The game is afoot.
What They Say:
William helps to cover up Enders’s crime, and Enders believes he is in the clear. As the first ballet performed aboard a sailing vessel takes place, William and the others secretly prepare another production in criminal theatre behind the scenes.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
We’ve established the character of Moriarty, his team comprised of his brothers made specifically for this series as well as his existing accomplices, the origin story of the brothers, and the general paradigm of the team’s work. The only things left are to break from the episodic stories in favor of a larger plot and, perhaps most importantly, finally pit Moriarty against his archenemy, a certain consulting detective whose deductive skills are worlds beyond those of anyone except Moriarty.
Although Mr. Holmes is not formally introduced by name here, his identity is unquestionable between his role in the OP, his absurdly detailed analysis of Moriarty from a brief glance, and the instant rivalry sparked between the two of them. The most critical deductions for each party, though, are left ambiguous. Moriarty claims that this detective shouldn’t pose a problem for their plan, but it’s hard to imagine he’s naïve enough to believe that after seeing what the man is capable of from nearly no information. Similarly, with all that Sherlock can tell about Moriarty’s life, it seems impossible to think that he wouldn’t be able to tell that the professor’s true occupation is that of a criminal, at least to some extent. The most valid argument against this assumption would be that Moriarty, as Sherlock’s only match, would know how to mask the signs that would lead the other to identify him as his natural foe. Without Sherlock’s name, occupation, or sidekick revealed in this episode, his appearance is little more than an extended cameo, but once he becomes a central figure in the story, it’s likely that we’ll get some serious insight into exactly what he thinks about Moriarty.
As this story is taking up at least two episodes, the scale is naturally larger, which is an exciting prospect. The first phase of the plan is very familiar ground for this series at this point; their target is a comically evil nobleman who sees commoners as subhuman to the point of literally hunting them for sport. What’s amusing is that their initial methods are pettier than anything he does; it essentially amounts to simple bullying to annoy him until he reaches a breaking point and his true nature is put on full display. Their clandestine planning meeting has some interesting tidbits, like Moriarty’s vision of his job as a criminal consultant as the means rather than the end. That could be assumed easily enough after his actions in most of the episodes thus far, but hearing him explicitly state it here certainly sets him apart from most other depictions of the character, and even the image we got from him in the first episode to some extent.
What’s particularly interesting in this story, though, is that Moriarty begins to play the Light Yagami role a bit deeper by actually sacrificing a commoner working for the team for the sake of the mission. It’s framed as somewhat justified given his position as a rapist and murderer (but not the “good” kind like our boys), but it does still show that they’re not above killing of “their side” to get what they want. The fact that he was such an obviously bad person in the first place was a nice change of the formula, but ultimately his death just further paints them as a team of vigilantes that kill less holy criminals of all kinds.
In Summary:
After several episodic adventures, a larger plot begins to emerge, complete with the original protagonist of Moriarty’s source material. The first face-off between the two is satisfying if contrived (which Moriarty himself acknowledges), but the potential it builds is the real thrill here.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Funimation
Review Equipment:
LG Electronics OLED65CXPUA 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K
