I still don’t understand how on earth John supposedly subconsciously knew Mary was an assassin or had a dangerous life or whatever. I still don’t think he chose her. She chose him because he was her assignment from Moriarty.
When the Series 4 episode titles were first released, I was unsure what to think. Why would the creators of Sherlock name an episode after something previously mentioned in the series if not a direct callback to it. Hadn’t the final problem already been addressed on the rooftop of Barts Hospital? Was this somehow a clue into some sort of deeper meaning to that conversation before Sherlock fell? To be honest, it hadn’t hit me until this very moment what this episode title could actually be referring to.
I am a strong believer that TFP is occuring in John’s mind, there’s no way they would end on a cliffhanger with John being shot and then have him be totally fine, just having experienced a low level dart gun. The red rug that surrounded his feet in Eurus’ therapy office symbolized blood, and I don’t think that we should disregard that quite yet.
In The Reichenbach Fall, Moriarty says
Sherlock solves this predicament with the fall, but what if, at the end of TLD, John has the same problem.
The Final Problem is stayin’ alive and that is exactly what TFP is. John trying desperately to find a way to stay alive in his little old mind bungalow.
In His Last Vow, the thought of John pulls Sherlock up and back to life, in The Final Problem, Sherlock pulls up John.
It’s just Sherlock and John with a problem, the final problem, stayin’ alive.
Speaking as someone who used to review adult films for a living: the full-on gonzo-porn camera perspective tilt over Moriarty with the gun on his tongue was really something.
Skully, you can’t just drop a bomb like that and walk away.
Did anyone miss how he puts the gun in his mouth and then the camera does a dramatic overhead angle tilt while he changes his sightline and looks up?
IS NOBODY GOING TO MENTION THE FACT THAT MORIARTY WAS A PATIENT AT SHERRINFORD!?!?!
wait what the hell? someone explain!
During the TFP flashback to when Moriarty was in Mycroft’s office at Sherrinford:
MYCROFT: You know what this place is, of course? JIM (quietly): Of course. (He fiddles with some of the animals on the table as he speaks.) So am I under arrest again?
Implying that he had been held under arrest at Sherrinford, referring to this scene at the end of THoB:
Actually, the scene in THoB is an arrest afterhis first encounter with Eurus.
Sherlock and John met at January 29, 2010.
The Christmas in ASIB was in 2010.
Moriarty died and Sherlock “died” before June 16, 2011 via John’s post.
As stated by John’s therapist: 18 months since your last appointment—John’s last appointment was in January 2010 via his blog where Ella Thompson had commented on his January 25 and 31 posts saying “Is that why you missed your appointment? I tried to call.” “Please answer your phone.” respectively. Her next comment was in April 20, 2013 after John’s post about moving on.
Sherlock comes back from the dead on November 3, 2013 with his name finally cleared and him visiting all his friends immediately after being rescued.
John and Mary get married on 2014.
Sherlock kills Magnussen on Christmas 2014.
The tarmac scene happened on January 2015.
Mary died around 2015.
The ending of TLD happened in January 6, 2016 (Sherlock’s bday)
TFP
A few days after Sherlock’s bday, John got shot by Eurus.
A few days after, they go to Mycroft.
The next day, Mycroft goes to 221B to talk about all this.
A few days after, everyone thought Mycroft was still being attended to in hospital which im assuming takes days, especially since they haven’t replaced Mycroft yet to take care of everything—if it took a week, Mycroft would have had a temporary replacement…
So everything that happened in TFP happened about a week or two after Sherlock’s birthday. This is consistent with Sherlock’s eye haemorrhage he got in TLD—either from John’s beating or being asphyxiated by Culverton.
From my observation, since it’s still around January, Christmas 2015 is still in mind… so Christmas five years ago, in the mindset of everyone, would be Christmas of 2010.
