YMMV / Enola Holmes 2

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Moriarity claims to be smarter than anyone else, even the Holmes siblings. However, given how easily Sherlock saw through the fake clues, it's debatable whether this is true or whether Moriarity just thinks that it is.
• Angst? What Angst?: Once again, Enola kills an enemy during a fight by causing rather gruesome head trauma, (and intentionally this time!) but quickly brushes it off. Granted after all she went through in the first film and here, she might have hardened up in that regard.
• Awesome Music: While investigating the Paragon Theatre, Enola comes across a fun performance of "Where Did You Get That Hat?". Many fans lamented that only the chorus was performed in the film.
• Broken Base: Mira Troy's role as Moriarty. One group feels it's an interesting twist on the character for this series while others contend that the character is so far removed from the literary original she feels more like an original villain with the Moriarty role tacked on.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: Two pretty blatant ones:
  • Anyone who has even a moderate knowledge in the history of women's rights or the victorian era in general should be aware of the matchgirls and the horrible effects white phosphorus had on them, making the film's main reveal moot within the first 15 minutes.
  • The other big mystery, Moriarty's identity, can also be gleaned fairly easily, as the cast of new characters is small enough to make it pretty obvious who it is by simple process of elimination. By the halfway point, Mira Troy is pretty much the only character that isn't openly too good to be a villain, or openly too villainous to have any semblance of a reveal—though many felt that Grail may have been Moriarity because of how obvious it was.
• Complete Monster:
  • Viscount Charles McIntyre is Chancellor of the Exchequer and the mastermind of a conspiracy at the Lyon Matchstick Factory, in which he holds a large stake, to save money by switching the incendiary agent in the matches from red phosphorus to white, despite knowing that the latter type is a deadly carcinogen. Already extremely rich himself, McIntyre condemns hundreds of workers to agonizing deaths from cancer to fatten his pockets a bit more, and even destroys documents implicating him in front of multiple witnesses while mocking them over their "lack" of proof.
  • Superintendent Grail is a high-ranking and horrifically corrupt London Police official. Accepting bribes from Mira Troy to keep the Lyon Factory conspiracy secret, Grail becomes an assassin of witnesses and would-be whistleblowers, his favorite method of dispatch being throat-slitting. When Enola comes close to unmasking his role in the plot, Grail sees to it that she is arrested for one of his own murders, then pays off prison guards to have her killed on the inside. After Enola escapes, Grail kills the factory owner's son and attempts to massacre Enola and all the other remaining witnesses, including a little girl, in a final showdown.
• Even Better Sequel: This film includes an expanded role for Sherlock, more screen time for Edith and Eudoria, David Thewlis Chewing the Scenery for a delightfully fun villain, and introduces Watson and Moriarty to the franchise. Most critics rated it stronger than the first.
• Magnificent Bastard: Mira Troy, alias Professor Moriarty, is the unassuming secretary to the wicked Lord McIntyre, and secretly the wirepuller of an enormous fraud and extortion plot. Having learned of her boss's plan to poison hundreds of factory workers to save money on materials, Mira drains his funds dry by threatening to release documents implicating him if he doesn't pay up; she also hires Superintendent Grail to silence any and all witnesses, though she personally disapproves of his needless sadism. A spectacular cryptographer, Moriarty also defrauds a number of banks in such an order that they correspond to an elaborate numerological cypher... which turns out to simply be a taunting letter to Sherlock Holmes. When the Holmes siblings expose her due to a small error she made, Moriarty admits defeat gracefully, and then effortlessly escapes custody within days.
• Narrowed It Down To The Guy I Recognise: Sharon Duncan-Brewster of Sex Education and Dune (2021) fame, appears in a few scenes as the insignificant assistant of the lords, Ms Mira Troy, getting only one conversation with Enola implying a larger role. Not only is she the mastermind, but she is actually Moriarty.
• Older Than They Think: Many people act surprised by the fact that this film's version of Moriarty is female, but this is far from the first adaptation to do so. For example, Miss Sherlock had a female version of Moriarty along with female versions of Sherlock and Watson.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Sir William Lyon, the son of the man in whose factory works the missing girl. He's actually Sarah's secret lover, aware of what his father is up to, and has been helping her gather evidence to expose them. All this interesting material is revealed second-hand by Enola, and he's found murdered before he can actively contribute to the plot or even share a scene with his beloved.

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