Elementary: Alma Matters (4x10)

Unfortunately this one didn't really do much for me. It suffered because the subplot was better than the main plot, and I was left frustrated by the lack of time devoted to the much more interesting story. Let's take a look.

Cons:

The case of the week featured a for-profit college running a scam wherein they recruited reformed criminals to their schools, saddled them with a bunch of debt, and then used the debt as blackmail to get them to go back to their ways of crime and complete unsavory tasks for the owner of the school. The thing about this case is that the solution to the mystery was both obvious and confusing at the same time. The bad guy was so obviously bad that you thought there had to be an extra twist, and when the truth came out, it turns out that it was the guy we all suspected from the beginning. His method of evil was a bit convoluted and a bit... too sinister, if you know what I mean. I'm not saying there aren't truly bad guys out there, but this one just seemed to lack all pretense of a sensible motive. He was just power hungry and evil.

Pros:

That being said, this episode wasn't a total bust, because the subplot moved things forward in an interesting way. Sherlock has been looking in to the murder attempt made on his father's life. When he encounters Lukas Muller and notices his sketchy behavior, he realizes that his father thought that he, Sherlock, might have been the one to order the assassination attempt. Morland confirms that he did suspect Sherlock at one point, but he has since realized that Sherlock didn't do it. Sherlock tells his father that he will not stop searching until he finds the actual guilty party. But he's not looking because he cares about Morland - he's looking because he's worried that Morland's presence in New York might put himself and Joan in danger. And furthermore, the original investigation implicated him as a potential suspect, and he will not let such defamation of his character stand.

What I love about this plot is that it really explains to the viewer how bad this father/son relationship really is. I mean, if you thought things were bad between Sherlock and Mycroft... take a gander at this Holmes feud! The fact that Morland, a man of great intelligence, could seriously suspect his son of attempting to have him killed, is pretty brutal. And Sherlock was hurt to hear that he had been a suspect - not because of his relationship with dear old dad, but because he doesn't have it in his character to commit such a crime, and he was offended that he was not above suspicion. Morland's continued presence in this show draws me in more and more. Now that we've set the groundwork for his character and his relationships with both Sherlock and Joan, we can see where this ongoing mystery takes us. Who wants Morland dead? And does this unknown person pose a continuing threat to the elder Holmes' life? Does that mean Sherlock and Joan might be in danger after all? All of these questions are intriguing.

This episode also had an excellent moment of comedy at the top, and I've got to mention it. Sherlock comes in to the brownstone limping and bleeding. Joan rushes over to help him clean up, but then notices that some of the red on his cheek is lipstick, not blood. She then realizes that he's been having rough sex, rather than having been in a fight, as she had assumed. Her sympathy abruptly stops, and she leaves Sherlock to finish cleaning up himself. That was just so funny! One of Elementary's off-the-beaten-path jokes is about Sherlock's strange sexual appetite. It's not something you can find a basis for in the ACD canon, but I find its addition here amusing.

I think that's all I've got to say for this one. A disappointing main plot was saved by an interesting subplot. Hopefully things will balance a bit better in future.

6.5/10