Sherlock series 2, U.S. airing [open spoilers]

[Broomstick]

Originally Posted by twickster

What was the deal with the rabbit? I couldn't make head nor tails of the conversation in the lab with that scientist -- not sure if I was just too tired, or their accents, or what.

The little girl wanting Sherlock to find her missing rabbit was the daughter of the scientist who made the glow-in-the-dark rabbits, and Sherlock enlisted her help in solving his case by threatening to tell the daughter that it was mommy who made Bluebell the rabbit disappear from a locked hutch.

[twickster]

Right, I got that much -- but ... never mind, not that important. Was the rabbit really glowing in the dark? Why? How did the daughter get the rabbit in the first place? Why would the mother give her daughter a lab critter? Esp. a glow-in-the-dark lab critter?

I think this is an example of how they tried to cram too much into this show. This all needed at least three minutes, and it got about one.

[amarinth]

Originally Posted by twickster

Right, I got that much -- but ... never mind, not that important. Was the rabbit really glowing in the dark? Why? How did the daughter get the rabbit in the first place? Why would the mother give her daughter a lab critter? Esp. a glow-in-the-dark lab critter?

Yes. It had been crossed with jellyfish DNA. It was an accident so the mom tried to undo it.

[Heller Highwater]

Originally Posted by twickster

Right, I got that much -- but ... never mind, not that important. Was the rabbit really glowing in the dark? Why? How did the daughter get the rabbit in the first place? Why would the mother give her daughter a lab critter? Esp. a glow-in-the-dark lab critter?

Without getting into the how or why, they mentioned that the rabbit had been treated with GFP. That part, at least, is an entirely real thing, and seeing the rabbit glowing under (presumably) UV light isn't actually all that out there.

[LawMonkey]

What were folks' general impressions on the second episode? The latest episode of The Incomparable podcast reviewed the new season of Sherlock, and they savaged S02E02. Me, I enjoyed it enough, but I'm easy to please. And I couldn't very well disagree with many of their criticisms (predictable; unbelievable elements such as having t-shirts made up for your secret government project; Liberty, Indiana; the attempt at having a "supernatural" explanation as a red herring in a show that is all about rationality and logic; etc.).

[Bridget Burke]

I liked the episode fine. But my opinion comes from watching the DVD (from the UK) numerous times, not from relying on the opinions of others.

Still, I watched last night on PBS. Despite the cuts, it was great to see it in HD--the show looks so beautiful. Rather than the Gothic horror of the story, it presented modern horror in the X-Files mold. With a side order of the ongoing friendship with John--continuing in the last episode of this year's trilogy. And the complex relationship with his brother. Hey, wait--there was Moriarty, too!

I could easily see a group of academic nerds creating a t-shirt, thinking of it as a joke that only they would get. Getting back to X-Files--how many episodes were about some possible eldritch horror that might really be the result of government skulduggery or might be something else again?

Plus, bloody Sherlock with a harpoon! John pulling rank--to Sherlock's approval. And Lestrade in shades!

Why was Sherlock driving--shouldn't John be at the wheel? Martin Freeman can't drive....

[Broomstick]

Originally Posted by LawMonkey

... unbelievable elements such as having t-shirts made up for your secret government project; Liberty, Indiana...

There actually is a Liberty, Indiana

[LawMonkey]

I'm not surprised that there is; the use of it in the show was just a bit precious.

[Arabella Flynn]

S02E02 is probably the least impressive one in the set. I haven't seen the version with cuts; I cannot imagine they helped any. You certainly had to pay attention to catch all of the plot points the first time. And some of them were sort of "unfair". The first series were all plotted very tightly, and the clues were generally on-screen or in dialogue, to the point where it was possible to solve them most of the way before the denouement. In this one, a lot of the final burst of deduction about the project depended on non-real-world information that hadn't previously been given to the viewer. I went through the working out of the delivery system with Sherlock, but it wasn't possible to come up with the motive from outside the narrative. Boo.

I thought the character bits were all nicely done. This and S02E01 make it quite clear that Sherlock is actually trying to learn some social graces, and that he's doing it for John's benefit. Also that it pretty much only applies to John -- otherwise he might have bothered to find out what Lestrade's first name was before now.

