Elementary - Hobo Hunt 2014

Elementary "Corpse De Ballet" (S02E15): A note on Holmes' door boldly states "coitus in progress," as Watson continues about her daily routine. Watson points out Holmes' promiscuity and he feels a bit judged. In the meantime, a dancer is found dead at a ballet rehearsal.

The duo show up to find that someone rigged the backdrop to cut the dancers' body in half and dump her onto the stage when it came down. Detective Bell is surprisingly off desk duty and helps track down the place when the dancer was killed with a knife. The murder weapon turns out to be a boxer cutter owned by the lead ballerina, whom they interview (Holmes is a fan). Watson calls out Holmes on his fanboy-ness towards her, but she is called away when a homeless man she knows was taken to a hospital and apparently had a psychotic episode. 

Bell and Holmes visit the deceased dancer's ex-boyfriend, whose alibi doesn't check out. The prima ballerina and her lawyer show up at the precinct, but was uncooperative and going to leave the country to teach a class, so Gregson charges her with the murder.

Watson awakens the next morning to find the murder suspect coming out of Holmes' room. Apparently, she initiated the encounter but Holmes followed through only to verify his suspicion about her have a torn rotator cuff. Watson heads off to track the homeless man's missing friend and Holmes heads to meet with the diva's lawyer to start going through her files.

Watson finds the missing man's sister, who informs her he has extreme PTSD and drug issues. Pulled away by a text from Holmes, Watson joins him to see the paparazzo the diva put a restraining order on and sued her for destroying his camera. He was not very cooperative either, and the duo are called back by Bell, who has discovered from a stolen voicemail that the diva was dating the dead girl. They interview her and she confesses to seducing the girl and guilting her into giving up the lead role. Holmes concludes her phone must be cloned and the paparazzo confesses to it, but also has an alibi.

Holmes probes further and determines the stolen voicemail was recorded from the actual phone and is a recording of a recording. Holmes questions Watson on why she is helping this homeless man and she reveals that her biological father is schizophrenic and homeless. She volunteers at the homeless shelter to see him, unable to convince him to stay on his medication, though she hasn't seen him in nearly two years. Going through the missing man's bag, Watson discovers the sister she met wasn't really his sister...

Holmes discovers a noise on the voicemail matching one from the automatic door closer in the diva's lawyer's office, so he meets with the lawyer and accuses him of murdering the ballet dancer, who turns out to be his ex. He kicks Holmes out, claims he has no evidence, and is hiding the diva from Holmes so he can't reveal the truth.

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Watson returns to the house of the missing homeless man's sister with a warrant and the police, and they find three homeless veterans locked in the basement. The fake sister and another man were collecting the benefits checks sent to each of them.

Holmes has a House, M.D. moment and realized the lawyer must have a key piece of evidence to release during the trial. Gambling on that, the police search his office and find the stolen hard drive from the theater the night the murder occurred. Holmes, Gregson, and Bell arrest the lawyer in the courthouse bathroom.

Now symptahetic towards Watson's views of homeless people, Holmes suggests they hand out blankets to individuals living in the park.

Elementary - Bones and Brains

Randy and Holmes are getting closer and Holmes and Watson seem too comfortable for drama. Luckily, dinosaur bones and warring paleontologists save the day and provide an interesting storyline. That, and hearing Holmes forced to recommend against Randy's drug-loving ex-girlfriend made up for the guest star of the episode being a rock...

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Elementary "Dead Clade Walking" (S02E14): Preparing to drill through a skull, Holmes is interrupted with a few text messages from Randy, who's having issues going to group. Watson has brought in a woman named Gay to help go through Holmes' old case files and in looking into a black rock, discover a dinosaur in it.

The duo goes to a museum's fossil curator for guidance on what to do next. After learning it was the skeleton of a nano-tyrannous and worth a small fortune, Holmes goes into full detective mode. He immerses himself into the murder case that directed them to the rock.  Apparently, the first time around he was using drugs when working the case. Holmes is called away to help Randy stem off his drug-loving ex while Watson continues the 'collage.'

Watson uncovers a fleet of ice cream trucks owned by the best friend of the victim that might be smuggling illegal goods around New York. During interrogation, the best friend admits to dropping the rock off for safe keeping and thought the killer took the rock. In the meantime, fake I.C.E. agents steal the rock from the police evidence room.

With Gregson running down the obvious stuff on the fake I.C.E. officers, the duo go to see a friend of Holmes', 'C,' with whom he exchanges erotic letters. She runs an auction house and suggests Holmes look into 'Magpie,' who only contacts those who have something he wants. Holmes sets about creating a fake set of Martin Luther's rough drafts of letters that later became the Ninety-Five Theses.

Interrupted again by Randy's issues with his ex-girlfriend, Holmes takes a firm line on the subject and Randy walks out on him. They get a hit on the fake Theses through email and arrange a meeting only to find a dead man, alongside what appears to be a smashed rock and fossil. Gregson and police confirm this but the motive to destroy the fossil is still unknown.

Digging further into the rock the nano-tyrannous was enclosed in, Holmes discovers it would have verified a theory named 'Dead Clade Walking' by being buried above the KT layer. They invite the most vocal opponents of the theory and ask for a DNA sample, but the match points to a clearly innocent man. Holmes determines, via the Magpie's sales records, that someone bought different fossilized pieces for the same dinosaur and traced it back to the fossil curator at the museum. Learning that he was partners with the suspect who couldn't have done it, Holmes postulated that a shared tool had left DNA at the crime scene and they had killed to maintain their academic reputation and books sales.

Randy visits and admits to getting high and then breaking up with his ex. Holmes offers to accompany him to a meeting...

Archer Vice - Aren't We All Just Drug-Addicted Ants?

Archer Vice "A Debt of Honor" (S05E3): 

From the Diary of Archer Sterling...

2,000 pounds of cocaine (minus whatever we lost in Miami) plus the million in fake bills ain't bad... which is what I was trying to tell Mother when Ron chimed in about... something, cars maybe. Cyril had the genius idea to buy a bunch of guns with the fake money, which actually wasn't a bad idea because the FBI seized all of ours and Lana and I had both been stealing bullets from work.

Turns out, ISIS had pissed off anyone we might do business with to buy guns. Drunk, naked Ray was still coaching Cheryl on being a famous country music singer. Oh yeah, and Pam bought a million dollars of amphetamines from the Yakuza, who obviously came after us when they discovered the money was fake.

