Hello everyone, I was very moved by all the responses to my post about returning to the Sherlock fandom. I was literally prepared to be met by crickets, but instead discovered that there are still so many people here who share the same love and the same sorrow, both people who've been here from the beginning and new fans. This really is #the fandom that loves (hope I got this tag right).
I'm currently rewatching S1-3 (no S4 as I'm not interested in torturing myself) before writing my new metas, but in the meantime I thought I'd reintroduce some of my old posts for those of you who are new here (or who want a review). The vast majority of these were written pre-S3, so they may not be entirely congruent with how things turn out in S3 (which I'll address in my new metas). However, you can see my core interpretation of the characters and the story in these posts, which remain the same now even if I may have different readings of individual scenes and episodes.
You can find all these links on sidebar of the actual website of this tumblr, but I'll also include them below (along with summaries and some recs):
Characters
These are character profiles I wrote for Sherlock, John, and to a lesser extent, Mycroft. At the time I had just gotten into Myers-Briggs personality typing and used that as the framework for most of these profiles. Unfortunately...in the years since I wrote those, I studied a lot more about Jungian psychology (what Myers-Briggs is derived from) as well as related theories like Socionics...and I'm afraid that I typed everyone wrong other than John. (I'll have to eat my hat for this, but these days, I actually believe Sherlock should be typed INTJ and Mycroft ISTJ, contrary to what I originally argued.)
I've thought about deleting the Myers-Briggs profiles, but I do think my ideas in there are still sound, even if I got the typing wrong, so I've left them up for now.
In particular, I'd like to highlight these posts:
"The Heart of a Detective" Part I and Part II
This is about Sherlock's motivations for being a detective rather than a scientist or a philosopher (inspired by Mycroft's question in ASiB: "My brother has the mind of a scientist or a philosopher, yet he elects to be a detective. What may we deduce about his heart?") It's written through a Myers-Briggs lens, but you don't need to know the theory to read it.
"Will the Real John Watson Please Stand Up?"
An essay on how John Watson is actually more difficult to characterize correctly than Sherlock Holmes. Unfortunately, I think the show itself violated this in S3 (and especially S4), as many of us picked up on, and it ultimately ruined the story.
"Time to Choose a Side, Dr. Watson"
A meta on John's core conflict in the show, starting from ASiP all the way to HLV. This is something I want to explore more in my upcoming posts, and once again is something I feel like the show writers really messed up.
Relationships
These are probably my favorite metas that I've written, the ones looking at the different relationships in this show (not only between Sherlock and John). This is what drew me and I believe most fans into the show, and it's in ruining these (rather than the chaotic plot, as bad as that was) that ruined Sherlock in the end. So I feel a lot of nostalgia when I read these.
I recommend ALL of these posts, but if I had to choose, I'd recommend reading this series of discussions regarding Sherlock and John's relationship:
"A Love-Friendship: Why I don't ship Johnlock" (main post, discussion 1, discussion 2) note: I do ship them now, but the context was a very different back then
Back in S1 and S2, it was still very up in the air whether Sherlock and John were platonic or not (in fact, I was on the platonic side back then, as you will see). I think post S3, it's hard to see their feelings as anything besides MADLY AND DESPERATELY IN LOVE (especially on Sherlock's side). The show, to my surprise, really leaned into the romantic angle, and I don't think a platonic reading is viable anymore. But, I still really treasure these discussions we used to have pre-S3, because it helped me clarify my perspective on these topics in a way that affected my real life beyond the show.
I also recommend this meta on Sherlock and Irene:
"Love vs Lust: An Analysis of ASiB" (plus follow-up)
My reading of ASiB is a bit different now (I actually don't think Sherlock was in love with her), but I do still stand by my analysis of what "lust" vs "love" is for Sherlock and that being his main dilemma in the S1/S2, as well as my interpretation of Irene.
Meta-Analysis
A couple of metas on the show as a whole. I expect to add a lot more to this category with my new posts.
Recommendations
Fanfiction and fanvideos that I like, as well as other tumblrs (unfortunately, I don't think any of the tumblrs update on Sherlock anymore).
My Fanfiction
I briefly tried writing my own Post-Reichenbach fic called "Letting You Go." It didn't go anywhere because the story was more complicated than my plotting abilities at the time and I also got too busy. But...if you're still curious, you can find it here. (I am proud of how I wrote Sherlock at least.)
Going Forward:
I will tag any new metas or original posts I make with #sherlockcharacteranalysis so feel free to follow that. I'll also probably make a separate index for all my new metas rather than mixing it in with the old ones, and put the link to it either on this post or a new post that I'll pin to the top. Hopefully that will make it easy for everyone to find them.
Ok, that's it for now. If you have any questions/comments on my old writings, feel free to leave them here or on the original posts. I'd love to see them and will try to address what I can.
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So many adaptations do not show us WHY Watson likes crime solving with Holmes. They kind of assume that everybody would like to go on an exciting field trip with a genius, or that Watson is in need of income and this is a good way to get it. In the original book though, Watson actively enjoyed detective work before he got close to Holmes.
Watson has read a shit ton of detective books and actually gets pissed off when Holmes insults his favourite characters. If he was talking to a regular person instead of a consulting detective he'd probably be the one infodumping.
Prior to study in scarlet, Watson actually tries to do his own little deduction project because he wanted to figure out what Holmes does and why he can have encyclopaedic knowledge in certain areas but lack common adult knowledge in others. He even compiled a little list of information about what Holmes is knowledgeable and not knowledgeable at and got frustrated when he couldn't figure it out.
In this process he observed every aspect of Holmes, to the extent that he admitted he'd probably be considered a "hopeless busybody".
Yes, he does caveat it by saying that he's only doing it because he's very, very bored, but notice how he is only politely interested when he's shown chemical experiments or the various other subject that Holmes sees fit to infodump about, but absolutely intrigued in his project of figuring out what Holmes does and completely impressed by every tiny piece of deduction Holmes makes.
What to do when finding out that your wife is pregnant on your wedding day - A Tutorial by John Watson:
1) Stare blankly into the empty space next to her face.
2) Take your time to process the happy news.
3) Do not talk about the baby with her! Aggressively talk about how your best friend is so much cleverer than you instead.
4) Look away from her face, it“s getting too much.
5) Instead focus on your best friend and bicker with him for a bit.
6) Ok, this shit is real, time to panic.
7) OMG, your best friend just said something self ironic, panic break. Now you can look at him for a while.
8) Actually, what he said was really funny, you can look a bit longer if you want.
9) Okay, it wasn“t funny, it was hilarious! And look at his cute little smile! You can touch him now and pull him a bit closer, let him know how important he is to you!
10) Was there anything else? Holy shit, your wife! Well, Fuck! Quickly throw her a smile and ask if she“s okay.
11) Maybe touch her too, to let her know that you love her. A hesitant pat on the shoulder will do the trick!
12) Now that“s done, look at your friend again.
13) While you“re at it, check out is body too, make sure everything“s in the right place!
14) Yep. All good.
15) Hm, maybe that was a little to much Bro-time. His face looks sadā¦.this is getting intense, time to look away uncomfortably.
16) Okay, maybe one more glanceā¦.
17) Nope, shit, it“s still pretty intense, look away!! Focus on how happy you are about the wedding and the baby, not on how he taught you the waltz!
18) What? He said something, lick your lips and stare at his face again.
19) Did he say dance?? Fuck, you“ve been found out! Look for escape routs!
20) Oh, the wife wants to dance, thats fine, no danger there. You wonĀ“t be dancing with anyone else though, letĀ“s nip this very much in the butt, eeer bud! He doesnĀ“t want to anywayā¦. Right?Ā
21) Right. Thought so. Ok, what next? Probably ought to look at the wife again, she just said somethingā¦.DonĀ“t smile, donĀ“t talk about a baby and donĀ“t directly say yes to the dancing thing though. Everything in your own time.Ā
22) OH SHIT, he just mentioned the dancing lessons! Quickly, throw a no homo joke at him to safe the day and grab something - ah, yes, the wife!
23) Ok, all good now. Let“s dance close enough to not see her face all the time.
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Time to Choose a Side, Dr. Watson: ASiP and Johnās Core Conflict
Iām currently rewatching the whole show, writing metas whenever I notice something worth analyzing. This time around, I am paying special attention to John because I believe his character development is now more important to the plot than Sherlockās, but is also less obvious than Sherlockās.Ā
I rewatched A Study in Pink recently and this line caught my attention. Mycroft says it to John at the very end of their first meeting in the abandoned warehouse:
Mycroft (Examining Johnās left hand): Remarkable.
John: What is? (Pulls his hand away.)
M: Most people blunder around this city and all they see are streets and shops and cars. When you walk with Sherlock Holmes, you see the battlefield. Youāve seen it already, havenāt you?
J: Whatās wrong with my hand?
M: You have an intermittent tremor in your left hand. Your therapist thinks its posttraumatic stress disorder. She thinks youāre haunted by memories of your military service.
J: Who the hell are you? How do you know that?
M: Fire her. Sheās got it the wrong way around. Youāre under stress right now and your hand is perfectly steady. Youāre not haunted by the war, Dr. Watson; you miss it. (Whispering) Welcome back.
(Mycroft walks away, swinging his umbrella.)
