Mary Morstan: A Three Patches Problem

 (Sherlock Meta by dammit-sherlock)

Plenty of Sherlockians are worried about the dynamics change in Sherlock’s and John’s relationship with Mary’s introduction in the show. My theory is that she isn’t going to stay and that she will (most likely) be killed off/sent away in series 4.

What is my evidence?

* Foreshadowing

John’s nightmares: at the beginning of HLV - after CAM’s introduction - what is the first thing we see?



Lots of people have already said - and proved - that there are no coincidences in Sherlock (something that has also been said by Mycroft and Sherlock: MYCROFT: Oh, Sherlock, what do we say about coincidences? SHERLOCK: The universe is rarely so lazy), so I think I can safely say that this shot is important. We see John’s hand, as well as Mary’s, and their wedding rings. But what seems important is that Mary’s hand covers John’s; and I’d go as far as to say that she traps him. The ASiP flashback also shows us that domestic life doesn’t suit John. He’s unable to adjust to suburban, married life; hence the nightmares (that we can suppose had stopped when he was living with Sherlock, given that the writers never showed John having nightmares after ASiP.).

It also seems that John has taken up some of Sherlock’s characteristics; he doesn’t remember ‘trivial’ things such as social niceties:

MARY: Is that Kate?
JOHN: Y-yeah, it’s Kate.
(Kate sobs, holding a paper tissue to her nose.)
MARY: Invite her in?
JOHN: Er, sorry, yes. D-d’you wanna come in, Kate?

(…)

JOHN: He’s the drugs one, yeah?
(He starts to pace back and forth. Kate breaks down in tears again.)
MARY: Er, yeah, nicely put, John.

Or even the name of his neighbour’s son:

MARY (to John): It’s Isaac.
JOHN (to Kate): Ah, your husband. 
MARY: Son.
JOHN: Son, yeah.

Mary even says that it’s not usual for John to care about the neighbours:

JOHN: I’m being neighbourly. 
MARY: Since when?

John is particularly tense in this scene, he’s sarcastic and even starts shouting for no apparent reason. Even Mary doesn’t understand this outburst of violence.

This is not the last time we see John lose his temper, and in his episode, there are many outbursts of violence:

* when John sprains Billy’s arm (granted, Billy was threatening him.)
* when he looks at Mary in ‘the empty house’: “After a moment John walks forward, his eyes fixed on her and his teeth slightly bared.”
* when they’re both at Baker Street and John’s violence (first contained in words: ‘bloody good question’, ‘psychopaths’, ‘SHUT UP!’, and, if I’m being fair, the whole scene, really) explodes when he kicks the chair. To me, it’s a parallel to John’s first time in 221B, with the ‘Damn my leg!’ to Mrs Hudson, whom we knows was verbally abused by her husband (and John’s behaviour seems to trigger her.)

We are also constantly reminded of his dangerous status:

* John’s Western film-like arrival:



* the tyre-lever
* Billy’s knife found by CAM’s thug in his pocket
* John brings his gun to the Holmes’ house:

SHERLOCK: Oh, you mean it’s actually Christmas. Did you bring your gun as I suggested?
JOHN: Why would I bring my gun to your parents’ house for Christmas dinner?!
SHERLOCK (holding out the coat in his right hand): Is it in your coat?
JOHN (tetchily, taking it from him): Yes.

* the way he looks at CAM in the final scene

This episode particularly striked me as being particularly violent, and I was legitimately afraid of John. John has always been more or less able to control himself, but not in some of the scenes in HLV. Why? Could it be that Mary’s influence is negative? Anyway, their relationship isn’t healthy: he is more violent when around her, and she lied to him and emotionally manipulates him.

* The baby

The show is called ‘Sherlock’, not ‘Papa John, Mama Mary, Watdaughter and Uncle Sherl”. Sadly, the baby has to go, for many reasons:

* John is already ‘tied down’ by his married life, can you imagine him still being Sherlock’s partner-in-crime-solving with a baby waiting at home? A Sherlock Holmes story isn’t a good story if John Watson’s isn’t in it; that’s mostly why ACD killed Mary in the first place.
* The baby would grow in a very unhealthy familial environment, and it’d be disturbing to see a kid raised by a man with violence and - now - trust issues and a former (…) assassin.
* Steven Moffat’s way of writing babies and mothers. Need I say more?
* What’s more, is the baby really John’s…?

However, I think the possibility of a baby is an important addition to the series. It allows Sherlock himself to grow up (SHERLOCK: Well, you’re hardly gonna need me around now that you’ve got a real baby on the way.), it allows John to (more or less) forgive Mary and it heightens dramatic tension. Que demande le peuple? 

(Here’s a more precise and more complete meta about it, written by certainetymolo.)

* Mary Moran- I meant, Morstan

There is already a meta on the matter, written by the wonderful wsswatson, and I don’t have anything to add.

—-

* Why was Mary necessary?

Mary isn’t just some ‘side character’, some device or plot twist for series 3; she played a huge role in what I feel is the main theme in the show: John’s and Sherlock’s relationship.

As Amanda Abbington herself said: “"She likes Sherlock, she loves John, she wants him to get back together with his friend.”. I like to think that it was Mary’s introduction that triggered Sherlock’s feelings for John and she acknowledges Sherlock’s feelings and place in their ‘love triangle’

MARY: Oh, Sherlock! Neither of us were the first, you know.

Sherlock grows up thanks to her, and it’s at John’s and Mary’s wedding that he makes his own vow… and thus reveals his feelings for John.

What’s more - and it may be the most important - she turned John’s life around and kept him alive after Sherlock’s death. Sherlock would be (and was) lost without his blogger.

Mary basically saved the show; we owe her a great thanks, don’t you think? ;)

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