Elementary Review 03 x 14 – The Female of the Species
Reviewed by Liz Giorgi
Being Geek Chic For The Baker Street Babes
Sherlock Holmes stories have a long and true tradition of murder by poison, so it should have been no surprise to me when Hemlock turned up in the title last week that the cause of death for Joan’s boyfriend, Andrew, would be the poison variety of the plant. And yet, last week I didn’t assume Andrew would be dead when we returned to Joan this week. His death is no mystery to Joan either. The writers wisely jump right into her investigation by opening with Joan visiting Elana March in prison. It takes a minute to jar one’s memory, but Joan was responsible for putting Elana in jail and Joan has determined that this is a revenge of sorts. Joan was the target, but a dairy switcheroo means an innocent man loses his life leaving Watson to reexamine her own.
Watson’s grieving naturally allows for the writers to explore new relationship dynamics and they don’t disappoint by giving Sherlock and Detective Marcus Bell a chance to solve a private case together. When Sherlock is hired by a Bronx zookeeper to find their lost zebras, he doesn’t ask Joan for help. Instead, he asks Marcus to join him on the case in hopes that he can pick up a few strictly non-traditional tips for solving cases. Side note here: Jonny Lee Miller’s committed insistence to pronounce zebra with the proper U.K. English was shockingly silly too me. There was such an easy joke in there for the writers and no one took it.
The case of the pregnant striped creatures quickly turns into a proper police investigation when a veterinarian turns up dead in the warehouse where the zebras have given birth. As Sherlock and the NYPD put the pieces together, they discover that the zebras have actually given birth to a long-extinct species called a quagga.
There’s less of Joan in this episode, but her presence weighs heavy. This could be because we’re still reeling for her loss or it could be because it’s Lucy Liu’s second go at directing an episode of Elementary. When Joan shows up at the brownstone to tell Sherlock that she is ready to commit her life to her work as a detective, you get the sense that this isn’t a surprising decision for Joan. She is a former surgeon and routinely moved in with her clients when she worked as a sober companion. In a way, she is going back to what she knows, while embracing it with a new level of seriousness. While I correctly predicted last week that the show would be shifting back to the brownstone and the dynamic between Watson and Holmes as roommates for the rest of the season, I didn’t anticipate the cause. I was convinced that we’d get an inversion of what we witnessed in the first season when Sherlock was hunting M. Surely, they could have given Joan a nemesis of her own to track down, but clearly this isn’t about outside forces. This is about the battle within the very beings at the enter of our show.
By moving back to the brownstone, Joan is accepting that she can’t be normal. In turn, it means Sherlock is witnessing the ultimate completion of a protege. He has essentially successfully transition Joan into someone who is exactly like him. Driven. Focused. And lonely.
However, this leaves me wondering where the writers are going. The gags with body parts showing up in the fridge are going to fall flat in this new world. On top of that, there’s something satisfying about watching the circle of influence grow. The final scene in the coffee shop where the police apprehend the zoo employee who had stolen the zebras and their baby quaggas is entirely satisfying because of one word: Marcus. When Sherlock says his name, it’s a sign of respect. That mutual growth and trust between parties has been for me, the heart of the show.
The only way to truly know where it goes from here is to return to the 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 the founder and director at Mighteor, a video production company that focuses on creating beautiful and meaningful videos for the web. 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.