'Sherlock-The Reichenbach Fall' Theory

Part 3-Fairy Tales, and Pretty Grimm Ones Too

In the last section, I explained how I think Sherlock managed to survive jumping off the roof.  However, Sherlock never would have been able to fake his death if he hadn't known what was coming.  There's one major, recurring theme that keeps popping up throughout the entire episode, a theme that may have been the key to how Sherlock knew he would have to jump:  fairy tales.

Although it's only mentioned on the rooftop scene once, fairy tales are one of the first things Moriarty mentions when he's at 221b.  "Every fairy tale needs a good old-fashioned villain" are his exact words. Now, think about the fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.  In that story, the evil queen tries to kill Snow White twice.  The first time, she tries to get the Huntsman to cut out her heart.  At the end of 'The Great Game', Moriarty says that he will "burn the heart" out of Sherlock.  The second time she tries to kill Snow White, she uses a poisoned apple.  When Moriarty is at Baker Street, he carves Sherlock a message in an apple:  IOU.

This message, IOU, is brought up many times over the course of the episode.  The first, as I have already mentioned, is the apple.  The second is when Sherlock is in the hospital, he mutters "IOU" while looking at a microscope.  The third time is again in the hospital.  Sherlock looks over at three adjacent windows, which have the letters I, O, and U written on them.  The fourth time is when Sherlock and John are running from the police.  Graffiti on a nearby wall depicts a heart with raven wings.  Inside the heart are the letters I, O, and U.  The fifth time involves this same example of graffiti, when John grabs a taxi after he realizes Mrs. Hudson is okay, right before Sherlock does the deed and jumps.  Moriarty seems to keep that hanging over Sherlock's head, but why?

Think back to the second time we hear IOU, when Sherlock is looking at his microscope (the theory is about to get bizzare, so hang in there).  He seems deep in thought about the kidnapper, but what if another thought passed his mind?  He's in a lab, analyzing chemicals.  If you look at the periodic table, you'll notice that the chemical symbol for iodine is I, the symbol for oxygen is O, and the symbol for uranium is U.  What do theses have in common?  Absolutely nothing, except for one thing:  they all give an important clue.

Look back at the periodic table.  Iodine's atomic number is 53, oxygen's atomic number is 8, and uranium's atomic number is 92.  This would seem insignifigant, but think back to the fairy tales.  Moriarty left a copy of Grimm's Fairy tales at the boarding school where the children were kidnapped.  In that book, every fairy tale has a number.  Snow White is number 53, The Strange Musician is number 8, and The King of the Golden Mountain is number 92.

 Just in case you're not familiar with these stories, I'll summarize them for you.  Snow White is about a girl that an evil queen wants to kill because the girl is 'fairest of them all'.  The Strange Musician is about a violinist looking for a companion.  The violinist attracts three animals with his music and outwits them all, leaving the animals wishing for revenge (aka, the violinist's death).  One of these animals is a fox.  The King of the Golden Mountain is about a boy who become a king by completing different challenges and killing his competitors.  In this story, there's also an evil queen.  Notice the ties between these stories, Sherlock, and Moriarty?

To go into more meticulous detail, let's first look deeper at Snow White.  In the fairy tale, the evil queen makes Snow White sleep forever is with a poisoned apple.  Moriarty carved 'IOU' into an apple.  There are also three bullets, three gunmen, and three victims that Moriarty threatens Sherlock with.  In Snow White, there are three drops of blood on the snow and three birds crying at Snow White's coffin.  The number three also applies to the other stories:  Three animals that the violinist outsmarts, three nights of torture for the future king.  Several lines in the stories sound like Moriarty (for example, "Snow White shall die," she cried, "even if it costs me my life!"  Moriarty shot himself, remember, so that Sherlock would jump).

As I mentioned before, in The Strange Musician, one of the animals is a fox.  When Moriarty meets Sherlock at Baker Street, he is wearing a fox tie pin (pictured on the side).  It could be a coincidence, but Moriarty doesn't seem like the type for coincidences.

There's a link between Moriarty and The King of the Golden Mountain as well.  Notice that Moriarty poses as a king in the Tower of London.  He also says, "The man with the key is king."  In addition, he gives Sherlock challenges to complete.  Moriarty is behind all of Sherlock's cases, with the exception of the Hounds of Baskerville, and even gives him challenges in person, such as the IOU riddle itself.

This part of the theory may sound completey far-fetched, and it probably is.  However, in A Scandal in Belgravia (Season 2, Episode1), the Coventry bombing in WWII is mentioned.  The Allies cracked the code, but rather than reveal the source of their information, they let it happen.  Sherlock could definitely be employing this same strategy.