"A vile seductress, capable of manipulations I can only describe as mind-bending." - Sherlock Holmes, describing Jamie Moriarty
Moriarty made her in-person return to Elementary in Thursday's fascinating and suspenseful episode, "The Diabolical Kind." Holmes' ex-girlfriend and arch-foe volunteered to help the police solve a kidnapping case, but naturally she had more on her mind than being useful...and viewers who thought her priorities in life were limited to crime and obsessing over Sherlock Holmes had a few surprises in store.
At the beginning of the episode, we were privy to one of the more recent letters in an apparently ongoing exchange between Sherlock and Moriarty. Interestingly, the letters are hidden in Holmes' rooftop beehives. I found this an unusual and intriguing choice, since the hives were a hobby Holmes especially prioritized after his defeat of Moriarty in the Season 1 finale. The task of beekeeping seemed to represent a reaffirmation self-control at a time when he felt most chaotic, after discovering that Irene was actually Moriarty.
Furthermore, he made a point of naming a new species of bees after Watson, so not only do the bees represent his need to maintain his life of sobriety and meaningful, constructive interactions with good people, but they also symbolize his friendship with Joan. So why, then, aside from the fact of its simply being a secure place where no one would be likely to look, did he choose to house the secret correspondence (which represents a break, or the danger of a break, from those positive elements in his life) in that same place? Holmes does nothing lightly. In some way, he associates this place with the contemplation of both sides of his personality, dark and light. And the hidden letters represent his suppressed dark side, existing within the casing of the day-to-day life he has built for himself.
At any rate, the letter that Holmes wrote to Moriarty featured a certain inscrutable blend between sincerity and emotional manipulation. Does he want to stay close to her in some way, both for personal and professional reasons? Clearly. He even made a reference to Watson's dating life, and we knew there was no way that wasn't going to come back to bite him later in the episode. Talking to his evil mastermind ex about his partner and housemate's personal life? Not cool. But then again, Holmes doesn't register certain aspects of social expectations, not least of all because even he himself does not consider that he is fully integrated into normal society (more on that to follow).
When a little girl is kidnapped and the ransom call features vocals from Moriarty's agent (the one who always served as her spokesperson in the past and whom Holmes dubs "Fauxriarty" - possibly my favorite nickname since Walter Bishop coined "Fauxlivia" in Fringe), Holmes immediately suspects that Moriarty is behind the crime, and demands to see her. Come to find out, she's been moved from prison to a considerably more comfortable location, a warehouse where she's been sequestered while she provides useful information on crimes to the feds.
Of course, it was a terrible idea to give Moriarty the least bit of freedom - a terrible idea on the feds' part, that is, not in terms of the show's writers. Her ability to move more freely yielded some wonderfully tense and revelatory developments in this superb episode.
When Watson, Holmes, and Gregson showed up at Moriarty's living quarters, they walked right into a big artistic shrine to Joan; huge, creepy, lifelike paintings of Watson were hanging all over the room. I enjoyed seeing this additional layer to Moriarty's Holmes fixation. It's not enough for her to realize that she can never really be with him after all that she did; she has to understand why on Earth he'd be drawn to form such a close relationship with a woman who seems entirely ordinary to the egocentric criminal. This expressive dimension of Moriarty's interest fed into a delightfully intriguing little chat between herself and Joan later in the episode, and also perfectly symbolizes the dynamic between the three characters.
To what extent is it all about pride and winning or losing for Moriarty, and how much does she actually, truly care about knowing whether she and Holmes can reconnect in some honestly significant way? The two aspects seem blended as much as Holmes' instincts to either reconnect or forever pull away from Moriarty. To the villainess, Watson is a symbol of the morality which she herself can't embody and the emotional proximity to Holmes she's lost the chance of enjoying. And as the above picture epitomizes, Moriarty is keenly aware that Watson stands between herself and Holmes.
When Moriarty arrived at the police station with only a pair of fancy handcuffs to keep her in check, Holmes quipped, "Handcuffs that don't connect, shoot me now." This was just one of the many delightfully tart retorts leveled Moriarty's way by Holmes in this episode, making an excellent counter to the more poignant, conflicted lines he shared with her. I also loved this exchange:
Moriarty: "You look a bit tired."
Holmes: "You look a bit evil."
The way he rapidly undercut her veneer of innocent concern was terrific and hilarious.
