hello, sorry for showing up on your doorstep all out the sudden, i don't know if you take asks or not, if not then i apologize. but if you do, there's something I'd like to ask because I always value your insight on Sherlock. See, many people insist that John doesn't love Mary at all and even claim he never did which is driving me nuts, because taking into consideration human emotional complexity and the bbc canon, I disagree. And you know John so well, I'd love to see your perspective on this.
Well hello there, stranger, standing here on my doorstep! Please, come on in!
First off: I love the idea that I know John well. He drops by the library from time to time, we go for a pint, I help him with his blog. Iâm his sisterâs ex, but he and I got along better than either of us did with her, so.
I canât imagine a version of this story where John doesnât love Mary. Weâre at a point, here after weâve seen The Six Thatchers but nothing more, where there is a clear suggestion that John is cheating on Mary, and many are shocked and appalled by this. How could ethical, moral-compass John do such a thing? Well: how could ethical, moral-compass John marry someone he never felt any love for? I donât think he would, and I donât think he did. John definitely loves Mary.
I think itâs safe to say, in the context of this story, that John and Sherlock are soulmates. They were built with a piece missing in the shape of the other, and each of them become their best and most whole selves when theyâre together. This is true no matter who else enters either of their lives, no matter how much either of them loves anyone else. This core construction is permanent and unconditional. Itâs practically biological. They donât even have to like it or want it; it just is. John (or Sherlock!) loving anyone else cannot lessen the reality of this connection, and the foundational bond between Sherlock and John doesnât lessen the love they feel for other people. Complicate it? Certainly. It may even make it impossible for either of them to properly commit to anyone else. But love isnât a zero sum game even at the worst of times.Â
There is no question in my mind that John loves Mary. He loves the version of her that she wants to be. John gets restless in his marriage before Mary shoots Sherlock and her secrets start to spill out, but thatâs not a statement on how much John loves her. No one but Sherlock can fill the gap in John that Sherlock fills. He certainly loves her while she canât.
If John knew Maryâs whole past, if he had known her before she became Mary Morstan, would he have loved her? Mary tells us he wouldnât, and it seems sheâs right. John is having a hard time accepting the lies Mary tells. He doesnât like her behaviour or her choices when her past self creeps back. Would he have found his way through his anger and feelings of betrayal and committed fully to his marriage again? Possibly. He isnât ready to give up on her entirely.Â
John married Maryâs fantasy version of herself rather than her reality, and sometimes reality seeps in. John no longer trusts Mary, and thatâs difficult terrain for love. But I donât think John stopped loving her by the end of The Six Thatchers. He is angry with her, and disappointed, but he still loves her.
Barring any rug-pulling details that force us to change our understanding of her death, perhaps Mary has demonstrated that she was capable of reshaping herself to be the Mary Watson she wanted to be. She might have genuinely become exactly who she pretended to be. And John would have loved her.