James Moriarty [1]

James Moriarty

James "Jim" Moriarty is the world's only consulting villain, the sworn enemy of Sherlock Holmes, an equally unrivaled consulting detective. Jim controls criminals like puppets. All the villains Sherlock encountered in the first season were somehow connected to the mysterious Moriarty.

Early life

In 1989, Moriarty killed Carl Powers, who he claimed was "laughing at him." He kept Powers' sneakers for nearly twenty years until he used them as part of his plan to meet Sherlock Holmes and left them in an abandoned apartment at 221C Baker Street. Since then, he has developed his skills in criminal activities and began to create a large criminal organization that has spread across the globe. Moriarty acted as a sponsor, informant, and inspiration. He developed an interest in Sherlock that bordered on obsession, although James did not hesitate to try to kill him when he lost interest. His work never involved direct contact between him and his clients.

A Study in Pink

Jeff Hope, one of Moriarty's clients, attempts to kill Sherlock, but is shot dead by Dr. John Watson, Sherlock's friend and neighbor. Hope had previously revealed that he had a sponsor, but refused to reveal his name. It is only when Sherlock knocks out Hope's bullet wound that he finally screams "MORIARTY!"

The Blind Banker

Later, Moriarty helps the Black Lotus smuggle goods into Britain. Sherlock and John foil their plans. The leader of the organization, General Shan, briefly conversed with Moriarty via laptop and was shot by one of his snipers to prevent her from revealing his identity.

The Big Game

Moriarty eventually decides to play a "game" with Sherlock, forcing him to solve mysteries within a certain time limit and taking hostages to ensure Sherlock is properly motivated. He also disguises himself as Molly Hooper's boyfriend, Jim, and visits Sherlock in his lab while he is trying to solve a mystery. Sherlock, unaware that he is Moriarty, deduces that he is gay (even though it was Moriarty's plot), which upsets Molly. Once Sherlock had solved every riddle, he set up a meeting in an empty swimming pool and saw Jim, one of the most dangerous men in the world. Moriarty had taken John hostage, rigging him with explosives and backing him up with a sniper. In an intense standoff, Moriarty warned Sherlock to back down, saying "I'll burn your heart out" if he didn't. Moriarty then left, and Sherlock was able to remove the explosive jacket from John and discard it. However, James reappeared, saying that they couldn't be allowed to continue living with his identity. Several snipers were aiming at them. Sherlock aimed his gun at the explosives he had removed from John, intending to detonate them and take Moriarty with him.

Scandal in Belgravia

There are also hints that there is a rivalry between James and Mycroft Holmes. At one point, he is captured and interrogated by Mycroft's men. In exchange for personal information about Sherlock, Moriarty gives hints about the size of his network of agents. When he is finally released, it is revealed that he has repeatedly scratched the name Sherlock into the concrete walls of his dungeon, as well as backwards on a two-way mirror.

Reichenbach Falls

Moriarty is later seen outside the Tower of London, dressed in casual clothes, and upon entering the room where the Crown Jewels are kept, he puts on his headphones and begins listening to Rossini's The Thieving Magpie. Taking out his Incredible S android, Moriarty clicks on the icon with the insignia of the Crown of England. This shows that the Bank of England, Pentoville Prison, and the Tower of London's security systems have all been hacked simultaneously. As the London police, including Greg Lestrade and Sally Donovan, rushed to the scene, an alarm went off in the room where Moriarty was being held. The guards ordered everyone to leave, and the entire room was cleared of visitors and guards. As the door was closing, the guard asked Moriarty to leave, but before he could finish his sentence, Moriarty sprayed him with a canister of sleeping gas. After breaking the glass case around the Crown Jewels, he put them on and waited for the police to arrest him. He was tried by jury, with Sherlock as the main witness, but James was released without any direct evidence. Moriarty visited Holmes on Baker Street and, leaving a false clue, left with the phrase: "I am in your debt." Later, Sherlock and John investigated the disappearance of the son and daughter of the US Ambassador from a private school in London. It was known that they had been kidnapped on the last day of the school term. It would therefore have been incredibly easy for Moriarty's abductor to blend in with the crowd of parents and children and enter the school undetected. Waiting until it was dark, the kidnapper walked towards the room where the children were sleeping, armed with a pistol. Having spent most of his school life in a private boarding school, the ambassador's son knew the shadows of everyone who passed the door and, sensing something was wrong, left a key for the police. Grabbing two children, he held them at gunpoint and led them out of the school. From there he took them to a disused warehouse in Addlestone. The kidnapper then locked the terrified children in a cage in a cold, dark room.

