TV Review: Elementary Episode # 19 - Snow Angels

Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes

A security guard, Frank Dempster (Nick Sullivan) is killed in his attempts to stop a robbery.

Joan Watson has a surprise guest, one Miss Hudson (Candis Cayne), a longtime associate of Holmes from London. Miss Hudson’s Greek knowledge has helped Holmes in his case(s). Miss Hudson needs a place to stay after being dumped by her current lover.

Captain Toby Gregson (Aidan Quinn) calls in Holmes to assist him in catching the perpetrators of the aforementioned robbery and murder.

The seemingly straightforward robbery does not appeal to Holmes’ interests until a massive power shutdown happens.

Holmes realizes that stealing phones was just a cover up for a much more significant crime of stealing millions of dollars.

Detective Marcus Bell (Jon Michael Hill) finally does some deductions on his own and captures one of the three robbers.

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The absconding criminals have some tricks up their sleeves. I will leave it to the viewers to check out the episode to know the resolution.

Canonical References

1. Joan mentions Holmes having more than one case involving “Greek” – Reference to The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter
2. Miller’s Holmes quotes the line “Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent” from A Case of Identity
3. Miller’s Holmes states that the robbers “made a real hash of it” with respect to their handling of the lock – Holmes makes a similar statement in The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax : “"Well, Watson," said he, "a very pretty hash you have made of it!"”
4. Holmes notices some scratches on the lock – The scratches around a key hole played a significant role in the solving of The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez
5. Holmes wakes up Joan from her sleep - In the Canon, it has happened in many cases – either due to the sudden visit by a client (The Adventure of the Speckled Band) or after Holmes has had a sudden brainwave (The Man with the Twisted Lip)
6. Criminals using a seemingly simple idea/crime to hide a crime with much more higher stakes involved – This is very similar to the plot of The Adventure of the Red Headed League
7. Miss Hudson expresses her liking for Holmes’ monograph about Bees - In the story His Last Bow, Sherlock mentions he is writing a book on Bee Keeping entitled “Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen”.
8. Holmes asking Watson to read aloud the reports in the police station  – In the Canon, Holmes often asks Watson to read aloud a newspaper article or a correspondence from a client.
9. Miller’s Holmes is impressed by Detective Bell’s acting abilities and remarks: “The stage’s loss is NY city’s gain” – Holmes makes the following statement in The Adventure of the Mazarin stone: “Old Baron Dowson said the night before he was hanged that in my case what the law had gained the stage had lost”

The most significant part of this episode was our introduction to Elementary's version of Mrs Hudson.

Candis Cayne as Miss Hudson

Continuing with the gender swap the show initiated with John/Joan Watson, Miss Hudson is a transsexual. And in the same vein as Joan Watson, Miss Hudson is played wonderfully by real life transsexual actress, Candis Cayne.

Miss Hudson has OCD and can’t resist doing some much needed housecleaning. Holmes hires her to be paid on a weekly basis.

Next to Miss Hudson’s introduction, the Holmes-Joan interactions were the highlights. Joan gets frustrated with Holmes making deductions without explanations and mouths off a bunch of patently hard-to-believe deductions.

Another interesting exchange happens as Holmes and Joan hitch a ride with a plow driver, Pam (Becky Ann Baker). Holmes refuses to indulge in small talk and it is left to Joan to keep up the conversation. Holmes and Watson bickering, much to Pam’s amusement was fun. In the end, Holmes retains Pam’s card and I look forward to her appearance in future episodes.

Becky Ann Baker as Pam

In a scene, Holmes makes a reference to Joan’s multiple Karate belts. This seemed to be a reference to Lucy Liu’s previous action-oriented performances.

Holmes preferring to work upstairs to avoid the “Lovers’ tiff” was a fun touch.

Holmes remarking about letting the robbers go out of his respect for the ingenuity of their crimes, (but for the murder) was a good piece of writing.

Miller’s HoImes using the British terms “ingress” and “egress” was a nice nod to his British nature.

Holmes helps a homeless man

Holmes providing some cash to help the homeless man reminded me of the leniency shown by Canonical Holmes in some cases like The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle and The Adventure of the Abbey Grange.

Holmes’ pet tortoise, Clyde makes a comeback and should makes his fans happy.

The initial few minutes were kind of boring. The second half of the episode was quite interesting and helped make this one of the best episodes.

Trivia
The song “Penny” by Hanni El Khatib is played at the end of the episode, as Holmes spatters paint around as part of Joan's coaching.

Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu as Holmes and Watson

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Image Sources: CBS

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