Elementary: Hurt Me, Hurt You (5x24)

Oh boy. I guess I'm really glad we do get a Season Six, because that would be one hell of a way to finish a show... and not in a good way. Let's take a little look.

Cons:

Last week, I almost made a guess as to what the deal was with the woman, May, who seemed to be following Sherlock around. I know there's no way to prove this now, but my guess would have been "May is a hallucination of Sherlock's mother, caused by Sherlock's brain tumor." And... yeah. I'm not saying I'm opposed to this turn for the show, as I think the buildup for it was beautifully executed, and there could be a lot of cool stuff to come out of this. But at the same time, I feel like this was just a little bit too obvious, you know? And too... dramatic, perhaps? This show is so brilliant at being down to earth. The characters are realistically professional when it comes to their cases, in the sense that they don't get personally drawn in to every little story line. I'm okay with some drama, but this show doesn't need to lean on soap opera plot threads like the lead getting a brain tumor. I have faith they will go somewhere good with this, but I'm slightly let down by the premise itself.

Pros:

I'm pretty happy with the take-down of SPK. Wilcox, the head of the group, gives up his entire gang in exchange for immunity, but then screws up by lying about the one murder he actually committed by hand, and they get to put him away too. What I enjoy about this plot is that in some ways, things get tied up in a pretty little bow, which means that we can be pretty satisfied that all of the bad people are going where they belong. But on the other hand, there are some really sinister dangling threads left hanging, specifically relating to Joan Watson's moral compass.

In this episode, Joan tells the leader of a rival gang that she's okay with Wilcox being murdered in prison. She basically eggs the guy on in order to get what she wants. We've been seeing, throughout this entire season, the growing idea in Joan's head that the ends justify the means. This seems to be a culmination of that idea. She's willing to let some really immoral stuff happen to some bad people. Admittedly, she's trying to stop an all-out war between gangs, but at the same time... isn't it possible that her motivations are more of the personal revenge variety? This makes for a quite interesting glimpse into Joan's psyche.

Sherlock and Joan's relationship has long been the centerpiece of this show. I love the fact that most of what goes on between them is subtext. It happens in the background. It's quiet. It's gentle. We almost don't need to see anything more than these small domestic moments that prove how much these two mean to each other. And then an episode like this comes along. Joan asks Sherlock to come with her to Shinwell's memorial, but Sherlock forgets. Joan is understandably upset, and meanwhile Sherlock is hiding the truth from Joan - he's been forgetting things, and he's starting to accept that he's not well.

Like I said, I love the subtlety with which their relationship is handled. Joan asks Sherlock if he's been using again, and states her reasoning: he's been sleeping a lot more lately, he's been distracted, he's left during important work moments to go to meetings... Sherlock seems angry about the implication, and Joan is put off by Sherlock's indignant response. However, we later see that Sherlock has taken Joan's worry under consideration. He has a plan to get close to the head of one of SPK's rival gangs, but it will take some time: "That is of course if I have my partner's permission to be away for a while." Just this small moment of Sherlock asking Joan's permission is so huge. He messes up big things later in this episode, especially in forgetting to go to Shinwell's memorial. But here he's trying to simultaneously lie to Joan and convince her that he's got things under control, while also making sure to reaffirm how much she means to him.

Obviously we've got to mention that ending - Sherlock in the hospital, getting checked out, Joan coming home to find the window smashed and the room full of debris from Sherlock's breakdown... yikes. I can't wait to see how this works going forward. Joan, as a doctor, might very well feel guilty for not putting together the signs sooner. She knew something was wrong, but she went to relapse, not illness. And honestly, can we really blame her? Elementary's version of Sherlock is perhaps the most human I've seen, and that was cemented all the more by the fact that he's willing to go and get himself help, but he chose not to confide in Joan. How is that going to go down?

I really do love this show, and I really am anxious to see what Season Six can bring us. Hopefully the ratings can make a miraculous recovery, or at the very least hopefully this next (and probably last) season concludes in a satisfactory way. See you in the fall!

9/10