Hague just last year.

Great entertainment .

Mad flawed genii always need sidekicks.