page_title: The Reichenbach Fall
section_title: Sources
hierarchical_section_title: The Reichenbach Fall / Sources
context_page_description: "The Reichenbach Fall" is the third and final episode of the second series of the BBC television series Sherlock. It was written by Stephen Thompson and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes, Martin Freeman as Dr John Watson, and Andrew Scott as Jim Moriarty. The episode deals with Moriarty's attempt to undermine the public's view of Sherlock and drive him to suicide. The episode was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC One HD on 15 January 2012. It attracted 9.78 million viewers, and critical reaction to the episode was positive. After the episode was aired, there was also much online and media speculation, which focused on Sherlock's death.
  Inspired by "The Final Problem" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the episode follows Moriarty's plot to discredit and kill Sherlock Holmes, also heavily using elements from the film The Woman in Green. The title alludes to the Reichenbach Falls, the location where Holmes and Moriarty supposedly fall to their deaths in the original story. Some sequences in the episode that are set at the Tower of London were filmed at Cardiff Castle.
context_section_description: The episode's climactic scene is based on the short story "The Final Problem", in which Holmes and Moriarty square off. Watson's leaving Holmes to attend to Mrs Hudson mirrors his return to the inn in the original story, in order to attend to a dying Englishwoman.
  The filming of the visit of Moriarty to Baker St pays tribute to William Gillette's 1899 play Sherlock Holmes and the 1945 film The Woman in Green. Moriarty's attempt to destroy Holmes's reputation and lead him to committing suicide by jumping from a building also has similarities to The Woman in Green.
caption: "The Great Fall of the Reichenbach, in the Valley of Hasle, Switzerland" (1804, watercolour on paper) by J.M.W. Turner
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