M: Time to choose a side, Dr. Watson.
Now, I believe this line sums up Johnās character and the journey he will have to take throughout the series, the parallel to what Lestrade says about Sherlock later in the episode. (āSherlock Holmes is a great man. And I think one day, if weāre very, very lucky, he might even be a good one.ā) However, while itās fairly obvious how Lestradeās quote applies to Sherlock, itās less obvious how Mycroftās quote applies to John.Ā
What are the āsidesā that Mycroft refers to? At first glance, it may seem like heās talking about āgood vs. evil,ā but that canāt be right. One of Johnās defining characteristics is his āstrong moral compass.ā He wouldnāt be tempted to act immorally let alone evilly; thatās Sherlockās conflict, not Johnās. Or does Mycroft mean more in the sense of āus (Mycroft/Sherlock) vs. them (criminals/Moriarty)ā? That would align with the war metaphor, but this still doesnāt make much sense when applied to John, as being tempted to join the criminal class is also antithetical to Johnās character (again, thatās more Sherlockās problem).
Or perhaps, Mycroft is referring to choosing between being a ācivilianā or a āsoldier.ā One āblunders aroundā and sees only the surface āstreets and shops and cars,ā the other sees the ābattlegroundā underneath it all. One follows conventional expectations and is interested in living a comfortable life; the other (ideally) sees whatās actually worth protecting and is willing to sacrifice himself for it. One behaves according to social norms, while the other knows adhering to true morality often entails breaking those norms.
This last interpretation seems much more likely what Mycroft meant. The struggle between being a ācivilianā vs. a āsoldierā is the one that John faces the most consistently on the show. Furthermore, when he chooses the wrong side (civilian) things go poorly for him (and Sherlock), and when he chooses the right side (soldier) things go well, often turning the tide in crucial moments. This conflict for John is analogous to Sherlockās core struggle between his head and his heart, his āsociopathā and his humanity.Ā
Reblogging this old meta of mine, as I've been feeling an inclination to write a lot about John's character arc in the near future, and this is a good introduction to my thoughts on that.
I still completely agreeing everything I wrote here, and messing up John's characterization and core conflict is in my opinion a big part of what ruined the Sherlock and John's relationship (and therefore the show).
I'll expand more on this in future posts, but not only does John forgiving Mary for shooting Sherlock break his character (as I know most of us agree), having Mary be his temptation (the equivalent of Moriarty for Sherlock) doesn't actually make sense for his core internal conflict. Mary would be a much stronger rival against Sherlock for John's heart if she's actually who she pretended to be, a clever and adventurous woman who accepts John's friendship with Sherlock but still is part of the "normal world." That would be much more tempting for John to choose over Sherlock than a sociopathic assassin who attempts to kill the most important person in his life. I mean, that should have never been a choice; the first part is already a dealbreaker, let alone the second...for John to even consideer it, let alone choosing it, completely breaks his character.
(All the stuff that goes down in S4, where Mary sacrifices herself for Sherlock and John blames Sherlock for Mary's death, would also be way more convincing if Mary was actually, you know, a good person. And could have made for some really compelling emotional drama, if written correctly. But given who she actually was, John should have relieved that she was dead.)
Because John isn't tempted by sociopathy, the way that Sherlock is. John is the unassailable moral anchor in Sherlock's life, that's how he inspires Sherlock to become the "good man" he always had the potential to be. For their relationship to work, John has to be as much of a hero for Sherlock as Sherlock is for him (as they were in S1/S2). Despite their many differences, the relationship between Sherlock and John is one of equals. It is not Sherlock only saving John and not the other way around, where John is always the damsel that needs to be won over. (In fact, John is more the protagonist in their relationship rather than Sherlock, as I'll explain more another time.)
Their relationship is one of the most epic friendships of all time (regardless of whether you ship them); it's what makes the two of them so compelling, why we're still drawn to them as characters even more than a century later. And whatever other liberties you take interpreting their relationship, you cannot violate that without breaking the essence of what makes Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson.
Why the THoB fight is much sadder than it seems at first
Who was more hurt after their fight in front of the fireplace in THoB?
John. Sherlock told him he had no friends and then he had to chase him all over the village to apologize. Obvious.Ā
Well, both were hurt, thatās for sure. But once again I believe Sherlock was the one who was more hurt.Ā
The fireplace scene in this episode is a milestone for this show because it is the very first time Sherlock tried to reveal a little of his true self to John. And it ended up being a disaster.
Look at me. Iām afraid, John. Afraid. Iāve always been able to keep myself distant. Divorce myself from feelings. But you see, bodyās betraying me. Interesting, yes? Emotions⦠grit on the lens, the fly in the ointment.
So, Sherlock for the very first time said that he indeed has feelings, but he chooses to suppress them. This is very different from his usual why would I care / I have no heart / I am emotionless attitude.
And while it is the first time a vulnerable Sherlock tried to open up, to become more intimate with John, Johnā¦
This is a really good analysis, and I came to a similar conclusion when I rewatched THB recently. John wants Sherlock to be more emotionally open, but when Sherlock actually opens up, John doesn't handle it well, because John is not actually an emotionally open person either. In fact, in many ways Sherlock, despite his claims to the contrary, is much more emotionally open (and honest) than John.
It's such a missed opportunity. If John had handled Sherlock's fears better here, I wonder if Sherlock could have shared more of his actual worries about Moriarty with him down the road. Instead, Sherlock believes that he has to handle Moriarty all by himself - he keeps John even more in the dark as to his actual thoughts and feelings about the situation in TRF than in TGG.
Rewatching this also makes me realize just how much many of us overly romanticized Sherlock and John's relationship back in S2 (although for understandable reasons). Their relationship actually has a lot of hidden problems and isn't as ideal as it appears; it just hasn't been seriously tested yet so the fault lines aren't apparent. Of course, that's all about to change with "the fall" and all its consequences in S3.
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was rewatching BBC Sherlock again and genuinely what the fuck did they do to john's character in season 3/4. like. who is that. i bet they knew there was literally no excuse for johnlock not to happen if they didn't completely 180 his character. :(
100% AGREE and I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS!!!!
I think John Watson is actually a difficult character to write well; it's easier to make him OOC than Sherlock IMO. Unfortunately the show writers themselves seemed to have missed this.
Moriarty came up with the idea for and arranged Sherlockās fake suicide. Sherlock planned nothing; all he did was fall.
Hello. This is a fan theory that I believe in completely and that I really love as an explanation for one of the most important plot points in the show. I think itās the best possible explanation for all of the facts about the fall as we receive them in S2-S3, and it fits perfectly within the narrative arc of S1-S3. For the most part, though, it seems like a lot of folks in the fandom tend to assume that Sherlock was the one who arranged his fake suicide, just as he claims in TEH. So here is a meta explaining my take on the Moriarty-planned-the-fall theory!
Iām certainly not the first person to have written about this idea or some variation on it. @asherlockstudy and @loudest-subtext-in-tv in particular have written great metas that talk about the idea that Moriarty wanted Sherlock to survive the fall, asherlockstudy in their āAnalyzing the rooftop sceneā series of metas here and LSIT in their M-Theory meta here. But I have some observations and thoughts of my own that Iād like to add, and my interpretation departs from each of theirs a bit, too, so I wanted to write my own post. Iāve tried to cite both asherlockstudy and LSIT as needed to give credit where credit is due!
Also, thanks to @givemesherbet-blog-blog for giving me the extra push to write this meta!
Hereās what youāll find below the cut:
1. Starting premises
2. An explanation of what happened in TRFāhow and why Moriarty faked Sherlockās death
3. How we know that Sherlock didnāt see the fall coming
4. How we know that Sherlockās explanation of the fall in TEH is fake
5. Concluding thoughts
1. Starting premises
To make sense of the rooftop scene and its place within the narrative of the show, there are a few important starting premises that we need to lay out.
(1) First: TJLC. BBC Sherlock is a romance between Sherlock and John, and the entire show is structured around the narrative of Sherlock and Johnās love story. Viewers are supposed to have fun with the show by trying to decode the subtext, thus cracking the mystery of Sherlock and Johnās love story (see LSITās meta here for more on this). I believe that the writers initially planned to end the show with an on-screen, fully actualized romantic relationship between Sherlock and John, and that belief is a guiding light for a lot of my analysis of the show. This leads us neatly into point #2.
(2) As the central antagonist of the show, Moriartyās goal is to keep Sherlock and John apart romantically. This is a love story and Moriarty is the villain, so keeping Sherlock and John from becoming a romantic couple is Moriartyās basic narrative role. And Moriarty achieves this brilliantly all throughout S2! (This is an idea that Iāve written about in much more depth in an enormous meta project that I have fully drafted and that I hope to post at some point.) This is crucial to Moriartyās plan for the rooftop, as Iāll explain.
(3) The writers initially intended to bring Moriarty back after S3. Thereās lots of evidence for this: the āMiss Me?ā message at the end of HLV, but also the myriad clues throughout S3 indicating that Mary is the Sebastian Moran character from ACD canon and works for Moriarty, and the fact that TAB is pretty thoroughly committed to the idea that Moriarty is still the showās central antagonist and that the plotline surrounding him has not yet been resolved. For one interpretation of Moriartyās long game and some speculation on what the writers might have originally had in store, I highly recommend LSITās M-Theory meta.
