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Elementary 1.15 A big gun, filled with drugs
Now this one, I loved unreservedly. What a great episode! Joan was awesome, and colour me unsurprised that Sherlock's former drug dealer turns out to be Quintus Lentulus Batiatus. :)
From the minor details - Holmes regaling the AA group with a canonical Doyle adventure, the shoutout to the monograph on cigarette and cigar ashes, Watson calling him on the misogyny of the PMS joke - to the big issues, about whom more in a moment, this was perfect. Well, if you want to get extremely nitpicky, I guess this means Alfredo was really meant only as a one episode guest star, because if there ever was an ep in which he would have fitted, it was this one. But it was so good I didn't mind.
Okay, big issues. Given how seriously this show takes the recovering addict aspect of Holmes and the sober companion profession of Watson, we had to get, sooner or later, an episode where he was tempted to use again. This was what I had been afraid would happen either as a play to keep Watson with him (which would have betrayed the relationship that had been building between these two) or as something in connection with the M storyline when he went dark side (which would have been a cliché). Thankfully, neither happened. Instead, here temptation arrives packaged as a means to help a victim for whom time was running out and a hit on what Holmes' is proudest of, his intellectual prowess. The suggestion by Rhys that Holmes could think faster on cocaine was great (as a storytelling device, I mean, not as an action!) precisely because this was the kind of thing which an audience could believe would push this particular Holmes back to using, grown from his characterisation throughout the show. Of course, it's even better that he did not reuse (and rejected the idea that he was a better thinker on drugs) - and that we saw him struggle, that it was hard for him; that he was honest to Watson throughout the episode from the moment he told her who Rhys had been directly after encountering him to the end when they went to the AA meeting.
As for Joan Watson, Sober Companion extraordinaire: can't decide whether her scene with Rhys in the bathroom was my favourite, or her taking out the villain of the week and saving Rhys' life. I continue to adore the mixture of steadfast emotional support she shows while not letting Holmes away with things like the PMS jokes (and in turn, his trust in and respect for her (he may ridicule aspects of the whole AA thing but he does take the whole process seriously by now and participates). They really are my favourite male and female friendship on tv right now.
Rhys: the show had to tread a delicate line here - he needed to be sympathetic enough to show make it believable why Holmes bothers (above and beyond the need to help a kidnapping victim), yet not unbelievable as a former drug dealer (who didn't get into that profession out of the goodness of his heart). So John Hannah was an excellent casting choice. One did believe he liked Holmes beyond needing to use him, and was seriously freaked out at the prospect of his daughter being condemmed to death, but you also believed the ruthlessness with which he presented the cocaine when he thought Holmes didn't deliver the solution fast enough. Also, as opposed to Alistair, Teddy, and Alfredo, there is a good in show reason if he never shows up again. Even if he hadn't pulled the cocaine thing, because, again, this show is really good in its treatment of the long, hard road to recovery; in this case, that you can't really separate "my friend" from "my former drug dealer", no matter how sincere the affection was/is, and that this is a good reason NOT to hang out together.
Bits and pieces:
- I think that was the first episode where no one died? We've had episodes where the original case wasn't murder before, sure, but sooner or later, a dead body or several presented itself. Not this time. Though poor Emily lost a finger. *has Alias flashback*
- they only had a scene this week (well, Bell had two), but I enjoyed Gregson and Bell grilling the villain; also I didn't mind them being mostly absent otherwise, because we also didn't have an entirely unrelated to the NYPD case of the week before, either
- despite the fact I saw Lucy Liu first in Kill Bill, where she plays an Evil Overlady Extraordinaire, I never associate O-Ren with Joan Watson; but in her bathroom scene with Rhys, that cool delivery of a threat with her never raising her voice suddenly brought a second of association
- just when I complained in my previous review that the last three episodes for me were missing in one aspect I like about this incarnation of Holmes, his concern for the victims beyond the gratification of solving the puzzle, bang comes an episode which brings that back again, and how. Holmes calling his father (btw, this means theories about the man's lack of existence are nil, I suppose, since Sherlock is alone in the scene wheren he says "I'd like to talk to my father" and thus can't be faking for anyone) in order to save Emily was extraordinary
From the minor details - Holmes regaling the AA group with a canonical Doyle adventure, the shoutout to the monograph on cigarette and cigar ashes, Watson calling him on the misogyny of the PMS joke - to the big issues, about whom more in a moment, this was perfect. Well, if you want to get extremely nitpicky, I guess this means Alfredo was really meant only as a one episode guest star, because if there ever was an ep in which he would have fitted, it was this one. But it was so good I didn't mind.
