Elementary Season 3 Episode 16 "For All You Know" – Recap and Review

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) finds himself as the main suspect for the murder of Maria Gutierrez (Jessica Diaz). Detective Demps (Richard Brooks) and Detective McShane (Aaron Serotsky) are handling the investigation. They have a handwritten note from Sherlock that sets him up for a meeting with Maria on the day she disappeared.

Sherlock confesses to Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) that he was heavily addicted to drugs three years back after the supposed death of Irene Adler (Natalie Dormer). Sherlock reaches out to one of his former acquaintances, Oscar Rankin (Michael Weston). Oscar used to supply drugs to Sherlock during the period Maria was murdered.

Oscar believes that Sherlock had killed Maria and warns him to stay away. Joan tries to get some information from Maria's family members, but receives no help.

Sherlock meanwhile gets beaten up badly by two unidentified men on the street near his brownstone. Sherlock pickpockets the wallet of one of his attackers. The wallet identifies the man as Prentice Gutierrez (Felix Solis) who is the brother of the deceased Maria.

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Sherlock and Joan visit Prentice at his workplace. He is not co-operative at first, but Sherlock convinces him of his innocence. Prentice informs him that Maria was being harassed by a man just before her death.

Sherlock and Joan next talk to Councilman Robert Barclay (Gary Wilmes), at whose office Maria was working around the time of her death. He claims to be a fan of Sherlock's work and offers his complete assistance to the two detectives.

In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, Sherlock gets arrested. In desperation, Joan reaches out to Oscar. He shows Joan a blood stained shirt that was supposedly worn by Sherlock after killing Maria.

Sherlock deduces the identity of the killer based on the aforementioned shirt.

Canonical References

1. Elementary Sherlock uses the following famous quote from The Sign of the Four: “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? ”

2. Sherlock getting attacked and beaten up severely by two men on the street - This is a bit tenuous, but reminded me of the original story: The Adventure of the Illustrious Client. In this story, Sherlock Holmes is physically assaulted by two men on the orders of Baron Adelbert Gruner. Stuart Townsend portrayed Del Gruner in the show.

This was an OK episode. The resolution to the mystery was very weak.

Miller's Sherlock once again proves why he is so different from the Canonical Version. While talking to Oscar, he reveals that he used to have a lover. Of course, now and then we would have a scene showing Elementary Sherlock in bed with random women. The Canonical Holmes is very averse to the company of women.

Another point of interest: In the opening scene of the episode, Joan receives her client - a guitar player (Keira Keeley) who claims that someone has stolen her musical tune and composed a jingle out of it. This consulting session is interrupted by Sherlock's antics upstairs.

We never hear about this case or the client again in the episode. Some kind of resolution would have been great. 

Guest star Michael Weston however makes an impression as the quick talking Oscar Rankin. May be we will see more of Oscar in later episodes.

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Mr Holmes (2015) - Trailer

The trailer for the latest Sherlock Holmes movie adaptation starring Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings Trilogy, X-Men movies) as the titular character has been released.

The movie is based on Mitch Cullin's book: “A Slight Trick of the Mind”. The pastiche focuses on an elderly Sherlock Holmes coming to terms with the physical frailties of old age.

McKellen is an actor with an uncanny ability to disappear into his roles, whether heroic or villainous in nature. I enjoyed his turn as the Master of Magnetism in the X-Men movies including the latest one, X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Equally absorbing are his performances as Gandalf the Grey/White in the Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit movies.

Supporting cast includes Laura Linney, Hiroyuki Sanada and John Sessions.

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Bill Condon has directed the movie. His previous efforts such as The Fifth Estate, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 have not been critically acclaimed, irrespective of their box office returns. On the plus side, he has already worked with McKellen on Gods and Monsters, a movie that featured the actor as the real life director, James Whale in his final days. Hope that this movie will enjoy both critical and commercial success.

The music is by Carter Burwell. Carter is well known for his frequent collaboration with The Coen Brothers, such as Burn After Reading, No Country for Old Men and Fargo. 

