Sherlock’s Season 4 premiere contained a major twist that shocked many viewers. But according to its showrunners (and, well, literature) it was planned all along.
Sherlock Season 4 pulled no punches in its premiere. “The Six Thatchers” was a dark episode that, among other things, killed off one of its main characters. John’s wife Mary died taking a bullet meant for Sherlock, and changed the relationship between the two forever. (Or for a while, at least.)
This twist came as a shock to many viewers. But it’s not particularly surprising. For anyone with even a passing familiarity with the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories, Mary’s death became a foregone conclusion the minute she appeared on the show. It was only ever a matter of when.
In the original Conan Doyle canon, Mary Morstan/Watson appears in just one story, The Sign of Four. She gets a mention in passing in two others, The Adventure of the Crooked Man and The Boscombe Valley Mystery. But by the time The Adventure of the Norwood Builder rolls around, she’s gone. Watson is back living in Baker Street. And her cause of death is never mentioned.
Moffat says that plan was always to kill Mary off on the show, as well. (Though they at least had the decency to do it onscreen.)
“The truth is it’s never established that she died in the stories,” Moffat told Entertainment Weekly in an interview. “We just assume she died because Watson refers to his “sad loss” which is probably a death but not necessarily. We just assume she died because Watson refers to his “sad loss” which is probably a death but not necessarily. The reality of this, of course, is that Sherlock Holmes is about Sherlock and Dr. Watson and it’s always going to come back to that — always always always. They had fun making it a trio but it doesn’t work long term. Mary was always going to go and we were always going to get back to the two blokes. That’s the format.”
It hasn’t been just “the two blokes” since the end of Season 2. And a lot has happened since then – including Sherlock faking his death, and John starting a family. So, whatever their new normal looks like – whenever they get there, the characters aren’t exactly speaking at the moment – it’s going to be quite different.
And getting the famous Holmes-Watson friendship back on track may take some time. Moffat has promised that the rest of the season will feature “grief in a big way”, along with a “rift between them” that “will never completely go away”.
Moffat also made a point to reiterate that Mary is really, most sincerely dead. That people even ask this question is his own fault. Moffat doesn’t have the greatest track record with deaths that stick in his programs. Pretty much every character on his run of Doctor Who has died at least once. A few of them died more than once. Fake out and/or take back deaths are kind of his thing. But apparently Mary will be the rare Moffat death that sticks. “We’re not playing games,” he told EW. “She’s dead.”
Next: 16 Times Sherlock Drove Us All Crazy
Where does the show go now? We’ll find out when Season 4 continues with “The Lying Detective” on January 8.