Oh wow I didn't notice the letters and we hadn't been warned about them like before,...they usually do this as clues for the next series.
But this time they just spell out the episode we've just watched!

Lis wrote:

That's interesting, I don't remember seeing any red letters when it aired and unless I'm being completely daft or I've gone colourblind I can't see any on BBC iPlayer. 

So glad you wrote that. I just realized thst I can't see them either and came here to ask if I am stupid or blind. ;-)

Definitely not just you guys... I think the end credit scenes during New Year broadcast and on iPlayer are different.

During the New Year broadcast, I thought Mary said the line "Go to hell Sherlock" with a lot more contempt in her voice. On iPlayer on rewatch it was almost "matter of fact" in tone... though I can't verify this as I didn't record the initial broadcast episode.

I'd have to rewatch to be sure, but maybe the scenes got edited in out of order? Sounds odd, I know

TheOtherOne wrote:

Definitely not just you guys... I think the end credit scenes during New Year broadcast and on iPlayer are different.

During the New Year broadcast, I thought Mary said the line "Go to hell Sherlock" with a lot more contempt in her voice. On iPlayer on rewatch it was almost "matter of fact" in tone... though I can't verify this as I didn't record the initial broadcast episode.

I think they must be the same, but I had the same feeling - the first time I heard it, it sounded vicious.  Then on rewatching it sounded more intense and earnest.  Strange.  I wonder if it was just the shock of hearing it the first time - everything seemed so perfectly resolved, and then ... that!

My guess is that the new hairstyles and so on are just part of the look of the new series.  And I think Amanda looks noticeably different - she appears to have lost weight, and you can see it in her face.   Even putting her in a wig wouldn't make her look like HLV Mary.  So it seems they've just started anew. 
 

After a rewatch, some new headscratchers:

- Sherlock and AJ fly through the solid glass into the pool during their fight. Next day Sherlock is seen sporting the shiner, by not a single scratch from the glass?

- the MT busts were manufactured in Georgia for the people collecting cold-era relics, yet they all ended within a relatively small distance from each other in London? And no new ones were ever produced?

- when AJ is seen running through the busts manufacture, we see other busts exploding around him, smashed by the shots from some weapon - yet AJ chooses MT bust as a safe place for an AGRA stick?

- Mary supposedly chooses the places of her travel through the roll of the dice. That means, she willingly enters the country like Iran which is suspicious about Western espionage and which has heightened anti-espionage security, visa duty and several other issues that could lead to Mary´s fake identity being unmasked... isn´t it a bit silly of her?

- also, what if the dice told her to go into Chernobyl or into the middle of Atlantic Ocean?

- and although she supposedly enters absolutely random countries, the false pass is readily waiting at her in one of them, the friendly Morrocan boy she knows waits on her in the other?

- Mary is fond on her ability to speak in oxymorons, isn´t she? When speaking about AGRA, she at first announces they completely trusted each other, then unveils the fact they were only stopped from turning on each other through the existence of AGRA sticks (the sign of complete mistrust). She writes to John "I´m not running away" while technically running away. She hears Sherlock´s warning that AJ slit the throat of the bust owner, but claims that it´s only important to her to find him (meaning "what is one slit throat of a stranger between friends"...)

besleybean wrote:

On the last couple: I think running away would imply not coming back.  But she had every intention of returning, once the danger was over.
She was hoping to be able to convince AJ of the truth.

But she was running away from him, not searching for him.

You said she wanted to convince Ajay of the truth. How could she achieve that by going away so he can't find her?

Last edited by Schmiezi (January 7, 2017 6:12 pm)

Well, about the glass in the pool. You need the safety glass when you have such tall windows. Actually in this case (the window reaches the floor) laminated glass should be used (like in windshields) - if it breaks, it doesn't shatter but the pieces remain stuck to the interlayer. You can't jump thru such a window, tho.
For the show toughened glass was used. It is safety glass that shatters but doesn't cut you.

Sorry if I've contributed to the confusion.
But Mary was actually running away hoping AJ would follow her, but only to draw him away form her family.