The Final Problem

       Sherlock on BBC takes place in present-day England where a young Sherlock Holmes and his flatmate John Watson are now famous for solving mysteries. In fact, Sherlock is known as a "consulting detective" and many times we see the police coming to him and John for help on cases. The two have faced Sherlock's arch-nemesis Moriarty before, but in the second season finale, The Reichenbach Fall, he returns.

       The episode begins with John Watson visiting his therapist for the first time in 18 months. He seems out of sorts and at a loss for words. When asked what happened, John can barely manage to speak, but finally he tells her, "My best friend, Sherlock Holmes, is dead". The opening credits and music plays and we're escorted to three months before where many different scenes are showing Sherlock being awarded with gifts and gratitude for solving yet another case. 

       Meanwhile, outside the Tower of London where Jim Moriarty sneaks his way inside to steal the Crown Jewels. Seems like an ordinary Moriarty thing to do, right? Except Jim doesn't steal them at all. In fact, he comes extremely close just to let himself get caught. Why does he do this? To prove a point. To show England that Jim Moriarty is powerful and should be feared. Not only does he break into the Tower of London, but he also does the same to the vault in the Bank of England and all of the cells in Pentonville Prison just by using his mobile phone. Needless to say he is escorted to jail quickly to wait for his trial. The day of the trial comes and the verdict takes less than 10 minutes to be declared. Moriarty is innocent. Later it is discovered this is because he rigged the jury, threatening them if they didn't let him go.

     The rest of the episode is Sherlock trying to solve the many mind puzzles that Moriarty gives him. Jim is trying to get rid of Sherlock once and for all and the famous detective tries to do the same to him. Skip to the end and the two are up on the rooftop of St. Bartholomew's Hospital where Moriarty explains his entire plot and how he managed to do everything he did to Sherlock and makes it clear that he wants Holmes to commit suicide. A lot more happens [You can read about it here] but Sherlock is forced to commit suicide; Forced to jump off the roof of the building. He makes a call to John and shortly after hanging up, falls. However, that's not the end. At the very end of the episode, we see John and their landlady Mrs. Hudson standing at Sherlock's grave. The camera pans over to the trees and we catch a glimpse of Sherlock Holmes himself watching them. How can this be? We watched him jump off the building, watched him fall to his death, so how is it that he's still alive?

      This is the question that Sherlock fans everywhere have asked themselves. Many have come up with different theories as to how he survived so I decided to join in a few months ago. I began researching and coming up with my own ideas and now I believe I've just about got it. So here it is: My Reichenbach Falls theory.

       The first thing to know before we start is a bit of background information. Right before the roof scene occurs, a few things happen. 1) Sherlock asks his friend that works at a morgue, Molly Hooper, for help. We never see what he asks her to do but we know he needs her help. 2) Sherlock speaks of an underground Homeless Network that is "More lax about taking bribes". I believe that he bribed his Homeless Network [HN] to help him trick Watson into thinking he's dead after the fall. 3) He's bouncing a ball around in a room while talking to John, just before going to the roof. What's the point in showing this, you might ask. Well, there's a trick to stop your pulse using a rubber ball that comes in handy later on for him since he wants to make John believe he's dead.

       Cut to Sherlock on the roof with Moriarty after Jim has shot himself. Sherlock begins hyperventilating right before he calls John. Now this is very out of character for the detective since he's never worried much about anything. So the question is, why is he doing this? The answer is pretty simple. Hyperventilating is a good way to prepare yourself before holding your breath for a long time which is something he's going to want to do so that John knows he's not breathing. So he knows Sherlock's not actually alive.

       During his phone call with John, Watson runs outside and begins looking for Sherlock who tells him to stand in a specific place. John does so and looks up to the building to see Sherlock standing on the ledge. "Stay where you are John, keep your eyes fixed on me." He says. This is extremely important because he doesn't want John to see that the area below him is set up so that he can survive his fall.

       Now he hangs up, takes a breath, then leans backward to fall off the building. The screen cuts a few times between Sherlock's fall and John yelling his name. There's obviously some deliberate editing so you don't see him falling straight from the sky onto the ground which makes me believe he didn't do just that.

The thing is, you can even see it's not that hard of a landing even
though this GIF is sped up a little. It almost looks as if he just sort of
flops on the ground and bounces a bit.

There was a small detour in between, but the question is, if he didn't fall onto the ground at first, where did he fall? The answer to that has been a mystery. If you watch the scene carefully you will notice a small laundry truck parked outside. Now, Sherlock couldn't have possibly fallen into the truck itself, but I believe he had his HN help by carrying out a basket or something large like this out and when he fell, they were underneath him enough to catch him in it. John couldn't see this because, as mentioned before, Sherlock had told him to stand directly where he couldn't view anything that was happening. Something that I find odd is how the truck drives away shortly after he, as I believe he did, climbed out of the basket and flopped onto the ground. What a normal driver would do would be get out of the truck and check on Sherlock, but instead he drives off.

Another girl drew this to show what the bin that he fell in
may have looked like. She thought it should have wheels
so that it could have made a quick getaway without being
seen by John

       Sherlock climbs out of the bin and onto the ground where he lays as still as possible after shoving the small rubber ball mentioned before into his right armpit and lied down on his right side, putting a heavy amount of pressure on it. This is when his HN comes in. The camera cuts to John running towards him, he gets a quick look at Sherlock on the ground before being knocked down by a mysterious cyclist. The cyclist is believed to be part of the HN. The rest of the people on the ground surround Sherlock all while John is trying to regain his balance.

       They look ordinary but I think they are also part of the HN. There's a "doctor" who has his hand on Sherlock's neck practically the entire time, "checking his pulse". I put this in quotes because the doctor is there even when John comes up and tries to check Sherlock's pulse and even tries to push him away. This doctor is trying to keep John from really checking the pulse to know he's dead.

       The other people there play a part too. Someone had to have brought the fake blood and poured it around Sherlock. What's a huge fall without blood, right? The rest are mostly there to make sure John doesn't get too close. They want it believable so they let him check the pulse in Sherlock's right arm once before pulling him back. Why the right arm? That's the arm that holds the ball and stops his pulse.

       The very final part of this scene shows Sherlock getting carried off in a gurney. The thing is, I don't think it's Sherlock. While John is pushed off by others and lets Sherlock out of his sight for a minute, the HN switches out Sherlock's body with the fake doctor's before pulling him into the morgue.

You can tell this isn't him. There's no blood on his face like there was before. In the shot where Sherlock is examined up close, his face is covered in blood. No way this is him. Now why wouldn't Sherlock be on the gurney? He wants to watch John and make sure everything is going according to plan. So if he isn't on the gurney and he's not on the ground...Where is he? One clear answer that has stood out above the rest is phone booth situated just out front. He watches John and when John is gone, he leaves. We have no idea where he goes, but there is some debate on whether he stays with his brother Mycroft or maybe even the crafty dominatrix Irene Adler. No one knows for sure, but my bet is with his brother right now.