9 Most Fan-Pleasing Moments In Television
1. How The Hell Did He Get Out Of That, Then?
Sherlock’s second season climaxed with the apparent suicide of the main character, Benedict Cumberbatch’s abrasive genius Sherlock Holmes. As part of a monumentally silly plot by his nemesis Jim Moriarty, Sherlock would be forced to kill himself to prevent the deaths of his friends, by jumping from the roof of a building. To seal the trap, and prevent himself being used as leverage for Sherlock to escape it, Moriarty actually shot himself in the head.
Viewers saw Sherlock fall, saw his heterosexual life partner John Watson rush to his side, saw him pronounced dead at the scene, witnessed his funeral and sat through John’s agonised, distraught one-way conversation with Sherlock at his graveside… only to see, just before the credits rolled, Sherlock himself witness the same conversation as he spies on John from a distance, completely and utterly alive and unhurt.
It was two years before season three would hit the BBC television screens, and the Internet went a little peculiar in the downtime between season two’s finale and season three’s premiere. Sherlock fans had one topic of conversation: how did Sherlock survive? Theories ran rampant, ranging from the scientifically plausible and logically constructed to the utterly ridiculous and facile.
Upon Sherlock’s return, we never quite received a definitive answer as to how it was done… at least, not one that satisfied the fanbase. Instead, show-runner and writer Steven Moffat would incorporate a few of the most popular fan theories into the episode, rewriting the character of Anderson, the forensic scientist, as one of many iterations of Sherlock fandom within the show itself, the creator of a fanclub-within-the-show called The Empty Hearse, which doubled as the title of the episode.
Fans weren’t particularly amused by Moffat’s irreverent mockery of their fevered speculation. The funniest version of Sherlock’s survival had the whole thing restaged as an implausible practical joke on Watson by both Sherlock and Moriarty, followed by a passionate kiss between the archenemies: a tongue-in-cheek reference to the thousands of Sherlock slash fiction stories that had been written about the two since season two had ended.
Funnily enough, the climax of season three seemed to suggest that Moriarty himself had returned, presumably having faked his own suicide on the rooftop. Given the likely three year gap between season three and season four, fans will have even longer to heatedly speculate on just how that came about, and whether Moffat will take the mickey out of them come the season four premiere, too…
What’s your favourite moment of fan service on television? Tell us all about it in the comments!