The Final Problem

I touched on this in my Reichenbach A to Z, but I thought it might be worth showing a little more clearly.

Some of the Homeless Network operatives helping Sherlock with his fake death seemed to have specific jobs. There was the BMX Bandit, of course, as well as the Chief John Wrangler. And then there was Fake!Doctor. Did you watch Fake!Doctor closely enough to figure out what his job was?

He ran out to the body immediately—you could see him in the background when John was being knocked over. Before Fake!Doctor had even crouched down next to the body, he was reaching out his hand for Sherlock’s head. Fake!Doctor then proceeded to “check Sherlock’s pulse” at his neck with one hand while keeping the other hand on Sherlock’s left arm. He kept at least one hand on Sherlock the entire time, even when it was awkward to do so because he was walking around the body. Despite his oh-so-convincing stethoscope, this man was not providing any real medical attention. In fact, Fake!Doctor probably paid more attention to John than Sherlock.

Fake!Doctor’s job was to make sure John could only check the pulse on Sherlock’s right arm. The arm Sherlock conveniently left extended when he landed. Fake!Doctor had Sherlock’s neck covered, and he was poised to get in the way if John tried to go for the left wrist for some reason. Only after John had his brief chance to check Sherlock’s pulse did Fake!Doctor stop pretending to check the pulse in Sherlock’s neck. He then moved around the body (keeping one hand on it at all times) and positioned himself between Sherlock and the still-struggling John.

Fake!Doctor is one of the reasons I believe that the rubber ball pulse stop theory is correct, and that the theories about Sherlock taking a drug to play dead are incorrect. If you take a drug to alter your pulse rate, it’s going to work on your whole body. If you use a rubber ball to cut off circulation, though, it only works on one arm. There was a man whose entire purpose in the fall scene was to keep John from being able to check the pulse in Sherlock’s neck. Therefore, the rubber ball theory wins.