5.16.2014

Television: Elementary, "The Grand Experiment"

So Mycroft, who as it turns out works for MI6, has been framed as a mole. After Sherlock demonstrates the danger by setting off a car bomb, Sherlock and Watson hustle Mycroft out of his apartment and to a house Ms. Hudson conveniently looks after.

Sherlock attempts to work the problem from the inside out by offering to help MI6 find Mycroft, but seeing as Sherlock is Mycroft's brother, they refuse to let him see any files. So Sherlock and Watson hit up the book store that West had been watching. The store is owned and operated by an Iranian. Sherlock and Watson break in after hours and discover a scrambler to conceal phone calls. Sherlock is then able to crack the number codes on West's arms; they are dates, times, and origins of the phone calls.

And each coincides with a date, time, and place where Mycroft was out on "official" business.

This draws a direct arrow to the only other person who always traveled with Mycroft: his handler Sherrington.

Alas, all the evidence continues to point to Mycroft.

Meanwhile, Sherlock and Watson continue to go rounds about whether she should move out. Sherlock acts out in telling Watson he wants to work alone since he needs to get used to it; Watson tells Sherlock that he has a kind of gravity, and she's been fortunate to have been pulled into his orbit, but she doesn't want to orbit him forever, she wants to shine in her own way. (I'd argue they're more of a binary star system, but whatever.)

Despite the rockiness of their current relationship situation, Sherlock and Watson still manage to function as a deductive team, and that's all that really counts. (Or is it? We later see Sherlock go fetch that little baggie of drugs he secreted away a few weeks back. Does he intend to use them, or is this a ploy to pull Watson back in? He knows she won't dare leave if she thinks there's a chance he'll relapse.)

Sherrington pays Watson a visit at the brownstone alone. She's savvy enough to realize the danger, though, and calls in Everyone (members of the hacker group) to listen in and witness the conversation. It's nice to at least see things from previous cases/episodes paying dividends, though I do worry the writers will make looping these things in a matter of convenience.

At this point there is a plot about a murdered Iranian whose killing coincides with one of the phone calls they're investigating. They figure out the guy was stoned to death in his own apartment. Also, Mycroft confronts Sherrington in a bar and attempts to make some kind of deal, but Sherrington only wants Mycroft dead. So Mycroft goes the long way around and contacts the NSA about Sherrington, the NSA tip off The Meilleure, and The Meilleure execute Sherrington. Neat, no?

The collateral damage being that The Meilleure now also know Mycroft is MI6 as well. But the NSA fake Mycroft's death and he must now well and truly disappear into some distant land where he has no chance of being recognized. (So instead of Sherlock's false demise in "The Final Problem," we get Mycroft's instead . . . Perhaps he'll go to Nepal and Tibet?)

The season ends with Sherlock going to visit Sir James Walter of MI6. He asks whether Sherrington's offer of employment was of his [Sherrington's] own making, or had it been an official offer? Walter tells Sherlock it had been his [Walter's] idea, and this time Sherlock accepts. He will now be British Intelligence.

Again, nice interactions, and I liked that they used Doyle's work—Sherlock's description of Mycroft from the original stories, in which for all intents and purposes Sherlock calls Mycroft lazy—as part of Mycroft's motivation to not just sit around and wait for Sherlock to fix things. I still didn't entirely buy Watson's tears as Mycroft said his goodbyes, though; I just don't see a spark there. I hope they give her a love interest soon so we can rattle Sherlock some more and he can rage that she's not giving enough time and attention to the work, she's being sloppy, etc. Then again, how can she be a true partner in the job if Sherlock will be doing MI6 work? Seems unlikely Watson will be given the same offer. Should be interesting to see where these things go.

Elementary is slated to return 30 October.

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