Elementary Season 3 Episode 20 "A Stitch in Time" – Recap and Review

In Arthur Conan Doyle's original story, The Adventure of the Red-Headed League (REDH), a cunning criminal (John Clay) digs a tunnel from the basement of his unsuspecting employer (Jabez Wilson) to a nearby bank to steal the cash. Sherlock Holmes of course, stops the theft and catches the robbers red handed.

Elementary writers offer us a modern take on REDH. Instead of Mr. Wilson, we have another simpleton, Claire Renziger (Anita Gillette).

The case starts with Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) investigating the murder of Garrison Boyd, a famous rationalist/atheist.

Sherlock and Detective Marcus Bell (Jon Michael Hill) question Finn (Andrew Rothenberg), who has had some unfriendly exchanges with Boyd just days before his death.

A suspect emerges in the form of one Collin Eisely (Eric Bogosian). Collin is a businessman who owns a few buildings . But he seems to have an alibi. He directs Sherlock to the aforementioned Mrs. Renziger, one of his tenants.

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Claire believes that her husband Harry's ghost is trying to communicate with her. Claire seems to be of the opinion that Harry has discovered about her extra-marital affair with a certain Jim Harmon. She is of the strong opinion that her husband's ghost is uttering “Jim Harmon” as he goes around terrorizing her.

Sherlock however does not buy into her theory and deduces that something more logical is afoot. He infers that the supposed voice of Harry was actually some human being uttering some similar sounding Arabic term “Im Haram”.

Sherlock works his way to figure out the apartment of Nadim Al-Haj (Lohrasp Kansara), by tracking down his fellow tenant, Yolanda Massee  (Marcy Harriell). Coincidentally, Nadim stays in one of the buildings owned by Collin.

Piecing together the pieces of the puzzle, Sherlock finally deduces that Collin's plan was to delay some electronically transmitted financial information by a few milliseconds and make millions of dollars in the process.

The secondary subplot involved Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) helping Captain Thomas Gregson (Aidan Quinn)'s daughter and NYPD Detective Hannah Gregson (Liza J. Bennett) on a case involving a series of thefts. Hannah seeks Joan's help, as the officer in charge of that particular case is held up with some other work.

Sherlock warns Joan that Hannah is only a mediocre detective, but Joan believes in Hannah. Joan solves the mystery behind the thefts, but is surprised when Hannah takes all the credit instead of passing the information to the concerned officer. Captain Gregson advises Joan to stop helping his daughter any further.

The plot was OK. The acting was adequate.

I did like the opening scene, which has Sherlock Holmes wearing the beekeeping suit as he examines his bee colony inside the brownstone. His investigation reveals infestation of the colony by the parasitic species of Varroa mites.

The Irregular, Mason (Robert Capron) made his customary appearance due to the electronic nature of the case.

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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.

Click here to read all my posts about CBS Elementary.

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Elementary Season 1 Review

Elementary - Cast Review