They get back, banter with Mrs Hudson, Watson enters the house with his luggage. All this is implies that he is living there. This is the classic Canon/Granada situation. And only when Mary is revealed we learn that Watson is married. 

Mary calls John 'husband', that's kind of a big clue.

Er yes....
But they go up stairs and Mary is there
Now John and Mary could both live there.
But it would rather take away the power of Mary's act...
Having said that, it may make more sense of the ' we'll be hungry later' comment.

Exactly, Vhanja.

Last edited by SusiGo (January 24, 2016 5:27 pm)

Well, in modern Sherlock, Mary continues to play an active part after the marriage, unlike canon Mary who is sidelined and probably dead.     That may be another thing that the mourning outfit is addressing - canon Mary's death. 

The problem with the marriage seems to be John going off with Sherlock, when Mary wants to come along too.   Mary does manage to insist on coming along with John on his adventure at the beginning of HLV (straight after the marriage), but generally doesn't get to join in with them - I suppose that could be setting up problems for S4, if Mary is dissatisfied with that role in modern times as well.   She's very keen to get involved on the plane (looking up info on the case Sherlock mentions). 

We should never forget that this is how Sherlock chooses to see the marriage in his head. TAB begins and ends with them together in 221B (in the end alone in front of the fireplace, without Mary). This is him reflecting on all that happened so far - a woman in black (!) smelling of a certain perfume (!) coming to claim her husband. Well, well, well … 

And Holmes and Watson as Holmes sees him both do not seem to be very keen on going on adventures with Mary. Sorry, but this is what I see. 
 

Okay. I take it back. 

Ok, back to Susi's thesis from the beginning which is topic here. Anything to add/comment?

Harriet wrote:

Ok, back to Susi's thesis from the beginning which is topic here. Anything to add/comment?

I am very interested in the idea of the MP foreshadowing what will happen in S4. In my mind it makes sense. We are, after all, inside the mind of a genius. Now you can debate what is being foreshadowed (can you use the verb that way?) and your answers might vary on what you want to see and what you decide to ignore.

mrshouse wrote:

Yes, Liberty, that is exactly it. We've been told she would not come between the main characters, yet in what you describe (and what I see, too) she does. What does that have to do with "Sherlock Holmes"?

She doesn't come between them, so much as want to make it a threesome (!).    That's interesting, because she didn't quite give that indication in S3 - we do know that she's adventurous, etc., but she seemed happy to send them off without her.  But Sherlock thinks she wants to come along too. 

I think a big part of it is about the role of women - the fact that it was perfectly unremarkable for Holmes and Watson to be going on adventures together, or even just spending a lot of time together after Watson was married - that after TSOT the "wife" is sidelined even more than Mrs Hudson.  I think there's a bit of an observation there about how that wouldn't work well in our modern version.  And of course, Sherlock has to understand women's place, and their dissatisfaction with it to solve the case.   But I still wonder if he saw something about Mary that we didn't.   

We also see that John and Sherlock do end up working with Mary, and it could be a sign that she's going to join them in S4.   That's not something I want to see (although possibly, with a very well written episode ...), and I have faith that the writers know the power of Sherlock and John as a duo - they've always talked about them as a pair. 

Mind you, there is a female accomplice/double agent through the big story in TPLOSH, a film they say they love and often reference - maybe they want to try it out for an episode or two?