The CIA--and I believe MI5 as well--DO employ freelancers for all sorts of things. (Including things that they want to have plausible deniability on.)

SusiGo wrote:

lil wrote:

So good Mary ish version has Mary still working for the cia via Mycroft and thats why no kill shot on SH.Boss problems! ...and if she married John as Mycrofts plant..bodyguard..as on the memory stick...yes..John would hate that.
It's all Mycroft and Moriarty playing human chess ?

Interesting thoughts. There is a big, big mystery around Mary and Mycroft, if you ask me, and I hope there will be some explanation to come. Because how could he overlook per past if he thoroughly checks everyone coming into contact with his brother (or his best friend)? And what about his non-reaction to the shooting? 

That's true. It is a bit of a non-reaction. I mean, does he know that it was her that shot him? And if he doesn't know, how come he didn't put more effort and energy (or at least order someone else to) find out more about who the killer was? We all know that "not caring" about Sherlock is a fake. He loves his little brother dearly, deep down.

Well, there are various possibilities:
- he really does not know which would be highly improbable and OOC
- he knows and planted her for some reason himself and it went badly wrong
- he knows and resents it but his hands are tied for some reason which would be in accordance with M theory and probably some other ideas about a long Mycroft arc extending over all episodes 
 

So is mine. 

I do not really understand what you mean. The relationship between the brothers has been an important element from the very beginning and will surely continue to be developed in future episodes. 

Sherlock does not need to be Mycroft's puppet. But Mycroft's role throughout series 3 was a strange one and I think there will be more to come. As for the "long story arcs" - they are an important element of the show. Mark and Steven have said that they planned the Moriarty story from the very beginning. It has extended over nine episodes so far without making it the Moriarty show. 

This gets a bit off topic, but, actually, I think there's much more improvisation in the writing of the show than the writers want to say.  ( But, that's a personnal opinion, I can't be sure, and anyway, the way it is is OK for me).
I think there's more to come with Mycroft Holmes too in S4 too, but not this way. 
Mycroft  knowing everything and pulling the strings would be to me both tortuous and "too easy" ( I don't like the deus ex machina Mycroft) to get through Mary's story, especially if Moriarty is involved in it too. The writers already used that trick to get through the story of the fall, and I would be disappointed if they used it again.

One last OT concerning Mycroft:
Whether or not this might have been planned from the very start, I would love it if eventually we got an episode which revolves around Mycroft and brings lots of strands from previous episodes together. I would love it because Mycroft has been more or less in the background during S1 and S2 and has played a rather ominous role during S3, still without being in the foreground. I'm sure this story about Mycroft would involve Sherlock in a very emotional and dramatic way, so it would still be "Sherlock" through and through. It's absolutely possible to have both: a story arc about Mycroft with Sherlock still being in the centre of it all.
 

Last edited by SolarSystem (June 22, 2015 1:54 pm)

I'd like an episode revolving around Mycroft too , and maybe the "past biting back" is going to be about him and his History with Sherlock. I just dont want him involved and filling in the gaps in Sherlock Holmes's investigations.
 

Thank you, Lola, good idea.