Review of Elementary Episode 2.22 Paint It Black: "Let It Bleed"

"Paint It Black" is something of a special episode of Elementary, featuring as it does Lucy Liu's debut as a director for the show--though not her debut as a director: she previously directed the short film Meena in 2011. Despite her duties behind the camera--where she evidently spent some time, literally, as the promotional picture below suggests--she also had a fair bit of work to do as Watson, as this episode deals with the aftermath of her kidnapping at the end of last week's episode. Liu manages to avoid many of the arty tics new directors are prone to use, drawing attention to their own directorial eye rather than serving the story; instead, she does a good job of letting the actors do the work.

Matters are building to a head as the season ramps up for what will no doubt be a cliff-hanger finale. Not only is Mycroft (Rhys Ifans) back again this week, after his apparent association with criminals got he rin trouble last week, but so is NSA agent Dean McNally (Tim Guinee), last seen quite some time back (episode 2.13 "All in the Family," in fact), which suggests that we may see some other elements from earlier in the season tied in to emergent events. The Holmes patriarch is referenced again, too, and indeed that familial relatonship is used by Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and Mycroft to gather some evidence, so I begin to hope, again, that Holmes's father might finally emerge as a real character. We are reminded in this episode, as well, of Mycroft's previous attempt to get Holmes out of New York, apparently to get him out of the way for whatever Mycroft is up to. That earlier episode (2.8, "Blood is Thicker") was the first to hint that there might be more to Mycroft than met the eye--that he might be more than the lazy buffoon his brother takes him for--and last week's episode began to hint that he might indeed be involved in criminal activities. Indeed, these seem to be the impetus for Watson's kidnapping, which serves as the main impetus for this week's plot.

Apparently unwilling to abandon the "crime of the week" format even during Watson's kidnapping, the show has Mycroft negotiate Watson's return from the Corsican mob in exchange for Holmes helping them out with a matter: a banker who has absconded with a damning list of names and account information for all kinds of illegitimate cash. Holmes is unsurprisingly disgusted by his brother at this point--even promising to murder Mycroft if any harm comes to Watson. The episode provides the most sustained and revealing insight into the extent to which Holmes not only relies on but also values Watson. Blood clearly is not thicker, for him, as he obviously values Watson much more than his own brother or father. That Holmes ends up literally digging up the hidden treasurer is amusing, if macabre, though the investigation also allows hints of Mycroft's carefully concealed intelligence to begin to emerge, as we see him engage in some keen deductive work himself. Otherwise, though, the plot of the week has little of interest, except a character whose name is "Yoder"(Michael Gaston), but which sounds, especially when pronounced by British actors, for all the world like "Yoda." He did have a Swiss accent, but no fractured syntax, and no light sabre--no visible one, anyway. (OK, Holmes being willing to torture Yoder to get whatever he needs to rescue Watson was revealing of his characfter, as well.)

Fans of Doyle's original stories will no doubt be pleased that Elementary is finally at least moving in the direction of restoring Mycroft's status as Sherlock's smarter brother. The hints that he might actually be a master criminal are finally revealed to be red herrings in the final moments of the episode (though I had a bad moment when he zapped Holmes with a taser, fearing that he would indeed prove to be a new Moriarty), in which it becomes evident that he is actually involved in some sort of elaborate, clandestine government operation (a British goverment operation on American soil, apparently, but let us not quibble about such minor details). Holmes's lament at the beginning of the previous episode that he has no peer seems about to be exploded. However, what exactly is going on remains unclear. It seems to be connected to the banking plot, but how remains opaque, as those plot elements seem unconnected to Mycroft's actions months back.

Though the episode ends with Watson rescued, there is clearly much left to resolve; the final two episodes of the season promise to offer more twists and excitement. This episode was something of a return to form after last week's (no mosquito-sized drones, anyway, though Watson's field surgery with a box cutter and a bottle of booze was a bit of a stretch), I think, but what do you think? Did it give you satisfaction? Let me know in the comments below!