[Double Foolscap]

My main issue with the second episode was

SPOILER:

Sherlock guessing the password of the military guy, using the same method everybody on TV does. I was expecting something different, like Sherlock deducing that the password would be insanely complicated and set by IT, and the officer was the type of person not to trust his memory, leading to Sherlock just finding the Post-It with the password written on it or something.

[Irishman]

Originally Posted by C K Dexter Haven

I love the show, I love the modern interp of Holmes, but I think the plotting fails on several counts.

I have to agree. I enjoy going through the process, I enjoy the interpretation of Holmes and the interactions, I like the way they throw bits of things on the screen to clue us to things Holmes is observing. I struggle with the dialogue occassionally, between accents and my own hearing and the rapidfire delivery, I'm running on captioning to keep up. But when it is all said and done, I keep finding plot elements that make me go "Wait, what?"

Problem 1: why would he give away his own clients? Surely, as word spreads, that's the end of his criminal consultations!

Part of it was showing off to Holmes, to show what Moriarty has accomplished. He really wants to impress Holmes, to show his own genius is up to snuff, as it were. So he's okay giving away some of his successes in order to impress his "nemesis", so he can end up besting the genius. I think he is relying that not too many people will actually learn that he revealed his own cases. Would Watson blog that? More importantly, he seemed like he intended to actually kill Holmes in that confrontation, and was only stopped by the phone call (presumably that was Irene?)

Problem 2: He blows up the old blind woman because she gives Sherlock a clue about his voice, and then almost immediately after, he reveals himself to Sherlock. Why go to all the trouble to hide your identity if you're going to unveil a few hours later?

At the time he was trying to distract Holmes from the real point, the spy's stolen information. The whole "5 pips" plot and the series of tasks was designed to show off to Holmes and at the same time keep him too busy to interfere with the other story. Which means he was kinda pulling the thing together relatively on the fly, unless he had stored up a plot against Holmes just on the contingency he needed a delaying factor?

So at the time he killed the old woman, he was trying to keep his actual identity a secret, he still had another round to go in the delay cycle. Notice he didn't send the final "1 pip" challenge? And what was Holmes' response? He realized the point was to stall him, so he sent the message to Moriarty that he had the data, and thus set up the meet.

So you see, the plan changed. At the time of the murder, Moriarty wasn't planning on meeting Sherlock. He was revealing his role, but subtlely, showing off but not giving himself away. That only came about once Sherlock offered the data exchange. Thus the necessity for the safety with Watson, the bomb, and the snipers.

Originally Posted by LawMonkey

What were folks' general impressions on the second episode?

In general, I enjoyed it. I caught the reference to the flashing lights on the moor, and the hound, and of course "Baskerville". I liked the interplay, and some of the lines, like Holmes' "I don't have friends. Just the one."

I spotted Watson snag the receipt but didn't understand why until the later explanation about the store being vegan. It appeared to me that the bright light flashes was part of the stimulus package. We saw them at the victim's house when he was hallucinating, we saw it in the lab when Holmes spawned Watson's hallucination, and we saw some sort of flash in the woods when Holmes and the victim were first there, and Watson was off by himself. I didn't see where the lights were coming from in that last element.

I didn't quite get at the end when the bad guy ran out into the minefield, he stepped on the mine, realized it, and then just gave up and removed his foot, detonating the mine.

Also, has anyone tried to come to a dead stop from a run before? That seemes highly unlikely that he could realize he tripped the mine when his foot hit and stop his forward momentum before releasing the trigger. That's an almost certain boom just about the instant you realize what you've done, before your reaction time can even kick in. It would be one thing if he had been at a walk, but he was trying to run at that point, or at least shuffle fairly fast.

the attempt at having a "supernatural" explanation as a red herring in a show that is all about rationality and logic; etc.).

But that is straight out of the original inspiration, Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles. The fun in that case was not that there was an element of supernatural, but that they did actually present a rational conclusion and explanation despite the seeming supernatural of it.

I wish Hollywood would do that more often, instead of leaving a trace of "or was it" at the end.

[Irishman]

Double Foolscap, I actually thought that was more creative than just flipping over the keyboard and finding the password written on the bottom, or whatever. It was a clever understanding of the psychology of the man, and didn't go for the obvious "pet's name" or "birth date" that is often used in stories.

[Irishman]

Originally Posted by Skara_Brae

I missed something...who killed the hiker with the boomerang?