Reichenbach Falls 2

The cage was filled with hundreds of sweets. The wrappers of the sweets were covered with a deadly poison (mercury), which gradually killed the children. Moriarty's man, who looked very much like Sherlock, traumatized the girl, so when she met the real Sherlock, she screamed and was afraid of him, which should have convinced Inspector Lestrade that he was a potential kidnapper. His superior then ordered Sherlock arrested for kidnapping and John for punching Lestrade's superior in the face. After escaping from the police, Sherlock and John became fugitives. After Sherlock and John broke into the house of journalist Kitty Reilly, whom the younger Holmes met before Moriarty's trial, and found James hiding there. Frightened and shaking with fear, he tells Sherlock and John to stay away from him and begs John not to hurt him. Kitty claimed that there had never been a man named James Moriarty, and accused Sherlock of creating him, as well as all the crimes he had solved, supposedly to gain media popularity and build his reputation as a private detective. John refused to believe this, claiming that Moriarty had only recently been tried for attempted burglary, and that he intended to blow up both him and Sherlock. Reilly countered by saying that Moriarty was actually an actor named Richard Brook, who Sherlock had paid to play the main villain. Still denying this, John asked to see evidence. Kitty showed him numerous articles about Richard Brook, including various business photographs. Moriarty then claimed to be acting as a narrator for young children on television. Sherlock yelled at Moriarty, demanding that he stop lying. Advancing on him, Sherlock and John rushed after Moriarty, who escaped through the nearest window. Later, at St Bartholomew's Hospital, Sherlock writes to Moriarty, whom he meets on the roof.

Reichenbach Falls 3

Sherlock claims that with the code he can completely remove all evidence of Richard Brook from the world. Moriarty says there is no code, and the tapping rhythm that Sherlock mistook for binary code was actually the rhythm of Bach's Violin Partita No. 1. Moriarty tells Sherlock that his weakness is that he always wants everything to be sensible and complex, so he can solve it and show off his intelligence to others. Moriarty explains that over the last 24 hours, he has convinced the general public that Sherlock Holmes is a fraud and a liar, so that at one point Sherlock's great reputation was completely destroyed and the only person who still trusted him was John. When Sherlock asks how James managed to break into the prison, the bank, and the Tower, Moriarty says that he simply bribed the guards to cooperate with him in his scheme. Moriarty's final plan was to drive Sherlock to the point where he would commit suicide to escape his ruined life, but since Sherlock was unwilling to do so, Moriarty explained that he had hired three assassins, strategically positioned around London, each ready to shoot three of Sherlock's true friends: Lestrade, Mrs. Hudson, and John. One was disguised as a policeman outside Inspector Lestrade's office, another was a repairman at a flat on Baker Street, and the last was in a tower block opposite Barts Hospital. However, Sherlock found out that there was a word that only Moriarty could say that would call off the killers. Sherlock and Moriarty then had a conversation with each other. James said that he was disappointed in Sherlock, that he was as ordinary as other people and was "on the side of the angels". He stated that Moriarty should not assume that he was one of them per se, hinting that he too had a dark side. Acknowledging that he and Sherlock were alike, Moriarty said that as long as he lived, Sherlock's friends would also be safe.

Reichenbach Falls 4

Afterwards he shook Holmes's hand and, taking out a pistol, put the barrel in his mouth and fired.

