- Title: Elementary – A Landmark Story
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“The thing that’s different about me, empirically speaking, is you.”
Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) heads to prison to talk with Sebastian Moran (Vinnie Jones) who informs the consulting detective that an apparent heart attack victim who was targeted by Moriarty and most certainly did not die of natural causes. To check the murderer’s assertions, Holmes and Watson (Lucy Liu) break into a funeral home “in the middle of the night to perform an illicit autopsy” which proves at least part of Moran’s story is true. Believing the man’s murder had something to do with his vote on renovating a historical speakeasy, Holmes and Watson head over to talk with the contractor of the project who met with his own apparently accidental death via falling air conditioner that very morning. The game is definitely afoot.
Deducing the motive, Holmes and Watson stakeout the sole remaining voice against the project (Helen Coxe) who they believe the unusual assassin (F. Murray Abraham) plans to kill her via bee attack. Although the man never met Moriarty, he agrees to tell Holmes what he knows including his recruitment into Moriarty’s organization. The information provided Holmes and Watson to catch a glimpse the man (Roger Aaron Brown) who recruited him (thanks to Holmes’ quick thinking and photography skills) who Holmes is later able to identify thanks to the makeshift photograph, the scant clues given to them by the serial killer, and Holmes’ connections in London.
Sadly for the detective (but no big shock to the audience), the man is neither Moriarty or the man responsible for Irene Adler’s death. When he is killed before Holmes’ eyes before he can offer any more information about Moriarty, the detective has no choice but to turn his captured killer over to the police and let Captain Gregson (Aidan Quinn) in on his case. As Holmes’ net tightens he finds any hint of Moriarty slip through his fingers, including Moran whose unexpected suicide Moriarty used the consulting detective to help facilitate. The episode ends on a cliffhanger and the promise of more than a simple phone conversation between Holmes and a man at the other end claiming to be Moriarty.
The episode has another nice matter-of-fact heart-to-heart moment between Holmes and Watson and a bag full of LEGOs, both which remind us just how far Holmes has come thanks to Watson’s help without getting sappy or maudlin. I’m a bit saddened to see Moran taken out so easily, but the sequence of events certainly showcases Moriarty’s reach and ability to use whatever is at his disposal to further the mastermind’s own ends. Aside from Moriarty’s considerable reach, the episode also points out the vast network at his disposal, and the intriguing fact that Moriarty once targeted Holmes for death but later changed his mind. I have a feeling the man on the other end of the line will turn out to be yet another red herring, but that doesn’t mean Holmes can take the chance of loosing any possible chance of meeting Moriarty face-to-face.
