- Title: Elementary – Dead Clade Walking
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“The dinosaur in Doug Newbern’s backyard did indeed escape my notice.”
When Watson (Lucy Liu) pokes around one of Sherlock Holmes‘ (Jonny Lee Miller) old unsolved murders she finds something the detective missed the first time around: a Paleozoic rock with the fossilized skeleton of a complete dinosaur inside. The discovery of the fossil leads the pair into the world of smuggling, and after a notorious smuggler known only as The Magpie whose agents liberate the fossil from the NYPD while posing as Custom Agents. When the smuggler turns up dead, along with a completely destroyed fossil of the Nanotyrannus and DNA that matches a man who can’t possibly be their killer, Holmes is forced to reexamine the case.
While looking into the murders surrounding the skeleton, Holmes is distracted by performing his role as sponsor for Randy (Stephen Tyrone Williams) whose confusion about the return of his druggie ex-girlfriend puts his own sobriety at risk. After trying to be supportive, Holmes takes Watson’s advice for some tough-love but soon begins to wonder if he indeed did the right thing.
On examination of the remains of the fossil with the help of a geologist (Ashlie Atkinson), Holmes comes up with a new motive for the murder which gives the episode its title and eventually leads the detectives to a man who committed double-homicide simply to stop the skeleton from ever seeing the light of day. Finding a way to both solve the case and perform his duties, even if his tough-love led to a temporary slip-up by Randy, Holmes emerges victorious from his experience as the show continues to work the thread of the character’s addiction into the series while providing an intriguing motive for murder involving an actual dinosaur.
