# Sherlock S3 Finale (Spoilers)



## teacup (Jan 14, 2014)

Warning, there will be spoilers:

So, what are everyone's thoughts on the finale?

(Bare in mind all of my Sherlock Holmes knowledge comes from this show and the RDJ movies. I've not read the books.)

I watched the episode with high hopes, after a lot of my friends  were saying how it was mind blowing and the best thing they've ever  seen, amazing, etc. In my opinion, the episode was good but in no way  amazing.

I have mixed feelings about Magnussen's death. On the one hand, it was interesting to see Sherlock utterly defeated (properly this time, rather than him being on top the whole time but faking it, like against Moriarty.) On the other hand, it was disappointing. I was waiting to see what Sherlock would do, and he just shot him. Like, anybody could have done that. I'm here to watch a detective with brilliant deductive skills. I wanted to see him find a way out, not just shoot.

On Moriarty's return? I liked how it was done. The theme song playing, then cutting out into static was great, I thought. However, I don't like that Moriarty is supposedly coming back. Here's why:

Okay, so if he faked his death, that means either Sherlock knew, or Sherlock for some reason didn't realise that he wasn't actually dead. Why would this man, with such great deductive skills, not notice that the man in front of him was actually alive? That's just contrived, and a case of Sherlock only deducing when the writers need him to. If he did know Moriarty was alive, then okay...but I personally don't like that. Moriarty's main goal was to just mess with Sherlock, so why would Moriarty pretend to die to everyone but Sherlock, and let Sherlock go on and destroy his criminal network? Unless he wasn't actually destroying it, but either way, I'm not too happy with that.

And if he is dead, then that means that the message was prerecorded. Now, who played it? Mycroft or Sherlock, to get Sherlock back out of exile, or Moriarty's brother (or sister, and if so, I'm betting it's Janine, Sherlock's "girlfriend.") And so, if it is prerecorded, then I'm going to be disappointed because I'm now awaiting Moriarty's return, and will only find out after a year or more of waiting that Moriarty is not returning. Or maybe Moriarty had this set to record before his death, and has a series of stuff to happen to mess with England 2 years after his death. (I don't know, terrorist attacks or criminal "mastermind" stuff.)

And no, Moriarty, I didn't miss you. I actually didn't feel the character was too well done in his run from S1-2, but I did enjoy him enough.



Well, that's my opinion, what about you?


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## Gryphos (Jan 14, 2014)

I liked Magnussen's death because in a way it showed just how defeated Sherlock was. Sherlock truly didn't know what to do in that situation and so had to resort to the most basic of things, shooting the bad guy.

With regards to Moriarty I have mixed feelings. On one hand I did really like Moriarty in S1&2, so part of me is looking forward to seeing him again. But on the other hand I have similar concerns to you. It's one thing for Sherlock to fake his death by fall, but to be able to fake having your brains blown out (in front of Sherlock) just seems impossible.

One possibility is that it isn't Moriarty at all, but someone pretending to be him (note how the message wasn't actually a video recording but a still image with distortion on the mouth and a helium voice). But then that just risks disappointment by some people looking forward to Moriarty again.

Basically, I'm kinda excited, but still slightly worried on how it's going to be pulled off.


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## teacup (Jan 14, 2014)

> One possibility is that it isn't Moriarty at all, but someone pretending  to be him (note how the message wasn't actually a video recording but a  still image with distortion on the mouth and a helium voice).


I had this reasoning too, until I watched after the credits. There's a very short clip of Moriarty saying "miss me?" not just a still image. So, if it's someone else as I've said above, I'm just going to be disappointed. 



> I liked Magnussen's death because in a way it showed just how defeated  Sherlock was. Sherlock truly didn't know what to do in that situation  and so had to resort to the most basic of things, shooting the bad guy.


I did like that about his death, it's just that my reaction was "Oh...Okay..." I don't really know what I'd have liked as an alternative. It's probably just me being picky


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## Ophiucha (Jan 14, 2014)

I have read the ACD books, and for that reason, I wasn't very keen on Magnussen's death. In the books, a woman he blackmails is the one to shoot him (in regards to the show, I suppose Mary Morstan would have been the best one for the job), and Sherlock and Watson basically hide the evidence and cover it up for her since he deserved it and they didn't feel bad about it. I think this would have been more interesting, given everything that happened with Mary in the finale, and it would have reinforced their relationships with one another if Sherlock and Watson had covered it up for her, you know?

As for Moriarty's return... I don't know, there isn't much to go on with it. We'll see how it is handled in S4. Moriarty is my favourite literary character... possibly of all time. But that said, I wasn't particularly keen on the BBC's version of the character. He lacked a certain cunning that I appreciate, even _Elementary_ made a far better Moriarty despite some serious twists to their character. As for how Sherlock didn't notice that Moriarty was alive, I do wonder if perhaps the man we've seen in the first two seasons truly _was_ an actor all alone. And that there is a real Moriarty out there (perhaps even a university Professor, as he was in the original books) who had filmed the whole 'missed me' bit ahead of time, years ago, and of course had the actor genuinely shoot himself in front of Sherlock. Just a thought, anyway. I hold out hope it's the case just so we can get a new actor playing the character and doing him a bit more justice.


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## teacup (Jan 15, 2014)

> As for  how Sherlock didn't notice that Moriarty was alive, I do wonder if  perhaps the man we've seen in the first two seasons truly _was_ an  actor all alone. And that there is a real Moriarty out there (perhaps  even a university Professor, as he was in the original books) who had  filmed the whole 'missed me' bit ahead of time, years ago, and of course  had the actor genuinely shoot himself in front of Sherlock. Just a  thought, anyway. I hold out hope it's the case just so we can get a new  actor playing the character and doing him a bit more justice.


This  would be one of my more preferable outcomes, but still, the audience is  now waiting for who they thinks is Moriarty. If someone else comes  along instead, it's just going to be annoying, I think. No matter which  way I twist this, I can't see this being good, in my opinion.


As I said before, I know only what I've seen of the RDJ movies and this show, but surely there are more "big villains" than just Moriarty in the ACD books? It seems like the writers are holding onto Moriarty as much as they possibly can.


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