Empty hearse

Two years after Sherlock's "death", the police concluded that actor Richard Brook was actually a pseudonym created by Moriarty, and that Sherlock was innocent of creating Moriarty. Moriarty appears in numerous flashbacks and imaginary episodes by Sherlock fans when they speculate about how Sherlock could have faked his death.

His farewell vow

Moriarty was also in Sherlock's mind palace, in solitary confinement and in a straitjacket. He taunted Sherlock and convinced him that death would be a relief. But when he mentioned that John would suffer because of his friend's death, it gave Sherlock the strength he needed to recover from a serious bullet wound when he was on the verge of death. Moriarty's message was later broadcast across England, asking "Did you miss me?" This led to Sherlock being brought back from exile to take up the case.

The Ugly Bride

Even before the plane lands, Sherlock has entered his mind palace in a drug-induced state to solve the unsolved mystery of Emilia Ricoletti, a woman who lived in the late 19th century and, like Moriarty, shot herself in the head and then seemingly rose from the grave. After this, Sherlock concludes that Moriarty is still dead, but it becomes a matter of explaining how he manipulates events beyond the grave when Sherlock tells John and Mary Watson that he knows what Moriarty will do next. Moriarty himself has been appearing in the halls in an uncontrolled manner, organizing a sect of women as a consultant and trying to throw Sherlock into a waterfall, but in the end he himself ends up being thrown.

The last case

This episode tells us that five years ago, after Moriarty was released from Mycroft's captivity, Holmes invited him to come to Sherrinford Maximum Security Prison to meet him and Sherlock's secret sister Eurus, who asked her brother for five minutes alone with Moriarty without supervision as a Christmas present. When Eurus ambushed Sherlock, John and Mycroft at Sherrinford, she played recordings that Moriarty had made especially for her.

Personality

A criminal mastermind, Jim Moriarty was a sadist and a psychopath. He exhibited the following traits: extreme intelligence, grandiosity, inability to feel remorse, arrogance, and an unhealthy degree of self-confidence. He also displayed very Machiavellian traits. Like Sherlock, he had a sarcastic, cynical, albeit childish sense of humor, but unlike Sherlock, he was also a sadist and often spoke in a tone that intimidated or irritated his opponents. Moriarty had been arranging the deaths of others since they were young. In 1989, he killed schoolboy Carl Powers. He seemed to be a very efficient criminal businessman and had a huge network of people at his disposal. Moriarty seemed to care, at least superficially, for children, as each time Jeff Hope killed, he paid him large sums of money so that he could support his children. Moriarty was obsessed with Sherlock Holmes and seemed to enjoy his role as a villain. James, like Sherlock, was willing to do anything to avoid being bored. He was capable of frightening mood swings. He was ruthless and committed torture and murder in sadistic ways, and when Sherlock accused him of being responsible for the deaths of people, Moriarty screamed at him "That's what people do!", showing that he did not care if people lived or died. He also made rather flippant references to people's deaths when he was personally responsible, citing that Carl Powers "laughed at me, so I stopped him." Moriarty was a man who constantly resorted to humor, no matter the situation, especially when he taunted people into falling for his deception - when he confronted Sherlock at the swimming pool, he taunted Sherlock that he had managed to convince the detective that he was gay. When he played a sadistic trick on Sherlock with a mocking video during a taxi ride, he said "No charge" when Sherlock discovered him in the driver's seat.

Personality 2

When Sherlock held him over the roof and threatened to let him fall to his death and labeled him as crazy, Moriarty shot back "You realize it now" to belittle Sherlock. Moriarty believed that his only weakness (or at least openly suggested that it was) was that he was extremely fickle - this was evident in the first time he decided to abandon his confrontation with Sherlock, only to suddenly return and threaten Sherlock again. Arguably, it's possible that James isn't afraid of death - he showed absolutely no concern or fear when he was holding a gun to Sherlock (most likely because he knew he had too many advantages). He only screamed once, when Sherlock threatened to throw him off a roof. James respects Sherlock's abilities and considers him a worthy opponent, so he tries in every way to make his life difficult.