So basically, what I’m saying is that this:
Was on the same day as this:
And that Mycroft being alone in ASIB, thinking here:
Happened in the evening after this, which is probs why he was thinking so hard in the dark at night on Christmas Day cos this thing just happened:
Which means that this:
Happened months after this:
Which is probably why Moriarty was much more interested with Sherlock’s life story as pointed out by John here, saying “…in return you had to offer him Sherlock’s life story”:
Because Moriarty had met Eurus but they had only talked in 5 minutes, and probably only talked about how to successfully destroy Sherlock by threatening to kill his best friends since Eurus had witnessed it happen before… and he probably wanted more info about Sherlock regarding that…
We also know that Eurus didn’t know that Sherlock had forgotten her completely.
EURUS: Interesting. Mycroft told me you’d rewritten your memories; he didn’t tell me you’d written me out completely.
So to them, they thought that Sherlock had made up his own story about his best friend dying…
Eurus probably didn’t know that Sherlock had rewritten Redbeard as a dog. The only time we ever really know for certain that Eurus was told that Sherlock thinks Redbeard is a dog was Sherlock telling her himself in this scene:
Before that, when Sherlock mentioned Redbeard, he only said, “I know what happened to Redbeard.” and Eurus was like “Do you now?” HAHA fooled u, u idiot… u probs got it wrong…
But after Sherlock says, “Redbeard was my dog.”
Eurus was softer, but her smirk was larger. And that’s probs why Eurus was much more smug at that point with that particular tone of hers, “Ohhh, Sherlock… You know nothing.” as if she’s just seeing how deeply the scars really went… as if she’s saying something like oh jfc srsly sherl dafuq happened to u daz wayyy worse than i hoped…
The point is that, THOB interrogation happened after Moriarty met Eurus, and before that, Moriarty was already arrested before… probably immediately after that first scene in ASIB.
Interesting additions, @ebaeschnbliah. There are so many fake things in this show. And the fact that Jim and Eurus are so closely associated confirms my belief that only Jim was real and Eurus is a part of Sherlock that is connected to him. Just think of all the video messages and both killing a boy by making him drown – so many coincidences …
Is there also something about the lens covering the eye, so not only does it contribute to the disguise (surface level) but also affects how the eye perceives (subtext, see/observe, interpretation)?
@sarahthecoat, I’m wild about the idea that it’s all about disguise and perception.
Isn’t this Anderson’s fantasy, in teh? Just to throw yet another wrench in the works?
Idk about the idea that it’s Sherlock’s, though, since he isn’t in the room when the confrontation with Eurus takes place, although who tf knows. (I mean, OR IS HE, if he is Eurus?) tfp Eurus seems too John-ish to me–I can’t get past baby Eurus’s John sweater…
@sarahthecoat@may-shepard I love that idea. I’ve been kicking around the idea that John having one eye covered is the same sort of thing – that he remains blind to one part of his dual nature, rather than a literal blindness.
Allow me to add little Victor to the mix!
One-eye John = Moriarty, Sherlock-in-exile, Eurus, and little Victor aka John-look-alike? In TGG, John was the voice of Jim Moriarty for a few minutes there…… and the voice of Jim Moriarty announced the arrival of TFP 👀
And he aggressively writes real person fic about Sherlock with every single person in his life and absolutely refuses to stop. Sherlock becomes infamous because everyone is reading it and it’s really cramping his untouchable-virgin style. Consider:
“His Archenemy” by thereal_moriarty, featuring Sherlock Holmes/Mycroft Holmes, explicit, incest, chan, D/s dynamics
“You Are Important to Me” by thereal_moriarty, featuring Sherlock Holmes/Molly Cooper, het, fluff, smut, PWP
“Turn Around and Don’t Even Breathe” by thereal_moriarty, featuring Sherlock Holmes/Philip Anderson, smut, hate sex, angst, toplock
“Correct Me, Doctor” by thereal_moriarty, featuring Sherlock Holmes/John Watson also ft. Sherlock’s riding crop, explicit, crack, fetish
“Not Your Housekeeper” by thereal_moriarty, featuring Sherlock Holmes/Martha Hudson, roleplay, age difference, humour, milf
And Sherlock is all like:
And Moriarty is all
LOL
OMG this is HILARIOUS!
Can I play?
“Find Yourself Another Friend” by thereal_moriarity. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Sally Donovan, enemies to lovers, handcuffs, rough sex, shame kink, dirty talk.
