Elementary Review 03 x 17 – T-Bone and the Iceman
Reviewed by Liz Giorgi
Being Geek Chic For The Baker Street Babes
It’s been a while since Elementary veered straight into crime procedural territory, but it’s hard to imagine this story not fitting in basically every single iteration of CSI. A man with cancer commits a murder in hopes of eventually stealing cryogenically frozen cord blood to treat his condition. Unfortunately, the less than stellar business practices of the Cryo Clinic where his victim is stored means the whole thing goes a little sideways and before we know it, basically every possible suspect is dead or injured.
The real story this week is between Joan and her mother, Mary Watson. Joan suspects that her mother is starting to show signs of losing her memory after she accuses Joan’s brother of having an affair. Claiming to have seen it with her own two eyes, she begs Joan to confront her brother and ask why he would take after his father like this. Apparently, Joan’s father was also a cheater. Surprisingly, Joan doesn’t investigate before confronting her brother, as one would expect. She goes straight to him and asks what is up. When her brother vehemently denies it, Joan questions if her mother is remembering her father’s affair and is somehow mistaken.
Sherlock has a funny way of helping Joan with this and it further emphasizes why their living together is more like that of a family unit than a working duo: he insists Joan excise herself from the situation. He even references how an ocean helps create important and necessary distance between families. So in the end, it all seems bizarre when Sherlock gets himself involved too. He calls up Joan’s mother and insists she forgot Joan’s birthday until she agrees to go to a memory clinic.
Lying isn’t something we’d expect from Holmes when there is other evidence at hand. Even more bizarrely, Joan seemingly appreciates the gesture instead of seeing it for what it is: a terrible manipulation.
Joan does get points this week for solving the case by correctly identifying a B-movie actor from Manos: Hands of Fate as the fake suspect that was created by our real killer to cover his tracks. Amazingly, he managed to convince so many others to take on this specific cowboy hat wearing man story. It’s so bizarre and outlandish, it’s weird that it’s even in an episode of Elementary at all, but I appreciate the moment of levity.
The big question is what happens from here. Sherlock and Joan are back in their usual rhythm. Kitty is far enough back in the season that I’m no longer expecting a reappearance and the cases could easily veer to weekly stand alone issues. I’m hoping for a larger arc for the next few weeks, here’s hoping we will get it.
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.