After arguing over what to do with the Yakuza, Cheryl walks in and makes it worse by attempting to negotiate with them. The one useful thing she did do was show us to the massive old weapons collection in the house. Ron refused a gun to help out with the shooting, and then got shot. Ha! Turns out, Cheryl's great-great-great-uncle built loads of underground tunnels searching for runaway slaves to sell back to their... you know what, let's just call her family insane and move on.

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I devised a plan to split into groups and get Ron out through one of the tunnels while I staged a distraction through a tunnel near the front of the house. Ron was being a real baby about it. Hell, I've been shot 26 times... that's a lot of lead. Mother and Lana had some mother-to-mother time while I snuck into the limo of the Yakuza leader. I gracefully (using a very loud gun) negotiated a deal where he forgave Pam's honor debt, but we had to give him $5 million in coke.

And Woodhouse really spent a lot of time in the old timey gym... dude better be getting buff.

Archer - Coke Casts are a Bad Idea

Archer "Archer Vice: A Kiss While Dying" (S05E02): 

From the Diary of Archer Sterling...

The stupid government seized my penthouse, as it was apparently owned by freaking ISIS! I was forced to live with everyone else (except Mother, who knew everyone's assets were in danger and protected herself) in this strange Addams Family house. Mother somehow arranged a deal for 20kg of our cocaine in Miami so Lana, Pam, and I had to go down there and sell it. Krieger made the cocaine look like a full-body cast, which Pam looked way nervous wearing.

With Cyril acting as our lawyer/money laundering CPA, what could go wrong? Pam sawed off her casts as I kept Lana from freaking out over this silly drug deal. Just as I explained how we were the A-Team meets Scarface, I catch Pam eating her coke-casts! She knocks me out against the bathroom wall. I can't fight that, let alone that on coke.

Copyright 2014, FX Networks. All rights reserved.

Lana and coke-strong Pam took me to an old friend, Ramon, who we did a mission with a while back. He fixed me up and explained the buyers... or rather, didn't. They turn out to be hitmen whom we've dealt with in the past, and they totally screw us, taking the money and the coke. Lana pulled the pregnant card when we were gearing up to go after them, so she waited in the car with still coked-up Pam. Apparently, the hitmen had already sent the coke off to someone but still had the money. Ramon got into a shootout with them and everyone shot each other. Lana came in to 'rescue' me needlessly... and saw nothing.

Back at the house of Lurch, we discovered the money is fake and Lana thought the three gay guys set me up... Nah. They're dead.

Archer - Dr. Bunsen...

Archer "White Elephant" (S05E1): 

From the Diary of Archer Sterling...

It was THE best morning at ISIS ever... and then it blew up, literally. Oh yeah, it was Mother's birthday. After the explosion, storm ninjas showed up and engaged us in a massive fire fight. Brett died before he could remind me of the name of Beaker's assistant... Turns out the storm ninjas were FBI agents who are really bad at their jobs.

Copyright 2013, FX Network. All rights reserved.

Apparently, Mother had been lying about ISIS being sanctioned by the US government, which meant we were all under arrest for treason. After Cheryl insisted she be tazed on the way to being arrested, Mother seemed to have a way out until the entire team spilled their guts and Lana and I had to escape, even though she took my 'weird looking vagina comment' personally. Lana claimed she was leaving for good so I did the noble thing and suggested we get married, which she somehow refused. 

Lana and I break everyone out but get stopped at Mother's cell as she signs away any future for ISIS in a deal to not go to prison. Back at our now-former headquarters, everyone talks about their new careers, I think. Not sure, I was drinking. I daftly point out that we still have, literally, one ton of cocaine to get rid of, and envision the future of.... ARCHER VICE! Dun dun dun! Yep, startin' a cartel...

Elementary - Family Matters

Bell and Holmes twist and wind back to where they started while we get to see Watson's mob fetish. Not the most exciting episode, but glad the drama is out of the way and gang's all back together.

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Elementary "All in the Family" (S02E13): Starting with Holmes and Watson in formal evening wear requesting a man's leg, Detective Nash kicks them out after they identify the hidden compartment in it that the individual was using to steal museum items. Apparently, the duo hasn't been getting along with any detectives after Bell left for his new job in the intelligence department. He no longer carries a gun but gets assigned field work so he's happy.

Investigating a tip about a suspicious barrel at an oil recycling place, Bell finds a barrel with a body in it. He calls in Gregson who shows up with the duo. He and Gregson catch up like old friends but it's still awkward between Bell and Holmes. After investigating the headless and handless body, Watson identifies it as Handsome Bobby, a mob guy. Apparently Watson has a degree in mob history and workings from growing up in Queens.

They call the deceased's father to identify the body, and he admits he hasn't seen his son in a few months. Holmes goes to find out more about the tip received by Bell's new department. Holmes lands a job from the department head and Bell takes issue with him being around.

Later that night, as Holmes is trying to replicate the process used to remove the head of Handsome Bobby, Watson identifies a possible suspect in a rival family. The next day, the duo head to rummage through the suspect's garbage, but get turned away right before the suspect dies in a car explosion. Holmes finds a piece of Handsome Bobby's skull in the dead mobster's kitchen. He also discovers NSA documents containing copies of coded emails from Handsome Bobby's rivals.

The duo crash a fake business that's an NSA front, but don't get anyone to acknowledge that they're NSA. Bell heads to the police station to convince Gregson not to let Holmes work in the intelligence department. Meanwhile, Holmes is conducting bombing experiments using the chemical Tovex, as Watson grills Holmes about taking work in Bell's department just to mess with him.

Holmes receives an encoded text message from the NSA and learns that Bell's new boss, deputy police commissioner Da Silva, is the one who requested that Handsome Bobby be found, making him dirty and working for a mob family. The duo decide to go after him, the 4th-highest ranking police official in New York, and enlist Bell's help. Bell resists and has a first-class argument with Holmes before leaving. He has second thoughts though, and finds a ton of evidence in Da Silva's office about mob dealings.

Bell brings the evidence back to the duo, and Holmes reasons out that DaSilva wants a mob war and has been living off blackmail. Bell helps set-up DaSilva in trying to kill the head of the mob family he'd been tracking. After they successfully entrap him, Bell returns to major crime, kicking Nash out of his old desk. He and Holmes are now all good again...

Elementary - Hidden Gems

Moriarty's back! Good for us, bad for Holmes, interesting for Watson. She definitely adds more drama to Holmes than everyday crimes, but it's obvious he handles her much better this time. The episode is more about her than anyone else and exploring her mystery gives us something else to look forward to.

