Um, so, yeah. This one got messy.
If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about, and if you haven't seen it, go watch it then come back and read this. Or like, you know, whatever.
I'm a student of television and movies. I'm as well schooled in the BBC as anyone this side of the pond who doesn't own cable. I know that sometimes shows kill of major characters (Game of Thrones anyone?) and sometimes they don't when they should (Awake - I'm talking about you), but you can always see it coming if you're paying attention to the show. You can see the coming death and you can see the coming not death, if you catch my drift. If you're using your brain while watching you can make some assumptions about things.
What do I know about Sherlock? First off, I know that the rather odd seeming ending of Series 1 was explained at the beginning of Series 2. Secondly, I know that the show tends to have Sherlock make some leap of intellect to which he comes back to later and explains that while he may have appeared to be acting weird, that he was acting upon one or more bits of knowledge than everyone else, oft times including the audience. Thirdly, turning more to the content of this episode, Sherlock has an epiphany that seems like nothing, but for Sherlock there are no small epiphanies - this is when he announces that the conflict between he and Moriarty is a game. In the fourth place, Sherlock makes it abundantly clear that he doesn't give a crap about what anybody thinks about him as far as the media is concerned. Fifthly, Sherlock never loses sight of the endgame, not when he's drugged or terrified - as illustrated in the first two episodes of this series - so there are no sudden changes of heart, only calculated decisions, I mean specifically when he goes to visit Molly and says that he needs her. Sixthly, Sherlock has shown himself to be quite the actor when he thinks it will help solve a case - again as evidenced in the earlier episodes.
What inferences then, do I make about this episode? Sherlock is not dead, which should be obvious by his appearance at the end, but should not be seen as anything supernatural or psychological on the part of Watson - it was the big reveal that sets up the "here's how I did it and how I knew to do it" at the start of the next series. Moriarty is not dead, the phone conversation on the telephone with John wasn't for John's sake or some kind of suicide message as Sherlock said it was, it was for Moriarty's benefit. Shall I go further? I think I shall. Sherlock never mentions that Moriarty is on the roof, though Sherlock would likely mention that Moriarty's body is on the roof. By not doing so, he gives Moriarty a way to escape because nobody is going up to the rooftop to investigate what is so obviously a suicide. Sherlock also positions John very exactly, so that at the moment that Sherlock jumps, John is hit by a bicycle messenger and knocked roughly to the ground which dazes him so that by the time he regains his feet and some of his wits, Sherlock is 'dead' on the sidewalk amidst a growing crowd of onlookers. Why is this key? John is a doctor, and not your regular run-of-the-mill general practitioners, he's a combat trained doctor who is used to thinking on his feet and reacting appropriately even when it's his best mate there in front of him. By causing John to miss what happens, and the viewer, Sherlock can utilize whatever it is he's cooked up to fake his death, which may have involved Molly's help, but the next step - identifying the body and doing anything with it that was needed would be her job and she has already said that she would do anything for Sherlock. Why else would she not be at the funeral? Sherlock has to keep the three people closest to him in the dark because if they even suspected that he was still alive, their lives would be forfeit, which is also proof that Moriarty is alive. If the assassin has received money for the job, but now Moriarty is dead, they have nothing to gain by continuing on with the agreement, so Moriarty must be alive to continue giving the orders. Or if the assassin hasn't been paid yet, it is only the promise of pay that keeps them on the task they were hired for, and let's face it, dead men don't pay bills. And need I point out that at the end of episode one is the reveal that Sherlock helped Irene fake her own death and disappear?
On top of all of this, but equally as important is the social engineering I have used to further back up my inferences. I've mentioned previously that I only read the Hounds of the Baskerville, but I know that this story, the Reichenbach Fall is the one that Doyle killed off Sherlock in because he was tired of writing this series, but do to popular demand the character was revived and more novels were written. So, thank you librarian for having that conversation with some patron where I could eavesdrop and store that info away.
