Sherlock star Louise Brealey "disagrees" with Steven Moffat's comments on Molly Hooper
The actress speaks out after the show's co-creator says the pathologist "gets over" her traumatic phone call with Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock
Louise Brealey has taken to Twitter in response to comments made by Sherlock co-creator Steven Moffat about her character Molly Hooper.
The pathologist – who has appeared in the series since its first episode – was seen in the series finale being forced to admit her love for the detective over the phone during a sadistic game cooked up by the Holmes brothers' long lost sister Eurus (Sian Brooke).
The scene in question showed Brealey's character visibly upset as Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) implored her to say the words "I love you", believing her flat to be rigged with explosives which would detonate if she did not make the confession.
Speaking about the exchange to Entertainment Weekly, Moffat (who writes the series with Mark Gatiss) responded to criticism that there was no resolving scene showing Molly after that devastating phone call:
"She gets over it!" said Moffat. "Surely at a certain point you have to figure out that after Sherlock escapes tells her, 'I’m really sorry about that, it was a code, I thought your flat was about to blow up.' And she says, 'Oh well that’s okay then, you bastard.' And then they go back to normal, that’s what people do."
He added: "I can’t see why you’d have to play that out. She forgives him, of course, and our newly grown-up Sherlock is more careful with her feelings in the future. In the end of that scene, she’s a bit wounded by it all, but he’s absolutely devastated. He smashes up the coffin, he’s in pieces, he’s more upset than she is, and that’s a huge step in Sherlock’s development.
"The question is: Did Sherlock survive that scene? She probably had a drink and went and shagged someone, I dunno. Molly was fine."
Brealey tweeted about the episode earlier today, appearing to allude to Moffat's comments:
She followed up her comments several hours later, stating, "I disagree with Steven about the impact of the scene on Molly... & that's fine. He's allowed to feel something. So am I. So are you."
Sherlock's series finale – which aired last Sunday – drew a mixed reaction from fans, with some praising its twists and turns while others have labelled it "too clever" and "confusing".
The third episode in the recent series drew in the lowest overnight figures in the show's history, totalling an average of 5.9 million viewers, although that figure is expected to rise considerably next week once on-demand figures are added to the total.
