Thank you for the response about Mary! I’m tired about people waxing poetic about her “love” to John. I’m not even sure about it… IMO, she protects her new, “normal” way of living – the doctor husband, the suburbs, eventually a little nice family. She didn’t have to shot Sherlock – he was offering help, yet she did not hesitate for a second. She would put John through hell again; it doesn’t look like love to me.

It’s a kind of love, I think.  But a selfish one.  Not the kind you can trust.  Not the kind I would counsel a friend I loved toward keeping.

I think she would probably go to extreme lengths to protect John.  But when one time we have seen her choose her own safety over John’s health, you always have to ask, Where does her line lie?  Was the only threat that could have driven her to such lengths?  Or is there another one lying somewhere in her heart.

But John knows that, and he chose it after he had been made to see clearly.  He chose it with Sherlock too, over and over, and when it finally burned his heart out, he forgave and came back for another go-around.  He seems to like the kind of danger that can threaten to tear his soul apart.

Addict.

Which brings me back to this meta I keep trying to write.  It’s about what kind of show this really is, and what kind of people we (like John) have really fallen for.