Yeah, it's always weird when something has multiple creators and the reputation of one somehow overwhelms people's perceptions of the other, even though they're co-writers and I'd assume equal influence and bargaining power (and, presumably, intent; you don't start this kind of thing together if you have wildly divergent ideas of how it should go). R is reading over my shoulder and says it's like Mark Gatiss is seen as the 'good cop' in all this...

And yeah, I just don't see them risking their overseas sales, but I can imagine that this will be the kind of thing that fandom finds really frustrating because this ep will be seen as telegraphing a future for John and Sherlock as more than friends and colleagues...