Post Your Moriarty Theories (Spoilers)

[T.o.b.y]

Well, thank god the "cliffhanger" this time is so benign. It's a nice little riddle, not a heart-wrenching disaster like the last time. Whew. I hope they keep it that way.

 

If Moriarty really survived, I would have expected him to use that to get away and work from behind the scenes again, after the publicity of the his triple break in and the "Richard Brook" case made him a public figure. But then, Moriarty is insane, maybe he just got bored with his usual way of doing things and decided it would be fun to embrace his fame.

 

If the video really is from Moriarty, I assume the timing was not a coincidence. Moriarty would not want Sherlock to be flown off to eastern Europe to die from other hands than his own. He'd be bored stiff without Sherlock and I don't think he relishes a Serbian adventure himself. He'd much rather play the game at home in London. And he'd love to crow over Sherlock "you owe me your life now".

[not_Jim_Moriarty]

DID YOU MISS ME?   

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

NO!  :brit:

[T.o.b.y]

Definitely not. I did not miss Moriarty. But maybe Sherlock did, a bit? I have always liked this little passage from "The Norwood Builder":

 

"From the point of view of the criminal expert,” said Mr. Sherlock Holmes, “London has become a singularly uninteresting city since the death of the late lamented Professor Moriarty.”
“I can hardly think that you would find many decent citizens to agree with you,” I answered.
“Well, well, I must not be selfish,” said he, with a smile, as he pushed back his chair from the breakfast-table. “The community is certainly the gainer, and no one the loser, save the poor out-of-work specialist, whose occupation has gone. With that man in the field one’s morning paper presented infinite possibilities. Often it was only the smallest trace, Watson, the faintest indication, and yet it was enough to tell me that the great malignant brain was there, as the gentlest tremors of the edges of the web remind one of the foul spider which lurks in the centre. Petty thefts, wanton assaults, purposeless outrage—to the man who held the clue all could be worked into one connected whole. To the scientific student of the higher criminal world no capital in Europe offered the advantages which London then possessed. But now—” He shrugged his shoulders in humorous deprecation of the state of things which he had himself done so much to produce."

[Janie]

Well, I missed him but at the same time I want him to stay dead. I'd like to see another villain who would be as good and entertaining as Moriarty but obviously not exactly the same because that would be boring. I hope it makes sense 

[T.o.b.y]

Yup, it does. And I'd like to add he should be an adaptation from an original story, too. Culverton Smith would do, I think. Or a better version of Moran than they gave us in The Empty Hearse. We've had anti-Sherlock (Moriarty) and anti-Mycroft (Milverton), now why not do an anti-John figure for the next series.

 

Oh, if Moriarty does come back, I'd like to see how Mary deals with him. I bet she knows he almost blew her beloved husband up and she's certainly smart enough to realize that if it hadn't been for Moriarty, John wouldn't have had to go through all that drama concerning Sherlock's "suicide". As they didn't let her kill Magnussen, maybe she can at least see to it that Moriarty stays dead from the next shot aimed at him!

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Oh all right. I delete Sherlock from that tiny rant of mine.

[Carol the Dabbler]

We've had anti-Sherlock (Moriarty) and anti-Mycroft (Milverton), now why not do an anti-John figure for the next series.

 

What an intriguing thought!  Trying to expand that concept into a character, I'm seeing a fairly normal guy who gets caught up in unsavory doings -- sort of like Martin Freeman's character in Fargo.  Is that what you meant?

[T.o.b.y]

I guess what I meant was the original Moran - a military man and the right hand of Moriarty, a fighter / expert shot, loyal enough to the professor that he still wanted to kill Holmes after Moriarty was dead...

[Carol the Dabbler]

That is funny, because I was thinking exactly the same thing after I wrote the above.  Considering John's dual background in the military and in medicine, I don't think I'd care to meet an anti-John!  (A bad-guy doctor could be really inventive when it comes to torture, for example.)  But watching that sort of character on television could be a very interesting experience.

 

[soopy452000]

Can't wait for December 2014!

[Janie]

What will happen in December?

[Carol the Dabbler]

I assume that soopy is referring to the talk that Series 4 will air about then.  But there has been nothing even close to an official confirmation of that.  It seems to have originated with a web article saying that it was "possible" (but not offering much reason why it might be probable).

 

[Zain]

Correct me but isn't it unlikely that we'll get season 4 then? I mean, even if the script was done, the filming and editing takes, well, long. Not that I would mind having three new episodes by Christmas.

