Elementary: A Stitch in Time (3x20)

I'm going to be annoyingly brief about the case this week. Let's just dive right in.

A man who made his living by being a "professional doubter" winds up dead. Sherlock was a fan of the guy's blog. They end up checking with a cult leader for potential suspects, because they figure somebody was angry about being debunked. Turned out, the cult had nothing to do with it. But they find another suspect - a man who tried to buy an old lady's house, but she wouldn't sell. Later, this old lady started thinking that her house was haunted. Sherlock discovers that her house is connected via tunnel to the neighbor's house, and that there's a transatlantic data cable, called Ruby, in the crawl space.

Turns out, this real estate dude used to be a stock broker, but he got busted for insider trading. Now, he's messing with the data cable to make a microscopic delay in data that will slow down his competitor's ability to get numbers. He hired somebody, Nadim, to help him hide the evidence, but things got out of control when the "professional doubter" caught wind of what was going on. Murder was never supposed to be part of the plan. The bad guy is apprehended!

Meanwhile, Joan helps Hannah (Gregson's daughter) on a case. Hannah wants to help catch some drug thieves in her neighborhood. The detective on the case isn't getting much done, so Hannah wants Joan's help. Joan finds a way to ID the suspects, and she tells Hannah about it. Joan also tells Hannah to let the detective know, because they can follow these petty thieves up the chain and probably catch some bigger fish. Instead of doing that, Hannah apprehends the suspects, getting a good mark on her record. Joan confronts her, asking her why she didn't let somebody else handle it, and Hannah says that she did it to further her own career. Sherlock, who had warned Joan that Hannah was "middling," tells her that even he didn't see her conniving nature. Gregson tells Joan not to help Hannah again. He says that even though he loves his daughter, she needs to do better in the future.
 

I have a complaint about this episode, but it's hard to articulate. For some reason, I was getting really uncomfortable with the word choice that Sherlock was employing when he was talking about some of the suspects and key players in the case. He used the word "lunatic" and one point, and "insane" at another. I don't know much about the internalized ableism that goes with saying words like that. I'm still learning, and I still toss out the word "psycho" or "psychotic" sometimes without thinking, as somebody kindly pointed out to me a few weeks back on another review of this same show. But given that this show deals so nicely with real issues of mental illness, addiction, and what could be deemed "insane" behavior, it felt a bit callous to throw these terms around. I'm really speaking out of my depth here, though. Maybe somebody who knows more about this would be able to articulate what I'm bothered about?

In any case, I did enjoy this episode. The case itself was nothing special, but I really appreciate how early we meet the bad guy. It seemed pretty clear that this guy had a good motive for the whole mess, and surprisingly, the show settled with that. There's no shocking twist wherein it was that one guy in the background of that one scene who did the whole thing. No, it was sort of the obvious answer. The trick becomes figuring out the train of events that led there. I like the way Elementary doesn't rely on the totally out-of-the-blue shocking twists very often.

As you probably could have predicted, I liked the subplot more. Hannah wasn't an interesting character when we first met her, but she did provide a good subplot for Kitty to shine (God, I miss her). This time, though, we get to know more about Hannah. You know, it's not often that you see mediocre people on TV. People are either extraordinary or they're especially evil or stupid or bad. Or they're lazy but really funny, or mean but really smart, or... you know. Extreme in some way. But Hannah is just... middling. I like that. I'm going to be really interested to see what she does moving forward. She wasn't smart enough to solve the case by herself, but she was smart enough to use Joan to get ahead. That kind of character could be potentially dangerous, and the fact that she's Gregson's daughter makes it all the more interesting. Sherlock didn't say to Joan "I told you so," even though he did tell her so. Their friendship continues to grow and grow, and I love it.

Favorite random details of the episode? Sherlock brings the bees into the Brownstone, and the table collapses, freeing them from their boxes. Oh, Sherlock. I simply love this show's weird quirk about animals. What kind of New Yorkers have bees and a turtle? And roosters at one point, too? Hilarious. I also liked the moment when Sherlock "deprogrammed" the cult member. Of course, Sherlock would never use such a term, but that's basically what he did!

We're winding down on the end of the season. Does that  mean Moriarty? Please? I'm scared, but also so excited!

7.5/10