SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED SUNDAY NIGHT'S EPISODE OF SHERLOCK
Sunday night's episode of Sherlock left fans shocked after the show killed off one of its main characters, Mary Watson.
In the episode, Mary (Amanda Abbington) and John Watson (Martin Freeman), have settled into family life with their baby daughter Rosie when a member of Mary's former squad comes back, determined to kill her after believing she betrayed him years earlier. When it is discovered that it was actually the secretary Mrs Norbury who had betrayed Ajay, she tries to kill Sherlock before Mary knocks him out of the way, taking the bullet and dying in John's arms.
© Photo: BBCMary died in the first episode of Sherlock
Fans of the popular BBC show immediately took to Twitter to discuss their thoughts on the shocking twist, with many upset by the death scene. One wrote: "Hi if anyone needs me I'll be crying myself to sleep because #Sherlock wrecked me goodbye," while another added: "If Sherlock can survive jumping off a building, Mary can survive a shot to the stomach. I refuse to accept this death #Sherlock."
The show creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat opened up about their decision to kill Mary's character. Speaking at a screening of the first episode, Mark said: "It's a strange thing but actually in the original stories it's not actually said that she has died. It's heavily inferred. But it could have been a messy break up. We have obviously been true to Doyle and also very untrue. So we didn't necessarily have to do this, it just felt actually the right place to do it. It was definitely going to be saving Sherlock. We did an early road map without any details." Steven added: "Mary's been dead for 100 years so it's hard to surprise people in those circumstances. So the only thing we could do was do it earlier than people thought. So that it would happen as wrenchingly and as horrifically as such things happen in real life, so that's what we went for."
