Given that series 3 had more viewers in the UK than series 2 (and that had more than series 1) I doubt they're too worried atm.

CAM said Janine had managed to keep her eye open once when he flicked it and that "she makes such funny noises" when he did so.   I also noticed the look on Sherlock's face when the camera cut to him but wasn't sure if that was about Janine or because Sherlock had heard the helicopter, which became obvious a second or so later.

Could have been both.

A similar style - great wit, style and fun covering some enormous holes in logic.

IMO: they do line dance as a hobby and were they visiting Oklahoma to attend some sort of dance event.

They live in the house we saw them at on Christmas day, I'd guess somewhere ruralish in the UK, given a helicopter could land in the field next door.
 

lil wrote:

Yes John hadn't seen Sherlock in a month..another reason I feel a little eh wht? @John..after he promised things won't change ..on the bench etc.

 
That was before any of them knew Mary was pregnant and in my experience becoming a parent changes things a lot more than marriage does. I think the "you can't go/come I'm/you're pregnant" exchange has an underlying truth to it, as well as being funny.

wrt prepared words vs nothing to say; John had only one thing to say to Mary, it was easy enough to prepare (no cue cards needed) whereas IMO he had too much to say to Sherlock and that was why words failed him.

True, but in canon he hadn't partaken of the drugs, hence the opportunity for varying Interpretations of the significance of Sherlock doing (probably) heroin in HLV.

krusta80 wrote:

I also want him to come back, and I think that the very last clip we see (about a minute into the credits sequence) indicates that it's more than just a poorly-manipulated image of him.  I could not be more excited.

That could have been shot before the end of TRF - either by Moriarty to give to an associate or by Mycroft (using whatever to persuade him) whilst he had Moriarty in custody.

I'm in the hope it's not really Moriarty clan, because for me his survival blunts the impact of TRF, and I'd planned on rewatching that now and then.

Tantalus wrote:

I really think she will be killed off, and that it will have already happened when Series 4 begins, with flashbacks showing us what happened. {details}

I think they're going to have to have start S4 almost immediately after the end of S3, because of the Moriarty is back issue.  No matter what's going on there it's something that would need (in show) to be addressed immediately and  I hope it's to major a point to be relegated to flash backs.

eta: if the TEH happened more or less on real world time by the end of HLV we're up to January 2015.  If they do manage to do S4 in 12 months could maintain the real world /Sherlock time sync whilst moving straight on to the Moriarty problem.

Returning to the OP, part of the trouble I'm having with understanding the dynamic between S/J/M is that I find some of the setup very unconvincing and I can't tell which is Moffat skipping over difficult details and which is Moffat dropping hints, although I'm sure both are present.

Of all the plot points in this ep the thing I find hardest to accept is that John subconsciously knew Mary was a killer - he could have picked up on her pragmatism, speed of thought and reflex, self confidence, physical co-ordination, possibly her being morally grey as well as the surface characteristics of a fun, bright, sparky personality, but that doesn't add up to CIA assassin (if that's what she was) - it could just as well describe John.  IMO John probably thought she was like himself,  rather than like Sherlock.

That's why I prefer the notion that Sherlock is playing John and Mary (seperately rather than together) and faking accepting her, for reasons we'll have to wait at least a year for.

eta:  bbcatemysoul on tumblr (I should learn how to link to individual posts on tumblr, but today is not the day) posted a suggestion about Sherlock's reasons for forgiving Mary that IMO provide another very plausible suggestion:

"In TEH, Sherlock comes back from the dead after deceiving John for two years, and John is so angry that Sherlock is actually convinced John wants nothing to do with him anymore. Sherlock actually thinks John won’t forgive him. Sherlock tells Mrs. Hudson that John made his feelings on the matter very clear, and then goes on to try to recruit Molly as a replacement. Mary was the one who told Sherlock that she would talk John around to forgiving Sherlock.

He was so grateful to Mary for trying to help John forgive Sherlock for something that should have been unforgivable, that Sherlock repaid her by talking John into considering giving her a second chance after she also did the unforgivable.

Having John forgive him was so important to Sherlock, that he helped