Elementary: T-Bone And The Iceman (3x17)

Okay. This was beautiful. Not the case itself, which was sort of... meh... but the stuff with Joan and Sherlock. Let's dive in.

The case involves corpsicles... aka people who have been cryogenically frozen upon their deaths, hoping to awaken upon the invention of technology that can save their lives. When a girl is involved in an accident with a van carrying some of these frozen people around, she is killed to keep her from talking. After many twists and turns, Joan finally cracks the case by discovering that a supposed suspect was made up, and based to look like a character in Manos: The Hands of Fate. It turns out, it was a group effort. One terminally ill man wanted the bone marrow of an estranged cousin, and thought he might have a second chance to acquire it when he discovered his cousin had been preserved after death. However, things went wrong when people caught him and his accomplices in the act.

While that's going on, Joan has to deal with some family drama. Her mother, Mary, invites her out to lunch and tells her that she needs to talk to her brother - apparently, Mary caught Oren kissing some woman and cheating on his wife. Joan calls Oren, who vehemently denies it. Joan starts to wonder if maybe her mother's memory is slipping. Sherlock tells her that Mary called him while he was in London, having forgotten more than once that Joan wasn't with him. Joan doesn't want to believe that her mother might be in need of help, but she decides to talk to her about it. Mary is in denial and won't have anything to do with it. Sherlock decides to help out - he calls Mary and convinces her that she forgot Joan's birthday the month before. Mary agrees to meet with someone to check her memory.

Complaints? Well, the case itself wasn't the best. There was nothing terribly offensive or stupid about it, but it also didn't offer anything new or challenging. I know I've seen the corpsicle thing done on at least one other cop show, and here it didn't really offer any surprises. I thought the resolution with the Manos: The Hands of Fate thing was pretty stupid too. Why on earth would you choose an actor (albeit not a famous one) to model your victim off of?

However, the case did have a few good things about it. I liked the back-and-forth with the one suspect. I could see how he might end up being innocent, but Sherlock's suspicions were well founded. The answer came as something of a surprise, and I was left impressed by the culprit's ability to almost fool Sherlock.

I also liked the beginning scene, where Bell gives Sherlock a hard time, letting him think there's nothing he can do at the crime scene before revealing the strange markings on the victim. Bell and Gregson both actually had some okay moments of sass in here, so that was nice.

The real meat of the episode was in the plot thread about Joan and her family. I must say - naming Joan's mother Mary is a weird decision, given that Mary is the name of Watson's wife in the canon, not his mother. But that's not important. I loved the scenes with Joan and her mother at lunch, and I was really curious to see what would happen with this whole Oren having an affair thing. It seems like Oren isn't a cheater - there's something going on with Mary's mind.

Sherlock tries to tell Joan to cut ties with her family, because there's no good reason to keep taking care of them. Joan of course can't do that, and Sherlock knows it. He ends up coming through, for Mary's sake but mostly for Joan's. Sherlock doesn't always show that he cares in the traditional way, but he finds a way to express his love for Joan nonetheless.

I think the funniest line of the night goes to Joan. She's describing how her mother is the one in charge in their family, and how her stepfather could never get her to do anything: "He convinced my mother to order breadsticks with our pizza once. I think we were watching a new episode of M*A*S*H." This made me laugh, because clearly the idea of her mother caving to somebody else's wishes was memorable enough to remember the specific TV show they were watching at the time. It also established that this happened many years ago and never again. Just a clever little bit of writing there.

I think that's all I've got! This was a low-stakes sort of episode. Something relaxing and nonthreatening. It was nice. However, I'm definitely ready to bring Moriarty back into the mix! And I do hope that at some point we can check in on Kitty... I miss her so much.

7.5/10