Preview for the 3rd episode is already up on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MimV42deNMA

 

Finally got around to watching this show, very glad I did. Excellent stuff.

I did kind of get distracted in the last episode by seeing the Greatjon Umber.

 

Fuck.

Alright, clues:

Spoiler

- He asked Molly to help him with something

- The little kidnapped girl screamed when she saw him (doppleganger?)

- He threw said doppleganger off the roof? Had Molly push it out of a window?

- Sherlock did jump, as John saw. However, a very conveniently placed rubbish truck drove off just after John was hit by the cyclist.

Also, Moriarty's suicide was epic. 'You're insane!' 'You only just getting that?'

That's what I'm going with, because fuck waiting another year for the conclusion.

Edit: Moffat pulled this shit at the end of the latest season of Doctor Who, as well. Good news, however, is that 3rd season of Sherlock is confirmed.

 

Spoiler

Molly's help was obvious. Actually, if they wanted to make it look for a moment that Holmes really did kill himself, the second talk between them was unnecessary. The first one was more than enough to set up the idea.

Doppleganger is possible and Sherlock said he is not one of the angels. Killing someone just to fake his own death is something confirming this statement.

I liked Moriarty's simple idea about the fake source code. What I didn't get is why he killed himself. I suspect it was because he saw that Sherlock is him and that meant he can make him talk, but it wasn't clear when I was watching.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that Holmes will now spent some time with Irene, since both are "dead".

 

Yay Molly having a bigger role. and I agree that the second meeting wasn't nessercary. Kind of insulting really.

 

Great season finisher.

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I support Joe's theory about the doppelgänger and the rubbish truck. Sherlock also explicitly asks John to walk back so the view of the street was hidden. And he wanted him to look up, again, away from the street. So I'm guessing Molly was in the truck, Sherlock jumped in and Molly threw the other body out.

It does raise the question of the doppergänger's disappearance though. If Moriarty had lived, he would have surely known about that. And Sherlock couldn't have known Moriarty would kill himself. Of course, neither did he know Moriarty would threaten his friends (not for sure anyway), but he did when he contemplated jumping that first time. I suppose that's why he might have actually gotten nervous in that moment.

I don't really understand Moriarty's suicide yet, either. It seems a little off to me, that he actually expects Sherlock could break him in that short window of time. Maybe he figured he'd always be bored after defeating a true equal and didn't really like that idea.

The code twist was great and I really didn't see it coming. I do wonder though. Moriarty said he had all kinds of different criminal and terrorist organizations after him for it. Couldn't they have caused him a lot of trouble, after they found out it was actually fake? Or was the "Sherlock has the key"-plot supposed to take care of that? I mean, it's not like Moriarty didn't know the 'code' as well.

Can't wait till next season!

 

Loved it, and I'm delighted that there is going to be a third series.

Thoughts.

Spoiler

My first thought when the girl screamed at the sight of Sherlock was that the man who kidnapped her had either been wearing an extremely convincing mask, or had had incredible plastic surgery. Doppelganger works as well, but there wasn't any indication of that in the episode itself, so I'm dubious.
As for how he survived...it is extremely convenient that John got knocked down. One of the homeless network? Perhaps Molly's aid was to get in contact with them - or at least supply them with the necessary equipment etc. It's extremely unlikely that he could have survived that fall, especially without damaging his brain, but not impossible. So, he survives the fall, then they mash up Moriaty's body so it isn't recognisable, and bury that. Maybe get Mycroft in on it.

Probably going to be quite a wait for the next series though They're both still working on The Hobbit, and Cumberbatch has been signed up for the next Star Trek film.

 

Spoiler

In the first episode we had Irene faking her death by using fake DNA while in the 2nd episode we had people convinced of seeing things that they expected to see.
The cyclist knocked Watson, probably administtering the drug, saw Sherlock fall and expects to see him on the floor when it could be Moriarty dressed as Homes with a wig. Molly fabricates the evidence needed to confirm Holmes as dead and Watson's as a witness to the deed.

Job done.

Don't believe me?

