Did Sherlock Choose the Right Bottle?

Frankly, since watching 'A Study in Pink' that question has been on many people's minds. So did he?

Let's look at the facts.

The big difference between the cabbie and his 'playmate' is that the cabbie and his playmate have utterly different motives. The cabbie's passenger wants to prove their wits. They want to show off; pretty much what Sherlock is trying to do all the time. The cabbie on the other hand does not mind what other people are thinking about him. His motive is money. He has a sponsor and he wants to earn as much as possible by playing along.

Another point which should not be ignored is that the cabbie knows which is the good bottle. And the playmate knows the cabbie knows... And the cabbie knows the playmate knows that he knows... You get the idea.

Furthermore, the cabbie states that he's secret is that he's able to read people's minds. But is that enough? After all, people are changing their minds all the time, especially when they are about to make such a life threatening decision. There are simply too many variables the cabbie cannot account for. Even if the victim's first idea was to take the other bottle, out of instinct, and then, as the reasonable part of their mind is kicking in, to change their decision and to take the one handed by the cabbie. Then they change their minds again, thinking that maybe that's what the cabbie wanted them to do all along, and so on. Reading the other's mind is not helping in this game as before the cabbie tosses the good/bad bottle his victim has not made up their mind completely. This means, the cabbie does not know which bottle to draw his victim's attention to before doing so.

Yet, he has played the game 4 times and the odds seems to have been irresponsibly in his favour. And  here he is, trying his luck for a 5th time. What's more, he seems to be sure that he'll win again, even when facing the most clever man walking the surface of the earth. If he had had doubts, he could have switched off the phone and chosen another passenger instead. And even after making Sherlock choosing a bottle, he does not seem to lose his faith in beating him. His behaviour does not change. Picking up the other bottle from the table, all he says is 'interesting' as if he wasn't talking about his own life. So the cabbie is either too stupid for his own good, something he does not really seem to be, or he's not playing a fair game.

Because the only way to ensure that his victims will always pick the wrong bottle, is by offering them two wrong bottles. The obvious downside of this theory is that the cabbie ends up with one bad bottle as well. But playing a crooked game, he knows the pills. He knows what makes them poisonous. And he could take an antidote before the game is on. By this he makes sure that he cannot be beaten by his opponents. Besides, it makes him sure to be able to outwit Sherlock. He knows Sherlock will be  fascinated by the nature of the game, that it will be tempting him and that he will not consider the intellectual challenge to be a fraud. Showing that he's clever is such a holy action to Sherlock that playing a crooked game does not cross his mind.

The Final Problem - How Did Sherlock Fake His Death?

There's just one more thing, one more thing, one more miracle, Sherlock, for me.
Don't. Be.
Dead.

Going by the evidence of Doyle's original story, the final seconds of Sherlock's last episode and that we know season 3 is going to air some when within this millennia starring Benedict Cumberbatch, you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to deduct that he must have faked his really realistic looking death in "The Reichenbach Fall". So, the more advanced question is how he did do it.

How does one survive jumping from the top of a building? The answer is, you don't. But assuming that it was possible, it might be logical to say that Molly helped him with it. After all, we see him seeking her help. And when you're Sherlock Holmes, that's not something you'd usually do. And being familiar with Moffat's trolling capabilities that's what he may have been pointing at when saying the clue is all there... However, the episode offers us more than this.

First of all,  let's not forget that Sherlock is the one inviting Moriarty to join him on the rooftop. He's the one setting the when and where. Therefore, it's just logical to assume that he did not show up there without making some preparations.

The night before jumping Sherlock is constantly playing with a rubber ball. And given the fact that John only checks Sherlock's wrist and not his neck for pulse, there is the possibility that he used it to create the illusion that his heart stopped beating. (Of course he's doing it right after jumping off a building, which makes this [if this was real] even more remarkable).

But there is even more. We can assume that Sherlock is telling John Moriarty's lie because he does not want John to suffer. He hopes that by implying how much he betrayed him John will terminate their friendship or at least, he will take things more easily. The last time they see each other he makes John mad at him by implying that he does not care about Mrs Hudson having a possibly life-threatening incident, something he has obviously came up with for this very purpose. Sherlock does not gain anything by this, in fact it hurts his own feelings because John's opinion and his friendship are important to him. Sherlock shows when he has to choose between his reputation and John, that John's the winner. Putting the sentimental aspect of this aside, and focusing on the fact that Sherlock is obviously not wanting to hurt him, he nevertheless asks him a rather inappropriate thing to do: to watch him jump. He wants John to keep his eyes on him, while he's falling.

 There may be several reasons for this request, however, the most rational one is that he does not want John to notice what is happening around him. But before going into further detail, let's focus on the location of Sherlock's 'suicide'.

The  hospital from John's point of view

Looking at the two first pictures on the left we learn the building off which Sherlock jumps has 2 floors.

The red-brick building

Just in case you are wondering if that picture shows the right building, it does. The red-brick base is a second building standing between the hospital and John, from where he watches Sherlock jump This becomes more obvious when we take a look at the situation form Sherlock's point of view

And John from Sherlock's point of view.

(picture 3 on the left).

This fact is interesting because we know that the first thing Sherlock tells John on the phone is precise directions where to stand. And Sherlock wants him to stand behind the red brick building which doesn't allow him to see Sherlock hitting the ground. To get to Sherlock he has to go round it and that's when the cyclist runs into him. This means, that John is not really able to see how Sherlock hits the ground. The brick building is simply blocking his view.

Having settled this point there is also the fact that Sherlock's 'fatal' injuries do not match the way he hits the ground.

