First thing you see is sad John's face. Yeah, thanks, make me all sad again. My god, this episode!

Tiepin-giving boy is so adorable!

I don't get why John is pointing out to Sherlock that Lestrade just used sarcasm. As a user of sarcasm himself, Sherlock would be able to recognize it, no?

Ah, it's a pleasure watching Jim enjoy the music. I like how his head moves from side to side.
How come that everyone's busy with tea and food at 11am? Is there a custom I'm not aware of?
Where did Jim get that fur from??

God, I can't stand the bathroom scene, I have such a dislike for Kitty. But she annoys me much less in the scene with 'Rich'.

"I pulled a gun, he tried to blow me up. I felt we had a special something." I just love this and Sherlock's look to Jim and the face Jim makes there. XD

The tea! I love how there's a lot of focus on the tea.
"You want me to tell you what you already know?" - "No, I want you to prove that you know it." hehe, that's so very professor-like, isn't it?
"I could blow up NATO in alphabetical order." WHY DO I FIND THAT SEXY?!? What's wrong with you, brain? ...I'll just say it appeals to my orderliness.

That's supposed to be a posh boarding school? Doesn't look very comfortable.

"For the sake of law and order, I suggest you avoid all future attempts at a relationship, Molly." That confused me at first. Sherlock just talked about Moriarty, so I thought that makes it sound like Molly's lunchdate was Jim. I guess Sherlock meant it in general, because she seems to be a bit unlucky with her boyfriends. Although, judging from just this one is a bit unfair. Also, I'm still disappointed that we didn't get to find out how Molly reacted to finding out that her sort-of boyfriend is a criminal.

Sherlock seems honestly confused when Molly says "I don't count".

Seriously, this show is so great. When Sherlock goes into map mode, the ceiling lights in the office go out. Then the map flickers out and the lights flicker back on.
But the thing with the rhododendron was weird. Would it really be the only vegetation in the vicinity?

Claudette screams when she sees Sherlock and I still think that the kidnapper was dressd up as Sherlock. I've read the theory that it was the mercury poisoning that caused lability, so she screamed. But the problems with many theories is that they're incomplete. I mean, Moriarty can't just predict that the girl would scream at the sight of Sherlock! She could have screamed at someone else instead. Or laughed!
I still think the mercury poisoning played a role in this, though. The kidnapper must have looked like Sherlock, but I doubt he had a mask - he wouldn't need one. Mercury poisoning also causes vision and hearing impairment. That's how I think the girl 'recognized' Sherlock.

Moriarty made you a gingerbread man, but he burnted it. Or maybe he's saying he knows you're a secret ginger. I can't wait to get back to iconmaking!

I wish I had paid a bit more attention before. When they talked about Richard Brook as Richyes, that's how Moriarty got the information. Mycroft has to be in on the whole thing, something is going on there! This is the part where we can't guess anything from clues. This lack of clues annoys me, I just need to know what's going on! Oh god, a year and a half of waiting until we know DX. Hey, maybe what Mycroft has to do with it is that he really did give Moriarty all that information, because he knew where that would lead. But no idea if the destination was just ruining Sherlock's reputation (meaning Sherlock could then work on destroying Moriarty's web without getting stalked by the press) or if it always led to Sherlock having to play dead (so Sherlock can destroy Moriarty's web in an even sneakierer way). Sounds a bit mean towards Sherlock, but maybe that's for fucking up Mycroft's shiny Everybody Lives! plan (That just seriously lacked consequences, didn't it?!).
Hm... I wonder if Jim let himself get caught, so he could get info on Sherlock. God, the back and forth of this game!

Aaaand here we have the ball! All I saw in that scene was "Aw, now Sherlock reminds me of Supernatural". But there's the theory about the ball having an important role in Sherlock playing dead. You can stick it under your arm and it slows your pulse in that wrist. I'd totally try that, but I wouldn't feel any difference since I usually fail to find my pulse anyway. Oh... maybe I'm undead. So Sherlock either had the ball already taped or something under his arm when he was on the roof or he only put it there when he was on the ground. I don't know which one of these I like better. I'm more of a fan of the rhododendron theory. Although maybe the ball was used too, just to be on the safe side.

I'm still wondering what Sherlock's talking about in his text to Moriarty: "Got something of yours you might want back". Could it be the key? But that would be weird, it's more of a copy in Sherlock's head than something physical that there's only one thing of. How is Sherlock supposed give back knowledge?! So what else could it be?

"Friends protect people" says John. Sherlock knows this, he does this. I'm getting feelings again. And that's one of the many reason's why this show is so great.

