Elementary: When Your Number's Up (3x15)

Interesting episode. Not sure about it, really. Pretty grim, but also hopeful in certain ways.

The case of the week is this: a woman whose husband died in an airplane crash starts manipulating the airline by killing off relatives of other deceased people from the crash. She's making a statement about how much money every person is worth. She wants to manipulate the airline into paying a fixed sum to each family, instead of doing a sliding scale depending on the worth of the person. This woman is wealthy, but her husband had a disease meaning he'd have a tragically short life. She'll get more money if the fixed sum is set. Luckily, our team is able to catch her before she continues her rampage. She does kill two people, though.

Meanwhile, Joan has moved back into the Brownstone. She wants to get rid of all of her stuff from the apartment and dedicate herself fully to living and working with Sherlock. Sherlock secretly leases Joan's old apartment and doesn't want her to get rid of her furniture. Joan asks him if he doesn't want her there. Sherlock says of course he does - he's just worried that she's being a bit hasty. It seems as if she's jumping in too quickly, probably due to the trauma of Andrew's death. Joan eventually figures out a good compromise - she sets up a space for herself in the basement, and then closes off the door to the stairs leading up to the rest of the Brownstone. Now, she'll have her area where she can spend time and meet clients, and in order for Sherlock and Joan to visit each other's spaces, they'll have to physically leave the Brownstone and go around to the outer entrance.

That's a brief plot summary, but I want to get in to the specifics of this episode.

My complaints are of the standard, run-of-the-mill sort. I want to keep going with this exploration of Bell, Gregson, etc. And I want Moriarty. This just seems like a really annoying time to make me watch a C-plot episode.

Also, while I do enjoy the idea of knowing the murderer from the beginning, I feel like they dropped the ball on what they could have done with that. Her tactics didn't make any sense. Why would she leave the money along with the notes? Couldn't she have still named the airline and the lawyers in the notes without giving away thousands of dollars in cash? If she was so hard up for money, I don't really get why she was leaving copious amounts of it lying around. We got these hints of her inner turmoil and possible insanity, but then we didn't really delve into them very much.

Similarly, we started to explore these ethical questions of placing monetary value on the lives of actual human beings. It's clearly despicable to say that poor people are worth less than rich people, sure. But instead of getting further into the legal/ethical complexities, we sort of just let that drop.

But the good stuff in this episode is pretty darn good, so I think we should talk about that for a moment.

First of all, even if the case did have its flaws, I like the concept of knowing who the killer is before Sherlock does. It makes that moment when they first come face-to-face really intense. It would have been better if I had felt like the killer was a more formidable foe, but it still worked pretty well.

Mostly, though, the good stuff about this episode comes from the scenes between Joan and Sherlock. From the beginning of this show, we've explored Sherlock's inner mind and his conflicts. Lately, we've been exploring what's going on in Joan's head. Sherlock is suddenly the caretaker, the one who has to be there to support his friend. It's an interesting new dynamic for the two of them, and it's working out really well.

Joan thinks that Sherlock doesn't want her there, and for good reason. Sherlock has been acting cagey about her moving back into the Brownstone. I could really sense Joan's anger and embarrassment as she realized that maybe she wasn't wanted, in the one place she felt truly safe. But of course Sherlock's weird behavior isn't because he doesn't want her there - he's trying to protect her and do what's best.

The compromise that they strike is actually the cutest thing. Joan seems a little unsure of herself as she makes the suggestion, but Sherlock doesn't make any snide comments. My favorite thing about this version of Sherlock (as opposed to a certain scarf-wearing gentleman over on the BBC) is that while Sherlock here knows that maybe he's smarter and better at detective work than almost anybody else, he's understanding and kind about other people's limitations. He wasn't like that from the beginning - it's definitely been part of his character's development.

I think that's where I'll stop. Kind of a mixed bag, but the Sherlock and Joan stuff was excellent.

7/10