Jim Moriarty (BBC series)

"Well. Here we are at last. You and me, Sherlock. And our problem. The Final Problem. "Staying Alive". So boring, isn't it? It's just... staying. All my life I've been searching for distractions. And you were the best distraction and now I don't even have you. Because I've beaten you. And you know what? In the end it easy. It was easy. Now I've got to go back to playing with the ordinary people. And it turns out you're ordinary. Just like all of them. Oh well."

- Moriarty's famous speech to Sherlock

James "Jim" Moriarty is the main antagonist of Series 1 and 2 of the BBC drama Sherlock, and later the posthumous true main antagonist of the 2015 special "The Abominable Bride". He is a consulting criminal and the archenemy of Sherlock Holmes, and can be considered as the primary antagonist of the whole series.

He is portrayed by Andrew Scott, who also portrays C in Spectre.

Background
Prior to the events of Sherlock Moriarty's earliest known crime was when he killed a school boy in his year known as Carl Powers, who Moriarty claimed "laughed at him" so stopped him laughing. Putting a poison in Carl's medication this caused the lad to drown in a swimming pool. This occurred in 1989, and this case got Sherlock Holmes interested in crime solving, a man Moriarty would become the arch nemesis of nearly 20 years later.

The Consulting Criminal
Moriarty was first mentioned in the first episode of series 1 A Study in Pink when the murderer - a taxi driver - revealed he had a sponsor to Sherlock Holmes and that the person in question was a huge fan. When the taxi driver was shot, Sherlock got him to give a name, which the driver screamed "MORIARTY" before dying. In the second episode The Blind Banker Moriarty saw the safe entrance into Britain for an ancient Chinese gang. In the end Moriarty had the leader of the gang killed when the others where arrested, not wanting to risk his identity getting out.

The Great Game
Moriarty made his first appearance in the third episode of series 1 as Jim from I.T. dating Molly Hooper at the hospital. On first glance Sherlock didn't deduce Jim as being Moriarty, due to him posing as being a possible repressed homosexual. After a series of tasks, Sherlock and Moriarty came face to face at the swimming pool where Moriarty killed Carl Powers. Moriarty had snipers point at both Sherlock and John Watson, telling them they wouldn't be allowed to continue. Sherlock then pointed his gun at an explosive device between him and Moriarty, which ended on a cliffhanger. In the first episode of Series 2, it was resolved when Moriarty got a better offer from Irene Adler and called off the snipers. At the end of the second episode The Hounds of Baskerville Moriarty was seen being released by Mycroft Holmes from custody, and in his cell Sherlock's name could be seen scrawled all over the walls.

The Final Problem
In the third episode of series 2 "The Reichenbach Fall" Moriarty appeared to be seen trying to steal the crown jewels but gave himself up. After threatening the jury at his trial for a no guilty verdict, Moriarty began setting up Sherlock as a fraud and tore apart his life over a 24 hour period, and even posed as an actor named Richard Brook in order to fool everyone into thinking Sherlock created Moriarty. Both of the men had a stand off on a rooftop in which Moriarty wanted Sherlock to jump to his death or he will have his friend's killed. Moriarty shot himself in the head in order to make sure he wouldn't have to call off his snipers.

Aftermath
Regardless of this, Sherlock managed to fake his death, and spent the next two-years years taking down Moriarty's operation.

In the final scene of Series 3 episode His Last Vow its implied Moriarty may of faked his death as well when pictures of his face began appearing over London with a high pitched voice saying "Did you missed me?". In an after credits seen Andrew Scott as Moriarty turns to look at the audience say "Miss me?"

Personality
A genius criminal mastermind, cunningly resourceful and remorseless, the only possible rival to Sherlock Holme's intellect, Moriarty was the first "consulting criminal" in the world and Sherlock's archenemy. Moriarty was clearly a psychopathic and sadistic individual, his psychotic behaviour was easily seen by the following traits, intense egomania, grandiosity, extreme self-importance and incapacity for remorse of mercy. Moriarty possessed a cynical, sarcastic and childish sense of humour which was similar to Sherlock but much more darker and at the expense of others pain or misery. He spoke very softly but normally changed the pitch of his voice during sentences for effect.

Moriarty seemed to enjoy the anonymity he surrounded himself with. He would never kill a target himself, instead he hired a taxi driver to become a serial killer and murder three people to get Sherlock's attention. He also murdered a Chinese gang leader as to not risk his identity being compromised. He was also clever enough to not use his real voice while forcing Sherlock to complete his tasks, instead he strapped explosives to his hostages and made them read from a manuscript, he actually murdered one of them when she described his voice as "soft" indicating he was massively paranoid. Moriarty was a master of blackmail and a skilled actor. He was aware of people's weak points and used this to his advantage, to the point where he strapped an explosive device to John Watson during his confrontation with Sherlock at the swmming pool. He was also able to pretended to be gay while acting as Jim from IT.

At a young age, Moriarty proved that he was inredibly calculated. He was able to poison his schoolmate Carl Powers, but make it look like he was having a fit and use a nearly untraceable poison. He obviously had no value of human life, and when brought up by Sherlock that people had died he replies "that's what people do!" and murdered Carl becuase he "laughed at (him)".

Moriarty was easily bored by life, and he entertained himself with distractions. He was instantly attracted to Sherlock, claiming that he was the best distraction however he could easily kill him if he was bored with him. Moriarty saw him as an equal to match his own startling intellect, he later began to see himself as "an old fashioned villain" and that without either one of them they were nothing.

Series 1

 * "The Great Game"

Series 2

 * "A Scandal in Belgravia"
 * "The Hounds of Baskerville"
 * "The Reichenbach Fall"

Series 3

 * "The Empty Hearse" (flashbacks)
 * "His Last Vow" (Sherlock's mind palace & television screen)

Special

 * "The Abominable Bride" (Sherlock's mind palace)

Trivia

 * James Moriarty is based upon Professor Moriarty who had first appeared in the short story The Final Problem which was to originally mark the end of Sherlock Holmes (the episode The Reichenbach Fall is based upon this story). He also appeared in the fourth novel The Valley of Fear which took place before The Final Problem.
 * Moriarty appeared in The Empty Hearse in flashback and imaginary sequences when some members of the Empty Hearse club came up with theories Moriarty was somewhat involved in Sherlock faking his death. Anderson's theory is that Moriarty was placed at the bottom of the building where Sherlock jumped from wearing a face mask with the likeness of Sherlock. In a fan girl's (obviously dismissed) theory, Moriarty and Sherlock threw a dummy off the roof and proceeded to have a gay affair.
 * In His Last Vow after Sherlock is shot, we see inside his mind palace which shows Moriarty in a cell, bound in a straight jacket. He attempts to taunt Sherlock and tells him to just die, but when Moriarty mentions John being in danger, this causes Sherlock to fight to survive his injury.