Elementary: Reichenbach Falls (7x12)

I can't help but feel that this episode was slightly anticlimactic. Let's talk about it.

Cons:

Anybody who knows anything about Sherlock Holmes knows what "Reichenbach Falls" means. So honestly it's a little insulting that they tried to fool us for even one second with the idea that Sherlock might really be dead. When they did the "reveal" that he had fled the country, I sighed and rolled my eyes. They did that thing where they kept him off-screen for as long as possible so we'd all be "surprised" at the last second. But like I said, was there really a single person watching the show who was surprised by that twist?

It's also patently obvious that Joan was in on the plan. There's that moment when Sherlock says they have to "plan a murder of their own" and it's supposed to be a trick, like we think Sherlock and Joan are planning Odin's murder. But obviously he's talking about the plan to fake his own death in order to frame Odin for killing him. I just don't want to waste any time in next week's finale hashing out the details of this ridiculously obvious plan.

Doing the Sherlock Holmes death fake-out thing is a classic of adaptation. I don't begrudge them for putting their own spin on it, and as I will discuss below, there were things about this version that I actually really enjoyed. But on the other hand, it felt a bit forced. Like of course they had to give it a try, and this is what they came up with. Sherlock states that they missed their one and only chance to get Reichenbach, and that leads him to the desperate plan that we see him enact. But I don't know if I'm convinced that their backs were really up against the wall. They needed to do more to convince me that this was really the best and only solution to the Odin Reichenbach problem.

One last note on how this all went down: they subverted many of the expectations about the classic fall/death moment, and I did appreciate that. But earlier in the season, when Joan's name was being thrown around as a potential weakness for Sherlock, I really thought they were building to an even bigger subversion. I thought maybe when it came down to it, Joan would be the one to "die." Think of how interesting and different that would have been. Imagine a true Reichenbach fake-out ending, where Joan is forced to make a move without the time to properly prepare Sherlock for it. She seemingly falls to her death, and Sherlock believes it, until the truth comes out. Now that would be something different, and interesting, and intense. I can't blame the episode for not doing what I hoped it would do. But I guess I just wish that in its final episodes, Elementary could have found a way to pull off another Natalie-Dormer-sized twist. If they couldn't get their Moriarty back, they might have found another way to twist a classic into something shiny and new.

Pros:

All that said, they did make some changes to the formula that I thought were pretty cool. Other than the obvious fact that this villain isn't Moriarty, although he does fulfill the tropes of the classic spider-like Professor from the originals, there's the fact that Odin doesn't die. Instead of Sherlock faking his death to ensure his nemesis will perish, he uses the fake-out to capture Odin, to get him arrested and start him on the path to his own destruction. This is a really clever change, and one that I definitely wouldn't have expected. It makes perfect sense, though - it's the ultimate sign of the philosophical differences between these two people. Sherlock knows that Odin is dangerous - knows that he has killed, and will kill again. But he still wants to find a way for him to be punished through legal channels, without resulting to vigilantism. Odin, on the other hand, continues his plan of executing potential threats, right up to the end. The system doesn't always work. In fact, it often fails. But Sherlock knows that killing people isn't the answer. He's not willing to cross that line, even now.

I also appreciate that Joan appears to be in on the plan, even though it's telegraphed far too obviously within the episode. Traditionally, Watson isn't supposed to know that Holmes is alive, but for Sherlock to pull that kind of a move here would have been wildly out of character. So I appreciate that it seems pretty clear that she was fully aware, and worked with Sherlock to pull this off.

Also, there's just the general angst of this scenario. I'm a sucker for it, as always. While Joan appears to know what's going on, Bell and Gregson seem ignorant of the plan. This means that we got to watch two of Sherlock's dearest friends try to process their grief and anger over what happened. Gregson getting in Odin's face was particularly affecting. And Bell has this quieter grief going on. I think he's in shock. He's just looking for answers, like if he can find Sherlock's body, it will allow him to accept the awful truth.

Despite my many problems with how this went down, the acting in that final moment on the bridge was really great. So much tension. I almost wish Odin could have been more Moriarty-esque. Not in the traditional Arthur Conan Doyle sense, but in the later-adaptation sense - a long-standing villain, cropping up again and again through the life of the show. But even without a multi-season buildup, this scene had a proper epic scope. It was very simple. Nothing elaborate, nothing too built up or ridiculous. Just two men talking on a bridge. Very well performed by both actors.

I think that's where I'll leave it. As you may be able to tell from my above comments, one of my main disappointments with this episode is simply that this show has never managed to top what it did at the end of the first season. Here at the end, I was hoping for something to really blow me away, and instead what I got was... perfectly fine. I'll still be a bit sad to say goodbye to these characters next week!

7.5/10