Elementary Season 5 Episode Guide:
5.01 "Foile a Deux" - Review!
5.02 "Worth Several Cities - Review!
5.03 "Render, and then Seize Her" - Review!
5.04 "Henny Penny the Sky is Falling" Review!
5.05 "To Catch a Predator Predator" - Review!
5.06 "Ill Tidings" - Review!
5.07 "Bang Bang Shoot Chute" - Review!
5.08 "How the Sausage Is Made" - Review!
5.09 "It Serves You Right to Suffer - Review!
5.10 "Pick Your Poision" - Airs December 18
Elementary 5.09 "It Serves You Right to Suffer" - Review:
Directed by Aiden Quinn & Written by Kelly Wheeler
The latest episode of Elementary is the first to be directed by Captain Gregson himself, aka Aiden Quinn, who takes the reigns for an episode that puts Shinwell in the spotlight as we learn more about why he's so willing to risk breaking his parole, in an episode written by Kelly Wheeler, who has written several episodes of Elementary in the past including All in and has been a story editor for much of this season. It was therefore interesting to see that the various plot threads come to a head involving Shinwell in It Serves You Right To Suffer, which was one of the plot-heaviest episodes of Elementary so far. It's no surprise then to find out that this one is one of the best episodes of the season as things stand.
Nelsan Ellis is an actor who really makes the most of the screentime that he's been given with Shinwell and this show kind of suffers because he's not featured as much as he should be. His few scenes are designed to build tension and mystery with his development, but it's clear by this episode that there's easily enough interesting material to rightly put Shinwell front and centre. It turns out that Shinwell had a lot to do to get himself out of trouble this week when someone was killed in the area where he used to work with his gang, the South Bronx Killas, and the big question here is how involved is Shinwell? Did he commit the crime or was he framed for it? When the corpse of Ricky Morales is found and a man in an army jacket is spotted on the scene, Shinwell is the primary suspect which would almost certainly see him end back in prison as a result of this.
It turns out that Shinwell didn't commit the crime, as he explains to Sherlock and Joan when he turns up looking for help, but he did help cover it up. It's explained that Shinwell is back with his old gang but not by choice, he's being forced into it by FBI Agent Whitlock (Dorian Missick) and he's working undercover as a double agent. Shinwell explains that his attempt to move the body was to make it look like another gang that wasn't his own commit the crime, and he can't go to his handler directly in order to risk exposure. This is something made all the more complicated by the fact that there is no official line on Shinwell's involvement which is revealed when Whitlock is interviewed by Joan, because Whitlock is already in trouble about using informants and had to keep this one under wraps himself. So naturally, Whitlock is unable to come to Shinwell's rescue. Joan decides that they need to find the real killer before Shinwell is blamed for it.
At the crime scene, Sherlock meets up with Detective Cosa (Debi Mazar), and points out to Cosa that the murder wasn't committed with a gun found near the scene but instead with a more antique weapon in the form of a Nambu pistol that was used in World War 2. This brings up several questions, namely, why use such a weapon that would be easier for the cops to trace? Either way Sherlock decides to team up with Shinwell to track down another member of the gang and break into his apartment where they find prescription pills for Morales, the dead guy. This in turn leads them to The Blacklist's Susan Blommaert, who is playing Morales' therapist and eventually informs Sherlock about orales when he tells her that the people who killed Morales might come for her next. It turns out that Morales was suffering from panic attacks because he feared that his secret could be discovered by another gang member, his secret of course being that he's actually another spy for Whitlock, who is in a similiar situation to Shinwell.
As a big fan of movies like Martin Scorsese's The Departed, you can tell I enjoyed this one, as it follows very similiar themes. All that's missing is a mole inside the FBI and some Rolling Stones on the soundtrack. But either way, this leads Sherlock to conclude that Whitlock is the real murderer of Morales and everything makes Whitlock look more like the suspect by the second when it is revealed that he has a grandfather who served in World War II, which would have given him access to the weapon even if there is no evidence to pin him to the crime. To make matters worse it looks like Whitlock may be leaking information of his moles to the SBK to cover his tracks as the SBK have invited Shinwell for a meeting via one of their associates known as "Tall Boy". Joan suspects this is a trap, and warns Shinwell about going. But Shinwell has no choice, he has to go to keep up appearances. This turns out to be a lucky move for Shinwell at least because now he has a new gun to replace the one that Shinwell lost, but he does want Shinwell to help him out in a money drop in return.
It turns out that they now have a motivation for Whitlock's involvement, as Whitlock was using his informants to find out the location of the money and make off with it, killing Morales when he got suspicious. It turns out that the location of Morales' body being dropped was no coincidence either, because this forced the SBK to change their plans which would put Whitlock in a prime position to seize the money. Once they figure this out Joan is able to visit Whitlock again where she says that if Whitlock helps Shinwell avoid jail, Joan and Sherlock will put their best efforts in to make sure that Whitlock doesn't end up with the general group of inmates where he will almost certainly be killed. Things aren't looking particularly great for Whitlock either way though, which is why he takes his own life with the pistol that he used to kill Morales after insisting that Shinwell was once a gang member, so he'll always end up being one.
Shinwell has unfortunately admitted defeat and says that this is his last day as a free man, so he's going to spend it how he wants. But not if Sherlock has anything to say about it however and he ends up having used a piece of cloth to wipe the prints off the gun, telling Shinwell that he better get used to his second chance. It's a good end to the episode and presumably has resolved Shinwell's criminal past storyline that's been building over these few episodes. Or at least by the looks of things for now anyway, but so far it's good to see this storyline handled well as it's continued the strong consistency of episodes that Season 5 has given us. Elementary is the only show that I watch on CBS at the moment and they certainly know how to leave an impression on the audience.
Also, can we have more Aiden Quinn directed episodes please? Even if it meant that we got no Gregson this episode it's great to see that both Quinn and Liu getting chances to direct keep things fresh and exciting. This episode was a really solid approach to the difficulties that came with off the books operations and corrupt officials, so it was good to see that the show approached it in a solid, impressive way that really stood out. Hopefully we can continue the good form of the series in the next episode, which airs tonight at 10pm on CBS (looks like there was a little-publicised change in scheduling with several episodes behind pushed forward, including this one).
Overall Episode Verdict: B+
Positives:
+Aiden Quinn direction.
+The truth about Shinwell
