Elementary - 1.14 The Deductionist - Recap and Review

“Never been robbed by people in their underwear before… well, there was one guy…”

Tonight’s episode of Elementary starts with Sherlock in the middle of a sting operation but who cares about that, Jonny Lee Miller shirtless on a chair. I’ll confess, I was puzzled as to what was going on but after a couple of seconds trying to figure out how I could ever phrase what I was seeing into a coherent sentence, I’ll admit, I kind of didn’t care what was going on but I did wonder if it was a dream sequence. The strippers ask if Sherlock is ready to join in the show and he remarks he was worried they were never going to ask. They handcuff him to the chair and proclaim that they’re going to rob him. Sherlock remarks that he knew there were stripper/robbers in the area but didn’t know that they’d be there. Or did he? Half of the NYPD piles into the room and arrests the two ladies before they could abscond with any of Sherlock’s stuff.

“I’m glad your sting operation was a success last night but this place still smells like stripper.”

Watson’s landlord tells her that she’s being evicted because of something her subletter has done in her absence. Sherlock points out that she could live with him for free and then her other clients when she takes them on. This discussion happens while Sherlock it hitting half a dummy with a stick for no apparent reason other than to keep the fans wound up from that opening. Watson replies that she wants to keep apartment because it gives her an anchor, somewhere to come home to after clients.

We then cut to a prisoner being transported to a hospital to have a kidney operation to save his sister’s life. The guard at the hospital asks Ennis if he understands the procedure as it’s been explained to him and the prisoner replies it been while since someone was so afraid of him. The next scene is of them wheeling Mr. Ennis into the operating room and the police officer taking off the handcuffs far before he should have. The nurse notes that the anesthetic isn’t reaching the right spots just before the prisoner grabs the guard’s gun and shots the OR.

Later that same day, with Sherlock, Joan, and Gregson all back on the friendly terms, Sherlock updates everyone on the killer’s MO saying that rechristening serial killers and giving them nicknames is duller than the Queen’s jubilee. So that’s why he moved! They go into the OR and Sherlock tells them that Ennis adjusted the IV so that it wouldn’t enter his vein but pool under the surface of his skin and used a practiced technique to slow his breathing and heart rates. Sherlock also notes that Ennis shot the one guy in the head for the purpose of stealing his scrubs and walking right out the front door. Gregson then informs the pair of the FBI’s and Kathryn Drummond’s (Covert Affair’s Kari Matchett) presence.

Already Sherlock is on tense terms with the profiler as they worked together in the past. Sherlock suggests talking to the mother and mentions Miss Drummond’s book on the killer and her theory that his fascination with sexual abuse pointed to him being abused as a child. The police team goes to talk to the sister and she tells them that if there was any other way, she would not have agreed to let her brother be any part of her any longer even if it was only a kidney.

Joan walks into her apartment where he landlord tells her about a porno that was filmed in her apartment. Back at the station, Sherlock lay on a table and she fills him in on the situation. He sees this as a good thing but as Watson wants her own space, she does not. Nor does she think she could live there again because of the footage she saw while she was there. When she eventually asks why he lies on the table, he tells her that he’s looking at the stars (a set of lights on the ceiling) and has determined it matched an area of New York. Watson asks if he’s told anyone and he replies unexcited that he has and the NYPD has directed resources to that area but sees it as a trap. Watson starts to ask something about why he hates the profiler after he calls her a vermin from his safe vantage point behind the glass. Yes, Sherlock and the profiler had sex which was in no way romantic and could be described as self-love aside from the fact she was present but somehow that’s not quite what’s bothering the intrepid investigator.

Drummond points out the same fact as he did about Ennis leaving the code for them to crack leaving Holmes free to roll his eyes. Gregson explains that at the new crime scene, Ennis killed everyone except the person that fits his profile. Drummond’s spouts some poppycock about the crime committed out of convenience to get him money. Sherlock states there are better places to get money and that Ennis was making a point by leaving the woman alive.

Joan goes to confront her subletter who claims his “alternative film making” was because he needed money and then says he was going to ask her out. Sherlock inquires as to whether Watson’s pervy tenant wanted to get her involved in a sequel and says that he’s working at his house because he could be more use there than at the police station. Joan tells Sherlock she knows about the article Drummond wrote about him. Sherlock explains that he tried to show Miss Drummond some of his observation techniques and was bothered by the fact she was more interested in profiling him than learning how to be better at the craft. In Drummond’s predictions, she prophesied his addiction and Joan correctly notes that he is still upset about that prognostication. Sherlock agrees saying if she was right about one she could easily be right about another method by which he could self destruct as her paper theorized many.

The next day Gregson asks how Drummond could not have any tips for them if she’s the profiler. Watson suggests that Ennis is changing his motives to it harder for the profiler to catch him. Before they could continue the discussion further, the department receives a call from Ennis. Gregson takes it and Ennis starts addressing Drummond whom he surmised was on the line. Two can play at that game so Sherlock shares his theory that Ennis resents the fact Drummond was the lead investigator and condensed him into just his MO and reasons for killing; the new kills are not about him but the profiler.

“I know who you are: the deductionist.”

