"The Empty Hearse"

Broadcast in the U.S. on PBS's Masterpiece Theater January 19, 2014
w. Mark Gatiss    d. Jeremy Lovering
The Internet Movie Database has a Complete List of Cast and Crew
Originally Broadcast on BBC One January 1, 2014.
Sherlock appears alive a few days before November 5 and according to The Personal Blog of Dr. John H. Watson, the year would be 2012.
PBS broadcast almost uncut - merely edited for language (after the bomb doesn't explode, John does call Sherlock a name and that was edited out, see below).
American audiences
  • May not know that Derran Brown (who in the first rendition of "How Sherlock Fakes His Death hypnotizes John for a couple of minutes) is "a British illusionist, mentalist, trickster, hypnotist, painter, writer, and sceptic".
  • May not easily recall the significance of November 5th, Guy Fawkes Night, when the British light bonfires to remember a famous attempt to blow up Parliament in 1605 (the Gunpowder Plot) although the bonfire in this story seems to have been the night before.
Newsday says the episode is "Easily the best hour and 27 minutes of television I've seen since Sept. 29, when 'Breaking Bad' ended."
At least one word was cut from the PBS Broadcast (in color below): 
    Facing death and Sherlock's plea for forgiveness, John swallows hard and says, "You were the best and the wisest man that I have ever known.Yes, of course I forgive you."
    The scene changes and later comes back and we see John preparing to meet his doom but nothing happens except Sherlock starts laughing. John looks around and sees that the clock on the bomb hasn't moved, Sherlock says, "Oh, your face!"
    "You..."
    "Your face."
    "...utter... You...
    "I totally had you."
    "You cock! I knew it! I knew it! You..."
    "Oh, those things you said – such sweet things! I-I never knew you cared."
    "I will kill you if you ever breathe a word of this..."
    "Scout’s honour."
    "...to anyone. You knew! You knew how to turn it off!"
    "There’s an off switch."
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A Remarkable Document. He Caught Everything I Caught & Much More
From Wired Magazine: All the Shout-Outs and References You Missed in the Sherlock Premiere January 20, 2014, by Alan Sizzler Kistler (@SizzlerKistler) - a writer/actor and the author of "Doctor Who: A History".
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Also see Buddy2Blogger: Canonical References for "The Empty Hearse
Also see the following for Additional References: Valerie Estelle Frankel's Pop Culture Blog: Canon References and Symbolism in The Empty Hearse
This never happened (shown in 301 "The Empty Hearse" as an Anderson explanation).

Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Molly Hooper (Louise Brealey)

Part 1 of several parts (See the other parts,) - Only possible explanation offered.
Anderson imagines Sherlock telling him this airbag solution. That doesn't mean Anderson couldn't finally come up with the correct solution as he has been thinking of it for two years. The fact that Sherlock isn't really there is indicated by this Sherlock telling it to Anderson since here is no reason why he should, and he calls Anderson by his first name which there is no reason for him to ever bother knowing. Anderson is also feeling that Sherlock knows (and he probably does) that Anderson did the Jack the Ripper scene. For proof, the director can be seen on the first video on this linked page saying that the airbag solution is the real one. See Moffat agreeing below the video.

Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch), Moriarty (Andrew Scott), John Watson (Martin Freeman)
See the other parts,
Confirmation from Moffat that the airbag solution is how Sherlock really survivd the Fall?
This story from Voices of the Chicago Sun-Times says they asked this directly:
Did Sherlock survive the fall the way he described it at the end of the episode, with an inflatable air mattress, a highly efficient homeless network and a doppelganger corpse chucked out the window by Molly Hooper?
“That was our explanation of it,” Moffat said. He and co-creator Mark Gatiss... had laid out the logistics for Sherlock’s survival strategy in the season two finale, “The Reichenbach Fall.” He said they changed “a couple of details” after that cliffhanger, but the basic solution remained the same, right down to the squash ball Sherlock was playing with in the finale — the same squash ball he would use to temporarily cut off his pulse in order to make Watson believe he was dead. (If you’re wondering if squeezing a squash ball under the armpit really does stop a pulse, it does, according to an enterprising British couple who tried it in this YouTube video.)" ---see video below---
Sherlock squash ball test


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