BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » Why kill the blind lady?

Davina · February 28, 2012 10:47 pm

In this episode the elderly blind lady is killed when she starts to describe the voice of person giving her instructions, presumably Moriarty, but why?

Later he has no hesitation in appearing to Sherlock, having kidnapped John and strapped an explosive vest onto him. So why did he have to have the old lady killed?

Sherlock Holmes · February 29, 2012 1:47 am

Maybe he didn't want to reveal himself to Sherlock quite yet - and the old lady ruined his game by starting to describe him before he was ready to be described.

kazza474 · February 29, 2012 4:07 am

Because this lady was deaf, the bomber (Moriarty) had to use a different method & actually be heard by her. He didn't want Sherlock knowing who he was at this stage because the game wasn't over yet (Remember there were 5 pips, so 5 cases to solve ) so he didn't want things to come to a head by being identified just yet!

And besides, it's silly to ask why Moriarty did anything!

Last edited by kazza474 (February 29, 2012 5:14 am)

tobeornot221b · February 29, 2012 5:06 am

I’ve got a different idea about the old lady thing.
She’s blind. That means she isn’t able to read from the pager like the previous victims did.
She gets her instructions from Moriary via earphone.
The earphone is also used for giving instructions to John at the pool scene. John could have read from the pager because HE isn’t blind. But – I think – for dramatic reasons (to create tension, to keep Sherlock and the audience in the dark – just for a split second! whether John is Moriarty or not) it’d spoil the picture if John entered the pool with a pager in hand and the red herring would be obvious immediately.
So the old lady and the other twelve people in the flat have to die just because to introduce the Mofftiss’ earphone method? I tend to say yes. But blowing people up in the end additionally shows the unpredictable behaviour of Moriarty – he doesn’t really to have a reason to kill people. It’s another warning for Sherlock to take him serious. Just solving Moriarty’s puzzles doesn’t mean Sherlock is in control of him.

kazza474 · February 29, 2012 5:21 am

Sherlock himself says " He killed the old lady because she started to describe him. Just once he put himself in the firing line. Usually he must stay above it all, he organises these things but no one ever has direct contact."

There's no need for the killer to 'introduce' anything, it's just a game. Don't over think the reasons, that's where people get led astray. Just use the facts & Sherlock's own words.

The 12 other people were just collateral damage. The killer didn't care about anything else but the game being played out incognito & making his point.

tobeornot221b · February 29, 2012 5:32 am

Why would it be so important for Moriarty to make sure Sherlock didn’t know he had a “soft voice� ? The only thing the old lady revealed. If she could have been saved because Sherlock solved the puzzle she later would for sure have told the police about it!
So again – no need for Moriarty to act like this!
(Maybe Mofftiss is the real Moriarty)

Last edited by tobeornot221b (February 29, 2012 5:33 am)

kazza474 · February 29, 2012 6:21 am

Well for a start, he did meet "Jim" who also had a soft voice.
And Moriarty wasn't waiting to hear if she would say he had an Irish accent. Nup, a few words that even Sherlock knew would be the end of her and Moriarty gave the signal to shoot the bomb. He couldn't risk waiting to see what else she would say. The delay in giving the shoot order was not one he wanted to make any longer than necessary.

sherlockskitty · May 20, 2012 3:42 am

I agree. the lady was blind;, sherlock would have eventually remembered molly's "gay boyfriend" as having a soft voice. So--the old lady had to go. She was still in her apartment, and when Moriarty gave the order to kill her, the bomb was big enuf to rip out the other apartments next to her....killing 12 ppl, which was ALSO the number of hours sherlock was given, to SOLVE that particular puzzle!! oh geesh.

Sherlock Holmes · May 20, 2012 8:45 am

Yeah, definitely the word "Irish" was bound to follow the word "soft" and that would have been a dead giveaway for Sherlock.

Davina · May 20, 2012 1:34 pm

Ah...but Molly's boyfriend doesn't have an Irish accent! Jim from IT has an English accent and Jim Moriarty has an Irish accent.

Sherli Bakerst · June 11, 2012 12:31 am

I have a question and it's not meant to be facetious:

How do we know the old woman was blind? I didn't see anything that gave me that impression. (Clearly, I must improve not only my observation skills but my ordinary seeing skills as well!) Couldn't it be possible that Moriarty spoke to her instead of texting/paging her because he got tired of writing a script for the hostages? I mean, he used that technique twice and maybe he was...BORED...with it and wanted to try something new??? Any insights (get it?) will be appreciated as I truly would like to know how you all figured out she was blind. (And if it was in the DVD commentary, I haven't listened to it yet and I'll be disappointed if that's how you knew.)