You see the principle, salient feature of the boomarang is that it "arangs" Boomarangs are noted for one thing - they return to the thrower.

But here is my complaint about the boomerang storyline - there are two kinds of boomerangs: returning boomerangs, and non-returning boomerangs. The returning kind are smaller, and are not really used for taking game. For that, the larger non-returning kind are used (i.e. throwing sticks), so that they fly straight and have the weight to actually do something.

I know about this, so it is likely that there are several other people who do. It is even on wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomerang

So to me, the genius Sherlock Holmes should also be well aware of this. Therefore, the boomerang that actually returns hitting him in the head and breaking his skull and killing him is unlikely. So the big genius solution to the problem relies on knowing about boomerangs and their propensity to return, but not knowing that the ones that return are generally small and lightweight.

[WordMan]

Originally Posted by LawMonkey

What were folks' general impressions on the second episode? The latest episode of The Incomparable podcast reviewed the new season of Sherlock, and they savaged S02E02. Me, I enjoyed it enough, but I'm easy to please. And I couldn't very well disagree with many of their criticisms (predictable; unbelievable elements such as having t-shirts made up for your secret government project; Liberty, Indiana; the attempt at having a "supernatural" explanation as a red herring in a show that is all about rationality and logic; etc.).

Finally saw it - definitely the weakest ep. Getting from:

SPOILER:

Hound to H.O.U.N.D

And watching him go through his memory palace in a deus ex machina sort of way just didn't do it for me. (ETA: I have no problem with memory-retention skills such as using a "memory palace" - that is cool stuff and fits with something Sherlock would press into service - it just felt a bit contrived here...)

Still enjoy the show; everyone's entitled to a not-great ep.
Seems like Watson does okay on the dating front - he's hooked up a few times, and would've with the physician here if that one fellow didn't barge in and blow Watson's patter...

[StarvingButStrong]

Uh --- I missed something. What was the point of the morse coded flashes that Watson spotted?

I know in the original they were signals to the innkeeper from his brother(?) who was the escaped prisoner.

[Bridget Burke]

There was no point to the flashes; John just read them as Morse Code. He'd found the local Lovers' Lane; the flashes were car headlights turned off & on by the exertions of couples dogging. (A UK slang term I just learned, which is in keeping with this episode's canine theme.)

As in the original, when the escaped prisoner story was just a distraction from The Hound....

[well he's back]

OK I've just started watching this contemporary version Sherlock Holmes. Great cast. but it's the modern take on the Conan Doyle episode where he killed off the detective. In the books Doyle explains that Holmes survived the fall off the cliff by grabbing a branch or something. How in the world do they explain his survival in this contemporary episode tonight? Is it sci fi or fantasy now? What can explain his survival from that fall off that building?

[MikeG]

I'm going with body was switched by the Baker St. Irregulars.

[Eyebrows 0f Doom]

It's not explained in the episode, we'll have to wait until the next season for the reveal, but I've read various takes on it, & I think it somehow involves the following:

SPOILER:

Earlier in the episode the kidnapped kids thought Moriarty (or whomever did the kidnapping) looked like Sherlock, which alludes to some kind of mask. Sherlock asked an unknown favor of Molly the pathologist. John did not see the actual impact onto the pavement, just the aftermath, and in the background as the body fell was a truck with some kind of bags in the back. Presumably there was some kind of switch as Sherlock fell, maybe another body (borrowed from the coroner and wearing a mask?) was thrown from a lower floor as Sherlock landed in the truck?

[panamajack]

Actually, in the ACD stories Holmes simply threw Moriarty off and climbed up out of the way. He was a better rock climber than Watson thought possible. (He was nearly actually killed by Moran[? or some other henchman] who had watched the whole thing from even higher).

Haven't seen the episode in question yet. Not really bothered by the semi-spoiler, since with a Holmes story you know it's coming sooner or later. (And I've already had

SPOILER:

Moriarty's actions

spoiled elsewhere for me).

[C K Dexter Haven]

Mod Comment: I've edited the thread title, because there are a few other threads on the series in general, and this relates to the specific episode.

F'rinstance: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=650919
And a specific earlier thread on this episode when it aired in the UK: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=638624

[RealityChuck]

He clearly set up things with Molly. It was never shown what she was doing to help him, and it's not likely they'd leave a loose end like that.

