Characters / Sherlock: Supporting Characters

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Molly Hooper

Molly Hooper

"I know what that means, looking sad when you think no-one can see you."

Played By: Louise Brealey

A specialist registrar in love with Sherlock, she is an important ally of his, often helping him do odd studies on corpses and letting him use the lab for experiments he can't fit into his flat.

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• All Love Is Unrequited: Is hopelessly in love with Sherlock. In The Empty Hearse she claims to be over him and has a fiancé, but her fiancé turns out to look a lot like Sherlock even to the point of dressing like him. In The Sign of Three she spends most of the wedding looking at Sherlock instead of her boyfriend or John and Mary. The engagement has ended by His Last Vow a month later.
  • Played with in "The Final Problem". Eurus apparently bugs Molly's flat with explosives that will detonate in three minutes, and she will only deactivate them if Sherlock can get her to say 'I love you' to him. The problem is that Sherlock cannot imply that there is any sort of danger or pressure. What ensues is that Molly believes that Sherlock is just playing with her and forcing her to admit her feelings to make fun of her and doesn't say anything, all the while Sherlock is on the verge of breaking down. She does say it, eventually, but only after a lot of pain on both ends. After Sherlock gets free, it's never mentioned whether he managed to explain what happened. To make it even more painful, Eurus then says she was lying about the explosives, basically rendering everything useless.
• Anger Born of Worry: In Series 3, she actually slaps Sherlock three times for failing a drug test, then chews him out how he could be so careless and to apologize to his friends. In Series 4, she's absolutely livid when she finds out he's been doing drugs again and tells him earnestly he hardly has weeks to live if he keeps mistreating himself like this.
• Ascended Extra: Molly goes from That Girl at the Morgue (not a promising start for a character) in the first episode, to being invited to Sherlock's Christmas party in the next series, to having some involvement in faking his death in "The Reichenbach Fall". In season 3, as thanks for her help in "The Reichenbach Fall", Sherlock even asks her to be his assistant for a day, a role previously fulfilled by John.
• Beneath Notice: It turns out that Sherlock asked her to help him fake his death, knowing that Moriarty wouldn't be keeping an eye or bothering to target her, since he'd dismiss her as being not important enough for Sherlock to care about.
• Berserk Button: In "The Sign of Three", after her fiance Tom jokes that Sherlock is drunk during his awkward speech, she stabs him in the hand with a (plastic) fork.
  • She slaps Sherlock across the face when he betrays his friends' trust by falling off the wagon.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Between stabbing her ex-fiance with a fork and slapping Sherlock three times for failing a drug test, Molly Hooper is not to be messed with.
• Bitch Slap: Gives Sherlock a doozy when she finds out he's fallen off the wagon. John asks her if Sherlock's clean, Molly merely walks in front of Sherlock, braces herself, and wham... wham... wham!
• Butt-Monkey: Verging on Chew Toy at times, with the way Sherlock treats her.
• Canon Foreigner: According to Word of God, she was just written in as a one-off character in "A Study in Pink", but they liked the actress and the character so much, she became a central figure in the rest of the series — even though she's one of few in the show who don't have a counterpart in the original canon.
• Chew Toy: Poor Molly. Sherlock really doesn't know when to stop. Sometimes he doesn't even realize he's started. Thankfully, though this trope is in full play for Series 1 and the beginning of Series 2, after Molly calls Sherlock out on an especially cruel instance in "Scandal", he apologizes and starts treating her better for the rest of the series.
• Closer to Earth: The only one to see Sherlock's suicidal behavior in "The Reichenbach Fall", and ultimately the one he trusts to help fake his death.
• Crazy Cat Lady: She worries about becoming one on her blog.
  OMG! I nearly just wrote 'At least Toby will never leave me'. I am becoming a Mad Spinster!
• The Cutie: Easily the nicest character on the show. And just look at her - she's so cute!
• Dogged Nice Girl: Poor, poor Molly Hooper can't get over her attraction to Sherlock no matter how poorly he treats her. To be fair, even though Sherlock's not interested, he does start treating her better as the series goes on.
• Grew a Spine: She's noticeably more assured and less awkward in Series Three and Series Four, refusing to put up with Sherlock's more mean-spirited antics.
• Has a Type: In The Empty Hearse, Sherlock assures Molly that all the men she falls for can't be psychopaths. After he leaves, she muses to herself that maybe it's just her type.
• Hopeless Suitor: In Series One and Two; by Series Three, she might not have fully moved on, but she's accepted that Sherlock is too in his own world to ever see her as anything more than a very good friend (given that this is Sherlock, that means a great deal in and of itself). Series Four reveals that she still loves him, but she knows it's never going to happen, so she's been content to be his friend, and does not at all appreciate him doing what she perceives as forcing a confession of her feelings out of her for no reason.