Elementary "The Diabolical Kind" (S02E12): As Watson heads out to continue internet dating, Holmes heads to the roof to tend bees, but really to get letters from Moriarty hidden in the hive. He speculates about Watson and Captain Gregson's relationships in his letter about love.

The duo are called in to assist in the murder of a man and the kidnapping of his daughter as Holmes recognizes the voice of the kidnapper as one of Moriarty's lieutenants. He asks permission to see her and has to reveal his secret correspondence with her to Watson, in the meantime naming Moriarty's henchmen 'fauxriarty.'

Gregson and the duo go to see Moriarty, who is being held specially by the federal govenment in a warehouse, given art supplies, and negotiating a deal for information she has on other criminals. Moriarty recognizes the name of the kidnapped girl, but won't reveal the name of her colleague. The gang heads back to the station to continue the investigation, but is soon shocked when Moriarty and her handlers walk in. Apparently she negotiated a deal to 'fully' help out with the investigation.

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Holmes implores her jailers to rethink this deal and put her back in confinement, despite her having RFID chips implanted in both arms. They let her stay and provide information on the kidnapper, then Watson volunteers to escort her to the crime scene. While there, the two women have an in-depth conversion about Holmes and their relationships with him, sniping at each other.

None of the information from Moriarty about the kidnapper is checking out, so the duo gets back to work. In the meantime, the kidnapper kills a few cops to get a phone and look up the description of him being sent out to law enforcement. In the morgue, Holmes determines the officers were killed for Moriarty's sketches of the kidnappers which contained a coded message. The head kidnapper, Devon, calls the station to talk to Gregson and lets him hear the girl's voice. Holmes convinces them to return Moriarty to lockup, and works on decoding the message from the sketch, which turns out to be GPS coordinates to an island in the Arctic Circle.

Holmes gets copies of all the papers that Moriarty had access to while incarcerated. He discovers a cipher in a classified ad in which Devon threatens Moriarty, who is actually the mother of the kidnapped girl. In the meantime, Moriarty escapes and goes to where Devon is keeping the girl. She kills several of them and then calls Holmes, asking for him to come and see her but leave the police outside.

Once there, she explains what happened and how she gave up her daughter before she met Holmes. Also, she reveals she has a ledger in a vault with lots of hidden 'items' in it, some hers and some passed on from a mentor. She goes to the hospital and Holmes goes home to re-hide her letters.

Archer - Under the Sea... legs. 2.

Archer "Sea Tunt: Part 2" (S04E13): 

From the Diary of Archer Sterling...

Where the hell were we? Oh yeah, this psycho under the sea plans to launch nerve gas at U.S. cities, and I'm not drunk enough for this. So this Anderson Cooper-looking bastard wouldn't shut up about... ecological something. Anyway, Lana and Mother chew out Cecil and the pilot and learn the crazy man has like 40 guys with him! 

I mastermind a plan to go into the sea lab as a camera crew, stealing Ray's mustache to see if he looks gayer. Nope. So sending the four of us spies down in the DSV, Ray breaks his nose and Lana is totally unprepared with no tampons... somehow. Cheryl's still freaking out over the 'brother trying to commit her to get at her inheritance' thing. Thank goodness I commandeered all the booze from the chopper. I only had something light though, because it was my first time driving a DSV. Lana kept throwing up and wouldn't drink ANYTHING, not even to stem her... moodiness.

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After getting our legends straight with these numbskulls, I dock the DSV with the sea lab. Mother and the bums on the boat began drinking chemicals and arguing over the inheritance wasted on the sea lab while we faux film the eco-psycho's demands, including a ban on ALL fishing. ALL FISHING! Turns out the douche has been down here alone for like 3 years. He attacked Lana, I pulled a gun, something something, and then there's a hole in the glass ceiling.

As the sea lab is flooding, the eco-nut gets us safely to a break room and then gets smashed by an off-brand drink machine. Luckily, there's scuba gear in the break room, but only 3 sets. Lana drops the preggers bomb (5 weeks!) on us and I honorably insist the mother-to-be take my suit. The plan is to restart my heart on the DSV within 2 minutes. Lana drags me through the water... why Lana? She had to be the weakest swimmer after me... Anyway, the 3 numbskulls managed to restart my heart with a defibrillator. I cheated death and brain damage... but accidentally fried the chip that controls Ray's leg. Oh well, he still looks gayer than ever.

Elementary - Internal Restlessness

Good character development for Holmes as he clears several emotional hurdles while only committing a minor crime. Nice to see a bit of Watson's past and how she's taking actions separate from Holmes. The question of whether Detective Bell will stick around is interesting because it was assumed we would get to experience his recovery. Now, he might move on and out of Holmes' life without any resolution...

Jeff Neumann/ ©2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved

Elementary "Internal Audit" (S02E11): Detective Marcus Bell is back at work and still unsure if he'll regain full use of his right hand. Watson stops by to check on him while Holmes is off learning how to steal the latest Lamborghini from his sponsor. Holmes can't focus and can't defeat the car's security system, distracted and bothered that even though he did everything correctly on the previous case, Bell still got hurt.

The duo is called to consult on the murder of a dirty hedge fund manager, Hauser,  discovered dead by his personal chef. After Holmes sniffs and oddly handles the victim's head, he concludes he was murdered in the middle of his own suicide. Later, while going over suspects, Holmes asks Watson about Bell and gets a bit snippy before she goes to run errands and leave him to work.

In actuality, Watson received a text from the dead man's personal chef, Chloe Butler, and meets her at her house. Turns out, she was a former client of Watson's and kept it hidden earlier. Chloe gives Watson permission to tell Holmes about her history, as he'll most likely discover it anyway. Upon hearing this, Holmes rules her out as a suspect.

The duo follows up on Hauser's work at a non-profit (dealing with reparations for Holocaust survivors) and discovers he never swindled them so there's no motive to be had. Holmes gets a call from another NYPD detective who found a reporter from the Hauser story dead. Holmes discovers residue from an orange and leads Watson to a park that the killer likely walked through to and from the crime scene.

As Watson talks to skaters who might have captured the killer on video, Alfredo unsuccessfully attempts to get Holmes to become a sponsor. Watson recognizes a man in the skater video whom she remembers from her time working with Chloe. His name is Nelson and he is a criminal who used to to supply drugs to a former colleague. Chloe refuses to let Watson use her to connect Nelson to Hauser, fearing that revealing her past will cause her to lose the custody battle for her son. This drives Holmes crazy.

