Again, and most emphatically, nought but spoilers here! Stand back if you haven't seen "The Reichenbach Fall"!
Well, I did do some chuckling in this episode (e.g. at "I'll just be myself"), but not that much. The 90 minutes was more about biting lips and clenching fists in front of the screen than chuckling.
If you've ever lost someone dear to you, you will know how good Martin Freeman's performance is as the grieving John. How he tries to control himself, but fails upon certain words, in certain instances. The way he breathes, uses his face muscles, how his voice falters and breaks. How, even if you think you're going to be fine, an unexpected word or a flash of memory out of the blue can destroy your composure, tear down the floodgate. And how you fight to regain that composure, because otherwise, you simply can't function. Martin did all of this superbly, with just the right amount of everything. Just the right balance between control and emotion.
The balance between control and emotion was also wonderfully executed by Benedict Cumberbatch. The emotional arc he portrays in this episode as Sherlock was very finely planned, I think. Starting with his usual arrogance and incomprehension of social niceties, he moves on to irritation and confusion in the middle, then utter shock and anger which opened him up so that his vulnerability, acceptance, and eventual humility became visible. Then there was a brief moment of self-reckoning followed by the steely compassion of one who is on the side of angels but isn't one, the ferocious determination of one so compassionate that he would dare venture into where even angels fear to tread, for it is imperative that he save his friends.
And then there was Moriarty. The terrible example of intellect without compassion, without ethics, and just how terrifying that can be. Masterfully expressed by actor Andrew Scott. Whereas Benedict seems to me the kind of craftsman actor who carefully calculates and plans his performances (in his many interviews, he is very analytical about his roles), I get the impression that Andrew Scott is more of a free-flowing genius. In the first series, I wasn't sure if his mercurial playfulness and horrible darkness was either carefully plotted out or was intuitive. After the Reichenbach episode, I listened to his interview on Irish radio, and there he says that for the episode, he drew upon what was scary inside himself, and simply learned the lines really, really well so that he could be Jim Moriarty in that moment. Sounds like he has an intuitive, rather than analytical acting style.
Which is amazing. Before listening to this interview, I'd imagined him planning his performance in the utmost detail. For example, just look at the brief scene he's led down the corridor in the Old Bailey. He begins to show the faintest hint of a smile only to have his face immediately disappear in the shadow. The timing was so perfect, so subtle and beguiling that if that wasn't careful planning, but intuitive acting, then I am speechless. Also in the Richard Brook scene, there's a flash of an instant when he half covers his face with his hands but peers at Sherlock, taunting him, challenging him with just the strength of his eyes. If you blinked, you missed it. But if that look at that moment was not planned but played "in character", then I really do think Andrew Scott is a genius actor, and I don't use the word 'genius' lightly at all.
At the end of "The Great Game", I was jumping up and down not just because of the cliffhanger and everything else that happened by the pool, but also by the sheer power of Andrew's Moriarty. I was saying to anyone who would listen: "It's as if there's something pitch black inside his skin, as if there's a total darkness inside him, it's so horrific it's insane!" So I was very pleased to hear Mark Gatiss say something very similar in a BBC interview: "There's a sort of blackness behind those black eyes which you can't quite fathom, it's really quite chilling. It's almost as if there's something else inside him, looking out."
In the same clip, Mark also refers to the "world-weariness" of Moriarty. I totally agree. How else can you explain what he does to himself on the rooftop? But what a feat for an actor to make something so abnormal believable. It was because of Andrew Scott's performance that I could begin to imagine what the world must be like for Moriarty; for someone with such a mind as his, so intelligent yet totally devoid of ethics or compassion, incapable of using that intellect for anything but evil, the world must indeed be a desperately, mind-numbingly boring place.
Now to the story itself. In the second series, I think it became more pronounced that John is acting as Sherlock's minder, not just for his nicotine addiction but also to help him cope with the rudimentary social graces one needs to function in human society. I'm not an expert in autism and Aspergers so don't want to say this lightly, but John and Lestrade do briefly mention Aspergers in 'The Hounds of Baskerville'. In a way, this series portrays Sherlock Holmes as emotionally stunted with flawed cognitive skills, desperately requiring John Watson to guide him through the intricacies of "ordinary" people. It is an interesting interpretation of the Sherlock Holmes persona, which I haven't come across before. John is constantly assisting Sherlock cope with other people, explaining what people actually mean when they say or do certain things and how he should respond or not respond in certain situations. "Just say thank you," he says. Explains that what Lestrade is saying is "sarcasm". Gently urges: "Having fun? Maybe don't do the smiling. Kidnapped children." And more.
