The lady at the bus stop is working for Mycroft
Let’s start at the beginning.
The lady John sees on the bus gives him a slip of paper (that she’s already been fiddling with on the bus) with a number on it, and signs it E. Not a name, not much information, just a letter.
We assume it’s a phone number and only a phone number. We assume there’s nothing else written on that paper. And we assume that E is her name, and the xx shorthand for two kisses (rather forward for a shy person meeting a stranger at a bus stop, isn’t it?) But what if it’s code?
There IS something on the back of that slip of paper. It could be a receipt. It could be something else. It could be something else made to look like a receipt:
And when John walks away, when he’s just about to throw the piece of paper away, he stops and looks up with this expression on his face. That looks like the face of a man who’s FIGURED SOMETHING OUT.
Moving on to the next scene, where John takes the piece of paper out again.
I always assumed this effect was just an interesting way to signify John opening the folded piece of paper, but no, something’s off: the numbers are upside down. But “E xx” stays right side up.
In addition, 07700 is not completely unside down - it’s folded over on itself and unfolds as the other numbers flip?
I’ve no idea what that means, but there’s no reason for that discrepancy. IF this is code, could we apply any of the numbers or words we glimpsed in Mycroft’s little book on the plane in TAB to these numbers or letters?
Things continue to seem off as John adds E as a new contact and writes ‘hey’…whoever is on the other line says 'hey’ back almost immediately. This woman didn’t know John’s name or his phone number. She only gave him hers. If I had received a text from a strange number, my first response would be to ask who had just texted me. It would have been their first communication. But that doesn’t happen.
Moving on to the bus scene when John sends those final texts.
[This isn’t a good idea. I’m not free. Things won’t end well. It was nice to get to know you a little. I’m sorry.]
Those first 3 lines could most certainly be talking about a plan. A plan Mycroft and John drew up to protect Sherlock or get rid of Mary while still protecting Rosamund. A plan John is now deciding is too hard to follow through on. A plan John now wants out of.
He steps off the bus and sends the text, only to run into E, Mycroft’s go-between. She’s not getting on the bus. She’s just sitting, waiting for him. Mycroft must have known he was getting cold feet.
E’s smile here is regretful, like she knows this is hard for him, but she’s there to make sure he follows through. John’s look is distrustful - how could she have known - and then he gives an unbelieving smile - but not the good kind. Well, of COURSE she knew. Mycroft always knows.
She looks at him and tilts her head: “Sorry, but it’s time to put things into place. The stage is set. We are ready to begin. You can’t back out now.”
The look is almost pitying.
John grimaces and nods his head slightly. He knows. He has to go through with the plan. But god, he doesn’t want to.
Side note: I like that they’re doing all this at a bus stop. A bus stop, a pause in the movement of the episode, a decision point. To dream that you are at a bus stop indicates that “there is a decision that you need to make. You need to decide what you want to do with your future”. (x) Transportation represents all the directions you could travel, all the decisions in your future, all the destinations/situations you could end up in, and this episode certainly spoke a lot about destinations.
They’re saying anything could happen next. Except E is sitting next to maps, next to schedules - she (read: Mycroft) has a plan to make sense of everything, to put everything to rights, to get to the best possible future. John just needs to follow through.
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