- Title: Elementary – The Grand Experiment
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Believing Mycroft‘s (Rhys Ifans) handler Sharington (Ralph Brown) to be the mole and the man framing his brother for his crimes, publicly Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) condemns Mycroft to MI:6 while sequestering Mycroft and working alongside Watson (Lucy Liu) to find a way to prove his brother’s innocence (even when every bit of evidence gathered only makes him appear more guilty).
Holmes’ investigation is stymied in a number of areas. Officially dismissed by MI:6 for his relationship with Mycroft, and forced to hold back crucial facts to Captain Gregson (Aidan Quinn) and Detective Bell (Jon Michael Hill) once the NYPD matches the fingerprints on the murder weapon to his brother, Holmes also must deal with Sharington seeing through his ploy and Watson’s revelation of how his own drug habit turned his brother into the man he is today. Amazed by Mycroft’s sacrifice, Holmes vows to make amends and turns his attention to the one local crime in the series of dates Holmes and Watson eventually decipher from the dead man’s encoded arms.
Their plan nabs a killer (Nasser Faris) which exposes Sharington as MI:6 mole, but Mycroft’s refusal to let his brother and Watson suffer the repercussions of Sharington’s arrest forces the elder Holmes brother to make a deal with the NSA who arrange both Sharington’s murder along with the appearance of Mycroft’s as well. Struggling to deal with a second sacrifice Mycroft has made to keep him safe, Holmes is also troubled that the series of events don’t change Watson’s mind about moving out of the brownstone. With stashed heroin in hand, Holmes makes an impulsive decision to take up MI:6 on their job offer leaving his future significantly murky as the season comes to a close.
Learning about both Mycroft’s sacrifice and Watson’s impending departure are certainly pressures that continue to build-up over the course of the episode. Holmes’ acceptance of some kind of a role with MI:6 is an interesting turn of events. How long such a partnership could last, how much Watson could be involved in such cases, and how the British Government would choose to use someone of his talents are certainly interesting questions to ponder. Is the deal merely Sherlock’s attempt to find a way to bring Mycroft home, a knee-jerk reaction to recent events, or the beginning of a new storyline for the world’s greatest detective?
