bbc sherlock containment zone

on the rooftop when moriarty says "yes, you're not ordinary. you're me. you're me. thank you, sherlock holmes. bless you." (while tearing up) he looks like a man having finally glimpsed divinity as if his faith has been restored that yes there is this one person in the world who is truly his equal and can break jim out of this monotonous existence. which is why instead of just walking away from their encounter he promptly kills himself to beat sherlock at their game, because you'll do anything, anything at all to stop being bored! when i say this was a genuinely inventive take on moriarty

great game is hysterical on a re-watch because it's like a sheriarty fic premise 1) heavily implies that at least one of them has known the other since childhood because sherlock's first case was moriarty's first crime... soulmatism 2) the whole pips thing is moriarty gifting him puzzles to solve and sherlock having never felt more alive than in that moment - "i am on fire!" and likewise sherlock being the only person to break jim out of a lifetime of indifference "you were the best distraction i ever had." literally romance. the queer coding is of course evil and malicious but it's 2026 you can just look at the pool scene and laugh and go yass slayyy

the show's thesis kind of was that john watson is what's stopping sherlock from turning into moriarty. he shoots the cabbie that night and saves his life / moriarty shoots himself in front of sherlock and instead of just killing himself he stays alive for john and in abominable bride watson pushes moriarty's memory out of his mind palace once and for all so yeahh that's all very sweet and i might've cared about it as well if freeman's watson compelled me even a little bit post-asip or if they had bothered to write sherlock as marginally less of an asshole. i think my last straw was the baskerville drugging which was clearly a reference to devil's foot's consensual drugging. and sherlock didn't even apologise for it. my god they hated john watson