Elementary 3.12 The One Who Got Away

[selenak]

Still sick, but somewhat better. Also, I just had to know what happened in Elementary.



So I got a mixture of two guessed scenarios, along with Sherlock bringing up the Moran parallel he didn't last episode. Kitty pointing out he didn't have the right man, but that she did, made me wonder: would Sherlock in his M episode state had stopped if Moran hadn't been able to convince him of Moriarty's existence and that fact, he, Moran, hadn't killed Irene Adler? Hmmm. Anyway. Heartbreaking as it was, I'm good with how the show ultimately went - Kitty didn't kill Del Gruner, but she did what her ACD original also did, use vitriol on his face, which meant she couldn't stay in New York; however, she and Holmes & Watson did not part badly, but in affection, with Kitty promising to use the skills she's learned to help people. This is more or less how I imagined she'd depart at the end of the season, so my only two problems with it currently are: a) what IS going to happen the rest of the season? And b) why no Kitty and Joan goodbye scene? Actually the later makes me assume Kitty will be back for the season finale or so because I can't imagine there won't be any at all, given that the relationship between Kitty and Joan has been treated as equally important otherwise.

This said, I loved both the flashbacks, showing us how the Kitty and Sherlock relationship started (and Kitty got from unable to look at a man but determined at crime solving anyway to the still jittery but far more confident person we meet at the start of the season), and the present day, with Sherlock at no point trying to tell Kitty what she should or shouldn't do, just pointing out an alternative while leaving the choice to her. The mutuality of saving each other. (This is something the show is so excellent at, making relationships mutual and balanced.) The tenderness there without ever expressed in a touch.

The opening scene betwen Watson and Holmes expositioned to us how the "coincidence" of Joan's boss being Kitty's assailant wasn't a coincidence. I had forgotten Gruner had given Joan a company phone, which of course was a way to track her; Joan figured it out quickly enough. Going to the charity event in order to get a rise out of Gruner was a gamble on her part, but it did pay off. (Poor kid, though. Finding out your biological mother was tortured and raped and eventually killed by your biological father....) On a shallow level, Lucy Liu looks awesome in formal wear. Like I said, I did miss at least one Kitty and Joan scene in this episode but am willing to let it go IF there is one in the season finale. Maybe both of them will have to team up to save Sherlock, or something like that? Because again, where do we go from here? This first season half had such a strong narrative drive and now emotional wrap up. Goodbye for now, Kitty. You were a wonderful new character and Holmes & Watson forming a family with you was my favourite thing to happen on this show since the conclusion of season 1.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

I really loved this episode and everything about it except, as you say, the lack of Joan & Kitty interaction. But I agree that the way Kitty has left leaves the door open for her to return briefly at any time. The flashbacks showing Kitty and Sherlock (and, although Kitty didn't know it, how she was helping Sherlock as well as the reverse) were great, and I loved that Kitty was trying to be a detective and help save a child even before she met Sherlock. And then that scene where Sherlock laid out her options and left her to decide - seeing him acknowledge her as an adult and the director of her own fate - that was amazing in both writing and acting.

[likeadeuce]

And the ending with 'you'll always be my friend' from a man who keeps insisting on defining his relationships as something other than friendship was just heartbreaking. (And weirdly made me think about Spock's death scene in WoK though obvs the Implications are different.)

[selenak]

"I am and always shall be..." You know, you're right.

[selenak]

Very true. Among many other things, this shows you can do a rape/torture backstory/storyline for a female character in a show with a male co-lead without making it in any way exploitatious, or about him. There's no flashback to the rape (the audience is told all it needs to know via Kitty's current day reactions). At no point is it used to motivate Sherlock. Whenever Kitty's backstory comes up, the focus is always on her, how she deals, and how - if the case of the week has gone through something similar - she helps others. And while the backstory is an important part of Kitty, it's not what solely defines her; we've seen her active and successful in cases that have nothing whatsoever to do with rape.

[lilacsigil]

Yes! I liked very much that the case she was trying to solve in the UK was nothing to do with women victims or rape, but it was still influenced by her own experience of abduction. Sherlock meets many rape victims and crime survivors: it was what Kitty was doing afterwards that was of interest to him. It was an extremely well-done storyline, and one that could have been done (and in other places, has been done) very poorly.

[nenya_kanadka]

Yes. This is the first story with a female character's rape/abduction in a long time (ever?) that I have not cringed my way through. It was still sad and worrying to watch, but not sickening in a sexist way. I LOVED that both Holmes and Watson (and Bell, and Gregson!) were part of a team with Kitty, methodically tracking down the guy who hurt her. She wasn't alone, she wasn't used as cheap drama. And at the same time there were a LOT of feelings there, from grief to fear to rage to love and friendship. It was pretty amazing.

I've not read the ACD version--would not have known about the acid part if my wife hadn't happened to mention it before the episode--but I loved Kitty and Sherlock saving each other, and "You'll always be my friend" and how she was doggedly already trying to help someone else even while she was no where near a healthy place herself yet.

Just so good. (And I still want to kick the crap out of Gruner. Which, well--thus the episode's plot, I guess.)

[sabra_n]

As soon as Gregson called Sherlock to the corpse on the roof I was so, so dreading the tropey exploitative shit procedural approach to Kitty's backstory. But it didn't happen! I'm not 100% satisfied with how the episode went down, but at least that wasn't the reason why, and boy was that a relief.

[jesuswasbatman]

Quick question if I ever watch this show: since corrosive substances are probably my only actual physical/psychological trigger, is the acid attack scene here as graphically gruesome as it is in the ACD story?

[selenak]

We don't see it actually happen. Kitty says something that makes her intention clear, and in the next scene, we see Gruner in the hospital, face bandaged.

[liviapenn]

She also tests her acid by pouring it on a steak earlier in the episode, if that would bother you. (And you might want to skip 3x07 altogether, but you know that if you've been reading selenak's reviews...)

[liviapenn]

Maybe both of them will have to team up to save Sherlock, or something like that?

This would be AWESOME. And interesting, because the one thing they left out of their "Illustrious Client" re-make is that Holmes gets beaten up really badly while trying to prove Baron Gruner is murderer, and it's super shocking because that never really happens in the stories. Of course his injuries turn out to be exaggerated so that he'll have the element of surprise, but it definitely be a dramatic season finale if Sherlock was physically put out of commission and Joan & Kitty had to save the day.

[monanotlisa]

This was a sad episode, but such a good one too -- probably the strongest of the season. Witholding the past Sherlock & Kitty scenes was a bit of a ploy, but it was done so well, bringing them full circle in saving each other.

As I told Siria, I think there was no easy or right way out of this; this storyline actually goes for the muddy, messy middle, and is more realistic for it.

[selenak]

Very true. Re: withholding the past Sherlock and Kitty scenes until now, in addition to the full circle effect, I think it was also done because it puts the audience in Joan's pov re: Kitty. We get to know her as Joan does, with no more knowledge than Joan has of her. If in the season opener we'd have gotten those flashbacks already, they would have jarred with that, and I don't think they would have had the same emotional effect. On the contrary, I think people would have complained that the show made the new character Kitty important to Sherlock at Joan's expense, and what not.