For some reason that weāll probably never know, the writers changed their mind before making S4 and scrapped their original plan for Moriartyāor S4 is Johnās alibi for how he and Sherlock killed Mary, S4 is Sherlockās coma dream after Mary shot him in HLV, etc., take your pick, and the writers did actually intend to bring Moriarty back in the unmade S5. For this meta, the main point to keep in mind is just that I believe that when they wrote the rooftop scene in TRF and then Sherlockās fake explanation in TEH, the writers intended for Moriarty to have faked his own death on the rooftop, too, and were planning to bring him back after S3. (Sherlock didnāt realize this, thoughāhe believed that Moriarty actually died in TRF.)
(4) Put these first three points together, and you get my personal take on where the show was initially headed. Since Sherlock is a love story and Moriarty is the central antagonist, I think that in the original ending for the show, one of two things was going to have to happen: either (a) only after Sherlock and John had defeated Moriarty once and for all could they become a romantic couple, or (b) only by becoming a romantic couple could Sherlock and John defeat Moriarty once and for all. This idea is also important to my take on the rooftop scene, as Iāll explain.
Okay, I hope youāre with me so far. Now that weāve got some ground rules, letās keep going.
2. An explanation of what happened in TRFāhow and why Moriarty faked Sherlockās death
First off, I think itās important to understand that throughout TRF, Moriarty was always several steps ahead of Sherlock. At no point does Sherlock appear in control of events; heās always reacting to Moriarty and not the other way around. Just think of Sherlock and Johnās desperate and clearly unplanned flight from the police or the way that Sherlock reacts to seeing Moriarty in Kitty Rileyās flat. Over the course of the episode, Sherlock starts to realize that heās become trapped by Moriartyās plan and starts searching for a way out.
The night before the rooftop scene, Sherlock thinks heās found it when he believes that heās figured out Moriartyās computer key code.
After leaving Kittyās flat and talking to Molly (which Iām going to talk about more in a bit), Sherlock goes to one of the labs at Bartās and texts John to ask him to join him there. When John arrives, Sherlock is genuinely fixated on the code. As soon as John walks in the room, Sherlock says, āThe computer code is key to this. If we find it, we can use itābeat Moriarty at his own game.ā If they can figure out what the code is, he says, then they can defeat Moriarty by using it to destroy his Richard Brook persona. A moment later, Sherlock then has what he thinks is an epiphanyāheās thinks heās figured out the code, and that itās the rhythm that Moriarty tapped out on his knee when he visited 221B. Immediately after realizing this, Sherlock texts Moriarty to invite him to the rooftop so that he can confront him.
There are two very important things to note about this. First, Sherlock invites Moriarty to the rooftop as soon as he thinks that heās figured out the code. Sherlock genuinely believes that the code is how he can beat Moriarty, so once heās got that figured outāand not a moment beforeāhe thinks heās ready to confront Moriarty. Second, Sherlock doesnāt tell John that he thinks heās figured out the code or that heās texted Moriarty and plans to confront him. Why? Because Sherlock wants to keep John safe, and he doesnāt want John there for his showdown with Moriarty.
These two points are incredibly important because they show that Sherlockās actions at the end of TRF are an exact repeat of his crucial mistakes at the end of TGG. In TGG, Sherlock thought the flash drive with the missile plans was the final pip, and he invited Moriarty to the pool because he thought that heād beaten Moriarty at his own game by finding the missile plans before Moriarty had contacted him about them and started a timer. Sherlock also didnāt tell John what he was doing or ask him to come with him in TGG, which led to John getting kidnapped and Sherlock getting trapped in a position where Moriarty could use John against him as leverage. The exact same thing happens with the rooftop in TRF. Sherlock thinks that heās figured everything out by discovering the computer key code and arranges to meet Moriarty without telling John. But once again, Moriarty is way ahead of Sherlock, has a plan to use John as leverage against him, and pulls the rug out from under him so that Sherlock is left completely at Moriartyās mercy and with no way out but the one that Moriarty gives him. Remember, in TGG, Sherlock and John escaped only because Moriarty got the call from Irene and decided to let them go.
Hereās another important point. Once Sherlock texts Moriarty in TRF, Sherlock isnāt in control of the timing for what happens next. Sherlock has to wait for Moriarty to announce himself ready to meet, and we see that he stays up all night waiting. In the morning, Sherlock only leaves for the rooftop once Moriarty has texted him to say that heās ready. This means that Moriarty is the one who picks the time for his and Sherlockās meeting in the morning and Moriarty is the one who has control over the timing for everything that happens after Sherlock goes up onto the rooftop. We are directly shown that Sherlock could not have timed any of that.
Once heās ready to meet Sherlock that morning, Moriarty draws John away from Bartās with a fake phone call about Mrs. Hudson getting shot. This was not Sherlockās doing, it was Moriartyās! How do we know? Several ways.
(1) First, itās literally in the final shooting script. The final shooting script for TRF initially included this short exchange between Sherlock and Moriarty during the rooftop scene:
Sherlock: Youāre too obvious. Getting John out of the way.
Jim: You realised?
Sherlock: Please!
Jim: Wellā¦I just wanted us to be alone. No gooseberries.
This is on pg. 98 of the script here. I first saw this in asherlockstudyās meta here, so thank you to them for pointing it out!
Even though this dialogue got cut, thereās no indication that the writers changed their minds about this being what happened in TRF. I think they cut this exchange just so that it wouldnāt be too obvious to the viewers that Moriarty lured John away, and thus to make it just a little harder for us to figure out that Moriarty orchestrated everything.
(2) The timing for the phone call and Moriartyās text to Sherlock only make sense if Moriarty were the one who called John away. Sherlock texted Moriarty the night before, as soon as he had his false epiphany about the key code. If Sherlock had a plan to send John away, then it would have made sense for him to do it immediately after he figured out the code and for him to have arranged to have met Moriarty right then, rather than giving Moriarty time to prepare. But thatās not what happens, because Sherlock isnāt in control. Sherlock has to wait for Moriarty to make the next move.
The timing makes perfect sense if it were Moriarty. Literally as soon as John leaves the lab, Moriarty texts Sherlock to say that heās waiting on the rooftop. This means that Moriarty must have been responsible for the phone call. He got everything set up around the rooftop for Sherlockās fake suicide overnight, then went up to meet Sherlock there. When he was ready, he had someone make the phone call to John, waited a minute or so for John to take the call and leave, and then texted Sherlock. If Moriarty wasnāt the one behind the phone call, how could he have known to text Sherlock right after John left? The timing canāt be a coincidenceā¦because remember what we say about coincidences.
(3) It makes sense for Moriarty to have been the one who lured John away because that was how he got John out of the safe interior of Bartās and out into the open air so that his sniper could threaten to shoot him. The sniper plan wouldnāt have made any sense at all if John had stayed inside the hospital. Moriarty had to get him out of Bartās somehow.
(4) Moriarty calling John away is consistent with ACD canon. In the ACD Sherlock Holmes story āThe Adventure of the Final Problem,ā where Holmes and Moriarty face off at the Reichenbach Falls, Moriarty deliberately separates Watson from Holmes so that he can get Holmes on his own. Moriarty does this by sending Watson a message that says a woman has fallen ill and needs the help of a doctor. Watson leaves Holmes to go help the woman, but when he gets to the hotel where sheās supposed to be, he realizes that it was a trick and immediately rushes back to try to find Holmes. Heās too late, though, and instead of arriving in time to save Holmes, Watson finds a letter from him left by the edge of the cliff where heād faced off against Moriarty. In the letter, Holmes says that Moriarty allowed him to write the note as a final goodbye and admits that he suspected that the message calling Watson away was a hoax, but implies that he allowed Watson to leave because he wanted him to be safe.
The events of TRF are basically an exact replica of this. Since the writers kept so much of this the same, I think we can safely conclude that itās Moriarty who draws John away.
Sorry for going on about that a bit, but I think Moriarty drawing John away is really important because it helps demonstrates that Moriarty was the one in control of events that morning.
Anyway. After John leaves and Sherlock gets the text from Moriarty, Sherlock grabs his coat and heads up to the rooftop to meet him.
As Sherlock and Moriarty talk, Moriarty reveals two important things, both of which seem to completely shock Sherlock and totally throw him off balance. First, Moriarty shatters Sherlockās theory about the computer key code by telling him that there was never any code at all. Then he reveals that he intends to force Sherlock to fake his own death.
Just like he told Sherlock at the pool, Moriartyās plan in TRF isnāt to actually kill Sherlock yet. Itās still too early in the narrative for that, and Moriarty is still saving that up for whenever he returns in S4-S5. Instead, Moriarty purposely planned for the suicide in TRF to be fake because the fake suicide is his way of burning the heart out of Sherlock.
