There's been lots of stuff on the Internet about this episode, lots of interesting theories too. I'll just say one thing before moving on to them: don't watch this episode without your shock blanket.
1. The "I Blame Moffat" Phenomenom.
Introduction: I have bad news for some of you, people. Stephen Thompson wrote this episode. Congratulate him.
eadreytheiptscray: whywhywhywhyWHY WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO
ME!????!?!?!?! Brilliant Moffat and Gatiss, you're just brilliant. And I
hate you so very much at this moment right now. GAHHHHHHHHH!!!!
andthensheattacked: You know what? I'm pissed off. How dare
you make me feel all these feelings? Forget sad. I’m ANGRY.
martiansarepeopletoo: Steven Moffat, I hate you. I hate you more than I have ever hated anyone before in my life.I HAD A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, AND I’M NOT EVEN EXAGGERATING.
moriartyisstayingalive: Crying again. Why do you do this to me Moffat!?
2. Reactions to this episode: the Reichenshock.
Congratulations to the Moffat-Gatiss-Thompson trio. Its sherlockholmian fandom is now officially scared for life, and a masochist.
fezzes-r-cool: I cried so much the last days. I feel dried out.
zareonianwolf:
no no no no no NO NO NO NO NONONONONONOOOOOOO
dewidebue: I'd thought all the Reichenbach Feels
would be over by now. Guess I was wrong.
greencarnations: Brandy. Brandy helps.
take-my-hand-jawn: Wearing black all week and perhaps longer after that.
chimingofthebells: About Reichenbach. Okay. In my entire life, never, have I once
cried fro a tv show, movie, book, or anything that isn’t happening in
real life. Sure, I’ve teared up a little and felt really sad, but I have
never full-on cried. Until Reichenbach. I watched the episode alone,
and I finally cried. And not only did I cry, I cried hard. And
then I cried again the second time. Maybe it just hit at the right time
for me, when I’m still high from the obsession of the show itself. But
whatever it is, I know this episode is a work of art because it is the
one thing that could bring me to tears. Work. Of. Fucking. Art.
eternallyanna: I think Reichenbach trauma is a
perfectly legitimate reason to withdraw from the world for a day or two.
bluescarfs: I'm stupid. I watched again. For the third time. And I’m crying just as much as the first time.
hopelesslysherlocked: I Can't. I can’t. I just can’t do it. My wonderful
Sherlock Family has been posting all sorts of Reichenbach pictures since
I got on, and I can’t handle— God. I have never cried so hard. The hard part is, the majority of the episode was hilarious. The very
beginning reduced me to teardrops, and by the end, I was literally
hyperventalating. I never do that. I can’t even. God. John’s “Please. Don’t be dead. For me.” broke my heart into pieces and I can’t. How long is it until series 3 comes out?
moldybreadcrumbs: After watching Reichenbach last night I
was sad, but numb and I thought I had gotten off easy until this morning
I realized I was crying in the shower.
consulting---blogger: The whole episode goes into my best pieces of television ever.
bruisedfeet: I just wanted to salute everyone that survived and didn’t blow their brains out after Reichenbach.
trickster88: We regret to inform all non-sherlockians
that Tumblr is under quarantine. Tumblr is currently being plagued with
the Reichenbach Withdrawal. We suggest abandoning your blogs until your
dash has cleared if you wish to live through this epidemic.
kianya:I honestly think me and every other
Sherlockian deserves a complimentary shock blanket after our ordeal
yesterday.
spooteh: Oh god, the feelings. ALL THE FEELINGS! The whole thing was just gorgeous. I’m going to have to watch it again, even though I know it will make me sad.
enindeleble: THIS SHOULD BE CALLED POST-REICHENBACH STRESS DISORDER. Or Reichenbach Affective Disorder. I mean, there should be an entire category related to Reichenbach. Symptoms could be: Uncontrollable screaming fits, Inconsolable crying, Cringing at any mention of the trigger words “Reichenbach”, “John”,
“Sherlock”, “Moriarty”, “Stayin’ Alive”, “Ordinary”, “Note”, “Fall”,
“I.O.U.”, etc, etc, etc. RAEG, Denial, Denial, Denial, Denial, Denial.
girlugamesh: i’m in reichenshock
In short - the Reichenshock: Lasting Feelings. Tears. Mourning. Denial. Expectance of the third season. "Sherlock" as a work of Art.
 |
| from Wikipédia |
3. Reactions to this episode: analysis.
I just have to say. That episode was amazing. The way that everything fit so perfectly together (like it always does, actually … ) and how John was RIGHT. “Alone is what I have. Alone protects me.” “Nope, Friends protect people.” The way that he outsmarted Moriarty finally simply by virtue of having friends. Because of Molly. Because neither of them realized that he did have that fourth friend until the end.
I think I decided that Mycroft was in on Sherlock’s plan when he put the paper down and seemed like he was about to put his head in his hands (as he did in A Scandal in Belgravia) but then instead pressed his hands to his mouth, mirroring Sherlock when he’s thinking. The important thing here is that we’ve seen Mycroft look properly horrified, so we know he’s capable of it. That scene in Belgravia is the first time we’ve seen Mycroft look lost, a little like Sherlock on the rooftop. I found Gatiss’ expression at the Diogenes club one of deep thought but not grief. If anything he looked more sorrowful when John came to see him and accuse him of leaking the information to Moriarty. He apologized to John not just because of what he’d purportedly done to Sherlock but because of what he was about to help Sherlock do to John. But yes - the shameless, insatiable cliche lover in me would love nothing more than an endless stream of Sherlock-reveals-himself-to-a-grieving-Mycroft fics.Yes, that’s it exactly. The cruel angst addict in me wants Mycroft in the dark so we can have him broken. Or as broken as Mycroft gets. Watching John break was heart-splintering but we knew it was coming, we know to expect that from John. But you just don’t know what to expect from Mycroft. That’s why I’m pleased they included that shot of Mycroft after the jump (and not a single one of Lestrade btw, even though he quite reasonably could have come with John and Mrs. Hudson - or there could have been a shot of him at some crime scene giving Donovan and Anderson a meaningful stare).
