Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) is congratulated on the case of The Reichenbach Fall, a painting and he becomes known as The Reichenbach hero" in the press. Leading to plenty of photos, as well as solving many other high profile cases such as kidnappings, etc. Each time he's rewarded with a small gift, like diamond cufflinks when his sleeves have buttons, or a tie pin when he doesn't wear ties and from Lestrade (Rupert Graves) and the rest of the team, a deerstalker, they all chipped in for it. Again he gets more press coverage. Even Watson pints it out, how can he remain a 'private' detective with all this publicity and then warns him the press will turn on him. Sherlock tells him Watson also has a nickname in the papers, "bachelor." Well Watson was right, the press did turn on him and not only that but also the very force he has helped on so many occasions, barring Lestrade.
Moriarty (Andrew Scott) is at the Tower of London and elaborately uses an App to break the glass on the crown jewels display, as well as organize a daylight robbery at the Bank Of England and Pentonville prison is in jeopardy, just as everyone is enjoying that quintessential cup of British tea! Sherlock also makes a cup for Moriarty, later. He writes, "get Sherlock" on the glass and then breaks it using a diamond and is sitting with the jewels on when the police arrive. Six weeks later he ends up in court and who is there to testify, none other than Sherlock.
Watson tells him to answer what's asked of him and nothing more, but Sherlock can't resist "showing off" as the judge calls it, figuring out everything about the jury. He finds himself in contempt and ends up in a cell with Moriarty. Also meeting a reporter in the loo, Kitty (Katherine Parkinson) he tells her everything about her too and she just happens to be wearing his deerstalker, well one like it. Moriarty doesn't put up a defence and instead the jury finds him not guilty and not as Sherlock presupposed guilty. Realizing he got to the jury by sending them messages over the TV, threatening their loved ones.
Moriarty then pays a visit to Sherlock and he expects him as he plays his violin and makes tea. Moriarty sits in the chair Sherlock doesn't have ready for him and takes an apple. He then talks about wanting to be free of Sherlock, and everything was just a big plan to show criminals he was for hire and he could do anything, get in anywhere with just one key, that's all he needed, a key. He then taps his fingers on the side of the chair which is meant to be some sort of a message, or so we're meant to believe. Also coming up with the line "every fairytale needs a good old fashioned villain." As well as Sherlock saying he wants to "burn" him, he said that in the season 2 opener too.
Mycroft (Mark Gatiss) calls Watson to The Diogenes Club and tells him to watch Sherlock's back, mentioning a Richard Brook, a friend of Sherlock's, who talked about him in the press. But then Watson has been watching Sherlock's back since he met him, A Study in Pink, when he saved his life from the murdering cabbie. He shows him photos of assassins who have been hired to kill Sherlock and have moved in a few doors away from 221B, as well as one living upstairs. Next comes the case of a missing brother and sister from a boarding school, children of the US Ambassador. Sherlock arriving there and proceeding to pull off the blanket around the House Mistress so she'd answer his questions quickly. Which again everyone found so rude. Leading them to a Grimm's fairytales book and the envelope with the seal, which Watson didn't get to see, seeing as he picked up the envelope with the one outside their place, until later.
The boys room he finds using ALS has a message on the wall and he finds footprints to follow. Then takes a sample from the floor and analyzes the oil to determine the location of the children and that chocolate is involved. The children eating sweets poisoned with mercury. Sherlock being allowed to talk to the girl who's in hysterics at the sight of him, which sets up doubt in Donovan's (Vinette Robinson) mind about how Sherlock could solve the case with one shoeprint unless he was behind it. Er, cos he's Sherlock. Then Sherlock seeing "I.O.U" outside on the building. Everything leading up to Sherlock being discredited and called a fraud. Sherlock even getting a burnt gingerbread man, alluding to this story and Moriarty wanting to burn him form the outset. As well as Hansel and Gretel with the breadcrumbs leading to the children. I'm not sure why they had Sherlock take so long to make this fairytale connection to Moriarty, as it was obvious from the moment he talked about fairytale villains.
