The third episode of season three of Elementary represents something of a return to form, after a bit of a shaky start, with an episode offering a moderately engaging mystery, several entertaining examples of Holmes's (Jonny Lee Miller) eccentricities and quirks, and some progress on the Kitty (Ophelia Lovibond) story line, including some further bonding with Watson (Lucy Liu).
There's still plenty of tension and antagonism to go around, especially as suggested in the opening scenes, in which we see Kitty engaging in fighting training, so literally armed and in a combat posture when Watson arrives. On the other hand, her training also echoes Watson's earlier training with Holmes, and since Kitty is learning how to stick-fight (which training for both women lay beneath their first face to face encounter, back in the season premiere), the scene continues to foreground the question of the extent to which Kitty is merely a Watson substitute and to what extent she might ultimately have unique contributions to make.
Indeed, as the title episode indicates, a key focus here is Holmes's assistants, whether colleagues/proteges like Kitty and Watson, or the Irregulars (who we can't call Baker Street Irregulars, I guess). The issue is addressed humourously in the opening scene, in which Holmes engages in an argument with his knife-throwing expert (football player Phil Simms, playing himself) about a case to which we never return. Holmes's intense focus on what interests him, to the exclusion of all else, leads to the humorous moment when he laments how Simms's football career has been a terrible loss to the repute of knife-throwing as a sport. (This is especially humorous for me, as I'd be lot more interested in knife-throwing than football!)
It also lies beneath a more serious subtext of the episode, which is the extent to which Holmes merely exploits/uses those within his orbit, and the extent to which he can relate to them on a human level. The mystery conveniently involves another of Holmes's Irregulars, math genius Harlan Emple (Rich Sommer), who we first met in the season two episode "Solve for X." I won't belabor the point that the odds of detectives repeatedly having personal stakes in their cases is remote, as it seems to be one of those crime story conventions too well-entrenched to ever be rooted out. Anyway, Emple is involved in a math game: a mysterious sponsor sends out clues, and math geniuses try to solve them in a scavenger-hunt sequence to win a prize.
A recent episode of Person of Interest revolved around a similar gimmick. In that show, the AI Samaritan was using the game for nefarious ends, to recruite geniuses to its side. Here, a killer, Paul Ladesma (guest star Jacob Pitts), is using it to try to track down the anonymous math genius internet whistle-blower who has exposed the flaws in lotteries that Ladesma was using to make himself rich. Ladesma's theory is that this online vigilante will not be able to resist playing the game, so eventually Ladesma will be able to get to the right mathematician--and if he has to kill a few (or even several) other geniuses before he gets the right one, well, one can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, right? (OK, it's a pretty silly murder plot.)
Emple, of course, is not merely an irregular but also the anonymous math vigilante (I admit I find this idea amusingly appealing, though it is also rather close to the anonymous bad science debunker character from last season's "The Hound of the Cancer Cells"). While not quite as cliche as the client also being the killer, the detective's frind also being the killer's prime target is nevertheless an all-too-familiar plot device to mystery fans.
What makes it interesting, unsurprisingly, is the human element that comes into play. We learn that Holmes has not only found a new Watson in Kitty, but also a new math expert; when Harlan learns that Holmes has cut him loose and confronts Holmes, he is shocked and hurt to learn that what he saw as a friendship, and not merely a business arrangement, was to Holmes merely a utilitarian relationship. Both Miller and Sommer play their respective emotionally challenged geniuses with effective nuance. (I do wonder, though, just how often a math genius would be an essential assistant in a murder investigation.)
So, for me, this was an episode with its flaws but overall a satisfying return to form. What did you think? Let me know in the comments.
