Mary and the Abominable Bride  

(Sherlock Meta by Ivy Blossom)  

I’m still working through some thoughts about this. I understand why Moriarty was the main problem for Sherlock to solve in The Abominable Bride. But it’s Mary I’m still thinking about. She’s the bigger mystery, to my mind. So what does TAB say about Mary?

At first I thought that there’s less suggested about Mary than there is about the Watson marriage. There’s a lot suggested about that, but of course it’s the foreground version of the backdrop, which is poor relations between the sexes in general. The macro version being the vigilante women, and the micro version being ignored wives, like Mary. They’re marriage is not working in TAB.

In any universe, Watson can’t help but run after Holmes. We started TAB with exactly what we all asked for: John and Sherlock together again, hanging out in 221b. In a way the story starts without Mary, as if she’s not there, as if Sherlock’s forgotten about her. John is with him, they’ve been in the countryside for a while, no one knew when they would be back. They are free to do as they will, like before, the good old days. John has abandoned Mary, just like he does in the original stories, without comment or concern.

On some level, I wondered if the whole plot of TAB wasn’t built as a statement to Arthur Conan Doyle’s treatment of Mary. They do enjoy poking fun at his continuity failings, like Watson’s wandering war wound and the two James Moriartys. (”It’s never twins!”) Mary gets ignored in the original stories and unproblematically abandoned by Watson as he wanders off on his Holmesian adventures. She’s lost her function in the narrative, so to speak. So I appreciated that the first appearance of Mary in TAB is as a client, because it’s the only way for her, as a woman, as Watson’s wife, to get any agency in a Sherlock Holmes story. (It’s criticism with love, of course.)

So aside from that, what’s the story got to say about Mary? She remains competent, full of hidden skills, with a double life she keeps from her husband. The relationship is strained, because they don’t spend any time together. Not only because Watson abandons her, but because she likewise abandons him.

I’m pleased to be able to say that, because I think it’s the one thing Mary needs to do in a modern Holmes story. If Watson is going to abandon her, she needs to abandon him right back. She needs to have her own adventures to leave him out of. And so she does.

Are Mary and John actually compatible? Can that relationship work? If this is Sherlock’s subconscious, I’d have to say he doesn’t think so. Twice in the story Watson has to confront his abandonment of her. “We’ve been neglecting each other,” he says to her in the church. He can’t seem to help it. He tries to stop, but gets dragged back into Holmes’ world. As always, Holmes is Watson’s top priority.

And there’s no baby. That was strange: no baby. Sherlock has absolutely no thoughts about a Watson baby. I don’t know what to make of that.

One thing is very clear to me: Mary is not the abominable bride. Moriarty is, not Mary. Her story, I presume, is more complicated.

I can’t wait for series 4.