Sherlock S4 is about family (predictions after TST)

 (Sherlock meta by stephisanerd)

In this scene, Sherlock and Karim are playing a game called Happy Families where the goal is to collect complete families. It’s played exactly like Go Fish, which many of you might be more familiar with.

Sherlock: Mr. Baker [the father]. Well, that completes the set
Karim: No, it is not.
Sherlock: Well, who else am I missing?
Karim: Master Bun, [the son] it’s not a set without him. How many more times, Mr. Sherlock?
Sherlock: Maybe it’s because I’m not familiar with the concept. 
… 
Karim: What concept? 
Sherlock: Happy families. 

It occurs to me–when have the games characters have played on this show and the things they have said while playing them/about them ever not been about the themes and plot?

(Never. The answer is never.)

Here’s how Mary talked about AGRA and what they were to her:

Sherlock: Mary, I’m sorry to tell you this, but he wants you dead.
Mary: Sorry, no, no, because we…we were family. 
Sherlock: Families fall out.

We know the fate of that family, just like we now know the fate of the supposedly happy Watson family, but we also know the unhappiness and conflict that lay just beneath the surface.



I think this series is all about families and what it means to be one– both the ones that people are born into and the ones they chose for themselves. It’s about the things below the surface– the things that make families and the things that unmake them, as well as the things they can withstand. It’s about the things people do to and for families and how families make people who they are, how they can destroy and hurt people and how they can save them.