Family affair, or My Wild Theory after Sherlock Season 3

ATTN: Spoilers ahead.

I thought the last episode of Season 3 of Sherlock was epic. I was extremely disappointed with episode 1, season 3, because it gave no answers about The Reichenbach Fall. Now it is clear it was never meant to. Moriarty is alive, and the drama still continues.

But that need not stop us from forming theories. Here is mine, which connects many of the facts. Not all, but many. But if I let it out straight away, you will think it is pretty wild. So, long-suffering reader, request your patience as I try to build the logic. 

The 10 Connections:

1.  In season 1 episode 3, it is clear that Holmes and Moriarty’s paths crossed when they were young. The murder of Carl Powers (the boy who’s sneakers were poisoned) was Moriarty’s first crime, and Holmes’s first case. From there Moriarty becomes the consulting criminal, Holmes the consulting detective.

2. The name of Moriarty comes many times before they meet by the pool. Sherlock already knows he is going to meet Moriarty. Yet, he asks, “Who are you?” He is not asking Jim his name. He probably knows Moriarty is a created name, a nom-de-plume. He is asking Moriarty who he REALLY is

3. At the end of season 1, Moriarty tells Holmes he played the whole game, “just to get him to come out and play.”

4. Moriarty desperately wants to get both Mycroft and Sherlock’s attention, in a way that is almost too child-like.

5. Irene Adler tells Mycroft the nickname Moriarty has given him: The Ice Man. Seems like someone who is cold, heartless, ruthless.

6. In Season 2, episode 3, Moriarty seems to know a great deal about Sherlock’s childhood, which he uses to spread lies about him. Watson accuses Mycroft of telling Moriarty about Sherlock’s childhood in return for the code, but Mycroft never confirms this. He simply says, “Sorry John.” Perhaps Mycroft did not tell Moriarty. Perhaps Moriarty knew it himself, which is possible because their paths crossed as kids.

7. The all of the last episode of season 2 was about figuring the Final Problem. We never come to know what it was. Even more mysterious is the following exchange between them, before Jim shoots himself.

Sherlock: I am not my brother. I am you.
Moriarty: Ah yes, you are me. Thank you!
 

8. Both Moriarty and Sherlock are uncharacteristically emotional before they commit their ‘suicides’. Moriarty almost wants to give Sherlock a hug. Sherlock actually cries after Jim shoots himself and continues crying till he jumps off.  They do feel for each other. (No, its not what you are thinking.)

9. The series is full of references to Conan Doyle’s canon. Knowledge of the original is usually helpful. (AS A DIGRESSION, for instance, one would know that Major Sholto was killed in the original, “Sign of Four”, and he is the one meant to be killed at the wedding; and that the killer’s name would be Jonathan Small.)

Here is a great anamoly. In the original, Moriarty is a mathematics professor. There is no reference to his profession here, but there IS a mathematics professor – Sherlock and Mycroft’s mother. In the original, Holmes’s parents NEVER feature. So there seems to be a deliberate attempt to bring a family angle in this series.

10. Speaking of family, did you notice something interesting that Mycroft said at the end of last episode?

“I am not given to ourbursts of brotherly love. Remember what I did to the other one?”

He also makes it clear that he considers murder an extremely heinous crime, one he will punish severely, cold heartedly. Like the Ice Man that he is. 

Lady Smallwood: Mr. Holmes, this is hardly merciful.
Mycroft: But my brother committed a murder.

Who was the other brother? Why are they not together?

Well, because Mycroft did something bad to him. Possibly, because he murdered someone?

Possibly, because he murdered Carl Powers?

See where we are going with this?

 Moriarty is the other brother. Possibly, a half brother, through their mother; which is how he can match wits with the Holmes brothers.

Early on in his life, he murders Carl Powers and Mycroft punishes him. He has been plotting revenge ever since. Sherlock may or may not have known this.

Which is why his child-like eagerness to get the Holmes brothers, “To come out and play.”

Which is how he knows details about Sherlock’s childhood.

That is the final problem. That they are brothers. That is why Sherlock says, “I am not my elder brother. I am you.”

Which is why both of them get so uncharacteristically emotional – why Moriarty fights back his tears before shooting himself, and why Sherlock weeps - In front of him is his brother in a pool of blood.

Of course, I realize this is a partial theory. It does not explain why Sherlock “Has a way as long as Moriarty is alive.” It does not explain why Moriarty shot himself, or how he faked it.

But honestly, that in my opinion is just a smoke-screen to distract us from the real plot.

Leave a comment on what you think.