 

I think many fans had hoped for some anti-John version of Moran. He has become a fixed feature of post-TRF stories. I was somewhat disappointed that we didn't get to see Moriarty's "John Watson." There's quite some potential there.

 

On the other hand: It's a bit difficult to make a screwed version of John. He's nice but got a dark side that he mostly hides. If you reverse that, it makes for a bad villain (A guy who is evil but got a nice streak that he mostly hides?). I mean it's possible to make that really disturbing. Like having Moran slaughter somebody in cold blood, and then rescue a cat in a tree while his hands leave red stains on its fur.

No. Don't think that would work. Sherlock often plays with ridiculous settings but... no. It's a tad too disturbing.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

You could probably get a job as Steven Moffat's stand-in!

 

I personally agree that it seems unlikely we'll see Series 4 before summer of next year.  But what do I know?

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

This is what you get when you let an imagination run around totally without supervision while the body is at work.

 

   What if Lady Littlewood has something to do with that Moriarty gif?  I mean, it was her that got Sherlock into that whole mess. She had a lot of faith to go to him when she knew of no one else who could or would not stand up to Magnussen. She must have felt a great deal of gratitude for all that Sherlock had accomplished, even if Magnussen had been successful in destroying her husband's reputation and his life. She probably must have felt guilty that Sherlock was going to have to pay such a heavy price even though he did kill the man.

 

  The second man she thinks of when she gets word of the Moriarty thing is Mycroft second only to the Prime Minister. She also had to know where Mycroft was and what was happening.  Well any way. There it is for what's it's worth.

 

 

[Arcadia]

I had a similar thought -- Mycroft and Lady Smallwood (Littlewood?) are in on it together.....hm, maybe that's why Mycroft isn't lonely..... (sorry, it's late, I'm sleep deprived....)

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Kind of makes some kind of sense then. Thank you,Arcadia.

[Zain]

This is what you get when you let an imagination run around totally without supervision while the body is at work.

 

   What if Lady Littlewood has something to do with that Moriarty gif?  I mean, it was her that got Sherlock into that whole mess. She had a lot of faith to go to him when she knew of no one else who could or would not stand up to Magnussen. She must have felt a great deal of gratitude for all that Sherlock had accomplished, even if Magnussen had been successful in destroying her husband's reputation and his life. She probably must have felt guilty that Sherlock was going to have to pay such a heavy price even though he did kill the man.

 

  The second man she thinks of when she gets word of the Moriarty thing is Mycroft second only to the Prime Minister. She also had to know where Mycroft was and what was happening.  Well any way. There it is for what's it's worth.

 

 

I agree with you that Lady Smallwood probably had some sort of scheme going on. I however doubt she was involved in the gif. And I don't think she had actual faith in Sherlock.

 

I've presented that theory in the HLV thread before so sorry if you already read that once.

 

 

First of all things, Mycroft, despite his statement that "Magnussen is under his protection", seems to have been looking for an opportunity to get rid of him. Magnussen himself tells Sherlock just that. I do not think Mycroft ever faced Magnussen before, not in an antagonistic way.

 

Lady Smallwood was then rather quick to think of Sherlock after stating that nobody ever tries to stand up to Magnussen. I suppose she was thinking of Mycroft (who does not try to stand up to Magnussen); it would explain why her thoughts turned to Sherlock.

 

 I don't believe she truly thinks Sherlock will stand up to Magnussen. He hasn't enough power to do that. She knows Magnussen and his modus operandi well, even investigates him - why would she assume he'd accept Sherlock as an intermediary?

I daresay it wasn't her plan. Lady Smallwood used Sherlock. As an intermediary to get to Mycroft just like Magnussen uses Sherlock to get to Mycroft. They are aware of his one weakness.

 

I think she used Sherlock as leverage, to get Mycroft into the game. To make him move from his comfy chair of blissful ignorance towards Magnussen's meddling. Lady Smallwood must have known that Sherlock does not possess enough power or connections to truly get to Magnussen but that he would take up the challenge. Sherlock even knows that he needs an official invitation, otherwise he'll never get into Appledore. His power isn't far-reaching enough. His first break-in depends on a lot of coincidences falling together. It's more desperate and a one time chance than anything else.

 

 

 

In the end, though, Sherlock chooses Mary over Lady Smallwood. He abandons her case and it results in her husband's death. I doubt she feels guilty about Sherlock's situation. It had nothing to do with her anymore. I believe he was merely a pawn in the game she had initiated. She agrees to let Sherlock be exiled instead of imprisoned but that's probably where her compassion ends. 