Then there was Kitty who published Sherlock's story and her source turning out to be Moriarty aka, Richard Brook (meaning Reichenbach in German.) telling her Sherlock hired him and he's only a meagre actor and of course he was. With being a criminal consultant, he had to have some acting ability to pull this off. Again all pointing to the 'final problem', he said it often enough. Good bit of continuity there when Sherlock takes the taxi alone to think and Moriarty comes on the screen reading a fairytale, then turning out to be the driver! Alluded to the first episode of season 1 and how how Moriarty had hired the cabbie all along to commit those murders just to engage Sherlock and get him involved. Yet Moriarty was the one who began this "game" and Sherlock wouldn't have been none the wiser about him, was the criminal not-so mastermind trying to outplay our hero?
Being the last episode we had to have another chase involved and this time with the two of them in handcuffs! Sherlock telling Watson to "hold my hand." A nice touch! Donovan reminding Watson of what she said in A Study in Pink about it all getting too much for him as he's a psychopath. Watson's not taking in the accusation though as he knows him better than that! To the point where Sherlock has to fake Mrs Hudson (Una Stubbs) getting ill for Watson to leave so he can put his plan into motion.
SO anyway as said last episode review, Mycroft had something up his sleeve when he had Moriarty freed, after months of torture he wouldn't talk but he would to Mycroft, only a little. When Watson tells him Sherlock only has two names in his book, his and Mycroft's, so infact Mycroft was the one who told Sherlock's enemy everything about him. His plan backfired, or did it?
Sherlock saying he doesn't have to die since, "I've got you." Oh Sherlock almost bursting into song there, yes let's have a bit of a musical! Moriarty tells him there's no way he's going to call off his gunmen, which means that there is a way, so long as he's alive, Sherlock doesn't have to die. So Moriarty does the next thing and kills himself! Which kind of defeated the purpose of getting one over on Sherlock didn't it. He triumphed after all in the end and Moriarty wasn't around to see the outcome. Unless of course this was Moriarty's plan, didn't he have a deathwish since we met him in person in The Great Game, with the bomb in the swimming pool and Sherlock having the gun on him too. yet here he expected Sherlock to follow suit and jump to save his friends, thinking it was the only solution he had left to his final problem.
Those clues: well as we know from the original it is Moriarty who actually takes a fall over the edge to his death and not Sherlock, he is alive and though he doesn't plummet to his 'death' it was expected. The same can be said here, Sherlock immediately suspected his life was in peril as soon as Moriarty said "I O U." Not just cos Molly (Loo Brealey) saw that look in his face of sadness when he thinks Watson isn't looking and the same look she saw in her father. That something is wrong. But also when she tells him she can help him if he lets her and he admits he does need her help later on. Her help with putting his PLAN into motion and not one of Moriarty's. You see Sherlock isn't a doofus as Moriarty called him on the rooftop, he knew exactly what would happen. "Staying Alive" song/ringtone aside! It was Sherlock's arena, he called Moriarty and arranged to meet him here, the camera alluding several times to the "pathlogy" written at the side of St Bart's.
What happens in pathology, well autopsies and DBs, plenty for the taking. So she helped him by probably taking one of these DBs and making it look like Sherlock. Of Course they did have a body right there in Moriarty, but that seems to be unforeseen. Obviously when he jumped from the roof, was that really him, or a substitute DB in his place and the cyclist having to knock down Watson so that he doesn't get to see Sherlock's face, or the 'fake Sherlock. That's why he had Watson stand where he did and made that phonecall to him. The phonecall where he admits it's all true, the papers and everyone is right, he's a "FAKE." Even the headline on the paper has 'fake' in it. Sherlock wasn't a fake only he had to make everyone one think he was in order for his plan to work and in order for him to save his friends. See, don't think he counted on Moriarty having gunmen trained on his three friends and let's face it, those are the only three he has got, or at least mean something to him and vice versa. Then again, he may have known considering that is Moriarty's MO: to have hired guns everywhere, he gave that away in The Great Game and again here.
Moriarty gave the 'game' away by talking about Bach when he came to see Sherlock and how when he was on his last legs, the composer jumped out of bed and finished the musical piece! Thus the code wasn't real and poor Sherlock had his "mind palace" on overtime this episode.
We see Sherlock desperately thinking he has no way out of this, but was this for our benefit and when he calls Watson too, Sherlock has never acted like that before and nor will he, give in. Nothing defeats him and he had to 'act' sorrowful and make that final phonecall cos he needed his 'death' to be believed. That he invented Moriarty, but Watson tells him he knew about his sister. He researched him, but how did he know he'd meet Watson? Telling him to keep his eyes "fixed on me" and the call being his 'note.' He got someone to make sure Watson is knocked down. Hence telling him to stand where he is and I liked the way he threw his phone and took a flying leap. As we know, Sherlock doesn't get emotional and the only time he felt afraid or emotional was in The Hounds of Baskerville, but that was under the influence of being drugged! Then again the cyclist could be someone from Holmes' Homeless Network. They were mentioned this episode, also I like referring to them as the 'Holmes' network.
