Making Sense of Mary’s Pregnancy

 (Sherlock Meta by quirkysubject)

"Why on earth did they get her pregnant?" "How are going to resolve this?" "How could this play out in S4 in a way that is not either utterly depressing or ridiculously unrealistic?"

This is what most people seem to feel regarding Mary and John’s soon-to-be-born baby - including myself.

One answer is that the baby was a necessary plot device to make John forgiving Mary after she lied to him and shot his best friend in ep3 more believable. As earlygreytea68  wrote: “I see now why Mary had to be pregnant because otherwise there would have been no reason for John to ever even try to forgive her”. Also, in a way it manipulates the audience into viewing Mary’s actions in a softer light - she doesn’t just protect herself, she also protects her baby (I hate, hate, hate it when shows/movies do that, but that can’t be helped now).

After rewatching SoT, it dawned on me that there might be another reason why they introduced this plotline at the end of the ep, one that is important for Sherlock’s journey in the last ep and for the relationship dynamic between the characters.

One of the major themes in SoT was how “marriage changes people” and specifically how it can estrange friends. Those points are explicitly made by Mrs Hudson both to Sherlock and to John in two conversations, and also by Mary when she diagnoses Sherlock’s erratic wedding-planning as him being afraid of losing John (and prescribes a case as cure). That Sherlock is absolutely terrified by this prospect is obvious when Mrs Hudson tries to talk to him about her best friend, who was her bridesmaid and who she barely saw after she got married. Sherlock first tries to play the importance of marriage down (“Two people who currently live together are about to attend church, have a party, go on a short holiday and then carry on living together. What’s big about that?”) and then does his best to bully Mrs Hudson into shutting up, recalling her husband being executed and then telling her to get out and get him some biscuits. The scene ends with Mrs Hudson saying “I remember she left early. I mean, who leaves a wedding early? So sad.” The end of the ep, of course, parallels exactly that. Later on, Mycroft makes the same point when Sherlock phones him, warning him about becoming involved and referencing Redbeard, Sherlock’s beloved childhood dog that was put to sleep.

John and Mary’s wedding will drive Sherlock away; that point is hammered home at every turn of this ep.

John, Mary and Sherlock all have this marriage as a game-changer theme on their minds, but they won’t accept it without a fight. They not only deny it verbally, but actually take action to prevent it:
- Mary sends John and Sherlock out investigating and encourages John to demonstrate his feelings by giving Sherlock a hug
- John tells Sherlock explicitly that they will keep on going on cases
- both of them verbalize their feelings for each other (best friend, wisest and bravest man etc). They never have been (and up until now never will be again) that open about their feelings.

And for a time, it looks as if they will succeed and we are shown a glimpse of what this future as a threesome would look like: All three together solve the case and save Major Sholto’s live. And then Mary and John dance while Sherlock plays their song on the violin. In a way, they dance together.

At the end of the evening, Sherlock is prepared to take a vow of his own, thereby literally putting himself in a line with Mary and John, who have exchanged vows themselves. And it will be the only vow he ever takes.

However, there is one more deduction that he expected. From the scene with Janine (when at the very end he adds that her best bet at getting laid has erectile dysfunction and has to take everything back*) we know that at times his deductions pop up in his mind so fast that he ends up deducing something he hadn’t anticipated. And so in that moment, his subconsciously deducing mind adds the fact that Mary is likely pregnant.

(*And may I just add that I don’t believe this disqualifies him as a lover? People can have plenty of good sex without erections being involved. *sighs* But fine.)

And that’s when everything changes. Sherlock says “You’re hardly gonna need me around now that you’ve got a real baby on the way.” He smiles happily for John, but then they exchange looks and they know the game as changed. That’s when this conversation happens:

MARY: And what about you?
JOHN: Well, we can’t all three dance. There are limits!
SHERLOCK: Yes, there are.

They agree that they might have been able to keep up a threesome dynamic as crime solving friends, but with a baby on the way, they have reached a limit. Mary might have been able to take part in the adventures, but a newborn/toddler cannot. John and Mary go off to dance and be happy, and Sherlock’s smile fades. He doesn’t attend the party, but puts on his coat and leaves early, just as Mycroft recommend and just as Mrs Hudson’s best friend did all those years ago.

The opening of the next episode show us that this interpretation is intended: John hasn’t seen Sherlock in a month, as his priorities now lie with his family (although he’s obviously struggling with it).

Sherlock knows that he has lost John, or at least the connection they once shared, because John’s priorities have shifted. All he can do is fulfil his vow to protect this family and to keep his best friend happy, because things will never be the same again.

Now, that still doesn’t mean I’m happy about this or that the points people have made about how difficult this will be to resolve or how it allows for lazy writing/characterization. But I do think Moftisson didn’t just throw this storyline in there because they liked the drama and it helped them absolve Mary from taking responsibility for her actions. It does full fill a narrative function: it is an important point for Sherlock’s character arc in ep3 and the time for the reveal was chosen for maximum impact.

 (Lots of thanks to arianedevere for her fantastic transcripts!)