Elementary: For All You Know (3x16)

Okay then! This is a bit different than the usual fare. I really enjoyed this episode. It was daring and interesting, and I'm glad this show tries to push boundaries.

In this episode, Sherlock is called in to the precinct and asked if he knows a recently discovered victim. The body of this woman, Maria, has been buried for three years, and it looks like Sherlock is a suspect. They find a note that Sherlock wrote to Maria, and Sherlock can't remember that period of his life, because he was in the worst of his drug addiction and he had blackouts sometimes.

From there, the rest of the episode is Sherlock and Joan trying to figure out what happened to Maria. Who killed her, and how was Sherlock involved? Joan is completely convinced that Sherlock isn't guilty, but Sherlock keeps telling her that nothing is impossible. He is ashamed of the person he once was - even if he didn't kill Maria, maybe he could have saved her if he had been sober back then.

Sherlock meets up with Oscar, his drug dealer back in the day, and a fellow addict. Oscar believes that Sherlock did kill Maria, and he thinks he has proof of it. He found bloody clothes in Sherlock's house. However, Joan realizes that the shirt wasn't Sherlock's, and the blood spatters are all wrong. From there, Sherlock and Joan figure out what's really going on - Maria worked as a cleaning lady in a politician's office. This politician was having an affair, and he killed the woman he was sleeping with to cover it up. When Maria, in the office cleaning late at night, saw the bloody clothes, she was killed for knowing too much.

The case is solved, but Sherlock is still greatly disturbed by everything that happened. He tries to pass on the number of a rehab facility to Oscar, but Oscar throws it back in his face. He says that Sherlock will relapse, and that he'll see him again.

Okay. To complain a little bit, as I always seem to: if Sherlock was a serious suspect in this case, and he was, then why the heck did the police let him have so much free reign? And why did Maria's family get told about Sherlock as a suspect? That seems illogical and inappropriate... I'm not really sure how these things work, but it seemed unrealistic to me.

I also wish we could have explored Gregson and Bell's reactions to all of this. We got a hint of Gregson's feelings on the matter, and it was sweet to see his confidence in Sherlock. But we could have gotten a bit more... and I would have loved to see what Bell thought of all of this. I still don't think these characters are being properly utilized.

But the focus on Sherlock's psyche in this episode was excellent, and I was happy to focus on the Joan and Sherlock relationship as well.

First of all, I liked Oscar. I mean, I didn't like him, but he was really interesting. It's such a strange glimpse into Sherlock's past. You would think that Oscar was just a loser drug-dealer, but actually, Oscar is a pretty smart guy. Sherlock is clearly in a state of panic during this episode, so it makes sense that Oscar is actually able to lie to him a little bit. In any case, Oscar was a surprisingly complex character, and I found myself wishing we could see him again once the episode was over.

The most disturbing scene for me was when Sherlock offered to let Maria's brother smash his hand, in exchange for information. Joan was freaked out, and Sherlock was totally serious. He wanted to punish himself, and I think it speaks to Johnny Lee Miller's amazing acting that I could feel all the shame and desperation that Sherlock was feeling. At first I was a little disconcerted that we didn't get any flashbacks in an episode about Sherlock's past, but ultimately I liked the way we could get all the information we needed about the past just from the way Sherlock was behaving in the present.

The case itself was pretty straight-forward, but that's honestly one of my favorite things about this show. There were enough twists and turns to keep it interesting, but it wasn't unnecessarily convoluted. The main thrust of the drama was how this was all affecting Sherlock, and that came out in full force.

Joan's devotion to Sherlock also got a good amount of attention. She was so scared for Sherlock when he got arrested, and so determined not to give up on him. Even in Sherlock's darkest moments, Joan never doubted his innocence. I wonder if Sherlock would have pulled through and seen the logical truth if it hadn't been for Joan's insistence.

Finally, I want to commend this episode for suggesting the idea of corruption in the police department. Most procedural shows paint the police department as an inherently positive and helpful force. And yeah, we've got a lot of good cop characters in this show, but we also have the suggestion of corruption and police brutality here, and I admire this show for pulling on a strand of reality that doesn't get a lot of treatment on television.

That's where I'll leave things. This episode took some risks, and I think we're going to see some of these psychological issues play out in the future. Should be very exciting.

9/10