• Ignored Enamored Underling: To Sherlock, who only returns her affections when he wants something, at least in the first season. Although he doesn't return her romantic feelings, he does see her as a friend, eventually.
• Incompatible Orientation:
  • With "Jim". It's the psychopathy.
  • Also has it with Sherlock. She wants his body; he wants her dead bodies.
• Inter Generational Friendship: Has one with Mrs. Hudson.
  • Seems quite friendly with Lestrade as well in "Scandal".
• Lab Rat: The coroner at St. Bart's.
• Loving a Shadow: Molly's fiance. Looks quite like Sherlock and wears the same Belstaff coat.
• Morality Pet: Molly also appears to be one for Sherlock. After making some scathing comments by deducing Molly's got herself a new paramour because she is dressed to the nines and has one fancily-wrapped gift amongst messy ones, he then discovers that the present is actually for him. Molly calls him on his repeated hurtful comments to her and Sherlock actually offers a genuine apology for his behaviour. In subsequent episodes, he has had several moments of being very sweet to her, and indeed has never relapsed into treating her the way he used to before this incident.
  "And if you watch the scenes with Sherlock and Molly, apart from the very beginning, she always wins. She always wins. She makes him apologize. She humanizes him. She tells him off." - Steven Moffat
• Nice Girl: The things she's been through would cause anyone to become bitter, but she remains sweet and good-natured despite.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: An unfortunate habit of hers.
  Molly: How's the hip?
  Mrs. Hudson: It's atrocious, but thanks for asking.
  Molly: I've seen much worse ... but then I do post-mortems.
• Plucky Girl: Despite everything that happens to her.
• Replacement Goldfish / Selective Obliviousness: Despite her belief that she's moved on from her unrequited crush on Sherlock, she's completely oblivious to the fact that her new fiance Tom looks and dresses exactly like him. No one has the heart to tell her.
  • Averted in "The Empty Hearse", when Sherlock brings her along on the case. Molly thinks she is there to replace John but Sherlock is trying to thank her.
• Sarcasm Mode: Actually capable when pushed: her response to John asking if Sherlock is "clean" of drug use is to vocalize a very bitter-yet-subtle "Clean?". Also tells Sherlock she wonders why people think he has no human emotions when he's on his phone at Rosie's christening.
• Secret-Keeper: Moriarty's failure to recognize her as among the people Sherlock cares about lead to her being one of the only people to know he isn't dead.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: In a jaw-dropping black and white dress◊ in "A Scandal in Belgravia". Even Lestrade is Distracted by the Sexy. Really, anytime she takes the effort to dress up, including her bright yellow do◊ during John and Mary's wedding in The Sign of Three
• Shrinking Violet: At first. She starts to grow a spine in Series 2, and by Series 3, she's much more confident. By series four, she's even snarking at Sherlock, and elbows him in the ribs when he's not paying attention at Rosie's christening.
• Spanner in the Works: As Sherlock explains in The Empty Hearse, the reason her help was so essential in his plan to counter Moriarty was because she was someone Moriarty believed was below Sherlock's notice, even as he used her to get closer to him, and thus Moriarty believed she didn't matter in the grand scheme of their game - a hole in his scheming that Sherlock is ultimately able to exploit. This even shows in Moriarty's plan to hurt Sherlock's loved ones: he sends assassins after Mrs. Hudson, Watson and Lestrade, but ignores Molly completely.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • Her relationship with Tom in Series 3, who aside from being the spitting image of Sherlock is her first love interest who's not a sociopath. And as she cheerfully comments, she's now getting regular sex. Sadly it's ended by "His Last Vow", a month later. It might have been because she stabbed him in the hand with a plastic fork.
  • In the final episode of Series 4, Sherlock confesses he loves her. He's doing it to save her from a supposed death trap set up by Eurus, made worse by poor Molly hardly believing he's not joking. Though he manages to save Molly, he's immediately told she wasn't in any danger, and proceeds to coldly and angrily trash the room he's in. In the scene afterward, he's sitting with his back against the wall and looking emotionally exhausted, as he was almost convinced he'd fail Molly. Not to mention being embarassed for putting Molly under stress with his confession. Given his reaction, it's hard to imagine he sees her merely as a helpful friend.
• Unwitting Pawn: Moriarty uses her to get close to Sherlock.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: At the end of the finale of Series Four, there's a brief shot of her looking pleased to see Sherlock. Presumably he managed to explain his earlier actions at some point, but when and how is left a mystery.