 

Except that that could also be a photoshop and the hole I'm seeing in that guess is that Moriarty specifically said that;

Spoiler

His men needed to see Sherlock jump so as to not shoot Watson, Mrs Hudson and Lestraude (Also; Lestraude and not Molly? Did I miss something here?) - And none of them could have possibly had the drug applied to them from where they all were.

Not to mention the drug from Baskerville was airbourne, though I guess it wouldn't be hard to change that.

Still, I saw the ending coming, after all; How can you confirm a 3rd series after just 1 episode and expect us to believe the ending? Brilliantly done, mind you. Moriarty was... perfect.

Eagerly awaiting the 3rd season, however long that may take.

 

I couldn't agree more, everything in Season 2 has just been top notch.

Spoiler

And now... the wait begins for Season 3. Any guesses as to what we might see new takes on? The Second Stain & The Abbey Grange are two of my favorites... tbh anything involving Holmes out in the countryside in old manor houses would be very welcome.

 

Spoiler

http://i.imgur.com/RAa5A.png

I took a screenie myself. Really bad resolution but zoom in. I think its Moriarty but not sure. Thoughts?

 

Spoiler

Well, that does like Moriarty. But I don't really think it's much of a hint. The body on the ground bled quite a bit, so it couldn't have been dead before it fell (right?). And it would've been pretty damn obvious to everyone that that wasn't Sherlock. He was quite famous afterall and so was Moriarty. And then there would be the bloodstain on the roof without an explanation.

Then there's the fact that Sherlock jumped right after talking to John. So he didn't even have time to put his clothes on Moriarty (who has a different build as well and there would be blood everywhere), give him a wig (also, the gunwound in his head) and then drag him to the edge and throw him down.

So no, I seriously doubt he somehow switched places with Moriarty.

 

Spoiler

Why switch clothes?

Watson SEES Sherlock fall. Regardless of who is on the ground, he ASSUMES that the person is Sherlock because he has been drugged, and that is what his eyes see.

The people around could be Sherlock's homeless network? They were trying REAL HARD to not let Watson have a good enough look. And even if they weren't, they see a dead Moriarty, QUITE unrecognizable from a his head blown off. And Watson says "he is my friend", not "he is Sherlock Holmes".

Also, for awesomeness,

 

Spoiler

The guy on the ground was wearing the exact same clothes Sherlock was wearing.

When would he have been drugged? He already saw Sherlock standing on the roof before he fell and he wasn't expecting Sherlock to jump before that.

The people around him came running from the hospital and were doctors/nurses. Neither Moriarty nor the guy on the ground's head were blown off.

Switching himself for Moriarty would be an incredibly foolish plan for Sherlock. He couldn't know Moriarty was going to kill himself and he knew Moriarty had people watching for his fall, so tricking them like that would have been an unreasonable risk. The only reason to assume Sherlock used Moriarty's body is the screenshot and that would have been an extremely shitty way to give away his plan to the viewers and isn't conclusive by itself anyway. I just don't see it happening.

 

Spoiler

All we really know for sure is that Sherlock had Watson placed to impede his view of Holmes' impact. So I would say it probable that Sherlock did indeed jump but he didn't land on concrete. Obviously Molly was involved in some fashion. They seem to do this in every take on Sherlock Holmes. Damn Conan Doyle. Once you fake a main character's death everything becomes a bit less impressive (Not that Doyle intended it to be fake at the time but he was such an utterly bad doctor, had to make money somehow). Moriarty was fantastically played. And his anti-climatic ending was tasteful as well. As a whole though... I didn't enjoy the episode. It was good, but it didn't give me a sense of tingles all over. It doesn't really crack the top three for me. It was good... it just missed that little bit that made it better than the rest.

And when can we take off the spoiler tags? They really are annoying. Also I wish they would have used Reichenbach Falls a bit more. I enjoyed the name play but I thought it would more integral.

 

Violent: You're right. But how do we justify that picture?

 

It's too far away to see anything clearly imo.

 

Point, but it still casts doubt and I have a feeling that there was a reason for including that shot.

I slowed my video down 16x to get that picture.

 

I just went back and checked where the shot is, the picture you've shown is on screen for about 1 millisecond. Literally.

They're not going to include messages about possible future plot in a millisecond worth of footage... That's plain ridiculous.

 

This is Moffat we're talking about.