“A Quick Cup o’ Joe” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Mr. Chatterge, coffee shop AU, casual sex, hook ups, bathroom sex.
“It Only Matters If You’re Caught” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Sarah Sawyer, infidelity, cheating with your best friend’s girlfriend, seduction.
“I’m The Only Drug You Need” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Jefferson Hope, car sex, non con, drugged sex.
“Welcome Home” by thereal_morarity. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/The Empty Hearse Fan Club, gang bang, group sex, orgy, where do all these limbs go.
“Water Water Everywhere” by thereal_morarity. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/The Waters Family Gang. Polyamory, group sex, relationship negotiations, lots of cuddles.
“In My Free Time” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Anthea-his-brother’s-PA. Secret relationship, silent sex, caught in a compromising position.
Give me more minor or almost invisible characters and I’ll keep going.
“Light Me Up, Doctor” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Doctor Stapleton. Sex as an experiment, sex in a laboratory, cunnilingus, unexpectedly hot clinical talk.
“Bunny My Honey” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Bluebell. Fluffy animal as a masturbatory aid, frottage, sensuality.
“Let Me Be Your Hero” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Bombing Victim #2. Rescue turns romantic, hero worship, pity sex.
“Just Platonic” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Kitty Riley. Bathroom sex, sex to prove heterosexuality, sinks and mirrors will be shattered along with Kitty’s belief that Sherlock is gay.
"I’ve Been A Bad Boy" by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Prosecuting Solicitor in TRF. Suit kink, Dom/Sub, Sub Sherlock, verbal orders, boot licking, rough sex.
"Only You Can Help Me" by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Defending Solicitor in TRF. Rescue kink, role play, power exchange, Sherlock just wants to be taken care of, handjobs.
"You Must Find Me Guilty" by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Judge from TRF. Wig kink, blowjob under black robe, hiding under the bench to tease your lover, public sex kink, blowjob during a trial.
"Come Fly With Me" by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Lady Carmichael/The TAB pilot. Time travel, sex on a plane, Mile High Club, threesome M/F/F, a new meaning to the term COCKpit, selfcest, flight instruments as sex toys.
@iris-wallpaper Do you want more? Cause there are still:
Soo Lin DI Dimmock Henry Knight Sebastian Wilkes Billy Wiggins The museum curator Tom the Meat Dagger Dave Mary’s ex
Also didn’t see Mary Greg Janine Eurus Faith – Culverton Smith daughter
Yes!!! Wonderful addition @mychakk I can’t do them all right now but will come back to it this evening or tomorrow.
“Precision” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Soo Lin. Museum conservation tools as sex toys, sex at work, tickling, brushing, paint and solvent smells as aphrodisiacs.
“I’m In Charge Here” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/DI Dimmock. Sex in a murdered man’s bed, restraints, gags, spanking, acrobatic sex.
“It Happened One Night” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Henry Knight. Sherlock comforts a terrified Henry, comfort sex, sex with the lights on, sex with the curtains open, exhibitionism, making animal growls during sex.
“Around The World Twice In A Week” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Sebastian Wilkes. Hatesex, revenge sex, pissing contest, not literal pissing, edging, seeing who can hold out longer, dry orgasm, repeat hatesex.
“And That’s Coming From Me” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Billy Wiggins. Drugged out sex, sex multiple times in a day, chafing, surreal sex due to hallucinating, inability to attain orgasm, because drugs, rimming, blowjobs.
“The Original” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/The Museum Curator from TGG. Partially clothed sex, hate sex, not really hate sex more contempt sex, sex in a museum, biting, scratching, swearing, dirty talk, accents as aphrodisiacs.
“Meat Market” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Tom The Meat Dagger Guy. Role play- pretend meeting in a gay bar, mutual masterbation, phallus worship, Dom Sherlock, blow job, humiliation kink.
“Text Alert” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Dave Mary’s Ex. Casual sex, being summoned for sex, Come Anyway, top Sherlock, rough sex, ball gag, blindfold, flail.
Finishing out @mychakk prompts:
“You Gotta Have Faith” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Faith Smith – the real Faith Smith not Euros-as-Faith. Sex in a morgue, inappropriate use of stainless steel autopsy table, cane as a sex toy, caning, blood play, scalpel play.