Benedict sometimes plays Sherlock as if he is genuinely unable to understand what other people are implying with their nuanced speech and expressions. For example he is really confused why Molly says the things she says about him being sad, why she offers to help; he's baffled what he can possibly need from her, why he should thank her for her offer to help, clueless in the interaction about the crisps, etc. And more importantly for the arc of this episode, he is genuinely confounded why John would be so concerned about what other people would say about him=Sherlock. He's unable to comprehend in a meaningful way how"what other people think of him" can negatively affect him or those around him. Of course, he's just being himself and can't turn cleverness "on and off like a tap", which naturally makes people resent him, since he does, as John says, "make them feel like a tit". And nobody, nobody, enjoys that feeling.
That is the major weakness of Sherlock, and Moriarty exploits that mercilessly, for he is truly without mercy. He makes Sherlock himself be the cause of his own downfall.
And "downfall" it was.
The play with words, as in previous episodes, is delicious. The Reichenbach Fall. I owe you a fall. The fall. A fall. The fall from a rooftop, the fall from grace, Sherlock's fall from grace, Sherlock who is on the side of angels but isn't one. Or is he the angel Lucifer that falls from grace and becomes... what? Sherlock falling down into hell to shake hands with ... whom? Moriarty? The apple that Moriarty plays with. Sherlock sacrificing himself to save others. Dying (or at least appearing to), then returning. And of course, since Rich+Brook=Reichen+Bach, The Reichenbach Fall can mean The RichBrook Fall, but am I reading too much into that? Anyhow, the imagery provoked by their word play is extremely rich in this episode.
Now on to tidbits.
- Upon first viewing, I missed seeing Moriarty enter the Tower of London. So at first, I didn't know who the guy was in front of the glass case, the guy in the touristy cap and beige shirt, as I could only see him from behind. Then he stretches his neck side to side. It' s him! The moment of recognition was spine-tingling. So much so that I think my 'version' of finding Moriarty in this scene is better :)
- Now, does that life-size dummy hanging in 221B have anything to do with the fall? Sherlock does say, "Henry Fishguard, never committed suicide." Clue or red herring, hmmm.
- But before that, John says nonchalantly, "So, did you just talk to him for very long time?" That can really drive a man to hang himself, I'm sure. Lestrade does later say he and many other people feel like screaming when Sherlock enters the room, and Lestrade was trying (?) to console him!
- So now we know. 221B's bathroom is behind the door at the far end of the kitchen/lab.
- It's 11 am, and everyone's having tea. Tea features large in this episode.
- The music selection is spot on!
The Thieving Magpie (La Gazza Ladra) Overture by Rossini during Moriarty's Crown Jewels heist. The music itself is brilliant, the inference to the original libretto is wonderful, and is also a great nod to The Clockwork Orange. Oh and how Andrew dances to the music! Tripping the light fantastic as he crashes into the crown jewels.
Nina Simone's 'Sinnerman' as Moriarty is taken to the Old Bailey. How brilliant is that! Sinner man, indeed!
Sherlock plays J.S. Bach's Sonata No.1 in G minor, BWV 1001(Adagio). Surely the '1001' is relevant here. Binary.
- Sherlock in the media. No longer "private" at all. I did a double take while attempting to read some of the articles flashing past. The Guardian "article" by Janette Owen (who is an actual media subeditor for the paper) says: "In a twist worthy of a Conan Doyle novella, Mr Sherlock Holmes was yesterday revealed to be an expert witness at the trial of 'Jim' Moriarty. Described by many commentators as the trial of the century, the case has all the ingredients of a block buster film."
So in their world, there was/is a writer Conan Doyle, who is known well enough to be used as a simile in a news article. Assuming that Conan Doyle never wrote the adventures of Sherlock Holmes in that world, I wonder if his fame came from stories like 'The Lost World'?
- According to the Andrew Scott radio interview, the female bailiff who has to reach inside Moriarty's trouser pocket is an extra. He says she probably didn't know what hit her. I must say that's one of the most disquieting, disturbing scenes I've seen recently.