The trailer is OK. Most of the recent adaptations have heavily focused on Sherlock's supposed love life with Irene Adler. Even though Irene Adler is mentioned in only story (A Scandal in Bohemia) in the Canon, she has been an integral character, starting with the Guy Ritchie directed movies, followed by BBC Sherlock and now the latest Russian TV Series.

Hope the movie turns out better than being just another cash cow to capitalize on the hot streak enjoyed by Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic character. 

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Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron - Trailer

The trailer for the upcoming movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man is out. The ensemble cast includes Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, Mark Ruffalo as  Bruce Banner/The Hulk and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. 

Joining the regular cast are James Spader (as the voice of Ultron), Elizabeth Olsen (as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (as Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver).

This trailer hits the same notes as the trailer for the first Avengers movie: A young blonde lady looking out through the glass, followed by scenes of mass destruction and people running around in fear and of course the heroes coming to the rescue. There is even the shot of the lead characters banded together in the middle fighting a much larger group of enemies in a city environment.

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I guess Marvel's motto is: “If it ain't broke, don't fix it”.

The only interesting aspect in the trailer is character of The Vision introduced at the end of the trailer. As readers might be aware, The Vision is an android and a member of The Avengers group. He will be played by Paul Bettany in the movie.

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Elementary Season 3 Episode 15 "When Your Number's Up" – Recap and Review

The post contains spoilers and readers who have not yet seen the episode are recommended to skip the review, if they wish to avoid plot details.

This week, Elementary surprises us with a Columbo-type mystery - the killer is revealed at the beginning and the rest of the episode is about how the killer is caught in the end by Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and Joan Watson (Lucy Liu).

Dana Powell (Alicia Witt) has lost her husband, Nick in a crash involving a Aceway Airlines Flight 1059. In addition to Nick, there were 80 other victims. 

Dana intends to get a hefty payoff from the airlines. She kills two men, who have also lost their relatives in the same mishap. Her first victim is a homeless man, Henry (Moti Margolin). The second man to fall prey to Dana's machinations is Freddy Duncan (Jason Pendergraft).

After shooting both men at point blank range, she leaves cash near the corpses. Her aim is to draw attention to the crash victims and subject the airlines to compensate the crash victims' families.

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Dana tries to divert attention by leaving a quote at the crime scene. This quote is credited to Arlen Shrader (Michael Cumpsty), an attorney at Arlen Shrader and Associates. Arlen specializes in victim compensation. He in turn points the finger at another attorney, Erin Chatworth (Anastasia Barzee) with whom he had a brief affair. He dumped her in order to capitalize on the aforementioned air disaster.

Dana's sister, Penny (Maria Dizzia) also doubles up as her accountant. Penny informs Dana that she needs to make some payments urgently in order to retain her house.

Dana pretends to be the next target of the killer. She sets up a bullet shot through her house window.

As can be expected, Sherlock sees through the deception and works out the solution.

Canonical References

1. Sherlock mentions that Luc does not speak at all and goes on to mention how much this makes Luc such a good companion to him - In the Canon, Sherlock Holmes once complimented Dr John Watson: “You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion”

The secondary subplot involves Joan's return to the brownstone. Sherlock tries to get her to reverse her decision. After a couple of discussions with him, Joan moves into the basement of the brownstone.

This was an OK episode. Only Alicia Witt managed to breathe some excitement into the episode. Her scene in the kitchen with Penny was fraught with tension.

Sherlock and Joan are their usual selves. Ditto for Detective Bell (Jon Michael Hill) and Captain Thomas Gregson (Aidan Quinn).

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Elementary Season 3 Episode 14 "The Female of the Species" – Recap and Review

This post contains spoilers. Readers who are yet to see the episode are recommended to skip it, if they wish to avoid details.

After being subjected to hemlock poisoning, Andrew Mittal (Raza Jaffrey) has died. Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) investigates and discovers that Elana March (Gina Gershon) is responsible for her boyfriend's death.

