Television: Elementary, "One Way to Get Off"

Holmes ditches Watson in the wake of her (by his perception) invasive query regarding Irene Adler, in effect resetting the relationship. Is this a ploy to prolong the storyline? Surely the six-week arrangement is nearing its end in any case and Holmes and Watson will have to deal with their pending separation? Then again, Holmes's method of "dealing" with anything remotely emotional is to deny or suppress it. At least in this incarnation (though also in many others). What's interesting about JLM's portrayal is that his Holmes still quite clearly has feelings, he's simply resolute in refusing to acknowledge or discuss them.

Meanwhile, Watson digs herself in deeper by visiting Holmes's old rehab clinic and polling the administration and maintenance staff about her client.

The attempt to suggest Gregson might have done something immoral to close the case on a series of murders was not terribly believable given how solidly Gregson's character has been established; the seeds of any potential for him to be underhanded would have had to be planted well in advance in other episodes for that particular plot line to work. However, the introduction of an ex-partner made the question a no-brainer. Still, nice to see them give Gregson a little more meat.

I do take issue with the rather convenient device of having Holmes leave personal letters from Irene at the clinic. Traditionally, Holmes is something of a pack rat; anything worth keeping he would have taken with him, and anything else he would have destroyed.

Also, what grown woman has such loopy writing? I haven't seen any female write like Irene Adler (based on the writing on those envelopes) since my school days. Maybe some "big girls" have handwriting like that, but I'd hazard it shows a mark of immaturity on the part of the addresser. Or was the art department just trying to make it very clear it was a female's writing?

While slightly better plotted than most recent episodes, the hallmarks remain the same: the criminal is the person we meet briefly and are meant to have forgotten by the time Holmes hits upon the solution. Then we can all go, "Ooooh! It was him!" And didn't we just do a story about a mentor/student relationship back in "Child Predator"? Even if it was backward, the fundamental stories were similar. Hey, and I did the eye color thing in "The Adventure of Ichabod Reed" so . . . Please tell me the writers haven't already run out of ideas.