Mary Morstan

Mary Morstan (played by Amanda Abbington) had a relatively small background role as John’s wife in the books, but has a much more prominent presence in the television series. She is first introduced as a nurse in John’s practice and becomes engaged and eventually married to him. However, it is soon revealed that she is hiding a dark past – she was a former CIA agent who went freelance and fled, going on the run. Her identity was stolen from a dead stillborn baby and in order to hide the truth from John, she ended up shooting Sherlock, who found out about her real history. She has a daughter with John in series 4, but ends up being shot in the chest trying to save Sherlock. Mary is a Hebrew name meaning ‘bitterness.’