| "My first instinct was to kill you. Quietly, discreetly. But then, the more I learned about you, the more...curious I became. Here, at last, seemed to be a mind that rivaled my own, something too complicated and too beautiful to destroy. At least, without further analysis." — Moriarty, "Heroine".
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Jamie Moriarty is Sherlock Holmes' nemesis. After Sherlock interrupted several of her plans when he worked for Scotland Yard, she tricked him into falling in love with her so she could study him, knowing her as Irene Adler. Even after her arrest and imprisonment, she continues to have a great impact on him, and he writes her letters because she is the only person he can relate to.
Biography
Background
| When Holmes interrupted several of her assassination plans in London, Moriarty at first considered killing him. Intrigued by his deductive abilities, which she compared to her own, she created the identity of Irene Adler and arranged for him to visit her. As Irene, she was an American in London who restored historic paintings, stealing some so that she could properly preserve them, which Holmes chose not to report her for. Moriarty's passion for art is one of the few characteristics she retained as Irene. She seduced Sherlock so she could study him and finding he wasn't a threat to her other operations, she staged Irene's death (leaving a pool of her blood and a note signed "M", the modus operandi of her primary assassin Sebastian Moran), and resumed her business as Moriarty. Moriarty was unaware of Sherlock's subsequent descent into drug addiction and showed genuine regret when she found out about it.
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| Before she met Sherlock, Moriarty had a brief affair with Joshua Vikner and became pregnant. After giving birth, she gave the baby (Kayden) for adoption to the Fullers, a wealthy infertile English couple who later moved to New York. Despite her extremely ruthless nature, Moriarty kept close track of her daughter and clearly cared about her. Sherlock notes that Moriarty seldom involves herself directly in her operations, since she is the head of her crime syndicate and it poses a risk. However, she is perfectly capable of operating alone as she hunts down and kills her various rogue agents single-handedly.
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Season One
| Moriarty is first mentioned when Sherlock captures the assassin Sebastian Moran who was killing on behalf of Moriarty using a serial killer's M.O. Sherlock interrogates Moran, believing he killed Irene Adler because the scene of her "death" had the same M.O. Moran knows he was in prison when Irene's murder happened, and concludes Moriarty "killed" her and framed him, having never met Moriarty. He offers to give Holmes as much information on Moriarty as possible to get revenge for the betrayal. Sherlock vows to bring down Moriarty and avenge Irene. ("M.") Moriarty leads Sherlock and Joan Watson to a mansion in Brooklyn, where they find her as Irene, alive. ("Risk Management")
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| Appearing as if she has been held captive, and very convincingly faking symptoms of PTSD, she is checked into a hospital and eventually moves in with Sherlock under his care. When someone breaks into his house and leaves a flower at her bed as a supposed threat, Sherlock takes her to a safe house and plans to elope with her. After Sherlock sees a mole missing on her back, he figures out that she may have been faking her death to begin with and suspects her of working for Moriarty, causing Irene to angrily abandon him. Later, when one of her assassins who has gone rogue attacks Sherlock, Irene saves him by killing the man, and reveals herself to be Moriarty and details how she tricked him back in London. Holmes has interfered with a plot she has in NYC and tells him to let her win, or she will hurt him. ("The Woman")
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| Moriarty's plot involves kidnapping the daughter of a Greek businessman nicknamed the "Narwhal". Holmes deduces that Moriarty is forcing the Narwhal to assassinate a Macedonian diplomat, thus damaging the likelihood of Macedonia joining the European Union (which is obstructed due to a spat with Greece) and switching its currency to the Euro. Moriarty has bought huge quantities of Macedonian currency and stands to make a billion dollars if the plot succeeds. Moriarty meets Watson for lunch to figure her out and insults her. Despite Holmes warning the NYPD, the Narwhal is able to kill the diplomat and the plot appears to succeed. He's dismayed at Moriarty being one step ahead of him.
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| Holmes is next seen in the hospital having overdosed and is visited by Moriarty. Holmes asks questions which she answers that give details about the plot which includes multiple murders. She offers to take him away with her and heal him. Holmes reveals that he didn't overdose and that another person has figured her out - Watson. Watson hatched her own plot to let it appear that Moriarty has won, knowing that her love for Holmes would bring her to his rescue. Holmes has recorded her admission and Watson, Captain Gregson and Detective Bell arrive. Moriarty is arrested and the Macedonian money she has acquired is frozen. ("Heroine")
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Season Two
| Sherlock is seen writing a letter wondering if he believes in the possibility of truly knowing another person and claiming "yours is the only opinion I trust". He receives a reply, ending with a hope that he will continue writing. The letter was sent from Newgate Prison is from Moriarty. ("We Are Everyone")
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When a seven-year-old girl named Kayden Fuller is kidnapped and her father shot, Holmes and Watson arrive in time to hear the ransom demands of $50,000,000. Holmes quickly recognizes the voice as that of the man who previously pretended to be Moriarty, who Moriarty herself described as one of her subordinates. Assuming Moriarty somehow gave the orders for the kidnapping, Holmes and Watson visit her for the first time since her arrest, discovering she has made a large painting of Watson's face in perfect detail. Moriarty coolly denies being involved in the kidnapping, but offers to give the names and likenesses of her subordinates (who probably were involved) in exchange for more 'favors'. Holmes refuses and leaves immediately, but shortly afterwards discovers she has been recruited as a consulting agent by the NYPD in exchange for an undisclosed 'favor', to his agitation.
