This is how Sherlock Pulled the Stunt of Jumping from the Roof
Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in Sherlock (BBC1). Photograph: BBC/Hartswood Films
So that's how Sherlock (BBC1) did it. He had a bungee cord attached to him when he jumped, bounced back up before hitting the ground, hopped in through a window, had a cheeky snog with Molly, then disappeared to the forests of eastern Europe in order to dismantle Moriarty's network. Watson, meanwhile, was briefly hypnotised by Derren Brown – Derren Brown! – as Moriarty's body was laid on the pavement with a Sherlock Holmes mask on. Exactly what I thought …
Oh, that's just writer Mark Gatiss having a laugh at us, the fans and fanatics who've spent most of the Great Hiatus speculating and theorising. That's not what happened. Nor was it a cardboard cutout that fell, released via string by Holmes so he could pursue a rooftop gay romance with Moriarty. We still don't know what happened. Maybe, as Watson says, it's not important how he did it.
He – Watson – has done his grieving and has left 221b Baker Street to gather dust and memories. Now he has very unwisely got a new moustache, but more wisely – and astonishingly, given the moustache – got himself a new girlfriend. A serious one: he's in the process of popping the question, at the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone, when Sherlock pops rudely but hilariously back into his life in the form of a (comedically moustached) French waiter. "Short version: not dead," he tells his old friend. No wonder poor John is a little put out. You might also say poor Sherlock – such a massive mind but no idea about how human emotions work.
A lot of this one is about the delicate reassembling of Sherlock's and John's friendship – always tricky when one of you has come back from the dead. Slowly he wins him back, though. By being Sherlock Holmes. By winning over the new girlfriend – of course he does, he's Benedict Cumberbatch, that's not going to be hard, even if John's new gf is played by Amanda Abbington, Martin Freeman's actual missus. Oh, and by rescuing John – dramatically and terrifyingly – from the middle of a huge burning pyre. Nice motorcyling, to get there (just) in time.
There is actually a case in here too, a fabulous modern-day take on Guy Fawkes's gunpowder plot. It's not just an underground terror cell, but an Underground terror cell that has rediscovered a disused station right under the Houses of Parliament. There's a tube train packed with explosives, primed and timed to go off during a sitting to vote on the anti-terrorism bill, on November 5th. Movember 5th. Boom!
The episode is packed with explosive sparkle too, fizz and whizz and wit. I enjoy the childish na-na-na-na-na sibling rivalry between Sherlock and brother Mycroft, and their game of not chess but … Operation! Mycroft seems to be gaining importance. I guess you can do that if you're the writer, and the executive producer; you can make the character you play as big as you bloody well like.
But Arthur Conan Doyle hasn't been abandoned or forgotten. "London: the great cesspool into which all kinds of criminals, agents and drifters are irresistibly drained," Sherlock muses. So it's been updated a bit, stolen from Watson and given to Holmes, but that comes, originally, from A Study in Scarlet. There are knowing nods and mischievous winks all over the place in Sherlock – to itself, to the people who watch it and worry about it, and to the books that inspired it. There may be hashtags, blogs and motorbikes, but the spirit remains in keeping. I think Sir Arthur would approve, enjoy it too. Hard not to really.
So, finally, here's an explanation of the (Reichenbach) fall, then. Sherlock jumped into a sort of bouncy castle airbag, hidden from John by a building. John was distracted from witnessing the removal of the bouncy castle by a collision involving himself and a bicycle. Meanwhile, Sherlock applied fake blood, and assumed the dead position. With a squash ball – the one he was playing with before, remember? – under the armpit to temporarily halt his pulse.
Is that it, then? Or is he still fooling around? Again, it doesn't really matter. Someone did suggest the squash ball theory, on a forum. Did they guess right? Or maybe Gatiss nicked it from the forum? Or from The Mentalist, which also did the squash ball trick? Can you even do that, stop your pulse, with a squash ball? I've got one on me, as it happens. There weren't any don't-try-this-at-home warnings – let's give it a go. You can find out what happens below …
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