I just want to say that I absolutely love Mary. She is flawed, and I think that if she had a choice she wouldn't have shot Sherlock in the first place. In the previous episodes we see her pushing him and John together. She actually does like Sherlock and he likes her enough to share John.
I honestly don't care that she shot Sherlock, I'm not upset about it. I can't explain why. I just thought that part was particularly interesting. *shrugs* I'm pretty weird. So….yeah. I liked it.
You know what? I feel the same. I absolutely wanted to hate Mary before S3 started. I wanted to scream and shout at the tv and hate her with all my heart. But, from the moment she appeared, I didn't; I couldn't. I liked her. More than that. As episodes went on, I warmed to her. I liked her! So much so that HLV didn't change that. My heat went out to her and I didn't hate her even when I perhaps should have.
Whether that was right or not, maybe only season 4 will tell...
They make her so hard to hate, for me at least. She was just lovable form the beginning. And she did it because she didn't want to loose John. CAM was threatening her life with John and she just go tubber protective. I loved that. And I think Sherlock totally understood. And he's been through shit in the past two years. I think he understood why she shot him and that's why he forgave her so easily. I think fandom would hate her if she'd gotten in-between him and John but instead she pushed them together. There is nothing to hate about Mary. She did the thing that was the lesser of the two evils.
I agree....I liked Mary as shipper-on-deck, too, but I adore this version of her. I will savour every moment she is allowed to life and I really hope that the writers will take the time to explore the new dynamic.
Thanks for your character analysis here, very interesting!
Mary may not be a reformed character - but she is on the road to reformation and this is why I personally like her. She is very flawed and very human. She shows us all that the road to redemption is rocky and littered with failure, but we can get there.I'm not really sure, though, that the show treats her like a person who is only beginning her redemption journey. I think one of the things that bothered me most about the episode was that in the scene at Baker Street with Sherlock, John, and Mary where they discuss the shooting, Sherlock seemed to be telling the audience that what Mary did was basically necessary and not that bad. Sherlock changes the narrative from her shooting him to her 'saving' him. She says "I'm sorry" to Sherlock at the moment she shoots him, but clearly what she meant was "I'm sorry it came to this," not "I'm sorry, I should never have done what I just did and I repent of my action." The latter is what she needs to say in order for me to get past
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P.S. -- I just want to say thank you again for your very thoughtful articles. It's really great of you to create a respectful and welcoming environment for fans to chew over some of the most controversial and complicated elements of the show. I know from some of the things you've said before that it can be emotionally wearing to be in the middle of so much heated debate, and I just want to make sure you know that, just because my subjective reaction to this storyline was different from yours, I in no way dismiss your own take on things -- thank you for sharing your interpretation and your personal reaction; I'm glad you enjoyed Mary's character throughout
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I have a reeeeally hard time coming to terms with Sherlock shooting Magnusson... but I can think of three things that might make it easier to forgive him than Mary
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Good points. Personally, I think a major factor for me was also that I have known the original ACD story for twenty years. In "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton," though Sherlock does not pull the trigger himself, he watches the murder take place without interfering, he allows the murderer to escape, and afterwards when Lestrade asks him if he wants to work on the case he flat out refuses, even though he's already deduced the identity of the killer, and says explicitly that he's on the killer's side and morally approves of what they did
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Love your analysis of what Mary did. As for the reasons why Sherlock forgives Mary so easily - this is pretty much an addendum to what you wrote already: Sherlock knows what it is like to love and being loved by John Watson (in whatever sense of the word is suitable), so I am sure he can relate to Mary not wanting to lose John's love, no matter what. Like you said, Sherlock is further on his hero's journey so if his and Mary's roles were reversed, he probably wouldn't have shot her because he didn't want to make John go through that loss (again). But he would no doubt have considered doing it, if only for a split second.
I like Mary a lot and I love that they made her such a complex character!
Hit the nail right on the head as to why Mary's character bothers me so much. I would love to believe that there's a bigger picture to unfold in future seasons but I'm generally a pessimistic person so I'm not holding out. Honestly, I would LOVE her to be the big bad next season, she has so much potential. Obviously she's a master of deception, and Sherlock and John seemed so quick to write her off as being good and trustworthy DESPITE that she had them completely fooled for so long. I know John wouldn't talk to her for a long time while he processed everything, and then everything is good and okay and he throws the USB in the fire. And we don't know what was on that USB stick. Hoping against hope this comes back to bite everyone on the ass because that could seriously get interesting.
The reason why she is a character in her own right, is because she is very different to both Jim Moriarty and Magnussen. I completely agree that Mary doesn't do very much. For a central character, she is incredibly passive
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a)that we know so little about her past. It's always very hard to judge a character that we do not know enough about. Perhaps when we do get Mary's backstory it will change our perspective but even if we never know about Mary's back story it doesn't change what we know she had done. She has exited that world, she has married John and she definitely loves him. We may not know her past or her motivations for leaving the assassin's world but we do know why she stayed. If John finds suburban life dull, I can only imagine what Mary is going through. That is enough for me to believe that Mary is at least prepared to make the effort to leave her past behind. I think this shows a great deal of resolve and courage. If anything she lasted longer than John - who couldn't help but go into a drug den and beat up some junkies
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I honestly don't care that she shot Sherlock, I'm not upset about it. I can't explain why. I just thought that part was particularly interesting. *shrugs* I'm pretty weird. So….yeah. I liked it.
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I absolutely wanted to hate Mary before S3 started.
I wanted to scream and shout at the tv and hate her with all my heart.
But, from the moment she appeared, I didn't; I couldn't.
I liked her.
More than that. As episodes went on, I warmed to her. I liked her!
So much so that HLV didn't change that. My heat went out to her and I didn't hate her even when I perhaps should have.
Whether that was right or not, maybe only season 4 will tell...
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I think fandom would hate her if she'd gotten in-between him and John but instead she pushed them together.
There is nothing to hate about Mary. She did the thing that was the lesser of the two evils.
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Mary may not be a reformed character - but she is on the road to reformation and this is why I personally like her. She is very flawed and very human. She shows us all that the road to redemption is rocky and littered with failure, but we can get there.I'm not really sure, though, that the show treats her like a person who is only beginning her redemption journey. I think one of the things that bothered me most about the episode was that in the scene at Baker Street with Sherlock, John, and Mary where they discuss the shooting, Sherlock seemed to be telling the audience that what Mary did was basically necessary and not that bad. Sherlock changes the narrative from her shooting him to her 'saving' him. She says "I'm sorry" to Sherlock at the moment she shoots him, but clearly what she meant was "I'm sorry it came to this," not "I'm sorry, I should never have done what I just did and I repent of my action." The latter is what she needs to say in order for me to get past ( ... )
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I like Mary a lot and I love that they made her such a complex character!
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a)that we know so little about her past. It's always very hard to judge a character that we do not know enough about. Perhaps when we do get Mary's backstory it will change our perspective but even if we never know about Mary's back story it doesn't change what we know she had done. She has exited that world, she has married John and she definitely loves him. We may not know her past or her motivations for leaving the assassin's world but we do know why she stayed. If John finds suburban life dull, I can only imagine what Mary is going through. That is enough for me to believe that Mary is at least prepared to make the effort to leave her past behind. I think this shows a great deal of resolve and courage. If anything she lasted longer than John - who couldn't help but go into a drug den and beat up some junkies ( ... )
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