 

I'm sure the message is meant as a challenge. A "let the games begin" declaration. I am not sure about the other party, though. Who to expect, or rather, what. And what motivates them.

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Just for the sake of discussion, why did Lady Smallwood wait so long if her only motivation was getting Mycroft into this particular game?  Magnussen is pretty common knowledge so this has obviously going on for some time. Magnussen says at Appledore, as he caresses the laptop, that it feels like something Mycroft would set up and that Mycroft had been lookiing for an opportunity to get to him for some time.

 

  So Lady Smallwood wouldn't have had to go to such lengths by just using Sherlock. And what evidence do we have that Lady Smallwood is so cold?

[Zain]

Well, that's exactly the contradicting point.

 

We know at the beginning of HLV that nobody is standing up to Magnussen, not even trying to.

Mycroft also is reluctant. Of course he could be already scheming but it seems unlikely.

 

At Appledore, Magnussen then reveals that Mycroft had been looking for an opportunity.

The only explanation I can come up with (assuming that both know what they are talking about) is that Mycroft had a change of heart in the time frame between those two events.

 

He still believes in what he told Sherlock at the beginning, though (Christmas talk outside). It's not that his opinion of Magnussen has changed. So why does he feel more uncomfortable with Magnussen? The only thing that happened between those two events is Sherlock's involvement. 

 

Mycroft is going through a change of heart, apparently. And it's Lady Smallwood that brought Sherlock into the game. Sure, it could be a coincidence, but it is known in their circles that Sherlock is Mycroft's weakness. Why shouldn't Lady Smallwood know that, too?

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

 

Sure, it could be a coincidence, but it is known in their circles that Sherlock is Mycroft's weakness. Why shouldn't Lady Smallwood know that, too?

 

  If the people in this selfsame circle know Mycroft and Sherlock so well, wouldn't they also know that Sherlock often goes against Mycroft's advice and wishes and works as a free agent in his own right? Mycroft may be able to push his buttons, sibling rivalry and all that, but Lady Smallwood would also know Sherlock's reputation for getting results and going to any length to get them.

[Zain]

 

  If the people in this selfsame circle know Mycroft and Sherlock so well, wouldn't they also know that Sherlock often goes against Mycroft's advice and wishes and works as a free agent in his own right? Mycroft may be able to push his buttons, sibling rivalry and all that, but Lady Smallwood would also know Sherlock's reputation for getting results and going to any length to get them.

 

 

 

 

Would you say Sherlock truly works as a free agent?

Yes, he goes against Mycroft's wishes, and he often forces his brother's hand. He never really hides his actions, though. Thinking of Baskerville, was there ever any way Mycroft would not find out? Sherlock doesn't try to circumvent Mycroft. I wonder if it's more like he enjoys making his brother uncomfortable. I think Sherlock actually works rarely alone. He relies on Mycroft's interventions a lot, e.g. TRF (fall), THoB (access to the building). 

 

I obviously can't prove that Lady Smallwood had other plans for Sherlock but I consider it unlikely that she truly believed him to be up to the challenge. The only reason Magnussen approached Sherlock (and showed him that he was in possession of something he could steal...) is that he is interested in Mycroft. I doubt he'd have reacted to a less profitable intermediary. He's not even slightly interested in Sherlock's role, just in his function as Mycroft's pressure point.

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Mycroft was already in the game and solidly in CAM's camp. I can't see Lady Smallwood even considering or being interested in Mycroft at this point. He's not someone she can trust.  Her only reason for going to Baker Street would be to consult with Sherlock Holmes.

 

  Sherlock is very much a free agent and unorthodox. As we have seen he doesn't let ethics get in his way. He'll pickpocket his own brother, the police or use anyone he seems necessary to get the results he wants.

 

  Magnussen goes to Baker Street is because Sherlock is working for Lady Smallwood. At this time no one knows what Sherlock is planning. The only reason Magnussen flashes those letters it to lead Sherlock to believe that Magnussen can be reasoned with and that there is hope for Lady Smallwood in getting the letters she wants back.

[T.o.b.y]

I certainly like to believe Sherlock is independent in his decisions. I am always annoyed and disappointed when I find out that Mycroft has been behind things again. I do hope that it won't turn out this time Sherlock staged the whole Magnussen drama with the consent and planning of his big brother.