Watson uses Bell's example as a consequence in an argument with Holmes about going to Gregson anyway, and, frustrated, Holmes breaks into Alfredo's and finally beats the car's alarm system. Alfredo wakes up and asks Holmes to become a sponsor again. Returning home to find Watson still up from the night before, Holmes discovers Watson still has no connection but has sent the video to Gregson to put Nelson's face out there to solicit information.

An anonymous tips leads them back to the non-profit and then to an art gallery that was associated with Nelson. Once there, Holmes' deduction skills lead them to Nelson's body in a dumpster. The police find Nelson's car with evidence of the two murders, but nothing indicating who killed Nelson. Holmes notices a pattern in the art marked as sold and they trace it back to the non-profit, which has been stealing money from the victims for which it's finding reparations. It turns out the head guy killed Nelson after they identified him.

The deputy police commissioner offers Bell a job in his intelligence division rather than be confined to a desk job due to his injury. Holmes agrees to be a sponsor for Alfredo's friend, Randall, and meets with him. Holmes lays down the law of only being his sponsor and nothing more, and Randall 'accepts these terms.'

Elementary - Above the Knight's Code...

Still focusing on Holmes' character flaws, it's growing obvious now how much he's leaning on Watson professionally. It's likely she'll try to be lured away in the near future, especially with their now rocky relationship with the police department. Holmes was missing his particular enthusiasm when explaining suspect motives (the knight's code in this case), making the Holmes in the courtroom and the Holmes in the stories too close in demeanor. It'll be nice to have a proper case to solve next time...

Elementary "Tremors" (S02E10): Gregston explains to the station that a politician is running on a crime platform when a 'knight' walks in with an apparent murder weapon and confesses to killing his queen... then it flashes out to Holmes telling this story on a witness stand. Continuing with the story, Holmes uses knowledge of the knight's code to help subdue the man. The judge scolds Holmes for taking creative license on the description of Gregston in his story and reminds him that they're here to determine the magnitude of a screw-up by the duo and to determine if they can continue working with the police department.

The prosecutor questions Holmes about all the times he and Watson have found their way into crime scenes without permission. Holmes claims unlocked doors and cries for help were their reasons for entry and to have never broken in. Returning to the case of the bloody knight, they determine the knight was schizophrenic, search his place, and learn the name of his 'queen.' Detective Bell and the duo find the queen dead in her home. Holmes concludes the knight (Cole) didn't kill her because the method did not fit with the traditions Cole was following. Holmes tries to play nice with the prosecutor at the urging of Gregston by deducing that they are both addicts.

The duo learn from the dead queen's oncologist that she was getting viatical payments from a company called Helping Hands, which provides monthly payments to terminally ill patients in exchange for them signing over their life insurance policies. Watson and Holmes track down the person at the company handling the case, James Dylan, an ex-con. He alibis out of the murder though.

Holmes explains how he and Watson exonerated Cole for the murder and proved it was potassium chloride poisoning by testing eye fluid, which is immune to common cell potassium leakage. Watson is a bit upset with Holmes for putting her in a questionable place to falsely testify the next day. On the stand, Watson confirms Holmes' stories and is then cross-examined by... Holmes, as he's acting as his own lawyer. He gets Watson to tell the story of how they discovered the motive for the queen's oncologist, proved he did it, and got him to confess.

The prosecution redirects and makes Watson tell the story of how Bell was shot: while leaving the police station, Dylan confronts and attempts to shoot Holmes, whose actions got the former fired and outed to his parole officer, returning him to jail. Bell jumped in the way as Dylan fired and took the bullet that would have hit Holmes.

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During the proceeding, it's revealed Holmes never visits Bell during the five days after he was shot. Watson keeps tabs on his status and reports to Gregston that he may never regain full use of his right arm. Watson visits Bell in the hospital and learns he does indeed have nerve damage. At the Brownstone, Holmes is practicing single-stick left-handed, as Watson still can't convince him to visit Bell in the hospital. The next day, the judge recommends that the duo's relationship with the NYPD be terminated. Afterwards, the prosecutor invites Holmes to her addiction meeting.

The commissioner visits Bell what he should do, as the judge's action was only a recommendation. The commissioner decides not to accept the recommendation and Holmes finally visits Bell in the hospital. Holmes reveals he's done research about the type of palsy in Bell's arm and has lined up world experts to help, but Bell refuses any help he might provide and asks him not come to visit.

Elementary - Out, and not Union Friendly...

Serials killers always seem to give even the best detectives a run for their money. Sparing the psychological advantage normally accompanying a serial killer, Holmes ferrets out a killer with a pattern with noticeable difficulty. He and Watson become closer still, but hopefully the villains continue to be strong so the duo are required to pull out more than triggered inspiration to solve cases.

Elementary "On the Line" (S02E09): On the Roosevelt Island bridge, Holmes and Watson are called in to... confirm a murder? The victim (Samantha) called in and told 911 who was about to kill her, Lucas Bundsch, the same man she believed killed her sister. Holmes quickly claims she shot herself, attaching a weight to the gun to drag it over the railing and into the river. Upon questioning Lucas at the station under a polygraph, Holmes injects a question of his own and proclaims the man to be a serial killer.

Holmes shows how Lucas beat the polygraph on key questions, guessing he also had to fake answers about the previous murder. Holmes nettles the detective, Coventry, on the previous case, to the point of a shouting match in the middle of the station before Captain Gregson breaks them up. The duo analyzes the last traffic camera footage of Samantha's sister and guess that the killer made a fake plastic explosive to place in her shoe while she phoned her sister.

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In the middle of the discussion, Lucas shows up at the Brownstone. Allegedly given their house address by Coventry, Holmes surprisingly invites in Lucas and starts to question him about the abduction. In a creepy, unemotional scene, they confront Lucas and listen to him deny the entire thing.

At the station, Holmes and Watson present their case and links to other murders they think Lucas committed. Gregson agrees there's something to it and Watson insists the duo split up to investigate the potential victims. She and detective Bell question a loved one of a victim whose body was never found, learning nothing. Gregson tried to calm down Conventry, but he threatens to call the union over Holmes' involvement in his case.

Holmes and Watson get into a tiff about his treatment of policemen and their growing dislike for the duo. The person Watson interviewed calls with a lead: a woman in his support group recognized Lucas as her missing daughter's ex-boyfriend. The duo head up to Syracuse to meet with the woman, but discover they've been fooled by Lucas. He made up the fake story and pretended to be the victim's mother, who in reality has no children.

Holmes confronts Lucas about making the fake profile about the missing girl to join the support group and falsely leading them to Syracuse. Lucas riles Holmes up and Holmes punches him, prompting a restraining order against him and Watson. Gregson kicks Holmes off the case, and Watson discovers Holmes broke a finger with the punch.

