- Holmes is hired by a Wall Street firm to find a missing executive. He finds the man, murdered, and then detects a pattern of mysterious deaths throughout the company's branches. But who could be benefiting from all of the murders?
- Sherlock eagerly exacts an excessive price and expenses when hired by one of the Wall Street investment companies he deeply despises to find a missing executive. Having found out the man had an adulterous love nest, where he apparently died from a heroin OD, Holmes convinces NYPD captain Tommy Gregson that must be a staged murder and fits a pattern of suspiciously stageable accidents killing executives in several of the form's branches throughout the US. Tying them together proves dangerous, with a surprising culprit. Watson's improved observation skill finally really helps out.—KGF Vissers
- "Elementary" - "Rat Race" - Oct. 25, 2012
We open on Watson frantically telling Capt. Gregson that she hasn't heard from Holmes in three hours. As a cop, he is not alarmed by this of course. She finally spills and tells him that she's not his assistant/valet/lover, she's his sober companion and they're supposed to check in at least every three hours and she's afraid he's relapsed.
We cut to a tight shot of Sherlock, looking like he's nodding off in a drug haze. The camera pulls back and reveals, however, he is waking up in a daze after being abducted since his hands and feet are bound.
We flash back to two days earlier. Watson is out for coffee with a friend when her buddy unleashes an ambush blind date on her. The guy Watson's friend told to meet her is also surprised it's a blind date but they both gamely try to go along with it. While he goes to get his drink Watson puts her hair up in a ponytail and gets a text from Holmes. He needs her.
She heads back to the house and he deduces she met a dude she liked because she put her hair up, which he knows she thinks looks prettier.(He thinks she's wrong.) But no time for that. Gregson has recommended him as a private investigator to a big deal Wall Street financial firm. The firm has a missing employee. The guy hasn't been missing long enough for the police to get involved but they want help.
Holmes throws on a dingy sweater, not kowtowing to the Wall St. lie of fine suits making the man in them any more fine inside, and they head out to meet the board.
The CEO is unimpressed with the look of Sherlock and is dubious about hiring him. After Holmes embarrrassing members of the board with naughty deductions about them, the CEO finally gives in.
First stop is the missing employee's office. Holmes notices lots of fancy books whose spines have never been cracked on his shelves. One has. He pulls the book out and inside finds a fancy brochure for fancy prostitutes. They track down the "executive private accountant" who helps the employee handle said prostitutes who gives up the secret apartment the guy used.
Watson and Holmes head to the apartment and discover the man, needle in his arm, dead of an apparent heroin overdose. Holmes, familiar with heroin addiction, isn't buying that this incredibly tidy, functional man died this way. He notices a half eaten salad nearby and deduces that a person who knew him dosed him with enough heroin in his salad dressing to incapacitate him and then dragged him to the chair, shot him up, and made it look like an overdose.
Watson pulls Holmes aside and checks in with him being around all of this drug stuff. He does not want to talk about it or go to a meeting.
Gregson and the other cops are skeptical about Holmes's theory but Holmes convinces them to send the salad to the lab anyway.
He also sits in on a meeting with the dead guy's wife in which he is, typically rude and insensitive, but discovers an important fact: the man who did this job before him also died under murky circumstances. After a little digging Holmes discovers that a handful of people from the company have died in the last couple of years and starts looking for suspects, starting with the powerful CEO.
Meanwhile Watson has gone on a dinner date with the set up guy and she really liked him but she's put off by the fact that she could tell he lied to her about never being married. Holmes says it's easy to figure out via the Internet. Watson doesn't want to cyber stalk but before she can get the sentence out Holmes has already clicked his way to learning that the guy is CURRENTLY married. Watson doesn't believe her friend would set her up with a married man.
Holmes also hears from the NYPD lab that there was heroin in the salad dressing.
Holmes calls a meeting with the board of directors and lays out the weird evidence of the dead employees. All of the board members scoff at the idea of someone in the company killing their way up the ladder. The CEO says the only person whose career path matches what Holmes is laying out is him. Holmes agrees he's a good suspect.
Later that day the CEO shows up at Sherlock's place saying he's going to "end this." Mad that Sherlock accused him in front of his employees. He says he's completely innocent and runs down his alibi for the first murder including surgery for a facelift. He says all of the employees are sociopaths and gives him a file of an intern who might have been responsible. Holmes can't work it out.
Watson gets another invite from the married guy who wants to explain himself. Holmes tells her to go. The guy says he did lie, and he married a woman from Kosovo to help her get a green card for political asylum and they can get a divorce in a year. He apologizes. Watson calls him compassionate. He wonders how she found out.
Holmes goes to see the dead guy's secretary, whose name popped up in the intern's file. She has followed the CEO during his meteoric rise in the company. He says every time her boss got promoted she got perks too, pay raises, stock options. She wonders if her boss knew about her killing people or if she worked alone. She blows him off with some of her own deductions and a taser.
We then cut to him in the scene waking up bound from the top of the episode. She has him in the back of his car. He claims he emailed a bunch of people about her and his whereabouts. She knows he didn't. She tells him that they will soon be arriving at the CEO's country home and in a week or two they will find his body buried on the property and Fowkes will go down for it. Holmes points out that when that former intern gets a promotion he'll need a seasoned secretary for help. She appreciates his smarts. He grabs a paper clip off some paper in the backseat and begins working on his handcuffs. She sees a text from Watson and texts back that everything is "okay." She tries to get Sherlock to dig his own grave but he refuses.
We cut to Watson spilling to Gregson. She says she believes the heroin from the crime scene affected him. But she looks at the text and knows, since it is written out completely instead of in his wacky text abbreviations that it's not from him.
The secretary puts the gun to his head. He's still working on the cuffs so to stall he invites her to monologue about her ingenius plans. Because she is a TV villain she takes this opportunity and is about to tell when cops show up. He wheels on her, unbound, grabs her gun and tazes her.
Watson explains about the text message giving the secretary away. He thanks her sort of, after a long way down the road of thanking himself. She tells him that she told Captain Gregson about their arrangement and apologizes saying he might want to have a talk with him.
Later Holmes goes to see Gregson. He tries to explain and apologize about how he was embarrassed about his history since Gregson holds him in such high esteem. He says he deserved to know. Gregson said he did know and he did his research before allowing him to consult with the NYPD. Holmes wonders why he didn't say anything. He said he did, sort of. He remnds him he asked him out for a drink recently and Holmes declined. Gregson says he figured Holmes would tell him when he was ready. He wasn't happy that Holmes didn't tell him but his work hasn't slipped one bit since Scotland Yard. He says not everyone is going to see it his way so he's going to keep a lid on Sherlock's secret.
Later Sherlock practices freeing himself from cuffs while Watson fields what she thinks is a blow off message from green card marriage guy. She says she isn't actually interested but is still annoyed that he doesn't seem interested, likely because he was freaked that she snooped online about him. Sherlock says seeing puzzles everywhere has it's own price to pay since deceits and illusions inform the things that people do.
Dejected, she goes for a run. Sherlock frees himself.
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