1. Why is the episode called “The Great Game”?

Who are
the “players”? In your opinión, is there a winner?

2. What is Moriarty’s purpose with this game?

3. Compare and contrast Moriarty’s and Sherlock’s

personalities.

4. Choose one of the cases and describe it.

5. How does the episode end? Do you like open endings?

1) The episode is called "the big game" because it presents us with a
series of "riddles" (which, in reality, are crimes to solve) that Moriarty
makes to Sherlock as if it were a game. The players are Sherlock,
Watson and Moriarty. We think that the winners are the people
Sherlock saved by solving the cases.

2) Moriarty said that the purpose of the “game” was to show Sherlock
what he is capable of.

3) Sherlock is a "detective advisor." He has a great interest in strange

crimes. He is a very thoughtful and observant person, with a great
capacity to observe and draw deductions from details. He also
often uses his palace of mind, a tool he uses to remember even
the smallest details and organize his memories of a very visual way.
Moriarty worked on the murder of other people from a young age.
Like Sherlock, Moriarty was very intelligent. He is very skilled at
manipulation. He is also Machiavellian, cunning and cranky.
Moriarty was obsessed with Sherlock Holmes and murdered or
organized the murder of innocent people for pleasure. He is
arrogant in the extreme. Moriarty is considered an incredible
opponent for Sherlock Holmes, in addition to being an immense
lack of social connection, as well as extreme psychopathy and
egolatry. He was incredibly ruthless.

4) Sherlock receives a second message that shows a sports car,

stained with blood, and a missing man. This time Sherlock has 8
hours to solve the case. In the glove compartment there is a card
from a rental agency. The man in charge of the rental has just
returned from Colombia, and the blood in the car is fresh, so
Sherlock deduces it: the missing man, Ian Monkford, paid the
agency to help him disappear.

5) Sherlock uses the flash drive to lure out Moriarty, but John shows up
instead, wearing an explosive vest. Moriarty appears and turns out
to be Molly's boyfriend, Jim. He tells Sherlock to stop interfering, but
Sherlock refuses. Moriarty leaves momentarily, and Sherlock takes
off John's vest. Moriarty soon returns with multiple snipers targeting
both Sherlock and John. Sherlock aims his handgun at the
explosive vest