Alan Davies reckons he knows how Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock survived his famous plunge at the end of series two finale The Reichenbach Fall – because a similar stunt was featured in an episode of Jonathan Creek.
“I know how he got away with it but I’m not telling you,” Davies told The Evening Standard. “We did a similar thing in an episode of Jonathan Creek when someone jumped off a roof at a party.”
The story in question was a two-parter called The Problem at Gallows Gate, which aired as part of the mystery drama’s second series in 1998.
It sees a young man leap from a second-floor balcony in front of stunned guests at a house party in the country. He’s pronounced dead at the scene and his body is taken away in an ambulance, but he’s later seen strangling a woman to death. So, clearly, his own death was faked.
Looking again at Sherlock’s fall, Creek’s explanation [from The Problem at Gallows Gate] seems to tally with certain oddities about the scene.
For instance, Sherlock’s insistence that Watson stays back as he jumps might well have been to conceal an area specially rigged with material to catch the Baker Street detective. After all, we only see a brief glimpse of Sherlock’s body bouncing as he supposedly hits the ground.
The area of pavement on which he’s lying is initially obscured by a truck (which is seen driving off as people rush over to Sherlock’s body), and Watson is knocked to the floor by a cyclist – presumably one of Sherlock’s accomplices - before he can reach his ‘dead’ friend.
There’s also a curiously marked-out bit of the pavement next to Sherlock’s body in this shot from above:
And there are numerous ‘medical staff’ and ‘bystanders’ around to keep Watson from getting too close to the ‘body’ while it’s on the ground, which is similar to what happened in the Jonathan Creek episode.
Could all these events have been part of a deception aiming purely at making Watson believe Sherlock was dead? Quite possibly. Would it be as easy to fake a bit of pavement as it was to create a false bit of turfin Jonathan Creek? Less likely.
Click here to see the Jonathan Creek episode and more detailed explaination: Radio Times
“I know how he got away with it but I’m not telling you,” Davies told The Evening Standard. “We did a similar thing in an episode of Jonathan Creek when someone jumped off a roof at a party.”
The story in question was a two-parter called The Problem at Gallows Gate, which aired as part of the mystery drama’s second series in 1998.
It sees a young man leap from a second-floor balcony in front of stunned guests at a house party in the country. He’s pronounced dead at the scene and his body is taken away in an ambulance, but he’s later seen strangling a woman to death. So, clearly, his own death was faked.
Looking again at Sherlock’s fall, Creek’s explanation [from The Problem at Gallows Gate] seems to tally with certain oddities about the scene.
For instance, Sherlock’s insistence that Watson stays back as he jumps might well have been to conceal an area specially rigged with material to catch the Baker Street detective. After all, we only see a brief glimpse of Sherlock’s body bouncing as he supposedly hits the ground.
The area of pavement on which he’s lying is initially obscured by a truck (which is seen driving off as people rush over to Sherlock’s body), and Watson is knocked to the floor by a cyclist – presumably one of Sherlock’s accomplices - before he can reach his ‘dead’ friend.
There’s also a curiously marked-out bit of the pavement next to Sherlock’s body in this shot from above:
And there are numerous ‘medical staff’ and ‘bystanders’ around to keep Watson from getting too close to the ‘body’ while it’s on the ground, which is similar to what happened in the Jonathan Creek episode.
Could all these events have been part of a deception aiming purely at making Watson believe Sherlock was dead? Quite possibly. Would it be as easy to fake a bit of pavement as it was to create a false bit of turfin Jonathan Creek? Less likely.
Click here to see the Jonathan Creek episode and more detailed explaination: Radio Times
I always thought that Irene Adler taught him how to fake his death. In the season 2 premiere, her body was examined by Sherlock in the morgue, yet it was later discovered that it was a plastic/rubber duplicate of her body. I believe Sherlock used the same trick, and somehow replaced his body with a fake.
ReplyDeleteMy assumption was that it had to do something with a body double. We never receive closure about who kidnapped the two children and why they were so scared when they saw Sherlock for the first time. There is that missing piece of the puzzle that I think is part of the overall solution.
ReplyDeleteIn Irene Adler's case the body was an unidentifiable cadaver so as Sherlock's face was intact I don't think that's likely or plausible for that matter.
ReplyDeleteIf it's anything in the article then I will be disappointed as the holes in their arguments will be difficult to explain away.
This article from January 2012 actually had quite the sweet theory already: http://seriable.com/sherlock-reichenbach-escape-explained/
ReplyDelete