After setting up its unlikely protagonist’s personality and background story, 2020’s Moriarty the Patriot waits until Episode 6 to introduce the character that all viewers were waiting for: the world’s best consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes. In a fun twist to the source material, Moriarty and Sherlock develop a peculiar rivalry-turned-friendship that highlights both their similarities and the core traits that inevitably set them apart.
While their intelligence and keen eye for detail make them birds of a feather, Moriarty and Sherlock can never really be true allies. In spite of their similarities and undeniable chemistry, one crucial difference sets them down completely separate paths. Moriarty is pursuing social justice by yielding to crime, while Sherlock proves that he is unwilling to compromise for the sake of victory -- murder is not in his arsenal. It’s this proof of moral integrity that makes him the real 'good guy' of the show.
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Moriarty's Penchant for Crime Sets Him Apart From Sherlock
As soon as they meet, both Sherlock and Moriarty realize they have finally met their equal. While aboard the Noahtic luxury cruise ship, Sherlock correctly guesses that Moriarty is a mathematician, while Moriarty deduces that he plays the violin and has some sort of "chemical addiction." As well as being playfully flirty, the episode shows that Sherlock and Moriarty’s intelligence and deductive abilities are on par with each other.
During their following chance encounter, this is proven true when they both manage to solve a murder mystery on the train they are traveling on. In addition to this, the enjoyment they get from teasing and racing each other to the finish line shows a similarity in their dispositions. Both have a tendency for humor and a taste for games, even though this seems more pronounced in Sherlock. Louis' irritation at Sherlock’s familiarity with Moriarty also seems to indicate that Sherlock brings out something unusual in his rival.
Despite what makes them alike, however, something much more vital sets Moriarty and Sherlock apart. As early as in Episode 1, the audience witnesses Moriarty’s willingness to set the stage for personal vendettas, as long as the perpetrators match his ideas of who needs to be purged. Looking to punish the corrupted aristocracy, Moriarty will go as far as staging or committing murder if it gets him closer to his goal.
Conversely, Sherlock proves that, while he fights violence and injustice as much as Moriarty does -- if not for the same reasons -- he is not ready to resort to crime to do so. In Episode 9, when offered the chance to kill a man who explicitly asks him to in order to find his mysterious opponent, Sherlock lowers the gun and chooses to remain in the dark. As much as he would like to, Sherlock refuses to become a murderer to solve the most difficult riddle of all.
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Sherlock's Faults Make Him Moriarty’s Counterpart on the Right Side of the Law
As much as Sherlock then becomes the 'good guy' of the show, he is still a man of many faults. Drawing from a history of adaptations -- not least 2010’s BBC’s Sherlock -- that present him as a true sociopath, Sherlock is indeed often an unpleasant character. He doesn’t pay his rent, mistreats people and property, and is unfairly mean to the people closest to him and who care for him, Watson included.
This dark side of him is complementary to Moriarty’s effortless affability. He is elegant and respectful, never out of line and always fair. His good character and unshakable sense of justice seem to clash with his penchant for crime but actually prove that Moriarty and Sherlock are two sides of the same coin. For some reason -- perhaps because of the differences of birth -- Moriarty chose to indulge in crime and Sherlock didn’t, but one might have easily turned into the other. Sherlock’s dark side could have prevailed if he had seen more injustice around him, and Moriarty might have refrained from killing had he been brought up in a comfortable, loving environment.
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Moriarty and Sherlock Would Make a Winning Team
Their cooperation in Episode 11, where they easily solve the train murder together, shows that Sherlock and Moriarty would make a winning team if they decided to work together. While Sherlock looks for physical evidence, for instance, Moriarty decides to go for a psychological profile of the murderer in order to find him. In addition, Moriarty thinks outside the box so that he can outsmart the murderer and ensure his capture, while Sherlock approaches the matter in a more straightforward way, deciding to face the issue once the murderer tries to confound the authorities and claim his innocence.
Their alliance, which is also a sort of game, reveals a true compatibility between the two. Sherlock and Moriarty enjoy racing and surprising each other, as well as teasing each other to see who might break first. It’s almost as if they are flirting, acknowledging a kinship of spirit after finally finding someone who can not only follow but confidently keep up with their galloping mind. If Sherlock ever decided to turn to evil or Moriarty to abandon the crime world, they would be virtually unstoppable. Nevertheless, the series hints that this is unlikely to happen. After all, if Moriarty abandoned his profession as a crime consultant, the whole premise would disappear; similarly, if Sherlock were to turn to evil, their rivalry, on which much of the most exciting parts of the show are based, would cease to exist.
Sherlock has been tempted before and has resisted -- despite his momentary weakness. In Episode 10, obsessed with his inability to find the mastermind behind the crime he has just solved, he starts spiraling and claims that he should have killed the guy when he had the chance to find his adversary. As revealing as this is of Sherlock’s dependence on crime-solving for sanity, it isn’t but a momentary lapse of judgment. Sherlock is likely to remain on the good side of history -- at least, before the series ends.
