Sherlock season 2 open ending

• John warned Sherlock, the media will make you and break you. Sherlock already knew that and was using it to draw Moriarty out, he allowed himself to become a public hero, something he would never normally do.
• The body hanging in Baker Street at the beginning – one of Sherlock’s experiments may have been used or just a simple red herring.
• Sherlock’s vast underground network of people were already alert working on the kidnap case.
• Moriarty ignored Molly as relevant to Sherlock, she was not mentioned as one of his friends so he did not have ‘eyes’ on her allowing her alone to move freely.
• Sherlock chose the location of the meeting, he never does anything without a reason.
• Moriarty says he has already told Sherlock something crucial before he taps his fingers communicating the code. Is this eluding to something else?
• The small bouncing ball that Sherlock was playing with.. which he might have used to slow his pulse.
• John standing in just the right place so he could see the jump but not the ground
• The open back truck filled with ‘bin bags’/cushion bags, at the spot where Sherlock landed, driven quickly away, who would drive away from a situation like that
• Molly had access to blood, the hospital morgue, and areas which were being renovated in the hospital (the newspaper headline) so could move Sherlock’s body once in the hospital without alerting a real response team. Also she is able to falsify the death certificate etc
• The cyclist who knocked Watson over, enough to disorient him for a few minutes.
• People keep Watson away, he just manages to try a pulse and is convinced he is dead. Either the pulse is cut off temporarily by the ball, or something else. He also sees quantities of blood enough to assume massive head trauma.
• It is possible the drug from the previous episode may have been used on John so he saw what he expected to see, a dead Sherlock. This was not necessary as shock alone would put John in susceptible state.
• Sherlock is a musician, did he miss that the code was music – no way, he used this to play into Moriarty’s madness.
• Could Mycroft really have been ‘tricked’ to give up Sherlock’s life story when interrogating Moriarty, knowing that he was fixated on killing his brother.
• The gunman with his sights on John, even at the end his sights are still on him, it was crucial that his reaction showed a belief Sherlock was dead. Only then did he pack up.
• The IOU on walls were interesting but not relevant to the death scene except that there was only one shooter present to worry about.
• Sherlock stated Moriarty was behind the girls kidnapping so was ahead of him in thinking at every stage.
• The girls scream highlighted to Sherlock either there was a doppelganger of him, or a life like mask.
• If there was a doppelganger hired by Moriarty he would be dead, he leaves nothing to chance … so in a morgue somewhere there may have been a Sherlock look a like.
• The children were poisoned so perhaps a Sherlock mask would be all that was needed, and so could have been Moriarty himself, although he hates to get his hands dirty.
• Sherlock knew there were new ‘neighbours’, the assassins, and that Moriarty was planning his demise.
• Sherlock knew after the meeting with Richard Brooke that Moriarty’s insanity had reached tipping point and the time for him to act was now.

So …
It would appear to me that Sherlock actually jumped (the flailing body suggests a live person with the desire to survive the fall). He falls into the flat bed truck, serious injury averted due to the bags etc.

John runs over and is knocked down and left badly dazed by the guy on the bike as arranged by Sherlock to win those few seconds to prepare the ground scene. (The guy never stopped to help, just like the truck which drove away immediately, leaving the body revealed lying on the ground).

The body on the pavement is either Sherlock dead, which it isn’t, so it must be Sherlock appearing dead. He rolled off the truck was soaked in fake blood easily obtained and provided by Molly to mask a grievous head wound and possibly use the ball to slow the pulse or a mental technique (which Sherlock could have learned in his earlier years). John never got too close and although normally astute he was disoriented and in shock and had the overwhelming expectation that he just saw Sherlock kill himself.

The group on scene immediately were more of Sherlock’s network, keeping people away, shielding the scene, attending to John. The main gunman who had seen Sherlock jump but not land moves his sights back on John who is now running, he follows him and does not take his sights off him until he sees John is convinced Sherlock is dead. If he had been in a position to see him hit the ground he would have packed up earlier, so he was not in a position to kill Sherlock only the arriving Watson.

Sherlock is taken inside to the area of the hospital under renovations to escape any real trauma team and to get away, Molly would be able to arrange this.
They could have buried the experiment body from Baker Street.

