One of my Facebook chums posted this, which contains spoilers.

thaesofereode wrote:Okay. I'll only check this out if you guys can tell me for a fact that whoever's portraying Holmes can even *hold a candle* to the immortal and incomparable Jeremy Brett. ONLY then. Good luck.

There is only ONE Sherlock Holmes and that is Jeremy Brett.
Period.

There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene that explains all. During the scenes when Sherlock is falling, you can just see something that looks like a workman's hut, on which he presumably lands. There would be injury and blood, but he'd survive. I suspect that, in the next episode, it will be explained that Mycroft's people took the opportunity to help with a cover-up. It may even transpire that Sherlock alerted Mycroft before John arrived.
I'd not normally appreciate such a Macguffin, but it chimes with the original story perfectly. Holmes's narrative in "The Empty House" was the least convincing in the whole of the canon. In fact, if my explanation is correct, I expect it to improve on the original, as not too much detail was given this time about Sherlock's "death", it only looked as if it did, but then Moffat and Gatiss already knew the next part of the story, while Conan Doyle had to think it up himself.

I'm assuming Molly played a huge role in his survival, and he already saw Moriarty planning his death so set it up on his terms. Still haven't seen how 'IOU comes into the story yet (I may have missed it in this episode).

DaveD wrote:There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene that explains all.

I blinked*. I missed it. Ha!

*Or, if I'm to be honest, I'd imbibed wine at that point

mraltair wrote:I'm assuming Molly played a huge role in his survival, and he already saw Moriarty planning his death so set it up on his terms. Still haven't seen how 'IOU comes into the story yet (I may have missed it in this episode).

You may be right. Certainly we didn't see the favour he was asking of Molly. Fake post mortem results would be my guess. Watson gets hit by that bike which means there's time for some skullduggery before anyone arrives who would recognise the body.

Cross series cliffhangers are rubbish. Part of the appeal of Sherlock was the explaining of how it was done. Obviously he was always going to appear at the grave. What kind of reveal is that if you're not going to explain how he did it for a year or more until everyone's forgotten the details of this episode?

Given the overlap in personnel I was struck by the similarities to this year's series of Dr Who except there they did the right thing and showed us how he survived.

Blip wrote:

DaveD wrote:There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene that explains all.

I blinked*. I missed it. Ha!

*Or, if I'm to be honest, I'd imbibed wine at that point

To be fair, I was looking for it. The episode ended as I'd expected, before I watched it. While I was watching I started to have doubts, and I was kept guessing all the way through. Quite a feat of writing!

So, I wonder if the wonderfully insane Moriarty also faked his own death, using some manner of Derren Brownite trickery... Sherlock would have been too preoccupied preparing for his own phony "death" to notice.

Matthew Shute wrote:So, I wonder if the wonderfully insane Moriarty also faked his own death, using some manner of Derren Brownite trickery... Sherlock would have been too preoccupied preparing for his own phony "death" to notice.

That's what I originally thought but I would guess the writers stuck with the canon by finishing him off for good and resurrecting Sherlock. I'll miss him if he is dead, great character and perfectly nutty actor.

'iou' is 'no!' when rotated through 180o anticlockwise.....

DaveD wrote:There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene that explains all. During the scenes when Sherlock is falling, you can just see something that looks like a workman's hut, on which he presumably lands. There would be injury and blood, but he'd survive. I suspect that, in the next episode, it will be explained that Mycroft's people took the opportunity to help with a cover-up. It may even transpire that Sherlock alerted Mycroft before John arrived.
I'd not normally appreciate such a Macguffin, but it chimes with the original story perfectly. Holmes's narrative in "The Empty House" was the least convincing in the whole of the canon. In fact, if my explanation is correct, I expect it to improve on the original, as not too much detail was given this time about Sherlock's "death", it only looked as if it did, but then Moffat and Gatiss already knew the next part of the story, while Conan Doyle had to think it up himself.

There's also the fact that he insists that John stand in a certain place, which suggests that the view from where John is standing will be somehow distorted. I have to say I didn't see the hut. I kept thinking he somehow managed to throw Moriarty off the roof instead. Whatever he did, it had to fool the viewing assassins as well...

campermon wrote:'iou' is 'no!' when rotated through 180o anticlockwise.....

...and clockwise too! It's a conspiracy!

I call Evil Twin shenanigans.

He could also not have died on impact... but fair enough he was quite a fair bit more healthy looking then one would expect for that kind of fall.

But when they roll him over I swear it looked like the right person

I don't care. I want Season 3. RIGHT NOW!

natselrox wrote:I don't care. I want Season 3. RIGHT NOW!

I agree. We've waited too long. I mean it's been almost 2 days for Christ's sake!

mraltair wrote:

natselrox wrote:I don't care. I want Season 3. RIGHT NOW!

I agree. We've waited too long. I mean it's been almost 2 days for Christ's sake!

I'm with you guys!

Really enjoyed the episode. Problem is we can't judge the final episode of this series properly until we see if they handle the get out (series 3) well! If the next series (and explanation) sucks it will create a time vortex causing the final part of this series to be poo poo and double poo despite the first impression being that it was great...

I think...

I think y'all are missing the obvious clue as to what happened there at the end, why, it's elementary my dear ratskeppersons, if you had kept your eyes open....

The damn thing was so obvious it almost glowed in the dim light beneath the trees of the cemetery [and notice not a word of religious BS!! at the grave, we're gaining every day]. Now, Holmes' scarf covered half of it, but there on his neck was a large circular red discoloration, clearly one half of the bite he received from a vampire. Molly, who works where? With the dead! Just the person to know a few of the un[dead], So Holmes enlisted her aid in locating one to come and turn him, making it easy to avoid permanent damaged in the fall., and also easy to tie in with Twilight franchise later so they'll have all the budget they need for the later seasons.

I hope I haven't ruined anyones enjoyment of next season by explaining it all so early

campermon wrote:'iou' is 'no!' when rotated through 180o anticlockwise.....

That is brilliant, I know what to do next time someone tries to collect on one

Well we had to wait a year and a half to get season 2... let's hope season three comes quicker.