By forcing Sherlock to fake his own death in front of John, Moriarty sets into motion the events of S3 that prevent Sherlock and John from becoming a romantic couple and that lead to them both getting their hearts broken over and over again. Moriarty forces Sherlock to deceive John and leave him behind, separating Sherlock from John for two years. By the time Sherlock is finally able to return to London, he finds that John has tried to get over him and has become (nearly) engaged to someone else. Meanwhile, Johnās efforts to move on from Sherlock by starting a relationship with Mary and his deep sense of betrayal over Sherlockās deception work together to prevent him from embracing Sherlock as a romantic partner when Sherlock returns. And because John doesnāt go back to Sherlock wholeheartedly upon his return to London, Sherlock and John both get pulled deeper and deeper into their own despair over their inability to be together, and they both get caught up in further events that work to push them apart for the rest of S3. The absolute hell that Sherlock goes through in S3 as his heart breaks over and over again is what Moriarty was describing when he said that he would burn the heart out of him.
I think thereās a very good case to be made that in canon, Sherlock and John never fully recover from the consequences of the fall. Indeed, if we accept the events of S4 at face value and treat them as the ending to the show, then Moriarty comes out on top as the ultimate victor in the show, even though he never returned. In such a reading, Moriarty achieves his ultimate goal as the storyās central villain by breaking Sherlockās heart and preventing Sherlock and John from ever becoming a romantic couple. Instead of killing Sherlock, Moriarty destroys him by damaging his relationship with John to the point that Sherlock and John are never able to be together. (Enter alternate S4 interpretations and post-S3 fanfic here.)
Itās honestly a very clever evil plan. Peak villain behavior.
This means that Sherlock had to survive the fall for Moriartyās plan to work. Moriarty needed Sherlock to still be alive after the rooftop so that he could suffer the pain of losing John; he had to arrange for Sherlock to survive the fall so that his heart could be broken afterwards. Moriarty intended for this to be a fake suicide all along.
We learn in HLV that Moriarty faked his own death on the rooftop, too, and that the writers planned to bring him back as the main villain. Remember that Moriartyās plan all along, as he said at the pool, was to burn the heart out of Sherlock and to then kill him after that. So Moriarty intended for Sherlock to survive this particular confrontation in S2, and then to try to kill him later, after he returned in S4-S5.
Thatās the why. But how did Moriarty do it? Well, the writers never told us outright, but I think itās likely that when Sherlock came up with his own fake explanation, he used a few elements of truth. Perhaps Moriarty really did use a giant inflatable and really did make sure that John was positioned on the other side of the ambulance bay so that he wouldnāt see Sherlock fall on it.
When Sherlock stepped up to the edge of the rooftop and looked down, he would have seen whatever was below him to break his fall and he would have understood that Moriarty intended for him to survive. But from Moriartyās threat about the snipers, Sherlock also would have known that John was meant to believe that he had died, and that John wouldnāt be safe from Moriartyās people if he knew that Sherlock had survived. For this reason, Sherlock believes that he can only return to London and reveal himself to John after heās dismantled Moriartyās network. Remember, in TRF, weāre shown that the sniper assigned to John keeps his sights on him for a long time after Sherlock hits the pavement. Itās only as John seems to accept the reality of Sherlockās death that the sniper puts his gun away. The sniper was paying attention to Johnās reaction, not whether or not Sherlock jumped.
But wait! you say. Why would Moriarty just let Sherlock go after the fall, and why would he let him dismantle his network? Well, because allowing Sherlock to dismantle part of the networkāMoriarty is too good to have let him take down the whole thing, of courseāsupports the deception of Moriartyās own fake suicide and lures Sherlock into a false sense of security. Moriarty is obsessed with Sherlock and with destroying him, so I think heād be perfectly willing to sacrifice part of his network to his overall masterplan by letting Sherlock take down a few strands of the web. Letting Sherlock think that he's actually dead and his network eradicated also puts Moriarty in an excellent position to take Sherlock completely by surprise when he returns later on. (LSIT writes about all of this brilliantly in her M-Theory meta, so you should definitely check that out if youāre curious about Moriartyās overall masterplan involving Sherlock.)
Sherlock didnāt see any of this coming when he stepped up onto the rooftop, and he lied to John and Anderson in TEH when he claimed that he had arranged the fake suicide ahead of time with Mycroft, Molly, and several members of his homeless network. Obviously Sherlock did ask Molly to help him somehow (Iāll discuss that in a minute, promise), and in TEH we see that he got in touch with Mycroft at some point after his fall. But I think itās clear from TRF that Sherlock didnāt have a plan with Mycroft beforehand.
Thatās the general outline of what I think happened! The next two parts explain in more detail why Iām confident that Moriarty planned the whole thing and Sherlock did not.
3. How we know that Sherlock didnāt see the fall coming
To me, Sherlockās reactions and facial expressions throughout the rooftop scene offer some of the strongest proof that he was not in control of the events that unfolded that morning and did not come to the rooftop prepared.
First, when Moriarty reveals that thereās no key code, Sherlock literally sways on his feet. Iām not kidding. He looks completely thrown by the revelation that there was never a key code, because he truly did believe that the code was his best weapon against Moriarty. I think the fact that Sherlock looks so shocked and devastated when Moriarty reveals that there isnāt a code offers proof that the code was Sherlock's only plan when he headed up to the rooftop.
When Moriarty then reveals that he plans to make Sherlock jump off the roof, Sherlock does not act like someone who saw this coming. Both asherlockstudy and LSIT insist that whenever we, the audience, see a characterās face when the other characters canāt, then that characterās expressions must be genuine. I agree! There is no reason for a character to be acting when all the other characters have their backs turned. And remember, Molly even told us earlier on in this very episode that Sherlock looks sad when he thinks John canāt see him. That serves to remind us that Sherlock reveals his true feelings when he thinks other people arenāt looking.
Moriarty says āGlad you chose a tall buildingānice way to do itā to indicate that he plans to force Sherlock to commit suicide/appear to commit suicide by jumping off the roof. Sherlock replies bewilderedly, āDo it? Doā¦do what?ā before comprehension slowly dawns upon him and he realizes what Moriarty means. Take a look at Sherlockās face in this moment:
asherlockstudy points us towards this moment in their meta here, which is also where the gif is from.
Look at the way that Sherlock raises his eyebrows ever so slightly, blinks rapidly, and pulls his head back as the implication of what Moriarty has said finally washes over him. Sherlock is facing away from Moriarty and Moriarty canāt see his face here, so thereās no reason for him to fake these expressions. I mean, you can actually see the moment when Sherlock feels that terrible rush of horror that you experience when you learn something awful.
If you watch the rooftop scene closely, there are several other shots like this: moments where we see Sherlock express shock, despair, and fear as he realizes how far Moriarty is willing to go to force him to jump. Sherlock reacts to Moriartyās words and actions in real time, which shows that he did not expect this before he stepped out onto the roof. (asherlockstudy explains this well in their main rooftop meta.)
As one example, when Sherlock steps up to the edge of the roof for the first time, heās literally shaking. He looks terrified. Another great example is Sherlockās horror and panic after Moriarty shoots himself (or appears to shoot himself, anyway). Sherlock looks around desperately, makes a terrified noise, and wipes the back of his hand across his mouth in distress as he tries to figure out what to do and then realizes that he has to jump to save John, Lestrade, and Mrs. Hudson. Moriarty is, for all appearances, dead to the world. The snipers are obviously watching the rooftop to see if Sherlock jumps and to see if John seems to believe it, but theyāre not standing there on the roof with Sherlock to see his facial expressions. Since heās alone, thereās no reason for Sherlock to look as panicked and terrified as he doesāand for as long as he doesāexcept for the simple reason that he actually was losing his shit as he realized that he had to jump.
Sherlockās shock and horror after Moriarty shoots himself
Sherlock freaking out after he realizes what he has to do
(screencaps from here)
Clearly, Sherlock did not expect to have to jump off a roof that morning. And he was genuinely panicked and terrified when he realized that heād have to do it, and that heād have to conceal his survival from John. This was not the plan that Sherlock showed up with, and it wasnāt one that he wanted. But it was the only course of action that Moriarty left him.
Relatedly, I think that Sherlockās emotional behavior during his phone call with John was entirely genuine. Even if he knew that he would survive the fall and would eventually come back, Sherlock also knew that he was about to leave John for some unknown amount of time, and having to leave John like that hurt him terribly. Sherlock also understood that John needed to believe that he was dead in order for him to be safe from Moriartyās network during his absence, which is why he tried to lie to John on the call by saying that he was a fraud, to make his suicide more believable. But Sherlock knew that he was forcing John to experience something awful during that phone call, and he was deeply upset about it.
This seems to be an uncommon belief in the fandom, but I honestly think that in the scenes where we see Sherlock acting for a case in S1-S2, heās not very good at it. So I think that in the scenes where Sherlock gets emotional with John, heās not acting. Sherlockās tears on the rooftop, the breaks in his voice as he talks to John over the phone, and his shaky, pained laugh after āNo one could be that cleverā / āYou couldā are far more convincing to me than Sherlockās acting when he talks to Ian Monkfordās wife in TGG or pretends to be a mugged vicar in ASIB. By comparing these scenes, I think we can conclude that Sherlock isnāt actually a very good actor, and he wasnāt acting when he had that phone call with John.
So thatās Sherlockās behavior on the rooftop and how it shows that he wasnāt prepared.
Before the rooftop scene, thereās even more evidence in TRF that Sherlock was worried about Moriarty, but didnāt understand the details of Moriartyās plan and didnāt have a masterplan of his own.
