WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 1, Episode 5 of Moriarty the Patriot, "The Dancers on the Bridge," now streaming on Funimation.
Having revealed how Moriarty the Patriot's trio of Moriarty brothers came to be in Episodes 2-3, the anime has spent its past two episodes focused on their present. Episode 5 takes us a little further into its titular antihero's daytime job as a Math Professor at Durham University and, in the process, presents William James Moriarty with a mystery that requires him to call in the cavalry.
As well as his older, adopted brother, Albert (the only true-blooded Moriarty of the group) and his younger brother, Louis (who presumably drew the short straw and assumes the role 'butler') the central Moriarty's team is rounded out by the youthful Fred Porlock and the womanizing Colonel Sebastian Moran. Both of these character names might ring a ring bell to Sherlock Holmes fans. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels, Fred is a petty criminal who isn't squeamish about working both sides -- feeding information to both Professor Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes.
Sebastian Moran has a much bigger reputation in Sherlockian lore. Considered second-best only to Moriarty himself, the ex-army officer first appeared in 1903's "The Adventures of the Empty House." The graduate of some of Britain's finest educational institutions, Moran has a reputation as a sharpshooter and expert hunter -- particularly known for a record-breaking run of tiger killings in India. Despite his academic and military accomplishments, Moran still turned to a life of crime, becoming one of Moriarty's most trusted and senior officials in his criminal enterprise, as well as a deadly assassin.
Just like its title character, Moriarty the Patriot transforms Moran into a young, debonair antihero. When we first meet him -- receiving a telegram from Moriarty asking for his assistance -- he's in a rough-looking establishment after what looks like a raucously romantic night. Linking up with Fred, the master informant, the two arrive in Durham to help Moriarty administer punishment to the university's administrative assistant, Dudley Bale, who caused a barmaid to plunge to her death from a bridge after pumping her full of opium. Her crime? Falling in love with a student of noble stock in Moriarty's class.
All it takes to force a confession from Dudley is the sight of Fred dressed up as the deceased girl on a foggy night. Then, the disgraced official is made to follow in her footsteps thanks to Moran's signature marksmanship -- shooting just shy of the man's feet to make him perform a bizarre dance -- before plummeting to join her in her watery grave. Moran does this all fresh from another late-night romp (he spends most of the episode wearing bedsheets.)
The closing shots of the episode prove that Fred and Moran aren't just in it for any kind of financial reward, nor as the result of any intimidation on Moriarty's part. They too believe in his social justice cause just like Albert does. How the anime will reconcile this with Moran's own elite background remains to be seen. As it stands, the series is only adding to its upper-class saviorism issue each week.