[twickster]

Originally Posted by C K Dexter Haven

Mod Comment: I've edited the thread title, because there are a few other threads on the series in general, and this relates to the specific episode.

F'rinstance: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=650919
And a specific earlier thread on this episode when it aired in the UK: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=638624

Since we've been discussing each episode as it airs in the US, I've merged this into the existing thread. As Dex points out, there's additional discussion in the UK thread.

[Broomstick]

I was trying to figure out how Sherlock gets out of this and, thanks to PBS having the episode available for viewing on their website I was able to repeat the flying leap a couple times.

What I think happened is that Sherlock, knowing he needed to stage his own death, enlisted the help of Molly to procure a corpse that roughly met his description and planted it ahead of time in a location where the sight-lines weren't direct, but almost good enough to see everything. This was either a direct plant or, as noted, someone (Molly?) throwing the body out the window. Or something. Molly would also be the one to identify said corpse as Sherlock latter on. Said location also had what I believe were piles of trash to provide a soft landing, perhaps with extra padding because, you know, Sherlock is not an idiot.

Hence it was vital that John be in the proper position for viewing. He had to be in the right spot with the right sightlines to see Sherlock fall/leap from the roof and the body afterwards, but not directly see the actual impact. Wouldn't surprise me if the bicyclist knocking him down was also part of the scheme, too, to further confuse the issue.

The end result is that John Watson is absolutely certain that he saw Sherlock Holmes fall to his death. That he actually witnessed the moment of death. Which he didn't. He saw Sherlock falling, then he saw a bloody body. John Watson can't be in on the secret, he has to believe his friend is dead.

But Sherlock was falling roughly spread-eagle and face-down. The body was on its right side. Something wasn't quite in line there. Sherlock fell onto the bags/debris/garbage/concealed mattress and scurried away when everyone else was gathered around the body.

And, of course, there's the scene in the graveyard.

[peedin]

Could someone explain the "waiting for the signal from (or not getting the signal) from Moriarty to kill Watson, Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson? What was the signal? And I have my doubts that Moriarty is really dead, despite seeing his suicide and lifeless body.

[well he's back]

Thanks mods for putting my thread in the proper place. I am late to the party & just discovered this wonderful show.

Now, I have read the theories about how the death could possibly have been faked. What will be interesting will be how Holmes restores his reputation - and his relationship with Watson.

[Sam Lowry]

Originally Posted by peedin

Could someone explain the "waiting for the signal from (or not getting the signal) from Moriarty to kill Watson, Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson? What was the signal? And I have my doubts that Moriarty is really dead, despite seeing his suicide and lifeless body.

The signal to kill Watson, Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson was if Sherlock had not jumped. I don't think it was specified how long he had to do it- if he had stood there for 6 hours I don't know if they would have waited to see if he climbed down or jumped off. But if he had just walked out of the building the henchmen would have killed his friends.

I'm pretty sure Moriarty is dead. Him shooting himself just shows how crazy he is and obsessed with Holmes. Sherlock outsmarted him when he realized that Moriarty could call of the killings if he wanted to, I presume by texting a message out to the henchmen or something like that. So then Moriarty played his trump card and killed himself rather than send out the stop signal. He was so obsessed with proving he was smarter than Holmes that he was willing to kill himself over it.

Also, I haven't read the original story, but as I understand it Moriarty does die and Holmes doesn't. So if Moriarty was still alive that would leave a lot of fans very annoyed.

[PaulParkhead]

Here's the Google street view of where John was when Sherlock jumped.

Critically, he can't see the ground in front of Barts. A small garbage truck filled with soft stuff is seen to drive away shortly after Sherlock jumps.

[RandMcnally]

Here's a link to a tumblr blog that goes into huge details about this episode, various theories, etc.

[notquitekarpov]

I am surprised somewhat that there needs to be such criticism of obvious plotting flaws in these TV shows. The original stories were full of senseless plots that did not stand up to close analysis - that was sort of the fun of it that you had to suspend your disbelief just enough to enjoy the ride.

If they were reworked such that they made sense they would lose the magic for me instantly. It is the feel of being in on the joke, of getting all the references and reworkings of the original stories that makes it fun.

Not sure it would work for me if I had not already read all the plots, but it is clear it does and that some on here have not read all the original stories. That it works for them too then suggests a really nifty bit of writing has been pulled off.

