Friday, December 19, 2014

Elementary Season 3 Episode 8 "End of Watch" – Recap and Review


Elementary Sherlock Holmes examining corpse body at a crime scene in CBS Elementary Season 3 Episode 8 End of Watch

NYPD Officer Alec Flynn (Jim Ford) has been killed in what looks like an ambush attack. Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller)  discovers that Alec had a toy gun with air pellets.

Captain Thomas Gregson (Aidan Quinn) and Sherlock question Alec's former partner,  Officer Miles Polano (Andrew Dolan). He claims to be innocent and denies any involvement in the murder, despite admitting to having difficulties in the past.

Alec's widow, Brie (Rebecca Brooksher) informs Joan and Detective Marcus Bell (Jon Michael Hill) that she threw Alec out of the house after he started stealing her things to get the drug he got addicted to, after being injured on duty.

Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) discovers a video showing Flynn buying a fake gun. Shortly, a one-eyed man emerges as the main suspect in Flynn's homicide. ATF Agent Hernan (Leslie Silva) identifies this person of interest as Niko Buros (Robert Mammana), a gunrunner.

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Before he can be arrested, Buros claims his next victim, Officer Casey Hatem (Shezi Sardar). Joan meets up with Officer Doud (Rajesh Bose), whose nephew is Casey.

Joan deduces that the number 6 is not a name but a nickname for one of Alec's teammates. This person turns out to be Charlie Riggs (Geoffrey Wigdor).

Sherlock theorizes that Niko is not targetting random police officers, but those with a connection to Rodman's Armory. Niko wants to steal the weapons and uses the killed officer's funeral ceremony as a strategy to distract the cops.

Niko is apprehended by Detective Bell and taken into custody.

Canonical References

1. Elementary Sherlock almost quotes verbatim the following lines from The Sign of the Four: “My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence.” 

2. At the drug addiction meeting, another attendee informs Elementary Holmes about the blog BrainAttic - Possible reference to this line spoken by Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Scarlet: “I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose....Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”

3. One of the quotes featured in the blog is the following line from The Final Problem: “At the same time, it is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.”

Detective Marcus Bell in Elementary Season 3 Episode 8 End of Watch

This was one of the weaker episodes. The main plot was lacking in excitement.

Secondary plot involves Sherlock on the trail of someone publishing his quotes on a Tumblr blog. Kitty Winter (Ophelia Lovibond) talks to one Astrid (Kerry Butler) about the blog. 

Sherlock asks Kitty to stop working on the case and tracks down Daren (Gregory Abbey), who has been maintaining BrainAttic. Daren insists on maintaining the blog, despite Sherlock's insistence on the opposite. Daren claims that people (including himself) find inspiration from Sherlock's quotes. In response, Sherlock maintains silence in the next session.

Joan Watson and Kitty Winter working together at the crime scene in CBS Elementary Season 3 Episode 8 End of Watch

I liked Ophelia's comment about Sherlock being quotable. There were other nice touches as well - Miller's Holmes commenting that he is not a man who likes to share his secrets. He is also seen practicing Kyudo, Zen archery. This scene reminded  me of the darts used by Tonga, the pygmy islander and Jonathan Small's trusted companion from The Sign of the Four.

Miller's Sherlock detects the scent of two perfumes on Daren's person: Sherlock Holmes states in The Hound of the Baskervilles: “There are seventy-five perfumes, which it is very necessary that a criminal expert should be able to distinguish from each other, and cases have more than once within my own experience depended upon their prompt recognition”.

On a side note, there was no sighting or mention of Joan Watson's boyfriend Andrew Paek (Raza Jaffrey). Readers might remember that at the end of the previous episode, Joan was seen preparing a special feast to celebrate Andrew's return from Copenhagen. Kind of like how Mrs Hudson too appeared in just one scene, only to disappear altogether.