Some of this evidence comes from Sherlockās interactions with Molly. Most importantly, in this episode we get Mollyās shining star moment in the lab at Bartās, when Sherlock and John are there to analyze the footprint from the kidnapping case.
Molly: You look sad, when you think he canāt see you. Are you okay? And donāt just say you are, because I know what that means, looking sad when you think no one can see you.
(Hereās a gif set of the scene, if you want a refresher.)
Sherlock and Mollyās conversation here reveals that before the rooftop, Sherlock was genuinely fearful of what Moriarty had planned for him and John and that he chose to hide that fear from John. Moreover, Mollyās dialogue in this scene suggests that she thinks that Sherlock thinks that heās going to die. (Because she compares him to her dad when he was dying.)
Indeed, after leaving Kittyās flat later in the episode, Sherlock seeks Molly out at Bartās, tells her that he thinks heās going to die, and asks for her help. This might seem like evidence that Sherlock did plan the fake suicide and enlisted Molly to assist him beforehand, but I donāt think it is. With everything else that we know, I think itās more likely that Sherlock went to Molly for help in dismantling Moriartyās network. asherlockstudy speculates on what Sherlock may have asked Molly to do here, and although I donāt agree with everything in that post, I really do like the idea that Molly may have been able to provide Sherlock with important information that helped him take down part of the network. Thatās where my money is for how Molly helped Sherlock. Perhaps Sherlock realized that Molly had useful information about Moriarty because sheād briefly dated him, and perhaps Molly was able to tell Sherlock about some of Moriartyās bolt holes or other pieces of his network in London specifically.
After he saw Moriarty at Kittyās flat, Sherlock panicked, and he knew that Moriarty was closing in on him. I think, then, that Sherlock went to Molly for help and told her that he thought he was going to die because he really did think that Moriarty was going to try to kill him, and he was trying to prepare for a situation in which Moriarty really did manage to do it. (After all, at the pool, Moriarty told Sherlock that he would eventually try to kill him.) If Sherlock thought there was a real chance that he might die, he would have wanted someone to take down at least part of Moriartyās network in London in an effort to keep John safe.
There are two more aspects of Sherlockās second conversation with Molly that I think are interesting. Hereās what we actually hear the two of them say:
Sherlock: Youāre wrong, you know. You do count. Youāve always counted and Iāve always trusted you. But you were right. Iām not okay.
Molly: Tell me whatās wrong.
Sherlock: Molly, I think Iām going to die.
Molly: What do you need?
Sherlock: If I wasnāt everything that you think I amāeverything that I think I amāwould you still want to help me?
Molly: What do you need?
Sherlock: You.
Sherlockās line in the middle thereāāIf I wasnāt everything that you think I amāeverything that I think I amāwould you still want to help me?āāindicates that he was planning for a situation in which Moriartyās plan, as he perceived it, had actually worked. In the situation Sherlock was imagining, Moriarty would have managed to destroy his reputation and kill him.
If Sherlock had a masterplan all worked out ahead of time, then there would be no reason for him to say this because there would be no reason for Molly to doubt him and to think that he hadnāt always been āeverything that you think I am.ā Sherlock would have told her about his plan, and Molly would have known he wasnāt a fraud. But if Moriarty succeeded in ruining Sherlockās reputation and then killed him? Then Sherlock would need Molly to look past all of that, shelve whatever doubts she had in the wake of Moriartyās misinformation campaign, and still help Sherlock by helping protect John. So this line, to me, gives us a small piece of evidence that Sherlock didnāt have a grand fake suicide masterplan that he involved Molly in.
Sherlock also tells Molly that he needs āyou,ā which I think indicates that he needed help that only she could give. He didnāt just need access to a corpse, like he later tells Anderson in TEH, which isnāt really that Molly-specific when you think about it. Instead, he needed Mollyās knowledge about Moriarty, knowledge that only she had.
Taken together, I think all of this can easily be taken to show that Sherlock was worried about Moriarty, thought Moriarty was trying to kill him, and thought there was a chance he might succeed. Sherlock didnāt have a grand masterplan to outsmart Moriarty by faking his own death.
To close out this section, Iāll circle back to the moment in the lab when Sherlock thinks heās figured out the computer key code. When Sherlock thinks heās discovered the code, thereās a noticeable change in his expression. I think this is because before that moment, Sherlock truly feared that everything had slipped out of his control. Itās only when he thinks heās worked out the code that he recovers his confidence. Ā
That moment is even accompanied by a heartbeat, which is the sound the show uses to indicate moments of significance for the characters. (LSIT explains this here; see āReply lindefishway Heartbeat soundtrack.ā) This moment wouldnāt be significant to Sherlock unless he truly believed that the key code was his last best hope. The key code was his only plan heading up to the rooftop.
In short, Sherlock completely underestimated Moriarty and got swept along in his plan, not the other way around.
4. How we know that Sherlockās explanation of the fall in TEH is fake
In TEH, we get three different explanations for the fall: the one Anderson gives Lestrade at the start of the episode, the one the goth fangirl gives the Empty Hearse fan club, and the one Sherlock gives Anderson towards the end of the episode (which is also the same as what he started to tell John in one of the restaurants earlier). Weāre supposed to believe that the first two explanations are fake, while Sherlockās is ostensibly presented as the ārealā explanation.
But Sherlockās explanation is fake, too. Sherlock lied to John about having arranged his fake suicide ahead of time, and then he spins out an entire explanation to Anderson that cannot be true. There are many pieces of evidence included throughout both TRF and TEH that we can use to refute Sherlockās explanation, so letās walk through them.
(1) First, weāve already established in this meta that Moriarty was in control of the timing that morning. Moriarty was the one who had control of when things happened, and Sherlock had to react. This means that Moriarty could have easily arranged everything needed for Sherlock to survive before Sherlock stepped out onto the rooftop, but it sure would have been difficult for Sherlock to do that. Since Sherlock didnāt know when Moriarty was going to arrive at Bart's, how could he have had his people arrange everything so that Moriarty wouldnāt see? In contrast, once Sherlock suggested Bartās rooftop as a meeting place, Moriarty had all night to come up with a plan in response and to get everything set up. He could take his time and then text Sherlock whenever he was ready.
(2) Sherlock didnāt know about the snipers ahead of time. Take a look at the shock on his face when Moriarty reveals that he has a sniper trained on John. And since Sherlock didnāt know about the snipers, there is no way that he could have known where Johnās sniper was positioned. This means that there is no way that Sherlock could have arranged the giant inflatable so that the sniper wouldnāt see it, would be convinced that heād killed himself, and wouldnāt shoot John. (Thereās a very good post that makes this point here.)
Sherlock tells Anderson that it was imperative that John stay exactly where he āput himā so that he would see Sherlock jump but wouldnāt see the inflatable. We know this is a lie because there is no way that Sherlock could have done the same thing with the sniper. To me, this blows up Sherlockās entire explanation.
In reality, the sniper did see the giant inflatable or whatever other mechanism enabled Sherlock to survive the fall. But that wasnāt a problem because the sniper was working for Moriarty and knew that Sherlock was supposed to survive. For Moriarty, the point of forcing Sherlock to jump off the roof was to convince John that he had died. He didnāt need to convince the snipers.
More proof that Sherlock didnāt know about the snipers: if Sherlock had known, there is absolutely no way that he would have ever let John leave Bartās and go out into the open. No. Way. Sherlock would have wanted John to stay in a windowless room inside the hospital, not go rushing outside where he could get shot, as LSIT points out in the M-Theory meta. Sherlock probably let John go because just like Holmes in ACD canon, he thought John would be safer if he were far away from Moriarty. Itās the exact same mistake that Sherlock made when preparing to meet Moriarty at the pool in TGG.
(3) When Sherlock and Moriarty first step up to the edge of the roof together and look down, thereās a huge white rectangle drawn out on the sidewalk, apparently to indicate where Sherlock needed to fall. (asherlockstudy notes this here.) Um. Guys. If Sherlock planned the whole thing and hid his plan from Moriarty, it would be pretty ridiculous for his accomplices to have drawn a big chalk rectangle on the ground right where Moriarty and his snipers could see it. We even see for ourselves that Moriarty did see itāheās shown looking down at the pavement from the same angle that we do as the audience. Conclusion: Moriarty designed the plan for Sherlockās fake suicide, so it wasnāt a problem for him to see the rectangle. His accomplices were the ones who put it there.
(4) Since Moriarty was the one who lured John away, this means that Moriarty was also responsible for John returning to Bartās when he did. Moriarty would have known that John would leave, go to 221B, and then immediately try to return to Sherlock when he realized that the phone call was fake. Building on this, I think itās fair to infer that Moriarty probably arranged for John to show up where he did in front of Bartās, too. Sherlock tells Anderson that he placed John in an exact position on the pavement so that he would see him fall but not the mechanism that enabled his survival. In reality, Sherlock didnāt know where John would be standing, but Moriarty probably did. Moriarty probably had one of his minions posing as the cab driver who brought John backāhe had Jeff Hope working for him in ASIP and he commandeered a cab for himself in TRF, so he probably had some sort of inside access to a London cab company. If thatās true, then it would have been easy for him to arrange to have a cab driven by one of his people waiting for John right outside 221B and he could have told the driver to let John out at a place where he would see Sherlock fall but not whatever enabled him to survive.
