You know the introduction sequence to TAB (the "So far on Sherlock" seqence)? Why is Mary almost completely left out, even though she is a significant part of TAB storyline? It is intentional, no doubt about that, but I cannot wrap my mind around it. What

Yeah, silent Mary definitely is curious!

I don’t know if you’ve read @bobenlugares meta ‘Clues in the beginning of TAB’ here? She says this about the “So far on Sherlock” sequence:

“The selection of scenes and the special way they’re edited are clues to decode Sherlock’s drug-induced dream. The scenes are not in chronological order and some of them have dates and others don’t.  Also, they are a retelling of John and Sherlock’s story and it’s important what they chose to emphasize.

The order and the placement of dialogue proves that the recap is happening in Sherlock’s mind. He was reading the story of how they met; the, “So far in Sherlock”, could be part of the mind palace dream.”

So, the So Far on Sherlock= a visual of what Sherlock was thinking of as he was slipping into his Victorian Mind Palace. And, as @bobenlugares explains, it’s all about the story of John and Sherlock, the moments they shared that Sherlock deems especially important.

So, what about our silent Mary? Here’s the scene where she shows up:

Outside Sholto’s room in “The Sign of Three.”
JOHN: Shut up. You are not a puzzle solver; you never have been. You’re a drama queen. Now there is a man in there about to die …
(Brief shot of Sherlock putting on the deerstalker at the end of “TEH.”)
JOHN (sarcastically quoting Sherlock): … “The game is on.” Solve it! (x)

And here’s (roughly) what she looks like (sorry, I had to find a screencap from TSo3 to illustrate this, I don’t have the DVD of TAB yet, if anyone wants to add a gif/ screencap from the actual TAB moment, feel free!)

What does this tell us, then? Well, for me, it says that Sherlock is associating Mary with the pressure he felt while trying to save Sholto. This really is not a flattering moment for Mary here- she looks quite irritated, in my opinion. This is to nudge Sherlock (and the audience) even more into thinking that she is a villain, not to be trusted.

During this brief flashback, John is demanding that Sherlock “solve it”, live up to his public Consulting Detective reputation. I think this is foreshadowing that Sherlock needs to solve the mystery of Mary Morstan, or there will be “a man about to die”: John? More Three Garridebs foreshadowing?

And, why doesn’t Mary speak? Hmm… maybe this is Sherlock saying that he’s still uncertain about her, he hasn’t got her quite figured out yet. Perhaps she hasn’t used her “real voice” yet- this could be viewed on both a literal level (Sherlock says in HLV her accent is English, but he suspects she is not) and a more symbolic one: Mary hasn’t fully “voiced” or shown her true colours yet.

Tagging more meta writers in case they have more thoughts, because I don’t think I’ve seen this discussed yet! Thanks for your question! @inevitably-johnlocked @gosherlocked @monikakrasnorada @deducingbbcsherlock @just-sort-of-happened