After the little girl screams in fright of Sherlock and we see his face close up, it's hard to describe, but I this is what I think:I think that there are things going through Sherlock’s mind right at that moment along the lines of memories of possibly his childhood. It’s true that children can be very, very cruel, so what if the kids around him when he was young convinced others that not only is he a freak, but that he’s a dangerous “monster” as well? And so wherever he went (i.e.: the playground in school to question some kids over a missing pencil case) children would point and scream at him - scared of him - and run away from him.It’s difficult to describe what I can see on his face during this, but it’s like he’s hurt, offended, and just a little bit scared of what people will think from all that had just happened. I mean a kid who was abducted just screamed at him like he’s the monster under her bed even though she’s never seen him before. There might have been images of him planted around her and used to scare her - therefore building up a fear of him - but still. What a horrible thing to be on either end of. So what I’m getting at is that Sherlock really is becoming more and more “human” - he’s starting to feel and worry about what people may or may not think of him, but even so, he only lets these emotions really show when he is turned away from the public. Or, you know, when he’s telling his best friend the lies he needs to feed him to keep him safe, right before he goes and fakes his own suicide.
I need to point out this one thing:Obviously, after Reichenbach.. I don’t even know. I’m trying not to think too much. Or something. Ash is busy laughing at me from over my shoulder right now, so I’ll try not to get too cheesy emotional whatever, but.. goddamn, John and Sherlock and there’s so much to say about that that I need to wait to write out because SHIT. BUT— One thing that is really upsetting to me is that Moriarty didn’t get to live to see that even after his most desperate plan, Sherlock beat him. He thinks he’s won by killing himself, there, but he hasn’t. Sherlock won, and he’ll never know it. It’s just kind of unfortunate.
 |
| by wayward-rebel |
4. Theories on how Sherlock did not die.
A tumblr was created to solve the "Final Post-Final Problem": how did he indeed survive that fall? Here's the link to > "Sherlokian Theories".
Wait wait wait wait. In the video on John's blog, there is no mention of Moriarty's body.
Sherlock, not Moriarty, chose the rooftop location. Jumping would be the most humiliating form of suicide. So Sherlock gambled - correctly - that Moriarty would rather die than let Sherlock escape and pushed HIM to commit suicide. Sherlock asked Molly to replicate the fear serum from Baskerville which the boy on the BMX administered to Watson as Sherlock switched clothes with Moriarty. He had already primed Watson to really see his worst fear via the phone “note”. Sherlock pushes Moriarty’s corpse from the roof and Watson hallucinates that it’s Sherlock, ID’s the body with Molly who signs the death certificate and allows Moriarty to be buried in Sherlock’s grave. Holmes now has his anonymity back and his friends out of harms way. Ta-daaa!!! If I’m right about Sherlock’s ending the clue is actually in the title. It ends on The Richard Brook Fall.
OHMYGOD. he says the phone is his note. and then he drops it on the roof. SO WHAT IF THERE'S ANOTHER NOTE???????
The little girl screamed at Sherlock. That means that she’s seen him before, which means that he a part of the kidnapping. Or, not him, but a look alike, chosen by Moriarty for that purpose alone. Moriarty plans, he plans on everything. However, he didn’t plan on Sherlock remembering that one small fact. The gunner doesn’t look exactly like him in this episode, but they can twist it later on. That’s what TV dramas do. He didn’t jump. He pushed the gunner, swapped clothes, everything. The mortition that he finally talked to claimed that the man on the slab was her good friend and crush, Sherlock Holmes, knowing it isn’t, knowing he’s probably in her apartment hiding out right now as he hunts for evidence to take his claims of truth to the media and to court. It was the gunner, on the stairwell of the very same building Sherlock was on. (The view from the gunner’s scope is the same angle as Sherlock’s view.) That’s my theory. And honestly, it’s been made to be far too easy to figure out. Thoughts? Hole pickings?
So this is what I am doing today. I am watching the rooftop scene of Reichenbach and using google street view to figure out what John could see. Sherlock very clearly needed John to be in one specific location. They showed the surroundings in such small bursts and I was getting frustrated and then I remembered google. Under the cut are screenshots from street view and from the show plus a link to the google maps location where John was standing, roughly. John could definitely not see the pavement where Sherlock landed until after he went around that low building in between them. Which goes a long way towards explaining how Sherlock pulled it off, I think? Or maybe not, and maybe this is all obvious to everyone else, but I need something to do other than prancing around my living room crying and saying “OH MY GOD JOHN! YOUR FACE! HERE MARTIN TAKE ALL THE AWARDS FOREVER!”
I can't help thinking that using the face of Sherlock to traumatize those children and using the face of Sherlock to convince the world he was dead is not a coincidence. Everyone has a look-alike.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks you for leaving a comment! Thank you for sharing Sherlock stuff! Please be precise about your references (title, autor, link...) Thank you again!