ivyblossom:jasonnfunderburker:sherlock meme | seven outfits [4/7] ↳ mary’s wedding dressI was really

ivyblossom:jasonnfunderburker:sherlock meme | seven outfits [4/7] ↳ mary’s wedding dressI was really surprised to hear that they didn’t tell Amanda Abbington Mary’s whole story when they filmed this episode. Really, really surprised. For a few reasons: I didn’t realize they didn’t read all three scripts before they started shooting (hahahahahaha I should have known they’d still be working on the finer details up until the last second, no one’s ever as organized as they should be, are they), and also because the decision smacks of a lack of trust. If you wanted Mary as her disguise instead of Mary with her very dark side visible, couldn’t you just tell the actor that that’s what you want? Amanda Abbington knows what she’s doing. She’s smart, she’s competent. She’s an excellent actor. Why not trust her?Just now, seeing these gifs, I think I get it. Keeping something like that from an actor, potentially alienating a cast member and presumably a friend in this way, they must have wanted something very particular from her. What did they want?They wanted no suggestion whatsoever of what Mary would do, surely. Not even the slightest hint of a whisper of what she really is. They wanted the truth of her so buried that it doesn’t even exist here at all. They didn’t want to show Mary pretending to be what John thinks she is; they wanted her to be that Mary. They wanted her eyes clear and unconcerned. No doubts, no concerns, no faltering, no mistakes. Not a hair out of place, not a questionable stray glance.That’s not something normal people can do, entirely subsume themselves, hide their goals and motivations out of every flicker and every movement. No one’s that perfect. It would have been a weird thing to ask for, if she’d known the truth. It would have seemed terribly fake. She would have wanted to play a woman hiding a terrible secret, naturally. Even just a little bit, when no one was watching. Because that’s what she is. But they didn’t want that, obviously.Why not? Why would they want absolutely nothing of what Mary really is to be visible to the viewer, even in retrospect? There’s something intensely satisfying in seeing hints of the future in the past, once you know what happens. Why did they disallow us that pleasure?What we got must be exactly what they wanted. This must be Mary in perfect, perfect control. Her eyes, her face, her emotions: she is perfectly in check. Every move she makes is a decision, and it’s always the right one. There is no darkness in her here, though she has plenty of that, as we later learn. She is not haunted, or conflicted, or distressed by her lies and manipulation. She is so perfectly not who she actually is that we have to question everything we see here. This is not Mary (or whatever her real name is). This is what she wants everyone to see and to believe.She is the consummate actor, the perfect sleeper agent. Sherlock can’t see any of her secrets, except a hint that she might lie about a few little things (but who doesn’t?). She sets off no red flags. She is lovely and funny and adorable, she is forgiving and understanding, she is unthreatening and unthreatened. She is kind and gentle and intelligent. She befriends everyone, including the viewer, and including Sherlock, as impossible as that has always been for John’s girlfriends. But she manages it. She is the perfect manipulator, and no one can see it. She’s so good, it’s inconceivable. She can become whatever she wants completely and perfectly, and make everyone believe it.Sherlock must wish he could be this good at pretending to be something he’s not. He’s pretty good at it, because most people genuinely believe he’s a sociopath. But he isn’t. Mary is. -- source link

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