"The Reichenbach Fall" is the third and final episode of the second series of the
BBC television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...
series ''
Sherlock''. It was written by
Stephen Thompson and stars
Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (born 19 July 1976) is an English actor. Known for his work on screen and stage, he has received various accolades, including a British Academy Television Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Laurence O ...
as
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
,
Martin Freeman
Martin John Christopher Freeman (born 8 September 1971) is an English actor. Among other accolades, he has won an Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Freeman's most no ...
as
Dr John Watson, and
Andrew Scott as
Jim Moriarty
James Moriarty (born 20 June 1953) is a New Zealand actor and theatre director, who began acting professionally in 1967. He came to national attention and is probably best known for his role as the school teacher Riki Winiata in the 1970s soap ...
. The episode deals with Moriarty's attempt to undermine the public's view of Sherlock and drive him to suicide. The episode was first broadcast on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
and BBC One HD on 15 January 2012. It attracted 9.78 million viewers, and critical reaction to the episode was positive. After the episode was aired, there was also much online and media speculation, which focused on Sherlock's death.
Inspired by "
The Final Problem
"The Final Problem" is a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring his detective character Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in ''The Strand Magazine'' in the United Kingdom, and ''McClure's'' in the United States, under the title ...
" by
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for '' A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
, the episode follows Moriarty's plot to discredit and kill Sherlock Holmes, also heavily using elements from the film ''
The Woman in Green
''The Woman in Green'' is a 1945 American film, the eleventh of the fourteen ''Sherlock Holmes'' films based on the characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle. Directed by Roy William Neill, it stars Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bru ...
''. The title alludes to the
Reichenbach Falls
The Reichenbach Falls (german: Reichenbachfälle) are a waterfall cascade of seven steps on the stream called Rychenbach in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. They drop over a total height of about . At , the upper falls, known as the ...
, the location where Holmes and Moriarty supposedly fall to their deaths in the original story. Some sequences in the episode that are set at the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
were filmed at
Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle ( cy, Castell Caerdydd) is a medieval castle and Victorian Gothic revival mansion located in the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. The original motte and bailey castle was built in the late 11th century by Norman invaders on top ...
. Other locations used include Newport Cemetery,
Tredegar House
Tredegar House ( Welsh: ''Tŷ Tredegar'') is a 17th-century Charles II-era mansion on the southwestern edge of Newport, Wales. For over five hundred years it was home to the Morgan family, later Lords Tredegar; one of the most powerful and infl ...
and
Cardiff City Hall
City Hall ( cy, Neuadd y ddinas) is a civic building in Cathays Park, Cardiff, Wales, UK. It serves as Cardiff's centre of local government. It was built as part of the Cathays Park civic centre development and opened in October 1906. Built of ...
, as well as other areas around Cardiff including Broadway and
Cardiff Bay
Cardiff Bay ( cy, Bae Caerdydd; historically Tiger Bay; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it serves as the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of w ...
.
Plot
John Watson is in his first meeting with his therapist after 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
Turner may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name
*One who uses a lathe for turni ...
painting of Reichenbach Falls.
Meanwhile,
Moriarty proceeds to break into the case
where
Where may refer to:
* Where?, one of the Five Ws in journalism
* where (command), a shell command
* Where (SQL), a database language clause
* Where.com
Where, Inc. was a location-based media company in North America. Their main products were ...
the
Crown Jewels are kept, while simultaneously opening the vault at the
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...
and unlocking all the cells at
Pentonville Prison
HM Prison Pentonville (informally "The Ville") is an English Category B men's prison, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. Pentonville Prison is not in Pentonville, but is located further north, on the Caledonian Road in the Barnsbury ar ...
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 by the police wearing the jewels and sitting on the throne.
Sherlock is called to testify at Moriarty's trial, where he explains that Moriarty is a criminal mastermind. Moriarty has threatened the jurors with the deaths of their families into voting 'not guilty.' After being acquitted, Moriarty visits Sherlock and, after explaining that his break-in was a publicity stunt to show powerful potential clients what he is capable of, tells him, "I owe you a fall". 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 the kidnapping of the children of the British Ambassador to the U.S., Rufus Bruhl, 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 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. This code is supposedly capable of bypassing all security systems.
Sherlock and John break into the house of a journalist, Kitty Riley, poised to publish an exposé on Sherlock. They find that Moriarty has created a fake identity, Richard Brook (or Rich Brook, "reicher Bach" in German), an actor whom Sherlock supposedly paid to pose as a master criminal. Sherlock launches a final gambit, now a wanted man with his media image on the verge of plummeting. Leaving John, Sherlock contacts
Molly Hooper
The following is a list and description of the characters of '' Sherlock'', a British television series that started airing on BBC One in July 2010. The series is a contemporary adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyl ...
, a pathologist at
St Bartholomew's Hospital
St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust.
History
Early history
Barts was founded in 1123 by Rahere (died ...
, where he admits that, contrary to her belief, he respects her and has always trusted her. Sherlock tells Molly he is in grave danger and humbly asks her for help. John goes to the
Diogenes Club
The Diogenes Club is a fictional gentlemen's club created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and featured in several Sherlock Holmes stories, such as 1893's "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter". It seems to have been named after Diogenes the Cynic ...
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 fingers during his earlier visit.
