My BBC’s 'Sherlock' Moriarty Theory

(Josie Sayz: This is my attempt at analysing the current theory that every seems to be talking about: Is Professor Moriarty (from the ‘BBC’s ‘Sherlock’ series) alive? I am in no way a ‘Sherlock’ fanatic, nor am I a huge fan. I do not know everything and I am not trying to come across as though I do. This is just a little bit of fun that I came up with whilst re-watching the ‘Sherlock’ episodes before the new series starts in the New Year.)

My BBC’s 'Sherlock' Moriarty Theory
Is he staying alive?

If you have been following ‘BBC’s series ‘Sherlock’ then you are already probably aware of (and anticipating) the new series in January and more-so the ongoing question: Is Professor Jim Moriarty dead? For those of you who have not watched the third episode of the second season (‘The Reichenbach Fall’) and the third episode of season three ('His Last Vow'), this post contains spoilers.

I am going to take a brief look into some of the theories that are out there. I am open to as many theories as possible, so if you have one that I have not looked into, please, do share it.

1) People love a good villain. I love a good villain. Professor Moriarty is a good villain; he’s very good. If Sherlock can fake his death, why can’t Moriarty? It’s true; Moriarty does appear to have the upper hand over Sherlock – or at least he’s got more experience running the underworld. If Sherlock is, “On the side of the angels,” Moriarty has grimmer, darker, more frequent visits with faking deaths – he has probably accomplished it hundreds, if not thousands, of times amongst his many clients during his line of work. If anyone knows how to fake a suicide, it would be Moriarty.

2) Richard Brook is real. When you see actor Andrew Scott playing Moriarty, all of the characters actions are left handed (his phone usage is mostly with his left hand, when visiting Sherlock at 221b Baker Street he purposely twists his teacup around to lift it with his left hand, he carves ‘IOU’ into an apple with his left hand, he taps out binary code with his left hand and he shoots himself with a gun in his left hand). However when Andrew Scott plays Richard Brook, it appears that his few seen actions are right handed (he holds up his right hand in surrender, points with his right hand and pushes himself up the banister with his right hand). The most obvious thing to point out here is that the actor is left handed.
          Another interesting thing, from the point-of-view of a writer is that through writing books, TV shows and films, the villain is often depicted as being left handed. The reasoning behind this dates back centuries, to when people who were left handed were believed to be evil, often tortured for their devil-like behaviour. There is a psychology theory that people who are depicted as being left handed will appear evil, or in some ways villainous, towards audiences. This isn’t just an archaic way of viewing things. When ‘Nintendo’ created a new character for their popular game series ‘Super Mario’ (in 2007) during their advertising campaign the new addition, Princess Rosalina, had her character’s image mirrored because she was left handed. All posters and video images of the new princess portrayed her as a right handed character, in fears that the public might identify her as the bad guy, when she was not.
          There are two characters that look exactly alike. Moriarty is evil and left handed, but his double, Richard Brook, is right handed. Maybe they are twins. James Moriarty does not have to be Richard Brook’s twin’s real name and Richard Brook might not necessarily be good. However, in order to easily interpret the identical-looking people as two separate individuals, the one that we know to be evil (Moriarty) must be depicted as being left handed, so that the audience can see that the two are in fact separate people. This means that although one of them is dead, the other is still alive and could be the real man behind Moriarty.

3) Moriarty used a real gun, but the chamber was empty. This is a good one. Moriarty already had one of his men watching nearby, waiting, ready to shoot Dr. Watson. It could be possible that one of Moriarty’s snipers fired a shot into the air at the exact moment that Moriarty pulled the trigger. Moriarty had also hid a blood pouch under the collar of his coat, so when he hit the ground, Moriarty appeared to have blown the back of his own head off.

4) Moriarty used a fake gun loaded with a knock-out spray. This theory comes from those with a good ear. At the beginning of ‘The Reichenbach Fall’, after Moriarty has broken into the security at The Tower of London a security guard tries to get him to leave. As the security guard approaches Moriarty, the villain sprays something in the man’s face, immediately knocking him unconscious. The sound that emits from the spray is similar to the sound that can be heard right before the gun shot as Moriarty falls to the ground towards the end of the episode. Many have speculated that Moriarty is simply using one of his own inventions, to temporarily pass off as dead. Similarly to the previous example, one of Moriarty’s snipers would have fired shot into the air and Moriarty would have planted a blood pouch underneath the collar of his coat.

5) Andrew Scott’s character is not the real Moriarty. Many do believe that the Moriarty we see shoot himself in the head is dead, however that does not mean that is the end of Moriarty. It is thought that the Moriarty we see is a companion or an eccentric hired by the real Moriarty, whom is still in hiding. Some people believe that this really is Richard Brook, but rather than being hired by Sherlock to play Moriarty, he was hired by Moriarty himself to play Moriarty. Sherlock did admit in court that prior to Moriarty’s ‘Tower of London’ security breach, he had only met him for approximately five minutes; therefore he did not really know him, he only knew of him.
        Going back to my left handed/right handed theory – Moriarty could have easily played up to this ‘left-handed-means-you’re-a-villain’ thought and purposely made his actor act left handed when portraying him, but act right handed when being Richard Brook to try and confuse Sherlock.