Thinking of how they might re-start this scene as a flask back for the next episode … I can picture them taking the ‘dead’ Sherlock all bloody through the hospital to a safe unoccupied area …

The interplay and various meanings of the ‘dance’ between Sherlock and Moriarty might be fascinating to bring out in the next episode as well but the physical means of a dead but alive Sherlock only have a few scenarios.

Moriarty’s death and with some Mycroft fixing Sherlock could come back as a hero sacrificing his own reputation to aid the secret service in getting rid of the world’s greatest criminal mastermind, well something like that.

Playing detective ... how cool!

As appeared on fb by a fan.

Was any trickery involved during the jump?

The answer is simple. Sherlock jumped from the ledge and was rushed into emergency surgery. Molly, who had access to drugs, administered a drug to Sherlock that would slow his heart to the point where machines wouldn't register it as beating anymore. Using her position in the morgue, she falsified paperwork and made it so Sherlock "died". Either that or a doctor was paid off, but I'm betting it was drugs. Don't forget, he asked Molly for help and told her he was going to die the night before.

There was no trickery with the jump, it was nothing to do with another dead body or Moriarty or the garbage truck or, as one of my friends laughably suggested, the dummy in Sherlock's flat or the cyclist. The cyclist only caused John to become disorientated and dizzy, something which would put off his senses and impair his ability to draw an accurate pulse.

The cyclist also caused people to become distracted from the very simple truth that he did jump and it was him who slammed into the pavement. They made people focus on the wrong thing so the right thing would be less apparent. Any idea that there was trickery surrounding the jump is an idiotic idea.

It wasn't that high of a drop, maybe 4 or 5 storey's and it was in front of a hospital. That fact makes the chances of survival a lot more likely. It's clearly obvious that he jumped off the ledge and there is no way he was holding anything or had any means of breaking his fall. The only explanation which answers all of the facts is that Molly assisted him after he was in the hospital.

Another interesting theory on how sherlock faked his death

I think the point is that Holmes has defeated Moriarty completely because he solved the final problem. He worked out Moriarty had to complete Holmes' disgrace by forcing him to commit suicide thereby giving him time to plan.

I can't make my mind up if Moriarty's suicide is an unexpected event or a fake, but Moriarty doesn't come back in the books, so maybe he has gone. In werd arch-criminal logic, the fact that he is obviously obsessed with Holmes (grafitti on crown jewels case) means if he thought Holmes could make him stop the snipers, and consequently Holmes' suicide, he may commit suicide himself to "complete the story".

Although you see Holmes falling and clearly alive, there is a cut to a body hitting the ground. The clever camera angles means you don't notice there is a low single storied building between Watson and the point iof impact - hence Holmes insisting he stays where he is. He tells him to "keep his eyes on me" so he doesn't notice the rubbish truck preparations happening below. Holmes either lands in the truck or the truck operators deploy a mat. Either way they deposit a second body onto the pavement to make the impact sound real and timely.

The cyclist is a member of the homeless network and just gives time to rearrange the impact scene before the lorry leaves immediately. This means the body finally seen by Watson on the pavement must be Holmes otherwise they wouldn't have needed the delay.

Molly provides a death certificate, blood and a way of stopping his heart (although I love the ball under the armpit theory - that is superbly Holmesian). The stretcher arrives incredibly quickly so she arranged that too.

Mycroft is not involved in the hoax and is wracked with guilt and gives Sherlock massive leverage in the future for favours from HM Government.

