SolarSystem wrote:

Interesting analysis:

http://deducingbbcsherlock.tumblr.com/post/77865018181/their-masks-just-drop-the-instant-mary-turns

Oh yes, these are good deductions. Also didn't realise this moment at the airfield. I can agree on all points. And once again it shows how brilliant the facial expressions of the actors characterise the scene.

Another thought: Knowing that Mary was a professional assassin makes it even more dangerous for John NOT to read the information on this stick. Also if John really is in love ... after all what happend I can't imagine him being that blue-eyed.
 

SusiGo wrote:

SolarSystem wrote:

Interesting analysis:

http://deducingbbcsherlock.tumblr.com/post/77865018181/their-masks-just-drop-the-instant-mary-turns

Thank you for posting this, Solar, just brilliant. And I am glad someone else shares my ideas. Did not observe the moment at the airfield, though, but it is definitely there. 

 
Hm. I have to watch the original scene again. In the blog it's slow motion, but in the show? If so I agree with you, but if not it can also be a normal good-bye. You smile at someone, then turn around and stop smiling. That's what people DO! 

I watched it again and you may be right. It is hard to tell. 

Well said. I know when to rest my case (with regard to this scene, not my idea about Mary as such ).

Incidentally, vis a vis why Mary drove to Baker St rather than heading to St James the Less, I note that the first result on Google for St James the Less is the church, with a handy map showing how to get there.

I appreciate that Mary may lack Sherlock's knowledge of London, but London changes constantly, and Sherlock has been away for two years; he himself acknowledges this fact. They have a nasty habit of digging vast holes, building vast buildings, and completely changing the traffic routes; I speak from experience. They are digging and building the CrossRail project in the City of London, which makes giving a cab driver directions on how to get to the nearest spot to my home in the Barbican a constant challenge. This is why cabbies have sat nav as well as The Knowledge; they use the web.

This option was available to Mary but she chose to drive to Baker St instead.

@Willow So she's trying to ingratiate herself wih Sherlock?
What are you saying?

Last edited by besleybean (February 26, 2014 11:45 am)

I see what you mean. But at this point she is still the nice clever nurse John is in love with. Going there alone and pulling him out of the fire without getting help might seem a bit suspicious to Sherlock as well as to John. 

Swanpride wrote:

But isn't it logical to check first at Baker street if John arrived there? After all in the SMS which might be a skip code (it could be spam after all) is nothing written about "come in two minutes" (the message which gives them a time frame arrives after she already spoke to Sherlock).

 
Indeed, it would be logical, and the logical way to do it would be to text, email or ring Sherlock or Mrs Hudson to ask that question.

People do not drive into central London to ask if someone is there; it takes far too long. It's a very big place, with huge traffic problems, which is why people text, email or ring beforehand to ask if someone is there, or has been there. Mary tells Sherlock that the text she has received shows John is in danger; if she has worked it out sufficiently to tell Sherlock then she has already worked it out for herself.

And whilst mentioning a skip code might make Sherlock wonder, leaving John to be burned alive rather than rescuing him herself clearly involves much greater danger for John. This is not something one can argue is for John's good; clearly John needs to be out from that bonfire now rather than later, when he may be dead or severely burned like Sholto. Mary had a choice between preserving her own cover or rescuing John; the fact that she chose the former is something we need to consider in thinking about her.

besleybean wrote:

Hang on...have I missed something?
Wasn't it only after they found out what was actually happening to John.
Didn't she initually just know he'd been got?

Well, I don't know whether you've missed something; I'm relying on watching the episode and reading Ariane DeVere's amazing transcript at her LiveJournal.

Both of those show Mary receiving the skip code text, and then later (an unspecified amount of time later) turning up at Baker St to ask Sherlock's help because she had received the skip code text. There would be no point in her asking Sherlock's help if she didn't think there was a problem; she is supposed to be a highly trained intelligence agent who presumably knows that if she wants to know whether John is, or has been, at Baker St then the obvious way to find out, just like all the non-highly trained inhabitants of London, is to text/email/ring.

It makes no sense to suggest that she didn't know John was in danger because otherwise she wouldn't have told Sherlock that John was in danger...


 

Sticking to the facts.
Magnusson arranged for John to be drugged , kidnapped and placed inside the bonfire.
Magnusson wanted to watch Sherlock rescue John.
Magnusson arranged the camera's to watch .
Magnusson arranged the exact time and the exact place and the cctv to watch it all happen.
Magnusson arranged the message to be delivered at the exact time..and to the exact place he needed to make things happen ..( Sherlock) to film the test.

How does this not make sense.
What is hopeful thinking and not fact.

Last edited by lil (February 26, 2014 10:03 pm)