Elementary: Corpse de Ballet (2x15)

This episode has a main plot and a subplot, and I must say my reaction to the two plots was fairly opposite. The main plot was... well, not terrible, but not particularly interesting. It had a very predictable twist, and didn't really have anything new to say about our characters. The subplot was actually Joan-centric, and I really wished we could have spent a lot more time on it. Let us take a closer look!

I'm going to do this fairly quickly, so my apologies about the lack of detail. At the ballet, a young ballerina is found murdered - sawed in half. Sherlock is on the case, but he ends up sleeping with one of the prime suspects, the leading ballerina. Sherlock assures Joan that he only did so to learn more details about the case. Later, it conspires that the suspect was having an affair with the victim. It also turns out that the ballerina's lawyer was the murderer. He was planning on exonerating his client by providing footage of a masked man committing the crime, thus proving her innocence. In the end, justice is achieved.

The much-more-interesting subplot involved Joan's volunteer work with a homeless shelter. A schizophrenic homeless man attacks a couple of police officers, and Joan is notified. The man can't stop yelling about how somebody took his friend. Despite the police officers' saying that he's just raving mad, Joan decides to help this man find his friends. She investigates the situation, and in the end it turns out that a man and woman were kidnapping homeless people and trapping them in their home. Then, they were collecting money, pretending to be the relatives of these missing homeless people.

Alright! So, the main plot was okay. It was pretty standard fare. There was this "twist" where it turns out that the two ballerinas were in a relationship, but honestly it wasn't that big of a twist, and it ultimately didn't change much. The evil lawyer man was more confusing than anything else. I also felt like Sherlock sleeping with the suspect was enormously irresponsible, no matter what his motivations were. 

To be fair, however, I did love the examination of the world of ballet, and I found it very endearing that Sherlock was a fan of the lead ballerina. The development of the guest characters was also well done. I really did like the slightly snobby yet ultimately good ballerina. I found it interesting how self-aware she was about her status as a diva. She had started her relationship with the victim in order to get something she wanted, but she grew to genuinely care for her. This was an interesting dynamic. In short, there was nothing horrible, but it's not a story that I'll be remembering for very long, either.

The subplot was where the good stuff was. I loved learning more about Watson. Apparently, her birth father is a homeless man, and Joan volunteers with the homeless for this very reason. She says that sometimes her dad recognizes her, but often he does not. Even more depressing, she hasn't seen him in a few years, and has no real way of knowing if he's alright. While nobody else will really take Joan's search for the homeless man seriously, she remains dedicated to it.

This was actually some good social commentary on the sad but true fact that when homeless people go missing, the law usually does very little for them. It was nice to see Joan fight the system and do what she could. Then you've got the very end of the episode, where Sherlock suggests that he and Joan go out to the park with some extra blankets for the homeless. Yet again, we see how hard Sherlock is trying to be a good friend to Joan. I loved this subplot because we learned new information about Joan's family, and we saw Sherlock respecting Joan and offering to get involved with this aspect of her life.

So, there you have it. A mediocre main plot, but a fantastic subplot. See you next week!

7/10