I do wonder if ultimately the day will be saved by the return of John Watson in his full glory – a John who finally understands himself and Sherlock and the meaning of their partnership. I don’t believe we get them back together in 221B without John going through his own kind of heroic arc of destiny. I think it will take an emotional reckoning to get to that understanding. The power of this duo has always been the emotional response readers have to them. That together they fit. Perfectly. If this adaptation is about how they got there & imagining a different long term game that has them together rather than canonically apart…then I think that journey will be a painful one. I think they are going to make them not being together seem like an injustice that has to be righted. For balance to return to this universe we need John back. I think Moffat and Gatiss have planned this disruptive, unsettling s3 that us left us shut out of so much of John’s arc *precisely because it can then be righted*. I’m expecting the pendulum to swing back to us seeing the world through John’s eyes with gut wrenching force.