Wow.
Everything came full circle--almost. Except now Watson believes Sherlock is who he says he is. I didn't want it to end. It was heartbreaking, though. . .he didn't die the hero's death of the book. Well, he did, but nobody knew (maybe Mycroft? Molly?) and only Watson believed. But the rest of society thinks Sherlock dies a psycho serial killer and everything else Moriarty was. The part where Sherlock shouts "You're insane"--one of the few moments when he sounds like a real person, when he sees where cunning can go too far. He has admitted to fighting on the side of good and now he knows the fundamental differences between Moriarty and himself.
I'm still confused about Moriarty though--was there really no code? I must say, it always sounded very unlikely. If so, however, then Moriarty becomes no greater than the cabbie in A Study in Pink--just someone wanting to prove they're smarter than Sherlock Holmes. (Moriarty is probably the biggest disappointment of this new Sherlock series--he lacks the gravitas of being a respectable math professor and comes across more as a whining, cringing Gollum instead.)
And, it would mean that one of Sherlock's weaknesses is taking things too seriously. But I would say it can also be his strength. If he really considered every crime to be just a puzzle, he wouldn't care a bit about the people involved, as I think he does, deep down. He wouldn't do what he did in the end if lives didn't matter to him.
Now, of course, there's the opposing argument--what if he were going to die? What if he wasn't going to fake his death? Would he still have followed through with it? That's one thing the book left no doubts about--Holmes himself believed it was the end, and he had no backup plans. I guess in this case you just have to decide whether you're John or Sally. Is Sherlock a hero? Is he what he appears to be, or is he only what you believe him to be? Can you know for sure, either way? (Excuse me if I'm getting too analytical here, but I love agonizing over ambiguous storylines and characters).
So. "Totally erroneous conclusions" or not--I pretty much subscribe to the idea that the body is a cadaver from the hospital, placed on the sidewalk by Molly, and I'm inclined agree with some other viewers that Holmes fell into a moving vehicle. I do think he actually fell a certain distance--it's possible it was a mannequin, but there wasn't anywhere on the hospital rooftop to store one, unless it was inflatable. O_o Besides, I don't think that would be very convincing. Most probably, there's some psychological factor involved--Watson was expecting to see what he thought was going to happen, so as long as he saw Sherlock falling, he didn't need to actually see Sherlock hit the pavement. In other words, I think it's the moment where Sherlock is halfway down that the substitution is made--Watson's mind fills in the blanks, and a few seconds later, there's a body on the ground.
Thoughts?
P. S. It was pretty awesome to hear Sherlock playing Bach's G minor Adagio while waiting for Moriarty.
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