Something’s up with The Six Thatchers. This was a blog post and case back in 2012 yet no one in the episode remembers that. Also the episode was trippy AF but what does that all mean? We have a lot of guesses, and I’ve just thought of one more, one I’m actually quite convinced of. It combines our “extended mind palace” idea with the Mycroft’s concept of “the unreliable narrator”. So here’s the thing: Sherlock met Ella at the end of The Six Thatchers but he recalls events from his life from before he shot Magnussen in His Last Vow, when John’s life/happiness was threatened and Sherlock had to give up everything to save him. Everything we’ve seen since Mary shot him has been a recount of events from Sherlock’s point of view, even placing himself in scenes he wasn’t actually in. This is why we see characters repeat lines other characters have said, even though they were never there to hear them. Sherlock’s recounting, throwing cases in where they don’t belong to fill in the gaps. Meaning the events immediately after Sherlock got shot by Mary are him recounting the situation to Ella and we wouldn’t know that until right now.

So here’s the timeline:

–Mary Shoots Sherlock

–Sherlock goes to the hospital and stays there for a long time to recover

–Sherlock is not part of Mary’s reveal in the way we saw (Him scaling the hospital wall, moving John’s chair, setting up the I.V., the perfume, and rigging a projector was just him adding a touch of drama to embellish the story as he tells Ella ****this happens a lot, keep in mind*****)

–John doesn’t let Sherlock read the AGRA drive (so he assumes John hasn’t read it either, that would be the only reason to keep it from Sherlock)

–Sherlock calls Magnussen and makes a deal with him (Sherlock does not go to a restaurant in a hospital gown ***again, this is a touch of the dramatic for Ella’s benefit***)

–John chooses Mary for reasons we do not know (Sherlock assumes it’s because of sentiment, but he wasn’t actually part of that scene so he’s simply guessing how it probably played out – he made sure to never have them use the words “I love you” because that would’ve hurt too much. Weird how Mary was at Sherlock’s mom’s house for Christmas? Yeah. She probably wasn’t there. But John and Mary reconciled that day, so Sherlock inserts that in his sphere. This happens more than once.)

–Sherlock kills Magnussen

–Sherlock gets high because he’s lost John Watson again (just like at the end of TSOT)

–Sherlock gives himself a Casablanca-type send off in order to tell John how he feels. Dramatic Bastard. Keep in mind he’s high as a kite, not on the tarmac, but hoping he could experience that movie moment with his leading man. This is why John doesn’t say much there or on that plane during TAB. The coke dream started after he shot Magnussen and envelopes all of TAB, but he tells Ella as if it’s real.

–Mycroft doctors the footage, Sherlock never in danger of going to Eastern Europe because the tarmac/TAB wasn’t actually real. He’s still high at the beginning of TST, obviously. This is him coming down from the coke he took shortly after he killed Magnussen.

–Sherlock is too absorbed in his phone (heart) to pay John and his new family any attention. He ignores John’s texts. He makes John feel like he’s equal to a balloon and a dog. He demands John take the bus.

–John, hurt, finds fleeting pleasure in a strange woman (This is what Sherlock thinks, at least. He’s seen all the signs. John losing weight, changing his hair, dressing nice, spending time away from both him and Mary – what else is Sherlock to think? What else are we to think? Keep reading and I’ll tell you).

–The Six Thatchers case isn’t happening in real time – it happened years ago but Sherlock kept the best parts in order to better relay what’s happening with the AGRA stick. In the blog post, the murder weapon was a penknife with initials on it, shoved in a Thatcher bust. The mirror here is clear. All that we need to take from this is Mary’s past has come back to haunt her.

–Mary leaves John to go to Morocco. John follows – Without Sherlock. John catches her and brings her back to London. Didn’t it feel weird when John and Mary were having a really intimate moment and Sherlock was just… sitting there absorbing it all? That’s because he wasn’t there, this is how he assumed things went in Morocco. Which means he wasn’t on that plane sitting awkwardly behind Mary and far from John. We see Sherlock with his eyes closed, sleeping. That’s also when he sees John thinking of the other woman. Sherlock tells Ella he has a reoccurring dream about John – he’s dreaming about what he fears John is most-likely absorbed in: finding fleeting happiness in yet another woman.

–Mary’s death scene is being recounted from Sherlock’s POV, meaning real events are very similar, but off. Sherlock believes Mary took a bullet for him, apologized, and John wept for the love of his life. Just because we saw it doesn’t mean it’s real. Just because Sherlock believes she’s dead doesn’t mean she actually is. Trust nothing.

This theory explains why Mary calls Sherlock the Dragon-slayer, something Mycroft said. It explains why The Six Thatchers was a case twice. It explains why Norbury quoted Moriarty from TGG. It explains why Sherlock is so hung up on premonitions: John and Mary in TST followed exactly what Sherlock dreamt about with the Carmichaels in TAB.

So. That was long! But all of this has one question dangling in the air: What’s actually been going on with John this whole time? If he reconciled with Mary, follows her abroad, is spending time away from his family, and is in cahoots with a woman he met on the bus, it would point to John becoming a plant/agent himself working behind Sherlock’s back to destroy an invisible threat. This is why the end of The Six Thatchers mirrors the end of The Reichenbach Fall – except the characters are switched. John pushed Sherlock away, lied to him, left him a note, and distanced himself. Sherlock goes to the therapist and grows the facial hair.

The woman on the bus sits right next to a poster of Culverton Smith. Many have suggested she’s actually a part of something far larger than we can see yet.

The last thing I’ll leave you with, and correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Setlock show Martin Freeman filming on a camel? Alone? Why would he be the only one on the camel if both he and Sherlock went to Morocco?

That’s because Sherlock didn’t follow him to Morocco when he tracked down Mary. Sherlock inserted himself somewhere to better tell us the story.

This is part of their rug pull coming up. The unsettling nature of The Six Thatchers is meant to make us ask questions about what we can and cannot trust with our own eyes. Is it a bluff? Or a double bluff? Is he alive or is he dead? How could he be alive if I saw the blood on the roof? How could he be alive if I saw him fall?

The writers are giving us the same doubt felt by the characters.

Welcome to Hell.

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