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Friday, December 12, 2014

Elementary Season 3 Episode 7 "The Adventure of the Nutmeg Concoction" – Recap and Review

Joan Watson in Elementary Season 3 Episode 7 The Adventure of the Nutmeg Concoction

Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) is approached by Sally Holder (Kate Arrington), an attorney whose sister Jessica has been missing for the past five years. Sally suggests that Jessica might have been the victim of a serial killer, who always leaves an olfactory signature at the crime scene.

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) takes an interest in the case, based on the the case details sent by Kitty Winter (Ophelia Lovibond).

Sherlock, Joan and Kitty meet Agent Blake Tanner (Peter Benson) of the Behavioral Science unit. He is reluctant to share details about the “The Pumpkin” case, which has claimed five other victims in addition to Jessica.

Sherlock deduces that each crime was committed by a different individual and there there is no serial killer involved. However, there is a common element to these murders - the cleaner who worked on the crime scenes in each of these murders.

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Sherlock observes that Jessica has three keys (one of which is unmarked) and assigns the task of finding the key's purpose to Kitty and Joan.

The key is meant for Dan Kramer’s (Lewis Cleale) apartment. Dan is a defence attorney and has been having an affair with Jessica. Joan discovers that Dan had revealed details about one of his clients, Raymond Carpenter (Kevin Geer), a gangster to Jessica. Jessica was about to reveal the details to the police, when she went missing.

Raymond is currently imprisoned in Sing Sing prison. He informs Sherlock and Joan that he had hired Danny Tacelli, a contract killer to take care of Jessica. Working on the case, Sherlock and Joan investigate a construction site riddled with bullets and reeking of nutmegs.

We meet yet another Baker Street Irregular, “
The Nose” (John Horton). As his name implies, he has an extraordinary sense of smell that surpasses even that of Sherlock. The Nose deduces that Sodium Hydroxide has been used and the nutmeg was used to hide this odor.

Sherlock Holmes in Elementary Season 3 Episode 7 The Adventure of the Nutmeg Concoction

To track down this elusive cleaner, Joan suggests looking up institutes providing cleaning courses. Sherlock and Joan narrow down their search to one Conrad Woodbine (Jon David Casey), graduate of Spaulding Technical Institute.

Sherlock, Joan and Kitty pay a visit to Conrad at his apartment and discover that he has stored nutmeg concoctions. He is arrested and interrogated by NYPD. He refuses to co-operate and is let go.

Sherlock devises a strategy to make Conrad confess. He prepares a list of Conrad's clients in the hopes of pressurizing him. One such client is Artem Dedekian (Tom Mardirosian), head of a Armenian criminal gang.

Soon Conrad is killed as well and the individual cleaning up copies Conrad's style at the crime scene. Sherlock is at his wit's ends and is helped by Kitty, who identifies the murderer as Jeremy Carpenter (Harris Doran). Jeremy is Raymond's son and the Superintendent of Conrad's apartment. Raymond had made him Conrad's apprentice and had him kill Conrad after Jeremy informed him about Sherlock's visit to his mentor's apartment. 

Chris Santos Joan Watson past boyfriend in Elementary Season 3 Episode 7 The Adventure of the Nutmeg Concoction
 
The secondary plot involves Sherlock offering unsolicited advice to Joan about her relationship with her current boyfriend Andrew Paek (Raza Jaffrey). Her former boyfriend Chris Santos (Christian Carmago) asks for her help. She helps him out and informs him that one Ermel Janic stole his identity.

This was one of the better episodes of this season. I liked the twist involving the cleaner being the common factor among all the cases.

The episode had a strong sense of humor. Sherlock comparing Joan to a female baboon advertising her availability with a bright red posterior was hilarious. Also amusing was his comment about Joan skipping her training on Speed reading.