Intriguing facts about Sherlock season 2 ending

Some really interesting theories, but I think some people might have become influenced by what they saw in the comments. Firstly, it was very clear that it was Sherlock (ok, maybe a latex mask). Second, if Sherlock fell into the dumpster truck, why swap bodies? The truck could have a mat in there, which stunt actors use and an escape hatch at the side. From there on, I'm inclined to believe the ball under the armpit theory and a blood packet. In the books, Sherlock found a ledge in the cliff, as he was shot at. He successfully waited until everyone was gone to climb out. I'm also pretty sure we don't see a lot of what goes on between him and Molly. We are clearly viewing him from the point of view of observers, so we are likely not to know a lot about their relationship. In the book, Sherlock had to die, because the whole network of criminals was after him, so possibly the same here. Notice how in the film Sherlock makes an analogy of Moriarti being a spider (something which should be familiar to the readers). As for other possibilities, a rope could have been used with a device which would slow him down before he hit the ground and then the blood packet etc. The ropes created nowadays can be extremely strong and thin and it could have been disconnected by an accomplice. I believe the fuss with the gas would have been unnecessary and possibly a bit too obvoius, as it would have to be sprayed under pressure, which makes a hissing noise. However, I am still open to any criticisms and suggestions.

I'd take a guess that Sherlock fell from the building into the bin truck that was directly below him. As John was knocked over by the bike, Sherlock got out of the bin truck, smothered himself in fake blood and lay on the floor. As John ran towards him, part of Sherlock's homeless friends ran over to him (they played the part of the public), put him on the stretcher and got him out of sight.

More theories from our fans

1. From that hight Sherlock would have been travelling at no more than 30 miles per hour which gives him an 80% chance he will live, the blood could have come from a blood bag and molly doing the autopsy would declare him dead. However, 80% isn't good enough for Sherlock and how does his pulse vanish? a drug similar to digitalis perhaps? That was my theory before reading this I now think that the garbage truck theory holds more water I had suspected a body swap but couldn't see where it would come from.it is also probable that it was orchestrated by Sherlock and or Microft because otherwise why was Moriarty released?


2. Sherlock jumped into the conveniently placed truck. Molly threw Moriarty from the building when Watson gets knocked over. Maybe the cyclist delivered some of the Baskerville hallucinogenic gas, making Watson see what he expected to? Either that, or some kind of latex Sherlock mask, which would explain the child screaming in the police station. Molly falsified autopsy, with the help of Mycroft. Although, Moffatt probably has something up his sleeve which is blindingly obvious once we know what it is.


3. In the original Sherlock Holmes it was never really properly made clear just how Holmes faked his own death. Conan Doyle was under pressure to bring him back and that's all the readers cared about. Perhaps we will never know in this version abd everyone will have a theory, just like the original we'll be arguing about it for many years to come. That is the beauty of Sherlock Holmes and why the stories and characters are so enduring.


4. Did anybody else noticed the blatant clue of the rubber ball he was bouncing around in the labs? Under the armpit can cause a pulse to temporarily stop, no need for dead arms or anything. The rubbish truck and cyclist probably played a big part, with a little help from some hospital blood bags and Molly on hand to pronounce him dead. But there's been some mad theories for something that is actually quite simple to explain, like a 'magic trick' really.

How did Sherlock pulled off the magic trick

When he asked Molly for help, I think he asked for some sort of strong sedative that would have appeared to stopped his heart. Then before Watson arrived and Sherlock jumped off the roof he threw Moriarty's body into the open-topped rubbish van, then when he jumped, he landed in the van next to Moriarty's corpse, smearing his blood over his head, and taking the sedative, then jumping out in the time it took for Watson to get up from the floor and run over to Sherlock's body. I also think that the people around Sherlock's corpse we're dolled up members of Sherlock's homless network. As a final touch, when his body was wheeled in to the morgue Molly finalised the autopsy. What I want to know is in series three, who's going to hire him, now his reputation has been destroyed?

Sherlock season two Trivia

I can see moriarty surviving as well, he's much to good to kill off this early, I'm tinking exploding blood pack strapped to the back of his head or that he was only a mouth peice for the real moriarty, as for sherlock its obviously all to do with molly and he chose the location in which to jump from, the face that john never saw him hit the pavement is key I'm thinking that a harness was used or a cadaver hit the floor instead, the next series will startbased on A.C.Doyle "the empty house" in which sherlock reveals himself alive.

Or maybe he's probably dead. If they're following the books at all, then that's the end of him. Also, it was such a brilliant death scene, I think it would sort of cheapen it for me if it had been faked. They might introduce Sebastian Moran next season though? He played an important role in the Empty House, even if he didn't actually appear much. I was actually wondering if that was meant to be him aiming the gun at John when Sherlock jumped.