Elementary - Under My Skin - Review

"Under My Skin" is one of the more disturbing and macabre episodes of Elementary--not that there's anything wrong with that. The criminal plot is especially cold-hearted and nasty this time out, as unsuspecting people who think they are getting gastric bypass surgery instead have some of their organs removed (initially, in fact, I thought illegal organ harvesting would be the thrust of the episode) and their bellies stuffed with heroin, to serve as unknowing mules, only to be murdered, sliced open, cleaned out, and dumped in a swamp. The punny appropriateness of the title is no doubt evident.

The initial crime if the hijacking of an ambulance--and patient--and the murder of the EMTs. The shooter is captured on video, and Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller), with his eagle eye, notes that the shooter fires three times but picks up only two shell casings. This third shell casing, which Holmes also finds at the scene, provides the first break in the case: it is a re-used shell casing, from a bullet that has been fired before and then hand-loaded again. Collating the video image with previous cases involving repurposed bullets leads to the shooter/kidnapper. One might question the plausibility of someone re-using shell casings rather than simply using new ammo--it seems an awfully convenient way to make connections between crimes--but, first off, people  do do such things (Holmes comments on the endless inventiveness humans can engage in when it comes to weaponry). Second, and more significantly thematically for the episode, this gimmick establishes the episode's first instance of repurposing something. As the shell casings have been repurposed, so are people more profoundly and destructively repurposed as walking suitcases. And just as the markings on shell casings and bullets can be key to tracking down criminals, so, it turns out, are the markings left on the bodies of the murder victims (other than the EMTs).

When the investigation leads to the discovery of the body of the kidnapped ambulance patient and therefore the discovery that her body was being used as a druk smuggling kit, Holmes and company turn to investigating druglords. One of these works out of a dentist's office, Dr. Martin Ward (Fisher Stevens). Ward claims he has been coerced into working with the gangsters, but, as anyone familiar with the guest star rule will know, the fact that Ward is played by the episode's most recognizeable guest star means that his involvement is more than casual. When he turns up with fingers lopped off, he might seem to be off the hook, but it turns out that the torture resulted from coercion from different gangsters, the Chinese Triad, who turned on him when he tried to take the deal to them after his local drug boss was tracked down. Ward is in fact the smuggling mastermind and the murderer, identifiable by the oral surgery suture materials and stitching he used to sew up the bodies of the murdered mules (another repurposing of materials). Ward's plot falls apart in part because, as Holmes says and he agrees, Ward is just really bad at being a criminal mastermind, but it also falls apart because, as Holmes also notes, there is no honour among thieves. When the police start investigating, the various criminal elements involved begin turning on each other, leading to more murder and of course to Ward's digital reduction.

The almost cannibalistic betrayals by the criminal factions complement events in the B plot. In the B plot, Holmes notes a suspicious attendee at an AA meeting: he has alcohol on his breath, is carrying a flask, and when HOlmes questions him, proves to be ignorant of the twelve steps. The attendee turns out to be a private eye investigating Holmes's sponsor Alfredo (Ato Essandoh) at the behest of the car company for whom Alfredo worked as a security consultant. When they ignored his critique of their security features, a frank exchange of views led to them firing and bad-mouthing Alfredo and to him retaliating by "stealing" cars: not actually taking them, but instead breaking into them and then moving them slightly, to show up the security failings.

Unlike the criminals in the show, whose loyalty to each other extends only as far as their own best interests, Holmes's loyalty to Alfredo is firm. Despite Alfredo's insistence that he can handle it, and that he and Holmes are not friends but merely sponsor and sponsee, Holmes is unable to ignore Alfredo's danger. Consequently, he sends Alfredo on a fruitless quest that will guarantee him an alibi and then steals a whole bunch of the cars himself, to clear Alfredo. When the police question Alfredo, showing him a picture of the trucknoad of stolen cars, he is able to demonstrate he could not have been the perprtrator, as he was very visibly waiting for Holmes four bus rides away from where the crimes occurred. Key here is Holmes's discovery that his relationship with Alfredo is not merely a sponsor/sponsee relationship but a personal one: Alfredo has become a friend (which means Holmes now needs a new sponsor, but there's time for that). Holmes's slow growth as a human being continues, even in the midst of the horrific human callousness and violence of this week's crime: qualified optimism in the face of human depravity and selfishness.

Overall, then, this is an engaging episode, with a satisfyingly outrageous crime and further character development. How did you like the episode? Let me know in the comments below!