- Kitty Riley of The Sun. The whole sequence of events involving her and the tabloid media are so reminiscent of the recent actual goings on in the UK tabloid media. I mean, she's the kind of person with the words "make believe" on her wall.
- But seriously, it's really not wise to go out of your way to insult people.
- Sherlock describes Moriarty from the stand, Moriarty nods as if in agreement/approval. Or perhaps that's from the canon description of Moriarty constantly oscillating his impressive head (but that was from side to side)
- No, he couldn't survive for just a few minutes without showing off.
- They actually put Moriarty and Sherlock in adjacent cells? I hope this isn't about Sherlock being obnoxious on purpose to somehow communicate with Moriarty there. No, I'm sure he was just being himself.
- (Addition. Learned later that the actor playing the defence barrister, Ian Hallard, is Mark Gatiss's partner)
- Day of the verdict. John is wearing a border stripe tie! He's been known to wear border stripe shirts and jumpers. Now a tie!
- Don't know enough about English criminal procedure, but neither the judge nor the prosecution can do anything despite such a blatant mistrial? Surely the prosecution can appeal and keep Moriarty in custody, or was he threatening them as well?
- The now famous tea set! 25 pounds at the current exchange rate is quite a bargain. No, I haven't ordered. No, really.
- According to a Moffat/Gatiss interview on the BBC site, the interaction between Sherlock playing the violin, Moriarty ascending the 17 steps, pausing as the stairs creak, Sherlock pausing his playing, then resuming again is directly taken from one of the Rathbone Holmes films.
- Moriarty does open the front door just like that, doesn't he (surely it was locked?). And does he mean, "Johan Sebastian would be appalled" by Sherlock's violin? And of course he would sit in Sherlock's chair. Staking out one's territory on your opponent's turf is basic alpha male animal behaviour. And so is maintaining a position superior to your opponent. Moriarty's chief weapon against Sherlock is psychology, he's playing a ruthless mind game, so this is really basic.
- NOTE. Sherlock, actually, drinks, his tea. That is a first (I think) for him to consume anything, solid or liquid. In the Granada TV series, Holmes was famously known never to eat or drink anything. So I'm making a mental note here that this is very much out of character, this drinking tea business. Not that I know what it could mean. (CORRECTION 2Feb: Having FINALLY received my DVD, Benedict has reminded me in the commentary that I'm totally wrong about this. He's actually eating toast in the beginning of "A Scandal in Belgravia" as he exclaims to John, "Oh for God's sake, the speckled blonde!?" Also, with the arrival of the DVD, I watched Hounds again, and realise he drinks tea/coffee a few times. Oh, my blushes.)
- "I own secrecy." "In a world of locked rooms, the man with the key is king. And honey, you should see me in a crown." What great lines, one on top of the other! I can see them all on T shirts!
- OK, I'm sure I'm a doofus, but I still don't get what Moriarty means by "The Final Problem". What was it?
- Oh, come on, Mycroft! You can just call/text John, you know. You don't have to tamper with his NatWest bank account!
- Well, so it was the Diogenes Club we saw last week. And as was revealed in the ending credits and Mark Gatiss, the guest cameo was Douglas Wilmer, a former Holmes actor, playing the silently infuriated member of the club.
- Dunno what Mycroft means when he says they don't want to repeat 1972. Watergate???
- I think Mycroft is the weakest link in this episode, and not just because of his fatal mistake. I don't find his actions regarding Moriarty plausible; why would they just let him go after torturing him? I doubt they went through proper legal procedure to arrest him in the first place. Don't tell me Mycroft's people released Moriarty according to due process because they were concerned for his rights. Surely Mycroft is hiding a lot, and he and Sherlock must have been in touch with each other more than they would have us or John know.
- I was really unnerved by the first hidden camera image in 221B.
- The school head mistress is in shock, she has a blanket.
- Sherlock sniffs a lot in this episode (and not for a fix like in the Hounds). Sniffs like a bloodhound. Very canon.
- It is unthinkable that a forensics police officer would be so callous and unappreciative of footprints at a crime scene as Anderson would be. I think he's a flawed character, he's just too stupid for someone in his position, too unbelievable. That's what made me think he might be a Moriarty spy, but we see he wasn't the planted assassin on Lestrade's team.
