Sherlock's character development before and after 

The Reichenbach Fall

 (Sherlock Meta by Ivy Blossom)

Ivy Blossom: 

As someone who always thought Sherlock and Mycroft had engineered Moriarty’s escape from prison before the events of The Hounds of Baskerville, manipulated Moriarty into having a go at Sherlock in The Reichenbach Fall, and always thought Sherlock’s fake death was probably Mycroft’s idea to start with and assumed that’s what Mycroft was actually apologizing to John for in that episode, it’s very interesting to read all the “series two was retconned” metas.

I’m not trying to be all I told you so. I don’t think I did tell you, actually. It’s just that, yes, there is (and always was) a reading of series two that had Sherlock and Mycroft plan for what happened, making the snipers a little bit superfluous, but that doesn’t break series 2. You can see Sherlock questioning and testing for John’s probable reaction to it in the “Why do you care?” conversation in The Reichenbach Fall.

I’m not saying you have to like it, but they didn’t panic and invent that idea after series 2. It’s in series 2.

Cosmoglaut:

Yes, I was aware of these theories. But I didn’t get on board with them because I thought they conflicted with Sherlock’s character development. In THoB we get “I don’t have friends, I’ve got only one.” From there to the deliberate deception of Reichenbach does feel a bit retconned. Would you mind explaining how his character is consistent with his planning of Lazarus? I am saying Lazarus especially, because that one was completely centered around tricking John into believing the suicide. And that is very difficult to digest. What happened to the whole John being his moral compass?

I get that *starting from Reichenbach*, starting with this cold, manipulative Sherlock, the series 3 makes sense. But how do S1 and S2 still make sense?

I am going to re-watch and try to do that, but any input would be so much helpful!

Ivy Blossom:

Hmm, okay. Possibly we differ on our evaluation of the extent that character development in series 2. Sherlock acknowledges that John is his friend, but obviously his understanding of “friend” is not the same as John’s at that point. I hate to keep picking on one scene, but it’s emblematic. The “why do you care?” scene in The Reichenbach Fall demonstrates how far apart they are on that front. John is devoted to Sherlock, but Sherlock doesn’t really see that. He sees obsession, not affection. He can’t understand why people saying terrible things about Sherlock would bother John in the slightest. I don’t think we’d see the same conversation in series 3. Sherlock’s understanding of his relationship with John is very different now.

The whole world is turning on Sherlock in The Reichenbach Fall. That’s the price Moriarty exacted. They knew Moriarty was focused on destroying Sherlock, so they couldn’t have been surprised by that. I think Mycroft and Sherlock presumed John would also believe the press to some degree, and you can see Sherlock get upset about that. But it’s the price. I don’t think Sherlock’s fake death is designed only to fool John, but as his closest and most important witness, it’s important that John believe it. John set himself up as Sherlock’s chronicler, and everyone reads John’s blog. John sort of is the eyes of the world at that point.

Sherlock is absolutely lying to John on the roof at Barts, because he is not actually suicidal at that point, and he really isn’t a fake, but he says his lines, and John doesn’t do his part in believing them. Those tears on Sherlock’s face are real. That’s the bookend on Sherlock’s character development for series 2, I think. He wouldn’t have cried over John in series 1. I don’t think that deception was an easy thing for Sherlock to do, in the end.

But it worked! Only the fan club believes he might be still alive. And in his anonymity, officially dead, Moriarty stayed dead too, and he accomplished a lot while he was gone, as Anderson points out.

They didn’t give us a lot about the whys and wherefores of it all, really. Only the barest hint. But with Moriarty returning (or something LIKE Moriarty returning), we’re bound to get more information as we go along.

I understand the disappointment of it, though. The on-the-nose reading of The Reichenbach Fall is that Sherlock selflessly fakes his death to save his friends, and that’s not what happened. (Well, it kind of is what happened, when you think about it, because getting rid of Moriarty and those who are a clear and present threat to John and Mrs Hudson and Britain at large is a selfless act in a way, but not in the straight forward way that The Reichenbach Fall first appeared to be.)

To be honest, this is in part why I’m suspicious of Sherlock’s apparently selfless acts in series 3. While he has progressed a lot emotionally, I think any time Sherlock appears to be doing something out of love and selflessness for the happiness of others, we should stick our WTF antennae up. Because he’s probably got another reason that’s less obvious.