Mary's weakness

just-sort-of-happened:

So, what could the future hold for this dragon slayer and his dragon?  

Do you know the story of the Paper Bag Princess?  She protagonist gets one over on the dragon because she appeals to his ego.  She gets him to show off how many times he can circle the earth and how many forests he can burn with his breath.  Until he’s so out of breath he has no fire left and until he’s so tired that he falls asleep.

There’s an interaction between Bill Wiggins and Mary that has always struck me.  He, posing as a beggar, asks for money.  She’s walking by him until he says, ‘don’t be like all the rest’, then and only then she stops and gives him money.  Why?  Because this appeals to her ego: she’s not like all the rest, she’s not ordinary, she’s extraordinary.  

Bill is there on assignment from Sherlock, he says this pivotal line to her and it would be too much coincidence to think that Bill came up with it.  This line was given to Bill by Sherlock.  Because Sherlock knows that she’s, ‘clever’,

and has an ego about it: she’s a show-off.

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Sherlock is purposefully showing her, ‘his hand’, here.  He’s letting her know that he made a clever plan for her because she’s clever.  The issue of being, ‘clever’, reminds me of Sherlock’s problem with Moriarty at the end of TRF.  Moriarty figures out his weakness: he’s clever so he assumes that the way things are done by others who are clever will also be clever.  He doesn’t foresee the simplest solution because he favours the overly complicated.

If Sherlock has learnt his lesson from Morirarty and he sees in Mary his own weakness then he could use that against her, make her dance, as it were.  Except that he’s making this really obvious to her.  He’s making this very explicit: I know you’re clever.

Also, if she’s affiliated with Moriarty, she may literally know about what happened with regard to the key code.  She may already be aware that Sherlock is aware that wanting things to be clever is a weakness.  If she’s as clever as she seems she should see through the theatrics. 

The question, is, as with the cabbie, is this Sherlock’s bluff, or a double bluff, or a triple bluff?  His plan to defeat Mary (should things come to that) will it be clever?  Or look clever but actually be deceptively simple?  Or look very clever, then seem deceptively simply but then secretly be very clever?

I love this! I agree with every word! Mary’s ego will be her downfall - because there is nothing in this universe that will ever convince me that she’s cleverer than Sherlock. Not for one second.