Okay, big issues. Given how seriously this show takes the recovering addict aspect of Holmes and the sober companion profession of Watson, we had to get, sooner or later, an episode where he was tempted to use again. This was what I had been afraid would happen either as a play to keep Watson with him (which would have betrayed the relationship that had been building between these two) or as something in connection with the M storyline when he went dark side (which would have been a cliché). Thankfully, neither happened. Instead, here temptation arrives packaged as a means to help a victim for whom time was running out and a hit on what Holmes' is proudest of, his intellectual prowess. The suggestion by Rhys that Holmes could think faster on cocaine was great (as a storytelling device, I mean, not as an action!) precisely because this was the kind of thing which an audience could believe would push this particular Holmes back to using, grown from his characterisation throughout the show. Of course, it's even better that he did not reuse (and rejected the idea that he was a better thinker on drugs) - and that we saw him struggle, that it was hard for him; that he was honest to Watson throughout the episode from the moment he told her who Rhys had been directly after encountering him to the end when they went to the AA meeting.
As for Joan Watson, Sober Companion extraordinaire: can't decide whether her scene with Rhys in the bathroom was my favourite, or her taking out the villain of the week and saving Rhys' life. I continue to adore the mixture of steadfast emotional support she shows while not letting Holmes away with things like the PMS jokes (and in turn, his trust in and respect for her (he may ridicule aspects of the whole AA thing but he does take the whole process seriously by now and participates). They really are my favourite male and female friendship on tv right now.
Rhys: the show had to tread a delicate line here - he needed to be sympathetic enough to show make it believable why Holmes bothers (above and beyond the need to help a kidnapping victim), yet not unbelievable as a former drug dealer (who didn't get into that profession out of the goodness of his heart). So John Hannah was an excellent casting choice. One did believe he liked Holmes beyond needing to use him, and was seriously freaked out at the prospect of his daughter being condemmed to death, but you also believed the ruthlessness with which he presented the cocaine when he thought Holmes didn't deliver the solution fast enough. Also, as opposed to Alistair, Teddy, and Alfredo, there is a good in show reason if he never shows up again. Even if he hadn't pulled the cocaine thing, because, again, this show is really good in its treatment of the long, hard road to recovery; in this case, that you can't really separate "my friend" from "my former drug dealer", no matter how sincere the affection was/is, and that this is a good reason NOT to hang out together.
Bits and pieces:
- I think that was the first episode where no one died? We've had episodes where the original case wasn't murder before, sure, but sooner or later, a dead body or several presented itself. Not this time. Though poor Emily lost a finger. *has Alias flashback*
- they only had a scene this week (well, Bell had two), but I enjoyed Gregson and Bell grilling the villain; also I didn't mind them being mostly absent otherwise, because we also didn't have an entirely unrelated to the NYPD case of the week before, either
- despite the fact I saw Lucy Liu first in Kill Bill, where she plays an Evil Overlady Extraordinaire, I never associate O-Ren with Joan Watson; but in her bathroom scene with Rhys, that cool delivery of a threat with her never raising her voice suddenly brought a second of association
- just when I complained in my previous review that the last three episodes for me were missing in one aspect I like about this incarnation of Holmes, his concern for the victims beyond the gratification of solving the puzzle, bang comes an episode which brings that back again, and how. Holmes calling his father (btw, this means theories about the man's lack of existence are nil, I suppose, since Sherlock is alone in the scene wheren he says "I'd like to talk to my father" and thus can't be faking for anyone) in order to save Emily was extraordinary
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By the way, did you get the relevance of the episode title?
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