Elementary Review: 02 x 12 – The Diabolical Kind
Reviewed by Liz Giorgi
Being Geek Chic For The Baker Street Babe
While the world patiently waited for Sherlock to return, Elementary served as a worthy distraction these last 24 months. There were plenty of reasons to believe this American-dwelling Holmes would never be a worthy comparison to our BBC baby, but over time, I’ve become increasingly attached to Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu’s take on the iconic characters. As the third series of Sherlock returned, I wondered if it would taint my feelings about CBS’s efforts. In truth, with new episodes of each series airing, it’s never been more evident that these two shows are distinctly their own. In The Diabolical Kind, it’s clear that Moriarty is back in more than one way. Sherlock is writing her letters, which are brooding and full of longing. These correspondences are dangerous, but it’s a source of comfort for Holmes. But that’s not the only way she’s returning. After a man is murdered by a trained assassin and his daughter is kidnapped, Sherlock deduces Moriarty is involved. It becomes clear she is no longer imprisoned in a traditional sense, so Holmes and Watson track her down in an abandoned warehouse where the FBI has been holding her. That seemed a little to easy, though, didn’t it?
Natalie Dormer is having a ball playing the evil Moriarty. Her hands are never dirty. Instead, she’s got a web of evil at her fingertips, which she happily and eagerly manipulates for her purposes, even while wearing handcuffs. When they finally meet, she even taunts Sherlock about the letters he has been sending her in prison. With a giant portrait of Joan in the background, Moriarty reveals to Watson that she knows about her failed attempts at finding a boyfriend. There’s not just tension in Moriarty’s criminal network. The trust between Holmes and Watson is clearly at risk when Moriarty is around.
“What was the empirical value of writing to her about my dating life?” Watson asks when she and Holmes are reviewing the details of the case. There’s no good answer of course, but it only serves to amplify the truth about Moriarty’s impact on Holmes: she is his greatest weakness. The truth is that Sherlock knows it. When Moriarty shows up at the NYPD offices to “help” with the investigation into the little girl’s kidnapping, he flatly refuses her assistance. However, she’s not going anywhere. She wants to see the crime scene.
This visit to the crime scene is fascinating, because Watson and Moriarty are alone to discuss Sherlock. The gender bending dynamic of the show allows the writers to take on new territory. The “partnerships” each have or had with the consulting detective bring out lots of dramatic side eyes and glances. Watson suggests Sherlock and Moriarty still love each other. Moriarty is adamant Sherlock is the only person that understands her and she is the only person that truly understands him. This challenges Watson’s partnership with her friend and instead of challenging it, they each just walk away. It’s intense and lays the foundation for lots of fruitful territory between the two in the next few weeks.
In a side by side comparison of BBC’s Sherlock and CBS’s Elementary, it becomes clearly how each have taken distinctly different approaches to Holmes’s work as a detective. The crimes being solved in Britain are of national security scale, saving thousands from death. CBS never seems to get out of the “case of the week” format to really make the pressure of the chase or the need for resolution all that important. Maybe that’s OK for Elementary, because for viewers like me, it becomes all about the tension between characters and the small dramas of the interpersonal.
In the case of the kidnapped girl, this too, is about the interpersonal. The abductors learn that Moriarty is working with the cops, which raises the stakes for everyone. Sherlock is convinced Moriarty is trying to use the case to get special privileges in prison until a classified ad reveals she is actually the victim of this crime. I won’t reveal how, because, MAJOR, MAJOR spoilers for you, but let’s just say, Moriarty does have a heart.
So while the case of the missing girl is closed, the Moriarty, Holmes and Watson ménage à trois is only just beginning.
Liz Giorgi is the Baker Street Babes’ Elementary Guru and runs the fantastic nerdy blog Being Geek Chic. You can find her former reviews of Elementary here on her site.
She’s a writer and filmmaker based in Minneapolis. She’s also a contributor for Apartment Therapy and The Mary Sue.
You can contact her at elizabeth@beinggeekchic.com and follow her on Twitter @lizgiorgi
