Moriarty question

[Ryanv252]

In the first episode of the 2nd season of Sherlock, when Moriarty is going to kill Sherlock, how did he know his phone was going to ring and distract him? Didn't he have a plan for Sherlock all along? How would that have worked if his phone didn't ring?

Also, IOU, is there any general understanding of what Moriarty meant by this or is it all just speculation?

Thanks! sorry if it's in the wrong section wasn't sure where to post it

[besleybean]

He didn't know it was going to ring. It was  a genuine distraction.

Just a bit longer for him to toy with Sherlock.

There are loads of complicated theories about IOU.

I just took it as literally meaning he was going to get Sherlock back, for hampering his criminal activities.

[Carol the Dabbler]

In the first episode of the 2nd season of Sherlock, when Moriarty is going to kill Sherlock, how ... would that have worked if his phone didn't ring?

 

Moriarty was threatening to kill Sherlock (and presumably John as well), and Sherlock was threatening to kill everyone (including Moriarty and presumably his snipers too).  But threats don't always work out as planned, so who knows?

 

 

Also, IOU, is there any general understanding of what Moriarty meant by this or is it all just speculation?

Thanks! sorry if it's in the wrong section wasn't sure where to post it

 

This is as good a place as any (though the Spoilers, Rumours, and Speculation forum would have been good too).  And everything besleybean said about IOU.

 

In any case, hello, Ryanv252 -- welcome to Sherlock Forum!    We hope you like it here!

 

 

[Julia Mae]

In the first episode of the 2nd season of Sherlock, when Moriarty is going to kill Sherlock, how did he know his phone was going to ring and distract him? Didn't he have a plan for Sherlock all along? How would that have worked if his phone didn't ring?

Also, IOU, is there any general understanding of what Moriarty meant by this or is it all just speculation?

Thanks! sorry if it's in the wrong section wasn't sure where to post it

 

The phone was a surprise.  If the phone didn't ring they would all have blown up. (Moriarty was always suicidal, he just had to make sure Sherlock died before or with him.)

 

IOU is speculation but what it seems to mean is "I owe you."  Just what it stands for.  The mystery is: why does Moriarty owe Sherlock a fall?  Something they will surely be explaining in future episodes.

 

[soopy452000]

Yup Moriarty was always suicidal but then it doesn't make sense. :S

[Alice Holmes]

I feel like the IOU this is still complicated because we don't know why he would owe Sherlock a fall. It wasn't like Sherlock really defeated him the last time, anyway. If it hadn't been for Moriarty's phone ringing, Sherlock would be dead. So really, he'd already won once. Why did he feel he needed to get him again? Maybe Did You Miss Me will help us...

 

...in about two years.

[Ruthyone]

Sherlock's always helped the police out for 'unusual ' cases before we first met him. Maybe some of the cases we haven't heard of (may be used in future flashbacks) could involve Moriarty before Sherlock knew about him, Sherlock thwarted Moriarty and that is the reason for 'IOU.'

[Carol the Dabbler]

He may even have been holding a grudge from when Sherlock tried to persuade the police that Carl Powers had been murdered.

 

[Arcadia]

Also, in "real" terms, Moriarity doesn't owe Sherlock anything, a fall or otherwise! He's crazy, isn't he? He doesn't need a valid reason.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Right, he doesn't need a reason that you or I would agree with.  But he does need a reason that makes sense to him.

 

[Ruthyone]

Moriarty's a little deranged,  so any tiny slight that Sherlock could have done would be huge to Moriarty - maybe even Sherlock not phoning him, after he gave him his number as 'Molly's boyfriend.'

 

[Arcadia]

Right, he doesn't need a reason that you or I would agree with.  But he does need a reason that makes sense to him.

That would be, er, "unreasoning" (aharharhar....)

[Alice Holmes]

...I just think he's nuts. Still though.

[Carol the Dabbler]

No argument.  But even crazy people have their own sort of logic, and it may be even more consistent than the usual kind.

 

[Meyers]

"There is a method to his madness"

 

Meyers

[Alice Holmes]

...Now let's all quote Shakespeare...

[Ruthyone]

.......'alas poor Yorick, I knew him well'   (even found a skull!! )

[Undead Medic]

Get thee to a nunnery!

 

[Arcadia]

O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!

[Ruthyone]

'A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse'

[Meyers]

 

 

"O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?"

 

 

 

Meyers

[Alice Holmes]

Okay, here goes. (I'm pretty sure it will be all wrong, but it's from memory, so hey.)

 

To be, or not to be, that is the question

Whether tis nobler in a mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them?

To die, to sleep, no more

And by that sleep we say to end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to

Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished

To die, to sleep

To sleep, perchance to dream

Aye, there's the rub

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come?

When we shuffle off this mortal coil must give us pause

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely

The insolence of office, the pangs of despised love

And the spurns

Which patient merit of the unworthy take

When he himself would his quietus make

With a bare bodkin, who would fardels bear

to grunt and sweat under that of a weary life

But that the dread of something after death

That undiscovered country from whose borne

No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear the ills we have

Than fly to others we know not of

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all

And the native hue of resolution is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of though

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action

 

[Arcadia]

I concede!

[Ruthyone]

This is one of my favourite speeches from 'Shylock' in 'The Merchant Of Venice' (I copied this!!!)

 

 

To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else,
it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and
hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my
bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine
enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath
not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you
teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
will better the instruction.

 

 

[Alice Holmes]

Oh I love that one! I loved that play. It was one of the first ones I read.