For those that are not already aware there is a number of commentaries on the original stories that work like a self referencing joke - taking as read that the stories are real and historic records of a true life detective and then trying to make them work logically explaining all the errors away (often relying on Watson's awful Doctor's handwriting).

http://www.wessexpress.com/html/shrl.html

[LawMonkey]

I've read the original stories, and don't get me wrong--I did enjoy the second ep of this series. (Same for the second ep of last series, again generally thought to be the weak member.) But I don't think the pseudo-supernatural worked as well as in the original story. Possibly this is just a story that doesn't adapt well, or possibly it could've been done better--who knows.

StarvingButStrong reminds me--what was going on with the coded flashes in the ep? I don't recall how that got sorted out either.

[Morgyn]

Originally Posted by LawMonkey

StarvingButStrong reminds me--what was going on with the coded flashes in the ep? I don't recall how that got sorted out either.

There was a couple getting it on, or something like, in one of the cars, and the guy's belt buckle kept catching the light switch. I believe.

[Irishman]

Originally Posted by Broomstick

Said location also had what I believe were piles of trash to provide a soft landing, perhaps with extra padding because, you know, Sherlock is not an idiot.

This is what I need a plausible explanation for. Sherlock clearly jumped off the building. Having it later somehow be that he swapped and pushed a body off will not work as a good explanation. But, that is a 4 or 5 story building. That's not something that a few bags of leaves or a mattress or two will do any good. He's going to need a sizable layer of soft stuff to land on. And we clearly see that when Watson shows up, there are workers below, but there is no large inflated stuntman bag. Ergo, whatever is deployed has to be quickly deployed and quickly retracted.

Next, Watson cannot see the actual landing, and is bumped enough to hit his head and delay his arrival on scene. There are plenty of other onlookers around, checking the body, by the time he gets over there. Clearly plenty of other people saw something. Whatever clever explanation is going to need to explain how nobody managed to witness the changeout. How did some other body hit the pavement and Holmes not?

Also, from the view looking down, it seems impossible that Holmes could have made a large enough jump to make it to the street, to land in the garbage truck (if that is what happened). Did the truck back up, then drive off?

As far as the body being on its side when Watson arrives, it was being checked by several other people in hospital scrubs when Watson made it to the scene. Clearly they turned the body over.

I'm curious how they make this plausible. I understand the intent is to make it look impossible, so that Holmes' powers of reasoning are supported. But it just looks a bit too impossible, and they really need a good explanation to cover their daring ploy.

I did catch the request to Molly for help, so clearly she is involved. I also caught the point where the girl thought her abductor was Sherlock, so somehow someone faked looking like Sherlock in order to do the abduction. I could see that somehow being involved in the body switcheroo.

Originally Posted by peedin

Could someone explain the "waiting for the signal from (or not getting the signal) from Moriarty to kill Watson, Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson? What was the signal? And I have my doubts that Moriarty is really dead, despite seeing his suicide and lifeless body.

This actually is a bit off. So, there are three assassins waiting for Sherlock to jump. How did the other two (i.e. the ones not watching Watson to see the fall) alerted? I could argue the one going to shoot Lestrade is there (because Lestrade's office is in the building), but what about the guy waiting for Mrs. Hudson? How did he get the message?

I'm also lost as to how Sherlock deduced that Moriarty had a method to call off the murders. He came to that realization when Moriarty walked away to give him a moment of privacy. How does that lead to the deduction that there is a way to call it off? How does he not think Moriarty might have a way to call it off before that point?

The killers are waiting for Sherlock to jump. I assume he has to keep up the ruse of his own demise until he can determine who the shooters are and neutralize them. Otherwise, he could fake the fall, the killers stand down, then he turns around and announces "Ha ha, just fooling". Clearly he needs a way to make sure they don't act on their orders later. That would explain his going along with the demand that he claim to be a fake and making sure Watson believes he died.

Originally Posted by Sam Lowry

I'm pretty sure Moriarty is dead. Him shooting himself just shows how crazy he is and obsessed with Holmes. Sherlock outsmarted him when he realized that Moriarty could call of the killings if he wanted to, I presume by texting a message out to the henchmen or something like that. So then Moriarty played his trump card and killed himself rather than send out the stop signal. He was so obsessed with proving he was smarter than Holmes that he was willing to kill himself over it.