Watson volunteered to go with Moriarty to look at the crime scene, ostensibly to save the extremely irritated Holmes the trouble, but as he later noted, it also gave the ladies a chance to touch base. Moriarty, of course, cannot resist going off on a typical bad guy monologue about how Watson's "been on her mind," a topic clearly intended to intimidate Joan. I loved how nonplussed Joan remained, and her matter-of-fact attitude when she informed Moriarty that Holmes chose to work with Watson - not the other way around. "That bothers you," Watson observed with righteously cutting accuracy. Joan Watson is class personified.
After this exchange, Watson and Holmes worked on the case back at the brownstone, where Sherlock revealed his letters and made a solid effort to explain his reasons for writing to Moriarty...and his feelings towards the villain in general. Though annoyed that Holmes mentioned her love life in the letters, Watson was quietly, generously understanding of Sherlock's complicated emotions. That doesn't mean Watson wasn't well up to stating, with clear and veracious emphasis, "There is no Irene. There is only Moriarty, and Moriarty is never going to change." This is something Holmes needed to hear, but he later questioned whether he himself is capable of maintaining change in light of his being continuously drawn to Moriarty.
I wasn't at all surprised to learn that Moriarty was using her sketches to send secret messages to her former cohorts, but the episode did shock me with the reveal that the kidnapped child was actually Moriarty's daughter. My next thought was that if I were in Devon Gaspar's shoes, I wouldn't mess with Moriarty's offspring. Just a really bad idea in general.
Sure enough, Moriarty quickly pieced together her daughter's location, flew into action, dispatched everyone standing in the way, and managed to get her child to safety all before summoning Holmes to her side.
What followed was an intensely fraught conversation between Holmes and Moriarty. She informed the detective that she had no problem returning to custody as she'll soon be free anyway, and assured him that Kayden originates from before her relationship with him (i.e. Holmes is not the father). We heard the story of how Moriarty knew motherhood wasn't for her (memo to Moriarty: good call) and of her giving the child up for adoption accordingly. The extent to which the criminal seems to care about her estranged child confirms again that she is far from invulnerable to the nobler emotions.
Holmes observed that Moriarty had managed her escape from federal custody without killing any law enforcement agents, and Moriarty explained that she did this in some attempt to please Holmes himself. She questioned whether Holmes has been able to achieve normality, to become "one of them" by becoming concerned with how his actions will be perceived by others. Holmes, disturbed by his inability to compute or shake off his feelings for Moriarty, is driven to say "I'm not sure I am one of them," showing us that he feels insecure of his standing as an upstanding and evolving person. The root of this insecurity is perfectly reflected by Moriarty, who mirrors his genius but gives into most of the baser impulses to which he would never surrender. Their affinity for one another, even now, causes him to question himself: is his own dark side fully eliminated?
Obviously, it never can be. It's Holmes' continuing battle to be the best man he can be that, in turn, ensures he'll be that very man. However, his attraction to Moriarty (partially born out of confused residual love for Irene) provokes quandaries not only about his own inherent goodness, but also as to the topic so often canvassed between the villain and himself. What does it mean to truly know another person, to establish emotional intimacy, to comprehend the depth of human love? Can people such as Holmes and Moriarty, rendered near sociopathic in their worst moments by the height of their genius, achieve that kind of relationship? If so, would it be with each other? How would that work? It's these profound and confounding questions that haunt the hero and villain as they collapse into a quasi-embrace.
I'm sure many viewers feel, as I do, that Holmes has already made the human connection he wonders whether he's capable of making: his friendship and partnership with Watson is a magically exquisite bond founded in true companionship, empathy, and growing emotional intimacy (regardless of how one wants to interpret that last part, romantic or otherwise). Is it because he sees himself in Moriarty, and because of his past love for Irene, that he is still haunted by an inability to stop wondering what they could be to one another? I think so.
While commitments to other shows may limit Natalie Dormer's ability to appear on Elementary, I hope she'll return at least by the season's end. In whatever incarnation they appear, from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original tales to all of their myriad adaptations, interactions between Holmes and Moriarty never fail to amaze. With gripping performances from Johnny Lee Miller, Lucy Liu, and Dormer, this was the best episode yet in a so-far exemplary season of Elementary.
What did you think of the episode? Any theories as to the shady references Moriarty made to those she has been working with? Share your thoughts in the comments!
About the Author - Virginia Mae Fontana
Virginia is happy to be reviewing Hart of Dixie, The Mentalist, Beauty and the Beast, Elementary, Witches of East End, Covert Affairs, and Devious Maids for Spoiler TV. She is a college English instructor and also enjoys obsessing over films and pop music - in addition to tv shows, of course! You can find her blog, SugarRushed, at http://virginiamaeblog.blogspot.com/ and her Twitter handle is @SugarRushedBlog