Possibilities

Moriarty is incredibly intelligent. He is one of the smartest people on the planet, rivaled only by Sherlock, Mycroft, Charles Augustus Magnussen, and Eurus Holmes. His genius was strong enough that Moriarty could safely interact with Eurus. He was very skilled at manipulation, and even Sherlock had difficulty predicting Moriarty's next move. He had an incredible ability to change his tone of voice and demeanor several times in a single sentence for psychological warfare, from serenity, humor, mockery, childish, easy-going, to violence. This made Moriarty extremely difficult to read and anticipate. He was also quite calculating and resourceful for his age, able to extract almost undetectable poison that could work effectively in the circumstances Moriarty required. As an adult, he had mastered terror tactics and intimidation strategies, and knew exactly what levers to pull to pressure or irritate people.

Relationships

Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes seems to be the only person who can entertain Moriarty. Moriarty shares several of his unstable musings with Sherlock: he contemplates suicide because he is bored with the world, and he is obsessed with a consulting detective until he believes Sherlock is just "another ordinary man." When Sherlock spots a hole in Moriarty's plan, Moriarty appears to kill himself to get the last laugh. In his interactions (and in his interactions with every character so far), Moriarty insists on playing his games on his own terms. Moriarty has nicknamed Sherlock "the virgin" and constantly interferes in his life just to watch him dance. On the few occasions they meet, Moriarty usually speaks casually to Sherlock, threatening his friends. He displays sick and twisted behavior in Sherlock's company, and will do anything to win the game once he starts playing.

Interesting facts

Moriarty can be seen wearing a fox on his tie on several occasions. In Grimm's Fairy Tales, there is a story called "Mrs. Fox's Wedding" which tells of a male fox who fakes his own death. Moriarty also showed Sherlock an envelope containing Grimm's Fairy Tales. His ringtone on his phone is "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees. Moriarty's favorite composer is Johann Sebastian Bach. The song in which Moriarty robs the Tower of London in the film The Reichenbach Falls is "The Thieving Magpie" by Gioachino Rossini ("La gazza ladra"). The second episode of the third series, "The Sign of Three", and the second episode of the fourth series, "Sherlock Near Dying", are the only episodes in the series in which Moriarty does not appear or is not mentioned. In the third episode of the fourth series, "The Final Problem", it is mentioned that Moriarty may have a brother who works as a station master. This is a reference to Colonel James Moriarty, who is mentioned in Conan Doyle's original stories "The Adventure of the Final Problem" and "The Valley of Fear". The song playing when Moriarty arrives in Sherrinford in "The Final Problem" is "I Want to Break Free" by Queen. In Sherlock Casebook, it is stated that Moriarty was born in 1976. Charles Magnussen considers him to be Sherlock's "Pain Point", although it is not entirely clear why. In the series, Moriarty is depicted as much younger than his book counterpart. The fourth season's Christmas special, "The Abominable Bride," depicts Moriarty's "book" death: in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story "The Final Problem," Sherlock throws the villain off the Reichenbach Falls in a one-on-one fight, but the detective himself survives by faking his death and disappearing for two years. James committed suicide, knowing that he would be more trouble dead than alive. However, he may be alive, as many factors suggest.

Appearance

Of average height, due to his frail build, he seems somewhat smaller than he actually is. But he does not try to add height to himself - in his opinion, there are no taller people, only longer ones. Dark hair, dark eyebrows, dark expressive eyes. Skin very white, perhaps even too white for men. High convex forehead. Such foreheads are usually called "Socratic", by them you can immediately recognize smart people. Facial features are quite serious, and although you can't call him beautiful, it involuntarily attracts the eye. Facial expressions are unusually lively, almost grotesque, in a minute can change dozens of expressions, become charming or terrifying, which involuntarily makes him related to the "black jesters" of old times. In ordinary communication he is smiling, polite, sometimes seems somewhat absent-minded and generally makes a deceptive impression of a good-natured and harmless person. The main thing is not to look him in the eyes for a long time ... An aesthete in his own home. Has good manners. Knows how to dress with excellent quality, but clothes for him, skin for a snake or a suit for an actor: only part of the image he wants to create.