After Lucas abducts again, Lucas texts Holmes the address of his victim. The duo goes but Bell sends them away. Holmes grabs some DNA from the scene before leaving so he can frame Lucas, though Watson talks him out of it and accidentally helps him deduce where Lucas keeps his victims: his recording studio.

Gregson, Holmes, and various police show up to raid Lucas's studio and find not only the latest victim but also the wife of Watson's interviewee. Gregson tells his troops to lay off complaining about his employ of Holmes and Watson. Holmes tries to convince Watson he's acerbic and will never change because it's an advantage for him, and it's only Watson who is the exception to his behavior because he finds her exceptional.

Elementary - Cynical...

Mycroft seems to be back for good and continues to nettle at Holmes in ways only family could. Watson continues to be more impressive on her own, but given the medical nature of this case that's not unexpected. Let's hope many of the original Sherlock stories continue to seep into the plot and some of the ongoing hidden relationships come to a head soon.

Elementary "Thicker than Water" (S02E08): It starts with Mycroft bugging Holmes about not visiting his restaurant, Diogenes, yet, as Mycroft will return to London soon [much credit to the writers for having Mycroft name his restaurant after his favorite philosopher from one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short stories]. In the meantime, a woman landed on a delivery truck that continued its route after she landed.

Jeff Neumann /CBS ©2013 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The duo reason their way back to the apartment balcony the woman fell out of. After some research, Detective Bell reveals Ian Gale, the equivalent of a Steve Jobs in this universe, is the one paying for the apartment. Trying to see Mr. Gale, his lawyer presents evidence that puts Gale out of the company, but Holmes quickly proves it's a stand-in.

The next morning, Mycroft wakes Watson looking for Holmes, who stood him up (again) the night before. A contact of Holmes' at a high-end hotel tips him off that an entire floor has been rented by Gale under a pseudonym. In exchange for moose cheese, Holmes gets a keycard to access all rooms on the floor and they find Gale hiding in a hospital bed looking very ill. The duo learns the dead woman was his daughter, Haley.

Gale had a heart transplant that his body is rejecting. His daughter was in town to give him transfusions as he's a rare blood type. He hid his condition while the board of his company prepared a transition plan. Returning to the police station, Watson insists Holmes go to dinner with Mycroft and leave a morgue visit to her. At dinner, Mycroft gives 221B back to Holmes and reveals he's been moved out while in NYC. He also reveals that their father wants him back in London and could take away the Brownstone if he does not return.

Detective Bell and Watson question Gale's wife and suspect her, until she explains that she gets no extra inheritance when Gale's daughter dies, but rather it goes to Haley's mother. One of the prints from Haley's apartment turns out to be from an old boyfriend no one knew was in town. Holmes reveals to Watson that his father might cut him off unless he returns to London. He suggests both of them return to London, but she votes for Holmes to do what he wants despite his father's wishes.

They track Haley's boyfriend to a horsetrack that afternoon via Haley's DVR recordings. Upon questioning, they learn Haley was sick for several weeks. After verifying she wasn't sick at the time of giving blood for her father, Holmes gets a call that Ian Gale is dead.

Watson figures out that the real target of the murder was Ian Gale and not Haley. After than, they discover that Mrs. Gale had, in fact, killed her husband by using Haley's antibodies to cause Ian's transplanted heart to be rejected. Mycroft stops by to see Holmes one last time and Holmes gives him a letter to pass along to their father, stating he will remain in New York. Mycroft later rips up the letter and calls someone to announce that the plan to reunite Holmes and their father has failed.

Elementary - Phony Brothers

Brothers everywhere, and the fallout from the season premiere finally comes to a head. Watson and Holmes seem to take a few steps back in their relationship but that does make things more interesting. Adding Mycroft to complete the triangle is odd, but hopefully he sticks around.

Jeff Neumann /CBS ©2013 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Elementary "The Marchioness" (S02E07): Holmes is attending an 'AA'-type group session where he shares about wondering that, if he was born in a different time, he might not be an addict at all, as there wouldn't be as much 'input' for him to deal with. Mycroft reveals himself at the back of the room and upsets Holmes. He explains he's in town to help out a mutual friend of the two, who turns out to be Mycroft's former fiance Nigella, the same one with whom Holmes had a tryst.

Over lunch at Mycroft's not-yet-open restaurant, Nigella shares she is now divorced and a horse owner. Someone murdered her horse caretaker during an attempt to kill the horse. Holmes berates Nigella and finally learns of his brother's former bout with leukemia. Holmes is not very happy about the situation or his brother. ('The man has never met a cliche he hasn't had a head-on collision with.') Mycroft later comes to the Brownstone to apologize to Holmes for not telling him earlier. Turns out, he reconnected with his ex-fiance through looking for a bone marrow donor.

Checking out the crime scene, Holmes finds a tree that the killer climbed to hide in while being pursued. He pulls 4 finger prints from it because the person only had 4 fingers on his left hand and the duo (plus Mycroft) return to the NYC police station with the murderer's backpack. The prints come back tied to mob hits and a massacre. Holmes calls Nigella to warn her that she's a target, and she's shot at while on the phone.

After briefly questioning Nigella without much progress, Mycroft makes the duo dinner, through which Holmes continues working. Holmes links Nigella's horse to gang-owned horses that have been paying to mate with it. Holmes can't sit down and eat with Watson and Mycroft, and Mycroft leaves. Watson reveals to Holmes she slept with him when they were in England.

The next day, Holmes makes the situation as awkward as possible between Watson and Mycroft. Holmes goes to study several ponies and compares them to Nigella's horse. He discovers the offspring are not from the original horse Nigella is claiming due to different markings on their heads. She reveals she's forged paperwork and has been whoring out the brother of the original racing horse.

Going through the evidence for the massacre committed by a man called 'el mechanico,' they discover a witness missing the same finger as the horse caretaker's killer. They arrest him but can't hold him because the fingerprints don't match. Holmes determines he must have been using fake fingerprints. He discovers one of the crimes where the fingerprints were recorded was not a murder but a liquor store robbery. Tracking the old case, they discover where the body of the thief was dumped, and DNA match 'el mechanico,' who stole the fingerprints of the dead man. 

Mycroft stops by to ask Watson to his restaurant opening as a friend. Holmes and Mycroft meet with Nigella to explain that she is safe and has to repay everyone she's ripped off. There's some bonding as Mycroft finally takes Holmes' side on the judgement of Nigella.

