The Final Problem

bloodredfox asked: I just noticed something while looking over the footage of Moriarty's death. He's using what looks like a Beretta, but there's no shell casing being thrown. Even in the panned out shots. I'll admit I'd like Moriarty to be alive, but I've accepted that he could just as easily be dead. I'm curious what you think about the scene and some of the things people have brought up (like the blood and what not).

I know nothing about guns, so I’m no help there.

Since I think Jim’s dead, I haven’t exactly been seeking out people’s theories on what they think the blood means. I do know that the people who said it should’ve been a lot messier if he’d really shot himself in the head have essentially been shut down by Gatiss at this point.

Let’s see… What can I say about Jim’s death that I haven’t already said?

I guess one thing we could do is compare a couple of points from Sherlock’s fake death to Jim’s actual death.

Like that blood.

When Sherlock “died,” he wasn’t really bleeding. From the first time we saw the puddle of blood around his head to the last, there was the same amount of blood.

(There was a point in the middle of the sequence when the blood spread around, but that was when they were shooting in the rain and the blood that had spread was clearly watered down.)

With Jim, the blood kept flowing.

There’s also the timing.

When Sherlock “died,” he had a bunch of people keep John from getting too close. He also got out of there within a couple minutes.

With Jim, he just lay there and gave CSI Baker Street all the time in the world to inspect the body. And he lay perfectly still with his eyes open for somewhere in the range of 5-20 minutes, depending on how far John was in his cab ride when Jim shot himself.

And no, neither of those things prove Jim’s dead. I can’t prove Jim’s dead. Even if his brain was all over the roof, I still couldn’t guarantee he’d never come back. Because it’s fiction.

But I do think that the people who made the show weren’t trying to be all sneaky and suggest that Jim had these amazing continuous-flow blood packs down the back of his jacket or that Jim was actually a lot better at tricking Sherlock into thinking he was dead than Sherlock was at tricking John. I think they were making a good-faith effort to show an actual dead guy in contrast to what was later revealed as a fake dead guy.