The Final Problem

pantydragon asked: This has probably been said, but regarding who/what is buried, I don't think it would have been too difficult to claim that Sherlock's head was too messed up to be decent for viewing. Closed-coffin funerals aren't terribly uncommon, and it would be believable, in which case, the coffin is simply empty. As for identifying the body, he played dead for a few minutes on the sidewalk, he could do it again in a mortuary, whether for John or Mycroft (though personally I'm sure that Mycroft is in on it)

A huge part of this is whether Mycroft was in on it.

I think we can assume John wasn’t the one who made the decision about whether the body was suitable for viewing. Sherlock’s head wasn’t actually messed up at all, so convincing John that it was would mean faking a more severe head injury than the dabs of blood Sherlock had on the sidewalk, or beating in the head of some other corpse and telling John that was Sherlock… it’s just that his head had collapsed later. Either way that would’ve required tricking John yet again and the man’s simply not stupid enough to be faked out over and over without catching on.

So that means Mycroft was probably in charge of the funeral arrangements, which is really what one would tend to assume anyhow since he’s the only family member we know of. Mycroft would’ve decided if there was an open casket. Or if there was much of a ceremony at all.

For now, my personal headcanon on Mycroft is that he probably did know Sherlock’s death was fake, but that he wasn’t actively involved in any of the fall stuff. I think of it as something more along the lines of Sherlock sending Mycroft a text that read, “Go along with it,” as he was heading to the roof. Because that way we can say that Mycroft (who was already feeling guilty about almost getting Sherlock killed) did indeed go along with it and accept whatever story Molly pitched and had a closed-casket funeral. That way he’s also fulfilling his role from the canon stories a little more closely.

Or you could say Molly and Mycroft actively worked together, but then it starts to become unclear why Sherlock would’ve involved Molly at all since Mycroft’s got far superior resources.

Any thoughts I have on what Mycroft knows are absolutely just my headcanon and not any kind of real theory, though, because I don’t have a scrap of evidence for it. But the idea that Mycroft was actually tricked into thinking Sherlock was dead adds such a layer of complication to things. (In addition to blocking John’s view and the sniper’s view of the fall, did Sherlock also cover for every CCTV camera in the area? More than anyone in the world, even John, wouldn’t Mycroft be the most sure that his brother wasn’t a fraud and that something was fishy?) It’s really hard to imagine what excuse they could make up to say Mycroft didn’t have any clue what was going on.