I claim that a âscaryâ character who seeks to destroy due to sadism is different from Jim. Destruction is repetitive. It works by repeating the same criminal acts over and over again. The criminal acts only become bigger, badder, and with more pain for more people. This is an annihilating and destructive villain like the Joker in Nolanâs film. If people view Jimâs villainy as being a villainy of this sort then his suicide also gets viewed as just a final repetition, the ultimate crime that one can commit in that oneâs intent to annihilate and destroy is finally turned inward in a final act demonstrative of apathy and complete lack of fucks: suicide.
I claim that such an interpretation ignores a very important aspect of Jimâs character. Jim, like Sherlock, deplored repetition. Jim wanted to make new things for Sherlock, and Sherlock wanted new things. Although destruction and annihilation didnât bother Jim (âThatâs what people do!â), it also wasnât his main motivation. (âWhy are you doing this?â âI love to watch you dance.â) Jimâs identity as a consulting-criminal to Sherlockâs consulting-detective, as a villain to Sherlockâs hero, is demonstrative of a much more affirming motivation. Not a sadistic motivation to destroy and annihilate out of hatred.
His character wasnât about destruction. It was about Sherlock. It was about what they shared and built together, a shared life that began when Carl Powers died. Both had knowledge no one else in the world had: knowledge that the secret to the death was connected to the missing shoes. Jimâs motivation was also about another thing he and Sherlock shared together: the Final Problem.
Jimâs suicide wasnât an ultimate act of negation or annihilation, a big âI give no fucksâ moment. Jim might view humanity as tawdry, but his feelings for Sherlock were sincere. The moment before his suicide was a sincere moment where he thanked Sherlock and shook his hand because he could die knowing that he wasnât alone, that his life hadnât been completely empty, that he had actually made meaningful contact with someone. He was so angry that Sherlock initially seemed to be losing âthe gameâ so badly. Jim didnât want to just âbeat Sherlockâ because it wasnât about âbeating Sherlock.â If Jim did beat Sherlock then itâd just make Sherlock one of many easy victories, and Jimâs whole life would then have been completely empty. Jim didnât want to âwin the game.â He wanted to know that he wasnât alone.
He didnât want to live because he saw life as boring, meaningless, stale. Thereâs a lot of factors that can contribute to that outlook. It shouldnât just be reduced to him being âso inhuman.â Lots of humans feel that way for all sorts of different reasons. Spiders donât feel that way. Neither do monsters, which donât exist except in fairy tales.
Reducing Jimâs outlook to simple sadism and desire for destruction simplifies and ignores other aspects of his character. It reads his identity as âconsulting criminalâ as being about a desire to create repetitive acts of destruction, which Jim found boring. He didnât find it boring because he was that apathetic but because he was much more interested in Sherlock who, like Jim, craves new, and interesting, and creative things. Reading Jim as sadistic or completely soulless implies that his affection for Sherlock was faked or tied in with âbeating Sherlockâ and being an âultimate baddieâ when it demonstrably wasnât. That was the point of the roof scene.
Jim was as human a human as Sherlock or Mycroft. That being said, he certainly does kill and express coldness and contempt towards humanity, like Sherlock and Mycroft do. Heâs the only one punished and dehumanized, though. Of course. He is, after all, a villain. However, his actions can be challenged without dehumanizing him. Sherlock and Mycroftâs actions, notably, never even get challenged despite being very, very similar to Jimâs. Sherlock and Mycroftâs actions are portrayed as though they arenât even meant to be noticed or questioned. Pretty terrifying stuff, indeed.
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