@ Nakahara, Mycroft said he needed Sherlock for the legwork, and Mary to "keep an eye on things".  (Could possibly be a subconscious hint about Mary's role in real life - we'll see).

About the CIA guy, it doesn't really matter if what he's doing is legal or not, what Sherlock was going was torturing him to the extent of risking serious injury, disablement or death, and I can't approve of that in real life.  Sherlock was angry, but not under threat, and it doesn't justify it to me - I'm not talking legally, but morally.   But that's real life.  It's not a problem for me accepting what he does in the fictional show. 

Again, I'm not saying that John would do anything Sherlock tells him.  Just that they work as a team and trust each other.  Why shouldn't John consider Sherlock's judgment?  I don't even think Sherlock tells him to stay with Mary.  He just shows him what his assessment of her is, and so on, and then apparently leaves John to it.  (Although we don't know what happened off screen, but I don't see anything to tell me that Sherlock was ordering John to do stay with Mary).

 

I didn't get that about Mary being under the veil at all...

And a shooting bride under a veil is definitely a nod to Sherlock's MP in HLV. 

Yes I did assume they were all Moriarty and indeed Mary could have been there.

But the two cases we end TAB with unexplained  also end S03 in the alternative timeline.Sherlocks shooting and the miss me message.Sir Edwins body and Sherlocks mistakes leading to death ends TAB really  as the past is done. Note Sir Edwin was stabbed exactly where Sherlock was shot .
So then the Victorian era moves to the modern which parallels the present in the show. They are not real just the timeline moved up in Sherlocks head.The modern scenes mix with past to show Sherlocks thoughts on Mary and how he decided as he did.
I interpret them something like he could not trust MI6 info from Mycroft because Mary had already accessed  it , he could not dig up info on Mary with Mycroft and Lestrade because it was all so long ago and deeply buried , the grave was the only clue he had on Mary Morstan and a dead end , Mary might take an angry John away, and besides that would be like digging his own grave anyway.
The scene with Moriarty - reminds Sherlock that he does not really care about the facts of the case anyway, he agreed with the abused women's killings , and that this case has something to do with sex and emotions - and so ultimately he has to solve Mary's case on emotions and not as a detective.
- a la TRF leap of faith ending.

Last edited by Mothonthemantel (August 8, 2016 6:38 pm)

Great interpretation, Moth. Thank you for posting it here. :-)

Yes it was pretty neat and I'm guessing we'll get more next time.

I kind of like that theory, Moth.   (Except for making Mary a bit too important - I still need Sherlock to be the focus, along with John).  I'm really curious about Mary in S4 - couldn't wait to get rid of her after S3, and now I'm actually quite excited now I'm convinced we're going to find out more and have some things explained!

Yes very good meta and very much what I think . Thanks for posting. It also joins very nicely with the meta and screenshots on why Magnussen phoned the ambulance .
Makes much more sense than Sherlocks mixed messages.

I thought he was referring to the she saved me as a description of Mary shooting him¯\_(ツ)_/¯.