At first I didn't really understand Jim, but I think I do now. Staying alive isn't just the problem he has with Sherlock, he also has it with himself. Now it makes more sense to me that he would kill himself. Playing with Sherlock was his best weapon against boredom, but games end. Jim thinks he has managed to beat Sherlock and it makes me so sad to see now how unhappy Jim is that it was so easy in the end. I didn't really take it seriously at first. But people need challenges and for Jim boredom must be just as dangerous as it is for Sherlock.

So it's morning. I wonder of what day. The day the article comes out, I guess. That's some really nice timing, I like it!

"Your friends will die if you don't." I don't know what it is that makes me think that, but there's something beautiful about that sentence. Also, the list of Sherlock's friends. Yay, Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade count. But I'm a bit sad that Mycroft's not on the list. I hope one day the brothers will get along. Pretty please?

You know, I find it a bit risky to choose the spot to go splat so near a bus stop.
Oh god, that moment where Sherlock starts laughing and the music gets lighter. You could forget what you've seen at the beginning of the episode and think there'll be no sad ending. Evil moment of false hope!

Moriarty is such a scene stealer that I forget to mention my appreciation of Sherlock's sung if I've got you in my first review.

I didn't get why Jim seemed so happy when he thought Sherlock is like him. I also didn't understand why he would kill himself just to force Sherlock to jump. Then I read a comment from rachelindeed (which I liked so much that I saved it). Here's a shortened version:

in the long-term, Jim's looking for someone to give him an excuse to die in a way that he finds exciting or satisfying. He's hoping Sherlock will be that person. He thinks destroying him will be fun.

I think Sherlock got it right when he told John that what Moriarty really wanted was "to be distracted" from his own apathy -- he's not excited by money or power or relationships; the criminal empire he's built doesn't hold his interest. He throws large strands of it away just to get Sherlock's attention in The Great Game. He seems to hardly care about it. Instead, he's excited by the thought that there might be someone out there like himself, another "proper genius" that he can take apart piece by piece. "I'm gonna kill you eventually," he says, "I don't want to rush it, though." Because once he's done burning Sherlock, where is he going to find another project worth his time?

In the end he seems to have been truly happy at the thought that Sherlock was a mirror image of himself. And he set up their death scenario in such a way as to make the two of them a literal pair: he was "Reichenbach" (Richard Brook) and Sherlock was the "Fall," and I think in his best case scenario they would go down together. They would both play their best game and they would reach a stalemate - he would force Sherlock into a position where he had to choose to die, and Sherlock would do the same to him. He seemed genuinely disappointed when Sherlock initially seemed not to be capable of putting Jim into that position, and utterly delighted when Sherlock partially turned the tables and made it necessary for Jim to kill himself in order to win: "So long as I'm alive, you can save them. You've got a way out. Well good luck with that." It was the perfect excuse to turn his own death into a victory over Sherlock, and that's exactly what he wanted; I think he wanted that more than he wanted to live.

This is pretty awesome, now it makes sense. So much that I'd be a little sad if Jim's death turned out to be faked too. But still, I want to mention how he could have faked it: That sound wasn't from the gun and he didn't shoot, because as far as I know even firing blanks can kill you. Jim had a blood pack taped to his head, hidden under a hair piece.

We see the assassins for John, Mrs. Hudson & Lestrade and holy shit, how long have they been following their targets?! Lestrade's assassin sits at a desk in the office! Mrs. Hudson's is the repair guy we've seen there a day or so before!

So, John arrives and Sherlock directs him behind that low building which lets John see Sherlock's jump, but not the ground. You could of course argue (had Sherlock really killed himself) that it was so John wouldn't have to look up at a neck-hurting angle.

And here's the last time we see Jim. It would have been in the papers if his body had been found on the roof from which Sherlock jumped. It would have been in the papers no matter where his body turned up. So either at this point it wasn't important enough for the story (of this episode, I mean) to be shown or Jim wasn't found because he was used as substitute corpse for Sherlock. Which reminds me of something I read: that this cemetery got in the news some time ago because not all the people in the graves were the people whose names were on the gravestones.

John starts to walk and we know why Sherlock stops him. But I don't know why he tells John "keep your eyes fixed on me". It just... god, the idea of having to watch your best friend jump off a roof. The thought of just being there or it happening at all is bad enough. Oh, now I started crying. I wondered when then would happen. God, this episode! I need to get myself a John plushie, so I can hug him. Um, where was I? Yeah, so looking at Sherlock - was it because walking/running is more difficult when you look up? Also, could Sherlock have chosen that spot for John, because he guessed where his assassin would be? Did Sherlock also make sure that the assassin didn't get a view of the ground? But there should have been someone (or maybe more than one) to tell the assassins if Sherlock jumped. What, could Sherlock also have guessed where they would be? By the way, I think by this time Sherlock's blood is already on the pavement.

