Television: Elementary, "The Illustrious Client"

Ah, Kitty Winter. So we were coming 'round to this eventually.

If you're unfamiliar with the Doyle story, Kitty Winter was a mistress of Baron Gruner, a man suspected of murdering his first wife and now intent on marrying one Violet de Merville. Kitty is bent on revenge against Gruner . . . Well, you see where it's going.

Since Kitty didn't have any particular reaction to Simon de Merville's picture or voice, it was pretty clear he was never the one who'd abducted, tortured, and raped her. Still, the episode goes on pretending like he's the guy: He has a brothel, after all, and a branding iron that matches the scars on Kitty's back and the marks on the dead girl found on the pier.

But . . . They're two completely different M.O.s. So . . . I don't know. I spent most of the episode wondering how Simon de Merville was connected to the as yet unnamed person who'd victimized Kitty, since it felt obvious to me that Simon de Merville had not. (If I'd been remembering my Doyle, I'd have been looking for a name like Gruner, but then again, this show doesn't always use the same names as the stories.)

The fact that it's Del [Gruner], Watson's new boss at the insurance company felt like it came out of left field. So I'm really hoping they construct a good reason/backstory for that in the next episode. At a stretch one could consider that Gruner looked up Holmes's known associates and targeted Watson, drew her in with his charm, etc. (Gruner's charm is a big portion of the Doyle story.)

Still, the vengeful Kitty plot, whether true to Doyle or not, feels a little like a rehash of that whole Holmes revenge plot from a while back. Remember when he had Moran strung up? Yeah, that. While I like that Kitty is a relatively strong character, it might've been nice to do something new rather than take another spin on the Wheel of Vengeance.