Candis Cayne Ms. Hudson in Elementary Season 3 Episode 7 The Adventure of the Nutmeg Concoction

Sherlock keeps assigning menial tasks to Joan and Kitty and Ms. Hudson (Candis Cayne). Yes, Ms. Hudson makes her return to the show after appearing in just one episode, “Snow Angels. Sherlock asks Ms. Hudson to listen to the police scanner for any mention of “Pumpkin” or “Nutmeg”. Interestingly, she appears only in one scene and promptly disappears. The writer could have included her in at least one scene to provide a closure and explaining what she has been doing with her life so far.

Kitty Winter Sherlock Holmes apprentice in Elementary Season 3 Episode 7 The Adventure of the Nutmeg Concoction

We do know that Andrew is returning from Copenhagen and Joan prepares a special feast to celebrate this. I also liked Sherlock's comment on Joan being being attracted to a life of adventure. Dr John Watson mentions in The Hound of the Baskervilles: “The promise of adventure had always a fascination for me,...”

Another interesting aspect that caught my attention was the name: Spaulding Technical Institute. This could be a possible reference to Vincent Spaulding, the alias used by John Clay in The Adventure of the Red-Headed League.

Trivia 

1. Kitty Winter hums the Clarinet part of Beethoven’ Symphony No. 6, when she and Joan are working on Jessica's mysterious key.

2. Kitty Winter is listening to the song “Titus Andronicus”, when Sherlock Holmes walks in.

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Friday, December 5, 2014

Elementary Season 3 Episode 6 "Terra Pericolosa" – Recap and Review


Sherlock Holmes sunglasses in Elementary Season 3 Episode 6 Terra Pericolosa

Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) has returned from Denmark and is catching up on the latest developments with Kitty Winter (Ophelia Lovibond).

Kitty receives a text from Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and is dispatched to help Rafael (K.Todd Freeman), a curator with a theft. Rafael suspects one of his security guards, Gerald Vogel of stealing maps. The surveillance cameras were deactivated. 

Rafael's suspicions are laid to rest when Kitty discovers Gerald's corpse. Sherlock deduces that the thief wanted to steal one particular map and stole some others just to mislead the investigation.

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Sherlock determines that one particular map was the actual target of the robbery. That one turns out to be The County of King James, Virginia, 1794”, of which only one copy exists in that very library.

Sherlock contacts the granddaughter, Margaret Bray (Mamie Gummer) about the significance of the stolen map. Sherlock works with Margaret to get more details about the map.

Sherlock initiates a correspondence with one Austin Cornblatt (David Adkins). A person of interest, Stuart Zupko (Gabriel Hansen) is found dead. Sherlock theorizes that Stuart killed Gerald after stealing the map, but the question now is: Who murdered Zupko?

Sherlock and Joan pay a visit to William Hull (Skipp Sudduth), a real estate magnate offers to pay Sherlock for retrieving the original copy of the map. Sherlock figures that William wants the information hidden in the map.

Elementary guest star Eric Schweig as Leon Moody in Elementary Season 3 Episode 6 Terra Pericolosa

On further scrutiny, Sherlock deduces that a river depicted in the map has changed course and this could disrupt plans to construct a Indian Casino. The trio then question Leon Moody (Eric Schweig), who occupies a high position in the Gaming Commission and has vested interests in Indian Casino,

Joan is able to figure out the identity of Zupko's murderer, based on the observations she has made so far. 

Joan Watson returns in Elementary Season 3 Episode 6 Terra Pericolosa

The secondary plot involves Sherlock and John quarreling about his interference in Kitty's personal life. Kitty has a new acquaintance, Zachary and Sherlock is wary of his influence on his protege.

He finally relents and informs Kitty that Joan has offered to play a larger role. In turn, he offers Kitty the freedom to spend her time as she wishes.

After two strong episodes, this was a weak episode. The mystery component was good, but somehow the episode on the whole, lacked the excitement.

Elementary guest star Mamie Gummer as Margaret Bray with Aidan Quinn and Ophelia Lovibond in Elementary Season 3 Episode 6 Terra Pericolosa

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