besleybean, I agree.

As to Amanda Abbington's  or any other actor's interpretation of their roles: that's certainly interesting but unreliable. Since they shoot so much material, they might not fully know themselves what is exactly going on at the time when it's filmed. BC once said that he himself didn't know for sure how Sherlock faked his suicide.
At the time it was shot Amanda Abbington might well have been told that she is supposed to play a woman who reacts instinctively. If later scenes contradict this version she's most certainly not allowed to tell us ;)
I'm not saying that we have seen a doctored scene. But I don't exclude it anymore.

No Lola, you certainly didn't discourage me. The so far available facts don't allow to draw a conclusion with any certainty ;)

Well, I haven't the foggiest idea where all this is going. Let me just say this: Susi was righg to start a thread about what's real in the latest episode. Maybe, the doctored footage of CAM's death has a larger significance. It tells us that what we see onscreen doesn't need to be what really happened. And come to think of it, Mary getting hit by the bullet looked massively doctored

Susi, I don't believe that John killed Mary. That seems too fantastic.  He might've needed an alibi for something else - like undercover work. But who knows? We have seen doctored images at the beginning of the show, which apparently showed that Sherlock didn't kill CAM. There is indeed something massively unrealistic and surreal about Mary getting hit. It's so over the top unrealistic! And I cannot make sense of Sherlock being at the aquarium in the beginning. Also, I had the impression that he was winding up Vivian Norbury deliberately for some reason. So, we might indeed not have seen what really happened. But that doesn't necessarily mean that John must have killed Mary.

Sherli Bakerst wrote:

I've only watched it once and will definitely watch it again.  Some initial impressions:
* I liked the first half much better than the second half.
* I really liked Mycroft and Sherlock arguing about his phone.
* The pacing was very fast; too fast, in my opinion, because many scenes seemed like they were too short and disjointed.
* I enjoyed Sherlock lecturing the baby about the rattle.
* Where was John???
* Hard to believe John would initiate an extra-marital affair, since he expressed such deep love for Mary in HLV.
* I think that woman on the bus has to have a more significant role in the show -- there's just got to be more to things than a simple affair.
* Felt the scenes showing Mary and her disguises as she flees went on way too long.
* Was confused by the beginning in the aquarium -- that location seemed rather out of character for the show, to me anyway.
* Sherlock's fight in the kitchen and the pool went on way too long for me.
* What's with Mycroft's office?  In prior episodes, he had a huge and airy office that looked like it was in some government building -- here, it looks like he's in some basement dungeon.
* I think the text overlay technique was overdone in this episode; a more sparing use of it would have made it more effective.
* Next time, I'll watch it with subtitles because, even though English is my first language, I still missed a lot of the dialog.
* Mary sacrificing herself the way she did was admirable, even though I don't like the character.
* I wasn't impressed by Martin's acting when John grieved Mary's death at the aquarium -- it seemed over the top to me and not completely real.
* Molly's look at Sherlock when she had to tell him what John said was heartbreaking -- that was excellent acting!
* I didn't really care for this episode -- it didn't seem like previous episodes -- but I couldn't really put my finger on why...
* ...Until I read this article, which now I realize is exactly what I felt about what was wron

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