I do like your suggestion about CAM! One answer to possible double standards about killing is that ACD Sherlock made a fairly clear distinction between justified killings and murder. Holmes and Watson will overlook the killing or maiming of someone "evil" like Charles Milverton or Baron Gruner or a death during a fight (as in the Abbey Grange story) or a war. What would be harder to overlook is some more premeditated attempt to kill someone innocent: even Angelo's not a murderer, just a house-breaker.
But the other point is that it's not so much how Sherlock and John will actually respond to any revelations, as how Mary imagines they may respond. If CAM is as slyly clever as in the original, he'll put in a lot of his time working on his victims, trying to convince them that they will be ruined, telling them about what's happened to other people who didn't pay up. In the ACD story, where Holmes says it's of no benefit him ruining Holmes' client, Milverton says yes it is, because it'll warn his other victims.
And if the attack on John in Hearse was connected to Mary's secret, it implies that she's been blackmailed since before Sherlock returned: she already knows about the skip code. She's got into the habit of keeping John in the dark, because he's no use against a blackmailer. And almost as soon as Sherlock returns, who might actually be some use, she's shown that John's life is in danger if she tells Sherlock too much.
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Date: 2014-01-12 02:37 pm (UTC)But the other point is that it's not so much how Sherlock and John will actually respond to any revelations, as how Mary imagines they may respond. If CAM is as slyly clever as in the original, he'll put in a lot of his time working on his victims, trying to convince them that they will be ruined, telling them about what's happened to other people who didn't pay up. In the ACD story, where Holmes says it's of no benefit him ruining Holmes' client, Milverton says yes it is, because it'll warn his other victims.
And if the attack on John in Hearse was connected to Mary's secret, it implies that she's been blackmailed since before Sherlock returned: she already knows about the skip code. She's got into the habit of keeping John in the dark, because he's no use against a blackmailer. And almost as soon as Sherlock returns, who might actually be some use, she's shown that John's life is in danger if she tells Sherlock too much.