Elementary: Rip Off (3x05)

Woah, I almost didn't realize that this episode had aired. It's weird to have a new one on a holiday! In any case, here we go.

First of all... I'm confused. Was last week's episode not supposed to be continued? Because to me it felt really unfinished. Are we really never going to discover what happened with Bella? And that professor guy? That seems totally ridiculous! But maybe they will come back in later. I hope so, anyway. But setting that aside, we should look at this episode for what it was.

In this episode, someone finds a severed hand in a sewer. Sherlock and Kitty are called in to investigate. (Joan is in Copenhagen and remains there for the whole episode).  The victim ran a mailbox service, but Sherlock quickly uncovers the truth: he is a jewelry smuggler. Sherlock is able to discover that the victim's hand was actually torn off by someone, which limits their possible suspects to body builders. They find the culprit, but it turns out that it was a paid hit. Eventually, with Kitty's help, Sherlock realizes that Amit, the victim's employee, is the culprit.

Along the way, Kitty is doing an experiment with Clyde where in she is hooked up to a mild electric shock and to a bell, and she sees which one Clyde is more inclined to use to get food. He seems to favor the shock. Also, Sherlock is acting cagey and makes Kitty sign a nondisclosure agreement. Sherlock eventually tells her why. Apparently he discovered Joan's "Casebook of Sherlock Holmes," and he feels betrayed. Kitty assures Sherlock that she won't read it if he doesn't want her to, and even pours something on the laptop to ruin it. Sherlock admits that part of his motivation for not reading it was fear of what Joan really thinks of him.

There's a subplot this week with Gregson. Apparently, his daughter is also a cop (who knew?) who was in a relationship with her partner. Said partner was abusive to her, and when Gregson found out he punched the guy in front of other cops. Gregson's daughter wants him to shake hands with the guy to make it all go away, because she doesn't want the truth to come out. She is afraid she will be seen as a victim. Kitty gets involved and gives Gregson some advice, drawing on her own experiences and how she hates being thought of as a victim. Gregson shakes hands with his daughter's abuser, but he then gets the good news that he will be leaving the force. Apparently, Kitty said something to him.

Okay. To start with, let's go over some problems.

I feel like such a hypocrite because I kept asking for something for Gregson and/or Bell to do, and now I have to complain about it. I didn't like that we joined Gregson's story in medias res. It was confusing. Did we even know he had a daughter before this? Maybe we did, but I can't remember it. Did we know she was a cop? The whole beginning part of this plot line felt really confusing and almost lazy to me.

Secondly, I just have to mention one more time how annoying I think it is that we're not continuing the story from last week. The case of the week here was fine, I guess, but the stuff with Bella was ten times more interesting! I still feel like it's unfinished.

However, many things about this episode are praise-worthy. Primarily - 

Kitty. Ophelia Lovibond (awesome name, by the way) did a fantastic job with her character this week. As much as I may have missed Joan, it was a really good decision to keep her out of an episode and let Kitty breathe a bit. She was the one who pinpointed Amit as a likely suspect, so in a way she pretty much solved the case. She was also the one who helped Sherlock to realize what was really going on with Joan's manuscript, which lead to her getting the freedom back that she had previously lost by signing Sherlock's nondisclosure agreement. Most interestingly, she stepped in where she arguably didn't belong and helped Gregson out with his situation. One could be tempted to say that what Kitty went through was unambiguously worse than Gregson's daughter's situation. But Kitty came at the situation as a fellow survivor of abuse, no matter how severe, and understood where this woman was coming from. I loved that.

The case itself wasn't the coolest ever, but I do continue to admire how straight-forward most of the cases on Elementary are. I hate it when shows like this try to make things too convoluted. Amit was a logical suspect, and instead of having him be yet another false lead, they were content to let the logical answer be the true one.

I love the stuff with Joan's casebook! I hope that Sherlock actually has a conversation with Joan about this. Sherlock is often in denial about his true feelings, so while he knew he was upset about the casebook, he had to talk to Kitty before he understood the full reasoning behind his anger. It's not a betrayal of trust, necessarily. It's more the fear of what Joan really thinks of him, no holds barred. I hope that this whole casebook thing comes back, because it would be interesting to see Joan and Sherlock talk about it.

Despite my earlier complaints about the Gregson story-line, I did love how Kitty jumped in, and I also loved giving Gregson something to do. Maybe we can start seeing a bit more of this Kitty and Gregson friendship? I enjoyed it!

I also must mention Clyde. I love that little guy, and I find it hilarious that he seems intent on a malicious relationship with Kitty. He's probably all like: "you're not my real mom!" Fantastic.

And that's that! I will continue to be bitter about not continuing the Bella plot, but I can't judge this episode based on that alone, so there you have it.

7.5/10