Well, it's shorter than two years. I'd consider two years pretty short to propose someone but people are different. 

SusiGo wrote:

I am just thinking of the mini episode. The flat where John watches the birthday video seems to be the same they are living in now, the living-room we see at the beginning of HLV. If I remember correctly the door bell is ringing while John is watching the video and he gets up to open the door. It might be Mary. Why would she ring the bell when they are living together? Of course there might be other reasons for this - forgotten key, carrying heavy bags, etc. 
And how much time passes between the mini episode and TEH? Six months? 

Great catch!

But we see Greg visiting John in that flat with the box of stuff which he hadn't had the heart to throw away, including the birthday DVD, and there's no mention of Mary. You would think that if John were living with someone at that time Greg would have said something about it, even if it's along the lines of 'How's Mary?' Or 'Where's Mary?'

That would have been an amazing teaser in the mini episode; it would have driven the fans wild, so I'm assuming that they would not have omitted it if it fitted into the time scale.

So, now we have to establish what the time scale was
 

I'm guessing he's known Mary about a year. A bit short to ask someone to marry them, which is why John says that to Mary about the fact that they haven't know each other long, but long enough to know that you definitely love someone. Also that means John would have had a year to grieve, and then start to move on. I think anything less than a year  would be a bit too rash to propose. Though I know some people do get married quicker.

But yeah, that's my personal deduction.

Last edited by SpiralStaircase (January 31, 2014 10:28 pm)

Good point, Solar. Either that or he got the wild idea that she might like the moustache later. My idea is that they have not known each other for more than a year. 

Well, the part of the mini episode set in London is all shot in good weather; definitely not winter but maybe late spring through to August/September; Lestrade's double take at 'The Game is Back on' shown on the sports page has a picture of footballers, which might work for August but not spring.

It's definitely the same house as HLV, but looking at it again I'm puzzled by yet another thing; I get the cold, empty, almost sterile atmosphere of the room we see in the mini-episode as a total contrast to Baker St, and I can imagine John wanting to  live in it as a total contrast to the atmosphere in Baker St. What I don't get is why it's still a cold, empty, almost sterile place after they have married.

I am endeavouring to avoid facile generalisations about women creating warm and cosy homes, but it does seem odd that it looks just the same; no books, no pictures, no flowers and so forth. It doesn't look like a home.

Of course, this may be simply my own personality, and my excuse for the extraordinary amount of clutter I manage to accumulate, notwithstanding the fact that I live in the brutalist architecture of the Barbican, but it puzzles me. Has anyone spotted what I have missed in this?

Ormond, completely off topic, but: I absolutely love your "An apostrophe..." sig! Brilliant!

Thread highjack

@Solar. Thanks. It's something I saw circling Tumblr a while back and I decided to adopt it, both because it's true and because lack of apostrophe is in my opinion the single most annoying trend in modern written English as well as the most destructive to understanding. I don't expect the Queen's English or anything, I am fairly fluent in typoese. I'm a non-native myself, the Oxford comma is completely beyond me and I am apparently allegic to the use of questionmarks, but I trip up every time an apostrophe is missing. It's the one thing I can get vehement about.
 
End thread hijack

@Be. Yes you can go a fairly satisfactory moustache in a month, just look at that whole Movember silliness. (Okay odd thought, was it this that gave John the idea for a 'stache in the first place?)
Everyone is talking about two years because that is how long John says Sherlock hs been "dead" in the reunion scene.

As for myself I am going with "the writers made a mistake". After all, it wouldn't be the first time that happened.