Showing posts with label Elementary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elementary. Show all posts

Thursday, May 14, 2015

'Elementary' 3x23 'Absconded' GifTweetCap: Mass Bee Murder!

"Absconded" is Elementary's first dud episode in awhile. It had a few good elements, but defied logic in a number of areas. Ah, well, they can't all be winners, right? Let's just hope the finale makes up for it. Oh, and gifs and tweets can help make up for it as well! The following gifs are available on this Tumblr post. The podcast I co-host is not yet available for this episode, but you can subscribe on iTunes.

The episode starts right off with a solved crime... involving a dumb criminal who thought he could set up an elaborate plan involving a Raggedy Andy flash mob that he could hide within after killing his boss in broad daylight. Yeeeeeah... and he left all the evidence they needed to find him right in the production of the masks!
Next up, we've got the murder of USDA Bee Man Everett Keck, but it's OK, because we soon learn that he is a mass bee murderer in a ridiculous plot to become rich.
Then a doofus cop arrests Sherlock for saving him from killing himself through the sniffing of the cyanide murder weapon.
Side note: Gregson is being offered a promotion, yay! Well, except he wants Watson to check out his replacement first, in case she's a nincompoop or evil drug kingpin or something like that.
They soon find the killer, because he had accused Keck of killing his bees. He soon confesses out of guilt for killing a man over bees, but why the heck did Keck kill the bees in the first place?
Sherlock decides to test a new theory that bee stings can appear to be hypodermic marks. He does this test while on the phone, hoping they won't put him on hold... but wasn't he just about to put them on hold so he could hold the bee on his arm so it could sting him?
The reason for the test is to see whether someone had attempted to murder Keck's boss, Calvin Barnes. Barnes had a heart attack, but also had several bee stings. He was also very healthy, which means that he could have been injected with something to cause a heart attack, and the evidence hidden among the bee stings.
Well, that's exactly what happened, but why? Because of incredibly stupid reasons, that's why. Things seem fairly logical until a kidnapped Sheikh is thrown in the mix. Some freaky woman named Tara Parker and her husband Griffin hatched a plan along with Keck to kidnap the Sheikh and hold him for ransom so they could be rich.
When Sherlock connects Keck's Buddha shirt to a theology hood on some racy photos Tara used to lure the Sheikh to town, her husband confesses to everything because, you know, now that he can see that she slept with Keck, he hates his wife and his life and EVERYTHING!!!
At the end of the episode, Gregson turns down the promotion because he is already at the high point in his life and loves everything and everybody. Unfortunately, his buddy who brought him the promotion news thinks that the promotion was a setup to get him to leave his current job. He doesn't offer any other info, so we are left with an extremely mild cliffhanger going into the finale.
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Wednesday, May 13, 2015

'Elementary' 3x22 'The Best Way Out Is Always Through' Gif-Tweet-Cap: Lockbell!

"The Best Way Out Is Always Through" is a great Elementary for Lockbell fans. This is the closest their friendship has ever been. If you're wondering why this is almost a week later than normal, it's because I had to save my new garden from a storm, and it's difficult to make extra time other than what I schedule for these recaps. The following gifs are also available on this Tumblr post. The podcast I co-host, Baker Street Podcast, is not yet available, but you can subscribe to it on iTunes.
The episode begins with an annoyed Joan: the Stanley Cup got first dibs for the tub again. Wait, what? Oh yeah, Sherlock is trying to prove his theory that a new Stanley Cup he acquired is the genuine article, and that involves a water displacement test. Silly Sherlock, he knows it can dry off somewhere else!
Then we have a couple of thieves stealing from a rich drunk dude... or not. He's actually dead by screwdriver, and one of the kids has to coax his idiot buddy into at least calling the cops before they take off.
Then we have a very cute moment between Bell and his girlfriend, Det. Scott. She asks if he'd like to come over, and he gives her an adorable smile in return when she tells his favorite kind of joke: about getting rid of all those bodies in her apartment.
Bell and Scott are both called to the screwdriver crime, along with Sherlock and Watson. The dead guy is Judge Vaughn, and Sherlock quickly concludes that he recently had sex in the hotel where he just attended a fundraiser because he smells like their soap.
The woman he left with has an alibi, but the prints come back to a different woman anyway: an escaped drug dealing convict named Nikki.