Yes, Holmes convinced Moriarty that Holmes was cold-blooded enough that he could extract the signal from Moriarty. Thus, Moriarty claimed victory by assuring that Holmes would not be able to extract that signal. But it's a hollow victory, dying before you can enjoy it. Which shows just how psychopathic Moriarty was.

I think he was a genius. Perhaps not Sherlock's equal, but much closer to Sherlock than anyone else. Thus his ingenius plan to ruin Sherlock's reputation. And it was a brilliant plan, because the only people who wouldn't believe it were tainted as far as the world was concerned. So what if Watson doesn't believe Sherlock was really a fake? "He's just duped, poor boy. Can't believe he could be taken in, so he won't believe it. Tut tut." Even Lestrade was at least questioning it. Like they said, everyone that Sherlock made look like a fool had a vested interest in seeing Sherlock was a clever faker instead of a brilliant deducer.

I was also glad that they did the twist with the code. I could accept that the brilliant mastermind Moriarty somehow came up with the key code software. I was really irked that he somehow had it reduced to a string of beats that he could pop out with one hand in a couple seconds. No. Software that sophisticated and complex would not be a couple lines of binary. It would be an extensive string of code. So when Moriarty turned around and laughed that he had tricked Sherlock, there is no code, I was happy. I mean, Sherlock should have been able to deduce that, but at least they got rid of the ridiculous part.

[teela brown]

I'll have to rewatch the jumping scene tonight, to re-study the truck's departure, which I completely missed. I do remember Sherlock looking down and laughing, and then hopping back to re-engage with Moriarty for awhile longer.

I was just reading Moffatt's and Gatiss's discussions of this scene over at Wikipedia, and quote it here:

"Steven Moffat felt that he and co-creator Mark Gatiss had outdone Conan Doyle in their version of Holmes' fall and Moffat added that, in that much-discussed sequence, there was still "a clue everybody's missed.'"

A clue everyone's missed, eh? I have DVR; I'll just see about that.

[JSexton]

Originally Posted by teela brown

I'll have to rewatch the jumping scene tonight, to re-study the truck's departure, which I completely missed. I do remember Sherlock looking down and laughing, and then hopping back to re-engage with Moriarty for awhile longer.

I was just reading Moffatt's and Gatiss's discussions of this scene over at Wikipedia, and quote it here:

"Steven Moffat felt that he and co-creator Mark Gatiss had outdone Conan Doyle in their version of Holmes' fall and Moffat added that, in that much-discussed sequence, there was still "a clue everybody's missed.'"

A clue everyone's missed, eh? I have DVR; I'll just see about that.

It seems impossible that there is something onscreen that no one has noticed. Could it be something that should be there, but is absent?

[Lamia]

Originally Posted by Irishman

I'm also lost as to how Sherlock deduced that Moriarty had a method to call off the murders. He came to that realization when Moriarty walked away to give him a moment of privacy. How does that lead to the deduction that there is a way to call it off?

I don't remember the exact dialogue, but when Moriarty was describing the horrible situation Sherlock was in he said something about how there was no way Sherlock could stop the assassins, and he (Moriarty) wasn't going to do it. Not couldn't, but wouldn't.

[twickster]

Originally Posted by JSexton

It seems impossible that there is something onscreen that no one has noticed. Could it be something that should be there, but is absent?

The dog that didn't bark?

[teela brown]

Well, I've replayed the scene over about a dozen times now. I do indeed see just the edge of a truck which contains bright plastic puffy things held in a cagelike enclosure. It pulls away just as everyone starts to cluster around the body on the sidewalk.

However, before that, when Sherlock's looking over the edge, there are a couple of the typical red London double-decker buses parked there instead. There are people passing by on the sidewalk; one is an apparent blind man, who's tapping the bus with his cane. A few seconds after we see the buses is when Sherlock looks down and laughs.

I've listened to their conversation for clues, but if something important was divulged, I'm too dim to grasp it.

[Irishman]

Well, I have no clue how sneaky Moffat thinks he's being, so it may not even be anything in that scene, but something else. We know, for instance, that Holmes had a conversation with Molly about needing his help, that he feels he is going to need to die, or something. That is obviously part of it. There could be something else from another scene, like that scene, rather than something from the rooftop scene, that Moffat has in mind.

