Elementary – Lesser Evils

• Title: Elementary – Lesser Evils
• tv.com: link

While doing a little late night experimenting in the hospital morgue Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) uncovers what he believes to be the work of a serial killer acting as a self-appointed angel of death by killing terminally ill patients. Barricading Watson (Lucy Liu) and himself in the dead man’s hospital room Holmes comes up with a single clue which leads the pair in search of the victim’s neighbor (Rozi Baker) and the last person to see the man alive.

Knowing he won’t get the support he needs from the hospital’s administrator, Holmes tries a different tack with an influential and well-respected surgeon (David Harbour) who can get him the patient files he needs to prove his theory. Discovering nine potential victims, Holmes tries to whittle down the list of suspects with the help of Detective Bell (Jon Michael Hill). Meanwhile Watson takes some time to reconnect with an old friend (Anika Noni Rose) working at the hospital and insinuate her in her friend’s latest case.

Catching one member of the hospital staff (Ben Rappaport) siphoning off morphine for his personal use leads Holmes to question the hospital’s janitor (David Costabile), a former doctor in the Ukraine who admits to helping the victim’s find peaceful release. His confession also sheds new light on the condition of one of his victim’s which leads Holmes to find a second murderer and the reasons behind the death of the one non-terminal victim of the angel of death.

The episode not only gives us more of a glimpse into Watson’s past but provides a good mystery (even if the janitor was a little too obvious), by adding an interesting final twist to the one murder that sticks out from all the others. Elementary seems to be finding it’s stride. I’m enjoying the impulse control problems mixed with the singular focus of Miller’s Holmes which leads him into as many problems and confrontations as the cases it helps him solve.