Elementary "Solve for X" Episode - Review

A man gets mugged and is attacked. The mugger hears a shooting in progress and soon becomes the next victim.

Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) visits the grave to pay her respects to Gerald Castoro, the patient mistakenly killed by her in a surgical operation. She runs into his son, Joey Castoro (Jeremy Jordan), who tries to get some funds from Joan to help his plans of buying a bar.

Felix Soto, a math tutor is found shot. He was working on the P vs NP problem and was probably only weeks from solving this classical mathematical problem. Holmes' investigation leads to a Tanya Barrett (Lynn Collins). Holmes deduces that Cyril Nauer is the working partner of Felix.. He too has been killed within an hour of Felix's murder.

Click on the link below to buy your copy of Season 2:

All clues point to a certain suspect. But is everything what it seems or is there more than what meets the eye?

Check out the episode for the solution.

Canonical References

1. Miller's Holmes asking Detective Bell if he learnt his observation skills from him - John Watson makes this statement in The Sign of the Four: “More than once during the years that I had lived with him in Baker Street I had observed that a small vanity underlay my companion's quiet and didactic manner.”

2. Miller's Holmes using his sense of smell to deduce that Cam phosphor is present on the walls and about Joan's meetings with Joey Castoro - The Canonical Holmes has an acute sense of smell.

3. Miller's Holmes showing knowledge of the chemicals used to write the mathematical equation on the walls - In A Study in Scarlet, Dr Watson states that Holmes has “Profound” knowledge in Chemistry. Stamford also describes Sherlock Holmes as a “first-class chemist”.

4. Joan finding a bare chested stranger solving mathematical equations in their apartment and Miller's Holmes is seen doing push-ups at 2 am - John Watson mentions about Holmes in The Adventure of the Dying Detective: “His incredible untidiness, his addiction to music at strange hours, his occasional revolver practice within doors, his weird and often malodorous scientific experiments, and the atmosphere of violence and danger which hung around him made him the very worst tenant in London.”

5. Miller's Holmes comments that Joan has quite a "Victorian" attitude about having partly naked men in their apartment - A reference to the values and mores of the era during which the original stories were written.

6. Miller's Holmes using handwriting analysis to determine that there were 2 men who wrote the equation - Sherlock Holmes uses handwriting analysis to deduce that 2 men wrote the message in The Adventure of the Reigate Puzzle. Holmes uses handwriting analysis in other cases too.

7. Miller's Holmes deducing that the dog is a Boston Terrier - In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes deduces that Dr James Mortimer is “the possessor of a favourite dog, which I should describe roughly as being larger than a terrier and smaller than a mastiff.”

8. Miller's Holmes states: “I am an expert on poisons, Watson” - Dr Watson documents Holmes' knowledge in A Study in Scarlet: “Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally.”

The mystery component was good. Miller gave a much better performance in this episode.

Lucy Liu, as always, is good as Joan.

Lynn Collins makes an attractive mathematician, a throwback to the female characters in Bond movies.

A good episode. Hoping that the show maintains the quality.

Trivia

The song "Sea of Air" by Portugal. The Man is played in the episode.

Click here to read all my posts about CBS Elementary.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to this blog by clicking here.

Image Source: CBS

You might also like:

Step Nine - Review

CBS Elementary