Moriarty has chips embedded in her forearms and electroshock stun bracelets on her wrists, but Holmes still believes she will try to escape. Moriarty duly gives them the likenesses of three of her subordinates and asks to see the crime scene; Watson accompanies her, irritated that Holmes and Moriarty discussed her personal life in their letters. Moriarty admits she finds Watson more intelligent and interesting than at first, and that part of the reason that she and Sherlock write to one another is because they are the only ones who can understand and relate to the other to some degree.
When Moriarty's subordinates ambush two policemen and kill them (although one of the three men she drew is killed in the process), Holmes angrily yells at her, thinking she somehow communicated the information to them directly. For once, Moriarty does not attempt to manipulate him, but continues to deny involvement in the kidnapping, looking increasingly distressed when her former lieutenant, Devon Gasper, makes a call and puts the frightened Kayden on the phone crying for her 'mummy'. It is quickly clear that Gasper is acting without Moriarty's orders (as he knows she made the sketches) but Holmes nonetheless orders her removed from the team and sent back to her cell.
After Holmes decodes Moriarty's sketching of Gasper's stubble, containing subliminal messages Gasper was meant to find, he finds it is coordinates for a location in the Norwegian island of Svalbard, which results in her being forced to wear the stun bracelets in her cell as an additional precaution. Watson wonders if that is where her escape team is supposed to meet her, but Holmes no longer suspects escape is her primary motive. Watson also wonders why Moriarty looked so upset when Gasper put Kayden on the phone, saying "She looked like she wanted to kill him". When Holmes, suspecting she had two-way communication with Gasper, looks for coded messages in the classified section of her newspaper, he is stunned by his discovery. Not only is Moriarty not behind the kidnapping, she is one of its victims, because Kayden Fuller is her biological daughter. Gasper has been demanding both the ransom and the location of the Svalbard coordinates, and whatever lies there, in exchange for Kayden's life.
Meanwhile, Moriarty escapes her cell by using glass shards of her paint jars to neutralize her stun bracelets (despite the glass cutting her wrists badly) and strangling her only guard unconscious. She promptly tracks down Gasper and two of his men at an old property of hers in the Bronx, where Kayden is also being held, and guns down all three kidnappers. Moriarty then calls Sherlock, who is investigating the scene of her escape, telling him she wants to see him and that the police can wait outside.
Holmes finds her sitting alone by the corpses, with her wrists bleeding severely. She says Kayden has been sent away, 're-situated', to a safe place, indicating that not all of her crime syndicates abandoned her during her imprisonment. She admits Kayden's conception was an unintended incident early in her criminal career quite a while before she met Holmes, and that she went through the pregnancy intending to give Kayden to the Fullers for adoption, knowing "motherhood would not mix well with my... proclivities". Moriarty suspects Gasper somehow learned about Kayden from the girl's biological father. Sherlock asks her about the Svalbard coordinates, and Moriarty reveals she made a dossier of 'interesting facts', a nod to the character of Irene Adler, who was her mask. In fact, the dossier was not even in Svalbard, but Moriarty had been sure she could escape and eliminate Gasper and his men before they learned she'd deceived them. Sherlock remarks that she could have run as he examines her injuries, but Moriarty confidently predicts that she will be free soon enough, so there was no need to live as a fugitive. She thanks Sherlock for his letters, saying she finds them influencing her decisions occasionally, such as not to kill her guard, which she would have found 'expedient' but Sherlock would have found repugnant, indicating her character is beginning to redeem herself, and she and Sherlock still care about each other on some level.
Moriarty begins to black out, and Holmes carries her outside to an ambulance. Watson tells him she lost a lot of blood but she'll be okay. She is presumably rearrested. ("The Diabolical Kind")
Season Three
Jaime Moriarty writes a letter to Watson expressing her admiration for Watson's career and her displeasure at the attempt on Watson's life. She then arranges the death of Elana March to protect Watson. She also hints at an "unfolding game between Sherlock and herself", of which she says Watson is a player. ("The Female of the Species")
Trivia
- The episodes featuring Moriarty were written with Natalie Dormer in mind. She was cast before the episodes were written.[1]
- The name that her supposed kidnapper was called by, Mr. Stapleton, is a reference to a character by the same name in the Conan Doyle book, The Hound of the Baskervilles.
- A letter she sent to Sherlock shows her return address as Anemoonstraat 86, 5271 GS Sint-Michielsgestel, The Netherlands.
- Moriarty is revealed to have had a daughter, Kayden Fuller, whom she gave up for adoption years before she met Sherlock. Her father is Joshua Vikner. ("The Diabolical Kind")
- Moriarty mentions having a mentor who shared the same enthusiasm as her.
- The painting Moriarty is restoring when Sherlock first meets her is Peter Paul Rubens "The Incredulity of St Thomas".
Gallery
See also
- Arthur Conan Doyle's Moriarty on Wikipedia, which Elementary's Moriarty is based on.
- Arthur Conan Doyle's Irene Adler on Wikipedia, which Elementary's Irene Adler is based on.
References
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