I was just reading Moffatt's and Gatiss's discussions of this scene over at Wikipedia, and quote it here:

Okay, where was that from? I tried searching wiki on Sherlock Holmes and cannot find any ref to this tv series.

[Baron Greenback]

Originally Posted by Irishman

Okay, where was that from? I tried searching wiki on Sherlock Holmes and cannot find any ref to this tv series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_%28TV_series%29

(searching for just "Sherlock" gives better results for the TV show)

[teela brown]

And here's an excerpt copied out of a UK online newspaper:

"But for all the repeat views on iPlayer and hypotheses regarding rogue cyclists and unexplained conversations with pathologists, show creator Steven Moffat insists fans have missed a key clue.

He said: 'I’ve been online and looked at all the theories and there’s one clue that everyone’s missed.

'It’s something that Sherlock did that was very out of character, but which nobody has picked up on.'"

What's out of character for Sherlock? Being nice? Being humble? Shaking hands? Crying?

Here's my rundown on the mechanics of the faked suicide.

It's indeed Sherlock on the building. It's he who jumps. It's he who is on the sidewalk. But he jumped first into the back of the truck which had recycle bags full of bubble wrap or other shock-absorbing material. In the truck was blood provided by Molly with which he anointed himself with, or he had it with him all along. He then hopped out of the truck and fell the last few feet onto the sidewalk. Molly or another St. Bart's accomplice drove away the truck.

He has contrived to temporarily stop his pulse, either with drugs (remember Irene Adler's drug) or some physical device, not that John has but a brief moment to try his pulse. He's quickly wheeled away into the very hospital from which he jumped - where Molly works as coroner - where she's to be the one who produces his death certificate.

This scenario makes it so that petite Molly doesn't have to fling a heavy body out of some window.

[3:20:59 or bust]

Originally Posted by teela brown

And here's an excerpt copied out of a UK online newspaper:

"But for all the repeat views on iPlayer and hypotheses regarding rogue cyclists and unexplained conversations with pathologists, show creator Steven Moffat insists fans have missed a key clue.

He said: 'I’ve been online and looked at all the theories and there’s one clue that everyone’s missed.

'It’s something that Sherlock did that was very out of character, but which nobody has picked up on.'"

What's out of character for Sherlock? Being nice? Being humble? Shaking hands? Crying?

Here's my rundown on the mechanics of the faked suicide.

It's indeed Sherlock on the building. It's he who jumps. It's he who is on the sidewalk. But he jumped first into the back of the truck which had recycle bags full of bubble wrap or other shock-absorbing material. In the truck was blood provided by Molly with which he anointed himself with, or he had it with him all along. He then hopped out of the truck and fell the last few feet onto the sidewalk. Molly or another St. Bart's accomplice drove away the truck.

He has contrived to temporarily stop his pulse, either with drugs (remember Irene Adler's drug) or some physical device, not that John has but a brief moment to try his pulse. He's quickly wheeled away into the very hospital from which he jumped - where Molly works as coroner - where she's to be the one who produces his death certificate.

This scenario makes it so that petite Molly doesn't have to fling a heavy body out of some window.

That's not a bad theory. I'd buy it.

The worst part is how long we have to wait to find out. I've read that they're thinking of filming season three "sometime in 2013", and there might be another 18 month gap between seasons.

Ouch.

[Eyebrows 0f Doom]

Originally Posted by teela brown

He has contrived to temporarily stop his pulse, either with drugs (remember Irene Adler's drug) or some physical device, not that John has but a brief moment to try his pulse.

Perhaps with the rubber ball he was shown with earlier? (Holding a ball under your armpit will appear to stop the pulse in that arm.)

[Lamia]

Originally Posted by Eyebrows 0f Doom

Perhaps with the rubber ball he was shown with earlier? (Holding a ball under your armpit will appear to stop the pulse in that arm.)

Ooh, good one. Playing with the ball could also be described as out of character for him, so that would fit with the hint from Moffat.

[Bridget Burke]

Originally Posted by 3:20:59 or bust

That's not a bad theory. I'd buy it.

The worst part is how long we have to wait to find out. I've read that they're thinking of filming season three "sometime in 2013", and there might be another 18 month gap between seasons.

Ouch.

Filming of Series 3 begins in January, 2013. After filming comes post-production. BBC was rather quick in putting it on the air as soon as it was finished, but PBS needs to wedge the program into Masterpiece Mystery....