Elementary - Holmes is Anti-Marriage, Unless it's Too Late

An interesting take on a police captain's trials and tribulations, Holmes doesn't seen like a good choice to turn to for moral support. It seems he and Watson are swapping roles to become more like each other, Watson wanting to beef up her analytical detective skills and Holmes left to try out emotional comforting.

Elementary "An Unnatural Arrangement" (S02E06): Holmes takes Watson to watch arrested men in the police station holding cells on a Friday night. Watson runs into a 'night detective' who asks 'just her' for ideas for a string on falafel cart robberies.

Captain Gregson's wife gets threatened with a gun in her house, but she got to a gun and shot him before he fled. After the police and the duo question Gregson and his wife, Gregson reveals he hasn't lived at home in about a month. Holmes and Watson begin going through Gregson's history, which leads into a discussion on Holmes believing marriage is caustic on a detective's career.

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After the invader's blood doesn't turn up a DNA match against anyone in the system, Holmes and Watson check up on a man who's been stalking Gregson and find Henry Bishop passed out on his bathroom floor with a gunshot wound in his shoulder. Bell is sure the invader will back off, but another man is killed by apparently the same person.

Watson gets slightly peeved when she finds out Holmes has solved the falafel cart robbery without her knowing. Upon hearing a witness describe a light-blue pickup truck parked in front of the house, Gregson confronts his wife about seeing a male friend. It does not go over well and they seem to have the same argument about him never being home because of work.

Interviewing the mother of the murder victim, it's revealed that his C.O. (commanding officer) lives near Captain Gregson and Holmes figures out a 'maps' program points to Gregson's house rather than the C.O.'s when when entering the C.O.'s address. Gregson breaks into the C.O.'s house only to find him dead. Afterward, Gregson confines in Holmes that his wife is seeing an old friend. He offers Watson for someone to talk to...

Holmes and Watson head off to visit the woman, Beth, with whom murder victim 1 had an affair while stationed in Afghanistan. Turns out, it wasn't really an affair, which removes the reason given by their first suspect for getting into a fight with victim 1 while stationed there for an archeological dig.

Holmes and Watson deduce that an artifact was taken from the Afganistan dig and identify it as a bowl that Holmes remembers in Beth's display case. Returning to her house with a search warrant and Detective Bell, the bowl is gone and they can't charge her with anything. Feeling bad about solving the falafel cart case and thereby robbing Watson of the opportunity to do so, he gives her access to all his cold cases that he's 'given his all' to.

After hearing witness statements that there were no disturbances having occurred between the duo's two visits, Watson realized that Beth's dog would have barked at any man that would have come in. Since there had been no barking, the dog had to know the man and they deduced it was her ex-husband. They track him down and he confesses to being her accomplice in stealing and fencing the artifacts. They return and arrest her.

Holmes checks into the 'friend' Gregson's wife has been seeing and tells him it seems she is trying to get a reaction out of him and not to give up. Watson opens the trunk with Holmes' old cases, solidifying that he did mean it when he said that they are partners and it does not matter which of them solves the case, as long as their cases get solved.

Elementary - Good or Evil, the Past Catches Up

In probably one of the top five episodes to date, Watson and Holmes are challenged professionally and personally. It's all the more fun when hook-ups, hookers, and hitmen are involved, not to mention bank robberies and loan sharks. The duo's bond is continuing to grow, so a test of this connection should be exciting.

Jeff Neumann /CBS ©2013 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Elementary "Ancient History" (S02E05): Watson buys Sherlock a platypus skull for some entertainment, as there's a lack of interesting murders in New York City. [ha!] Her friend pitches a one-night stand to track down, but Holmes doesn't like it and heads to the morgue to find a more interesting case. Holmes discovers a murderer named Leo accidently killed in a motorcycle accident.

Captain Gregsten won't accept Holmes' evidence of a tattoo that Leo was a hitman, so Holmes and Watson head off to talk to Leo's wife. She doesn't provide much help, and, as Holmes combs through bereavement cards to determine a missing friend, Watson heads off to the bar where her friend met her one-night stand.

Discovering that Leo had an argument with his construction partner, Holmes and Watson find the partner in a compromising situation with $25,000 in stolen cash. The duo track the money to a loan shark, who reveals the Russian mob was in town looking for the former hitman and showed up asking for him. This led the investigation back to Leo's 'accident,' and it's discovered that Leo was out burying his strangle victim when someone shot at him.

As Watson tries to blow off Holmes' case to pursue her friend's lost lover, Holmes reveals it was him, as he had befriended her by tailing Watson when they first met. After Holmes had gotten to know Watson, he stopped doing so. Watson is not happy, but seems to move on...

The mortician discovers Leo's victim was on prescription medicine prescribed by a psychiatrist and the duo pays him a visit (after Holmes threatens to kill himself in the waiting room to get past the secretary). The doc leads to a dead-end mobster suspect, but it turns out Leo's wife had earlier helped the mobster get in try to kill her husband. When that failed, she tried to set him up to be killed, but Leo strangled the attacker, got away, and crashed because she shot at him. Turns out, Leo wanted a divorce and his wife did not, but she knew of his past mob connections and turned him in.

Holmes beats Watson to the punch at revealing the situation to her friend and hooks up with her again, to Watson's dismay. Watson gets Holmes back though and tricks him briefly into thinking he had helped her friend get pregnant.

Elementary - Reusable Murder Plans

Solid episode with Holmes' boxing skills on display, so let's hope to see those in practice. Not much character development for Watson, but abuse-heavy or drug-heavy episodes always give Holmes a chance to personally relate...

Mark Schafer / CBS ©2013 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Elementary "Poison Pen" (S02E04): Starting with Holmes boxing, 'fighting without mercy,' of which Watson disapproves. Holmes answers a call from a 'mistress' who turns out to be a dominatrix with a client who died, Titus Delancey. Watson chimes in with the statistic that the leading cause of death for men over 50 is a heart attack, but they determine the CEO was poisoned with an overdose of his heart medicine, nitroglycerine.

The duo tracks the latex suit Delancey was wearing to a specific sex shop where they find a picture of the man who purchase the XL suit. Upon questioning the purchaser, he admits to finding the Delancey dead, dressing him in the suit, and then calling the dominatrix to set-up the dead CEO in order to not pay out a severance of $150 million, as he would be considered amoral.

Holmes and Watson are introduced to the family's nanny, Ann Barker, who turns out to be Abigail Spencer, accused of killing her father with nitroglycerine when she was 15 years old. She's amazed Holmes recognized her after her plastic surgery, but apparently her voice gave her away. Holmes thinks the killer is trying to frame her, even though supposedly no one knew who she was.

