The Final Problem

I’m trying to get as much of it as possible out of my system this week so I can not be crazy next week. Doubt it’ll work, but bear with me.

I was reading The Final Problem the other night. If you haven’t read it, here are some of the major plot points:

1. Holmes finally has enough evidence to see that Moriarty gets arrested
2. Moriarty knows this, and arranges for several attempts on Holmes’ life
3. Holmes survives, then tries to hide out with Watson for a while (roadtrip!)
4. Eventually Moriarty catches up and lures Watson away from Holmes
5. Holmes and Moriarty fight and fall to their (apparent) deaths
6. Holmes leaves Watson a letter, and Watson has a sad
7. Watson only tells the story later to defend Holmes’ memory after Moriaty’s brother (who is also named James Moriarty, in one of those weird Arthur Conan Doyle things) has besmirched it

I haven’t been trying very hard to find out spoilers about The Reichenbach Fall episode of Sherlock, but I have seen enough that I am now mapping my vague spoilery knowledge to canon plot points and using wanton speculation to fill in the holes. Probably fruitlessly, but here goes…

[Spoilers below]

1: There are shots of what looks like Jim and Sherlock in a cell, and actors on board to play prosecutors and whatnot, so I expect they’re going somewhere with this. (See also point 7.)

2: In the original story, Holmes has a faceoff with Moriarty (they already used some of that material in The Great Game) and then has a really crappy day with several attempts on his life. A horse-drawn van almost runs him down, a brick falls and almost hits him, and then he’s attacked by “a rough with a bludgeon.” That last part leaves him with bloodied knuckles when he shows up at Watson’s house.

Reading the ACD story actually got me weirdly excited about this part. I look forward to the possibility of Sherlock fending off repeated attacks. I don’t know what that says about me as a person, but there it is.

And there was a specific part of The Final Problem relating to the attacks that caught my attention:

I kept to the pavement after that, Watson, but as I walked down Vere Street a brick came down from the roof and shattered to fragments at my feet. I called the police and had the place examined. There were some slates and bricks piled up on the roof preparatory to some repairs, and they would have me believe that the wind had toppled over one of these. Of course I knew better, but I could prove nothing.

Set photos and comments that have come out suggest Sherlock will fall off the roof of St. Bart’s in The Reichenbach Fall, and that it may not be clear if he just fell or an enemy pushed him or what. Most people seem to be guessing that the set photos of Sherlock falling and Sherlock bloodied and on a stretcher are from the end because of course Sherlock would “die” in a fall.

But I was already starting to guess otherwise, and then the section of the book quoted above reminded me of this:

In A Scandal in Belgravia, Sherlock was reading a newspaper with the headline “Refit for Historical Hospital.” This has led to speculation that construction at St. Bart’s will play into the story.

So: What if the episode’s writer took the series of attacks on Holmes from the ACD story, and combined the idea of the falling brick from the roof of a house being repaired and the attempt by Moriarty’s henchman to bash in Holmes’ head into Sherlock being pushed off the under-repair roof of St. Bart’s by one of Moriarty’s henchmen as one of the early attempts on Sherlock’s life?

In my mind this makes a lot of sense. Which usually indicates it will be quite wrong, but I will continue thinking it in the meantime.

3: I don’t get the impression that they’ll do the whole Sherlock and John travel through Europe hiding from Moriarty thing at all. But they get a roadtrip this week for Hounds and I’m sure they’ll be on the run at some point during Fall, so it’s all good as far as I’m concerned. Being in Switzerland was never the point of the original story.

4: I don’t think I’ve seen any spoilers that directly relate to this part. (Which is good, because that would be giving a lot away if we knew.) In the original story, though, Watson is lured away under the pretense of someone needing medical attention. It’ll be interesting to see if they use this tactic in Sherlock. I wouldn’t mind getting to see John’s medical experience being used in the story more.

5: Like I already mentioned, I’m wondering if they’ll surprise us by having Sherlock and Jim’s cause of death being due to something other than a fall. To me, the important part is that they kill each other (I sound really bloodthirsty, but you know what I mean). It doesn’t matter how they die.