[teela brown]

Originally Posted by Bridget Burke

Filming of Series 3 begins in January, 2013. After filming comes post-production. BBC was rather quick in putting it on the air as soon as it was finished, but PBS needs to wedge the program into Masterpiece Mystery....

Aaaaahr! I may have to teach myself the secret of viewing BBC series sooner than they're distributed to the American market. I have several months at least to learn.

[Arabella Flynn]

Originally Posted by teela brown

'It’s something that Sherlock did that was very out of character, but which nobody has picked up on.'"

What's out of character for Sherlock? Being nice? Being humble? Shaking hands? Crying?

Making a phone call, I would imagine. If I got a voice call from Sherlock, I'd assume either something was hinky, or both his thumbs were broken. He did it because he needed John to be standing yea far back, looking up, when he jumped, or he might spot the trick, not bolting up the stairs of St. Bart's, eyes glued to the screen of his phone. Sherlock is generally making an effort these days to spare John pain; if he genuinely wanted to die, he'd have thought up some way to have his flatmate be completely across town while he did it, and have sent his "suicide note" via text (or email, seeing as that's kind of what those Blackberry phones are for).

The cyclist who knocked John down was in on it, and did so intentionally so that Sherlock would have time to scramble down and play dead; the crowd right around the body that John had to fight through was probably there at Sherlock's behest, too. He needed Molly's cooperation so that when his "corpse" was brought into the morgue, he didn't actually die from being jammed into a storage freezer overnight. He may have needed her help to either recruit some EMTs, or just nick some uniforms -- how often do you look at the faces of emergency workers in those big neon coats?

He stopped his pulse using the rubber ball he'd been playing with previously. It's an old magic trick. Tuck it under your arm at the right spot, and you can "magically" stop your pulse even as a (genuine, non-plant) volunteer from the audience holds your wrist. There are a number of drugs available in a hospital that could theoretically have stopped his pulse and respiration, but the rubber ball would be by far the safest, easiest way to do it.

[teela brown]

He'd better have had two rubber balls; how could he tell which wrist John would take his pulse from?

But John did take his pulse from the arm that he was lying on, which would really have increased the pressure from the rubber ball and rendered that arm dead.

Yeah, the cyclist would have to be in on it. The passersby would have to be as well, or they'd have seen him scrambling out of the truck and onto the pavement.

And Sherlock initiated the phone call to John earlier reporting that Mrs. Hudson was shot. He contrived it when John was dozing in the lab. He wanted John out of the way for awhile to give him time to engage Moriarty and get all the other elements in place.

[Bridget Burke]

Originally Posted by teela brown

Aaaaahr! I may have to teach myself the secret of viewing BBC series sooner than they're distributed to the American market. I have several months at least to learn.

TunnelBear!

The DVD's went on sale just after the show finished in the UK & I've got an all-region player. And I just got the BluRays from Amazon. Netflix & Cable keep my purchase of movies or TV shows pretty rare, but I'll gladly fling money in the direction of Mofftis...

[C K Dexter Haven]

Originally Posted by teela brown

And Sherlock initiated the phone call to John earlier reporting that Mrs. Hudson was shot. He contrived it when John was dozing in the lab. He wanted John out of the way for awhile to give him time to engage Moriarty and get all the other elements in place.

The episode was, in many ways, referential to Conan Doyle's story, where Moriarty sets up a false medical emergency to get Watson out of the way, leaving Sherlock alone for the confrontation. Here, it's Sherlock doing the ditto.

I did think that the Moriarty suicide was... well, inconsistent. "As long as I'm alive, you can force the code out of me" doesn't do it; presumably, as others have said, the assassins weren't going to wait for six days. Sherlock would have only a matter of minutes (perhaps an hour or two) to get the code out of Moriarty, and that seems unlikely. I think it was a cop-out, because they didn't want Sherlock to actually kill Moriarty.

And, BTW, assuming that the death was a set-up with Molly, the bicyclist, etc: then clearly Sherlock knew long before he was up on the rooftop, what was likely to happen. So the bit about him standing on the ledge and "suddenly" figuring out that Moriarty must have a code, that was all silly pretense. (Although, if Moriarty was devasted that Sherlock outwitted him on this one little ploy, how much more so if he learned that Sherlock had anticipated him hours ago?)