Let's not forget the 'ball under the arm' plot to show the or rather mimic the symptoms of death, Sherlock had the ball here twice, first he was bouncing it and then he had it in his hand when he realized Moriarty was tapping the code with his fingers, a binary code. Referring back to The Mentalist cos that was one of Patrick Jane's ploys in one episode. And I won't elaborate on the truck with the landing pad everyone's talking about. Hey that nurse was quick in trying to take Watson's hand away from Sherlock's wrist so he couldn't feel his pulse.
Watson at the end desperately asking for that miracle from Sherlock in "don't be dead, for me..." And Sherlock watching. Enough to make you cry! Well that's one way to get your anonymity back, save face and reputation and save his friends. Moriarty giving plenty away also when he referred to "the final problem." This being Sherlock, mention had to be made of The Reichenback Fall and the story, where it was both Moriarty and Sherlock who went over the Fall, so wouldn't it be kind of poetic justice if Sherlock had the nouse to throw Moriarty's DB over the edge instead, but then he wouldn't have his 'face.' That way satisfying the original story.
Moriarty: "It's going to start very soon, Sherlock, the fall. But don't be scared. Falling's just like flying except there's a more permanent destination." Funny Moriarty refers to "the king's men" since they couldn't put Humpty together again, nor it seems will Moriarty be together.
I'm probably wrong I know, on several things, such is the cunning of these Sherlock producers and writers! Ha, so I think this episode is best watched instead of reading a review, it adds more drama if it's actually watched to see all that raw emotion between the characters. How Mrs Hudson is angry at him and Watson isn't that angry. He just wants his friend back, be careful what you wish for...
Best line: Sherlock: "Oh I may be on the side of angels but don't think for one second that I am one of them."
Did Sherlock's line of "I can kill Rich Brook and bring back Moriarty" have any deeper meaning. That Rich Brook really is Moriarty and with him dead, Moriarty is still alive, or that Rich is Moriarty and he's the one who doesn't exist; that sounds like grasping at straws though or losing the plot! Mrs Hudson brings in the parcel with the "funny German name" but no one asks what that name is even when she says like the fairytale, or even looks at it, why not? Wouldn't Watson at least be curious even if Sherlock wasn't?
At the beginning with Turner's masterpiece being stolen and then recovered, we're not told by whom but obviously Moriarty must have been behind it and we're not told how he solved the case since the newspaper merely states in the story that Sherlock followed a trail which Scotland yard couldn't find. Unless that was just setting up Sherlock for his 'fall.'
Sherlock says he's not going to play Moriarty's game whilst holding the camera all this time, so whoever's listening and watching can still do so. Sherlock doesn't even run when Lestrade warns him of the police and yet the moment he chooses to run is when he's outside and with Watson in tow. Thus he was playing the 'game' after all. Since he tells Watson he's doing what Moriarty wants and "becoming a fugitive." Why? Even when he texts Moriarty he tells him to "come and play" the game.
In the original magazine story, Sherlock is attacked on several occasions, almost being run over by a cab at one point. Here Sherlock is being watched by the assassins as he believes they know he has the code in his head. He also admits that Moriarty is Sherlock's "intellectual equal" so much for Moriarty going on about Sherlock being ordinary here. Moriarty tells Sherlock in the Reichenbach Fall that "you need me or you're nothing. Because we're just alike you and I."
Sherlock on the rooftop, "I am you. Prepared to do anything. Prepared to burn....you want me to shake hands with you in hell. I shall not disappoint you."
Moriarty: "you're me, you're me."
In the original story once they arrive in Switzerland, there's a note given to Watson where an English woman needs an English doctor, here Watson's call that Mrs Hudson is dying, but Sherlock refuses to go since he knows this isn't so.
So with the trailer at the end of the re-run on the BBC, which contains clips of the actual series, it seems we still have a while to go before the episodes are aired. Maybe after Christmas like they did with season 2, either way, it's too long to wait...!!
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