As readers might remember, Joan had Elana arrested in the first episode of the third season, “Enough Nemesis To Go Around”. Elana had one of her assassins, Marion Desjardins mix the hemlock in Andrew's drink. During her meeting with Joan at the prison, she teases her about her impending breakup with Andrew. 

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) receives his latest case from Vernon Joseph (Chandler Williams), the moderator of Beecircuit.com forum and Curator of Mammals at the local zoo. He needs Sherlock's help to track down two pregnant zebras who have been stolen recently.

Since Joan is still mourning Andrew's death, Detective Marcus Bell (Jon Michael Hill) teams up with Sherlock. Sherlock deduces that a truck belonging to the Axiom Parcel Delivery (APD) company was used in the theft.

Sherlock lists all the intended deliveries for the stolen truck and deduces that one of the recipients, “Criterion Equine Services” is a lead worth checking out. Sherlock and Bell discover the two zebras and the corpse of Dr. David Chang, one of the veterinarians.

Sherlock deduces that the thief wanted to steal the zebra foals. Working on Joan's advice, Sherlock and Bell track down one of the newborns, who turns out to be a quagga. Quaggas are an extinct species of Zebras. 

Sherlock deduces someone working at the zoo is working on “De-Extinction” to bring back the Quagga species for their own monetary benefits.

Sherlock zeroes in on one of the zoo employees, Ben Reynolds (Louis Cancelmi) after deliberately falsely accusing another employee Donovan Gaines (Anthony Gaskins) for the theft.

Ben refuses to co-operate with the investigation. The NYPD assigns officers to keep him under surveillance escapes through hidden tunnel in his apartment. Sherlock lays a trap for Ben and has him apprehended successfully.

In the subplot, Joan apologizes to Santhosh Mittal (Brian George) for being responsible for his son's death. Santhosh expresses his wish that had Joan taken more proactive steps earlier, his son would still have been alive. Later, Elana sends a death threat via mail to Joan.

Joan receives a letter from Jamie Moriarty (Natalie Dormer) who claims responsibility for Elana's death in her cell. In the final scene, Joan decides to move back to brownstone and completely concentrate on her work as a detective.

Canonical References

1. Elementary Sherlock uses the nickname “Sigerson” to lure Ben into a trap. He claims to use that pseudonym occasionally - In The Adventure of the Empty House, Sherlock Holmes uses the alias “Sigerson”, as he explains to Dr John Watson: “You may have read of the remarkable explorations of a Norwegian named Sigerson, but I am sure that it never occurred to you that you were receiving news of your friend.”

2. Ben escaping through a network of tunnels from beneath his apartment - This is a bit tenuous, but reminded of the plot element of the Arthur Conan Doyle's novel, The Valley of Fear, in which John Douglas hides inside his own house after killing Ted Baldwin. 
 

This was a good episode. The exchanges between Miller's Holmes and 's Detective “Marcus” Bell were genuinely funny. The episode focussed on how Sherlock's methods were different from that of Bell and his department.

Sherlock is not one to stick to a working schedule of certain number of hours a day. He just keeps working on the case till a solution is found.

I liked Sherlock's comment about Vernon's username “BeeBeeking17” being offensive to both apiarists and musicians alike. I also liked his line: “I am not against contemplative silence.”, while explaining his working style with Joan to Detective Bell.

When Detective Bell informs Sherlock that he does not eat red meat, Sherlock responds that he is “a man of hidden depth”. Miller's delivery was excellent and was very similar to the dry wit often practiced by the Canonical Holmes.

An interesting point - Unlike Joan, Bell gets a decent wake-up call courtesy of an alarm clock.

Joan gets her own version of Moriarty in the form of Elana March. Gina Gershon is as devious in the role, just as Natalie Dormer was a Jamie Moriarty. Unfortunately, Gina's role came to an end today. Perhaps, we will see her in flashbacks in future episodes.

Her discussion with Sherlock, in which she confesses that she has always found it tough to separate her personal life from the detective work was executed well.

Lucy Liu has also directed this episode and deserves applause for delivering one of the best episodes of this season.

 

 

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