The Reichenbach Fall
| "The Reichenbach Fall" |
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"The Reichenbach Fall" is the third and final episode of the second series of the BBC television series Sherlock. It was written by Steve Thompson and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes, Martin Freeman as Dr John Watson, and Andrew Scott as Jim Moriarty.
Based on "The Final Problem" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the episode follows Moriarty's plot to discredit and kill Sherlock Holmes. The title refers to the Reichenbach Falls, the location where Sherlock and Moriarty supposedly fall to their deaths in the original story.
The episode was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC One HD on 15 January 2012.
Plot
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The episode opens with John Watson in his first meeting with his therapist for eighteen months. He struggles to explain the reason for the impromptu visit, but eventually chokes out the words, "My best friend, Sherlock Holmes, is dead." The episode then flashes back to three months earlier, with Sherlock receiving plaudits and gifts from various people for whom he has solved cases, along with much unwanted media attention.
Meanwhile, Moriarty has been freed from prison and proceeds to break into the case where the Crown Jewels are kept, while simultaneously opening the vault at the Bank of England and unlocking all the cells at Pentonville Prison via his mobile phone. Before smashing the Crown Jewels' case, he writes the words "Get Sherlock" in reverse on the outside, to be seen by the security cameras. He then allows himself to be caught wearing the jewels and sitting on the throne.
Sherlock is called to testify at Moriarty's trial. Though Sherlock explains that Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, Moriarty has threatened the family of the jury. After being acquitted, Moriarty visits Sherlock at his home and explains that he has plans for Sherlock. Meanwhile, John is summoned to see Mycroft, who explains that a number of professional assassins have moved into flats on Baker Street, and asks him to watch out for Sherlock.
Sherlock and John investigate a kidnapping, which is a carefully orchestrated plot by Moriarty to implicate that Sherlock has been staging all of his cases himself. Lestrade arrests Sherlock, but Sherlock escapes with John. They also realize Moriarty's "Get Sherlock" has convinced the criminal underworld that Moriarty has given a Sherlock the computer code he used to pull off his triple heist, and that it can bypass all security systems. A trail of bodies follow Sherlock as professional assassins fight over access to Sherlock.
They break into the house of a journalist poised to publish an expose on Sherlock. There, they discover that Moriarty has developed a fake identity, Richard Brook, who is supposedly an actor that Sherlock paid to pretend to be a master criminal. Now a wanted man with the papers ready to print the expose, based on Richard Brook's testimony, Sherlock launches a final gambit. Leaving John, Sherlock contacts Molly at the hospital, and, responding to an earlier conversation they had, admits he needs her help. John goes to Mycroft's club to question him, and learns that Mycroft divulged Sherlock's personal information during interrogations of Moriarty. Meanwhile, Sherlock deduces that the anti-security program was encoded in the tapping of Moriarty's finger during his earlier visit.
John finds Sherlock at the St Barts lab, but leaves again after hearing Mrs. Hudson has been shot. Sherlock texts Moriarty, who meets him on the roof of the hospital, and claims that with the code he can erase Richard Brook electronically. Moriarty reveals that there is no code as the tapping is really a Bach tune and that Sherlock must commit suicide to complete his plan. Ready to do so, since otherwise Moriarty's assassins will kill John, Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade, Sherlock realizes that Moriarty has some sort of fail-safe and can call the killings off. Sherlock then convinces Moriarty that he would be willing to do anything to make him activate the fail-safe, so Moriarty kills himself after acknowledging commonality between him and Sherlock.
With no way to use the fail-safe, Sherlock calls John, who is rushing back from 221B Baker Street, after having found the report of Mrs. Hudson's shooting false. Claiming that he was always a fake and explaining that this last phone call is his "note," Sherlock throws himself from the roof of St. Bartholomew's as John looks on from the street. After being knocked to the floor by a cyclist, John watches as Sherlock's crumpled and bloody body is carried away by hospital staff.
The episode returns to Watson's meeting with his therapist, but he is unable to open up. Later he visits Sherlock's grave with Mrs. Hudson. While standing in front of his gravestone, he reaffirms his faith in Sherlock, and begs him not to be dead. From the shadows, Sherlock looks on silently, watching as John walks away.
Sources
The episode is based on the short story named the Final Problem, in which Holmes and Moriarty square off at long last. Like its predecessors, the episode also makes a few references to canon stories including the Musgrave Ritual (early reference to a criminal named Ricoletti) and The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter (In the story, Holmes uses aniseed to track a suspect. In the episode, he tracks an abducter by his linseed oil-soaked footprints) and also to Reichenbach Falls, where the original story is concluded but in his case, the Falls are depicted as J.M.W. Turner's painting that Holmes helped recover. This also bears similarities to the Granada Television's adaptations with Jeremy Brett, where he retrieved Mona Lisa from Moriarty's lackeys before his confrontation with the master criminal. Moriarty's fake identity as an actor who was hired by Holmes to be his archnemesis alludes to Without a Clue, where Holmes himself (portrayed by Michael Caine) was an actor hired by Watson (portrayad by Ben Kingsley) to hide his identity. Watson's leaving Holmes to attend Mrs. Hudson mirrors his return to the inn in the original story, in order to attend a dying Englishwoman. Holmes' apparent suicide is also reminiscent of his consent to perish in order to rid society of Moriarty, yet this time it seems to be Molly Hooper rather than Mycroft Holmes who trusts for his eventual survival, as it seems the brothers' mutual contempt renders such confidence unlikely. Moriarty's reference to Mycroft and his efforts is also a reference to the Bruce-Partington Plans, where Holmes refers to Mycroft's governmental powers -"all the Queen's horses and all the Queen's men"- as irrelevant.
Production
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Reception
The reception of this episode has been overwhelmingly positive. [citation needed]
