Ozma wrote:

Why do you guys think John wasn't in his mind palace?

Swanpride wrote:

Because he is in his heart. ;-P

Also, the people who were actively helping him stay alive (Molly, Anderson, Mycroft) and who IMO represent the rational side of his mind were all part of the group who knew or believed him to still be alive after TRF.

I found Anderson's inclusion particularly interesting - Sherlock still doesn't seem to think that much of 
Anderson but he's clearly on Sherlock's side now and pretty much redefined himself by believing in Sherlock.

QuiteExtraordinary wrote:

 
Some people Interpret this as a sign of Sherlock being jealous because he's in love with John. Well, that's a possibility, if you like the subtext. However, Sherlock was nice to Mary at the wedding in TSO3, and I rather think the meaning of the mind palace scene is that it shows how "love is a dangerous disadvantage". Sherlock is not the cold, withdrawn person anymore that he used to be before Reichenbach. He has let other people into his heart, and now one of those people nearly killed him. He would have deduced earlier that Mary was an assassin if it hadn't been for his "sentiment" to come through. This woman, whom he liked, whose wedding he attended, his best friend's wife, shot him.

Oh, some people interpret everything as a Johnlock subtext, but somehow I don't think this image has such a pedestrian meaning.I think we could relate it rather to a larger topic of this season, namely - as you said - feelings are dangerous disadvantage. Never had Sherlock gone so far with his "caring" for the people as he had done on the wedding. He let himself being involved and it caused him nothing but pain. Moriarty says the same thing, equating pain with "broken heart" (he doesn't talk about the physical pain of the wound).And yet, the most  precious and soothing remembrance from the past in Sherlock's mind palace is Redbeard, in spite of the pain the lost of his beloved pet caused him.Interesting...

A white wedding dress is often interpreted as innocence leaving even more interpretations of that symbol of Mary in the wedding dress holding up the gun.  Mary is innocent yet acting in a violent way toward Sherlock-a dichotemy of character that needs to be resolved by Sherlock. Why did he see her as innocent when she tried to kill him? She has a problem too? Something she is trying to fight off. So inference, Mary is a "good" person being forced to do a bad thing. 

Much like Sherlock killing CAM when you think about it. A good person doing a bad thing.

Willow wrote:

sirlockofthesher wrote:

A white wedding dress is often interpreted as innocence leaving even more interpretations of that symbol of Mary in the wedding dress holding up the gun.  Mary is innocent yet acting in a violent way toward Sherlock-a dichotemy of character that needs to be resolved by Sherlock. Why did he see her as innocent when she tried to kill him? She has a problem too? Something she is trying to fight off. So inference, Mary is a "good" person being forced to do a bad thing. 

Much like Sherlock killing CAM when you think about it. A good person doing a bad thing.

I really don't think so; white wedding dresses are traditionally associated with virginity, not innocence, and Mary is pregnant which almost certainly suggests that she is not a virgin. I think John would probably remember a visit to the fertility clinic

Sherlock is much more likely to be profoundly in conflict about the fact that she is pregnant; the only experience he has to go on is his own mother who gave up a brilliant career as a mathematician for her children. This is a blind spot for him, which is why, I think, he so profoundly misjudged her in CAM's flat. It is difficult to believe that an innocent person would shoot someone who has not only not threatened her but also has just offered to help her. The only person deciding to pull the trigger was Mary...
 

Yes, the white symbolizes virginity...but a man and a woman who have been living together in an intimate relationship for a while will most certainly not still be virgins, if they ever were to start with XD  Now it's more tradition than anything else.

sirlockofthesher wrote:

THe bride is wearing white. Virginity and Innocense are somewhat interchangeable terms in the US. Is this different in other parts of the world? What do you think losing your virginity equates to if not "losing one's innocensce"

Yes Mary is living with John and yes she is pregnant..but are we not talking about perceptions..In Sherlock's mind palace when he sees Mary killing him she is IN her wedding dress but afterwards in the hospital she is in the dress he first saw her in-tilting her head- and presenting someone not as "innocent"

Be careful to be so assured in your own perceptions of the show to not be open to other's perceptions.  Subjective content leaves many paths for opinions to take form.

I live in central London; my perceptions are influenced by that fact. London is a very big place with a population drawn from many different cultures; if I see a group of people all dressed in white my conclusion would be that they are probably Hindi, on their way to a funeral. There is no automatic association in my mind between white and innocence, not least because white is the colour of mourning in many Asian cultures, and there are a lot of people from many Asian cultures in London.

I appreciate that this does not jibe with your experience but as Mofftiis have noted, 'Sherlock' is deliberately and quintessentially English, just as the character of Sherlock himself is that of the quintessential Londoner; he really does believe that if you are tired of London then you are tired of life.
 
As for losing virginity I most definitely do not equate that to the loss of innocence, but that is irrelevant to this particular question because, as I have explained, wearing white has many different connotations in today's London. Obviously people will have different perceptions, based on their own cultural experiences, but it would make no sense to me to assume that Sherlock, who knows London like the back of his hand, doesn't know what I know.

I could just as easily argue that Hindi widows are expected to wear white, which would fit with Sherlock's fear that she is a danger to John, the one thing which brings him back from flat lining on the table; I don't because I don't think that it is necessary to go beyond the fact that her marriage to John has obviously endangered John, and Sherlock is staring into the abyss. That doesn't mean that I do not respect your response to the scenes; interpretation is in the mind of the beholder, and one of the series' great strengths is that Moftiss leave a great deal open to interpretation...

I personally have never been shot by someone so this is purely speculative, but if I offered to help someone, and they responded by putting a bullet into my chest, I would regard myself as being the person in need of assistance, not the person who had just shot me. 

^ let me just once again state succintely that I do not believe it represents innocence as in virginity (I watched the show mary has sex...she is pregnant prior to getting married.

There is a reason why the writers put Mary in a white wedding dress to kill sherlock. This was a symbolic gesture by the writer.

To me this means that Mary is perceived by Sherlock to be a victim. Someone in a way innocent as percieved by Sherlock.   Then he goes back to the mind palace while in the hospital and Mary is dressed like the day he met her and is acting cold....meaning now Sherlock sees her as less innocent. He figures out she is ex CIA, assassin, whatever...

This is all I am going to write on this subject. My opinion is not coming across clearly and I am tired of being misinterpreted.  But hopefully this clears up exactly why I think she was in that damn wedding dress from hell.