Sunday, January 25, 2015

Elementary Season 3 Episode 11 "The Illustrious Client" – Recap and Review

Kitty Winter in Elementary Season 3 Episode 11 The Illustrious Client

The episode delves heavily into Kitty Winter's (Ophelia Lovibond) past and the abuse she went through. The man who inflicted the horrific injuries on her has arrived in NY. His latest victim, Melanie Vilkas is a personal message to the authorities and Kitty in particular.

As can be expected, Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) pay extra attention to this case. Joan is lucky that her new boss, Del Gruner (Stuart Townsend) is very accommodating and gives her permission to spend time, despite having just joined the company very recently. 

The local authorities initially suspect Melanie's fiance, Brandon Powell. But Sherlock and company know better and interrogate Ron Davis (Robert Eli), the man whom Melanie had met on an online dating site. Ron was supposed to meet her at a pub on the same night she disappeared. Ron declines having met Melanie, claiming that he found her to be less beautiful in person than her online profile picture had suggested.

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A strong suspect soon emerges in the form of Simon de Merville (P.J. Sosko). He is a known face with the NYPD and is heavily involved in supplying women for prostitution. Just as he is tracked down and the NYPD arrives to take him down, he flees.

Simon has a sister, Violet de Merville (Tammy Blanchard) who works as a nurse. She claims to have only helped Simon by stitching him up, after having a fight in a bar. 

Sherlock deduces Simon's hiding place, but is too late as Simon is killed before he can be arrested.

In the closing scenes, Kitty recognizes the voice of Joan's new employer, Del Gruner as belonging to the man who had sexually assaulted her five years back. She also identifies him visually, after looking him up on the internet.


Del Gruner Joan Watson new employer in Elementary Season 3 Episode 11 The Illustrious Client

Canonical References
1. The episode titled is a reference to the Canonical story The Adventure of the Illustrious Client” (ILLU).
2. The name of the character played by Stuart Townsend, Del Gruner is a shortened version of the name of the main antagonist in ILLU: Baron Adelbert Gruner.
3. The  character of Violet de Merville - In ILLU, Sherlock Holmes takes up the case in order to break the impending marriage between Violet de Merville and Baron Adelbert Gruner.
4. Violet looking out for her brother, whom she acknowledges was always different” - This reminded me of The Hound of the Baskervilles, in which Mrs Barrymore cared for her brother, Selden. Selden is an escaped convict who is now hiding on the moor and receives food and clothes from the Barrymores.
 
Sherlock Holmes and Kitty Winter in Elementary Season 3 Episode 11 The Illustrious Client


Being familiar with the original story, I was not that surprised by the revelation involving Del Gruner.

I did enjoy Kitty's impromptu meeting with Violet, that involved Kitty using her single stick to coerce Violet into disclosing information about Simon. In ILLU, Sherlock Holmes takes Kitty Winter to meet Violet de Merville in an attempt to dissuade her from marrying Baron Gruner. Kitty was one of Gruner's former mistresses and Sherlock hopes to convince Violet by utilizing Kitty's personal experience. 

I liked the following quotes by Jonny Lee Miller's Sherlock:
1. Given the narcissism that consumes the modern epoch, a solitary selfie is a minor miracle. 
2.  A fugitive is more difficult to anticipate than an obsessive. 
3. Those of us with exceptional sensitivities are prone to motion sickness. 

The acting was intense, with both Miller and Ophelia giving exceptional performances. A good episode by Elementary's usual standards.

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Elementary Season 1 Review
Elementary - Cast Review

Friday, January 9, 2015

Elementary Season 3 Episode 9 "The Eternity Injection" – Recap and Review

Sherlock Holmes Joan Watson Elementary Season 3 Episode 9 The Eternity Injection

Alfredo Llamosa (Ato Essandoh), Sherlock Holmes' (Jonny Lee Miller) sponsor is back. He presents a new challenge to Sherlock in the form of “Odin”, a tough-to-crack sensor.

A Shauna Milius (Julienne Hanzelka Kim) arrives at the brownstone. She worked with Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) at the hospital and is seeking her help to locate her missing colleague  Marissa Ledbetteris.

Sherlock follows Marissa's credit card trail and finds her corpse in a dumpster behind a pub.

Autopsy reveals that Marissa had the DNA of a man under her fingernails. This man turns out to be Christopher Jacoby. His wife, Sarah (Andrea Syglowski) strongly believes in his innocence. Christopher also went missing around the same time Marrisa was killed. 

Mason (Robert Capron), the irregular last seen in the episode “Bella, tracks down Chris from the surveillance cameras installed around the city. From the picture, Chris looks shabby, in contrast to the clean-shaven face he supposedly maintains.

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Sherlock and Joan try to track down Chris, who is living as a homeless individual. He has been murdered. Sherlock discovers a journal Chris has been maintaining. Sherlock learns that Chris had started to lose his mind in the recent past.

It is revealed that both Chris and Marrisa received deposits of 1,50,000 USD in their bank accounts. Sherlock deduces that Chris was being injected with a drug “E-ZED-M-77” by Marrisa as part of a illegal drug trail.

The drug has been created by Purgatorium Incorporated, a pharmaceutical company. It is a time dilating drug that alter a person's perception of time.

Sherlock deduces that there were five other patients receiving doses. One surviving patient is Louis Carlisle (Luke Robertson). He provides the useful information that in addition to Marrisa, there is a black man aged around 40 who looked to be in charge.

This person turns out to be Dr Dwyer Kirke (Lawrence Gilliard, Jr.), head of Ubient Pharmaceuticals. He is arrested by Detective Marcus Bell (Jon Michael Hill) when he comes to visit his ailing aunt.

Dwyer confesses to conducting the trials, but steadfastly refuses to disclose the identity of the person who sponsored his research work.

Sherlock Holmes Elementary Season 3 Episode 9 The Eternity Injection

But Sherlock is up to the task. He digs into Dwyer's background and discovers that one James Connaughton (Dakin Matthews) has been the benefactor who has funded Dwyer's education.

James is suffering from a serious disease and is supporting the drug trials in an attempt to prolong his life. James claims to have played no part in the trials.

Sherlock and Joan next force James's nurse Brett Won (Brian Lee Huynh) to reveal the details. In order to provide a closure to the victims of the drug trial, Brett provides the details.

As Sherlock, Joan and NYPD arrive to arrest James, we learn that he has taken a heavy dose of the drug to prolong his freedom before landing in jail.

Lucy Liu Joan Watson Elementary Season 3 Episode 9 The Eternity Injection

This was an OK episode. The focus is primarily on Sherlock and his struggle to maintain his abstinence from drugs. His solution to a working arrangement that involves Bella/Edward/Jacob (from the Twilight mythology) was another reminder of why this version of Holmes is quite unlike the Canonical Version.

Sherlock playing “Reveille” on Bugle to wake up Joan failed to generate any laughs.

Kitty Winter (Ophelia Lovibond) is relegated to the background. The scene involving her trying her hand at picking locks was funny, with both Sherlock and Joan providing her unsolicited advice.

A run-of-the-mill episode that should appeal to fans of the show.

Click here to read all my posts about CBS Elementary.

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Image Source: CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

You might also like:


Elementary Season 1 Review
Elementary - Cast Review