“Make Me Wear The Hat” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Janine Donlevy. Extended sex romp, cosplay, The Deerstalker as a sex toy, copious amounts of lube, spanking with the hat, exhibitionism.
“Not My Department” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Greg Lestrade. Hangover, sex in a jail cell, food play, gorging on donuts, making a porn movie on a smartphone.
“Nicely” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Mary Morstan. Gun play, power exchange, Dom Mary, Sub Sherlock, blood play, scar kink, humiliation kink.
“Finger Play” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Eurus Holmes. Hand holding, twining fingers, music kink, fingering, multiple costume changes, wig kink, so much fingering.
And I thought of more:
“Lost Weekend” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Billy the Innkeeper/Gary the Innkeeper. Cross Keys Inn, threesome M/M/M, three in a double room, sugared coffee flavored lube, aftercare, snoring.
“Ten-Hut” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Major Barrymore/Corporal Lyons. Military kink, threesome M/M/M, following orders, bottomlock, sex in an office, uniform kink.
“A Funny Thing Happened On The Way Out” by thereal_moriarty. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Doctor Frankland. Elevator sex, frottage, height difference, lab coat kink, hallucinagetic gas, sex under the influence, dubious consent due to influence of drug.
“Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.”
This….is fantastic!
So….is anyone writing any of these? I really hope someone starts an AO3 as thereal_moriarty and starts writing these.
Will the real Moriarty please rise up
I’m so serious, too! It can be like a collaboration – that’s a lot of stories for one person. Someone creates the AO3 for this, and people can pick which stories they want to write and submit for uploading. The only rule is to stick to the tags and description as noted in this post.
I WANT THIS SO BADLY!!
It could be a collection on AO3. I’ll try to figure out how to set up a collection this weekend and set it up. Anyone can write from the prompts and link their fic to the collection. thereal_moriarty collection!
Another rule is to write badly. Use all the no-nos for fic writing. Write like Moriarty would write – crazed psychopath writing.
@iris-wallpaper this is genius! Your moriarty fic ideas are amazing. If you need help setting up a collection lmk–it’s pretty easy though as I recall.
(Personally, I think Jim would be a fastidious fic writer–proofreading until his eyes bled and writing so convincingly that by the end of each fic, the more susceptible in his audience would definitely ship whatever-it-is—a fact that would drive Sherlock extra bonkers.)
“Masterpiece” by thereal_moriarity. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/The Old Man Who Paints Like Vermeer. Travel, steamy South American nights, posing nude, erotic painting, finger painting, Down There, brushing, tickling.
“I’ll Get A Candle” by thereal_moriarity. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Angelo. Food porn, cock and ball torture (CBT), cock rings, hot wax torture, candlelight scene.
“Mesmerized” by thereal_moriarity. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Derren Brown. Dubious consent due to hypnotism, pinching, paddling, barking like a dog, dildos, double penetration.
“In The Corner” by thereal_moriarity. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/The Boring Teacher One. Role play, teacher/student, school uniform, dunce cap, humiliation kink, paddling, orgasm denial.
“Reboot” by thereal_moriarity. Featuring Sherlock Holmes/Jim From IT. Underwear kink, tataurine cream as lube, clubbing, dancing, exhibitionism/vouyorism, pulling in a gay club threesome, but not really because Sherlock just likes to watch.
I’ve included who I consider the six ‘main’ villains above. There’s others you could argue for – Hope, Shan, Norbury, etc – but I think these six are relatively uncontroversial picks. Some of them have multi-episode arcs (Moriarty, Mary, Magnussen, Eurus) while Irene is mentioned several times after her appearance and Smith, while only a single-episode villain like Hope or Shan, seems to loom somewhat larger. Anyway, y’all are welcome to consider other villains. I’m going to look for patterns in these six.
Here’s what I’ve got:
Male villains on BBC Sherlock are the heads of organizations. Female villains on BBC Sherlock are lone wolves.
