Elementary: Scrambled (5x23)

Yay for focus on Joan! The news that Elementary had been renewed for another season came as a bit of a surprise for me, but I guess I'm mostly happy about it. I constantly feel that this show is failing to live up to its full potential, but the dynamic between Sherlock and Joan is so delicious that I want more no matter what. And it's episodes like this that remind me what this show is capable of when it's at its best.

Cons:

This was a pretty stellar episode, but I do admit that the "twist" was a little transparent. In the wake of Shinwell's death, Joan and Sherlock go up against the head of SPK himself. Along the way, they meet the brother of SPK's leader, a respectable businessman who is ostensibly not connected in any way with his brother's exploits. So... of course he's actually the genius behind it all the whole time. Not a particularly shocking twist, all things considered. I guess I was just annoyed by how extraordinarily evil this guy seemed. This whole time, we think we're dealing with a ruthless street gang. And, we are. But also, look out - there's a Moriarty-level criminal mastermind pulling the strings from the shadows. Was that really necessary?

There's this woman named May who is part of Sherlock's support group, and she follows Sherlock around and seems to interfere in creepy ways. I'm reserving judgment, I just wanted to say that I'd better like where this is going. I can conceive of a lot of different and quite stupid scenarios for this, and I do hope they manage to bring something cool to the table.

Pros:

This entire plot is driven by Joan, and it's so glorious. She's the one with personal stakes in Shinwell's death, and she's dealing with a lot of complicated emotions about it. We see the way she talks to various suspects. She seems to be letting her emotions get the better of her in some instances, which is very unlike her. She also stays up all night to decode SPK's method of communication, while Sherlock uncharacteristically sleeps in. I love how fierce and intense she is about all of this. I'm so used to Sherlock swooping in and stealing Joan's emotional connection to things, but here she really does get to take the reins.

That's not to say that Sherlock didn't have his part to play as well. While Joan was the one to decode SPK's communications, Sherlock was the one to discover how they were getting secret messages to each other in the first place. These two separate breakthroughs classify a subtle difference in the way they operate. Sherlock is meticulous in his attention to detail, but often his insights come in a flash, as he notices something slightly odd at a crime scene. Joan, meanwhile, does the leg work and puzzles out the answer with diligence.

Sherlock going to anonymous meetings is one of my favorite things on this show. For all that Sherlock can be enormously egotistical, he allows himself to trust in the process and do what he can to better himself. He talked in a meeting about how he and Joan tried to help Shinwell, but Shinwell didn't try hard enough to change. It reminded Sherlock that he needs to do better and try harder, and never become complacent. A great speech and excellent delivery from Johnny Lee Miller as always.

We get another great Sherlock speech shortly after, as he sits and talks with May, a woman from the support group. He talks about a case he worked once, where he watched a suspect tell his story, decided the man was lying, and that man was arrested on Sherlock's recommendation. Later, this young man hanged himself in his jail cell, still insisting on his innocence. Sherlock has since wondered if he could have been wrong - he never visited the crime scene, he never interviewed witnesses, and yet somehow he condemned a man to die. This was a great scene, because we don't often see Sherlock doubting his own detective skills. It was also interesting to see him opening up to May in such an intimate way. The only person we really see him do that with is Joan.

And so who is May? Like I mentioned before, I can think of a lot of scenarios that would really piss me off, but the fact that I don't know what's going on is actually really delightful. I'm especially glad that we're getting a sixth season, because this means that whatever crazy ramifications there are for this woman's presence, we might have time to actually unpack them.

In all, this was a Joan-centric episode of Elementary with a lot of juicy moments for Sherlock as well. We're approaching the closest thing to a big bad that this show has had since Moriarty, which is another step in the right direction. Throw in the mystery of this May woman, and I'm thoroughly drawn in!

9.5/10