“It is with a heavy
heart that I take up my pen to write these the last words in which I shall ever
record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes as
distinguished.”
Dr. John Watson, “The Final Problem”
Leigh:
This story starts off as Watson
saying that he's writing the last Holmes adventure ever. That's it. No more
after this one. We don't know what happens but we know SOMETHING, something big
happens between Sherlock Holmes and a man called Professor Moriarty. One can
expect to have something important happen in this story and there isn't much of
a lull between Watson's somber intro and Holmes walking into Watson's living
room talking about air guns.
This story has to be my favorite of the set. There hasn't been a
whole lot of action or adventure in this book and we've been stuck with mostly
story time with the conclusion happening off screen. But this one is an
adventure as soon as Holmes walks into Watson's home and asks if he can climb
over the back garden wall. And we get a bit of a story when Holmes explains to
Watson just the heck this Moriarty guy is but I loved it. I know we try not to
mention it too often here, but I couldn't read this back and forth between
Moriarty and Holmes without thinking of BBC's Sherlock.
 |
| "This isn't Switzerland." "You really are a genius detective." |
And then that ending. To me, the ending is the strongest bit of
writing from ACD. It doesn't feel like a "I'm sick of this character,
let's chuck him over a cliff," but it really felt like ACD loved this
character but needed to move on. It's another time that ACD and Watson seem to
be the same person.
I love this story and I could go on and on just repeating parts I
liked but I'll stop before I just copy/paste the whole thing here.
Soooo, whadja
think?
Austin: This was
my first time actually reading this story. (As with all of Memoirs). Yet
I'm familiar with this one because I've seen adaptations of it. I think the
earliest one was a radio drama I heard when I was a young kid. I was a cool
kid, obviously.
"The Final Problem" is such an interesting story because
it's so different from the rest of his structure. It reminded me a lot of
"The Sign of Four" where it's Sherlock and Watson off to have a
globe-trotting adventure. Not necessarily a mystery, just an adventure. While
those earlier tales had this fun tone to them, this was especially grim. From
the first line, Watson warns that this is the end. When Holmes is telling about
Professor Moriarty, there is no glee in his voice. He makes it especially
clear that London would be a better place without this vile creature.
Then they're off.
We've hinted around this many times where Doyle was tired of the
character and wanted to end the series. Even without that behind-the-scenes
trivia, there is no second-guessing this feel of finality. Watson has no hope
that Holmes cleverly faked anything. This is written as a proper series finale
where Holmes gets to accomplish all that he wanted: to rid the world of genius
crime. Sherlock Holmes isn't a Jesse James figure; he is a superhero and
superheroes should only be defeated by supervillians.
 |
| Disney's best villain. Not being sarcastic. |
We don't get a lot of Professor Moriarty but just the
glimpse is written as very chilling. Especially that wonderful dialog scene.
Now time for
the big question. I know this is still the very early age of mysteries, but
there is now the universal rule that you can't introduce the murderer in the
third act. Did Doyle cheat by not hinting at Moriarty earlier in the run or was
it fine that he appeared now?
Leigh: Normally,
I would say that Doyle did cheat. How can you have the ultimate villain to our
hero that hasn't been introduced to the audience yet? I think there needs to be
some sort of hint at a spider in the center of a web of crime if he's going to kill
off our hero. Normally. I think in this situation though, it works well. We've
talked before about how Holmes is secretive about everything including
something as normal as his family so it doesn't surprise me that Holmes would
also keep this criminal mastermind from Watson until a time that Watson needed
to know. ACD also gets away with it because Holmes mentions crimes that we have
heard about that were really planned by Moriarty so it gives the audience a bit
of evidence, if you will, that Moriarty has been around for a while, even if we
haven't heard of him.
 |
| This is my design. |
I agree with what you said about Holmes needing someone of equal
superiority to be the one to off him but I feel a little cheated. Holmes is a
genius and Moriarty is a criminal mastermind who could rule England if it
weren't for that meddling detective. So why did they fall off of a cliff? The
final meeting between these two that would determine whether good would conquer
evil is a bit of a wrestle and then them falling to their doom. I wanted something
more. I know that the audience isn't there to see it and everything is assumed
but I wanted a battle of wits between the super geniuses. I wanted something
along the lines of the two of them analyzing each other until the weaker one's
brain explodes or something.
Do you think
this lack of mental battle was a way to give finality to the death of the
character or do you think it was chosen because it was more exciting?
Austin: Their
final battle reminds me why we even have a character like Watson. In Agatha
Christie novels, Hercule Poirot is never the narrator. The genius is rarely
front and center because usually their intellect is greater than the author.
How they perceive the world is so different and innovative, we need an audience
surrogate so we can relate the actions better. With this story, Doyle
introduces a villain of equal intelligence and that is almost impossible to
imagine. The two smartest brains in the world in a head to head match.
Now if you're a really ambitious writer, you can try to capture that
genius in the writing. We've seen it done on a number of adaptations. Yet I
think Doyle did the (ironically) wiser thing in keeping it behind closed doors.
Like the dialog said, these are two characters who have already imagined all
the possibilities of what the other could say. That leaves it up to our
imaginations to what exactly happened. Personally, I like to think that with
two men so equally smart that the other thing that was left was to return to
animalistic instincts and they just went at each other. (That's how every
Lincoln/Douglass debate was settled right?) Them plummeting down together
continues their equal battle but also is a glorious image.
Also it says a lot about Sherlock and Watson. Sherlock knew this
would be his death and so he tried to emotionally protect the only person he
cared about. He sends him astray and gives him a really powerful letter. The
letter is also still a bit cold, as is Sherlock Holmes.
Damn great story.
I have nowhere to sneak this in, but I found it really amusing that
Mycroft was Watson's driver in disguise.
Later this week, we're finally returning to the title of our blog. I
heard a number of interesting things about how they handled the season finale
of Elementary so Leigh and I are going to watch the last FOUR
episodes to see how this Moriarty arc is handled. Will we forgive the show and
be so inspired to catch up on the missing episodes? (Probably not. I'm is still
pretty annoyed at that Super Bowl episode.) Are we at least going to watch next
season's premiere? (Probably. They just cast Rhys Ifans as Mycroft and they're
filming in London.) Find out soon!
And here is
Leigh Montano with the final words...
Leigh: RIP Sherlock Holmes
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