The prison from which Nikki escaped is privately owned by a company called Reform Enterprises. Everyone, including the people who work at the prison, dump on the whole concept of it being privately owned, since it's all about profits.

Bell seems a bit embarrassed when Joan asks about Det. Scott. He had hoped nobody noticed that they were together. While discussing it, they find a poetry book given to Nikki as a gift from Jeff, an attorney who sometimes visits the prison.

Later, Sherlock decides to use some soup to taste whether his Stanley Cup is the real deal.
Sherlock mentions that Det. Scott leads a double life, but Joan is surprised to learn that she is in IAB. Meanwhile, Sherlock had failed to notice that Scott is dating Bell, so they each learn something new. Joan insists on telling Bell that Scott is IAB, against Sherlock's warning not to get involved.
When Deputy Warden McCann is murdered on his way from grabbing a pizza, Nikki seems to take the credit. Sherlock is skeptical. He's been doubting the whole time whether a woman such as Nikki would do any of the things she has apparently been doing because it doesn't fit any of the statistics of female criminals. This earns him several eye rolls and a stank face from Joan.
He earns yet another eye roll when he steals Joan's toothbrush and the underwire from her bra to fashion a diorama of the prison and test out his theory to see whether there was a way for Nikki to escape. He finds 11 possibilities, none of which she employed.
Then Bell and Joan speak with Jeff, but they realize that he is most likely not their culprit. But they do learn something important: Nikki had been forced to work in a recycling area at the prison. That is important because Deputy McCann had drawn up a document stating that she requested the position, and then signed off on it. This causes Sherlock to realize that McCann probably murdered Nikki and put her in one of the toxic waste bins by the recycling center, which turns out to be exactly true.

That solves the murder of Nikki (which they hadn't even known about until they found her body), but who murdered McCann and the judge? One more key piece of information stands out: after the problems with Reform Enterprises, Loretta Nichols began arguing against their ownership of prisons in the state, and arguing for C.A.G., the only other private prison company.
Consequently, C.A.G. has the most to gain from the murders, and was also McCann's previous employer. One of the officers of C.A.G. just happened to be at the same fundraiser as the judge right before the judge was murdered, and the cops quickly find evidence that he was behind the murders.
After Joan tells Bell about Scott being a member of the IAB, he does not take it very well, breaking it off with Scott. Sherlock seems to think it's all his fault that Bell wants to be alone, but warns him that he should give Scott another chance for her mistake rather than risk being lonely for the rest of his days.
Bell decides to apologize to Scott for being so hard on her, but it's too late: she has decided to change her life and become a full-time IAB detective rather than hiding her true job. Unfortunately, it will take her some time to make the switch, but hopefully they can be together later. In the mean time, Bell decides to do the lonely thing and play a game of card-throwing with Sherlock.
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Thursday, April 30, 2015

'Elementary' 3x21 'Under My Skin' Gif-Tweet-Cap: New BFFs!

"Under My Skin" was one of the most disturbing episodes of Elementary in a while. It was a very good episode, but parts of it were a little too much like CSI for my taste. The following gifs are also available on this Tumblr post. The podcast I co-host is not yet available for this week, but you can subscribe on iTunes for the latest episodes.

