Elementary: Down Where the Dead Delight (4x11)

I really liked this one! Both the main plot and the subplot got the proper amount of attention and nuance, and I greatly enjoyed Joan getting a bit more to do this week.

Cons:

The main plot, as I just said, was very good, but it did start with an annoying red herring that I could have done without. Essentially, this episode begins with a morgue exploding. As they are trying to figure out who would want to hide evidence on dead bodies, they discover that there are several gang hits in the morgue, and they suspect the gangs who did the killing to have something to do with it. They even bring in a lawyer and talk to him about it. Turns out, it had nothing to do with any of those bodies. I understand the need for a procedural to go down a couple of wrong turns before they get on the right track, but for some reason this seemed like a bigger time waster than usual.

Also, speaking of the beginning, I really liked the lady who died in the morgue blast, and how she and one of the morgue workers had a flirtation going on. He was devastated by her death, and I would have loved to bring the story back around to him at the end, maybe show him feeling a sense of relief that her killer was apprehended. As it was, his little plot thread was left dangling.

Pros:

But like I said, I did like the morgue workers' little plot at the beginning. The cold open was all around excellent, as you see the two of them flirt and joke around, and then BOOM, the bomb goes off with no warning whatsoever. Pretty intense!

The main plot, after the gang detour, was excellent. Turns out, the victim with the bomb in his chest cavity was near to another crime scene, where the real focus of the investigation ended up resting. They find out that this other victim, a woman, was being stalked by a mentally unstable young man who worked in construction, and thus had access to materials to make explosives. He wrote violent fantasies about her in his diary, and followed her around, going so far as to buy drugs from her that he didn't even want to take, just to be close to her. It seems clear that it's him, but he actually alibis out of both the murder of his stalkee, and the homeless man who apparently witnessed it. Sherlock suspects that the guy's father did it, and tricks him into confessing by telling him that his son is going to prison. This plan works brilliantly, and he confesses that he was trying to make the girl leave his son alone, because his obsession wasn't letting up. Things got out of hand, and he killed her - but it was an accident!

What I liked about this plot wasn't that it was super original or complex or anything, but that it knew exactly what it was trying to be and it pulled it off well. It seemed like the stalker kid was a solid suspect, and while the answer was a little different than we expected, it wasn't a totally off-the-rails random solution either.

The real meat of this episode, in my opinion, comes in the subplot with Joan and Detective Cortez. Last we saw Joan and the detective, they were boxing it out to try and resolve their differences, with Joan landing the final punch. This week Detective Cortez is back, and she wants Joan's help in finding a witness for a case. However, when Joan starts doing some digging, she discovers that Cortez is lying about the case. When the witness she was supposed to be tracking down ends up beaten up, Joan and Sherlock believe that Cortez was trying to frame her by having her ask around for this guy, and then showing a woman with long dark hair beating him up. Turns out, it wasn't a frame job. Cortez really did want Joan's help finding this suspect. But he wasn't a suspect - he beat a girl so badly that she has permanent brain damage. Although Cortez is sure of it, there are no witnesses ready to come forward and confirm it was him, so there's nothing that anybody can do within the scope of the law. So, Cortez takes the law into her own hands and beats him up as punishment. Joan warns her not to do this again, or she will prove it's Cortez's doing, and stop her for good.

Just last week I was wondering if there would ever be more of the Cortez story, and I'm really pleased with what we got. The vigilante cop route is not one I would have expected, but it works really well. I think Cortez is more interesting as a threat if we can understand her motivations. Now, if she steps over the line, Joan will have to say something to ease her guilty conscience. But at the same time, Joan knows that she too has crossed some lines. And furthermore, there's Cortez's dislike of consultants in general. With all these interesting pieces to the puzzle, there's a lot of material there for a meaty story.

I think that's where I'll stop. I want more subplot stuff with Joan and Cortez, for sure! And when are we going to get more of Morland?

9/10