Elementary: Fit to be Tied (6x20)

Well then. Some stuff has happened.

Cons:

I thought the reveal about the judge killing the victim and making it look like Michael was kind of weird. If you think about it, it's pretty much just a plot cul de sac. It doesn't teach us anything new about Michael, or Sherlock, or anything. It's just a weird happenstance that the first new "victim" of Michael's wasn't really his killing at all. The apprehension of the murderous judge is treated as an afterthought, because there's a much meatier story going on in this episode.

I've often praised Elementary for taking a more measured approach than a lot of procedural shows would, but I must admit I wanted maybe a bit more from Sherlock after Joan got attacked. I feel kind of duped that we didn't get to see the moment when Sherlock arrived home and found her injured, and I would have liked to hear Joan trying to explain things to him as he works to get her to a hospital. It's not like I need to see these things to know that Sherlock was worried and scared and angry, but sometimes it's nice to have a bit of that angst sprinkled in.

Pros:

There's a part of me that feels just the tiniest bit disappointed that Michael is dead, because I kept waiting for some epic show-down between Sherlock and Michael that never quite came. But then I realized that this is why I like this show. It doesn't conform to the conventions of the story we think we're getting. Despite what I just said in the paragraph above, I continue to enjoy the fact that Elementary shows you the moments between the moments, and sometimes skips over what can be assumed. Now, instead of a finale about Michael vs. Sherlock, we've got a finale where Joan is accused of murder. Obviously it's a little insulting to the audience to imply that Joan really did kill Michael in a murderous rage, but I'm still very interested to see where this story takes us. And next week is a season finale, not a series wrap, which means if they don't want to resolve this story, they don't have to. I like not knowing what's coming.

I liked the subplot about Michael's other friend, who doesn't believe he's a murderer and continually helps him to evade the police. Michael's fixation on Sherlock takes on a whole other dimension when you consider that this isn't the first time he's done something like this. He finds other addicts, and he wants to "help" them. Of course, his way of helping Sherlock is to murder women to give Sherlock a case to work, and his way of helping this other poor gentleman was to kill the man's husband, stage it as a suicide, all in the interest of keeping his friend sober. Michael is twisted, but like many serial killers on TV, he's not lying about what he's doing, or about why he's doing it.

Two brights spots in this episode include Michael and Sherlock's two conversations, one in the interrogation room, and the next alone in a parking garage. Michael missed Sherlock. He's drawn to him. It's interesting because in a less original rendering of this story, Sherlock would be drawn to Michael, too. It would be a way, way, watered-down version of NBC's excellent show Hannibal, or even a pointless and lackluster rehash of Sherlock's dynamic with Moriarty in this very show. But instead, we get the pragmatic element. Sherlock is not secretly drawn to Michael's dark deeds. He thought he'd made a friend, realized he was wrong, and feels very guilty for not having noticed Michael's behavior sooner. Now that he knows what Michael is, there's no lingering doubt or worry. Sherlock wants him apprehended, no hesitation.

Joan lightly chastises Sherlock about meeting Michael alone in a dark parking garage, and Sherlock's dismissive attitude leads so nicely into the final confrontation between Michael and Joan. The FBI was supposed to be tailing him, and with the NYPD on top of that, Sherlock and Joan have every reason to feel comfortable about their own safety. And then Michael is there, in the Brownstone, catching Joan off guard. It's the obvious move for the story to make, but my heart still jumped up in my throat when he appeared. The whole sequence with Joan and Michael was actually really well done. Obviously I wasn't worried that Joan would actually die, but I didn't know how it would play out - would Michael be attempting to strangle her when Sherlock arrived home, just in time to stop it? Would Joan kill him by throwing him down the stairs? Would he get to her and take her away to kill her somewhere else, leaving Sherlock to come home to an empty Brownstone? The scene was intense, and I was scared for Joan's well-being, if not for her life.

Even though I would have liked a bit of melodrama in terms of Sherlock's reaction to Joan getting hurt, I still have to praise what we did end up getting. This show is masterful at economy of storytelling. We see Joan in a hospital bed, we see Sherlock hovering near the door. He's extremely tense, he can't look at Joan or at the doctor, his tone is clipped and business-like. He's clearly terrified. I love the moment when Gregson comes in, because there's a blink-and-you-miss-it moment where he reaches a hand out and puts it on Sherlock's arm, comforting him, before he goes over to Joan and takes her hand. Gregson knows exactly how torn up Sherlock must be over this whole situation. And when Gregson leaves Joan and Sherlock alone, all Sherlock says is: "Watson..." and Joan tells him not to apologize, just to catch Michael. Sherlock nods, solemn.

This is good storytelling. Good acting. We don't need Sherlock to cry or yell or rend his clothes. We know he's devastated and we know he's pissed off. I like that Joan is clearly shaken, but not falling apart. It would be unrealistic for her to be completely blase about the whole thing, but she's also had a great deal of experience being around dangerous people. She's a tough cookie.

I'll stop there. Next week we get the season finale, and I'm curious as to how they're going to choose to leave things. A quiet conclusion to the Michael story? Or a cliffhanger propelling us into the Season Seven that I was so sure they weren't going to get? We'll have to wait and see!

8.5/10