- Oh, Molly. Recognising Sherlock's sadness (is he already aware at this point that he might not be able to beat Moriarty? Or is he not yet conscious of his own looming sense of the inevitable?). Recognising he won't show it to John. Her stammering, flustered offer of help. Sherlock's bafflement. Oh, Molly. More about her later.
- And in contrast, the very practical nature of what John has to say to Sherlock, immediately afterwards.
- NOTE. Cat and dog owners would know that many plants/flowers are toxic and so shouldn't be chewed. The rhododendron ponticum has a toxin that can kill small animals. I understand the 2009 Guy Ritchie film 'Sherlock Holmes' offers it as an explanation for a faked death. Hmmm. Clue, or red herring?
- "Anything you can do to...." "Not be myself." So he turns down his coat collar. LOL.
- OK, so why does that little girl Claudette scream when she sees Sherlock? Theories abound on the net. However, there was this interesting exchange in the following scene:
Lestrade: Something about Sherlock reminds her of the kidnapper.
John: Is that what she said?
Donovan: Hasn't uttered another syllable.
...So we don't really know why she screamed or if Sherlock reminded her of her kidnapper, Lestrade just thinks that's why. Clue, or red herring?
- I do think Sherlock is shaken by what just happened, and I think this is when he starts to realise what Moriarty is trying to do.
- Oh, Lestrade, "don't let it get to you", really! Wanting to scream whenever he walks into the room. Remember John said he always hears 'punch me in the face' when Sherlock says something.
- If Sherlock had let John come with him in the cab, would Moriarty have shown them the video I wonder? Two of them might be able to overpower him. I was also reminded of the canon 'The Final Problem' in which Holmes instructs Watson to take not the first nor the second hansom cab so as to shake off Moriarty's men.
- Sherlock yells to John, "Can't you see what's going on!" Actually, it's he that fails to see John clearly and underestimates him.
- In a very brief shot, Lestrade covers his face with his hands in angst when Sherlock and John flees. Wonderful reaction moment.
- Fugitives on the run. I thought I heard a collective female squeal from all over when Sherlock says to John, "Take my hand." But the reality is, that's never quite romantic what with wire fences, etc. And when they stop, I laughed to see John holding onto the tip of Sherlock's coat sleeve, not his hand. For people will talk.
- Now, the Richard Brook scene. That was such a shock at first. So unexpected. Literally gasped. And it's such a showcase of Andrew's talent. If he had failed to pull this off, the whole plot would have fallen apart. He had to be credible as Richard Brook while being Moriarty all along. Like I wrote above, the flash of taunting eye contact with Sherlock makes the rest of his performance as the hapless Rich really frightening because it's so convincing.
- And Benedict's reaction! The range of emotions he's expressing without saying anything. Utter astonishment, disbelief, confusion, the a-ha moment, recognition, even an appreciation of how masterfully Moriarty has constructed and is executing the end game, and then, fury. Because he has seen the agent of his own destruction. Simply brilliant acting.
- I remembered afterwards that in the canon 'The Final Problem', Watson begins by explaining he is writing this 'with a heavy heart' only because Professor James Moriarty's brother, a Colonel James Moriarty (oh, ACD...) has published letters in the papers defending "the memory of his brother" and I presume defaming Holmes, and so he is writing the truth for 'it lies with (him) to tell for the first time what really took place'.
- Oh, Molly. Molly. Her simple, straightforward words of love.... "What do you need." Very best scene. And probably crucial for Sherlock's (and everybody else's) survival.
- Did Andrew lose weight for the brief torture scene? Or is that make up? Either way, it's very effective.
- As he said in Hounds, John himself may not be luminous but is the conductor of light. In this case, by tapping his fingers.
- I think anybody who has read the original 'The Final Problem' looked at the clock and groaned when John's phone rang. Or maybe just groaned. Oh, here it comes. The beginning of the end. As Moriarty used a fake message about an emergency patient (a dying English woman) to draw Watson back to the hotel in Meiringen, John is sent back to 221B with a fake phone call about a dying English woman (Mrs Hudson). Now was the call here by Moriarty's team as well?
- 'Stayin' alive.' It's either his credo, or the bane of his existence. For someone of his intellect and evil nature, simple existence must be so unbearably monotonous.
- OK, despite the intensity of the rooftop scene, I was enjoying Andrew's performance so much that I blurted out "Hah!" when he said, "fairy tales, and pretty grim ones, too". After the many references to Grimm's fairy tales, what a brilliant line.