Magnussen and Smith have business empires. They own physical buildings and have visible entourages. Moriarty’s got a criminal empire. His resources are a bit less visible but we know he’s got half a dozen snipers at the swimming pool, and we meet several members of his network. Moriarty, Magnussen and Smith display their power not just by threatening but by dominating other dangerous and powerful people. They have many people “under their thumb”.
What about our female villains? Irene has a network of clients which she uses to protect herself. Mary used to have a small team of agents she considered her peers, and that team would take on clients together. Eurus has (ugh) an indeterminate number of people brainwashed into obeying her every whim. It’s worth noting here that even though Irene is a dominatrix, she exercises her power not by dominating but by manipulating (”I know what he likes”). Eurus does the same: she convinces people to do her will. Mary, too, exercises power by manipulating, although it’s not clear how much she did so as an active assassin (as opposed to manipulating Sherlock and John in order to maintain her cover).
We can tell that our female villains are qualitatively less powerful than our male villains by the fact the latter can frequently be found threatening the former. Moriarty threatens to turn Irene into shoes, and gives her instructions on how to manipulate Sherlock. Magnussen threatens Mary convincingly enough that she resorts to using force to answer him. And although Eurus is actually (magically!) more powerful than anyone else, in TLD we see her pretending to be a character under grave threat from Smith.
By making their female villains qualitatively less powerful, the writers open the door for another gendered pattern.
Male villains on BBC Sherlock cannot be forgiven for their crimes. Female villains on BBC Sherlock are always forgiven.
Sherlock shoots Magnussen because he can see no other way to end the threat he poses. Culverton Smith is arrested and presumably imprisoned. Moriarty is put on trial, escapes, and kills himself later on the rooftop at Bart’s. All three end up imprisoned or dead.
Now, Mary ends up dead just like Moriarty. But unlike Moriarty, Sherlock’s doing everything he can to protect her, and there’s no discussion of her going on trial for her crimes. And like Culverton Smith, Eurus ends up imprisoned. But Eurus started the show imprisoned, and so it doesn’t actually pose a meaningful barrier to her freedom, or the threat she poses if she decides that a hug from Sherlock hasn’t actually Quieted Her Forever.
On a surface level, Mary and Eurus have the same ends as Moriarty and Smith. But on a character level, it’s entirely different: Mary and Eurus are fundamentally forgiven for the people they’ve killed and the wrongs they’ve done, where Moriarty and Smith aren’t.
Irene, obviously, is forgiven too. Sherlock saves her from execution, but he executes Magnussen himself. Quite a difference.
Male villains on BBC Sherlock do not have personal relationships with Sherlock and John. Female villains on BBC Sherlock do have personal relationships with Sherlock and John.
This one is less universally true. If we say that Irene has a relationship with Sherlock because she’s allegedly in love with him, then we must say the same for Moriarty as well – even moreso, since Moriarty seems even more obsessed.
But the other four villains bear out the pattern well. Mary is John’s wife, Eurus is Sherlock’s sister. Neither Magnussen nor Smith have any relationship to Sherlock or John at all – in fact, Sherlock has to fake a relationship to Magnussen’s secretary to get close to him.
The personalization of female villains on BBC Sherlock can also be seen in how they’re referred to: Moriarty, Magnussen, Smith; Irene, Mary, Eurus.
This ties into the previous two observations. It’s easier to tell a story about forgiveness when the villain in question has a personal relationship with the protagonist. And that personal relationship can be a real source of threat, in the absence of the drama that being ‘the most dangerous, the most despicable human being’ can provide.
*
When I look at these patterns, I see an inability to conceive of women as being powerful or threatening in the ways traditionally reserved for men. I was so excited when for a hot second I thought we were getting a Lady Smallwood villain reveal, because Lady Smallwood has that type of traditionally male power. But instead she remains a nonthreatening bit player, and the villain is Norbury – another lone wolf ushered quickly off the stage.
I actually don’t fault the writers that much for falling into these patterns. A lot of writers do. What bothers me is when they try to pass themselves off as feminist visionaries for having made the ‘Holmes brother’ into a sister or turning Mary Morstan into an assassin. No, sorry, your work is a bog-standard reflection of the sexist culture from which you come – as exemplified by your villains.
Sherlock Fandom Archive 