Elementary: The Price of Admission (7x03)

Ooooh interesting. Not where I thought this was going.

Cons:

There's an issue with this season that is unfortunately just a legacy of the extra-diegetic realities of the show. Since they thought the show was going to be over when they wrote last season, they wrapped up the stuff with Michael very quickly, and sent Sherlock and Joan off to London. I thought this season would keep them in London for a while, but instead the show has had to bend over backwards to get them back in New York so we can return to something like the status quo of a procedural cop show. That's really a shame, because I was looking forward to the story being pushed in new directions. Sure, we've got some interesting developments what with Joan still potentially culpable for Michael's murder, but the setup is now such that we can shove this interesting plot into the background for most of the season and just pop it out again for the final few episodes. That's a return to form that I could have done without.

Sherlock coerces a confession out of the bad guy by making him think his life is in imminent danger. There's no way that confession holds up in court. I know we see Sherlock cross lines all the time to get the bad guy, but it sometimes makes me wish we could follow these cases through their criminal trials. There's simply no way this pans out well for the NYPD, given what Sherlock did.

Pros:

The case of the week was actually quite intriguing, despite that one aspect I mentioned above. I like that Florenti the appraiser was a suspect part way through, then exonerated, and then suspected once again. It kept me on my toes. He seemed almost too obvious at first, but then they pulled a switch so I thought he was in the clear. That was cleverly executed. It was also interesting to see international affairs and peace treaties and fossil fuels brought in to a homicide investigation. It's crazy how individual people can affect the outcome of such huge changes in the world.

I loved Bell and Sherlock's reunion. Sherlock is not a person who enjoys hugs, and obviously his close friends respect that and don't constantly bombard him with physical affection. And yet, Bell hasn't seen Sherlock in a year, so he can't help himself. Sherlock is willing to indulge the hug slightly, even if it makes him a tad uncomfortable. Very sweet. I also thought it was great that Bell figured out that Sherlock was there. In fact, when he called to tell him about Gregson, he assumed Sherlock would show up. Bell is such a great character. It seems like he's got a bit more to do this season than he typically does, which I'm very much in support of.

The new Captain is a very hands-off kind of guy. For now, I can't decide if this is meant to conveniently keep him out of the story for the most part, or if his captaining style is going to clash with Joan and Sherlock and cause problems moving forward. Either way, I liked the brief scene we had of him. He was funny and blunt, and I hope we can see a bit more of him throughout the rest of the season.

Obviously my favorite part of this episode was the conversation between Sherlock and Joan about their future. Sherlock is already trying to make Joan happy and comfortable back in New York, arranging to get their furniture back. He then asks Joan what they should do once Gregson's case is settled. Joan assumes they'll go back to London, while Sherlock points out that they don't have to - in fact, they could have the best of both worlds, and travel around consulting in London and in New York, once Sherlock's name has been cleared. Joan's reaction is so sweet - she's just genuinely, adorably grateful, and says "thank you." Sherlock plays off the vulnerability slightly by saying that he's doing it for selfish reasons. He wants to have it all.

There are about a million things that I love about this, but my favorite is just the default assumption that Sherlock and Joan will be together. They might need to renegotiate where they are, they might need to spend some time apart, but their partnership is the number one priority for both of them. Nowhere, in any of the talks about Sherlock staying or going to London, do either of them contemplate dissolving their relationship. It's cute, because there's really nothing official binding them. They're not business partners in the sense of co-operating an actual business or anything, at least as far as we know. They're life partners, in a very real sense.

I am always so enormously delighted any time Sherlock gets protective of Joan. His anger on her behalf warms my heart. It's also awesome to see someone get one over on Sherlock. This is what makes Elementary one of my favorite ever adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes stories. He's brilliant and all that... but he's not infallible. I am undeniably quite curious to see how things pan out now that this crooked FBI Director has blackmail material he could use to hurt Joan. Is Sherlock going to tell her? I sure hope so!

That's all I've got for this one. I'm having a lot of fun with this final season of Elementary.

8/10