Elementary: Fidelity (5x16)

Sometimes when I write these reviews, I feel as if I'm not eloquent enough to explain myself. I don't have the vocabulary or experience of someone who studied film and television in school. I'm just a girl who watches a lot of television and likes to write about it. I don't mean to get all speculative at the beginning of this random review of Elementary, but I think I'm going to have a hard time getting at my feelings on this episode, so... fair warning.

Cons:

This episode did not capitalize on the potential from last week's cliffhanger. Sherlock spends only the first two minutes under arrest, and then is back with Kitty and Joan to solve the case. The buildup of tensions between Kitty and Joan from last week are largely unaddressed, and Kitty and Sherlock's relationship is instead focused on. The conspiracy leading to the deaths of all these people is not quite as interesting or as intense as I think we're supposed to think it is. I wanted this second part of the story to be a real stand-out episode, and instead it was just middling in terms of the plot.

The thing that really sticks out as a problem for me is that Joan is largely sidelined for the emotional beats of this episode. She's there to encourage Sherlock and Kitty to talk through their problems, but at no point do we get to learn what she thinks of all of this. Does she have any regrets about never becoming a mother? Is she still satisfied in her job, or what? Does seeing Kitty make her think about her own efforts to help Shinwell? We just have no idea. I wish with all my heart that Joan's emotions were given more time on this show. She's such a fascinating and subtle character. There's more there, and we're missing it.

Pros:

Before I get into my more serious contemplation of the character development and such, I want to say that this was a particularly quotable episode of Elementary. Whoever wrote the script didn't necessarily have the tightest story in the world, but the dialogue was crackling and hilarious, and the line delivery was spot on. In particular, Lucy Liu got to say a lot of really funny stuff. She plays a CD full-blast in the brownstone to hide from potential bugs, and tells Kitty that Sherlock made the annoying dog-yapping mix himself: "Can you believe this is volume three of six?" Later, she sees the nanny and baby Archie playing with some sort of metal contraption they found in a box, and informs the nanny: "there's like a 50/50 chance that's a Victorian sex toy." Joan also has the line: "I have like 500 questions but I'll start with the big one." This doesn't sound like it would be funny, but it just is.

As I mentioned, the actual conspiracy plot was just your sort of standard fare, even though it tried to be a lot more than that. That being said, I didn't dislike it at all. I particularly liked the twist where a paranoid schizophrenic prosecutor had accidentally revealed a true conspiracy during a breakdown. That's why everybody had to be killed by shady government agents - they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and heard something they were never meant to hear. Later, one of said shady government agents just releases all the secrets to the public, because it turns out he wants to spark a war with Iran. Both of these twists were well-executed and furthered the story in interesting ways. I never take enough time in these reviews to talk about the procedural elements, but they were quite good here.

Kitty and Sherlock get the bulk of the emotional weight here, and it works wonders, even if I do wish Joan could have been included more. Kitty and Sherlock talk about how Kitty isn't going to be a detective anymore, and at first Kitty thinks that Sherlock is pissed about it. Later, when she confronts him, he says he's not angry that she's chosen to step back from her work because of her child. Rather, he's upset because when Kitty left two years before, she never contacted Sherlock. She ended their friendship, and he, a man who has a hard time making friends, was upset by this unceremonious dumping. The fact that Kitty found happiness, the one thing Sherlock always wanted for her, and didn't bother to share it with Sherlock, was very upsetting to him.

I'm emotional about the whole thing, actually. Sherlock does have a hard time forming emotional attachments, and even though he doesn't seem like the kind of person who would be insecure about something like that, he really is. He loves Kitty, he wants what's best for her, and for her to vanish the way she did was really hurtful for him. Kitty fixes it in the best way possible - she asks Sherlock and Joan to be godparents.

I really want to praise Johnny Lee Miller's performance in this scene. Sherlock is not a man who appreciates or requires ritual. He's not religious, and the idea of attending a baptism in a church is not something that probably appeals to him. But he's honored, and utterly floored, to be asked to be godfather. He knows it's an honor, and he even asks Kitty if he's supposed to do anything, like recite a prayer. He's not sure how it all works, but he's determined not to mess it up. This last scene was such a wonderful, cheesy, heartwarming culmination for Kitty's character. I love her a lot, and I really do hope that if this show squeezes out a sixth season, she'll get to be a part of it. But if not, I'd be happy with this as a final appearance for her character.

That's all I've got to say. I thought this review was going to be shorter than it ended up being... I always do seem to ramble on. In short, the plot was fine, or whatever, and there were some things I wish we could have gotten more of. But what we did get was pretty great.

8/10