Well, damn... I really hope that what I think just happened didn't actually just happen. Let's dive in and take a look.
Cons:
The case this week was actually quite interesting, but I will admit the whole twist at the end where Nazis were the bad guys felt... a bit too simplistic. I'm not going to deny the existence of Neo-Nazis by any means, but here we had a story about a magician, and a mystery, and lots of twists and turns, and then in the end the bad guys are extra bad because they're profiting off of a Nazi. A great way to avoid moral ambiguity? Sure. An interesting twist? Maybe not.
The subplot with Marcus is troubling for a couple of reasons. Basically, Marcus is framed by Chantal's ex-husband, and IA is looking in to it. Bell makes a scathing comment about Internal Affairs, and of course he's innocent as can be, so IA comes across as the bad guy. In today's political climate, what exactly is this story-line trying to prove? The opposite is true in real life - cops are trigger-happy, and IA isn't nearly as interested as they should be. Maybe there's some good commentary here about Bell being used as a scapegoat to prove that IA is hunting out dirty cops. Bell is targeted because he's black. Something like that. But so far, that hasn't even been touched on at all. It made me pretty uncomfortable.
Secondly, the episode ends with a chilling shot of Chantal's hand around the corner. She's on the ground. Dead? Merely injured? If she's dead, I'll be really pissed. If she's been injured, I'll be watching very closely to see where they go with this. Either way, it seems like her fate is being used as a motivation for her boyfriend, which kinda sucks.
Pros:
I really enjoyed the twists and turns of the case. The mysterious author of a book about card tricks, the bullet trick that killed a magician, the publishing house that knew the real identity all along... secret Nazis notwithstanding, I really did enjoy the journey that this plot thread took me on. I was more invested than I usually am in the case of the week.
Joan gets MVP this week. She's really nosy with the whole Bell subplot, which I quite liked because I think it will probably lead to problems down the road. Joan has this wonderfully compelling quality of being a bit morally grey when it comes to protecting her friends. Also, in the main case, Joan is the one to identify a key clue leading to the identity of the secret author. I always love it when she's able to crack the case, especially when she uses her medical background to do so. She got my favorite line of the night, too. When the Neo-Nazi is talking about how "we don't ban books in this country," Joan replies: " I get the sense that the irony of that statement is lost on you." Ha!
Joan and Sherlock's relationship is so domestic and precious to me. I love Joan pushing Sherlock angrily after being scared half to death by the bullet trick, I love Sherlock standing awkwardly at the end of Joan's bed waiting for her to wake up. I just love the way they operate around each other as a unit. They're an old married couple in almost every way, and I just eat that sort of thing up.
I hope that Chantal's alive, because I actually like her. Any chance to focus on our secondary characters is a good thing in my book, and I think there could be something really interesting going on here with Bell and Chantal. Whatever happens, Sherlock and Joan are bound to get caught up in it, which could add some interesting tension. Already, the Bell/Chantal situation feels more interesting to me as a through-plot than Shinwell ever did.
That's where I'll stop. Not a great episode in some respects, but the compelling case of the week did a lot to help it rise above mediocrity!
8/10
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