Tuesday 17 January 2012

Sherlock Sunday *Spoiler Alert*

At the moment I am suffering from complete demotivation at work. This morning I arrived at 9:00 but instead of going straight to the office I had a hobbit-like second breakfast of a seeded bagel and Nutella - which is the closest I can easily get to a sugary doughnut in the mornings. Now it's >11:00 and I've perused facebook, twitter, congratulated my friends Gemma and Kieron on the birth of their super-cute baby girl (Elise Grace in case you were wondering), found a naughty calendar of Disney ladies and begun writing a blog. I've also sat here for a good few minutes thinking about that Sherlock episode from Sunday.

I knew he wouldn't be dead after reading the original story a few months back (and the BBC know a cash-cow when they see one) but I can't figure out how he survived it. In the story (novella? article? thing?), and in the recent blockbuster movie A Game of Shadows, Moriarty and Holmes appear to have fallen to their doom down a raging waterfall, indeed in the stories Moriarty does never appear again, but Sherlock was resurrected by Conan Doyle for more adventures. It's more easy to believe he survived in this case because they fell into water, but on the BBC he fell onto a pavement. Solid, non-cushioning pavement. And people saw him fall.

As an aside I read this morning in the QI book I have on my kindle that cats survive any fall from higher than seven storeys as they reach a non-terminal velocity of 60 mph and manage to, I think the quote was, "parachute to earth like a squirrel". I've never seen a squirrel parachute, but hey ho. Going by this fact it would seem my gerbil Sherlock could probably have survived it but I doubt BBC's non-rodent Sherlock parachuted anywhere and I think Watson would probably have noticed him gliding down to earth like a floaty-light Quaver (although Watson was pushed over by a bicycle and seemed a bit concussed).

Those I was watching with on Sunday quite rightly pointed out that the hospital staff wheeled the supposedly-deceased Holmes away rather quickly after the fall, suggesting he was showing vital signs. If he wasn't then it would have been a crime-scene and the area preserved for the police surely..?

So, I suppose I figure he wasn't dead after the fall, he escaped the hospital and somebody (Molly?) swapped in another cadaver in place of Holmes' to be buried and provide Watson with a headstone to which he could pour out his heart and bring a tear to my eye.

This all makes sense although I can't help having a fanciful thought that the man who knocked John off the bike was actually Sherlock and it will all work out as some David Blaine/Copperfield style magic trick. Please do comment if you have any other ideas about how you think it could be explained.

I guess I'll find out Christmas 2012 when the series returns but for now I'm eagerly anticipating a Sunday session of Birdsong with the beautiful Clemence Poesy (Harry Potter, Gossip Girl) and unusual-looking-but-rather-attractive Eddie Redmayne (The Other Boleyn Girl, My Week with Marilyn). It's based on a book I haven't read but it looks positively dramatic and I am looking forward to it.