- Title: Elementary – The Illustrious Client
- wiki: link
Since her introduction as Sherlock Holmes‘ (Jonny Lee Miller) new protege in the Third Season premiere we’ve been left to wonder the exact nature of the traumatic events which caused Kitty (Ophelia Lovibond) to meet the famous detective in London and convince him to take the smart but troubled young woman under his wing. After being teased with offhand remarks and brief mentions about her assault and kidnapping the other shoe finally drops when the body of a new victim shows up in New York with the same distinct scars Kitty still carries on her back.
Despite beginning her first day as an insurance investigator, Watson (Lucy Liu) drops her responsibilities and even asks her boss (Stuart Townsend) for a favor in order to help Sherlock and Kitty track down the man responsible. The clues lead the detectives to a white slavery ring and a man who Kitty is not positively able to identify as the man who abducted her. With the man’s death the case appears closed but due to Kitty’s zealousness in forcing a witness to come forward she finds herself on the outs with Captain Gregson (Aidan Quinn) and the NYPD. Despite the evidence tying everything back to the brothel of enslaved woman from Eastern Europe, there are a handful of pieces of evidence and discrepancies with her own case that refuse to allow the detective-in-training to accept the official story.
The only piece of the episode that doesn’t work for me is Holmes’ wiliness to accept that they got their man despite the lingering evidence to the contrary (he’s refused to accept cases are done on far less over the show’s three seasons). If Lovibond was cast only for the episode’s closing scene the show certainly go their money’s worth as she identifies the man truly responsible or her torture and the murder of at least one other woman. The twist isn’t surprising as the guest-casting certainly plays to type (and the episode was purposely marketed as the first-half a two-episode event). The real question becomes why would Watson’s new boss purposely create a connection with the detective realizing it exponentially increased his chance of coming into contact with Kitty and being exposed? And, now that he is, just how far will Sherlock and Joan go to get their friend the justice she seeks?