When falling we know that Sherlock does not flip. The building has only 2 floors and we see both of them in this picture. It is obvious that it will be his feet which will touch the ground first. Not his head, or torso.

Nevertheless, when John finally sees his friend, he has a head injury. How on earth is it possible to get a head injury when falling like that? It simply does not match, i.e. the head injury is not real.

Sherlock's and the truck's position is wrong.

Taking only the rational aspect of this into account he may have got several other injuries, but he certainly does not damage his head, not like that.

The last thing which may, or may not, require an answer is that in the end Sherlock seems to have rotated 9o°C  between falling and hitting the ground. Knowing that he lands 'on his feet', more or less, there is the possibility that when hitting the ground his weight isn't shifted equally and he falls over. However, there should be noted that even if he falls over his feet have already absorbed most of the impact, i.e. when his head finally touches the ground the result is certainly not such a sever looking injury.

Unfortunately, the only thing which cannot be explained away is the distance between the rooftop and the pavement. Because no matter what, Sherlock has to jump. He has to make the killers believe that he takes his life. Sherlock certainly figures out in advance what Moriarty is up to, the whole conversation on the rooftop is mostly a show. This means that Sherlock could have taken preparations to guarantee himself a somewhat softer landing. But he can't risk doing something obvious*. Maybe the fact that when entering the rooftop he's keeping his hands behind his back has something to do with this. And when standing the first time on the edge he asks Moriarty to give him a moment. Does he really need it? Is it part of the show? Or does he use it to do something else?  Besides, I don't think that Sherlock simply needs Molly to give him a rubber ball and to fake an autopsy. She helped him, somehow. And finding out how she helped him performing his magic trick is the reason why I'm looking forward to the next episode. I know Sherlock Holmes wouldn't agree with this, but I think being able to deduct the whole story would leave us with just too many spoilers.

__
*Yes, there is that truck packed with some soft-looking washing bags, as we can easily see in the last picture... but wouldn't that be too obvious? Besides, if you're comparing it with this picture you'll notice that the truck is standing wrongly. If it had been standing where Sherlock landed, to get into that position afterwards, the driver would have had to backup. Something he certainly did not, given the fact that it would have been much easier not to back up and to drive away.

The Great Game

Someone is trying hard to drive people's attention to this show. For it looks as if the Beeb won't have another choice than giving us at least another season of this 21st century Sherlock.

So, we had our story-arch then... (and this made it official that last week's episode was really just a filler, as it seemed to be in the first place). Additionally, The Great Game showed us this series' future capacity. Come on, they could have made a whole season out of the last episode's plot alone. And after sitting through it the only thing we get is a cliff-hanger, which was a bit far-fetched IMHO. But who cares. Somehow it still managed to be amazing, and I can't wait for more.

And BTW I just love Sherlock's catchy opening-titles.

The Blind Banker

Sherlock is on its best way to become one of those save-the-date TV series. Because this was awesome. 

Sure, even the at times overly fast paced action couldn't help distracting from the fact that this was the filler of this year's season (well, I for my part hope there will be more). There were too many lose strings to speculate about. Like, what happened to the man Sherlock was fighting while John was out shopping? Why is that guy Sherlock's message for the people of the Jaria Diamond case? And most importantly, why shouldn't John know about this? And still, somehow I  have the feeling that it's not important. I guess, Thompson could have made more of these thrown away snippets.

But there were more things Sherlock did not want John to know about. Like him almost dying in Soo Lin Yao's flat. Does he want to hide the fact that their job is somewhat dangerous? Does he not want to admit that he did something stupid? Why doesn't he open the flat after entering it anyway? What's his motivation?

But otherwise, it's great to see a Sherlock Holmes adaptation in which John and Sherlock can be equals in their friendship. John is more than someone filling in for Sherlock's audience, or his skull. Well, at the same time, Sherlock does his best to irritate everyone around him, also John. It's clear that he's not trying to be nice. And John's failed attempt of having a date is somewhat foreshadowing his future. 

So, the M to which Shen was talking in the last seconds of her life is certainly Moriarty. I guess, next week things will start to become really interesting...

A Study In Pink

With no Doctor Who on until Christmas and a lot of spare time on my hand, I decided to dedicate almost ninety minutes of my afternoon to the BBC's new Sherlock Holmes adaptation of which a certain Steven Moffat's happens to be one of its co-writers.

Maybe, there is to mention, that I am, or rather was a big Sherlock Holmes fan a few years ago. Well, maybe not that big, but I read some of the books, and I remember enjoying them pretty much. Additionally, I was also quite curious about what Moffat would do with Sherlock Holmes' apparently not too temporary methods. And, luckily as far as I'm concerned, this series' opener didn't let neither of its fans down.

So, let's start with the casting... For a start, I wasn't familiar with the leading actors Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Marin Freeman who plays Doctor John Watson (John Watson on this blog.) Their mixture of sticking to the original characters and adding their (and the writers') own interpretation of them to the roles just won me over right from the start. For on the one hand Cumberbatch's Sherlock is eccentric enough so that it's not difficult to identify the world's most famous detective, but on the other hand their changed his relationship to Watson, so that he isn't only using him as someone in front of whom he can show off. And through this he appears to be nicer than in the books.
Additionally, I loved the way the team circumvented the BBC's 'not showing smoking heroes in our programmes' rule, while still sticking to Doyle's ideas of Sherlock Holems. His 'This is a three-patch problem' - line was superb.

My only, and slight critic of this opener is the plot of A Study In Pink. Until now the story didn't make too much sense, however, maybe when the Moriarty-story-arch will be finally reviled it might be possible that we won't be complaining about it anymore.

After all, this episode made me certainly curious about the following ones, for this was the best thing I've seen on TV for month.