Anonymous asked: Do you have a theory as to how Sherlock managed to fake his death?
SHIT YEAH I DO! Come one, come all, sit yo ass down and read this theory tbh!!
SPOILERS AND WILD THEORISING AHEAD
OK SO after the Richard Brook reveal (and we can see from Sherlock’s face the very first time John says “Richard Brook” that he knows it means “Reichenbach” and is thus a setup), Sherlock goes to Molly and tells her he thinks he’s going to die:
we can gather from this that Sherlock has a plan in place to fake his own death from now (1:02:35) until the end of the episode. Thus we must assume that everything he does from now on is calculated.
From here we have a scene with Mycroft and John, during which Sherlock is most probably laying out his plan. When we see him again, he is at St Barts. He then figures out Moriarty’s code:
and then has all the pieces in place. (Has he already figured the code, and is just performing this for John? It’s possible, idk). He then texts Moriarty:
Note that he chooses the place that they should meet - this is clearly because he has something set up at Bart’s.
John then falls asleep (which seems VERY suspicious to me), and wakes up to a text saying Mrs Hudson has been attatcked:
this has been set up by Sherlock, clearly. He rushes out and Sherlock proceeds to the roof. From here on out everything is a matter of timing. We know that before he even goes to the roof, Sherlock has figured out the code, and basically already knows that if his friends are threatened, keeping Moriarty alive will save them. He doesn’t know that there are assassins/snipers waiting to kill his friends, but this seems to be textbook Moriarty; coupled with the fact that there are a whole crew of hitmen living around Baker St, I don’t think it’s far-fetched to consider that Sherlock would have factored in a danger to his friends into this equation - he seemed certain when he spoke to Molly that he would die, and how else could that be unless Moriarty forced him? Sherlock has gone into this situation knowing almost all of the facts.
Now Sherlock and Moriarty have their confrontation:
They go through the facts and Moriarty tells Sherlock he must kill himself - but we know that Sherlock knows all this already. Therefore we must assume that Sherlock is playing Moriarty; going through the motions and speaking to him. But why? What is he waiting for? The simple answer is John: he’s waiting for John to come back from Baker St, so he see Sherlock “die”. Moriarty and Sherlock look over the edge:
see the buses at the top of the picture? And underneath them is written “bus stop” - this will become important later on. Sherlock then says he “needs a moment” at the edge; Moriarty obliges:
Why would Sherlock need this? He’s not sentimental by nature; he knows he isn’t going to die so he’s not contemplating his fate. If he wanted to simply drag out their confrontation further, he would just keep talking to Moriarty. No, he’s doing something: injecting himself with a drug that will slow down his heart rate. (what he needed Molly for - at least, one of the things he needed, we don’t know).
After he has done - and only after - he turns around and tells Moriarty that he’s beaten him. Moriarty then shoots himself: this is the one thing Sherlock did not factor in. This causes a panic in Sherlock’s brain, heightened by the drug he’s taken. Sherlock then proceeds with his original plan. He calls John, and they talk: Sherlock is clearly emotional, and begins to cry. This is very odd behaviour, and seeing as Sherlock knows that he won’t die, we can say that this, plus the shots that seem to indicate that Sherlock is phsyically processing things slowly, is a side effect of the drug he’s taken.
Sherlock tells John that he is a fake both because he wants John to tell the world this, so they will believe he is dead, and so his “death” will be a softer blow to John, who he knows will be torn up by it.
When John exits the taxi, manouevers him to be in a precise position: when John tries to move from this place, Sherlock commands him to “stay exactly where you are!”
this is because from where John is standing, he will not be able to see all of Sherlock’s fall - he will see Sherlock jump, but he won’t see him hit the ground. The viewer is shown the same thing: these shots are one after the other:
So we see Sherlock falling, and then a body, but not the actual impact.
John then walks towards the body, and we see clearly from the shot that he has to round a corner to do so:
Notice how the red truck is pulling away? Sherlock has landed on the truck, softening his fall. How can we be sure? First of all, the truck was not present in this shot:
Second of all, as I mentioned before, this is a bus zone, thus making the truck’s presence there illegal (people do this, yes, but this is a television show, everything has a purpose - this is no mistake), and lastly, as we see an aerial shot of Sherlock’s body, the truck is pulling away:
If someone jumped from a building two meters from you, you wouldn’t drive away.
John is then hit by a bicyclist (most likely part of the homeless network):
giving Sherlock the time to make his body look like it is dead (the eyes, the blood, etc - no, there’s no possible way that it’s a dummy or fake body imo). By the time John reaches Sherlock, there is already a crowd of people (doctors from Barts, clearly, and bystanders who are probably also part of the homeless network). They let John close enough to take Sherlock’s pulse:
which has, of course, been altered by the drug he took. The people then seem determined to hold John back:
despite the fact that he says he’s a doctor: why would they do this? They have no reason to, they don’t know John or Sherlock… but clearly they do, and thus we can say that they are a part of the scheme. Sherlock is then rushed into the hospital and John does not see him again.
So yeah. That’s how Sherlock faked his death. (mAYBE)