Mrs. Hudson

Martha Louise Hudson née Sissons

"I'm your landlady, not your housekeeper."

Played By: Una Stubbs

The landlady of 221B, she treats John and Sherlock as the sons she never had—a relationship they largely reciprocate.

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• AM/FM Characterization: In "The Final Problem", she hoovers while listening to Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast" on a walkman.
• Ascended Extra: Compared to her book counterpart who only had lines in one story - "The Dying Detective".
• As You Know: Her screen-name is "Marie Turner" which is her friend's name (Mrs. Turner, next door, with "the married ones"). Becomes a Running Gag on Sherlock's site and John's blog where every time she comments, she immediately double-posts a reminder: "It's Mrs. Hudson, by the way." With the exception of the one time Mrs Turner herself actually commented. As of Christmas 2011, she now signs under 'Mrs. Hudson'. John and Sherlock got her a computer for Christmas.
• Berserk Button: Don't lead her on, or let her find out about your marriage from Sherlock.
• Brainless Beauty: Anyone who unknowingly married a major drug kingpin can't be much in the way of a detective. However, Series Two through Four imply that she may be faking this and knew who she was marrying... and just got in too deep.
• Catchphrase: "I'm your landlady, dear, not your housekeeper!"
• Cloudcuckoolander: She's cheerfully oblivious to most of Sherlock's strange living habits. Or she simply doesn't care. Or, given hints in Series 3, she's quite often stoned. That said, she does have a bone to pick with a few of his habits. Upon finding that Sherlock keeps thumbs in the fridge, she reacts with disgust, and she also seems extremely panicked by him shooting holes in the wall- though her reaction to this is just to scold him like a child and add repair costs to his rent.
  Mrs. Hudson: I'm putting this on your rent, young man!
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: For Sherlock.
• Cool Old Lady:
  • Mrs. Hudson is one of a select few who can tolerate Sherlock for extended periods of time, gave Sherlock a special deal on the apartment (as thanks for helping her out with getting her husband executed), and keeps some kind of "herbal soother" in her apartment that she doesn't want the cops to know about.
  • She also pretends to be much more of a fragile old woman than she actually is when captured by the Americans in order to hide the fact that she has the phone they're looking for. When Sherlock throws the guy out the window, her first reaction is simply that her bins are getting dented. For those of you interested, she hid the phone in her bra.
  • She owns a red Aston Martin and is such a skilled high-speed driver that the police have to dispatch a helicopter to keep up with her.
  • In one particular scene, she's unable to hear shouts from Sherlock and John because she's hoovering... while also air guitaring to Iron Maiden.
  • Magnussen's Sherlock Scan of her in 'His Last Vow' reveals her previous jobs include having been an 'exotic dancer.' One begins to wonder how she really got that bad hip.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Series 3 later reveals that she's a former exotic dancer, and that whilst she lived in Florida, unbeknownst to her, her husband had gotten involved in and eventually ended up running a local drug cartel, before being eventually caught and executed for double homicide. She actually found this something of a relief and even formed an Odd Friendship with the man responsible for securing his conviction, Sherlock. Although she was perhaps more involved than she'd like us to know:
  Sherlock: Even your landlady used to run a drugs cartel
  Mrs Hudson: It was my husband's cartel, I was just typing.
• Drives Like Crazy: She is very adept at driving at high speeds and drifting around corners. The police have trouble keeping up with her on the road so they have to dispatch a helicopter just to keep her in their sights.
• Gossipy Hens: In the un-aired Pilot, Sherlock says, with genuine appreciation, that little old ladies are better than security cameras.
• G-Rated Drug:
  • Her "herbal soothers" she doesn't want the drugs bust to find. The revelation in Series 3 that her husband was involved in running an American drug cartel implies that this could be an in-universe euphemism, as being found in possession of illegal drugs could cast doubt on her being unaware of his activities, causing her to risk accusations of perjury and even extradition by the American authorities.
