Will the real Sherlock please stand up

My mind is prone to over-analyse. I would even go as far, as to say that there is something of a conspiracy theorist about me.  Just something.  Nothing hardcore.  This disposition, perhaps, has caused me to question whether Sherlock is actually Sherlock.  Bare with me here.  When I say Sherlock, I mean the Sherlock from the BBC series.  The Sherlock played, oh so beautifully by Benedict Cumberbatch. The fabulously mind-bending, screen-magnetising series of Sherlock written by  Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat and Stephen Thompson.  Moreover, when I wonder if Sherlock is the the real Sherlock, I refer to Sherlock post-Reichenbach Fall.  The Sherlock that returns from the dead.

Ive wondered about real and faux before.  I'm a part-time tweeter on Twitter and was saddened to discover that BC (Benedict Cumberbatch) was not a keen tweeter, indeed, he never plans to tweet.  The BC twitter accounts that I had stumbled across (ahem by actively searching for him) were faux BC's.  I questioned this fact on this very blog.  I asked whether any of the Twitter accounts that heralded his name belonged to Mr Cumberbatch and I wondered no more, when fans, wiser than I, indicated that the real BC had stood up but he definitely wasn't tweeting. 

Hey ho, I digress somewhat.  So the Sherlock that lit up British TV screens earlier this year was fabulous, as always but was he an imposter?  First of all, he jumped off a building.  We all saw it.  I cried, quite a lot, as I recall.  Then, I was more than a little relieved when I saw a Sherlock shaped fellow appear in the background, whilst John Watson grieved at Sherlock's grave-side.

Then, enter series three.  Sherlock and co are back. Various potential explanations are offered as to how Sherlock managed to jump off a building and survive.  One is offered by Sherlock himself but it isn't confirmed and appears purposefully fake.  Furthermore and, in my view, significantly, Sherlock alludes to playing the role of himself right at the end of The Empty Hearse.  He dons the Dear Stalker hat and states to John that it's time to be Sherlock Holmes. He then goes to face his public, the public that hitherto, he has indicated contempt towards, wearing a hat he previously disliked.  My conspiracy theory doesn't end there.  Oh no, brace yourself.  He shoots Charles Augustus Magnussen towards the end of His Last Vow.  Now, Sherlock IS a self-proclaimed sociopath.  His character struggles with human emotion but murder?  Cold-blooded murder?  Yes, it seemed he had no choice.  He did it for John and he did if for Mary (the shooter of Sherlock).  But Sherlock shot a man!  It's almost like the kind of thing that Moriarty would do. In fact, it's exactly like the kind of thing that Moriarty would do. 

So Im wondering, as you can probably tell, is Sherlock an imposter on Moriarty's payroll?  A pawn in a wider plan?  From a Moriarty viewpoint, it would be rather useful to have the world famous sociopath detective operating on the side of more demonic types rather than angels.  Rather useful indeed.

The last few moments of His Last Vow indicated that Moriarty is also not dead.  He, like Sherlock, faked his own death.  We see a fleeting glimpse of Moriarty at the end of His Last Vow, just like we see a fleeting glimpse of Sherlock at the end of The Reichenbach Fall.  Interesting parallels can be drawn here.  Maybe these parallels are just so the writers can subtlety demonstrate the similarities between the arch-nemesis's or maybe, just maybe, it is all part of Moriarty's grand plan.

Alternatively, maybe I need to get a life! Ha.  Nevertheless, it's food for thought.  Slightly geeky, moderately odd thought, granted but thought food none-the-less.

I'll leave it there.  Bye for now.....

xx