Well, the writer is Steven Moffat right? I'm afraid my daughters would shake their heads pityingly and tell you that his one mode is to make the hero's gravitational pull so strong that everyone else must become a satellite around the hero, and that they can have no thoughts or talents that are not (a) unrelated to the hero and (b) lesser than the hero's, clearly.

I recently saw one of Moffat's Dr. Who episodes, a climactic one from a past season, and it was funny, the degree of (to an outsider) overwrought Doctor worship--people climbing over one another to sacrifice themselves harder, better, and faster, for the Doctor's sake.

But maybe Moffat will realize that a huge part of what people liked in this episode was that Irene could truly challenge Sherlock, and bring her back without just turning her into a lovestruck acolyte.