selenak

In which we're finally getting somewhere interesting with the Michael plot.

I'm of course relieved that it was, as commenters have assured me last week, indeed Hannah's room mate, not Hannah, who got killed. (Sorry, Hannah's roommate.) Also, yet another Gregson and Sherlock scene for me to treasure. (I'm really getting indulged with those this season.)

Most importantly, though: the episode throws a couple of curveballs. Sherlock figures out that Michael's the killer pretty quickly, which means we're not subjected to more episodes where the audience knows something our heroes don't. Michael then proves he's smart enough to be interesting by a) realising Sherlock is onto him, b), for all that he wanted Holmes & the police to figure it out, not to leave any actual evidence that would make him arrestable, and c) not doing what every other longterm villain at some point does, try to get to Sherlock by threatening his nearest and dearest (be that Joan or Sherlock's original sponsor or a relation). Instead, he's delivering a collapsing Sherlock to the nearest hospital, and stays calm throughout.

We also get the first case of moral ambiguity on the part of Our Heroes since they were trying to find evidence on Morland and Joan resorted to blackmail when Sherlock decides that slipping Michael some heroin, while utterly repellent on a "how to treat a fellow recovering addict" level, would be justifiable on a "how to trap a serial killer with at least 14 murders to his score and no signs of stopping" level, and Joan agrees. It doesn't happen because Michael has already gone, but in addition to the moral aspect, it's telling for Sherlock's state that he considers it in that it's actually an admission he can't, for the moment, intellectually trap Michael by finding evidence. Though the moral aspect is a big one, and looks like it's justifying the existence of Michael as a character, because in all of his conversations with Sherlock so far, he does use the "fellow recovering addict" factor and he's not lying about that, plus the whole dealing with addiction thing has been so elemental, pun inevitable, for the show and for Sherlock's and Joan's characters that going through with this would be a major transgression.

Now: I take it none of us believe Sherlock is actually going on vacation to Vermont, so apparantly he has deduced Michael is heading that way?