BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / How did Sherlock & John get there before Mary?

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** January 1, 2017 11:16 pm

OK, I know how they traced Mary - they had a tracking device in the stick....but surely that still meant they would be one step behind her at all times. "Oh look, she's gone there, we'll go there too"...so how did they actually manage to get there before her and surprise her?

**Posted by Vhanja** January 1, 2017 11:27 pm

It looked to me as if this wasn't the first time she'd been there - and not the first time Sherlock had been there. So I figured that when we see her, it's not the first time she enters that room.

**Posted by SusiGo** January 1, 2017 11:28 pm

Good question. Alas, since the whole episode felt very surreal to me I do not have an answer right now. Could it be the Samarra parallel all over again? Mary on the run and running to precisely the place where she would be found?

**Posted by Liberty** January 1, 2017 11:39 pm

I actually thought that was where she was temporarily living - she'd gone out to the shops or whatever, then realised there was somebody in the house. But I may have got that wrong. I'm not going to watch again until tomorrow, so I may have missed a lot of nuances. Bit of a coincidence AJ tracking her there and coming in at just the right time too ... although again, I may well have missed something!

Edit: Edited later to say that of course AJ was tracking Sherlock - that's why he got there at a similar time.

Last edited by Liberty (January 6, 2017 9:07 am)

**Posted by Sherlock's Curl** January 2, 2017 12:45 am

Sherlock Holmes wrote:
OK, I know how they traced Mary - they had a tracking device in the stick....but surely that still meant they would be one step behind her at all times. "Oh look, she's gone there, we'll go there too"...so how did they actually manage to get there before her and surprise her?

For me it felt like Mary's been in that house for a time. Sherlock followed all her movements in London, where he reported John about and they decided to visit her after she staied in this city and bring her back.

PS: Thanks for your welcoming words ^^ It's very interesting and cool here

Last edited by Sherlock's Curl (January 2, 2017 12:53 am)

**Posted by This Is The Phantom Lady** January 2, 2017 5:46 am

It seems a likely explanation that it was the place she stayed... maybe she got the gun out to protect herself since she noticed someone who shouldn't be was there.

Initially when she got the gun out I thought she was going in there for a hit or something... but I missed a lot due to noise

**Posted by nakahara** January 2, 2017 4:19 pm

Liberty wrote:
Bit of a coincidence AJ tracking her there and coming in at just the right time too ... although again, I may well have missed something!

Well, after the fight with Sherlock, AJ already knew it is enough to track Sherlock himself and he will get to Mary for sure.

I couldn´t believe how daft Sherlock was after finding the AGRA stick in the bust. He babbled everyting about Mary to AJ. Only her adress and her bank account were missing.....

**Posted by Liberty** January 6, 2017 9:14 am

Yes, on second viewing I think somebody even says that that's how Ajay found Mary (by tracking Sherlock). Of course he also finds her through looking at Sherlock's contacts and sees the wedding photos (I always wondered why she wanted such a public wedding! But of course, she thought she was relatively safe ... until she got the telegram from CAM).

Good point that he gives stuff away about Mary - I think he's just gobsmacked in that moment. But yes, not terribly helpful to give Ajay Mary's new name and to let him know that he knows her! And taking the stick probably made Ajay even more of a loose cannon, as their sticks were their "protection". Sherlock did say Mary had destroyed hers, but that might not be true (from Ajay's point of view) - if he doesn't have his stick he has no defence against her.

I suppose if Sherlock had kept quiet (or even let Lestrade stake out the house instead!) then possibly Ajay would have been arrested for murder, put away, and never found Mary - or at least, not for a few more years. Maybe that's another thing Sherlock feels guilty about.

**Posted by SusiGo** January 6, 2017 9:21 am

Yes, it was not very clever of Sherlock to do so, nakahara. Which leads to the question why he was THAT shocked when he realised Ajay was after Mary. Because he thought shooting Magnussen had been enough? Because he expected a connection to Moriarty? Because he thought for a moment that this was the flashdrive that had been burnt in his parents' fireplace? Because he feared that Moriary and Mary might be connected after all?

**Posted by Liberty** January 6, 2017 9:32 am

I think that initially he did think it was the same flashdrive that had been burnt. I don't think he'd worked out who AGRA were and still believed it was one person and one flashdrive. And yes, I think he must have thought of a Mary/Moriarty connection at that point, because he was so sure that Moriarty had set up the Thatcher bust "game". It certainly crossed my mind too, when watching it.

**Posted by Lis** January 6, 2017 1:31 pm

Liberty wrote:
I suppose if Sherlock had kept quiet (or even let Lestrade stake out the house instead!) then possibly Ajay would have been arrested for murder, put away, and never found Mary - or at least, not for a few more years. Maybe that's another thing Sherlock feels guilty about.

I think this could be a reason for him feeling guilty as well as he wanted so desperately to play the game with Moriarty and, like John said at the beginning not all loose threads have to be pulled, if Sherlock had not investigated the smashing of the Thatcher Busts in the first place then things would not have played out how they did. I don't think Sherlock can be blamed for Mary's death but his actions throughout the whole case would play on his mind and probably make him feel guilty.

I think Sherlock looked so shocked when he saw the AGRA USB as he was so sure it would be something from Moriarty so seeing something connected to Mary completely caught him by surprise.