Elementary: The Evil Secretary & The "Angel" Janitor

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

What is this show doing? I can't stand how Holmes talks to Watson... he can't seem to come up with positive things to say, almost degrading her the vast majority of the time. You can't chalk ALL of it up to the "evil genius" persona! I also don't know what I think of Sherlock seeking out the cases... being a consultant is one thing, but purposefully going out to find random crimes is kinda weird. I get the feeling that we'll be seeing that more often, and I'm pretty sure I don't like it. Of course, I have a difficult time understanding just how this show is so popular... the typical Sherlock Holmes stuff isn't always there, and it seems just like every other procedural on television in many ways. Thoughts?

Elementary "The Rat Race" (S01E04): Holmes is hired to consult on a missing man case, for TWELVE TIMES his usual going rate. He finds that he had two separate accountants, then ends up finding the body. [I loved that he made up a warrant because nobody has ever asked to see it!] Watson is worried that Sherlock is going to relapse because of the heroin in the apartment, but he's trying to figure out who wanted it to look like a drug overdose when it was really a murder. Turns out, the guy who did the victim's job before him was killed by an allergic reaction to peanut oil in his lunch. Soon, Holmes figures out that someone is trying to "kill their way up the corporate ladder." [different. seems a little obvious now, though.] In private, the main suspect shares some information about himself and an intern, showing that they couldn't have killed the dead guys. Sherlock goes to check with the secretary of his suspect, Donna, as she moved with him around the country. [does this REALLY happen?] He follows her to her car, where she tases him. She's planning to frame her boss by killing Sherlock!

Watson goes to the station, scared that Sherlock hasn't responded in more than three hours, which is an hour longer than the rules allow. She decides to go ahead and tell the Captain the truth about her relationship with Holmes, who is bound in Donna's car. When she answers Watson's texts spelling out every word, Watson knows that something is amiss. [did anyone else flashback to Beverly Hills 90210's Donna Martin letting David Silver know that she was in trouble by calling him "Dave," something she never did?] When they get to the victim's summer home, Sherlock picks his handcuffs with a binder clip, and then the police arrive. Watson then tells Sherlock about what she told the Captain. Holmes apologizes to him for not coming forward, but it turns out that the Captain had figured it out anyway. ["specious." odd word there, I thought. So, if the Captain already knew, why did he make Watson tell him?] At home, Sherlock practices getting out of handcuffs.

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Besides the main story, a friend sets up Watson with a guy with whom the friend works. Sherlock interrupts with texts that are severely abbreviated, hence how Watson knew the others were fake. They go out for dinner, and Watson suspects that he's divorced... turns out, he's actually still married. [eek!] She agrees to go to lunch with the guy again, to have him explain how he's married when he previously said he had never been married. He says that it's a green card marriage and he doesn't even live with the woman. [oh. so kinda like House AND Switched at Birth. how common does this need to be on television?]

Elementary "Lesser Evils" (S01E05): Sherlock examines some corpses to figure out something related to strangulation. He thinks that one of the patients had a heart attack for malicious reasons, so he looks at it like a murder. ["this is my friend, Sherlock Holmes" sounds so weird!] Sherlock has to apologize to the hospital in order for the body to be turned over, but the he and Watson get on the case, tracking down someone who brought coffee to the victim that morning. She says that the victim was close to a doctor... but Sherlock thinks the individual isn't a doctor but an "angel of death," and they figure out who some other angel deaths might have been, based on days that epinephrine went missing. [how often does it have to go missing before the hospital does something about inventory control?] Sherlock's first suspect claims that he doesn't really like patients, which is why he's a surgeon - thinking that'll clear him from having the empathy to help the hurt. [so awkward!] Suspect #2 is a resident working long hours - but he's stealing morphine, not administering epinephrine.

Then, Sherlock notices that one patient's form is filled out by two people, and probably by someone who spoke Ukrainian. But, none of the doctors at the hospital speak Ukrainian... but a janitor does! He was a doctor in his home country, and a warrant turns up a logbook in his apartment that is only about the dead people. [yep, that sounds like a tell-tale sign!] The janitor says that he studied the cases and realized none had a chance of living, so he just put them out of their misery. But, there is one case where he knocked out someone who was actually recovering, but the janitor believed that the woman had a mass that was killing her, as a doctor screwed up a surgery and left a clamp inside of her. This doctor had figured out what the janitor was doing and set him up so he wouldn't lose his license. After she died, he erased the related part of the file... but the janitor took pictures of all of the files, so Sherlock knows what was in there at one point! [see, I find this to be pretty convoluted and unbelievable.]

Aside from the case, Watson runs into a former colleague at the hospital. She follows the woman into a consult and suggests a patient might have hidden endocarditis. [she notices the little things just like Holmes... who would've guess?!?] Even when the test comes back negative, Holmes encourages Watson to go with her first instinct, so she recommends an invasive test, but the doctor doesn't want to do it. So, Watson put in an anonymous note and the test took place, saving the girl's life. [blah blah blah... predictable. what was this supposed to set up?] Later, Watson decides to delete all of the photos of her and her doctor buddies, as that part of her life is behind her. [in that case, I seriously want to know the point of her doing medical things in this episode!]