Review: Elementary 02×01 – Step Nine
If you haven’t watched Elementary yet, do yourself a favor, forget the prejudices, and watch that show. It’s nothing like Sherlock BBC in all the good ways. And I am saying that as a huge BBC fan. But seriously, it’s such a great adaptation and written with so much love and respect for the canon stories. Just do it.
Also: It’s back, and it’s better than ever. Okay, given it’s ‘only’ had one season to shine, it’s difficult to speak of ‘ever,’ but the writers of Elementary really did their job well for the season premiere. Most importantly, we got a look at 221B of what is presumably Baker Street in London, and find that the flat has been taken over by Mycroft (played by the marvellous Rhys Ifans) , who is everything we wanted, although we didn’t know we wanted it.
But, let’s start at the beginning: Holmes manages to impress Detectives Gregson and Bell by solving a case which involves pigeons, a nod towards “The Five Orange Pips”, and Joan Watson kicking some serious butt (geek-note: pigeons have previously featured in the BBC fandom, so this seemed a lovely unintentional cameo of sorts … to some of us who are crazy enough to see connections everywhere). Sherlock then receives a call from London, where Lestrade has spent the last few months getting into trouble. Consequently, Joan and Sherlock fly to London where they are driven to New Scotland Yard, which was, probably for the sake of recognizable sights, conveniently relocated to Lower Tames Street next to the Tower of London where they meet DCI Hopkins, played by Tim McMullan, who asks for Sherlock’s help in finding Lestrade (fantastically played by Sean Pertwee), who has disappeared after a rather, how should I put it, uncalled-for interruption of a funeral of a man who cost Lestrade his reputation while the DI suspects the dead man’s son to have murdered his wife.
After having been introduced to basically ALL the British stereotypes within the first few minutes of the episode, (they are driven through London to the sound of Oasis’ “Hello”) Watson and Sherlock end up in 221B – which used to hold Sherlock’s little collection of obscure crime paraphernalia and has now become Mycroft’s designer flat. The relationship between the Holmes brothers is fantastically awkward, childish and very uncomfortable for Joan, who does what every Watson does when caught in the middle of that particular storm. She keeps her head down and later tries to get to know Mycroft in order to understand … well, at least a little bit of what is going on between the two brothers.
Not letting himself be distracted (and avoiding Mycroft as much as he can), Sherlock soon finds Lestrade and begins to unravel the case which Lestrade desperately wants to solve to regain his credibility as a police officer. While the case itself, and Sherlock’s work on it, are as fascinating as ever, two things become clear very quickly. Joan has promoted herself to a proper super smart and sassy consulting detective who has learned a lot from Sherlock, and Sherlock is loving it. This development leads to a fantastic dynamic between them; which was already present in season one, but which has now become a true partnership. The sober companion days are over except for a few remnants of routine checkup questions and Sherlock’s awareness of his addiction, and they have become brilliant partners and fast friends. The bee naming really did the trick, methinks.
The major conflicts of this episode is Sherlock’s relationship with Lestrade (they weren’t close, so he never told Joan about him), and with Mycroft (they weren’t close, so he never … you get the picture). I do not want to give away too much of the plot of the episode, but apart from the case which is quite something (and reminded me slightly of Luther Ep. 1), we have loads of canon references which made my heart jump with joy and a great soundtrack. As far as Elementary episodes go, this one is absolutely my favourite. I’m very excited for this season and hope to see more of Mycroft and his ‘explosive’ relationship with Sherlock.
Maria teaches English Literature at Leipzig University, Germany, published a German introduction to Sherlock Holmes and is a fan of all things Holmes – but especially of the Canon stories and Sherlock BBC. Contact her at @stuffasdreams