- Title: Elementary – The Price of Admission
- wiki: link
Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and Watson (Lucy Liu) investigate the murder at a shady storage facility technically not part of the United States where all manner of clients store goods they don’t wish to to pass through customs. Early investigation points to the victim breaking into various storage lockers and blackmailing his clients over their secrets, which Holmes believes got the man killed. Looking further into the information the blackmailer stumbled upon leads to world stakes involving the fragile peace between Ethiopia and its neighboring country, which have been fighting over a disputed stretch of land for years. The fact that the solution to the problem comes from Holmes’ off-screen call with his father, rather than any real detective work is a bit of a letdown (as is the unexplained red herring of the break-in of the coin collector’s cases which could hardly have led to strong blackmail material).
As expected, part of the episode focuses on Holmes attempting to reintegrate himself into his life in New York. In order to be restored to prominence Holmes blackmails the head of the New York branch of the FBI, threatening to expose the man’s connection to Morland Holmes in which the agent accepted a bribe to look the other way. While it actually takes up less screntime than I expected, the plot ends in a twist (as Holmes gets his way, but not in how he expected) which threatens to continue to have danger surround the consulting detectives for the remainder of the season. For now, Holmes and Watson are back in business in New York. However, before the end of the season I would expect some final confrontation between Sherlock and his new friend at the FBI who has taken steps to keep Holmes off his case for the foreseeable future.