Irene Adler · June 11, 2012 1:14 am

It's been a while since the last time I watched TGG, but I think the lady herself says it. Something like "this one is a bit defective, she is blind". But, apart from that, we can't know if she is blind or not. I guess we have to take Moriarty's word for it

Sherli Bakerst · June 11, 2012 9:54 pm

Sheesh, I watched TGG the evening before I posted my question. And completely missed that line where the old woman says she's blind. Guess I'll need to watch it a fifth time--aww...

Sherlock Holmes · June 11, 2012 10:06 pm

Irene_Adler wrote:
It's been a while since the last time I watched TGG, but I think the lady herself says it. Something like "this one is a bit defective, she is blind". But, apart from that, we can't know if she is blind or not. I guess we have to take Moriarty's word for it

Yeah, that's exactly what she says.

And you can see that she's really straining her eyes to try and read the words off the pager.

Irene Adler · June 11, 2012 10:29 pm

I think she has something like an earphone from which she hears what dear Jim says to her. But I'm not sure, I'll have to rewatch (again) damn...

kazza474 · June 12, 2012 10:14 am

Davina wrote:
Ah...but Molly's boyfriend doesn't have an Irish accent! Jim from IT has an English accent and Jim Moriarty has an Irish accent.

(I can't tell accents but I will take your word for it that he used a different accent.)
Ahhh. yes but it wasn't Jim from IT talking to the blind lady; it was Moriarty. He had no reason to use a fake accent.

Sherli Bakerst wrote:
I have a question and it's not meant to be facetious:

How do we know the old woman was blind? I didn't see anything that gave me that impression. (Clearly, I must improve not only my observation skills but my ordinary seeing skills as well!) Couldn't it be possible that Moriarty spoke to her instead of texting/paging her because he got tired of writing a script for the hostages? I mean, he used that technique twice and maybe he was...BORED...with it and wanted to try something new??? Any insights (get it?) will be appreciated as I truly would like to know how you all figured out she was blind. (And if it was in the DVD commentary, I haven't listened to it yet and I'll be disappointed if that's how you knew.)

He said so through her words ' this one's defective, she's blind' . Also she had an earpiece through which he talked.

Sherlock Holmes wrote:
Yeah, that's exactly what she says.

And you can see that she's really straining her eyes to try and read the words off the pager.

No, she had a very noticeable squint to her eyes, a combination of eyesight that failed over many years & hence changed her natural 'pose' of her face & her 'bracing' herself not knowing if or when an explosion will go off.

Davina · June 12, 2012 10:59 am

Just pointing out that whilst Jim from IT had a soft (English) voice Sherlock would be unlikely to make any connection as Moriarty had a soft voice with an Irish accent. The Soft Irish accent may have gpbeen, per se, enough to warrant the blind woman's death but not any connection to Molly's boyfriend Jim from IT.

Moriarty didn't worry at all about him hearing his real accent by the end of TGG but then , by then, he was fully visible.

kazza474 · June 12, 2012 11:30 am

Quite so Davina. It's getting harder to sift through what WE know now & what WE knew then & what Sherlock knows at any given point in time! lol
I think that's why I have backed away from the 'solved' cases. It'll just do your head in after a while.

ancientsgate · June 16, 2012 12:21 am

Davina wrote:
In this episode the elderly blind lady is killed when she starts to describe the voice of person giving her instructions, presumably Moriarty, but why?

Later he has no hesitation in appearing to Sherlock, having kidnapped John and strapped an explosive vest onto him. So why did he have to have the old lady killed?

M does NOT walk on the side of the angels.

BlinkULDHC · March 23, 2013 6:26 am

Someone mentioned it earlier, but....

WHY KILL HER? Because she was "revealing" too much about Moriarty? It should go without saying that if she were rescued, she would have eventually ended up telling the police the same things.

Moriarty had to have figured that the hostages would have told the police as many details as possible, like the first victim (off-screen, presumably) telling the police that she was receiving instructions via text on a pager, and if she deviated from it at all, she would've been shot.

So, again, Moriarty surely would've figured that the blind lady would've told the police that "his voice is so soft" anyway.