  • Averted in "His Last Vow", when Magnussen's scan of her reveals outright she uses marijuana.
• Hidden Depths: She presents herself as the kindly landlady of a small building. In reality, she is a very wealthy woman who owns multiple properties in London, loves fancy sports cars, and has nerves of steel that not even an entire room of armed thugs can shake.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: When Sherlock and John first moved in she made it very clear they she was their "landlady, not not [their] housekeeper", and making them a tea was just a one time thing, but her maternal affection towards them quickly rendered that moot.
• Hypocritical Humor: She has an instinctive need to clean despite not being a housekeeper. In "The Lying Detective", after again telling John he's not his housekeeper, she immediately starts tidying up a complete stranger's house.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Mentions her relationship with her husband, and Magnussen's scan includes the term "former "Exotic Dancer"". Yes, complete with quotes, meaning it might have been a euphemism for some other occupation.
• Informed Deformity: Her notorious hip has come up multiple times, and yet, she's never seen limping or otherwise uncomfortable because of it, and she seems to have no trouble going up and down the stairs in 221B.
• Morality Pet: To Sherlock and John. Sherlock even agreed that he has to be nice to her at Christmas.
• Never Mess with Granny:
  • Played CIA agents, police officers, and even Watson himself in "A Scandal in Belgravia"" by faking tears and sneaking Irene's phone out in her bra.
  • In "The Lying Detective" she pulls a gun on a drug-addled Sherlock, handcuffs him, locks him in the boot of her car and Drives Like Crazy all to way John's new therapist to get him clean.
    Mrs. Hudson: You're not my first smackhead, Sherlock Holmes!
    • When she realized John needed privacy after discovering Mary's video will, she also successfully kicked not one, not two, but six intimidating government mooks out of 221B. Including Mycroft.
    Mrs. Hudson: [to a stunned Mycroft] Get out of my house, you reptile.
• Odd Friendship: With Sherlock, the man responsible for getting her husband executed in America.
• Parental Substitute: She dotes on Sherlock and John like they were her own grandchildren, even bringing Sherlock his morning tea and being one of the few people Sherlock is openingly affectionate to her, and does not take it well if she's threatened.
• Screaming Woman: Twice in Series 3. The first one is played for laughs when Sherlock reveals himself after pretending to be dead. The second time is not played for laughs is when Moriaty comes back from the dead, and Mrs. Hudson is understandably freaked out by the prospect.
• Secretly Wealthy: As revealed in "The Lying Detective" in addition to owning property in the middle of Central London she also owns an Aston Matin. When John wonders how she could afford all this she reminds him she is the widow of a drug leader.
• Shipper on Deck: Mrs. Hudson might be pushing eighty, but she's a great, gushing fangirl at heart. She initially assumes that John and Sherlock are a couple, and wouldn't be persuaded otherwise. However, after Season One (especially during the events of "A Scandal in Belgravia") it appears that she doesn't think of them in that way anymore. Or perhaps she's just keeping that to herself now. In "The Empty Hearse", she's shocked that John is getting married to a woman, especially so soon after Sherlock, and says it's nice that he's moving on. John responds once again insisting that he's not gay and that Sherlock was not his boyfriend. She responds that she's the "live and let live" sort, presumably thinking he's bisexual.
• Shrine to the Fallen: Left Sherlock and John's flat exactly as it was during the two years Sherlock was "dead", admitting she didn't have the heart to move anything or even dust, since Sherlock always refused to let her clean the flat.
• Team Mom: Mrs. Hudson, at least for her tenants. Do not harm her or even speak rudely to her in front of Sherlock or John, unless you're either of them. In "The Empty Hearse", her dialogue to John when they first meet again suggests even she sees herself as the Team Mom.

