I’ve been mulling over this theory more and more, that Mary has been drugging John and Sherlock with TD12. I’ll specifically focus on John here:
So, from possibly the end of The Six Thatchers leading into The Lying Detective, John is starting to ‘see’ Mary. But because of the drug, he is not sure what is real and what isn’t– he doesn’t understand that the real Mary is actually holding him hostage. (See Looks like John’s trapped by @teapotsubtext)
But, like the real Faith, perhaps something started to click before John forgot entirely. We see Faith upset and shaking trying to write out her note:
FAITH (tearfully): I can’t remember. Can’t remember who you’re gonna kill. SMITH: Dear, in five minutes you won’t even remember why you were crying. (x)
Imagine Smith as Mary and John as Faith:
What if John pretty damned smart Watson was fighting the effects of the drug, had started to remember that something was Very Wrong. He needs to leave a message, let Sherlock know-
But Mary is always watching him. She sees John writing the note and:
“Oh, Faith John. Don’t you think I should take that? It’s only going to upset you.”
She can’t have John and Sherlock communicating at all, she needs to keep them isolated from each other, make them feel like all hope is lost. She can’t risk Sherlock reading any sort of sign from John.
So, what does she do? Well, why not amp up the isolation even more? Threaten more people to follow her own game plan?
What if Mary threatened Molly, forcing her to hand Sherlock a note, and to tell him it was from John:
But, it wasn’t. Perhaps it was a deliberately scathing note, designed to keep Sherlock from contacting John, so that he would not reveal to John the DVD Mary sent him.
And meanwhile, Mary destroys the evidence John wrote. Without the note, just like Faith, he forgets that anything was ever amiss.
LOVE THIS THEORY. Makes so much sense. PLUS Mary KNOWS John has hallucinated in the past about dead people in his life (remember TEH and John looking to her to ensure she’s seeing Sherlock too? That to me says that John has hallucinated Sherlock in the past, and that Mary is aware of it), so she thinks she was important enough to John that she could fool him into thinking John would hallucinate her too… until he actually does, with the TD-12 drug. PLUS a lot of the language she uses in T6T and TLD is very “suggestive”, like she’s trying to plant ideas into John’s head (the “letter she wrote” to him while on the run) and is using John’s own sense of poor self worth against him.
How would she have administered the drug? We see it only used through IV.
There was a theory going around here that “Eurus” (read: Mary) intentionally made sure she had a moment alone with Sherlock in The Lying Detective (that the audience hasn’t seen the whole of yet)- more drugs could have been slipped in the water she gave him.
Well John is notoriously easy to poison, Sherlock’s said so himself. He may have even given her the idea, at the wedding. And the easiest way to slip it to Sherlock would be to have his dealer/chemist on your side, someone Mary’s already met… maybe earlier than we’re led to believe.
“Don’t drink Mary’s tea.” IF THEIR TEA WAS POISONED IN REVENGE… ALSO, could that add more to Wiggins just up and leaving when Sherlock starts his Henry V speech? “He’s lost it, he’s totally gone.” Did he know the stuff was kicking in fully and felt guilty?
Wiggins you traitor…
😥 but if this is happening, and obviously Billy Wiggins=William=William Sherlock… then it’s a mirror for Mary manipulating Sherlock…
My latest theory is that Sherlock ignores Vatican Cameos because John thinks he ignored the note (when in fact Mary interfered).
oh. OH. OUCH
oh my god @nottoolateforthegame this is KILLING ME…. John in the opening of TLD bitterly saying he’s not been in contact with Sherlock and Sherlock’s not attempted to make any contact with him;- Eurus Mary taunting him: “How can you be sure? He might have tried.” And John replying: “
No, if Sherlock Holmes wants to get in touch, that’s not something you can fail to notice.”
!!!
So Mary uses Eurus to do stuff or Mary is Eurus? And we say that TFP is John bleeding to death after Mary shot him/ Eurus for Mary? @jenna221b
yeah I see it more as Mary literally is Eurus (see A Case of (Mistaken) Identity) and after she shoots John, she causes the pained hallucinated TFP– she is ‘the grim figure of death’, the one who brings about John’s Garridebs/near death moment.
It’s a plausible theory if you want to absolve John of some of the problematic characterization in seasons 3 & 4. It paints him as a hapless victim, which means that none of his … unpalatable actions during those seasons were his fault. It’s a reading I would prefer, to be honest. I’m not quite sure there’s enough in canon to bear that out, but it works for fanfiction– which is fine by me…
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