John finds Sherlock at the St. Bartholomew's lab but leaves after hearing
Mrs. Hudson has been shot. Sherlock texts Moriarty, inviting him to meet him on the hospital roof to solve their "final problem". Sherlock claims that he can electronically erase Richard Brook with the code. Moriarty, on the other hand, reveals that there is no code and that he simply bribed security guards. Moriarty gives Sherlock an ultimatum: Sherlock must commit
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
or Moriarty's hitmen will kill John, Mrs. Hudson, and Lestrade. Sherlock realizes Moriarty has a way to prevent the executions. Sherlock then convinces Moriarty that he is willing to do anything to make him stop the assassins. After acknowledging their similarities, Moriarty tells Sherlock, "As long as I am alive, you can save your friends". Moriarty then commits suicide by shooting himself, effectively closing Sherlock's options for saving his friends other than jumping from the roof.
![Barts](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Barts.jpg)
Afterward, Sherlock calls John, who is rushing back from 221B Baker Street after he realised the report about Mrs. Hudson was a ruse. Claiming that he was always a fake and explaining this last phone call is his "
note
Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to:
Music and entertainment
* Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music
* ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian
* ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened version ...
", Sherlock swan-dives off the roof of St. Bartholomew as John looks on terrified from the street, thereby ensuring that Moriarty's true identity dies with him. After being knocked to the ground by a cyclist, John stumbles over to watch, grief-stricken, as Sherlock's bloody corpse is carried away by hospital staff.
The episode returns to John's therapy session, where he cannot open up. Mycroft is shown reading the tabloid newspaper ''
The Sun'' with a front-page headline "Suicide of Fake Genius". Later, John visits Sherlock's grave with Mrs. Hudson. He reaffirms his faith in Sherlock and begs him not to be dead. As he walks away, Sherlock looks on from afar, out of John's sight, before also walking away.
Sources
![BigReichenbach](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/BigReichenbach.JPG)
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 to Mrs Hudson mirrors his return to the inn in the original story, in order to attend to a dying Englishwoman.
The filming of the visit of Moriarty to Baker St pays tribute to
William Gillette
William Hooker Gillette (July 24, 1853 – April 29, 1937) was an American actor-manager, playwright, and stage-manager in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best remembered for portraying Sherlock Holmes on stage and in a 1916 ...
's 1899 play ''Sherlock Holmes'' and the 1945 film ''The Woman in Green''. Moriarty's attempt to destroy Holmes's reputation and lead him to committing suicide by jumping from a building also has similarities to ''The Woman in Green''.
Broadcast and reception
BARB
Barb or the BARBs or ''variation'' may refer to:
People
* Barb (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname
* Barb, a term used by fans of Nicki Minaj to refer to themselves
* The Barbs, a band
Places
* 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. Final consolidated ratings rose to 9.78 million. The episode also became the second most-watched programme of 2012 on the online
BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...
as of May, with over 1.9 million requests.
As with the preceding two episodes in the second series, critical reaction to the episode was largely positive.
''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''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
"The Hounds of Baskerville" is the second episode of the second series of the BBC crime drama series '' Sherlock'', which follows the modern-day adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and was first broadcast by BBC One on 8 January 2012. It was writ ...
"), 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
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
''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."
Chris Tilly, who reviewed the episode for
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
, gave it a score of 10/10, calling it "The grandstanding conclusion to the brilliant BBC series, packed to the rafters with smart dialogue, audacious plotting, stylish direction and some truly wonderful performances."
The
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...
has awarded the episode a
12 certificate for "moderate violence and gore". The episode was released with the remainder of the second series in the UK on DVD and Blu-ray on 23 January 2012.
Speculation and response to the cliffhanger
The episode's cliffhanger led to speculation on forums, social networking sites and in newspaper articles about its resolution. Theories included the use of a mask, a squash ball, a lorry or Moriarty's body, the dummy seen in Sherlock's flat at the beginning of the episode, the psychotropic drugs featured in "
The Hounds of Baskerville
"The Hounds of Baskerville" is the second episode of the second series of the BBC crime drama series '' Sherlock'', which follows the modern-day adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and was first broadcast by BBC One on 8 January 2012. It was writ ...
", the participation of Sherlock's homeless network, and a
cadaver
A cadaver or corpse is a dead human body that is used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being. Stud ...
supplied by Molly. In an interview with ''The Guardian'', Moffat claims "there is a clue everybody's missed ... So many people theorising about Sherlock's death online – and they missed it!"
Moffat noted that one of the central clues was "something that Sherlock did that was very out-of-character, but which nobody has picked up on." During the first episode of the third series this is played upon by the writers. One of the policemen who argued that Sherlock was a fraud is seen talking to Lestrade about a wild "Sherlock is Alive" theory having to do with a mask, even two years later.
Shortly after the episode aired, memes inspired by the episode emerged online, considering how ordinary people in the ''Sherlock'' universe would react to learning that their hero was a fake. The memes included recurring phrases such as "I fight John Watson's war", "Moriarty was real" and, most prominently, "I believe in Sherlock Holmes", amongst others, the latter of which was used in-universe in "
The Empty Hearse
"The Empty Hearse" is the first episode of the third series of the BBC television series '' Sherlock''. It was written by Mark Gatiss and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes, Martin Freeman as Dr John Watson, and Mark Gatiss as Mycro ...
". There was some speculation that the "#BelieveInSherlock" movement was orchestrated by the BBC as a
publicity stunt
In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utilize ...
.
Part of the resolution was filmed with the rest of the episode,
although some, including hypothetical sequences involving
Derren Brown
Derren Brown (born 27 February 1971) is an English mentalist, illusionist, painter, and author. He began performing in 1992, making his television debut with ''Derren Brown: Mind Control'' in 2000, and has since produced several more shows f ...
and airbags, was filmed with "The Empty Hearse".
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reichenbach Fall, The
2012 British television episodes
Sherlock (TV series) episodes
Television episodes written by Stephen Thompson (writer)
Television episodes directed by Toby Haynes
Publicity stunts in fiction