* DracoInLeatherPants: Averted with fanfics about Kitty Reilly getting a new chance, as most writers enjoy letting her feel colossal amounts of guilt in the beginning.
* GeniusBonus: The StandardSnippet to which Moriarty commits the heist of the century? The Overture to Rossini's ''La Gazza Ladra'', or '' The Thieving Magpie''. Doubles as a ShoutOut to ''Film/AClockworkOrange''.
* HarsherInHindsight:
** John's quote "The press will turn, Sherlock. They always turn, and they'll turn on you" echoed eerily in the minds of some fans when they read [[https://web.archive.org/web/20120814025142/http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/4486222/Ben-Ill-posh-off.html some]] [[http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/s183/downton-abbey/news/a399632/benedict-cumberbatch-series-two-of-downton-was-fking-atrocious.html articles]] written about Creator/BenedictCumberbatch, which used quotes that were no doubt taken completely out of context and twisted around. The media is definitely taking advantage of this self-proclaimed [[http://tvline.com/2012/06/14/sherlock-season-3-benedict-cumberbatch/ "PR disaster"]].
** One of John's last lines to Sherlock becomes this when you puzzle out who, exactly, is protecting whom.
--->'''Sherlock:''' Alone protects me.\\
'''John:''' No. Friends protect people.
* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Creator/MartinFreeman deserved that BAFTA for series one and there's no doubt about it, and we've always known he could act, but this is a whole different ballgame. Whatever remaining critics of his are out there, they've been silenced.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** The whole "Moriarty is an actor" scheme, since the release of ''Film/IronMan3'' and the backlash over Creator/BenKingsley's Mandarin being an actor.
** Moriarty's scheme involves stealing the crown jewels of England and posing with them for the police, and he later mockingly calls himself a King in a conversation with Sherlock (''"In a world of locked rooms, a man with a key is King. And honey, you should see me in a crown…"''). Creator/AndrewScott and Creator/BenedictCumberbatch ''both'' played historical Kings in Season 2 of ''Series/TheHollowCrown'': Louis XI of France and Richard III of England, respectively.
** Sherlock is being investigated by a reporter from ''The Sun'' and finds a recording device planted in 221B at a point in the show's timeline (June 2012) that is four months after five Sun reporters and editors were arrested on hacking and bribery charges. Considering that particular episode was written and filmed several months before the ''News of the World'' scandal broke, it becomes either HarsherInHindsight and/or doubly hilarious.
** Sherlock's line "Oh I may be on the side of angels, but don't think for one second that I'm one of them." Creator/BenedictCumberbatch went on to play the Angel Islington on Creator/TheBBC radio drama of ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}''.
* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: Sherlock is quickly revealed at the end of this episode to not have died, but to have somehow faked his suicide.
* MemeticMutation:
** There is a short scene in which Donovan rushes into Lestrade's office to tell him that there's been a break-in. Lestrade, who has his feet up on the desk and is eating a doughnut, simply replies "Not our division." The fandom went nuts with the line.
** "[[Film/TheDarkKnight I believe in Sherlock Holmes]]" and "[[http://earlfoolish.tumblr.com/post/15969467726 Moriarty was real]]".
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: ''Kitty Riley'' of all people is getting this, as more fans are slowly becoming sympathetic to her after they learned how Moriarty had used her.
* ShockingMoments: The ending. Even when you know it's coming. ''Especially'' when you know it's coming. John saw Sherlock fall. He touched his body. How on ''earth'' do they come back from that? It helps attempting to fake a death when you have a forensic pathologist who does nearly anything for you.
* SignatureScene: Sherlock's "death", naturally, becomes a well known scene in deed.
* SpecialEffectFailure: In a scene while Sherlock is in the foreground in the police station, the room around him goes dark to increase the contrast of the graphic effects playing out showing Sherlock's thought processes while dissecting a clue. When he's finished ''(twice!)'', the graphics go away and the room lights up again. But rather than having darkened the scene in post-production, they had literally turned the lights off in the room, so when they come on again, a dozen ceiling florescent bulbs flicker madly to life.
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