The episode begins with Alfredo gaining his 5-year AA chip. Yay! But Sherlock is mainly focused on another man: someone who is obviously not part of the group, as he is carrying a flask of alcohol and thinks that Step 5 is the same as the slogan for the coffee he happens to be drinking.
Meanwhile, a horrible murder takes place in which two paramedics are shot and their ambulance is stolen along with the sick woman they were carrying.
The killer picked up the casings, but misses one: and Sherlock retrieves it from a grating. This casing leads them to a douchebag named Wallace Turk, who refuses to say a word on where the missing woman was taken. Sherlock decides to bypass Turk's uncooperative attitude and figure it out himself by inspecting the bottom of Turk's shoes. Turk has a mini freak-out a bit while Bell and Joan ignore him.
The shoe has dirt from a salt marsh, and Turk's phone leads them to the exact salt marsh they are seeking. Unfortunately, the woman has just been killed.

Sherlock realizes that Lloyd, the man who intruded on the AA meeting, may be following him. Of course, Sherlock follows him back, wanting to know why he's following him. Lloyd refuses to say, but Sherlock refuses to take no for an answer. He threatens to expose their fake "tragic love affair" in a very public fashion unless he obtains the answers he seeks.
It turns out that Lloyd is actually following Alfredo, and that Alfredo is in some sort of "big trouble."

The autopsy indicates that the victim was a drug mule, but her roommate says she had gone to Brazil for gastric bypass surgery. The food in the victim's fridge indicates that she truly believed she had the bypass, and didn't know she was turned into a drug mule.
The proof is that her Brazilian doctor has gone into hiding, is married to Turk's sister, and stole heroine from the hospital where he used to work. And now they know that he stole so much that they would have needed three drug mules, meaning there are two more victims.
In the meantime, Sherlock looks into Alfredo's trouble and confronts him with it: he's been breaking into cars using Castle security (his old employer) and moving them a few feet. He's doing it because they not only fired him, but accused the five-year-sober man of using drugs. How dare they! Alfredo just wants Sherlock to butt out, reminding him that he's his sponsor, not his friend.
Watson and Bell pay a visit to Dr. Ward, a dentist who has been allowing a drug cartel to do business at his facility. They use him to get a meeting with Janko, the Serbian drug lord, so they can use him for information on when the heroin begins to be pushed out for sale. Since they've already got their eyes out for it, they'll know if the Serbians buy it, and by feeding the info to the cops, they can push out the competition.
CLYDE MOMENT! Joan looks like a proud mama watching her cute little turtle-son.
When Janko is murdered, Dr Ward begins freaking out: he somehow gets his fingers cut off by a rival Chinese cartel, and tells them where the bodies of the other two drug mules are hidden, saying he heard the cartel talking through the air vents.
The bodies had been filled and sewn up with rocks before being dumped, but the filament used to see them leads straight back to Dr. Ward: it's commonly used in dentistry. He's got all sorts of excuses, but the best explanation for the whole gruesome affair comes from Sherlock: Dr. Ward is simply ridiculously bad at being a criminal.
Then they proceed to trick Ward into making a full confession by showing that a Chinese drug lord has given him up. His own lawyer warns him that it's a trick, and that the man is a cop, but that doesn't stop him. In the end, the fake Chinese drug lord is the cop who will process his arrest. All Dr. Ward can do is smile at Bell on his way out, as if he's saying "Nice trick" and "Wow, even I didn't realize exactly how much of an idiot I am."
Sherlock sends an urgent text to Alfredo for help with his addiction, but never shows up for the meeting. Later, Alfredo is confronted by a couple of cops who accuse him of stealing a bunch of cars and moving them to a garage. Of course, Alfredo has an alibi which is on camera, because that's exactly how Sherlock planned it.
Alfredo confronts Sherlock about his method of protecting him... and about moving all those cars himself... and about being involved in the matter at all after telling Sherlock to butt out.

Sherlock promptly fires Alfredo from being his sponsor so they can be friends. Alfredo seems delighted by the idea, apparently so he can mess with Sherlock right back, starting with jokingly asking whether he can ask out Joan. Hopefully this means more Alfredo!
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Thursday, April 23, 2015

'Elementary' 3x20 'A Stitch in Time' Gif-Tweet-Cap: Proof That Garden Gnomes Are Evil!

