Review of Elementary Episode 2.14 "Dead Clade Walking": "Dinosaur Act"

 

Elementary returns with a paleontology-themed episode: murder motivated by a controversy over whether dinosaurs may have survived the extinction event that supposedly wiped them out ("dead clade walking" referring to such a survival by a group of creatures). The fossil of a nanotyrannosaurus that may date from after the formation of the K-T Boundary (marking the end of the Mesozoic Era and supposedly the extinction of land dinosaurs) has been discovered. Its existence wold prove that dinosaurs survived their supposed mass extinction. Would opponents of the "dead clade walking" argument be willing to kill and to destroy the fossil in order to maintain the paleontological status quo? Yes, apparently they would, as Holmes (Johnny Lee Miller) and Watson (Lucy Liu) discover. But really, who cares? Since the case emerges from the cold case files Holmes gave Watson to practice on, even the original murder here is more of historic than immediate interest. As usual, what matters is not so much the crime as how it symbolically ties in to what's going on with Holmes.

Is it any surprise that an episode focusing specifically on the burden of the past--the cold cases Holmes couldn't solve, in this specific case because his drug addiction affected his work--ends up being about the disposition of a fossil? Watson digs the old file out of a trunk; the fossil is dug out of a rock. But whereas the fossil is destroyed, justice is restored, in that the case is solved. The cold cases are metaphorical skeletons in the closet as well as relics of the past, evidence of an unpleasant truth that can be hard to face. Indeed, the idea of the pressure of the hidden burden runs through the episode, which begins with Holmes considering trepanning himself (a running gag is that every time he sets up his drill to do a practice run on the skull he has--another significant bone in this episode--something interrupts him) and ends with him offering to trepan Watson since she helped solve the case. Trepanning is the process of drilling a hole into the skull to facilitate medical treatment, including releasing pressure on the brain. (Note: self-trepanning would be low on the list of recommended home remedies.) That Holmes is considering such a thing speaks to the undercurrents simmering within his consciousness, which we have seen raised before.

The case isn't the only skeleton, though. We learn of another amusing one when one of Holmes's apparently endless series of consultant experts turns out not only to be an auctioneer who can help Holmes find out who might be involved in the fossil black market but also Holmes's dirty pen pal. Holmes, we learn, has a steamy correspondence with this woman (a much older woman, I am happy to report; it's always nice to see recognition of the continued sexuality of those over middle age), conducted apparently in the old-fashioned way (paper) rather than through modern twists such as sexting. (Since this auctioneer is played by Jane Alexander, there's a good chance we'll see her again, though her recurring role on The Blacklist might keep her from being available.) It's a minor secret, to be sure, and hardly even the weirdest thing Holmes does or considers in this episode (in addition to self-trepanning, Holmes also considers eating evidence in the hope that, like planarian worms, he will be able literally to digest the information that way), but it does resonate with another, more significant skeleton in Holmes's metaphorical closet. He has, after all, had another female correspondent/lover.

Holmes's ner role as AA sponsor for Randy (Stephen Tyrone Williams) assumes importance here. Randy risks falling back into old habits--fossilizing, rather than evolving--when a former lover, the one who turned him on to drugs, comes back into his life. Holmes's experiences with Moriarty (Natalie Dormer) clearly inform his advice to Randy to leave the past behind, though Miller superbly performs Holmes's own difficulties in doing so himself. That he sees echoes of his situation with Moriarty--a kind of addiction herself, for him--in Randy's is evident from Miller's expressions and body language. Moriarty is clearly still the huge skeleton in Holmes's closet, though her reappearance this season has recently been ruled out, due to other commitments (and sadly for Elementary fans, who will have to settle for her role in Game of Thrones for their Natalie Dormer fix). That Holmes has become willing to dig in with living people and try to help them, instead of limiting himself to the dead, is a notable development in his character, though it may also suggest the reason for his sense of increased burden and pressure. Regardless, Holmes is not willing to leave Randy to gather dust, as he did with the cold cases; he won't fossilize. Interestingly, as Watson becomes more like him, Holmes is becoming somewhat more like her, assuming sober coach responsibilities as she assumes detective duties. This is amusingly reflected early in the episode, when her case-related interests tempt Holmes away from Randy, a temptation he resists. Nevertheless, he and Watson eventually manage to pin the blame for the crime on a paleontologist who would suffer professional embarrassment and lost book sales should the "dead clade walking" theory bear out. Watch out for those murderous academic types!

So, in short, murder plot is nothing memorable, but the Watson/Holmes dynamic progresses another step forward. How did YOU like the episode? Let me know in the comments below.