In short, it makes sense for Moriarty to have been able to arrange that, but it doesnāt make any sense for Sherlock to have been able to do it, since he wasnāt the one who called John away to 221B in the first place. Sherlock didnāt have a plan to shuttle John around anywhere and didnāt have any time to make one.
(5) In Many Happy Returns, Sherlock says in the birthday video for John that āonly lies have detail.ā This clues us into the fact that the very detailed explanation for the fall that Sherlock is about to provide us with is a lie. (asherlockstudy makes this point here.)
(6) Sherlockās explanation to Anderson in TEH is slotted in between the other parts of the train car scene. This is the first time that we experience non-linear storytelling in S3, and itās deliberately intended to disorient us as viewers. Since weāre eager to find out what happens in the train car, weāre expected to be somewhat distracted when we hear Sherlockās explanation, and thus distracted from the parts of Sherlockās story that donāt make sense. This is another little trick that the writers used to make it just a little bit harder to figure out that Sherlockās explanation is fake.
(7) Even Anderson doubts Sherlockās explanation. There is no reason for the writers to include Andersonās doubt other than as a way of telling us that we also shouldnāt accept Sherlockās explanation as wholly believable. And this fits so well, because Anderson is basically a representation of the fandom in TEH!
So what the writers take with one hand, they give back with the other. They want us to have enough clues that Sherlockās explanation is fake for us to be able to catch onto the deception and work out the truth, but they donāt want to make it too easy. Itās all part of the fun of the mystery genre!
Also, in the moment when he first starts to doubt Sherlockās explanation, Anderson makes a very good point: āThat doesnāt make sense. How could you be sure John would stand on that exact spot? I mean, what if heād moved?ā Exactly, Anderson! This line tells us that weāre on the right track.
You might be wondering, then, why Sherlock told John not to move during their phone conversation and begged him to keep his eyes fixed on him. I think the answer is very simple: Sherlock was scared. He was terrified that if it looked like John was trying to approach himāwhich was Johnās first instinct and exactly what he tried to doāthen Johnās sniper might shoot him. That seems completely reasonable to me. Iād have been terrified about that, too!
(8) This point is super small, but Iām adding it just for fun before my last real piece of evidence. In his explanation to Anderson, Sherlock says that the people who helped him fake his death put one of his coats on the corpse of a guy who looked like him so that it would fool John from a distance. āI have a lot of coats,ā he says with a satisfied smile.
Nope. Even if the Sherlock costume department has several versions of the Belstaff, Sherlock the character has only one, and we learn this earlier in TEH. In the scene where Sherlock talks with Mycroft and Anthea in Mycroftās office and prepares to make his dramatic reentrance into Johnās life, he asks where āitā is, and then smiles when Anthea walks up with his Belstaff. So Sherlock only has one coatāāitāāand he lied to Anderson about this. If he lied to Anderson about one small part of his explanation, that indicates that he probably lied about the more significant parts, too. Thereās really no reason for him to have included this small lie unless most of the rest of the explanation was already fabricated.
(9) Finally, thereās no evidence at all that Sherlock was working with Mycroft in TRF to enact some masterplan against Moriarty, and certainly not to fake his own suicide. In fact, everything related to Mycroft that we see in TRF seems to indicate that Sherlock and Mycroft still had a very tense relationship at that point in the show and werenāt collaborating on anything at all.
Rather than going to Sherlock directly, Mycroft specifically reaches out to John to talk to him about the assassins gathering on Baker Street. John asks the obvious question: āWhy donāt you talk to Sherlock if youāre so concerned about him?ā Mycroft essentially tells John that he canāt talk to Sherlock about it, so heās talking to him instead. (LSIT points this out in her M-Theory meta.)
Later on, when Sherlock and John are running from the police, Sherlock rejects Johnās suggestion that they ask Mycroft for help.
John: What about Mycroft? He could help us.
Sherlock: A big family reconciliation? Nowās not really the moment.
Right after this, Sherlock throws him and John in front of a bus so that one of the assassins will save them. Then the assassin promptly gets gunned down right in front of them. I know that whoever shot him was a super highly-trained assassin and unlikely to accidentally hit John or Sherlock, but, like, this is some risky behavior on Sherlockās part. The fact that this seemed like a better course of action to him than asking Mycroft for help says something, I think.
One could argue, of course, that Sherlock was intentionally deflecting because he didnāt want John to know about his plan with Mycroft. But that just doesnāt seem likely to me when we consider John and Mycroftās interactions earlier on in the episode. It really seems like Mycroft isnāt in close touch with Sherlock and doesnāt feel comfortable talking to him directly about Moriarty.
In general, I think that Sherlock and Mycroft had an extremely tense relationship in S1-S2 and that thereās a genuine shift in their dynamic in S3āitās only then that they become close. In S1-S2, Sherlock and Mycroft barely get along at all and Sherlock always seems to despise having to deal with his older brother. Heās reluctant to take cases from Mycroft and resents Mycroftās close supervision of his life. Theyāre so distant that Sherlock doesnāt even seem to think itās weird when Moriarty leaves Mycroft off his list of people who will die if Sherlock doesnāt jump. But in S3, Sherlock and Mycroft appear much closer. Sherlock takes the terrorism case from Mycroft in TEH without much protest, and then the two of them play board games and make deductions together to pass the time. In TSOT, Sherlock even calls Mycroft at the wedding reception when heās feeling lonely.
Soā¦Sherlock and Mycroft were always secretly close, but they intentionally hid this from John starting in ASIP so that they could eventually fool John and fake Sherlockās deathā¦nearly eighteen months later? Um, no. It seems to me that Sherlock and Mycroft actually did have some sort of sibling rivalry in S1-S2, but after Sherlock had to fake his own death and disappear for two years, they came to appreciate each other far more than they had before. This makes perfect sense to me. And even though Sherlock got in touch with Mycroft at some point after his fall, itās not like Mycroft would have known that Sherlockās suicide was fake right when it happened. Mycroft probably really did think that Sherlock had died. (Remember that shot of him reading the Sun article about Sherlockās suicide in the Diogenes Club, and how blank he looks. Itās not really the look of a man who just read an article confirming that his clever plan with his brother went off without a hitch and the public swallowed it.) But after Sherlockās return, Mycroft got his younger brother back. Of course they became closer after that.
Anyway, they donāt seem to have been working together on a masterplan in TRF.
Now, Sherlockās explanation of the fall might not be entirely false. Like I said, maybe Moriarty did use a giant inflatable and maybe he purposely arranged for John to arrive on the other side of the ambulance station so he wouldnāt see it. Iām intrigued by asherlockstudyās idea that the three different explanations for how Sherlock survived the fall in TEH all contain a mix of lies and truth. asherlockstudy suggests that taken together, the elements of truth in each theory add up to the real explanation for how Moriarty did it. I especially appreciate their point that the fangirlās theory actually provides the core piece of truth that we need to know: that Moriarty was the one behind it all. Given all the subtext from across the show indicating that fansā theories (hello, TJLC) will eventually be proven true, itās very fitting that the fangirl provides that essential piece in TEH.
5. Concluding thoughts
Thank you for reading this far! I hope Iāve convinced you that Moriarty was the one behind Sherlockās fake suicide. Before ending, Iāve got three more brief things that I want to address.
(1) All of this means that Sherlock did not plan to make John watch him kill himself. Sherlock never would have done that, and he didnāt. That piece of cruelty was all Moriarty.
(2) Moriarty being the one who planned the fake suicide is important to the showās overall narrative not only because itās part of his role as the central villain, but also because Sherlock losing control of events in TRF is important to Sherlockās character development and to the arc of his and Johnās love story.
With this interpretation of the fall, Sherlock makes the exact same mistakes at the ends of S1, S2, and S3. At the end of each series, Sherlock attempts to confront a villain by himself, genuinely believing that heās solved a puzzle and is now prepared to meet the villain, only to get the rug pulled out from under him and for the villain to back him into a corner. This happens with Moriarty and the missile plans at the pool in S1, with Moriarty and the key code on the rooftop in TRF, and with Magnussen and the āAppledore vaultsā in HLV. Each time, Sherlock tries to take on a villain without confiding his full plan in John, and each time, it turns out that Sherlockās cleverness isnāt enough. He canāt do it on his ownāhe needs John. Sherlock will only be able to defeat Moriarty and the other villains on the show when he is fully honest with John and commits to always doing the most important things with John. This pattern doesnāt really make sense if the end of S2 is an outlier, but everything fits perfectly if we accept this interpretation of the fall. (Also, its treatment of this theme is one reason why A River Without Banks by Chryse is the Johnlock fanfic of all time.)
(3) Why did Sherlock lie to John about the fall in TEH and say that he planned everything with Mycroft? I could write a whole other meta about this because I have so many thoughts. But I think the short version is that Sherlock was afraid to tell John that he was in love with him. Telling John that Moriarty came up with the idea of forcing him to fake his own death would have meant that Sherlock would have had to explain why Moriarty had any motivation for doing so. He would have had to reveal that Moriarty thought forcing him to deceive and leave John behind would be worse for him than death. I think for Sherlock, that was too close to a love confession, and he wasnāt ready for that.
