Instant recognition of the name/initials. She looked anxious, upset and thrown off kilter for a while. A hidden secret/weakness/past indiscretion?

The telegram made reference to her absent parents who she clearly lost as a child, and referred to her as Poppet. As an orphan I wonder if CAM had some guardianship or other control over her.

Last edited by dartmoordoggers (January 6, 2014 12:10 am)

dartmoordoggers wrote:

The telegram made reference to her absent parents who she clearly lost as a child, and referred to her as Poppet. As an orphan I wonder if CAM had some guardianship or other control over her.

I don't remember the show ever telling us that Mary's parent's were dead.

I thought maybe the absent parents message indicates that CAM is holding her parents hostage or maybe CAM knows she is the illegitimate child of someone powerful who wants to keep her existence secret.

Or perhaps he manipulated her as a orphaned child, got her out of a bad situation by using her to run something illegal in her youth.

I thought they were two separate telegrams. The one where she is refered to as "poppet" she seemed to be happy about, but then the CAM one she was upset over. I don't think those are both the same telegram.

/random aside

Wholocked wrote:

I thought they were two separate telegrams. The one where she is refered to as "poppet" she seemed to be happy about, but then the CAM one she was upset over. I don't think those are both the same telegram.

/random aside

I rewatched that scene a couple of times now, and it's hard to tell whether these two are different telegrams or not. First I thought you were right, but if the poppet one was separate, wouldn't there have been the name of who sent it at the end?

It's also interesting that Sherlock doesn't seem to recognize the abbreviation "CAM", but in the trailer for HLV he speaks about him with such hatred, like he's known about CAM's doing for ages... Guess there must be some time between episodes 2 and 3.

I watched the subtitles and these seem to be two different messages. IMO Poppet is not adressed to Mary, it is the signatory of the message. Then follows CAM's one-sentence message (in the subtitles they write Cam, not CAM).
This is also supported by Mary's face. She laughs at hearing "Poppet" and turns very serious the moment the name CAM/Cam is mentioned. 
 

Just a thought but I think, in the book, Mary's Father was Captain Arthur Morstan? Another CAM. So it may have been a nod to that and just coincidence that they're the same initials as the new baddie.

Hanka wrote:

The_Gun_Flip wrote:

Just a thought but I think, in the book, Mary's Father was Captain Arthur Morstan? Another CAM. So it may have been a nod to that and just coincidence that they're the same initials as the new baddie.

But she's an orphan, isn't she? Wouldn't she have grown up in a children's home or something???

That would depend on when her parents died. But when I say a nod to it I don't mean that it's actually a telegram from her Father but that it's a reference that ACD fans might appreciate. The Sign of Four was about him.