Whisky: Interesting thoughts. I think for her it must have been a disaster when Sherlock returned. She has a past she wants to hide at all cost and then her fiance's best friend returns who is one of the cleverest men in England and a consulting detective. So she does what is best - trying to get in with him by offering to reconcile them. She is a clever woman and must have realised how badly Sherlock wants John to forgive him and continue their friendship. 
 

Last edited by SusiGo (August 15, 2014 9:21 am)

Whisky wrote:

SusiGo wrote:

And in HLV she starts by pointing out to John that there are people who do not know Sherlock, i.e. who are not a crazy about him as he is.

I wonder about that. That maybe, in the long run, Mary will try to steer John away from Sherlock. She doesn't seem the kind of person who shares easily.
....
 

 
I'm pretty sure she might be jealous. If John dreams about Sherlock he might also talk a lot about him.
I also think she might be lying to Sherlock at the wedding when she's telling him that John's talking about Sholto all the time. I actually don't think he does.

So why is Mary so nice to Sherlock when he's apparently in her way?

Now I have an experience I can share with you. 
My husband was still very good friends with his ex-lover (who lived some hours away) when I met him. I noticed quite quickly that he wasn't interested in her anymore, but she still in him. He didn't have any idea, apparently. Men! *rolls eyes* 
I didn't like that, as you can imagine, and therefore I didn't like her very much, either.
As they still were in contact by phone at that time, and we were right at the beginning, the worst mistake I could have made would've been talking bad about her to him. Because I thought that could've kind of driven him away from me, back to her, as I would've been the "bad one". And he would've probably started lying to me or talking to her secretly. (Heavens, my English... is this understandable?)
So I "played" the nice and understanding one and simply let time work for me. And here and there I cautiously expressed my "doubts" in her wanting just a friendship. 
Later at one point she really admitted wanting him back. ^^ And he told me!

End of story: After we bought a house and moved in together she finally stopped calling him. Some years later he asked me to marry him. 

So maybe this is what Mary does.

Hm.... that would be..... Mary marrying Sherlock?
No, wait..
It would be Mary being nice to Sherlock although he's in her way to John.
John thinks she likes Sherlock and marries Mary.
That's the way it went, right?

OH! .... but then there would be no contact between John and Sherlock anymore! Now I got it!! 
No, it's not what we want. 

You say she was programmed as if she had somehow been forced to become an assassin. We have no proof of the fact that she did not choose this "career" of her own free will. We do not know what made her end it but it is a fact that after five years she "relapsed" and shot the man who had tried to be her friend and is her husband's best friend. 

I wonder who the person behind the killing machine may be? And if there really is another person at all? I have thought about Mary long and hard and watched the episodes time and again and I do not feel any pity for her. I can empathise with most characters but she had the chance of building a new life, she had a loving husband and his friend who had already done so many things for them and yet in the first moment of crisis she shoots Sherlock. Sorry, but for me this is inexcusable. Not once does she say sorry (only before she shoots him, thank you very much), not once does she tell John she loves him. 
 

If she did what she did because she has been "programmed", does that make her a better person? 

It doesn't make her a 'better' or 'worse' person. All I'm saying is that I think she was acting instinctually, not emotionally. How she reached her decision to shoot Sherlock is completely divorced from her feelings for him.

Think of it as a soldier who has been taught to shoot the enemy on site, even if it's a sibling. Would that soldier in his/her ordinary life have killed people? No. But context and programming has changed the soldier's moral compass. I see Mary as back on the battlefield and reacting in a similar way. The person she was once upon a time, the mysterious 'A.G.R.A.', is trying to resurface, but the soldier is back at work.

And remember, Mary was trained by the government, so her work was sanctioned, no different than being in the military, with a chain of command and no personal responsibility or question of ethics within a set code of conduct specific to her job description.

We really can't judge her fairly and it's much too easy to say that she's a bad person who makes bad decisions when she is so much more complex.

Mary

Tee Hee.

maryagrawatson wrote:

And of course, anything she did for the government, like those 'wet jobs for the CIA', were perfectly legal.

Mary

I see. But in private life she has to keep a low profile. No excuses. No little extra. Murder is inexcusable.
 

besleybean wrote:

Sherlock is a murderer, too!

So was the woman who killed Milverton. Unfortunately we don't know how she lived with her guilt. ACD however, seemed not to be interested in this matter.
 

And Merry Chrtismas, to you, too.
Ha.