Elementary: The Cost of Doing Business (4x06)

Yikes. Morland Holmes is not messing around here. This was a seriously intense installment of Elementary, but most of that intensity was concentrated in the last two minutes. The rest of the episode was a bit more standard. Let's take a look.

Cons:

Most of this episode focused on Sherlock and his father, which I loved, but as a result, Joan's role in events was very diminished. There were a few reminders of Joan's distaste for Morland, and Sherlock told her to make her own opinion now that he was really in their lives, instead of hating him on principle. All of this was very interesting, but it was such a very brief part of the episode as a whole. I would have loved to have seen some more interactions between Morland and Joan, because they've started to set up a very delicious rivalry there. I think we might see more as the season progresses, with Joan and Morland each holding on to Sherlock and basically fighting over his soul. This episode might have been a good place to set up some of this, but the opportunity was missed.

Insert standard complaint here about the lack of Gregson and Bell - similarly to Joan, they got pushed to the side this week. I'd love to see these two interact with Holmes Senior as well. Basically, stick Morland in a room with any of our characters and I'd love to see the result. I think we need to start integrating Morland into the story proper with a bit more strength.

Pros:

That being said, this lack of screen time for Joan, Bell, and Gregson did give us an opportunity to focus on Sherlock and Morland's relationship, and that's where the most interesting possibilities lie. The case this week involves a mass shooting, with several casualties. Morland realizes that this massacre was to obscure the motive for murdering just one of the victims. He enlists Sherlock's help, as he believes he knows who the shooter is, and who the victim is as well. Things take an interesting turn when the intended target is proved to be not the high-powered lawyer that Morland identified, but instead a plumber, seemingly unconnected with any of Morland's larger financial concerns. Despite this, he continues to work alongside Sherlock to solve the case. Turns out, Sherlock and Morland were on the right track in terms of their suspects, even if they had the wrong victim. Instead of a scheme to protect large financial projects, the murder ended up being over a woman who was having an affair. A simple motive for an enormously complex crime, but it works very well at subverting our expectations right to the end.

Even more interesting than the case, however, is the developing relationship between father and son. Sherlock seems grudgingly impressed with his father's resources and skills in conducting the investigation. He notices Morland comforting a grieving widow, and seems to seriously consider the possibility that his father isn't as bad as he's always assumed. Morland tells Sherlock that he's lived a long life, and inevitably that life has changed him. Sherlock seems ready to believe him, although of course he's still hesitant. The brilliance of this blooming relationship is that we, the viewer, can see the dangers already seeded here, while Sherlock remains blind to them. For example, Sherlock would ordinarily disdain the use of copious amounts of money to solve a case, but here he seems impressed by his father's resources. This seems to be because Morland is employing said resources to help solve what to him must seem a relatively unimportant crime. Perhaps Sherlock detects hints of compassion and empathy in his father because a part of him wants to believe his father can change.

The episode ends on an enormously chilling note. One of Morland's contacts, Lukas, comes to him and threatens to warn Sherlock of the dangers of associating with his father, unless Morland offers him large sums of money. Morland doesn't seem at all rattled by the threat. He casually informs Lukas that he used to have another confidant who he could trust with many things, the way he trusts Lukas now. When Lukas hears the name of this old associate, he is horrified - this man was killed, his body found by his children. Morland remarks that the children were meant to find him, and then asks after Lukas' own daughter. Lukas apologizes profusely to Morland and Morland graciously agrees to forget the whole event ever took place, as long as Lukas stops this foolishness of asking for more money.

Woah. Morland had a man killed! I mean, I knew he had friends in high places and participated in some very sketchy activities, but this is beyond what I would have expected! I'm so happy that they're upping the stakes. We spent the whole episode seeing Sherlock start to warm to his father's presence, then capped it all off with the realization that Morland is even worse than we would have expected. It was an intense way to end the episode, and made me very anxious to see how this all plays out in the coming months.

That's what I've got for now! I want more Joan and Morland interaction, and I want to up the stakes even further with the elder Holmes' presence on the show. As long as we keep escalating and don't lose momentum on this, I think we're in for a very exciting season.

7.5/10