Elementary: Henny Penny the Sky Is Falling (5x04)

The constant refrain continues: the subplot was the highlight!

Cons:

There was this one moment at the end that, surprisingly, felt a bit like cop propaganda. Gregson talks about how proud he is to work with such a great department, and says that he's tired of seeing such terrible things go on in the world. He cites as his specific example that "cops are getting killed." Which is a thing that I know happens. But I would have liked it if he had said "cops are killing people" which is by far the bigger and more common problem. Maybe I'm overly in tune with this issue, but it definitely stuck out to me, especially since Elementary is usually very political.

Pros:

The main case was actually quite interesting. It involved asteroids, and the end of the world, and I won't get in to the details other than to say that Sherlock caught the bad guy because he contracted rashes from poison ivy. Joan was convinced he accidentally touched some at a cabin where they were investigating, but Sherlock contends that he was careful. Turns out, he got it from a couch where the murderer had put his bag. It was a clever way to solve the crime.

There was also a delightful guest appearance from one of Sherlock's old boarding school acquaintances. This man is a celebrity astronomer, and has helped Sherlock out in the past. Sherlock hates going to him, because the main is always gloating. He makes a joke about Sherlock thinking the sun orbited around the earth, and Sherlock bitingly remarks that he was eight when he made that mistake, while the astronomer chose to wear his hideous vest that morning. I love nods to canon, and I love Sherlock's sassy comebacks, so this whole scene was a win for me.

And then there's the subplot. Medal day is coming up at the NYPD. Gregson's department has won an award. Gregson wants to include Sherlock and Joan, but he is getting some resistance from higher ups, since they are civilians, and their track record is a little muddy. Sherlock doesn't want anything to do with the award, since the work is what's important. Joan, on the other hand, appreciates that Gregson wants to acknowledge and include them. Sherlock and Joan fight about it, with Sherlock telling Joan that he values working with her too much to want to risk resentments getting in the way of that. Back in London, with Scotland Yard, his own merits eclipsed those of the actual police, and it got him into hot water. He wants to stop that from happening. Joan says that accepting the award is something bigger than both of them. It lets everybody else include them in the team. In the end, Sherlock shows up and stands beside Joan as Gregson presents the award to the department. He doesn't applaud, but stands stoically, a troubled look on his face.

I swear I could write an entire dissertation on the complexities being explored in this plot thread. While I might have been slightly twitchy at the "yay cops" vibe there at the end, that really wasn't what this story was looking at. Sherlock is against getting a symbolic, meaningless certificate. It doesn't matter. The work is what matters. To prove his point, he shows Joan his two one-year sobriety chips. They're the same chip, representing two times that he made it to one year. They mean nothing.

Sherlock actually getting angry at Joan was a sight to behold. We don't generally see him behaving that way. This episode put Sherlock in an extremely vulnerable position. After the fight, we see him sitting beside Joan while she sleeps, one of those gross invasions of privacy that indicate to me that Sherlock doesn't know how to love someone properly. He's willing to try, though. There's this beautifully shot moment where the two of them sit on a couch together, facing outward and not making eye contact, and Sherlock says that the reason that his work is so important to him is because he gets to do it with Joan. This was a very big admission, one that opened Sherlock up emotionally and quite clearly showed Joan how much she means to him. And Joan's reaction was to tell Sherlock she didn't agree with him.

It was actually kind of... painful. I'm not sure if Sherlock was expecting a reciprocal statement of their bond, but what he got was Joan telling him that their partnership wasn't what was important at the moment. She values being a part of the department at the NYPD. She values being acknowledged for that work. It's something that Sherlock not only disagrees with, but actively fears, and he shared those fears with Joan to no avail. I also think it's enormously telling that Sherlock shows up for the ceremony at the end. I don't think he's changed his mind at all. I think he's still profoundly uncomfortable at being included. I think he showed up because he's scared that Joan will pull away from him.

I hope, even though it's depressing, that we can continue this trend. We're hinting at this idea that despite their conversation from a few weeks back, Sherlock really does need Joan. Quite a bit, actually. Ostensibly he needs her a lot more than she needs him, and I think Sherlock sees that.

I guess I'll stop talking now so that I don't go on too long. This is the kind of beautiful and nuanced drama that I've come to appreciate from Elementary. It wasn't a fight for the sake of a fight; it was an argument based on fundamentally differing opinions. This one small issue could be the beginning of a slippery slope. There's not another procedural show in the world that can tease out these intricacies in such a way. I can't wait to see where this goes.

9/10