Actually I was able to work it out for myself, by watching the episode and I'm sure plenty of others in the fandom did too.
In fact from linking right back to the Pilot, to HLV...it all makes sense.

Last edited by besleybean (December 27, 2014 8:39 pm)

I agree. Watching Sherlock and John from the Pilot to the tarmac scene in HLV makes a lot of sense. 

But some of us agree with them.

It's a loving couple having a bit of fun with each other.

It's the way couples often carry on with each other.

Well, that's your choice...but I enjoyed it.

I don't think John is a "doggie", but if you see Mary as snarky and John just "taking it" - look at what he has put up with from Sherlock for several years! Sherlock has insulted him more times than you can count, hit him, performed an experiment on him that made him absolutely terrified, shut him out on several occasions even though John does nothing but care for Sherlock, and been lied to and kept in the dark for two years. 

If John can ever be viewed as a "henpecked man", it's from Sherlock, not Mary.

I don't think Mary isn't punished. She is confronted with a vicious rage from John, where he shows nothing but contempt for her. Then she is left in total silence for several months, all the while carrying John's child and not knowing what will happen and if John will ever forgive her. 

How long did it take John to forgive Sherlock? How long was Sherlock treated with John's anger and silence? Two days? A week, at the very most? Sherlock was off the hook much quicker than Mary.

Last edited by Vhanja (December 28, 2014 12:13 am)

Does someone (who can create gifs or screenshots better than me) have a pic of John's expression right after "forgiving" Mary? To me, he looks neither happy nor relieved. He still looks tense. IMO.

I think Mary does get some punishment, including sitting in the "naughty chair"!  Those months when she was waiting for John's decision must have been pretty hard (and she was also in a dangerous position - Magnussen still had her information, John and Sherlock now knew the truth too).   I'm glad that they didn't make John violent towards her, to be honest.  I think the trouble is that Sherlock gets over-punished in the extreme!

nakahara wrote:

To be truthful, I find Mary´s characteristics and her dealings with John quite realistic. I´ve seen couples like that in real life - where woman was all snark and a henpecked man took it quietly and even gladly, like a doggie.

It is also not unusual in literature, movies or television that a protagonist of a story is a genuinely bad person or a person who does not respect common morality - and that such person is described as victorious or successful in her life precisely because she is such a scum. So that can´t be the reason for dislike of Mary either.

What really makes Mary repulsive, no matter what the authors and actors say, is the writing which makes her stand above the rules set firmly for all the other characters present in the story. For example - Sherlock as a protagonist of a story is cruelly punished for every misdeed he has done in the narrative. He fakes his death in TRF - he dies for real in HLV. He lies to Janine - Janine gets back at him by cutting off his morphine in the hospital. He annoys his friends - he gets punched and slapped around. And such "karma" works similarily for the rest of characters too.

Mary, on the other hand, is treated like a category of her own. She shoots Sherlock and makes him to die (and, as people mostly tend to forget, indirectly causes the suicide of Lord Smallwood by this act) - and except some harsh words from John she is never punished for the blood ashe has on her hands. She not only lies to Janine, she hits her so hard Janine actually bleeds from her head and looses consciousness - and not only is this assault entirely forgotten, but Janine´s injury disappears completely (and conveniently) and is never mentioned again in the story at all. No karma works for Mary, she is always absolved of any guilt and any responsibility. This heavily reduces her character into (appropriately named) Mary Sue and creates dissonance that would be always to some extent visible and felt by the audience, no matter how hard the authors try to deny it.  

Thank you,  nakahara.  One of the best analyses I have read on the subject.