People have suggested that there could be other twists like Moriarty not dying or John dying instead of Sherlock. I’m up for anything that’s written well, but I have my doubts about whether that would change the crux of the story too much. Sure, they never follow canon exactly. And I’m glad they don’t. But Holmes and Moriarty both deciding it’s worth dying to take the other one out is kind of a key aspect of the Holmes legend to me.

6: I am absolutely expecting a message of some sort from Sherlock to John, though who knows what form that will take. Texts are a good candidate given how much they’re used in the show, but that also seems like a very limiting form of communication depending on how long of a goodbye they’d like to write. So it could also be a posting on John’s blog (I would sob) or Sherlock’s website or or an email or a regular letter or whatever. This version of Sherlock could pick almost any method of communication and I’d believe it. And since he has an iPhone, he doesn’t even need to leave the letter on a rock and hope John finds it. Hooray for progress.

In terms of John’s reaction, we already know that his therapist will be back in this episode. (Why is he still going to that therapist, by the way, after A Study in Pink?) She could appear for any number of reasons, including flashbacks, but the obvious thing would be to end Fall the way Pink began—John without Sherlock and back in his therapist’s office.

Also related to John and his sads, there was that tweet about this being Martin Freeman’s finest hour. So I’m pretty much planning on him making me cry. Yep.

7: In The Final Problem, Watson doesn’t really get into much detail on what Moriarty’s brother was saying to harm Holmes’ reputation, but I do wonder if they’re spinning the whole reputation thing into Fall.

They did start off the season with Sherlock becoming something of a celebrity. And throughout the series there have been people who questioned his sanity or believed he was capable of being a criminal himself. So if Sherlock’s really close to putting Jim away forever, maybe this incarnation of Moriarty’s smart enough to not just attempt to kill Sherlock but to kill his public image and credibility as well.

The possibility that it may be unclear whether Sherlock fell off the hospital or was pushed suggests seeds of doubt will be planted. I believe I also saw a mention of Sherlock’s sanity coming into question, so there’s that angle as well. (Hey, maybe they should send him to John’s therapist so she can tell him to blog his troubles away.)

There’s also Sherlock in a cell, John waiting in what looks like a court, Sherlock and John being handcuffed by the police… When I first heard the episode was called The Reichenbach Fall, my immediate assumption was that it was wordplay and it meant “fall” as in “take the blame.” So maybe Sherlock’s about to be framed for a crime he didn’t commit. (Though the fact that he’s always committing “small” crimes probably doesn’t help him any. I wonder if there will be some inconveniently true details mixed into the accusation.)

I’ve seen a number of other people suggest this, so I rely on their judgement to make me more confident that it isn’t just my warped perspective on this one. Also, having Sherlock take a figurative fall as well as literal fall off a roof would actually be a lot like what they did in Scandal: Irene was the woman who beat Sherlock* as well as the woman who beat Sherlock.

After Falls: I know I saw someone suggest that the reason they always call Moriarty “Jim” is because they’re planning on doing something with brother James in the future. Then again, my short time on the #sherlock tag has made it clear that the fans want Moran and they want him now. Personally, I’m fine with whatever, though Moran makes a lot of sense considering he was the baddie in The Adventure of the Empty House. Which they have to do because that is the one where Holmes comes back from the dead.

AND SHERLOCK MUST COME BACK FROM THE DEAD. I WILL NOT ALLOW FOR ANY OTHER POSSIBILITY.

How pissed off will John be when he learns Sherlock was faking being dead? Probably a lot. Should be entertaining. But if they do The Adventure of the Dying Detective anytime next season, I want to be the first to register the opinion that John be allowed to go ahead and murder Sherlock at the end of that story if he feels like it. If Sherlock ever has to die for real, that’s the way he should go.

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*Yes, I know this is a hotly contested issue, but based on the dialogue in the linked gif I do think Moffat intended to suggest the end was Irene beating Sherlock even if it was awkwardly or unsuccessfully executed within the episode.