- Mrs Hudson: Has Sherlock sorted it all out? Uhm, yes, after a fashion....
- Oh, and Moriarty's "Pleeeeeeeeeeze!" I mean, the audacity of the actor to play it like that! And how awful it is to see controlled insanity performed like that! A high-functioning sociopath versus a functioning psychopath. A functioning lunatic. That, is, so, frightening.
- In the canon 'The Final Problem', Holmes asks Moriarty for a moment of privacy while he writes the farewell note which Watson later discovers. It also seems that here again, Sherlock is begging, after having said in 'A Scandal in Belgravia' that he's never begged in his life.
- Sherlock's laughter and Moriarty's "What did I miss!" The sudden shift in tone is brilliant. Especially the "What did I miss!" Isn't that the first and only time Moriarty seems to be saying something from his gut? Blurting something out? Suddenly he is revealed.
- And another sudden shift of tone with the 'Don't think for one second that I am one of them' line. OK, I admit I'm a doofus. I don't get it. I don't get how that leads to Moriarty thanking Sherlock, shaking his hand, blessing him and then putting the gun inside his mouth. I don't get it. Staying alive was so utterly meaningless for Moriarty that killing himself was an acceptable way of completing Sherlock's destruction? Hmm?
- Although I don't get it, the repeated imagery is interesting. Those that shake hands with Sherlock get killed.
- Three bullets. Moriarty prepares only three bullets. Because in his mind, Molly doesn't count. He already tried once to approach Sherlock via Molly and it didn't quite work. Also he's seen Sherlock interact with Molly, and so he must have concluded that Molly doesn't count. As far as he understands relationships. And that, hopefully, is what defeats all of his evil brilliance. Because Molly, does, count.
- So what was the Final Problem? What? Whether Sherlock can make the ultimate sacrifice? Kill himself to save his friends? Or something totally different?
- NOTE. Sherlock calls John. Not text. But Sherlock always texts. That's out of character. NOTE.
- "You knew all about my sister." "I researched you." WRONG! Sherlock didn't know all about Harry. He thought Harry was a brother.
- "Nobody could be that clever." "You could." Waaaaaah (sob).
- Sherlock cries. Out of character. NOTE.
- "Stay exactly where you are." Because John follows this instruction, John loses sight of Sherlock for a while as he rushes to the hospital. NOTE.
- And as everybody on the net has noted, the biker, the bin lorry, John knocked out and groggy, people moving John away from the body, etc, etc.
- So what is the great big teaser Moffat talking about when he says fans have missed the one big clue where Sherlock is out of character?
- I'm not going to theorise this one, because I did it with The Great Game cliffhanger and was rewarded with the Stayin' Alive ringtone for my troubles. I'll just let Messrs Moffat/Gatiss work their magic. My favourite "theory" is this, by the way.
- So on to John in the graveyard. John talking about Sherlock being far more human than others. Moffat has said repeatedly that they intended John to make Sherlock more human. As a Star Trek fan, I just couldn't help but notice the similarity of his "you were the best man and human... human being I’ve ever known" speech to Kirk's eulogy for his best friend: "Of my friend I can only say this. Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human."
- But the the most poignant words by John here, words that are so John. Please, don't be dead. Simple. So John.
- John's grief is so poignant and intense that I can already see John first fainting as Watson does in 'The Empty House', and then seriously punching the living daylights out of Sherlock once he realises he's been had. Looking forward to that day. Very much. Laterz!
cf. From the commentary for "A Study in Pink"
Upon discussing why Sherlock would play along with the cabbie, and nearly take the deadly pill.
Steve Moffat: We're talking about here is a raw and unrefined Sherlock. He's chosen the side of the angels because there are more rules, it's more difficult. This is a raw unrefined Sherlock. As the stories progress, it's not long before he's saying that he would happily die to stop Moriarty. We take him to that arc, too. He does decide he's not really on the side of the angels, but he is in the end, maybe a slightly naughty one, not the nicest one out there, but he is one of them. That's a brilliant progression, that 's a great story to tell.
Addendum. I took these photos of Bart's and that rooftop from that angle, that entrance and that pavement, in April 2012. Note the domed roof of the Old Bailey in the background. The cherry blossoms were so beautiful in the rain that it was too ironic.
