Moriarty and Irene Adler

 (Sherlock Meta by thenorwoodbuilder)

Anonymous asked: What advices exactly did Moriarty give Irene? Like being naked in front of him and play dead?

thenorwoodbuilder:

Hallo to you, too, dear!

Well, this is a question which elicits a trip in the realm of (almost) pure speculation, but I’ll try and give you my (reasoned, I hope) opinion.



We know for certain that it was Irene to contact Moriarty, as many others before her had contacted him: in order to avail herself of his expertise as consulting criminal. We may reasonably presume that, as soon as Moriarty heard what kind of compromising materials Irene possessed (not only Her Highness’ photographs, but, even more, the MOD man’s email), he immediately realized that she wouldn’t have been an ordinary client (in which he was probably no longer interested…), but she could instead represent a wonderful occasion for a first attempt at “burning the heart out of” Sherlock (and Mycroft). Even more so, because Moriarty probably already knew Irene Adler by fame - for the same and, at the same time, opposite reasons why Mycroft, too, knew her - and immediately realized that she wouldn’t have been just a witless tool, but, instead, a very valuable and “creative” (albeit unknowing) ally, in his play against the Holmes Brothers… Just irresistible!

We also know - or at least might presume from Irene’s reactions during her conversation with Mycroft - that Morarty had not informed Irene of his long-term personal plans about the Holmes Boys, and she only realized that Jim wasn’t just a paid consultant, but had his own - and more cherished - personal agenda for her to play along when Mycroft told her that Moriarty had already proven himself “desperate for his attention”. Which, I presume, induced her to give Mycroft and Sherlock a bit more information about her agreement with Moriarty than what had been requested by Moriarty himself…



This said, I really can’t see either Moriarty giving Irene detailed instructions, as if she were a brainless minion or client of his, or Irene needing such kind of detailed directions.

The trick (almost, or better, partly) worked because Irene Adler had a genius of her own in manipulating people, and particulalry men: this Moriarty must have instantly understood, and decided to use at his advantage.

I think that the “advice” he gave to Irene was mainly of two kinds:

1) Moriarty provided Irene with A LOT of information about both Mycroft and Sherlock - and particulalrly, of course, about Sherlock.

We know that Moriarty had begun to collect information about Sherlock even before the events portraied in ASiP (as the cabbie knows of Sherlock’s past as an “addict”, and tells him he has a “fan” who follows his work quite closely), and we can quite safely assume that he only doubled his efforts to know everything possible about his obsession through the whole series (actually, I presume that, when he got himself kidnapped by Mycroft’s men, Moriarty already knew the largest part of the information he then obtained from Mycroft himself: the point was not to gather further information, I presume, but just to use a brother against the other, to induce Mycroft to betray Sherlock, and then let Sherlock know about this). In the same way, as soon as he decided that the game would have been much more fun if played against both the Holmes Brothers, I’m sure he collected equally detailed information about Mycroft.

And with “information” I don’t only mean personal biographical details, but also, and even more, details about their modus operandi, their habits, their patterns of decision, their way of reasoning and behaving, their characteristics and quirks…

And I think that the first, priceless help Moriarty gave to Irene was to make her privy to this capital of information about both Sherlock and Mycroft, so that she could find by herself the better way to manipulate them: their weaknesses, their soft spots, their blind spots. After all, Irene’s speciality is “to know what people like”: that is, once she has enough information about someone (and I’d bet that she is quick enough in finding information on her own, when dealing with “ordinary” people…), she’ll be able to manipulate almost anyone.



2) Moriarty also probably suggested to Irene her opening gambit - that is, it was probably him the one who (knowing quite well both Mycroft and the Secret Service, and Sherlock) told her how to play the cards she had in the most profitable way. Thus, I presume that was Moriarty to suggest her to hook Mycroft with the compromising photographs of a member of the Royal Family BEFORE letting slip any hint about the encoded e-mail with the CIA, in order to induce Mycroft to involve Sherlock in an investigation just to find himself in the need to try and (unsuccessfully, of course) force him out of it once the true magnitude of the case was revealed to him, so ensuring Irene a grip on Sherlock and a way to manipulate him into doing what she wanted in order to stitch Mycroft up and, through him, get a fortune for her camera phone from the British Government.

Apart form this, I think that everything else was left to Irene’s ability. She IS clever, VERY clever, she has an incredible talent for psychology and manipulation, she is able to immediately understand how to play people in front of her. This natural ability, combined with the information provided by Moriarty, was more than enough to suggest her the better way to deal with Sherlock.

After all, we see her trying on several dresses (costumes!), while getting ready for her first meeting with Sherlock. Thus, we are clearly shown that SHE is the one to choose her own strategy, her own opening move, in her personal duel with Sherlock. She is the one who foresees that the best way to catch Sherlock aback, to wrong-foot him could be to abandon any disguise (which, after all, “is always a self portrait” and always tells some information about the person who wears it…) and to try and shock him by appearing completely naked.

And I presume that she, too, was the one who conceived the idea of appealing to Sherlock’s secret sentimental and chivalrous side, also taking advantage of his inexperience with women and sentiments, and therefore devised the plan to fake her own death, after having obtained Sherlock’s interest, only to then trick him into helping her out of relief and misplaced protectiveness.

More generally, I think that Irene was the sole and only “director” of any interaction with Sherlock: she is a master at this kind of things, she has a genius for manipulating people, ans she needs no lessons from anybody, Moriarty included. Also, this is the kind of plays she herself enjoys - she says it herself - and she enjoys them also because she is a master, at them.



As I’ve already written several times, Irene is, under many respects, Sherlock’s equal, his female equivalent, and his true “kindred spirit”, albeit on the criminal side (NOT Moriarty!). Her only problem - the only reason she needed to consult Moriarty - was to know how to use the bunch of explosive information she owned, in the most profitable way: she needed someone more intimately acquainted with the methods and reasoning of the Secret Services, in order to be able to play a game at such an high level; to venture herself in this kind of blackmail without an adequate knowledge of the field and an adequate back-up would have been a suicide, and Irene was too clever not to realize this. So she consulted the renown criminal mastermind, Moriarty.

But, when it came at how to handle Sherlock Holmes, I bet it was all fruit of her brain…

Cheers!