Elementary: The Man With the Twisted Lip (2x21)

Ahhh what is this I don't even! This was a great episode and it's also the first time all season that I've been really anxious to get to the next one. Usually Elementary is a show that I like alright, but that I don't eagerly await. Now, I want the next episode. Immediately. Let's talk about the plot!

So, the case of the week involved drones and mosquito-sized surveillance equipment. Basically, one of Sherlock's fellow addicts at his meeting goes to Joan and tells her that her sister is missing. Sherlock and Joan take the case. They find the girl, dead, but it turns out that she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time - she was killed for witnessing another death, this time of someone who was about ready to spill secrets about some illicit drone activity. The case had a lot of interesting twists and turns, such as a therapist who was being bribed, and a witness being poisoned via remote distribution in the form of a tiny mechanical insect. At the very end of the episode, we see that Sherlock has taken some of the heroin from the missing girl and has hidden it away. Uh oh!

But even more interestingly, Mycroft is back in town to help manage his restaurant, Diogenes. He's also there to express his interest in Joan. Joan considers it, but of course things are so complicated because of Sherlock. When Joan and Sherlock talk about it, he doesn't take it well. Joan says that she can't date Mycroft with the way things are right now, but she is considering moving out and getting her own place, which would make things considerably easier where Mycroft is concerned. At Diogenes, Sherlock notices a suspicious customer who always seems to be at the same table. Sherlock suspects that Mycroft might be involved in some sort of criminal activity. At first, Joan disregards this, but later on she starts to suspect that Sherlock may be right. And it turns out that he was very much correct - Joan gets kidnapped by these mysterious French baddies!

Things I don't like?

To be honest, I thought the idea of tiny little bug drones was really silly. It was just... too sci fi. Or if it wasn't supposed to be... if we're supposed to take this threat seriously... then I wish they had gone into the real world implications a bit more. More so than the unfortunate "Americans accidentally killed Americans" thing. I mean, yeah, that's obviously a big deal. But this new technology, and the ability to spy on people via little cameras that look like mosquitoes? I think we might have needed to spend just a touch longer dealing with the implications of such a thing.

Honestly I think the problem was that this plot didn't belong in this episode. When we're dealing with Mycroft, and these French kidnappers, and Sherlock and Joan's relationship, and the risk to Sherlock's sobriety, this whole drone plot feels phoned in and just too much.

And I'll also admit this: the very idea of Joan getting kidnapped seems off the wall and completely tonally inconsistent with this show. However, the way they did it just makes me really excited and anxious for more. See, Joan wasn't kidnapped while completing a task for Sherlock. She also wasn't kidnapped, at least as far as we know, because she's important to Sherlock. She was kidnapped for sticking her nose where it doesn't belong, and as such we seem to be avoiding the whole "damsel in distress" trope. Yay!

Let's switch to some other good stuff.

Whenever Sherlock talks at his sobriety group meetings, it makes me so happy. It's an ingenious way to give Sherlock a chance to reflect upon his own character, without it feeling really contrived. In this particular example, Sherlock talked about how he doesn't really have any peers. Nobody is his intellectual equal (except for a certain Jamie Moriarty...). This lack of a peer is a legitimate threat to his sobriety.

Then we have Sherlock's possessiveness of Joan. Mycroft says that Sherlock only cares about Joan insofar as she is useful to him, but I don't think this is strictly true. Despite his talk of not having any peers, Joan's presence in his life is a benefit to him because of who Joan is as a person, even if she isn't technically as smart as he is. I think there's a fine line between needing someone and taking them for granted, and Sherlock struggles often to find that balance. In the case of Joan and Mycroft's potential relationship, Sherlock was selfishly putting his own need for Joan ahead of her happiness.

It's a deliciously complex dilemma. Joan considering leaving the Brownstone is something I hadn't really considered before, but it's an interesting thought. Even though this kidnapping business is bound to interrupt the more nuanced aspects of their relationships, I still think that Joan, Sherlock, and Mycroft will have to sort out this stuff soon. In particular, I loved what Joan said about Sherlock's apologies: they always seem to come after he's gotten what he wanted.

In other news... is Mycroft actually a bad guy? Is he connected to these kidnappers, or not? Given the mysterious phone call he made earlier in the season, it seems likely that he's hiding something. But his attraction to Joan seems genuine. Needless to say, I'm confused, and happy to be so.

Sherlock stashing some heroin away is very exciting for me. It's really the first time we've seen Sherlock's sobriety seriously threatened, and now with Joan gone it's going to be very hard for Sherlock not to backslide. Hopefully his worry for Joan will make him want to focus even more, and will prevent him from using.

I could really talk on and on about how deliciously intriguing this episode was, but I'll stop here. Can't wait for next time!

9/10