Well we know who is going to outlive the other...
I'm  not so certain Mary's love for John is not real.

tenderworld wrote:

Well, yes, I misspoke. I shouldn't say it's not real. It's just not admirable. 
 

 
This. It's real, no doubt. But from what we've seen so far it dares not speak the truth nor sacrificing luck, comfort or own happiness.

This was certainly the weirdest but also most enjoyable wedding party I have ever seen. Loved Sherlock's best man speech, what a great performance by Benedict. However, I cringed a bit when he played the waltz for John and Mary, that scene was just a tad too sugary for my taste. But thankfully it was only a brief moment, and I was relieved to see him standing a bit forlorn among the dancers afterwards and finally leaving the wedding early. I know many found this part very sad but to me it was perfectly convincing and much more "in character" than if he had stayed at the party all night long. It also reminded me of all the weddings, anniversaries and similar events that I have left early, feeling slightly out of place after a few hours of socialising. Don't get me wrong, sometimes I love to go out and party, preferably with good friends, but I find those "formal" family events like weddings often a bit tiring. I'm supposed to talk to people who I only see once a year or even less often and with whom I don't have much in common so I really don't know what to talk about. I usually end up just sitting there, trying desperately not to look bored, counting the hours until I can go home. Therefore I can totally relate to Sherlock leaving the weding after his job is done.

It is interesting how different people see this episode resp. the wedding itself. For me the whole episode has a very sad touch. It speaks of loss and change and Sherlock bringing himself to do things he would never have done for anyone but John. 
If he had just left at the end it would have been alright. But we get the scene on the dancefloor before. Looking at his face I see someone who is broken. This is more than a feeling of not belonging, of being relieved to have fulfilled his task and being able to go home. 
And if you think of the beginning of HLV this becomes even clearer. 

Right. I agree.
But ... Susi explained it quite well.
I think it wouldn't have felt so sad in the end if he'd stayed "in character" all the time. But he did change. (Or maybe he didn't, he only showed more of what has been there all the time.)  And in the end it felt like ....hm.... a slap in the face. "Hey, you did some nice things. But you are Sherlock. You don't belong in here!"  Something like that.

Well said, Solar. 

SusiGo wrote:

The floral arrangements at the wedding contain green carnations among other flowers. While I read that green carnations have been quite popular for about ten years there is another assocation: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Carnation

Oh, thanks for pointing this out, I suck at flowers language so I had obviously missed this! Very interesting.

I also found this, something that surely can't have escaped Moftiss: http://www.amazon.fr/The-Case-Of-Green-Carnation-ebook/dp/B00FCIONP8

As for the wedding, I know this will sound like a stupid detail, but the way Mary and John get out of the chapel (church?) has always buggered me. Maybe it's just a cultural thing, but they almost rush out. In France, the newly weds step out of the church/town hall very slowly, that's why it surprised me.

Also, many things broke my heart in this episode (paradoxically, many things made me burst out laughing) but one of them is the way Mycroft echoes Mrs Hudson and uses exactly the same words she used with Sherlock while telling him about her former best friend: "It's the end of an era..."

The whole Mycroft scene leaves me perplexed, actually. Mycroft has kept a weary eye on John during Sherlock's absence. Surely, when Mary appeared in the landscape, there's no doubt he's done his research. I'm pretty sure he knew something about her (just as Sherlock probably did as well, way before HLV)

Now, if Sherlock asked him to come (I'm obsessed with the Holmes bros' relationship, and as much as I'd love to think Sherlock wanted Mycroft to come to the wedding just for the sake of getting some "support/comfort" from him, I think there is probably something more about his insistance...), I just can't buy that Mycroft simply declined and worse, totally forgot about it.

I mean, we know there's nothing Mycroft wouldn't do for Sherlock and I'm sure that deep inside, he loves it when Sherlock "needs" him. He doesn't seem very much busy (he's working out, it's not like he was in the middle of a very important meeting with the Japan's ambassador or whatever). I like to think he's only pretending he has forgotten and that he hasn't come because of Mary.

I'm also pretty sure he knows she is the one who shot Sherlock. He is very protective of his brother, so even if Sherlock didn't tell him who shot him, he would haved found out (his brains + secret network) and I imagine that if Mary isn't in jail, it's only because Sherlock asked Mycroft not to do anything about her (because it would have hurted John). We don't see any interaction between Mary and Mycroft at Christmas, it would have been interesting.

And then, there are all those things that have already been said, like the wedding seemed to be between Sherlock and John. (to be honest; I think the only "sweet" moment between John and Mary is when they dance, John seems really in love, especially when he bends to kiss her, and the way he looks at her)

As for the "drama queen" scene, it annoyed me when I saw it for the first time, but I understood it the second time. Like you, I think John was just very stressed about Sholto (losing a friend, like a TRF's "pastiche") and maybe "insulting" Sherlock was also a way to make him react. I don't know. I know it's not a really nice way to act, but when people are losing faith in themselves/thinking they aren't able to do a thing etc, I sometimes "insult" their pride, say something bad about them just to make them react and do everything they can to succeed just to prove me wrong.

I thought that's what John was trying to do too. Sherlock has his pride, he couldn't care less what people think about it when it's something like Donovan calling him a freak, or people assuming he and John are a couple, but he doesn't like it when people have doubts about his "puzzle solver" competences.

And it works, as soon as he feels insulted by John, he solves the case.
 

SolarSystem wrote:

I think nobody here argues that this sadness is somehow wrong or out of character - quite on the contrary, I believe. It is sad and heartbreaking, and at the same time it's wonderful to see this side of Sherlock we haven't really seen before, at least not to that extent. We all know that something like a wedding is not really his area, and like Susi already said: Sherlock did this for John and I'm sure there is no other person on this planet Sherlock would do something like this for. Everything about the wedding is Sherlock's declaration of love for John.
So Sherlock leaving the wedding early after being all alone on the dance floor doesn't really come all that unexpected and is in character - and still it's one of the saddest things I've ever seen on tv. But that's alright, because it hurts so good.

Yeah, that's exactly it. And I can't actually explain WHY it hurts either. I mean, it's not as if any of us expected Sherlock to start grooving it up on the dance floor or leave with a pretty girl (or boy) on his arm. It's obvious that he would stand on his own, feel awkward, and leave on his own, but still....

I think maybe it's because he really felt part of something that day, and he'd actually enjoyed himself (although he wouldn't admit that). He'd also been practicing the dancing with Janine earlier so there was an indication that he expected to be dancing with her, in public, but then when he saw her with someone else and realised it wasn't going to happen after all and that his initial thoughts about weddings had been correct - that he didn't really belong at them.

It's basically the fact that everyone has someone to hang out with/talk to/dance with, except him. John has Mary, Molly has Tom, Janine has the geeky guy. Sherlock's all on his lonesome, as usual.
 

Wow, wow and wow again! 

Does anyone know if that is the traditional English seating arrangements? I reckon they might be different in various countries.

I am tempted to say that this is just creative license from the crew to allow for simpler and more in-frame reactions between Sherlock and John. And they put Sherlock in the middle of the table so that he could easily jump over and walk around the rest of the guests throughout the second part of the series.

I guess it just proves again that the wedding is simply a prop, nothing more.