Sherlock: 10 "Mouthwatering Ideas" For Upcoming One-Off Special

5. The Watsons' Baby

It's clear that the Watsons' baby will feature at some point in future episodes of Sherlock. With Mary being heavily pregnant by the ending of His Last Vow, there's no way that Gatiss and Moffat can get away with stringing out the pregnancy for a whole series (or longer, like Bonnie in Family Guy). Doing it in the context of a one-off episode is a good way of getting it out of the way while establishing its narrative significance. The baby raises all kinds of questions about the future direction of the show. How will it affect the dynamic between Sherlock and John (particularly if Sherlock is made its godfather)? Will the baby make the Watsons more of a target, with Sherlock having to devote more time to protecting them rather than solving crimes? Most interestingly of all: will the writers break canon, knowing that Mary dies (off-page) in the original stories? Surely not even Moffat would be cruel enough to have her die in childbirth... would he?