The Final Problem

yngv1 asked: Haha, for once I've figured out something about the Reichenbach fall! The BMX bandit is the drug addict in the Great Game, the one that dumps that missile defense plans guy's body on the train. :D He has a name too but I've forgotten it (not BMX bandit though, I'm so sorry). I first thought it was Anderson, but the junkie already has a bike and exactly similar clothing, so I went with that. Maybe he's a part of the homeless network, or Sherlock just knew him and knew he could be coaxed to help.

Joe, the bike messenger from The Great Game:

The BMX Bandit from The Reichenbach Fall:

Well, we know they both have grey hats and like to wear shirts under their shirts. Not so sure about other similarities, though. There’s also the problem of it not being the same actor, unless he was uncredited.

Bigger question: Wouldn’t Joe be, like… in prison for killing his sister’s fiancee about a year ago? I know sentences can vary depending on the circumstances, but that seems like a really short amount of time considering.

Anonymous asked:

I’m not sure if you’ve mentioned it, and if so, how far you’ve gone into analysis of it, but I can’t imagine that John was knocked over by the bicyclist for just no reason at all. There had to have been some reasoning behind it, or some hint within. Thoughts?

That was actually my very first post-Reichenbach theory! I immediately ran to Tumblr after watching the episode to ask if the guy on the bike had been assigned a name yet. I was so sure he was in on Sherlock’s plan that I knew I would need one for him. I started calling him the BMX Bandit in that post, and since no one stopped me that is what I will call him forever.

My idea of the BMX Bandit’s role hasn’t changed much since that first theory post. I think he knocked John over to buy time for the rest of the Homeless Network operatives to get in place around Sherlock, and so John would be disoriented and therefore less able to draw on his medical expertise to figure out something fishy was going on. (There’s precedent in the original stories for Holmes knowing he can’t easily trick Watson when it comes to medical stuff—see The Adventure of the Dying Detective.)

Anonymous asked:

Y’know something I noticed? Right when Sherlock jumps, the camera cuts to John. Right at that moment, someone on a bike throws John to the ground - and the person’s face coincidentally doesn’t show. I remember that the first time I saw that scene I thought “It might be Molly”. Because John hits his head on the pavement, and that would’ve made it lots easier for him not to completely understand what happened and not to notice that Sherlock was alive. I’m not sure if you’ve thought about it?

The BMX bandit actually showed up after Sherlock jumped—John saw Sherlock on the ground before he was knocked over.

We didn’t get the clearest view of the BMX Bandit’s face, but we did get to see it. Between that, his legs, and his overall body structure, I think we can be reasonably sure it wasn’t Molly on that bike.

Anonymous asked: When John is knocked down by the cyclist, there is a distinctive sound heard - an old-fashioned public phone ring. It's definitely not a mobile ring. There is a phone box nearby. Could this be a signal of some sort? Or am I going bonkers? Great blog btw.

I think there are two main ways to go with the ringing sound.

The first is that the noise wasn’t caused by anything in the real world. It was instead meant to suggest tinnitus, which can be caused by a blow to the head. This is somewhat supported by the way the ringing drops out any time they cut away from John.

Of course, that could be them being tricky and wanting us to assume it’s tinnitus. So the second possibility is that the ringing was caused by something in the real world.

I am mildly obsessed with the red phone box, so you know that’s the first thing that crossed my mind. However, the sound doesn’t match what they used for the red phone box in A Study in Pink (from the part where Mycroft was calling every phone to get John’s attention). So unless someone wants to go to St. Bart’s and confirm that there is, for whatever reason, an older-style phone in that box, I’m not going to be quite convinced that was it.

The only other potential source of ringing that immediately jumps out at me from the scene are the bikes. I used to have a bike bell that sounded… well, not really like that, to be honest, but more like that than a typical bike bell. If we thought it was possible that it was a bike bell, then the ringing could have been a signal from the BMX Bandit or the other biker who was crossing the scene. Of course, that is entirely based on the possibility that a bike bell like that exists, so… someone find me that bell and I’ll be more willing to believe.

Anyone else see a likely in-scene source of the ringing noise?

Anonymous asked: Have you read that theory/crack/fic where the BMX bandit is actually Mycroft, in reference to canon!Mycroft runnng round driving a cab in the original story? What do you think of this theory?

Wait, so there’s actually people saying that Mycroft… with the bike…

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha… WOW.

Nobody explain Mycroft to them, okay? I want to see what they come up with next, because that’s pretty great stuff.

The Greek Interpreter:

If the art of the detective began and ended in reasoning from an arm-chair, my brother would be the greatest criminal agent that ever lived. But he has no ambition and no energy.

Mycroft lodges in Pall Mall, and he walks round the corner into Whitehall every morning and back every evening.  From year’s end to year’s end he takes no other exercise, and is seen nowhere else, except only in the Diogenes Club, which is just opposite his rooms.

[Original BMXing skills photo by Marc Hottinger]

starlightbydaylight asked: Okay, personally, I think The BMX Bandit was Raz from The Blind Banker. He, Sherlock, and John did pass through the Southbank Skatepark. Just my idea.

Personally, I’ve filed this one under “not impossible, but unlikely.” (Which means, yes, I have to say I considered the possibility.)

Pros:

• They did go through the skatepark with Raz.
• The Blind Banker and The Reichenbach Fall were written by the same person.
• We didn’t get a good enough look at the BMX Bandit’s face to say with 100% certainty that we’ve never seen him before.

Cons:

• If you really want to, you can compare their profiles. I did it just for the sake of answering this question, and I don’t think their noses match.
• I’m pretty sure they’re played by different people anyway, since one was an actor with a speaking part and the other one was a stuntman who wasn’t specifically credited with the role.
• There’s really no reason it needed to be Raz.
• In fact, it might have been a really bad idea for Sherlock to use Raz. John knows him and it could give the whole thing away if John figured out the biker was a plant.
• There is a very good chance that the skatepark connection is meaningless and that “man on bike” was chosen as the means of taking John down simply because there appears to be an actual bike lane that goes straight through the area. It’s pretty clear the Sherlock team came up with a lot of how the trick would be done after going to the hospital and looking at what already existed there, such as the Ambulance Station used to block John’s view.

I think the cons outweigh the pros enough that I wouldn’t count on seeing this in the show, but not so much that it doesn’t work as headcanon if you just like the idea.