Review: Elementary 02×08 – Blood is Thicker
Reviewed by Liz Giorgi
Being Geek Chic For The Baker Street Babes
Last week’s Elementary was a high, high point for the season. Anything that came after it really had to shine or it was going to feel like a total letdown. Unfortunately, this episode fell flat for me. I was hopeful when I saw we were going to get to hang out with Rhys Ifans for another week, but even his presence wasn’t enough to hold this one together.
We start this week when the beautiful love child of a rich, tech CEO, ends up dead on top of a delivery truck. She only recently arrived in New York City and was enjoying new wealth and a new apartment after discovering her father was one of the most powerful men in the world. With new money and a new lifestyle, surely there were plenty of people who may have wanted her dead. This week, it’s Watson’s medical knowledge that makes the pursuit of the killer interesting.
It turns out that our billionaire CEO is actually on his deathbed. His body is rejecting his new heart after a recent transplant and his company is working hard to prevent the public and his shareholders from finding out he’s so sick. To make things more complicated, he only recently got in touch with his daughter after finding out he may not survive his health scare. He also needed someone with his blood type (which is rare and hereditary, of course) to donate blood. His daughter’s presence in his life was clearly orchestrated, but not for the purpose that we think.
Watson’s studies and previous life as a surgeon are what make the details of the case come together. When she finds out the murderer had severed the abdominal aorta with incredible precision, she turns her attention to our CEO’s wife, because before marrying him, she worked as a pediatric surgeon. The blood donation was coincidentally timed with his daughter contracting a flu bug, which when carried over to our CEO, caused his body to make too many antibodies. Those antibodies were fighting a flu, but they also were fighting his new heart and caused his body to reject the organ. The only person in his immediate proximity who could come up with such a scheme? His former surgeon wife. Murdering his daughter was a round about way of murdering her husband and then just waiting to inherit his billions. The resolution is medically sound, if somewhat overly complex and rife with potential errors, but Watson’s speech breaking down the crime was full of pride and smarts. It was fun to see her break the case for herself. It’s not the best or the worst murder mystery we’ve seen this season, it was just sort of average.
While this episode felt a little like filler from a crime solving perspective, there were a few key moments in Sherlock and Mycroft’s dynamic that are worth spending some time talking about. Specifically, Mycroft’s insistence that Sherlock return to London. Or rather, Mycroft is supposedly just the messenger for their father who is considering cutting Sherlock off and taking away the brownstone unless he moves back to England. Sherlock clearly loves London, but he’s not interested in his father’s pleas. When he asks Joan what she thinks of the idea, she shows her commitment to Sherlock by saying she’d stick with him in New York and willingly admits that they could find another place to live. Their partnership is more than just a working relationship – they are truly friends.
In the closing moments of the episode, Sherlock tells Mycroft he can’t leave New York. It’s not because he doesn’t miss 221B, but because his recovery depends on it. Jonny Lee Miller deserves so much credit for his facial articulation in moments when he needs to convey vulnerability. His minor voice changes and straining neck adds to the effect. Sherlock needs New York because his support system is there. Watson. His group meetings. Gregson. Detective Bell. I was really hoping he’d mention Alfredo, his sponsor during Season 1 whom I hoped would return for Season 2, but alas. Anyway, he’s willing to give up the brownstone and London and even his inheritance to stay sober. Holmes has come a long, long way. As a viewer and a Sherlockian, I’m proud of his stand.
Sherlock really is a different man. And just when we thought Mycroft was too, he reveals his true colors to the viewers. His father isn’t interested in getting Sherlock back to London. He is. He was just making it up with the help of someone else with a London area code. Why does Mycroft and his fellow Englishmen (or woman) want Sherlock back in London? I’m guessing we’ll find out soon.
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 social media and web strategist who currently works for a communications consulting firm in Minneapolis. She’s also a contributor for Apartment Therapy andThe Mary Sue.
You can contact her at elizabeth@beinggeekchic.com and follow her on Twitter @lizgiorgi