Mary Watson - SPOILERS

Mary Watson née Morstan / Rosamund Mary

"Gosh, you have no idea about human nature, do you?"

Played By: Amanda Abbington

John's girlfriend in season 3 and later on his wife. One of the few love interests of John that Sherlock respects and enjoys company of.

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• Adaptational Badass: In the books a mere governess. Here a former assassin and intelligence operative.
• Admiring the Abomination: While most of John's past girlfriends are mentioned to have absolutely hated Sherlock due to his various personality quirks and mildly sociopathic tendencies, her reaction to meeting him is to grin and admit;
  Mary: I like him!
• Alliterative Name: A canon carryover (Mary Morstan). Bonus points for her actress having one, too-Amanda Abbington.
• Amicable Exes: With David though the latter retains feelings for her. Sherlock makes it very clear he thinks those feelings are a little too strong.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She's a very sweet and kind lady who used to be a spy and assassin. Do not go after her boys.
• Composite Character: The traits of the original canon's Mary Morstan have been combined with those of her father, with A.G.R.A. taking the place of "the Four", Milverton's unknown assassin and Colonel Sebastian Moran.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She used to be a member of an elite four-"agent" squad - A.G.R.A. who were freelancers for various western intelligence agencies including MI6. However a mission to rescue hostages in the British Embassy in Georgia went horribly wrong due to a mole in MI6. The rest of the agents were killed and Mary became a freelance assassin including working for Moriarty before she decided to leave a normal life as Mary Morstan.
• Dark Secret: Mary's claim to be an orphan is a lie: she used to be a professional killer, and the reason she has so few friends is that 'Mary Morstan' is an identity she adopted only a few years ago. Her real name is Rosamund Mary.
• Dead Person Impersonation: The real Mary Morstan was stillborn.
• Easily Forgiven: John decides to not read her past and stay married to her. Granted, it does take months for him to come to terms with her deception.
• Fake Brit: In-Universe. Sherlock suspects that she is not really English.
• Fangirl: Certainly reads John and Sherlock's blog like one. And she pushes them to investigate the Bloody Guardsman case together even though they're both trying to be "responsible" so as not to upset the fragile three-way balance.
• Fluffy Fashion Feathers: Wore a black feather jacket on the date where John proposed to her.
• Foreshadowing: There are a couple of hints that she's a former spy.
  • In "The Empty Hearse," she recognizes a skip code faster than Sherlock does.
  • The following episode has her run up a set of stairs in heels—which may not sound like much, but just walking up a set of stairs in heels can be difficult enough, let alone going up them at a dead run.
• Guile Hero: Taking into account her background and skill sets, she can qualify as one.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Unusually, among John's girlfriends. She still is one, even after she's been outed as an ex-professional killer.
• Heel–Face Turn: Word of God is that she was one of Moriarty's assassins. Now she's desperately trying to live a normal life - well as normal as being married to Sherlock's best friend entails.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Able to throw a coin and shoot a hole right through it in mid-air.
• Killed Off for Real: Dies in "The Six Thatchers" while Taking the Bullet for Sherlock.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: One of Sherlock's deductions is that she is a cat lover, and she certainly fits the kindhearted part of the trope.
• The Kirk: She balances Sherlock's cold intellect with John's impulsive behavior.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Aversion. While she helped pull John out of his depression after Sherlock's disappearance, there's more to her than that. She's the only one of John's partners who has understood the importance of his relationship with Sherlock without becoming jealous because of it.
• Nice Girl: She's a genuinely compassionate person but also no pushover. When informed by Sherlock that one of John's cousins secretly hates her, Mary smiles serenely and moves the cousin's seat at the reception from the main table to next to the bathroom.
• One True Threesome: Invoked. Mary seems fine with John's non-sexual bromance with Sherlock in addition to his romantic and sexual relationship with her. Sherlock actually seems to enjoy her company, actively accommodating her wishes instead of simply tolerating her presence. The three of them get along astounding well in "The Empty Hearse" and "The Sign of Three", with the closest he comes to displaying any sort of irritation towards her being when she tagged along to prevent Major Sholto's death, which in fairness occurred at her wedding. Their fragile equilibrium only seems to become unbalanced when Sherlock realises that she's pregnant. In "His Last Vow", their dynamic shatters when it's revealed she used to be a professional assassin for the CIA. After some initial shock (and a bullet wound) Sherlock doesn't seem particularly bothered by her former occupation, being more upset she lied to John than anything else. John on the other hand is understandably furious. However, by "The Six Thatchers", their dynamic has largely tilted back into this. Not only do the three juggle case work and caring for Rosie together, but in the messages she left for Sherlock and John after her death she refers to them both as her boys and makes clear her love for both of them.
• Only Sane Woman: The wedding planning scene, where she can see that both John and Sherlock are itching to go on a case together to reaffirm that they'll stay friends after the wedding, but she has to manipulate them both shamelessly to make it happen.
• Pregnant Badass: Nearly assassinates Magnussen while pregnant.
• Professional Killer: Former intelligence agent and did wetwork for the CIA.
• Retired Badass: She was a trained killer for the CIA at one point.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: It's implied by Sherlock in this post on John's blog.
  "They're both perfectly acceptable friends in their own way but then they start talking and I wish I really had died."
• Spirit Advisor: To John and Sherlock in "The Lying Detective"
• Taking the Bullet: Does this to save Sherlock in "The Six Thatchers"
• Walking Spoiler: For "His Last Vow".

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