A tricky little thing
Mary sees her friend David, goes to hug him and he leans back like he’s dodging a bullet in the matrix. She’s taken aback and wonders what is up with him. Lost in thought, she’s momentarily distracted and then comes back to reality to introduce David to Sherlock.
This has been my interpretation of Mary’s behaviour up ‘til now.
However, I noticed something that makes me think this is not what’s going on, here. After their aborted hug Mary continues to look at David but David breaks eye contact to look at John. During this time, Mary is still looking at him, waiting to make eye contact again (see pic 1). As soon as they look at each other again, they both beam at each other (see pic 2). The beaming continues (pic 3), then she has to snap out of it and stop being dreamily lost in David’s eyes (pic 4). She then looks down and introduces David to Sherlock looking down and avoiding renewed eye contact with David.
So, a superficial reading of Mary’s behaviour says, ‘her friend is being weird and she’s wondering why, hence the little head shake’. But, that moment, of him being weird, has already ended by the time the head shake comes. Basically, he acts odd, she reacts. David breaks eye contact, her reaction to that incident ends. She waits to catch his eye again, never taking her eyes off him. They look at each other and both are very happy to do so. She then realises she’s staring too long, shakes her head to snap out of it and must avert her gaze until the end of the scene, even as she introduces her friends.
She also holds her hands in the same position that he has left them. She does not get her hug and then her body language says that she’s left there, disappointed. She’s still waiting.
My new interpretation: Mary is in love with David. She beams at him, on her wedding day in a way that she does not beam at John. A lot of the moments that are supposed to be most romantic between herself and her new husband she spends looking nervous, overwhelmed or awkward. With David, here, she is literally lost in the moment. So much so that she must shake it off and stop looking at him. His awkward behaviour, just moments before, provides a parallel story for us to perceive that obscures what’s really going on with her.
A gaze held just slightly longer and more intently by two characters than expected is always an indicator of romantic interest on film/television. (Makes you think about how in love we’re being told John and Sherlock are considering the epic duration and intensity of their eye contact throughout the series).
As an aside: speaking of body language, note how close together Sherlock and John are standing. With John’s hand right next to Sherlock’s side. Mary is significantly further away from John than Sherock. She looks so separate from them as she introduces Sherlock that it looks like she’s introducing them both as a couple. ”David, these are my friends, John and Shelrock. They just got married today. I’m John’s best woman but they said they didn’t mind if I wore a wedding dress just for the lulz, so here we are”. Really, the result of how they’re all standing in relation to each other is very dissonant with what’s supposed to be going on: Mary’s not supposed to be gazing at David like that and John and Sherlock are not supposed to look like they’re the ones that got married. Or… are they?
I’ve always thought the blocking of this scene was interesting- John is practically tucked against Sherlock’s side with Mary standing a foot away and the maid of honor and the rest of the wedding party behind them. It sends such a confusing, dissonant message with what is supposed to be taking place- the happy union of John and Mary. Instead the whole episode feels more like John and Sherlock’s wedding with Mary as a convenient prop.
Posts like this remind me that life is a beautiful thing, indeed <3333333