A man after my own taste. 

The Woman and the master-criminal.

 (Sherlock Meta by abidos)

About Moriarty in ASiB, and what it can tell us about what happens during the following two episodes.



In this part we’ll look at  ASiB again, but from Moriarty’s point of view.  It would probably help if you read the analysis from Mycroft’s perspective first.

This is the second part of a longer piece concerning what happens during The Reichenbach Fall.  The first part can be found here, although it has no direct relation to this piece.

We’ll begin with the scene at the pool and the question of what made Moriarty change his mind.

The conversation itself gives very little clues.  He picks up the phone:

“Hello? … Yes, of course it is. What do you want?”

Then she talks again and he starts screaming and threatening her that she’d better not be yanking his chain, and then he says a few more interesting things:

“Sorry. Wrong day to die.” (to Sherlock)

And

“So if you have what you say you have, I will make you rich. If you don’t, I’ll make you into shoes.”

There are two things we can get from this.  One is that this is the first time they talk, and two, what she claims to have is very relevant to Jim, and that he changes his mind over when he will kill Sherlock.

Let’s begin with looking at what Irene is not offering him.

* Pictures of the royal family.  One, it is hard to imagine Moriarty being particularly interested in them.  Two, they have nothing to do with Sherlock.  I have seen the theory that they do, because when the existence of the pictures were to come out it would be a sure thing for Mycroft to get involved, and that he would rely on Sherlock to get them.  However, as I already pointed out,  Mycroft was not the one to get Sherlock involved in the case.  Also, it seems a stretch that Mycroft would be guaranteed to get tasked with solving the problem, or that he would use Sherlock.

* The MOD mail.  Again, Moriarty has just thrown the USB-stick with the Bruce-Parrington plans in the pool, he is not about to get excited by a mail that might hold relevant information.  Besides, Irene would not contact someone as dangerous as Moriarty unless she was sure of the value of what she had.  This is not the case if she doesn’t know what the mail says.  And if she does know, she doesn’t really need Moriarty.  Also, the link to Sherlock is again tenuous.  The MOD has many projects, Mycroft cannot be involved in all of them.

So what do we know?  We know it is important to Jim, so it must be hard to obtain, otherwise he would have already had it.  That must mean that Irene was in a rather unique position when she obtained it.  We also know it has to do with Sherlock, specifically with Jim’s plans of getting rid of Sherlock.



Let’s leave this matter for now and look at Moriarty’s involvement in Irene’s plan or, rather, how he chooses to reveal his involvement.  Some have argued that Irene mentions Jim’s influence, and particularly his interest in both Holmes brothers as a form of revenge because he has betrayed her ( I disagree strongly with this theory) or as a way of diverting Mycroft’s attention.  This idea makes little sense since, at this point, Mycroft is already aware of Moriarty’s participation, and Irene knows that he is, the information is only news to Sherlock.

So why does Moriarty contact Mycroft?  It is not necessary for the plan to work.  After receiving the text, Mycroft is expected to deduce Irene’s involvement in the leak, in order to lend credibility to her claim of possessing a lot of vital information, so it cannot be a way of keeping her hidden.  On the other hand, given Irene’s predilection for manipulation and gloating, she would have chosen to make the revelation herself.  And Jim has no personal interest in Mycroft, his obsession is wholly focused and Sherlock, Mycroft only comes into it as far as he is related to Sherlock.  In The Great Game Jim completely dismisses the Bruce-Parrington plans, even though accepting them would have allowed him to create huge problems for the older Holmes.  If we are to believe Mycroft’s account of events, during the interrogation he is only of interest to Moriarty as a source of information about Sherlock.

So what did Moriarty want?  What could he have expected to gain from taunting Mycroft?  Well, I would say, exactly what he got, that is, some alone time in an underground facility.

 

There is one more point that might be interesting to consider.  The fact that Moriarty and Irene decided to make Sherlock and Mycroft pivotal in the plan.

Let’s start by looking at it from Irene’s point of view.

There is no reason to assume that she is even aware of who Sherlock is by the time she calls Jim for the first time. Even if, at this point, she already was fixated on him, she wouldn’t know about Mycroft, besides, she shows no interest in him.

Now, is it reasonable for us to assume that Mycroft’s connection to the MOD mail was known when it was chosen to be the object of their scam?  It’s importance must have been apparent, for other reasons than the assurance of the MOD man, since both Irene and Moriarty would have considered the possibility of him lying.  Furthermore, the second Sherlock decodes the e-mail, Moriarty sends the message to Mycroft, so he, at least, must have known that this was a project of the older Holmes. After all, the MOD has many of them, and Mycroft cannot be involved in all of them.

The plan would have worked if, instead of Mycroft, Irene had tried to blackmail anyone else, it is doubtful that he is the only one in a position to negotiate with her.  I pointed out that Sherlock’s involvement was crucial to the negotiation with Mycroft,  but had it been with anyone else, Irene would have simply needed some personal leverage over this person, something she would have had little problem of obtaining.

 

So we see that Mycroft, and very probably Sherlock’s involvement in Irene’s plan was precipitated.  We know he likes to play with Sherlock, but again, we are faced with the question of why he would involve the older brother.