Episode Title: 'While You Were Sleeping'
Writer: Robert Doherty
Director: John Coles
Previously on "Elementary":
Story:
Captain Gregson (Aidan Quinn) calls Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) when a man named Casey McManus is found dead by his neighbor in his apartment. After arriving at the scene, Sherlock quickly deduces that two crimes were committed – a murder and a robbery.
As he explains to Gregson and Detective Bell (Jon Michael Hill), an armoire was moved out of the apartment. But according to Sherlock, the killer had to be a woman based on the deodorant scent he picked up. This leads him to believe the victim's neighbor stole the armoire. The theory is proven correct when Sherlock finds the large piece of furniture in the man's apartment.
After ruling out the neighbor as the killer, Sherlock has a sketch drawn up based on the neighbor's description of the woman he saw lurking around the building that night. Detective Bell calls to tell Sherlock he found the woman, identified as Yvette Ellison, after a colleague recognized her from the sketch which the neighbor confirmed. Unfortunately, Ellison has been in the hospital in a coma for the past three days, making it impossible for her to be the killer.
At the hospital, Sherlock thinks Yvette (Amy Landon) is faking however Watson (Lucy Liu) uses her medical expertise to confirm her condition. When Sherlock finds an inscription in the book at her Yvette's bedside, he learns that she has a twin sister and suspects she's the killer. However, when they pay her a visit, Sherlock and Watson learn Rebecca Ellison (Jennifer Ferrin) is Yvette's fraternal, not identical twin.
That night, Gregson calls about another shooting death in which the same gun that killed McManus was used. At the crime scene, Watson finds medicine used to treat the same condition McManus was suffering from. Based on this and the victim's facial features, Sherlock thinks the victim is McManus' sister.
Gregson confirms the two victims were half-siblings and that neither knew who their father was. When the detectives learn that the second victim had been tailed by a private detective colleague of Gregson's, they pay him a visit. At first he refuses to talk about the case but after a little coercion from Sherlock, he allows the detectives to look at his file.
Based on the file, Sherlock returns to Rebecca Ellison's office. She admits to having her lawyers investigate the two siblings as they were the illegitimate children of her recently deceased father, Charles Ellison, a wealthy shipping magnate. Though he left his fortune to his two children, the two victims could have laid claim to it. Rebecca wanted to find out what kind of people they were before reaching out. But before she and her sister could make decision about what to do with the money, Yvette went into a tailspin after getting into a relationship with a married man. After overdosing on pills, Yvette went into a coma.
Rebecca Ellison is ruled out as the killer when security footage shows her at her apartment the nights the murder took place. When Watson takes Sherlock to a support meeting, he has a breakthrough while listening to a woman talk about her relationship with a married doctor.
Sherlock and the detectives rush to the hospital where they find Rebecca at Yvette's bedside. He accuses Rebecca of tampering with the security cameras and says he knows about her plans to murder a third heir to the fortune that night. He names the woman and gives her address before he's arrested for assaulting Detective Bell who tried to restrain him.
That night, a woman sneaks into the home of the third heir but she's caught by Gregson. She's revealed to be Yvette Ellison. Sherlock explains to Rebecca that he realized Yvette was faking her coma, thanks to help from her doctor boyfriend who was drugging her. When the doctor heard Sherlock's outburst about the third heir, he alerted Yvette. With Sherlock under arrest, the two seized the opportunity to commit the murder. However, there never was a third heir as the address Sherlock gave was to a police officer's house where Gregson was waiting to make the arrest.
Breakdown:
Lack of chemistry between two lead characters is something I never thought I'd be happy about but such is the case with 'Elementary.' Let me clarify that: lack of "romantic chemistry." While there's plenty of bickering, none of the back and forth between Johnny Lee Miller's Sherlock and Lucy Liu's Watson feels even remotely flirtatious and hopefully it stays that way.
Now that I've shrugged off any comparisons to BBC's 'Sherlock' after last week's premiere, the second hour of 'Elementary' was much more enjoyable. With another interesting though somewhat far-fetched case (a woman seduces a doctor so he'll place her in a temporary coma in between murders), Sherlock once again wowed us his investigative skills while getting in some quality bonding time with his sober buddy, Watson.
Frankly, the tricks of Sherlock's trade aren't anything we haven't seen before on other procedurals (like that other Sherlock Holmes show, for example), but Jonny Lee Miller's brings a kind of quasi-punk charm to the Sherlock role, what with his tattoos, hipster attire and kinky sex references. And Lucy Liu's wry wit tempers Miller's arrogance with humorous effect.
So what did we learn in this episode? Well, like Watson, Sherlock is doing penance for sins of the past. He may not want to be "friends" with Watson but they're kindred souls. And she's also proving pretty helpful with his cases, being a former surgeon and all.
While Sherlock's budding platonic partnership with Watson develops nicely, the consultant relationship with Detective Gregson and his colleagues is still somewhat baffling. Is Sherlock going to face friction from a different one of Gregson's detectives each week? If so, it's going to get tiresome.
If he's so impressed with Sherlock's investigative skills, why does Gregson give Sherlock even the slightest bit of grief? Answer? The show needs conflict. But this isn't where it should come from. Otherwise, the premise needs some retooling. Perhaps if Sherlock were installed by some superior to Detective Gregson, forcing him to work with the quirky consultant…?
All that aside, 'Elementary' looks to be a mild hit for CBS and for good reason. And as far as that much needed conflict is concerned, with the promise of Sherlock's famed nemesis, Moriarty to arrive on the scene, it can only get better.