John didnāt react to Sherlockās return at all how Sherlock had hoped he would. I think that after seeing Johnās reaction, Sherlock started to doubt what he thought he knew about Johnās feelings after Battersea. Sherlock was worried that John may not actually love him back after all, or that he might not anymore, so he didnāt feel ready to make himself vulnerable by revealing to John that he was in love with him. And of course, when Sherlock returns he immediately learns that John is with Mary now, which certainly complicates things.
On top of all of that, Sherlock probably also didnāt want to admit to John that heād been so thoroughly outplayed by Moriartyāespecially since Sherlock sometimes seems to fear that his impressiveness as a detective is the only reason why John even sticks around at all.
Fin! I hope you enjoyed reading this. Got questions, have a piece of evidence to add, disagree vehemently, or think I messed up something incredibly obvious? I love talking Sherlock theories, so please do feel free to reblog with additions, leave a reply, or send me an ask. Thanks for reading!
I've read both this and the Analyzing the Rooftop Scene series by @asherlockstudy, and I have to say it's pretty convincing. As much as I loved the "Sherlock planned his own suicide" metas post S2, this makes more logical sense, especially given how things went down in S3. (Can't comment on S4 as I've deleted that mess from my mind palace.)
But I do have one question: how is Sherlock so easily convinced by Moriarty's fake suicide? Psychologically speaking, Moriarty's suicide doesn't make any sense, so I can't imagine Sherlock just buying it. Although perhaps he still has his suspicions, hence why Moriarty still haunts him even after Sherlock returns.
Thank you so much for reading this and for the question, @sherlockcharacteranalysis!
So, after I posted this meta, I had a really great conversation about it with @loudest-subtext-in-tv in the replies. She raised this point, too! It would be weird for Sherlock to have realized that Moriarty wanted him to survive, but to also be convinced that Moriarty had really killed himself. Through our conversation, we came up with a new theory of the fall, which actually contradicts my core argument from this metaāthat Sherlock didn't plan anything and just jumped. Based on what we talked about, I now think that Sherlock did come up with a fake suicide plan with Molly (probably including the squash ball, the corpse, and the inflatable, like he says in TEH), but that Sherlock's fake suicide plan was only ever a last-minute, messy back-up plan that he didn't want to actually have to use if he could at all help it. Sherlock really thought he could use the computer key code to bring down Moriarty, and he didn't want to have to fake his death. He was devastated when Moriarty revealed that the key code was never real, and Moriarty backed him into a corner by forcing him to go through with the fake suicide. I still think that Moriarty fully intended to force Sherlock to fake his own death and wanted Sherlock to surviveāMoriarty knew exactly what Sherlock was doing with his plan, and Sherlock only got away with it because Moriarty let him.
Regarding your question, I think Sherlock thought that Moriarty wanted him to actually kill himself by jumping off the roof; Sherlock didn't realize that Moriarty wanted him to survive, and he thought this was Moriartyās post-pool attempt to kill him. Sherlock thinks Moriarty's suicide on the rooftop is real because by killing himself, Moriarty very effectively checkmates Sherlock into having to jump. As LSIT helped me realize, and as your question hints at, if Sherlock had suspected that Moriarty wanted him to survive, then Sherlock would have been much more suspicious of Moriartyās own apparent death on the rooftop. Sherlock gets really freaked out in TAB when he starts to face the possibility that Moriarty might still be alive because he truly believed that Moriarty had killed himself before.
I've written up my new interpretation of the fall, and I talk about this idea a bit more in the new version! For quite some time now, I've been working on a write-up of my current TJLC reading of the show, from ASIP to TAB, and I've folded my new interpretation of the fall into the section on TRF. The whole thing is a rather enormous meta project, but I've finished a full draft of it and I'm actually hoping to start posting it within the next few weeks! If you're interested in reading my updated thoughts on the fall, then I'd love for you to check it out. (You could probably read the TRF section on its own without reading the rest of it, if you don't want to.) I'm always happy to talk meta with people and I'm open to changing my ideas! After all, it's quite possible that I've still missed things in the new version or that I have some faulty logic in places, so maybe someone else will catch another stray thread that unravels the theory again. But I think that getting to test out theories and revise them is a big part of the fun :)
Thank you for elaborating @winterdaphne2. That makes sense to me, and yes I'm definitely interested in reading your longer meta when you post it! I'm rewatching the show now (well, except S4) so it'll be fresh on my mind too.
First: Huge thanks toĀ constancecreamĀ for sending me her #setlock photos! It helped me answer some questions about how they lit the Leinster Gardens outdoor scene. I also got a kick out of hearing your whispered conversations in Germanāwhile on set in the UKāand then you send me the file in Americaāwhat a world we live in!
Also, Iāve just learned to make gifs, and Iāll update this post with them when I get my hands on some .avi files. In the meantime, reams of screencaps.
Sooooo much Mary mystery in TSOT and HLV. So much to look at.
Because Mary has become a divisive character, here is my disclaimer. This isnāt Mary Hate. I donāt even like the term Mary Hate because it conflates disliking what a character does and disliking the character herself. I dislike what Mary does, as a character (lying to her husband, shooting Sherlock), but I like the complexity and possibility of her character. I also dislike what Moriarty (who bombs people) and Magnussen (who blackmails people) do but I like their characters too.
What Iād really like to see the fandom do is acknowledge there is room to interpret her character in various ways with the information we currently have (which is all very contradictory), without vilifying the people in the other Mary camps. Because splitting along the lines of a female character is just so two years ago, and ten years ago, and twenty years ago, andā¦
This post will show how Mary has been lit in her various personalities (and the contradictions therein) and you can draw your own conclusions. Also, I really like AA and think sheās a great actress and very attractive, even though I will be saying things like ālit poorlyā, this is NOT the same as calling someone unattractive. Lighting is like makeup and clothes, it can make someone look much better or worse depending on how itās used. I really want to be clear about that.
Second disclaimer: once you start looking hard at lighting,Ā you will never be unable to unsee it. Really. Itās the blue pill. (Red pill? Oh, whatever.) Run away now if youāre happy to not look behind the curtain! But you guys keep asking for master classes, so this is myĀ master class on lighting.
And yes, of course Iām going to do the other two episodes. But this is a big task so Iām breaking it up.Ā
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Heartbroken over this post and @iamjohnlocked4lifeās painful additions, I went back and watched this scene again. I know the OP and jl4l were pointing out how Sherlock uses humour to diffuse painful / emotional situations, but what struck me even more than that, in this scene from TEH was Sherlockās timing on exactly what he said to John:
If I hadnāt come back, you wouldnāt be standing there and (dramatic pause) youād still have a future with Mary.
The thing about this is, why does Sherlock say this?Ā Heās already defused the bomb, so he knows they arenāt really about to die. The question for me is, is this hubris on Sherlockās part? Does he believe that now that heās back, John will just forget about Mary? EssentiallyĀ āleaveā her for him? Sherlock was shocked to learn John hadĀ āmoved onā while he was away, so does he think, still, that things will now just go back to the way they were. InĀ āforcingā Johnās hand into an apology, thatās all they need to move forward? The thought breaks my heart, because we see that that isnāt what happened. John didnāt toss Mary aside and resume the status quo of pre-TRF. When did the realisation sink in for Sherlock? Was he holding out hope right up until the wedding day? (sobs for days)
Or, is this some kind ofĀ āhintā that Sherlock knew more than we are led to believe? John agrees that he wonāt have a future with Mary, but only because he still thinks they only have moments until the bomb goes off.Ā
Sigh. I donāt know what Iām trying to prove with this, but Sherlockās words and timing just make me scratch my head.
Actually, not only did he want John to leave Mary and return to 221B, but I believe that he also was aware why he needed John back so badly. He made John believe that they were about to die, because he knew that in a situation between life and death John would most likely feel the need to become more honest about his feelings. The only reason John didnāt finally reveal how he felt about Sherlock in TRF was that he didnāt want to let a third party (Ella) know and there was no reason for him to confront his feelings since Sherlock was dead (graveyard).Ā
But look what John wrote on his blog afterwards:
āHeād just often say what he was thinking rather than lying to protect our feelings. Maybe we should all be more like that? Maybe we should all be more honest?ā
After Sherlockās death, after all the pain and the loss, John realised it was a mistake that he tried so hard to keep his feelings secret. His struggle to protect himself from potential heartbreak led him to even sadder paths, when he lost the love of his life without even having the chance to let Sherlock know how much he meant to him.Ā
So, from this small paragraph I personally get the impression that John had changed, that if Sherlock ever returned, John would finally be open and confess his love for him.
ā¦And apparently, Sherlock thought that too. He made John believe they were moments from dying so that this time he would finally correct his āmistakeā; he would reveal the truth, so that at least in their death they would be properly together. Bringing Mary to the conversation was Sherlockās deliberate effort to elicit something like āSod this! Itās not about Mary, Sherlock!ā from Johnās mouth. But he didnāt, because he severely miscalculated how betrayed John felt.Ā
And yet, John was still close to revealing some things, because he basically said everything he had said in the graveyard scene in TRF.Ā
But Sherlock stopped it all then, because he understood that John still felt betrayed and uncomfortable. Sherlock doesnāt ask for much as long as he knows that John loves him, itās enough for him. The graveyard - underground speech (almost identical in both cases) is the closest John can get to a love confession so far. So Sherlock realises that John still loves him, but he needs time to proceed some things and so he lets him go, relieved but not happy. Sherlock really hoped for a romantic happy end that night.
