Elementary: A Controlled Descent (3x24)

It's been pretty obvious from day one of this show that we would eventually reach this point... but even so, it hurt very badly. Let's take a look.

Oscar Rankin is back, and he wants Sherlock's help. His sister, who is also an addict, has gone missing, and he wants Sherlock to find her. How does he get Sherlock to help? By kidnapping Alfredo. He has him tied up somewhere, and won't tell Sherlock where unless Sherlock helps him. While Joan, Gregson and Bell try to track down Alfredo by following clues from the crime scene, Sherlock follows Oscar on his quest to find his sister.

Eventually, Sherlock does find the missing Olivia Rankin. She's already dead, and based on footprints near her body in an abandoned tunnel, Sherlock realizes that Oscar already knew she was dead. His real motivation, Oscar finally admits, was to drag Sherlock down with him. He wanted Sherlock to succumb to his drug addiction and join the lowest of the low once again. He offers Sherlock a box, with heroin inside. He threatens that he'll never tell anybody where Alfredo is, unless Sherlock gives in.

Meanwhile, Joan and the others do manage to find Alfredo. Joan texts Sherlock to tell him that Alfredo is okay, and once Sherlock reads that text, he snaps. He attacks Oscar, brutally beating him. He then takes the drugs, and walks into the tunnel.

The episode ends with Joan finding Sherlock on the roof of the Brownstone. He has relapsed, and she tells him that somehow, his father found out about it. The elusive Mr. Holmes is on his way to New York.

Yikes. I know I was sort of sparing with the details, but suffice it to say, the how and where of the searches for Alfredo and Olivia aren't nearly as interesting as the character development going on here. I don't have any major complaints, but I do have a few little problems to mention.

First of all, how much longer are they going to dangle the Moriarty thing over us? Has Natalie Dormer simply become too famous to appear in this show anymore? She'd better be coming back at some point.

Also - given that Joan and the others were able to find Alfredo with relative ease, it seems a little unbelievable that Sherlock would really be that worried about Oscar never telling him. Sherlock knows he's smarter than Oscar, and it seems pretty clear they would be able to find Alfredo in time.

That being said, this episode was actually pretty brilliantly constructed, and I can forgive what might be perceived as a flaw, because it actually makes sense that Sherlock wouldn't be able to process the situation rationally. The victim of Oscar's treachery is one of the very, very few people in this world that Sherlock considers a friend. He's branching out, trying to form connections with people, and in doing so he nearly got Alfredo killed. Not only that, but this isn't some random villain doing the kidnapping. It's Oscar, a man connected to the darkest and most helpless moments in Sherlock's life.

When we met Oscar for the first time, I was impressed by him because it seemed that he was actually one of the few people who was able to outsmart Sherlock. And it wasn't because he was actually smarter than Sherlock Holmes - it's because Sherlock lacks rationality where Oscar is concerned. That's why it worked so well, to see Sherlock unleashing on Oscar like that there at the end. It was scary to see him losing control like that, but it made perfect sense, and I wasn't really surprised.

Nor was I surprised that he relapsed. You know what really makes it a tragic downfall for Sherlock? He didn't do it to save Alfredo. He kept his control - he kept his tenuous hold on sanity until the moment he knew Alfredo was safe. And then he snapped, beat a man severely, and took drugs. It really goes to show that Sherlock Holmes is a drug addict, and you can never be cured of that. It's sobering and scary to see our protagonist, a man who prides himself on impeccable control, fall off the wagon in this manner.

I'm hoping that as we go into next season, we can see Joan's side of events a little bit more. I'm okay with the focus on Sherlock for this pivotal moment in his life, but I think Joan's story is just as interesting and complex. We've gone a long way from her just being Sherlock's perpetual support system, but she is still his friend and his partner. She'll be there for him, to help him through this, but she's also her own person. I can't wait to see more of this. In this episode, they barely spent any time together, but I did like the phone call, when Sherlock managed to sneak a call to Joan while Oscar was asleep. Joan expressed her concerns about the multitude of triggers, and Sherlock assured her that he was no closer to relapse than he had been yesterday. Does that mean that he's been closer to relapse this whole time than we would have thought? It's scary!

Next season, it looks like we'll finally get to meet Sherlock's father. I was really happy with what Elementary did with the character of Mycroft, and of course their version of Irene Adler/Moriarty is the best one that's ever been done, so I'm hoping we can get something similarly interesting and unique for Mr. Holmes! See you next season.

8/10