Turns out, Holmes and Abigail had been penpals during the trial of her father's murder. Holmes was going by 'Shawn' at that time, so she didn't recognize him. Turns out, she actually gave Holmes enough information in the letters to know she did kill her father, but out of self-preservation. Holmes goes to see Abigail and gets a license plate number of someone who was following her, which turns out to be a private detective hired by Titus's wife (his children's step-mom). Upon questioning, her alibi is that she couldn't have killed her husband because at the time of the murder she was planning to kill her husband.

Watson questions Holmes and learns that Holmes was physically bullied and beaten as a boy in school and began writing Abigail because she was in a similar situation. The duo then questions Titus's older son, Graham, about a motive to kill his dad, and he reveals Titus and Abigail were fighting over a tablet days earlier. Holmes confronts Abigail, and, in trying to convince her he's a friend, reveals he knows she killed her father to which she has a negative reaction.

Searching for Titus's missing tablet, Watson and Detective Bell find it behind a fake air vent in his office and discover it contains videos of Titus sexually abusing his older son. Questioning Graham, they discover Graham was the one who had executed his step-mom's murder plan, just ahead of her. Abigail shows up and confesses in order to save Graham, feeling guilty over the fact that she missed what Titus was doing to Graham. Holmes offers to be a friend should Graham ever want to talk about his experience to someone versed in his situation.

Elementary - Creating a World Worth Living In... for whom?

One too many steps by an Edward Snowden wannabe leads to a unsatisfying capture. The increase in complexity to Watson's life should hamper her developing detective skills at some point, just as Holmes' Moriarty obsession should keep him unfit for human engagement... it's episode 3, and all's going well.

Mark Schäfer /CBS ©2013 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Elementary "We Are Everyone" (S02E03): Watson's catch-up time with friends gets interrupted with Holmes' picture messages, containing staged crime scenes using dolls in a dollhouse for her instant analysis. She returns to the Brownstone to find someone waiting to hire her and Holmes to discover where Ezra Kleinfelter, a person who's leaked classified documents, is hiding in order to protect him. But, because Holmes beat their new employer so readily at backgammon ('No Belgium is that bad at backgammon'), they follow him to discover he actually works for Erza's former employers who want Erza eliminated. Questioning the journalist to whom Ezra leaked his information, Watson flexes her 'Sherlock training' and explains that someone unpracticed at lying resorts to a defensive posture when forced to repeat it.

After learning Erza is passing information to the reporter via the security guard, Holmes lifts his phone and they discover someone named 'defenestrator' is harboring Erza. Holmes must engage the underground of the internet all night to get clues on the individual's location. Waking Watson with Clyde the turtle, they discover that a woman named Vanessa Hiskie is most likely hiding Ezra, and they proceed to break into her apartment, only to find her dead.

Watson announces to Holmes she's going to take her friend's suggestion and put up an online dating profile on TrueRomanitx. Asking Holmes to respect this new outlet of engaging the world, he agrees but now violates her privacy by putting Clyde in her bed.

Having to involve the police at this point, Ezra becomes the primary suspect in Vanessa's murder. Holmes and Watson return to the Brownstone, both now unable to tear themselves away from the internet: Watson for dating and Holmes for arguing with the underground. Holmes' theory is the government has gone bad, but soon Watson is getting called about naked train parties and someone has 20 pizzas delivered to their door. Holmes believes Hector the security guard is bringing down the wrath of the internet underground on them because he believes they are enemies of Ezra.

Returning to the police station as 'hacktivitists' continue to try and and torture them, Holmes discovers an O.C.D. (Office of Civil Defense) label on a box of Ezra's things, as he created a number of cold war bunkers. Apparently, the O.C.D. maintained 41 bunkers in New York City. They discover the bunker Ezra must have used, but can't get there before the FBI swoops in and arrests the pair for lots of bogus federal crimes.

After getting out and returning to the now-powerless Brownstone, the man Watson was conversing with on TrueRomantix stops by to make sure she's OK. Holmes gets back online but only to learn Erza is 'gone.' Tracking the leader of everyone, the online group helping Ezra, Holmes and friends end up catching him about to board a private plane, but have to let him on the threat of releasing the names of agents in deep cover.

Watson surprisingly lifts Ezra's watch before he boards the plane, which can be used to match his DNA to Vanessa's murder. Holmes returns to his employer and asks him to release the agents' names to the government and help them, as he was an agent himself.

Ezra is captured and confesses, removing everyone's grudge against them, returning power and internet to the Brownstone. Watson returns from a date and encourages Holmes to let other people get to know him, oblivious to the fact he's reading his latest letter received from Jamie Moriarty (formerly Irene Adler).

Elementary - P versus NP

Bouncing back, this was a good balance between Watson's character development and Holmes' detective prowess. It feels like the shows is taking a turn for the technical, chasing rogue developers and the masterminds behind them.

Mark Schäfer /CBS ©2013 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Elementary "Solve for X" (S02E02): Watson is remembering a deceased patient's birthday at the cemetary and ends up going for coffee with his son, Joey, while Holmes invites himself to a crime scene with two shooting victims. Holmes smells phosphors on the victim's walls. A black light reveals 'maths' written on the walls and ceiling.

Watson returns to the Brownstone after Joey pitches her to be an investor in his bar to find a topless mathematician working on the equations Holmes found at the crime scene. He identifies the equations as the 'P versus NP' problem, which the victim and a partner were weeks from solving. Watson and Holmes are referred to another professor, and they recognize the victim's partner's handwriting in a journal. But, Detective Bell calls to report another dead body, the same person Holmes and Watson discovered.

Watson asks Holmes for a $5,000 advance on her salary for Joey's bar, but Holmes wants to make sure she's not being taken advantage of, especially after she reveals she's given Joey money before. Bell finds a bug at the second mathematician's apartment and Holmes discovers a camera across the street wireless transmitting a video feed. They trace the signal back to a private security firm who was spying on the mathematicians because they wanted an exclusive on the solution. The security firm had the equations checked by a different professor to determine how far along they were, and she told them it was bogus. Turns out, it was the same professor who identified victim number two to Holmes and Watson, but she has an alibi for the murder.

Doing situps in front of pictures of mathmaticians at 2am, Holmes gives Watson not $5,000 but $20,000 to 'buy her way of out the guilt' for killing Joey's father, as 'guilt' is the worst kind of poison in his opinion. Holmes goes back to visit Tanya Barrett (the professor who misled the security company) to ask about anyone who might want to frame her. She points him at her ex-boyfriend, but he denies sending incriminating emails found in his email account.

