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    The 9 Best Theories About How Sherlock Faked His Death

    It's not long now til we the mother of all cliffhangers is explained. Here is where we're up to so far.

    It's nearly two years since Sherlock Holmes made his infamous "Reichenbach fall" from the roof of St Bart's hospital. Backed into an impossible corner by arch nemesis Moriarty, the consulting detective was forced to commit suicide to call off the assassins hired to pick off all of his friends should he live. Except of course, Sherlock being Sherlock, it was all a big con, and he was revealed to be alive and creepily stalking his friends at his graveside.

    The development melted the internet at the time, and now the countdown to series three has finally begun, it's all kicking off again. We should remember that the trick for pulling these twists off is to show the audience just a little bit less than they think they're seeing. But in the age of Tumblr, nothing was ever going to be allowed to be that simple...

    THINGS WE CAN PROBABLY ASSUME TO BE TRUE.

    Molly will be involved in some way.

    Sherlock told John to stand in that specific position for a reason.

    The cyclist is going to be significant.

    As is the dumpster truck.

    PLAUSIBLE THEORIES ABOUT WHAT COULD BE GOING ON.

    1. The flappy arms and bendy legs theory.

    Tumblr user Say No To Status Quo points to the way Sherlock fell for the solution. Claiming science proves that landing on one's legs, and/or bending ones legs reduces the impact at collision, making it by no means impossible to survive such a fall from four storeys. Therefore by positioning his centre of gravity so as to not land on his head, Sherlock was maximising his chance of survival. Compelling, but such a precisionist as Sherlock leaving something to chance seems unlikely.

    2. The dumpster truck theory.

    3. The rubber ball theory.

    4. The hallucinogenic agent from The Hounds Of Baskerville theory.

    5. The slightly more plausible with regard to the cyclist theory.

    6. The faceswap from the sweet factory theory.

    7. The Mycroft theory.

    8. The little bit of everything theory.

    View this video on YouTube

    YouTube user SalingerThe puts together this really-quite-detailed video which folds everything together into something like a plausible hypothesis.

    9. The Sherlock-shaped robot powered by miniature people theory.

    And yet...

    Are we all getting a little overexcited about all of this? As Gatiss said at Comic Con, "There's only so many ways you can fall off a roof and survive. It's not black magic."

    The real trick is how to get through the aftermath, and it's going to be John who has the harder job to pull off in The Empty Hearse, in finding it in himself to forgive his former friend. In any case, with three new movies on the way we'll soon have forgotten all about that business on the roof.

    What else? "Molly and Sherlock are not going to happen in the way Tumblr thinks it will happen," added Sue Vertue.

    What's that you say, Sherlock and Molly are going to happen in some way then?