“Near this was a square brick building called the Aquarium, and serving, as the name implies, as a place of seclusion for habitual drunkards”
—
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Narrative of John Smith (1883)
“There’s
clearly no one new in your life, otherwise you wouldn’t be spending your Friday
nights in an aquarium. That probably accounts for the drink problem, too—the
slight tremor in your hand, the red wine stain ghosting
your top lip.” (The Six Thatchers)
I don’t know who is she communicating with or what, but I had this bad thought, that maybe this really is real and Mary just faked her own death or something, cause let’s also consider the fact that Norbury says “maybe I can still surprise you” and when she shoots Mary she doesn’t act like she didn’t expect it all.
And, there are other things to consider too: Both Sherlock and John can hear her talking and she knew exactly what would happen after she died. Either way, it’s bizarre
It always looked to me like she was signalling someone, too. If this is real, and she faked her death (though ugh, I dread hearing the John wank that he couldn’t tell she was faking since everyone LOVES to rag on him about the bones) does that mean she is fake haunting him, too?
Well, to be fair he couldn’t tell she was pregnant either. And like I said, Sherlock can hear her too but that makes me feel so uneasy cause the way he says “isn’t that right, Mary” is just so jovial like he didn’t find it weird at all, or, like he didn’t mind that she was haunting John.
I cut him slack on the pregnancy thing. I tend to believe she was ‘playing up’ her symptoms *cough* It’s fake *cough* for Sherlock but that’s just me, wishful thinking 😉 Even though I tend to believe this is in Sherlock’s head, I can see why they make it appear as if Sherlock doesn’t really ‘know’ that she is there, in John’s head. I think there are levels of Sherlock’s subconscious (represented by the different levels of mp) that really don’t know that this isn’t ‘real’. Watching that scene, I don’t think it’s so much Sherlock hears both sides of the convo. He watches John, looking at something (heyo, callback to Eurus as therapist calling him out for the same thing!) And speaking to that empty space. John even says her name. So Sherlock understands that John is speaking to ‘Mary’ in some fashion- spirit, ghost, memory. The bit about wearing the hat is the giveaway in that moment. Sherlock’s subconscious knows this is a dream and is aware of everything so yeah. That’s how I explain that to myself. As delusional as it may be 😔
Sherlock Fandom Archive 