The second shooting victim is awake, and identifies Tanya as the person who shot him. Holmes and Watson look at the security footage again that Tanya used for her alibi. Watson spotted cheap drinks and determined it was happy hour, and someone faked the timestamp. They return to Tanya's partner and discover she found the solution to P versus NP and killed the others to buy time until she could use it to steal loads of cash. She also used the software developed from the solution by her partner to hack the videotape time, as well as her ex's email account.

Watson decides to give Joey a scholarship and not a bar investment, which he is not thrilled about. Holmes claims he wants to accompany Watson to the cemetery next time...

RETURNING: Elementary - London, Baby!

A good start to the season, but lacking in the normal supplemental characters makes it a bit dry. No offense to Watson and Holmes, but the other characters add a needed reality and flavor to the duo's lives. London has spectacular sights, but the New York crime scene has it beat as the premiere setting for the show.

Elementary "Step Nine" (S02E01): Starting off in a London cemetery wacting a grenade-wielding heckler at a funeral, inspector Le Strand seems to have gone crazy. Back in the U.S., Holmes and Watson seem to be in the middle of a case where an organized crime group is murdering judges that has left Holmes tracking their communication method: pigeons. They catch their suspect as Holmes gets a call regarding trouble with Le Strand, and head off to London.

Holmes explains to Watson he and Le Strand's relationship: Holmes solved crimes and Le Strand enjoyed the spotlight for his successes. Watson inquired as to Holmes' frame of mind returning to London to which he replies, "London is always a different city."

In London, they head straight to Scotland Yard to determine Le Strand's issues. Turns out, Le Strand had shown up at the funeral of a woman whom he thought was murdered by her husband, Lawrence Pendry. Holmes and Watson head to 221B, his old place, which has been maintained by an acquaintace called Gieser Bob. Holmes finds all his things gone and replaced with 'nice things.' Holmes' exploration of the 'damage' is interrupted by the appearance of Microft, Holmes' brother.

Turns out, Holmes' father gave 221B to Microft because he owns the building. Apparently, Sherlock had a relationship with Microft's fiancee 5 years earlier because he thought she was after Microft's money. Upset, Holmes leaves Watson to sleep and goes to find Le Strand. He does and attempts to walk him into Scotland Yard. Le Strand convinces Sherlock to work with him to solve the case.

The next day, Watson discovers Holmes never came home and has a discussion about his character with Microft. Watson meets up with Holmes in an abandoned theater and introduces Le Strand. They turn their attention to the case and Holmes notices a bottle of milk out of place in crime scene photos. They devise a plan to get into Pendry's home to investigate by having Le Strand make threats against Pendry in a fake suicide note. Holmes and Watson meet with Pendry at his house and leave with Holmes confident Pendry committed the murder.

Holmes, Watson, and Le Strand meet back in Le Strand's theater hideout. Holmes explains how Pendry used a 3D-printed plastic gun to kill his wife and then dissolved it in a bottle of acetone that ended up looking like milk. The nail used as a firing pin is hanging one of the pieces of art on the wall.

Holmes and Watson head off to track the sales of 3D printers by asking for help from a 'watcher,' Langdale Pike, who watches people via all the cameras in London.

Des Willie/CBS ©2013 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

After receiving a list of people who purchased 3D printers, Holmes heads back to Le Strand to work on the list and Watson to her date with Microft. At dinner, Microft reveals he had been very sick and had received a bone marrow transplant months earlier. He asks how to become Sherlock's friend and regrets the current state of their relationship.

Le Strand and Holmes discover an associate of Pendry's who purchased a 3D printer, but discovers the man is dead. Watson and the police show up and Watson's analysis leads Holmes to search for other clues and solve the case. Turns out, Pendry printed another plastic gun but used a 22LR bullet that caused the gun to explode, leaving gun fragments in the fruit of the dead man's apartment. Holmes asks Le Strand to not take credit for solving the case, but he does anyway.

On the way out of town, Holmes meets Microft in response to an urgent text. Microft reveals he stored all of Holmes' possessions previously in 221B, but proceeds to blow them up. He now claims their relationship is even. Watson and Holmes head out on a train, presumably to the airport.

Newsroom Factroom - Red Team III (S02E07)

Bring on Operation Genoa and all of its fallout glory. Given that the cat's out of the bag and the handling of this story is now the bigger issue on the show, it seems allowable to reveal the name of the original mission and compare accordingly. Reading about it will not reveal anything not already covered in the show.

Operation Genoa is based on a real classified mission codenamed Operation Tailwind. The original special report was created by CNN and run in the same time slot: Sunday night at 9pm. The original mission took place in 1970 and was going into Laos and not the Hindu Kush like the show portrays. Rather than doing a point-by-point account of the massive number of differences, a few will be called out and only the larger ones fact-checked. Should you want to get a start by learning everything there is to know about the fallout from the story, there's a DoD report, the review of an independent lawyer hired by CNN, the pentagon's response, and a short film interviewing eyewitnesses. Oh yeah, and that election thing is happening...

The legend: accurate, potentially accurate, or inaccurate.  Lights, camera, election...

• Operation Genoa was an extraction. The first unit sent in goes down and a second unit goes in and saves the original captives, two marines.
• Inaccurate.
• The nature of the mission is one of the two details for which CNN apologizes in their official retraction of the story. The original mission was to create a diversion for another operation and put pressure on the other side. The portrayal of the mission as a rescue was a good choice because gas is historically a common tool in most rescue missions.
• The pentagon told the former US Navy Seal who wrote a book about capturing Bin Laden they would pursue any and all legal remedies.
• Basically, yes
• In a letter faxed to the book's author, the pentagon did threaten legal action for violating non-disclosures. Matt Bissonnette was never charged with any crime by the pentagon.
• US Representative Thaddeus McCotter had the strangest resignation speech ever.
• Agreed, but there's more...
• His resignation letter is there in black and white on Facebook, but that's just the last hurrah of a bizarre political career. Somehow fittingly, a scandal involving maliciously forged petitions erupted to interrupt the implosion, the likes of which still live on through Someecards. The sentencing of the aides involved was still going on until two months ago.

As far as Benghazi goes, the surprise of the actors and story behind the movie is more interesting than the White House trying to get their facts right after the fact... To close up Operation Genoa, definitely more than one person was fired over it (and it actually resulted in a complete change of CNN's board of directors) and CNN became the target for multiple lawsuits.

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