Elementary Episode 3.01 "Enough Nemesis to go Around": Review

Elementary has returned, finally, with "Enough Nemesis to Go Around," a somewhat disappointing third-season premiere. As the title suggests, a key element in the episode is the idea of nemesis, which can refer to fate or to an arch-enemy. Both meanings are applicable here, though the latter takes precedence.

The episode picks up six months after last season's finale, with Watson (Lucy Liu) now firmly established as a solo consultant with the NYPD. Her major case is the investigation of Elana March (Gina Gershon), ruthless boss of a drug cartel. The opening scene, with Watson sharing an apparently friendly meal with her antagonist as the police close the net on her, sets up March as something of a Watsonian version of Moriarty (Natalie Dormer), absent the sexual overtones of Holmes's (Jonny Lee Miller) relationship with his nemesis. Watson seems to win the first round, but the key plot element of the episode occurs when the witness who is to testify against March, and her police guard, are shot to death in an elevator.

Here we have a quintessential example of that mystery stand-by, the locked room mystery--or at any
rate a variation on it. The elevator descended straight down to the ground, without once opening, or without taking longer than normal. The sensor on the ceiling hatch shows that it was never opened, How, therefore, was the murder committed? Popular as the locked room murder is as a mystery convention, it is in fact pretty hard to pull off. Watson and the police spend two months unable to figure out the crime. Even Holmes, when he worms his way into the case, says that he has been involved in only seven--which is seven more than most investigators ever explore.

Holmes, of course, does return, albeit not until we are a fair way into the episode, because how could we have Elementary without him? I confess that, much as I enjoy Watson and like seeing her get screen time, I was chafing for Holmes's return by the time he turned up. Here lies one of my problems with the episode. While I appreciate any show's attempts to shake up its formula--because formula can be deadly--I didn't find Holmes's explanation that, after several months, he is simply finished with MI6 particularly satisfactory. If this is true, then last season's final episodes become rather pointless in terms of the arc of Holmes's development as a character. If it is not true, however, then Holmes is engaged in some rather sketchy deception of Watson, making him a lot more like Mycroft than I'd prefer him to be. Though the show is now giving us a Watson far less likely to put up with Holmes's bad treatment, the level of deception implied here would be too much, I think. I do assume that there is more going on than Holmes simply walking away from MI6 (especially given the episode's hints about the 'plan' behind his return to New York). His first appearance--wearing a bizarre helmet of some kind (apologies for the lack of an image; I spent a while scouring the internet for a screencap but could not find a good one)--fits both with his eccentricities and as a way of hinting that he is concealing something. His explanation for why he has returned--"I belong here"--also ties into the episode's theme of nemesis, though this time in the sense of fate: it is Holmes's destiny to be in New York. Why? Maybe we will find out some day.

That he has a new partner (or, as he prefers to call her, protege) also hints at ongoing plotlines for season three. His new assistant is Kitty Winter (Ophelia Lovibond). We first see her tailing Watson, at which point Watson assumes she is working for Elana March--therefore casting her as enemy. When they clash again, they have a baton fight that makes Watson realize that this mystery woman was actually sent by Holmes, as single stick is one of his characteristic weapons. Nevertheless, this does not make her any less an enemy, does it? For one thing, their first two encounters are both antagonistic, the latter explicitly as a fight. For another, they are thereby explicitly set up as rivals--nemeses--for Holmes's approval. Indeed, the episode repeatedly invites that comparison, by having Holmes comment on their repective merits (or lack thereof) as apprentices. In one scene, for instance, he is sumultaneously proud of Watson for spotting Kitty's tail and disaapointed with Kitty for being spotted.


This establishment of antagonism between Watson and Kitty may be intended to forestall fan discontent at the disruption to the Holmes/Watson dynamic that Kitty represents, but I'm not sure that the show is wise in actually inviting fans to view Kitty as a potential rival/enemy/nemesis to Watson, unless that is what she is actually going to become. And if that is the case, does Watson really need two nemeses? The episode title does suggest that an abundance of nemesis is at issue, but one per major character would seem sufficient to me. Even the dynamics of how some scenes are shot hint at
the underlying triangle--as the image to the right suggests in how the three characters are positioned relative to each other. Note that in this arrangeemnt, Kitty is actually closer to Holmes, and Watson physically separated from him. (Note as well Holmes's mock-up of the crime scene!) Time will tell, I guess. However, my own entirely personal response is to be less than impressed by this unfolding plot line. I did not find this episode offered a promising beginning for it, but I will give it time to develop.

Anyway, the locked room mystery is reasonably cleverly resolved. The solution depends on all three figures--Watson, Holmes, and Kitty--contributing key facts, observations, and speculations, so the possibility of a team is at least offered. As for the solution itself, the gimmick of using a giant electromagnet to pull bullets through the victims is clever on the face of it but hard to swallow practically. Given that the show reports that the whole unit would have weighed about a ton, it's hard to swallow even a clever assassin being able to smuggle it into the hotel (even in pieces) and then single-handedly assemble it in a concealed space in the hotel, where it remains to be found once Watson, Holmes and Kitty figure out the gimmick. Well, at least we are asked only to swallow it being smuggled in, not out again too.

So, for me, the bottom line is that Elementary is back (yay!) but not off to an overly impressive start (tsk!). How about you, though? did you find the mystery sufficiently engaging? What do you think of Kitty? When do you think we will see Elana March again? (I'm sure we will. Maybe she will form a  team with Moriarty!)