#elementary 2x12

It doesn't make sense to me that Vikner would be honoring Moriarty's “untouchable” command re: Sherlock & Watson - makes me wonder if he’s planting a sense of false security?

For the same reason, it also doesn't make sense that the succession was as smooth as Vikner implied, given the Moriarty we saw in 2x12. The fact that D’ohRob brought back The Giant Portrait of WTF makes me think he at least rewatched some of that episode, so I hope he also remembered how angry Moriarty was at the man who (she concluded) had leaked information about her child. I’d like to believe Moriarty is perhaps lulling Vikner into a false sense of security, and in the end will teach him the lesson in discretion she threatened in “The Diabolical Kind.”

When Sherlock told Watson that he can’t shake the feeling there’s someone else he should talk to, Watson assumed he meant Morland, and he didn’t respond except with a small grimace. That reaction is completely in character with any thought of his father, but I assumed he was choosing not to correct her (or irritate her) by explaining he actually meant Moriarty.

I maintain...a dossier of interesting facts. (Moriarty, 2x12)

I had a capacity for storing facts. Quite a remarkable one....I became a sort of clearinghouse for MI6. (Mycroft, 2x23)

...I was a clearinghouse for MI6. I stored facts. (Mycroft, 2x24)

maybe he didn’t reply to the first one so she sent the rest to the PO Box? *puts more thought into it than the writers did*

He said the first one arrived before they left for London, so I'm speculating that the one we saw was not the first, since 2x03 took place mumble week(s) later. Also, the letter's closing line implies to me that she's been waiting for a reply already. However, that the first one went to a different address is the most logical option.

sanguinarysanguinity replied to your post: Moriarty’s letters to Sherlock are add...

Sooo… he wrote back to say “Don’t write me here, Watson will see! Write me at this imaginary PO Box!” And THEN he didn’t write until she threatened to stop writing?

He told Watson he didn't know how Moriarty found out about the PO Box. He could have been lying, of course, but I assume he stuck to only lying to himself in that scene.

1. I suspect this line may turn out to be like Moran's comment "Your girl. That was him. That was Moriarty." In other words, I agree with those who think the show is on the track of Moriarty being a title or generational position that is separate from the person wielding it at any particular moment. The current Moriarty's reference to a mentor who shared her enthusiasms supports this possibility. And in that context, Moriarty-the-role is never going to change. The face behind it, the personality and preference and focus might change but the force and purpose and power remain.

2. Separate from the issue of Moriarty-the-role, Watson's uncharacteristically hard-line position on this Moriarty's unchanging nature concerns me. It's a potential blind spot for her, an area of inflexibility that under sufficient pressure could snap like a rib with the same risk of internal injury. She told Sherlock that the only thing anyone can accurately predict about people is that they'll change, and her deviation from this view feels misguided. A misstep that could lead to a fall (ahem).