Jim Moriarty

Thanks for the welcome.

To answer the OP, Moriarty's network would've killed Sherlock & Friends if he hadn't have commuted suicide. The network wasn't fully dissembled for 2 years, hence his return.

Wow, the ending of Series 3 is one of my all time favourite cliffhangers. The moment the TV screens came on and showed the back of a man's head I just knew it was Moriarty. My heart started beating rapidly and I just got so excited. Since Moriarty killed himself in Series 2 I hoped he would return, that killing himself was a fake and all part of his master plan. But my hopes were extinguished by various interviews with Gatiss, Moffat and Andrew Scott, who all conclusively ruled out his return. I believed them because people rarely point blank lie about TV shows, and this made the reveal incredibly shocking. For 5 minutes after the cliffhanger I was incredibly excited that Moriarty was returning, but then I began to wonder. We only saw a GIF. The after credits scene doesn't necessarily have to be canon. And the more I thought about it the more I realised Moriarty maybe isn't back. I will be incredibly annoyed if Moffat and Gatiss are screwing with the fans UNLESS there is a very satisfying alternative solution to the cliffhanger. I have considered various possible solutions: Solution 1: Moriarty Faked his own Death A Tesselecta owed Moriarty a favour. JUST KIDDING. The first time I saw his death scene I thought that it was perfectly possible that he faked his own death with a fake gun and fake blood. We were never shown a hole in his head. We never learned what happed to his body, except that it WASN'T found by the authorities because Lestrade didn't use that fact to challenge the theory that Sherlock used Moriarty's body to throw off the roof. I would be satisfied with this solution because I don't really care if they stray from the books and Moriarty is such a great arch-nemesis for sherlock. Solution 2: Trick by Mycroft and Sherlock Mycroft and Sherlock could have done it to avoid his banishment. But this would be incredibly predictable and BORING. Solution 3: Moriarty Planned this before he Died I think that this would be an interesting route to go down. Moriarty planned for the possibility of Sherlock surviving and planned a "Game" that would take place after his death. It could involve lots of pre-recorded messages from Moriarty which would allow us to see more new Moriarty scenes without him actually surviving. Solution 4: It's a Trap for Sherlock from another Villain Possibly a new villain, the remains of the Moriarty network, a Moriarty fan or Moriarty's brother (twin perhaps?) Solution 5: Moriarty is Richard Brook I think that this would be a very interesting solution. Moriarty really is a character played by Richard Brook. Richard Brook plays an avatar of the real Moriarty, who has remained unseen throughout the series. Remember in the Series 1 finale, Moriarty used random victims as avatars to communicate through, and he didn't want anyone to know any details about him, even going as far as to kill the old woman when she started describing his voice to sherlock. He's doing thd same thing here on a much more elaborate scale. And Why go through all that trouble to keep your voice unknown if you we're going to reveal yourself to Sherlock and become so public in Series 2. Maybe Richard Brook WAS scared when Sherlock broke into his house and all the actor stuff was true. He is paid to be Moriarty's avatar, the acting job of his career. The true Moriarty is still out there, using a GIF of his avatar to let the world know he's back. Maybe the timing of his return wasn't a coincidence. Maybe CAM knew that Richard Brook was real or Moriarty's true identity and CAM's death allowed Moriarty to rise from the shadows. Feel free to Post your theories on how you think the cliffhanger will be resolved.