Elementary - End of Watch - Review

End of Watch, the fall finale for Elementary, was a solid episode but nevertheless something of a letdown. This is to some extent a result of how the changing television landscape has led to an expectation that fall finales will be "special" episodes, involving major revelations, game-changers, and/or cliff-hangers. Consider how some other shows finished up their fall seasons: Arrow actually killed the lead character (don't worry; DC has this cool thing called the Lazarus Pit; Oliver will be back!); Marvel's Agents of SHIELD killed (apparently) an important character and transformed another; Person of Interest gave us a face to face (sort of) between the Machine and Samaritan; Supernatural gave us Dean back in thrall to the Mark of Cain. Etc. Even more reality-based shows tended to have some sort of major event or cliffhanger (e.g. Chicago Fire left the show's lead couple on the rocks, two other major characters missing and apparently kidnapped by the mob, AND a baby in jeopardy). I have no objection to shows not following that formula (and it has become pretty much a cliche in its own right by now, actually). However, the ads for the Elementary fall finale made a big deal of how we must see the FINAL CASE of the year, and showed highly misleading scenes suggesting some sort of significant developments. However, there were none. Instead, we got a solid crime story, and yet another "Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) must come to terms with how he relates to the world" story for the B plot. Nothing wrong with that, but I would say, don't sell a standard episode as an event episode, guys!

Anyway, the episode starts out with a serious crime: a cop has been gunned down in the street. The complications begin almost immediately when we learn that, even had he been able to draw his weapon, he would not have been able to defend himself, as his sidearm was actually a pellet-firing  air pistol, which had apparently been substituted for his proper sidearm. The implications there are disturbing, of course, as the most likely explanation would be that another cop has replaced his weapn with the fake in order to set this one up to die. That would be too simple, though, and the prime suspect, the cop's former partner, is quickly ruled out as a culprit when it comes to light that the dead officer had become addicted to oxy and had been feeding his habit by raiding the police armoury and selling guns, subbing in air pistol replicas, having done the same with his own sidearm. That is, the victim was himself a criminal--a "traitor" to the police force, as Gregson (Aidan Quinn) says. This revelation naturally changes things; the planned honour funeral accorded to murdered officers is scrapped. It also establishes the theme of betrayal of one's brotherhood as a key theme for the episode.

Then, another cop is gunned down in the street, same MO, and same weapon as the first victim. What can the connection be? Were the two complicit in the gun dealing? We get some textbook sleuthing by the triple-threat team of Holmes, Watson (Lucy Liu) and Kitty (Ophelia Lovibond), with each, as is now the pattern for the show, contributing key elements to solving the case. Watson, for instance, spots the edivence that leads to our learning about the first murdered cop's drug addiction, and Kitty spots the detail (via street cam video) that the killer has a glass eye; his mask concealed his face, but the tell-tale glint on his eye provides this crucial bit of suspect-narrowing evidence. (According to a recent episode of Chicago Fire, mind you, glass eyes have long been replaced by plastic ones, so I'm not sure how far we can trust the factual accuracy of this particular clue!)


Holmes finally puts everything together and realizes that the cop killings are in fact not really the end game but rather a means to an end. The first cop, now clean, wanted to stop dealing guns, so the gun runner shot him down, planning to take advantage of the honor funeral--when most cops would be attending the funeral, leaving a skeleton crew at the armoury--to steal the police guns. The second cop killing was just a further means to that end; one honor funeral gets cancelled, to why not get another one going? Unfortunately, by the time Holmes figures this out, it is too late; the funeral is beginning and the heist is underway. The killer/gunrunner is caught, but not before he has managed to pull off the heist. (Aside: I find it a tad difficult to believe that even during an honor funeral for a fallen officer an armory full of heavy-duty weapons would not be well-guarded.) Holmes bitterly repents the distraction that kept him from being as efficiently deductive as usual.

Which brings us to the B plot. At the beginning of the episode, Holmes is at a meeting. Afterwards, he has a conversation with another AA member, in which that member tells him about a website (TheBrainAttic) that is designed to help addicts and that sounds a lot like Holmes has said at meetings. Turns out it sounds like Holmes for a very good reason: another AA member has been inspired by things Holmes has said at AA meetings to start the site, and has been quoting holmes on it! (Doyle fans will be happy to note that the website quotations we see are actually from canon Holmes stories; in case you can't read it, the picture here offers "You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear," from A Scandal in Bohemia.)

Tracking down the site creator occupies some of Kitty's time but is primarily of concern for Holmes, as he is determined to protect this man's anonymity despite the violation of his own. Their confrontation begins before a meeting, when Holmes first asks him to take down the site, as it violates his anonymity to make public things he has said in meetings, even if they are not attributed to him. He sees this as a profound violation of the AA compact and therefore as a threat to his sobriety. The blogger refuses, on the grounds that the site helps addicts. Their confrontation continues in the meeting room (an interesting use of that space, as the sanctuary becomes a place of threat), when Holmes turns his fomidable powers of observation on the man and threatens to expose his affair if he does not take down the site--tit for tat, as it were; you have betrayed my confidence, so I will betray yours if you do not stop--though, significantly, Holmes does not threaten to out him as an AA member). Miller gives one of his strongest and most intense performances in this scene, showing just how dangerous Holmes could be if he chose--something we haven't seen in a while.

The episode ends at another meeting (the meetings bracketing and punctuating the episode), with Holmes hearing the testimony of another member, grateful for how the program helps her, and looking on his phone screen at the former website, still called thebrainattic but now featuring only the words "I'M SORRY." Holmes's threat has worked. However, he does not look happy about it. Will Holmes relent and allow the site to revive, recognizing that how it can help others trumps his own need for anoynmity? I suspect so. But I guess we will find out. Regardless, the thematic parallel with the A plot is fairly evident: members of a metaphorical family, whether that is the NYPD or AA, cannot violate that primal trust. I'm not sure of the propriety of parallelling the substitution of air guns for real ones to fund one's addiction to the unauthorized quoting (without attribution) of a fellow AA member on the web--both are certainly violations and profound betrayals, but the potential scale of the consequences is vastly different, and the underlying motives are opposite. That is why, perhaps, the latter betrayal will ultimately be approved. But, as I said, we will have to wait to find out--if we ever do.


Meanwhile, no developments in Watson's life, no developments in Kitty's, and no real major development in Holmes's. No major new villain or return of an old one (though given how the initial scene seemed reminiscent of the epsiode when Mycroft turned up at a meeting last season, I was half-expecting him to turn up again). So, not much of an "event" fall finale, but nevertheless a well-constructed, typical episode. How did you like it? Let me know in the comments below!