Friendly reminder that we don't know jack shit about John Watson. Where did he grow up? What has been of his family? Does he have friends beside Sherlock? Who the fuck are Stella and Ted? Harry is just a faceless name. Sholto pops up from thin air. Why does he have trust issues, right from the start? We know hardly anything about him and what we believe we know is basically all fanon.
if you think the fucked up, loner one is Sherlock - think twice
OK. This post is dangerous for me because I want nothing more that knowing better John Watson. You made some very interesting remarks.So, here is my partial list of everyyything that I want to know about the past and the relationship s of our Watson boy. Do not hesitate to give any pieces of information or headcanon.
Some of you spoke about the wedding but... do we know who is those friends that John joined for his birthday that Sherlock was not confident enough to stay around? * you know the birthday party of lestrade' s video in many happy returns*
Harry has no face. But what about clara? We know that John was angry that they broke up. Why?
Why was he in Dublin the previous day of a scandal in belgravia? Vacation? Alone? Family business?
Bill Murray? Does he exist in this version? How did John survive? Did he know him before the army as in ACD?
Mike...Good lad. What was their relationship? Were they closer before the war ( because you know John is not very friendly when they met but was it his depression or did he put some distance between him and Mike at some point?)
Every close person of his entourage are more related to Sherlock than himself. Like Molly ( love her) is the godmother of his child. We never see them interacting even for a message without Sherlock in the room. And what happend to those relationships when sherlock was "dead"?
Do we even know how he met Mary??
Why does he have already a problem with alcohol? OK his sister is an alcoholic but... why??? ( is it canon that their father was alcoholic/ violent???)
I'm not sure when most of the current Sherlock fans joined the fandom but based on a few posts I've seen it seems like a lot of people joined after the episodes had all aired or somewhere around when the last season was airing, which is why I think a lot of people don't know or didn't experience the way the series was received as it aired season per season.
To give context John's blog in the series was a real blog you could visit and they posted content on there alongside the episodes. this meant that the fans at the time actively read and posted about the blogs content because it was essentially a part of the series and how we survived during the hiatus between s2 and s3. So a lot of what is known about John is from the actual posts on his blog and the snippet of his CV we see in the series, the fandom also used other sources, like the original ACD stories and other adaptations to create what we 'know' BBC's John Watson as as a fandom.
I think we can say that we know so much about Sherlock and so little about John because John is the narrator of the story, he is telling the story of Sherlock Holmes so it stands to reason that we actively learn about Sherlock, John's not going to reveal much that isn't directly relevant to Sherlock or Sherlock's deductions of him in the series.
Anyway, I know the original post is a few years old but thought I'd clear up some of the questions for those interested!
Where did he grow up? What has been of his family?
Based on John's CV from TBB we can see he went to secondary school in 'King Edward Grammar School Chelmsford' so we know he lived somewhere around there from the age of about 11.
Sherlock deduces that he doesn't have an extended family in ASiP and in shooting script for TSoT it mentions John's Mum is dead, but the line was cut from the episode.
Who the fuck are Stella and Ted?
The first time we hear of Stella and Ted is when they comment on John's blog congratulating him on his engagement announcement.
Based on this comment on another of John's (or well Sherlock's in this case) posts they are and older couple. Considering they're calling him 'Johnikins' and 'darling' as well as sending a telegram to the wedding it is safe to assume that they know him pretty well.
Sholto pops up from thin air.
Yes, he does. But that's sort of where S3 and S4 initially fall down, characters and plot lines are introduced that don't make much sense. I think Sholto being dumped into the series with no indication of him at all beforehand is simply down to bad planning on the creators side. He is however a nod to the ACD character Major Sholto.
Why does he have trust issues, right from the start?
I don't know much about war and soldiers but I guess if you've lived in an active war zone where you are on high alert all of the time and anyone you come across could very easily kill you, it's probably not all that surprising that he has trust issues, although that is assuming he didn't already have trust issues before joining the army. He's probably just Those are just my thoughts though, theres nothing in canon that says why he has trust issues, as far as I know.
Harry has no face. But what about Clara? We know that John was angry that they broke up. Why?
Harry has no face but we do know, based on Sherlock's deductions in ASiP, that she is an alcoholic. She doesn't care for her phone, it is scratched from being in the same pocket as keys and coins even though it's practically brand new, it was also a present from her wife so you could say she's not very appreciative or takes Clara for granted. He also deduces that Harry left Clara and that John has a problem with Harry, 'maybe you liked his wife, maybe you don't like h[er] drinking', Harry certainly thinks John had a thing for Clara based on the comment below about the way he used to look at her. So it seems that John was fond of Clara and didn't approve of Harry's treatment of her which most likely stems from the drinking. We also know from these comments that she is 36 in ASiP.
Some of you spoke about the wedding but⦠do we know who is those friends that John joined for his birthday that Sherlock was not confident enough to stay around? * you know the birthday party of Lestrade' s video in many happy returns*
We do know some of the people who went to the birthday dinner, John posted it on his blog.
Now, out of the people listed there the only one Sherlock might have had a problem being around is Harry, but the other thing is John mentions Sherlock didn't come because he 'struggled to fit in', I'm not sure what we can take from that as he did okay with most of those people when they had the Christmas get together in S2, although he did sort of cause Jannette to break up with John by confusing which one of John's girlfriends she was, deduced Greg's wife was cheating on him again and called Molly out on her feelings for whoever she wrapped the gift for, so maybe he didn't want to go and accidentally ruin it for John. Especially considering John posted this post accusing Sherlock of making everything about him at that Christmas party.
Does he have friends beside Sherlock?
He mentions friends here and there in the blog, also one of his first entries mentions meeting up with rugby lads he was on a team with, for the people trying to figure out where the rugby player thing came from.
Why was he in Dublin the previous day of a scandal in belgravia? Vacation? Alone? Family business?
Can't actually remember if this is a fanon thing or actually canon, but I always thought he was away at a medical conference, maybe someone can corroborate this?
Bill Murray? Does he exist in this version? How did John survive? Did he know him before the army as in ACD?
Bill does exist, he commented regularly on John's blog. He's actually the first ever commenter on John's blog he comments on John's second blog post.
John also mentions him in the blog post the day before meeting Sherlock and tells us that Bill saved his life, but also the comment Bill left referring to the things John got up to before they went out to Afghanistan together, this doesn't tell us if he knew him before joining the army though, they could have met in training.
Mikeā¦Good lad. What was their relationship? Were they closer before the war (because you know John is not very friendly when they met but was it his depression or did he put some distance between him and Mike at some point?)
They went to medical school together in Bart's, Sherlock deduces this in ASiP, John also mentions it in his post about meeting Sherlock.
John says they were 'sort of mates when we were students' which for a guy like John presumably means they new each others names, would chat occasionally or meet up on nights out but weren't actually close, so when John joined the army it's probably more likely they just drifted apart rather than had a falling out.
John not being very friendly probably has something to do with the fact that he's depressed and disillusioned with his life and he's sort of just a grumpy guy anyways. Mike also refers to John as being 'not the John Watson I know' which has him instantly on the defensive replying 'yeah, I'm not the John Watson...', it's probably hard for him to meet someone who knew him before his injury and to have them see him recently discharged and using a cane and his life essentially in shambles.
Every close person of his entourage are more related to Sherlock than himself. Like Molly (love her) is the godmother of his child. We never see them interacting even for a message without Sherlock in the room. And what happened to those relationships when Sherlock was "dead"?
Molly, Mike and Mrs Hudson all continue to post comments on John's blog as he wrote up some of the adventures that he never posted while Sherlock was still alive. John does mention trying to see Molly in reply to one of her comments, but we don't know if he ever did actually see her
We know he sees Greg at least once when he goes over to John's new flat to drop off the box of Sherlock's things that were left at the Yard, this is from the mini episode Many Happy Returns and John posts about it on the blog.
Do we even know how he met Mary??
Her first mention is when she comments on the blog, 7 months before he proposes to her. In the series she is a nurse in the same clinic John works at, so presumably that's how they met.
Why does he have already a problem with alcohol? OK his sister is an alcoholic but⦠why??? (is it canon that their father was alcoholic/ violent???)
It doesn't appear John has a drinking problem at all throughout the series up until TLD when he tells Eurus (as his therapist) that he didn't have Rosie the night before because it wasn't a good night and he can't always cope, it then cuts to a shot of him drinking at home alone in the dark and him continuing on to say he's letting Rosie down, all of this suggests that he is struggling with alcohol and using it to cope after Mary's death. John has stopped blogging altogether by this point so we don't actually get any of that extra information like we did with earlier seasons from his blog.
As far as I remember his father is never mentioned.
Side Note: I think part of the reason S3 and S4 felt wrong was because the writers lost the run of themselves a bit, but also they got sloppy. The Six Thatchers was already a case on the blog posted in 2011, this and based on interviews Moffat and Gatiss had given saying they would never touch things in the series because there was no need to, like Sherlock's childhood, kind of showed how far they had come from being meticulous with the details to the plot hole riddled and ridiculous back story series it became throwing in characters that have never even been hinted at but play 'massive' roles in John and Sherlock's lives.
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