Ennis wants Kathryn Drummond dead because of what she did to his family. Drummond points out that he just left his dying sister. Ennis tells them about his father, who was wrong accused of abuse and hung himself, and his mother who died less than a year later. Ennis says that if Gregson wants him to stop, all he has to do is give him Drummond’s. Not the most original solution but the story has been intriguing so far. Proceed on…

Sherlock enters Ennis’ evidence locker, or rather the space from where he called that looks an awful like an evidence locker (according to the writers it’s a storage unit which I think could have used a little more explanation but they are). Unfortunately, the characters do not pick up on this. Sherlock would rather berate Drummond’s for making up evidence which caused the killer to kill some more and points out that just because her profile has been correct so far, doesn’t mean it will be forever.

Later, Sherlock tells Joan that he doesn’t think that Drummond would make something up to destroy a family. Watson asks whether she could have just made the whole thing up but as Sherlock can’t see what she could gain by it, he dismisses that. Watson points out that Drummond was already wrong as he has made a friend (her) which according to the profile would be impossible. Watson then catches on to the fact that Sherlock has moved the majority of her stuff into his space then he shows her some of the “mundane” porn. After he leaves, she seems to see something that catches her interest.

The next morning, Sherlock wakes Joan and is in such a hurry he offers to even pick out her underwear. Hmm… at the scene, Watson notes that all the food in the home is the opposite of what Ennis’ sister should be eating because health wise, these are things that cause kidney failure. Sherlock finds essential oils which he points out can be toxic to someone who is in kidney failure. At the hospital, Drummond confesses to the sister that she made up the source and paying a neighbor off to corroborate it and confesses that she should also admit her crime to Ennis. The sister draws Drummond’s closer and Bell receives a phone call telling him that the sister destroyed her kidneys on purpose. He goes into the room and finds Drummond stabbed and unconscious on the floor. The sister, with a pair of scissors in her hand, is perfectly willing to be arrested.

The sister tells Gregson that she feels no remorse over killing Drummond because of the fact Drummond thought that a simple apology could make the whole thing better. She explains that the plan was for Ennis to embarrass Drummond in the public and that she would be waiting for her in the hospital for the eventual confession. Drummond still has a chance at life, but even if the sister dies inside, she could die knowing she corrected a wrong. Sherlock gets a called from Ennis who calmly points out that he has to keep on making his point until Drummond dies. Sherlock hangs up and turns on the radio to pinpoint the station. Determining the signal to be weak around there, he goes off to find it.

Sherlock lays in wait for Ennis and calmly invites him in when he arrives. Sherlock explains the way he found Ennis and tells him that Drummond hadn’t predicted a pleasant end for him (in fact it was self-annihilation). He confesses that he wonders if she could be correct and Ennis asks if Holmes wants to talk about the profile. Sherlock tells him he's more interested in the actions of the man and wants to know if either of them could be other than their profiles. If Drummond is a chicken heart as stated in the book, he'll go for the handcuffs on the table but if he's not, then he'll go for the gun and Sherlock is hoping for the gun because it will prove both profiles wrong. Ennis asks if that's all he's afraid of and Sherlock quips back that and clowns. (7 out 9 Elementary writers fear clowns) Drummond goes for the gun and Sherlock hits him with the singlestick. Sherlock then tells Gregson when the police show up, that he texted him when he heard Ennis arrive and had to find something out for himself, hence the confrontation. Gregson ask if he found it out, and Sherlock tells him he won't find out for years.

Joan goes back to the apartment to confront the landlord as to why he was in the apartment when the porno was being filmed. The actors in the film confirmed his appearance and she tells him that she wants her couch replaced and for him to pay for the storage of her stuff while she finds a new place. She asks Sherlock how Kathryn is and Sherlock replies unconscious but still annoying. He then gives her a spatula and a toothbrush. No one in the film did anything to her toothbrush though…

Thursday: Look for another episode for Elementary when Sherlock’s old drug dealer played by Mummy actor John Hannah, is looking for his missing daughter in Holmes’ new city of New York.

An interesting aside is the fact that the original Holmes was a singlestick-er and it was Jonny Lee Miller's idea to make the back story. (source)


What worked:

♥I think that having the strippers at the beginning was a great way to wind up (or keep wound up) the audience and they continued that with Sherlock hitting the dummy with the singlestick. The fact that Joan was having a minor porn problem to deal with was a nice tie in as well.

♥Having a single episode killer as opposed to a long arch like the plan was (originally 1.12 ‘M’ was going to be the Super Bowl episode)

♥I liked that the singlestick did have a purpose in the episode other than to be just an odd thing to have at the beginning. It was a nice touch to have it come back around.

♥And of course the exchange about the new spatula and toothbrush

What didn’t work:

≠The biggest thing I thought didn’t work was that they made the killer too easy to guess what his moves at each juncture. The sister was also a predicable move but I was too wrapped up in recapping to notice at the time. And I don’t mean that he wasn’t good but this show usually keeps me guessing a little more.

Aside from that, I liked that it gave them an opportunity to show that this Sherlock is not perfect, is not invincible. Keeping him grounded is probably the best route for a 23 episode season show.

Sherlock’s relationship with Drummond is one that could have easily been expanded upon because of her predictions but the fact that she discredited her book on Ennis by pulling the thread that he was abused loose and the fact that she has already been wrong about Sherlock in saying he couldn’t make friends, she has served her purpose unless the writers can come up with another reason for her to be on, such as maybe another Holmesian prediction coming true.


This recap was unique in that I actually talked to a perfect stranger, no not that kind, as to what sorts of things I wanted to say. S/he gave me some great ideas to analysis.