#SherlockProblems
Like I was with the first season, I was just really, really annoyed with the end of the last episode. Why?
That death is so easy to fake.
1) Falling from a height kills you!
People can fall from multiple, multiple stories and survive. It all depends on the positioning of the body and the impact, and for a guy as smart and CSI as Sherlock, he'd know what way to fall and survive - face forward! It's worse to fall on your back, hit your medulla oblangata and have your eyes pop out. Not that I'm ruling out contra coo injuries, but smashing the front of your skull is nowhere near as bad as smashing the back.
2) But John felt his pulse!
His wrist pulse, which you can stop the blood flow to your arm by placing a rubber ball under your armpit. It's something very, very easy to fake.
3) But medical people wheeled Sherlock away! It was reported he was dead! There was a grave!
Habeus corpus - ain't a murder if there ain't a body. Sherlock's body was wheeled away right after and there was no indication there was a viewing or funeral, just a grave. Which he was standing by, obviously for a last look at his best friend before starting his life as a beekeeper.
I think the "How Sherlock Survived!" reasoning they'll go with is Molly, with her knowledge of forensic chemistry, gave Sherlock one of those "Death Mimic" serums that don't really exist - you know the ones that slow down your heart rate to imperceptible levels so people think your dead but they wear off in a few hours (as in Romeo & Juliet and another recent Holmes property). Literary invention, just like the pressure-release gas traps in Hounds.
It's why I've been thinking of Molly as "The Fourth Friend," the one Moriarty ruled out that Sherlock wouldn't care enough to ask for help from. But the two actually had some genuine moments, with her acknowledging that she likes him way more than he needs her, and Sherlock acknowledging she's always been helpful to him. Sherlock isn't Moriarty because he can ask Molly for help.
He's no Ratigan, but he'll do.
And speaking of Moriarty, I liked him way more in this episode. Sitting on the throne in the jewels, mugging it up at the trial, having tea with Sherlock, writing IOU everywhere, being a scuzzy bastard pretending to be an actor, and then there at the end. I liked him most when his primary emotion wasn't just being zany but desperately unhappy (Staying Alive, man). A brain the size of planet and nothing better to do with it. My first though was he faked his death, too, just to force Sherlock's hand (because a gun and some runny blood doesn't equal shooting out the back of your head - show me the chunks of brain matter the bullet blasted out in a splatter pattern and then I'll believe you) but after reading a summary of "The Final Problem" ... y'all, he might be dead.
I geeked out when Jen from The IT Crowd showed up as a mad Sherlock fan/investigative reporter. A witty thumbing of the nose to the Cumberbitches and a funny plot twist. Love her.
Honestly, because they Occam's razor-ed the solution to the pool bomb, I think they'll pick up with John four years after Sherlock's death, find some evidence to exonerate him, and then he and John go back to solving mysteries. I think they've written themselves into a corner because they're going to have to spend at least a half-an-hour of the third season premiere dealing with the repercussions of the second season. But it's also a way to force yourself to be creative.
For as much fun as I had watching the episode, I was disappointed I didn't find the "death" at all convincing for me. When am I going to learn.
And give Martin more fucking BAFTAs.
HE'S EVEN THROWING A HARD RUBBER BALL AROUND
THE KIND YOU USE TO STOP YOUR PULSE
COME ON, MOFFNISS
How much I love this fan art? Get him, Molly!