WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 16 of Moriarty the Patriot, "The Phantom of Whitechapel, Part 2," now streaming on Funimation.
Episode 16 of the Moriarty the Patriot anime is jam-packed with both story and action. Multiple Jack the Rippers are on the prowl, Scotland Yard clashes with a violent, proletariat uprising on the streets of London and amid all that, a brand new villain is revealed to be watching it all from the rafters. Charles Augustus Milverton, famous in the source material for being a skeevy blackmailer despised by Sherlock Holmes will likely turn out to be a suitable common evil for Sherlock and William to unite against -- even if they don't know it yet.
But he's not the only insidious part of the arc. "The Phantom of Whitechapel" isn't really about the Ripper, Britain's infamous, real-life serial killer. It's a more of rumination on the ends justifying the means, and in the case of Moriarty vs. the mob, it becomes clear why the master criminal fits more of an antiheroic mold than a strictly villainous one.
As Episode 15 uncovered, the original Jack the Ripper name actually belongs to an old friend of the Moriarty family, who points out to William that his wartime moniker has been co-opted by another and used to spread fear in England's capital city through the mass execution of sex workers -- the Ripper's main victims. It turns out that the name is being used by several others, a group known as the Vigilance, who are aiming to bring about the Lord of Crime's social revolution by taking matters into their own hands, largely by riling up the police into showing their true colors (which they, unfortunately, are all too keen to do).
Using the original "Jack" as a decoy, with backup from Moran, Bonde and Fred, William and Louis sneak into the group's base of operations, where William reveals himself as the Lord of Crime. The Vigilance's architects are appreciative, at first, of another proponent of extreme social justice showing up on their doorstep. However, the brothers soon make it lethally clear that they're not there to join forces or congratulate the men. They're there to dole out William's trademark "punishment."
The ensuing fight is a great chance to see the blood brothers tag-team for the first time, as well as William's own, unseen skills as an able combatant (he uses a raper because... of course he does). But it also provides an opportunity for William to clarify what his particular revolution is by defining what it isn't. The killing of innocent women, for instance, is absolutely against his mission statement. The Moriarty family only punch up, not down. That means the murder of corrupt elites is acceptable, in their eyes, but sacrificing some of society's most vulnerable for the 'greater good' isn't.
Though perhaps not intentional, this almost offers a sharp critique of the strange romanticization of figures like Jack the Ripper, as Moriarty's prioritization of the victims of his crime reminds us that -- even to this day -- we tend to focus more on the murderer than the murdered, especially when it comes to women who work in the sex industry, perenially characterized as disposable and acceptably 'at risk' due to the nature of their jobs. Following the antihero's stance on trans rights, Moriarty's commitment to his cause continues to shine as the season continues.