Another week, another superlative episode of Elementary! The show's sparkling and yet soothing blend of great mysteries with razor-sharp wit and sensitive portrayals of life's more subtle moments, mainly pertaining to the value of friendship, has become as wonderfully reliable as Watson's penchant for wearing black and white clothing. What lovely news, then, that the show has been renewed for a third season at CBS.
In "The Hound of the Cancer Cells," a scientist was killed after his positive findings on a cancer-detecting breathalyzer device were called into question by an anonymous whistle-blower. The victim was offed via helium in an incredibly creepy scene that reminded me of the hopelessly trapped lovers smothered by gas in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original Holmes tale "The Adventure of the Retired Colourman." Interestingly, this episode's title also refers to "The Hound of the Baskervilles." I wonder if this will be the show's only reference to the "Baskervilles" case from the classic days of Holmes.
While trying to figure out who had motive to kill the researcher, Holmes and Watson delved into a labyrinthine puzzler of a case which led them to question the businessman responsible for funding and promoting the "hound," who alibied out of pretty much everything thanks to an offscreen girlfriend, despite the mounting evidence against him. Brilliantly, Hank's very obviousness seemed to negate his being guilty, until his utterly shameless antics boomeranged back around to incriminate him, thanks to Holmes' as-always sharp observations. Hank's gambit of killing his wife and then framing himself was especially dastardly, and he was another in a string of criminals well-worthy of taking on the master detective.
Johnny Lee Miller was especially terrific this week, from his ingenious identification of the methods by which the victim died ("un-deux-trois") to his humorously defensive conversations with Watson and his last scene with Bell. Miller eloquently and realistically balances a fluid and near-constant transition from acerbically self-satisfied to nervously vulnerable, to impressively wise and understanding. His version of Holmes is getting better by the week.
In the course of the investigation, Holmes also came across a travel agency thinly disguising a Mossad project of some kind, due to the victim's former acquaintance Dalit working there. As a huge fan of Shiri Appleby, I thoroughly enjoyed her appearance in this episode as a bluntly, somehow gently, unapologetically inscrutable character. It was a bit surprising that she appeared so fleetingly, and yet that makes me wonder if we might see Dalit back as a recurring character at some point. That would be a nice twist.
This week's hour was jam-packed with activity and featured two intertwined subplots. The first was Watson and Bell's investigations into a young woman who had witnessed a shooting by a notoriously brutal gangster. As Watson gently confronted the girl about her reasons for not wanting to testify, Bell bonded with the young woman's mentor, a popular teacher well-known for protecting the local teens from gang violence and bad influences. Between the witness's desire to shield her unborn child from danger and the teacher's longing to finally put the villain behind bars, a "rock and a hard place" situation seemed inescapable. To Bell's sad astonishment, the teacher ended up taking out the killer and sacrificing himself in the process.
All of this hit Bell hard right at the moment when he should be most happily celebrating the healing of his hand and his full return to the force. The other subplot of the hour dovetailed with this: Holmes and Watson's conversations about whether Sherlock should attend Bell's congratulations party. While Holmes tried to avoid discussing the matter with Joan, of course she cut that off at the pass with characteristically cute quips. While not too worried about being at a bar around libations, given his status as a recovering addict, Sherlock was quite concerned with possibly distracting Bell with his presence in a negative way. After all, Holmes was indirectly and unintentionally responsible in Bell's shooting and hasn't put that guilt to bed yet. After having an amusing yet profound staring contest with the shooting dummy that Watson had framed for Bell, Holmes was able to decide that it would indeed be appropriate and encouraging for him to go to the party. For a man once unfettered by concern for the feelings of others, and one who still tries to pass himself off that way a lot of the time, Sherlock has surely come far in his capacity for empathy.
This quality was again on display in a touching scene when Bell felt awkward and detached about going to his own party. Holmes encountered him on the sidewalk outside the bar and reassured Bell that it was okay not to feel right going in just yet. Bell acknowledged that he'd been unsure whether Holmes would come to the party, and Holmes admitted he had been as well. It became clear that in some strange and unexpected way, they needed each other at that moment. The friendship between Holmes and Bell has really developed into one of the more quietly reflective and pleasant aspects of Elementary.
What did you think of this week's episode? Share your thoughts in the comments!
About the Author - Virginia Mae Fontana
Virginia is happy to be reviewing The Vampire Diaries, Hart of Dixie, Nashville, Beauty and the Beast, Elementary, Witches of East End, Covert Affairs, and Devious Maids for Spoiler TV. She is a college English instructor and enjoys obsessing over films and pop music - in addition to tv shows, of course! You can find her blog, SugarRushed, at http://virginiamaeblog.blogspot.com/ and her Twitter handle is @SugarRushedBlog
