Who is the guy in Sherlock's mind palace?
In the episode "His Last Vow" when Sherlock gets shot by Mary, he started to enter his mind palace in order to survive the shot.
We begin to see a series of regular persons belonging to his daily life such as Molly, Mycroft, his "dog" Redbeard...
Whilst the pain increases and his death is approaching, he starts to go downstairs through a spiral staircase. I do not understand two things now:
What is that room he entered into where there is that chained guy?
Most of all: who is that chained guy? He is obviously not Moriarty, for he is completely physically different from him. I cannot remember seeing him anywhere during the past episodes, so who is that guy?
Best Answer
He is obviously not Moriarty
He most certainly is Moriarty. On the left is a picture of him, and on the right is the "chained guy" you describe:
The Moriarty in Sherlock's mind palace appears to have lost his composure and gone a bit crazy, which is why they don't look identical, but to me they're still clearly the same person.
Wikipedia and TV Tropes confirm that the chained man is Moriarty, as does IMDb, which attributes his lines to "Jim Moriarty".
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What is Sherlocks mind palace?
The "mind palace" is a well-known mnemonic technique that was popularized by the TV show "Sherlock Holmes." The mind palace technique involves imagining unrelated objects in a shared space and creating a narrative to connect them.Is a mind palace real?
As it turns out, memory palaces like Holmes' are a real thing, and have been for thousands of years.Elementary, My Dear Norton | Best of Benedict Cumberbatch \u0026 Martin Freeman on The Graham Norton Show
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Answer 2
It is absolutely Moriarty!
However I think the reference is to another fictional character who uses the Jesuit principle of the Memory Palace.
In the book Hannibal (sequel to Silence of the Lambs), we read how Lecter keeps his "Monsters" chained the basement of his Palace, I always assumed this was a deliberate homage.
In addition, writer Mark Gatiss is good friends with the mentalist magician Derren Brown. He's included numerous references to Hannibal Lecter though his earlier works so maybe there's an influence there. I remember talking with my friend about how Derren probably consulted with the writers to develop Sherlock's faked death (I'm sure references to Mr Brown are littered throughout Sherlock - he's a huge fan of the Canon, too). Imagine our hilarity when he appeared in the reveal!!
Answer 3
It's Moriarty portraying Perseus when he was chained to a rock. That's why Sherlock asks how he did it, how he coped in the myth. Sherlock identifies with Perseus. Greek mythology is used throughout the series.
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