Killing off the child after it is born seems just plain cruel to me, and I too somehow can't imagine Gatiss and Moffat doing such a thing.
Letting the child die together with Mary why she is still pregnant is also a horrible option, but a little easier to swallow than the first one.
The question also is where series 4 will continue in the story line, right where they left off would be the only option then. It also is the only option that makes sense considering the imminent "Moriarty" threat...
So Mary will be still pregnant when we see her again, but then she would have to die right in the first episode or even at the beginning of it.
I really don't know anymore. I certainly don't want John and Sherlock to raise a child together in Baker Street because, yes, it seems a bit like a cheap sitcom, or a very bad and silly movie from the sixties. *ughh*

Maybe Mary dies towards the end of season 4 and the child goes off to live with Mary's parents or something (just because Mary has changed her identity doesn't mean she doesn't have a family that she left behind somewhere in the States). Would be the most humane solution. The child survives, lives on, grows up with its grandparents and John could visit time and again and still be a father.
John and Sherlock would then be free to solve their cases together and take up their "old" life, if possible (which to me seems less and less likely considering the way things have developed in series 3, it would include a really great turn-around character development wise, as much as I would love to see them back together again, I don't know if it would seem a credible development to me as things stand now.)

I really don't know how Mofftiss are going to play this. After series three and the alterations they brought to the storyline in comparison to the original Holmes Canon (e.g. introducing the Holmes parents) I am not sure anymore about what to expect.

I don't see how the child could  just go and be brought up by Mary's original parents (over in America for example). John is still the father's child and perfectly capable to bring her/him up on his own and I think that, in reality, that's the option he would go for. Although obviously that doesn't work for the storyline.

Yes I know, given John's character the most likely option for him would be to look after the child himself, and in real life I would applaud his decision, I just don't know how to combine this with what I hope the show will be like next season (more cases and action than in series three, probably with a darker twist).

I don't know, but I really don't think that John isn't the father. This is something I've never doubted.

Last edited by the_dancing_woman (March 13, 2014 10:18 am)

I get what you mean Susi, but as I said before I just can't bring this in line with the kind of show Sherlock is. And let's face it, we are not talking about a real child in real life, but a fictional one. Nobody would want any of this to happen in real life. I mean already starting with wanting for the mother to die...

I could possibly see Mrs. Hudson looking after the kid, but she is an elderly woman and it would be quite a demanding task for her.
I want to 'get rid off' the child because the Sherlock world seems a place too dangerous for a child to grow up in. Imagine what a pressure point that would be in the future!! And I also remember when there was a baby in the X-files, it certainly did the show no good at all.
So the option would be for Sherlock to change and be less and less the kind of show was in series one and two case-wise, which I would deeply regret. I loved series 3, but I kind of think, 'oh well, so we had this comedy break, now it's time to get back to business and handle some real cases', more the way it was in HLV.

I think it would be possible to keep the baby alive without devoting to much of a screen time to the care giving activities. If Mary really wants the domestic bliss and nothing more what is wrong with her staying at home and looking after the baby? Meanwhile Sherlock and John can carry on solving cases.

nakahara wrote:

British social care will have one look at John′s, Mary′s and Sherlock′s lifestyle and they will take the child away immediately to save it from their negative influence.
 

Lol I very much doubt it. In a typical tick box assesment carried out by a social worker with huge case load and no time they will come out as model parents. Particularly if they let Mary do the most of the talking. That wouldn't be a bad think as I don't have any doubts in their ability to parent adequatly.

Don't get me wrong, I have a lot admiration for my collegues from social services but I don't have much feith in the system.

 

That would be very morbid for such a funny show. I hope they will find another way to cope with a child than killing it.

They will find a babysitter.
Later the babysitter will be revealed as the Satan incarnate, but that is a normal occurence in this show.

nakahara wrote:

They will find a babysitter.
Later the babysitter will be revealed as the Satan incarnate, but that is a normal occurence in this show.

Lol I could so see that happening.
 

nakahara wrote:

They will find a babysitter.
Later the babysitter will be revealed as the Satan incarnate, but that is a normal occurence in this show.

Alternatively, the baby will be revealed as Satan incarnate
 
I suspect that the only way to resolve this without killing off a baby or a pregnant woman is for Mary to disappear; the last scene at the airfield shows her in some distress over Moriaty's apparent return, so there's a possible link with him. Belis has noted that Mary's moral compass isn't wired the way we normally think of them; she is self protective, and if her life is seriously threatened, particularly by an utter lunatic who thinks wrapping people in explosives is a fun thing to do, I don't think she would hang around to fight the good fight.

If she did disappear then it's unlikely that Sherlock could find the time to track her down, even if he wanted to; he is, after all, charged with finding out what the hell is going on with the apparent return of Moriarty. That's what lifted his death sentence, and I doubt that Mycroft would or could deflect the interest of people like M.

I have previously speculated that there might be a rerun of the Mycroft and John scene in ASiB, where they are wondering what to tell Sherlock about Irene, but this time with Mycroft and Sherlock wondering what to tell John about Mary;  I think there might be some hint of that, not least because Moftiss are so fond of rerunning things through their audiences brains, with subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, changes.