I agree, despite his outward cold-heartedness, Mycroft’s love and protectiveness concerning his baby brother have always won the upper hand until now (even pushing him into “legwork”, risking his own life to bring Sherlock home). It is so OOC for him to still his hand when it comes to a) checking Mary’s background and b) moving heaven and earth to find Sherlock’s shooter. He is too much of a control freak to just slip up in such a major way without a reason.
 

Lola Red wrote:

I agree, despite his outward cold-heartedness, Mycroft’s love and protectiveness concerning his baby brother have always won the upper hand until now (even pushing him into “legwork”, risking his own life to bring Sherlock home). It is so OOC for him to still his hand when it comes to a) checking Mary’s background and b) moving heaven and earth to find Sherlock’s shooter. He is too much of a control freak to just slip up in such a major way without a reason.
 

I completely agree, unfortunately what I think is that Moffat loved the 'Mary=surprise assassin' idea too much to actually consider that Mycroft would have known straight away and never let her anywhere near his baby brother (I believe he'd have got rid of her somehow even regardless of how John was going to react).
And even if we want to accept that Mycroft can't know everything, there is still a difference between not knowing 100% of everybody's background, and being ignorant that the woman shot your brother - when you work in MI6. That's just too unbelievable to me, but I fear Moffat just decided his precious Mary plot was more important to him than being realistic and true to the character when it comes to Mycroft.
 

Do you think that if Mary was involved in the CIA Mycroft would have been fine with her being around Sherlock *even* after she shot him?

That's a very good point, and the same question I have been asking myself since I saw that blasted episode. Unfortunately like I said, I think it's a case of Moffat wanting us to suspend our disbelief in order to be able to go ahead with the MurderMary storyline - but while I do love a big twist I have always found that kind of leap really difficult to make.
The way Mycroft has been portrayed and the way he is now in my head, there is no way in hell that he wouldn't move heaven and earth to find out who shot his brother, *especially* if he thought Sherlock was keeping the truth from him (and he wouldn't need a huge deduction exercise to know if Sherlock was, since like John says Sherlock was facing his attacker and all Mycroft had to do was ask Sherlock who he saw).
Unless, of course, Mycroft thought it was just yet another 'adventure' his brother had got into - but I find this also unlikely since Mycroft knew Sherlock was after Magnussen and must have thought the two things were related somehow.
 

yes. And fool him big time, because I can't imagine Mycroft believing that Sherlock hadn't observed his attacked and stored as many information about them as possible - as per his M.O. he would have been able to tell quite a lot even if the person had been in a full ninja outfit (not like Mary was wearing it, with her face in full view ). I mean, Sherlock can smell specific brands of perfume in a room after the person has left... so yeah. I don't think Mycroft would have believed Sherlock knew absolutely nothing about his attacker.

PLUS... John and Mary are separated and that is very evident at Christmas (even Sherlock's 'simple' dad sees that!!). Mycroft is not stupid - someone doesn't get married with such a fanfare and then break up like a month later for something silly. I wonder what he thought, or what they told him?

And if I were him.... Sherlock getting shot and refusing to say who by + John being furious at Mary.... that would tell me a hell of a lot as to what actually happened.

Last edited by Dorothy83 (August 26, 2015 9:02 am)

I lean more towards the option that Mycroft 'blundered' because Moffat couldn't have done the MaryMurderer plot otherwise.

Either that, or Mycroft decided to leave Sherlock on his own in this because it is his fault he got involved.

I only just seriously joined the forum so can only join this extremely interesting discussion now. I've been upset ever since S3 aired because of what Moftiss have done to both Sherlock and Mycroft, which is to not take their own characters very seriously. I feel they've dumbed down both of them. I do hope they'll read some of the clever suggestions here for S4 to help their characters regain their credibility.

Last edited by dioscureantwins (August 30, 2015 3:24 pm)

Gladly, thank you for asking. 

After the thrilling opening sequences of TEH my disillusion with Sherlock began with the scene in the restaurant, further intensified with the scene in the train car and became final in TSoT when he was so slow in the Bainbridge case. 

My disillusion with Mycroft began when Mary shot Sherlock. Mycroft's first mission in life is to ensure his little brother's safety and yet John is allowed to date and marry and bring into Sherlock;s inner circle a trained killer? Hardly likely imho.

The whole of S3 feels like a different show to me. Far less suave and funny and eloquent. Both Sherlock and Mycroft are incredibly slow and Mycroft completely lacks that tight hint of danger. It feels like they dumbed down their own characters to serve the fans and create a greater public for themselves. They managed to do the letter but I'd rather been spared this improbable mishmash. 

I do hope so too. Though to be honest I think Moffat and Gatiss have created an even bigger problem for themselves than they did with the TRF cliffhanger. In the meantime Mary's so-called surgery could well have ended with Sherlock's death, Mycroft looks like an incompetent and Sherlock like a common criminal who resorts to murder when pushed in a tight corner. This has all upset me greatly.

In the meantime, I'm convinced there's a volcano hidden behind Mycroft's icy exterior. Both Moriarty and Sherlock are very shortsighted when it comes to watching Big Brother. In that, they are indeed on the same side.

The big problem for me is that in HLV it turns out Mycroft apparently didn't know Mary is ex-CIA or MI6 or any other secret service agent gone rogue. He is the British Government. It's his job to know these things and protect his little brother. His failing to do so is a big disappointment for me.