6) During Moriarty’s court case he wore a fox tie-pin. To me this is the most interesting piece of them all. Moriarty loves his fairytales – playing ‘Hansel and Gretel’, stating that, “Every fairytale needs a good, old-fashioned villain,” and he even calls newspapers fairytales. Thinking in terms of Moriarty’s fairytale referencing, why would the creators choose to have him wear a fox tie-pin during his court case or why would Moriarty, himself, choose to wear such an unusual piece? Two Grimm Brothers stories have a fox character that shares traits with Moriarty. One of the Grimm Brothers stories is ‘The Fox and the Cat’ in which the fox reveals to the cat that he knows of many tricks – which could be referring to hiding or faking death to avoid pray. In ‘The Fox and the Horse’, the fox teaches the horse how to play dead in order to get what it wants. Both of these fox fairytales appear to hint that Moriarty intends to fake his death.

(And for those of you who need me to point out: at the end of season three’s episode ‘His Last Vow’, when Moriarty appeared on every television screen his mouth did not move when he spoke and the voice was distorted. This does not class as evidence and I am not going to analyse it.)


The Conclusion: While all of these theories seem plausible one way or another, not one is without fault.

In relation to theories one, three and four, Moriarty couldn’t have faked his own death so obviously in front of Sherlock. If he thought for a second that Sherlock were to believe that he were alive, Sherlock would never have followed through with his supposed suicide to save the lives of John, Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson. The theory surrounding the blood pouch hidden underneath Moriarty’s coat collar does not appear to be possible either, as Moriarty is not wearing a high-collar coat, so hiding such a thing seems impossible.

As for the second theory, Richard Brook cannot be real. When Moriarty asks Sherlock if he started to wonder if Moriarty was real, Sherlock confirms that he knew Richard Brook was a fake person all along, because in German, “Rich Brook,” means Reichen Bach, which is the case that made Sherlock Holmes famous. Moriarty informs him that nobody, except Sherlock, gets the joke – as they all believe Richard Brook to be a real person, confirming that he is not.

The fifth theory is a little harder to disprove – that the Moriarty we see is not the real Moriarty, but an actor hired by Moriarty. For this theory, I am going to look at the binary code clue which Moriarty gives Sherlock. The binary codes which Moriarty taps out on his knee (after researching) translates to, “There is no key.” The binary code that Sherlock taps out to Moriarty is different and meaningless gobbledygook. It is quite likely that Sherlock already has translated the binary code and knows that it is meaningless. Once he realised what the code meant, he was playing dumb, pretending that the code was meaningful, playing into Moriarty’s game so that Moriarty would confess how he broke into The Tower of London, Bank of England and Pentonville Prison. Would the real Moriarty be so foolish as to entrust an actor with his knowledge of how he broke into such secure locations? Also, would the actor have known what the binary code translated to? If he did not, what would have happened if the actor got the binary code wrong? Yes, the binary code was not a real key, but it would never have translated to, “There is no key,” had it not been tapped out correctly. You may be thinking, “So what?” But to Moriarty, this binary code would have meant everything to him. It was telling Sherlock that there was no key all along. It was his secret message and it had to be played out right. It had to be perfect – perfect to a tee. It isn’t something that he could let an actor slip up on – where would his fun be then? It really wouldn’t be a key then, would it? If you want something done right, do it yourself.

Point number six, the fox tie-pin, could simply mean that Moriarty is as sly as a fox. Everyone knows that he is guilty, yet is found not-guilty because of his cunning tricks. It may have nothing to do with the Grimm Brothers’ cheating death stories at all. If anything, ‘The Fox and the Cat’ story could prove that despite Moriarty knowing many tricks, he was not able to escape death – as the fox is thought to be mauled by a pack of dogs at the end of the tale.

So what is my conclusion? Moriarty is dead. Yes, Moriarty was a brilliant villain, but at the end of the day, he was never the only villain that Sherlock Holmes faced. He was only ever in a very small handful of Doyle’s stories. In Doyle’s works, Sherlock may have faked his own death at ‘Reichenbach Falls’, but Professor Moriarty did not. Do the writers of ‘BBC’s ‘Sherlock’ want to be known as the people who just couldn’t let a good villain go, dragging out his final story? Every good writer knows when to put down the pen. Holmes faced many good villains in Doyle’s books and I dare say we will soon meet another of Sherlock’s greatest foes – and see the return of some familiar faces too… just not Moriarty.

- Josie -