Swanpride wrote:

Neither is Mycroft "part of them" but he has nevertheless an important role in the show, despite barely turning up in canon.

I just think that if the writers will kill her, they will it when we don't expect it. Everyone will expect for every third episodes of each season, though.

Mycroft appears, or is mentioned in, 4 of the original stories but we know that he had many meetings with Sherlock:

' Again and again I have taken a problem to him, and have received an explanation which has afterwards proved to be the correct one. And yet he was absolutely incapable of working out the practical points...'

I don't think that you can accurately describe that as 'barely turning up in the canon'; Sherlock obviously maintains frequent contact with him and Moftiss are showing that contact.

I agree that many would expect her to be polished off in a seasonal finale, but I wouldn't; that has to be about Sherlock. However the storyline with Mary ends it can't be a rerun of John desperately grieving because John's already done the desperately grieving thing for Sherlock, and they can't simply rinse and repeat and still keep the story fresh.

It will be interesting to see how they manage it, but the obvious way to avoid the desperate grief would be by Mary doing something truly unforgivable; for example, if she's part of a wider story line involving the apparent return of Moriarty. And I have never understood why a woman madly in love would not dive into the fire alongside Sherlock to help drag John out; it doesn't ring true to me. Perhaps there is a clue in there...
 

Swanpride wrote:

If you count "by the way" remarks like this, than Mary/Mrs Watson is just as present. Never mind that in canon Holmes and Watson are not living together for long periods of time (and still end up together again at one point). I think I mentioned already somewhere that the stories with Mary/Mrs Watson have the advantage that they have way more creative beginnings. She is a character who adds to the dynamic, and I think the writers will use that - even if they decide to get rid of her, it will have a proper built up and a proper inpact. They will not gloss over the emotions connected with her the way ACD did.

I do not regard 'Again and again I have taken a problem to him' as a 'by the way' remark, and I cannot fathom how Mary Morstan in canon could be said to be just as present in Holmes' working life as Mycroft was; she wasn't.

Mary in Season 3 has no such role either; the sum total of her positive contribution is remembering Sholto's room number. This is not exactly a rounded CV; she can recognise a skip code but doesn't understand how to decipher it, and her one skill set as the lethal killer nurse wandering around offing anyone who looks a bit dodgy has been conclusively ruled out by Moftiss.

This doesn't leave her with many options, and Mofftiss have already done a lot of preparation for the emotions of the characters. John's decision to try and make a go of it was far from a foregone conclusion, and whilst he does give her the benefit of the doubt it would not survive the discovery, say, that she had played a part in causing TRF or has something to do with the return of the Big Bad. It would undoubtedly be traumatic, but he has already dealt with much of the grief; the anger that he acknowledges he still feels would then be unleashed. That would be much more fun for the actor, Martin, since he's not a one trick pony; he doesn't want to do same old, same old.

Equally with Sherlock; he's gone further than anyone has the right to expect in putting aside the agony she inflicted on him, but I don't think he gives second chances. It does seem to me that his affection for Mary is based on the fact that John wants her, and he wants John to be happy; add to that Sherlock's somewhat naive belief that mothers are like his mother, giving up her career to have children, and his disillusionment would be extreme...


 

Making Mary a definitive good guy or bad guy , or having her hang around too long would be out of the Sherlock box.
I would be surprised if they did that , it would be new and interesting though, and maybe a sign they would do it in other areas, even newer and more interesting.

What would be surprising (coming from this team) would be something boring ordinary and unrelated to a complex dramatic plot...so i am going to go with at the end of series4 a random everyday ordinary car crash kills them. Thus the bromance continues stronger and more united in grief during the hiatus.
By series5....back to the story.
Heh.

N.B Another truely interesting option is for Mary/child to not die...but be out of the story...go back into hiding from bad guys or witness protection cia or a divorce. However here we need a strong reason for John not to go with them..e.g not the baby's father.
This is outside the box and leaves the other areas guessing games going.

Last edited by lil (January 25, 2014 4:09 am)

I was convinced they'd keep to canon and kill Mary off, but the pregnancy threw me and now I won't be surprised if she remains in the show - apart from anything else, there seems to be a lot of affection for Amanda, and I think they'll be reluctant to write her out.
I keep changing my mind about this, actually but at the moment I feel sure she will stay in till the end!

Last edited by Tinks (February 5, 2014 6:56 am)

I don´t like her or the baby dying. Couldn´t they just live happily in the house and John work with Sherlock?

/love your signature, Tinks!/

Just joking when I say this but maybe the way to deal with Mary and the baby is to change the time line and the next episodes all take place before TRF and show us the cases that Sherlock alluded to at the wedding.  I'd love to see how the elephant got in the room or what was in that matchbox .

I think Mary is going to die while pregnant. I don't see adding a baby being a good thing for the show in the long run (although I do want to see Sherlock awkwardly babysit!). 

I want some kind of dramatic death. Like.... Sherlock and Mary have been captured by a villain (Moriarty?) and John only has time to save one person. He thinks he has time to save both, but of course he doesn't. Then I want to see some sort of soul-crushing death scene for Mary, because what's an episode of Sherlock without the feels?! Then Sherlock feels guilty so he will be very kind to John. John obviously will be a mess after this and will probably move back in with Sherlock as he recovers emotionally. Then slowly, with the help of Sherlock he gets better and they continue solving crimes. Fin.  

Noooo, I don't want to see John grieving AGAIN. 

I think Moftiss are fanboys when it comes to Martin acting emotional!
And he's very very good at it.  But I agree - I don't want any more of it for a while.
Whether they feel the same remains to be seen, of course.