Then Sherlock jumps and John, instead of running towards him, watches. I wonder what he hears. Could the building between him and Sherlock shield the impact noise? And was there really a dummy? I doubt they did anything with Moriarty. If he became a stand-in, then it was later. *snort* I'm so insecure that I check words all the time and I just checked "stand-in" and there's a German word that means jumper, haha (but actually it's in a job context). Aaaanyway, no Jim. But maybe a dummy. Obviously not during falling, though. John saw Sherlock all the time, there couldn't have been a switch and we see the falling body moving. Also not a dummy on the ground, that is definitely Sherlock, nothing and no one else. But maybe there was a dummy in between? Dropped (from not very high, because John wasn't supposed to see it) to mask the sound of Sherlock's soft landing and to have a proper sound of something heavy hitting something hard.

Then there's the guy on the bike. I doubt that Sherlock whipped up some Baskerville gas and had this guy deliver it to John. Sure, there wouldn't be much to fake if John hallucinates what he expects to see - so much less effort, yay! But then only John would see it, not his assassins and the guy(s) who's there to see if Sherlock really killed himself. Also, John knows what it's like to be on that gas and I think he would find it suspicious. I think we all agree that the cyclist was there to slow John down. If there was a dummy, the cyclist bought them some time to get the dummy on the truck (where Sherlock either landed or with it his soft landing place was hidden from view and then transported away), Sherlock on the ground (lying at a suspiciously different angle to the building than he had fallen) and the blood on his face. No idea if all of the people around him are helpers (Homeless network, Mycroft's people or both?), but at least the ones closest should be. Of course it would be best to keep every outsider away - which would need Mycroft. It feels a bit like everyone except John knows and that makes me sad.

Sherlock was crying during his phonecall note and there are theories about that. Personally I'd love it if some of the crying was real, but it could just (or part of it) be a symptom of rhododendron poisoning. I read that it can be a sympton, but it's not on Wikipedia. Related wet symptons are salivation and sweating and - which would be unfortunate - vomiting. Dizziness is also not the best when you're standing on a rooftop (I'm sure that, if Sherlock took the stuff, he would have done so on the roof already or even earlier, although that seems like a dangerous idea) and trying to land on a specific spot. But! A useful symptom is a lowered heartrate, which helps you play dead. This lowered heartrate can lead to fainting, which would also be helpful in pretending to be dead or at least unconscious - in the latter case you wouldn't even have to pretend! I wonder if Sherlock even really needed a ball or some poison, if he really needed to pretend to be dead with more than just not reacting. Did John even have enough time to find a pulse? Okay, maybe he did, he's a doctor after all. Well, we can say that, just in case that John got too close, something was used to slow Sherlock's heart.
I like the rhododendron poisoning theory because it could be fatal, although that's admittedly unlikely. Despite the potential cardiac problems the condition is rarely fatal and generally lasts less than a day. Medical intervention is not often needed but sometimes atropine therapy, vasopressors and other agents are used to mitigate symptoms. I just like the idea of Sherlock's life really being in danger and that he'd need medical help.

I keep wondering why Sherlock did it the way he did. Why with eyes open? Is it easier to stare (But what if it rains? What if someone's hair gets in your eye?) than to keep your eyes closed? Sometimes when I close my eyes but they don't want to stay that way, I have trouble not blinking. Can you be unconscious with your eyes open? I suspect the answer is no. Why pretend to be dead on the spot? I can see several reasons in favor of going with unconscious, but maybe it was too risky and being dead immediately was better for his friends (Could Sherlock have foreseen that Moriarty would threaten them like this?). And maybe the shock of seeing dead Sherlock would keep John away, while not-dead-yet Sherlock would have put John into doctor mode?

Okay, that's it. I hope I didn't forget anything. So many thoughts! It's so easy to forget something.

Oh wait, one last thing: I find it amusing how this episode reminds me of Doctor Who's season 6 finale. Now the main character pretends to be dead and has to keep on doing his stuff in secret. The funny thing is of course that when I watched that Doctor Who episode, I thought of Sherlock. At that time we already knew that a The Final Problem adaptation would be in season 2. The stuff that the Grand Moff can get away with, haha!