The Reichenbach Fall

For the waterfalls in Switzerland, see Reichenbach Falls.

"The Reichenbach Fall"

"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.

Inspired by "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. It attracted nearly 8 million viewers, and critical reaction to the episode was positive.

Plot

John Watson is in his first meeting with his therapist for eighteen months. Struggling to explain his visit, he eventually chokes out the words, "My best friend, Sherlock Holmes, is dead." The episode 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, especially for his recovery of a Turner painting of Reichenbach Falls.

Meanwhile, Moriarty 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" 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 families of the jurors. After being acquitted, Moriarty visits Sherlock and tells him, "I owe you" (for thwarting his plans in A Scandal in Belgravia). Meanwhile, John is summoned to see Mycroft, who explains that some professional assassins have moved into flats on Baker Street and asks him to watch out for Sherlock.

Sherlock and John investigate a kidnapping of the children of the ambassador to the U.S., part of a plot by Moriarty to make others suspect that Sherlock has been staging all his cases himself. He has traumatised the girl so she is terrified of Sherlock when seeing him, causing Sergeant Donovan to suspect Sherlock. A reluctant Lestrade is forced to arrest Sherlock, but Sherlock escapes with John handcuffed to him as his 'hostage'. They realise Moriarty's "Get Sherlock" has convinced the criminal underworld that Moriarty has given Sherlock the computer code he used to pull off his triple heist, a code that can bypass all security systems.

Sherlock and John break into the house of a journalist poised to publish an exposé on Sherlock. There, they find that Moriarty has developed a fake identity, Richard Brook (or Rich Brook, "Reichen Bach" in German), an actor whom Sherlock supposedly paid to pose as a master criminal. Now a wanted man with his media image on the verge of plummeting, Sherlock launches a final gambit. Leaving John, Sherlock contacts Molly at the hospital, and tells her he needs her help. John goes to the Diogenes Club to question Mycroft 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 Bart's lab but leaves again after hearing Mrs Hudson has been shot. Sherlock texts Moriarty, who meets him on the roof of the hospital to resolve what the criminal calls their "final problem". Sherlock claims that, with the code, he can erase Richard Brook electronically. Moriarty says there is no code, he just bribed security men, and that Sherlock must commit suicide or Moriarty's assassins will kill John, Mrs Hudson and Lestrade. Sherlock realises that Moriarty has a fail-safe and can call the killings off. Sherlock then convinces Moriarty that he is willing to do anything to make him activate the fail-safe; after acknowledging that he and Sherlock are alike, Moriarty shoots himself in the head.

St. Bartholomew's Hospital

With no way to use the fail-safe, Sherlock calls John, rushing back from 221B Baker Street after realising the report about Mrs Hudson was a ruse. Claiming that he was always a fake and explaining this last phone call is his "note", Sherlock throws himself from the roof of St Bartholomew's Hospital as John looks on from the street. After being knocked to the ground by a cyclist, John stumbles over to watch, in a daze, as Sherlock's bloody body is carried away by hospital staff.

The episode returns to Watson's therapy session, where he is unable to open up. The Sun publishes the front page feature "Fake Genius Commits Suicide". Later, Watson visits Sherlock's grave with Mrs Hudson. There, he reaffirms his faith in Sherlock and begs him not to be dead. But as John walks away, from the shadows, Sherlock looks on.

Sources

Turner's 1804 painting of the Reichenbach Falls, which Holmes recovers at the beginning of the episode. The original is in the collection of Cecil Higgins Art Gallery & Bedford Museum.

The episode's climactic scene is based on the short story "The Final Problem", in which Holmes and Moriarty square off. 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.

Like its predecessors, the episode also makes a few references to various Sherlock Holmes stories. These include: "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual" (where there's a reference to an "untold tale" involving a man named "Ricoletti"), "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), to "The Adventure of the Priory School" (in which a student seems to have been abducted from a school) and Reichenbach Falls in "The Final Problem", although here the Falls are depicted as J.M.W. Turner's painting that Holmes helped recover. Moriarty's fake identity as an actor who was hired by Holmes to be his archnemesis alludes to Without a Clue, where Holmes himself was an actor hired by Watson to hide his identity, as well as Nicholas Meyer's pastiche novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, in which the notion of Moriarty as a "master criminal" was a fabrication of Holmes and Watson. Moriarty's reference to Mycroft and his efforts is also a reference to "The Adventure of 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. Moriarty's break-in at the Tower of London mirrors the plot of the 1939 film "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" in which the criminal attempts to steal the Crown Jewels. The filming of the visit of Moriarty to Baker St pays tribute to the 1945 film The Woman in Green.

Reception

As with the preceding two episodes in the second series, critical reaction to the episode was largely positive. The Guardian's Sam Wollaston praised Steve Thompson's writing, particularly how the episode was, at times "faithful to Sir ACD's The Final Problem, then it will wander, taking in mobile phone technology and computer hacking ... But it doesn't feel like cheating; more like an open relationship, agreed by both parties." Wollaston comments that this episode explores relationships, particularly in contrast to the spookiness of the previous episode ("The Hounds of Baskerville"), calling Cumberbatch's and Freeman's performances "moving at times".

Sarah Crompton, for The Daily Telegraph, said Cumberbatch was "riding the wave of what has been a triumph". Generally praising the series, Crompton suggests that "writer Stephen Thompson had been left a little too much to his own devices ... The result was a bit wordy – though some of the words were wonderful." Commenting upon the cliffhanger ending, The Independent's Tom Sutcliffe says "Moffat and his colleagues have written themselves into a hell of a hole with regards to the next series. If they don't explain, there may be riots."

BARB overnight figures suggested that the episode was watched by 7.9 million viewers representing a 30% overall audience share, slightly down on the first (8.8 million) and second (8.2 million) episodes of the series. However the episode had been broadcast one hour later than the previous two episodes.

The British Board of Film Classification has awarded the episode a 12 certificate for "moderate violence and gore". The episode will be released with the remainder of the second series in the UK on DVD and Blu-ray on 23 January 2012.

External links

• "The Reichenbach Fall" at IMDb