Elementary Season 3 Episode 21 "Under My Skin" – Recap and Review

At the alcoholics meeting, Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) notices another member, Lloyd (Michael McGlone) behaving suspiciously. “Lloyd” is actually a private detective who is keeping an eye on Sherlock's recovery sponsor, Alfredo Llamosa (Ato Essandoh).

Alfredo's former employer, Castle hired “Lloyd” to keep tabs on Alfredo. Alfredo had been fired by Castle after some disagreements he had with another employee. Sherlock tries to help Alfredo, but the latter refuses his offer by claiming they are not friends.

The episode's main mystery starts off with a Maggie Halpern (Sarah Bolt) being taken in an ambulance. Her ride comes to a halt when an unseen person shoots to death the accompanying EMT (Dana Berger). Then the person drives away, thus effectively kidnapping the woman.

The suspect is Wallace Turk (Terry Serpico) who has been using Maggie as a drug mule. Escanso, a doctor in Brazil was the one who planted the drugs inside Maggie.

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Detective Marcus Bell (Jon Michael Hill) and Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) question Dr Ward (Fisher Stevens). One of his patients, Janko Stepovic (Gene Farber) is a criminal mastermind who runs a drug smuggling syndicate.

Janko himself is killed outside his house. The very next day, Dr Ward's attorney, Sarah Penley (Natalie Gold) offers information in exchange for protection for her client.

Dr Ward provides the location where the dead bodies were buried. After taking a look at the corpse, Joan deduces that it is Dr Ward who is the killer.

Sherlock ends up firing Alfredo as his sponsor in order to be able to take an active part in his personal life.

Canonical References

Sherlock's comment about the perfume worn by the slain Janko - 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.”

This was an OK episode. No great performances or great moments of humor to leave an impression on one's mind.

Everyone's favorite turtle, Clyde makes his appearance in the scene, where Sherlock is trying to make sense of the Voynich manuscript.

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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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You might also like:

Elementary Season 1 Review

Elementary - Cast Review