“A Stitch in Time” is a fantastic mystery-based episode of Elementary. There isn’t much character development, which the show is known for, but it’s good to change things up once in awhile. The mystery is interesting and unique, and definitely Holmes-worthy. The podcast I co-host is not yet available for this week, but you can subscribe on iTunes for the latest episodes.

The episode begins, once again, with Watson being temporarily evicted from her home so Sherlock can save some bees from colony collapse, not realizing that the container would break Joan's table and break open, allowing them to escape within the Brownstone.

In addition, Joan seems to have become BFFs with Hannah, Gregson's daughter.
Meanwhile, a man "saves" a dead guy who he believes is merely drunk from being crunched by a train. At least he saved the evidence from death.
The dead man is Garrison Boyd, Sherlock's favorite debunker. He was murdered, but Sherlock notes that a piece of gnome hat is stuck in his eye.
Garrison had many enemies, the worst of which is a cult of Atomocism, or some ridiculousness. When the cult leader is unhelpful because he prayed for Garrison to die through crackpot "energy transference," Sherlock proceeds to "deprogram" one of their "Level 3 Conduits" in about three minutes -- a minute for each level of nonsense. She agrees to help them, and Sherlock puts an end to any thought the nut-job leader has of luring the woman back into his cult.
Amazingly, the fact that the cult stalks its victim members and enemies is helpful in this case, because they are able to obtain a photo of Garrison arguing with Colin Eisely, a real estate guy. Eisely says he didn't even know Garrison, but that Garrison was accusing him of trying to drive an old lady out of her home with fake ghosts.
When Sherlock and Watson visit the woman, she presents them with an audio recording of what she claims to be her husband's ghost angrily saying a name that sounds nothing like the Arab swearing that is actually being hollered on the old-fashioned cassette. Apparently, the ghost also likes to throw things off the shelves and make the lights flicker.
Sherlock knows it's not a ghost, but also knows that the proof leads to something else: a tunnel that was being dug from her neighbor's basement toward her own basement. Inside the tunnel, Sherlock finds the goal of the digging: a path to the fastest transatlantic data cable in the world, known as RUBY.
In the neighbor's basement, Sherlock also finds the gnome responsible for tipping his hat into Garrison's eye. Garrison had discovered the fake ghost, and was killed to keep him quiet.
The neighbors have been on vacation, so the culprit had been making his home in their house while he dug. They find bubbling yogurt in the fridge, which is sold in only a few places.
Security footage shows him buying the drink with cash, but speaking with someone he knows who pays with a credit card. The credit card then leads to a woman who says that the man is her neighbor Nadim, across the hall.

In a scene of splendid pace, Sherlock sniffs accelerant at his door, warns the woman and tells her to evacuate, sets the fire alarm, grabs a fire extinguisher, kicks in the door, scans the room and eidetically commits everything to memory, attempts to talk Nadim out of lighting up his work based on what he learned from his scan, and puts out the fire once Nadim decides to set it on fire and make a run for it.
A box is found in the burned rubble, but it apparently does nothing at all. Mason is even called in, but comes to the same conclusion. Then Sherlock has an epiphany, and we get a rare look into what a Sherlock eureka moment looks like:
The realization is that the box does nothing for exactly 4 ms, before sending the data on through. That 4 ms is exactly enough time to make Ruby 2 ms slower than the data cable used by Eisely's blind trust when trading stocks. That means Eisely (whose financials are watched carefully because of past financial abuses) can easily make millions without getting his hands dirty, because he could just hire someone to splice in a box that appears at first glance to do nothing.
In the mean time, Joan has been helping Hannah with a case. She solves it, but warns Hannah that the information should be passed up the food chain because there is a bigger crime going on. Instead, Hannah takes all the credit, and puts away the few guys involved with the lower level crime.
Sherlock had been warning Watson not to deal with Hannah, and also warns her not to tell Gregson. She doesn't have to, because Gregson knows something is off with Joan, and he also knows his own daughter. He tells Joan that it's best she not boost Hannah up onto anymore high horses.
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