Mary’s death sent John spiralling into a fit of grief which leads us into the second episode: The Lying Detective.

After last season’s finale, it seemed as if Sherlock was transitioning from less of the smart aleck detective with the brain operating at a mile a minute, ten steps ahead in every life-threatening scenario yet two steps behind in any social encounter, to more of a rash vigilante. The tendencies of a “high-functioning sociopath” were even more apparent in The Lying Detective as Sherlock took it upon himself to destroy himself.

He purposefully entrenched himself in the clutches of the dastardly “serial/cereal killer” multimillionaire mogul Culverton Smith. Apparitions seemed to be a recurring theme as both Sherlock and John seemed to be seeing figments of their imagination, but while Sherlock’s “ghost” stems from a case, John’s is born from his grief. Therefore it’s no surprise that Mary shows up multiple times throughout the episode whether it be in John’s visions or in a video she filmed prior to her death, in case of her death, which is now in Sherlock’s possession. Mary posthumously advises Sherlock to put himself in harm’s way to help John out of his pit of despair, a plot reach which seemed unnecessary and foolhardy. She, in essence, said “to save John you need to let him save you.” And how is Mary, the woman who John just met and married only two years ago, giving Sherlock advice about his best friend? If Sherlock is so talented with deduction, how is it that Mary feels the need to reach out to him from her grave to give him anticlimactic tips and tidbits? Did Mary have so little trust in the infamous duo that she didn’t believe they would be able to reconcile without her timely taped aid? It is clear that John craves adrenaline and he can not live a normal life devoid of danger, but would he really want Sherlock to try to get himself killed? If Mary truly believed in her own advice, she would have attempted the same suicidal attention-seeking scheming the writers made her thrust upon Sherlock when John was upset with her for hiding her past indiscretions as part of the elite squad of assassins, A.G.R.A. Mary’s advice was not the only blatant deus ex machina wrap to a slow kindling build-up. Although Sherlock may have had immense forethought, predicting each and every one of John’s moves two weeks in advance, even going so far as to place a recording device in his cane, how could he account for everything? What if John had forgotten his keys or stopped to tie his shoe? Sherlock’s predictions were built on John’s bland unpredictability and quite frankly transforming Sherlock into a Mary Sue character of sorts, unable to make a mistake.

The writers were fluctuating between two extremes. Either Sherlock would be too irrational, a loose cannon disposing of all forethought and needing the guidance from along deceased sage in order to maintain the relationships in his life, or using it to the point where he could extrapolate anything that would and could ever happen so there would be no risk at all. This imbalance was the only prominent flaw but at least it allowed for John and Sherlock to repair their relationship relatively quickly after the tragedy as well as allow them to prepare to combat “the final problem.”