Elementary - Recap: Snow more technology

Recap and review of Elementary - Season 1 Episode 19 - Snow Angels:

Elementary is finding ways, even late in its first season, of subverting some of the expectations of the crime procedural genre that has made CBS TV's #1 network in primetime. "Snow Angels" offers a pretty succinct encapsulation of why the series is unique within its genre, as the episode features a low-tech investigation into a robbery-homicide. Actually, it's more of "no-tech" investigation, as a winter storm takes out a power plant that leaves the entire city in the dark, with only backup power generators providing the most basic lighting functions in the police station. Taking away the power allows this to become a more classic Sherlock Holmes story, effectively removing it from the context of the 21st Century, high-tech crime-fighting resources that procedurals in this day and age have conditioned us to expect. Here, Holmes (Sherlock Holmes) has nothing to work on but his keen deductive wit, the contributions of Watson (Lucy Liu), who's learning more and more as the days roll by, and a snow plow driver named Pam (Becky Ann Baker), who ferries them along on their "adventure". While the case itself is one of the more standard, bland investigations that the show has offered up in some time, this is still a remarkably fun episode that presents a different kind of "case of the week"; one in which the best tools for solving a crime can often be the ones you keep up here (that's me pointing at my brain. Not that I could solve anything if my life depended on it, but hey, I'm no Sherlock Holmes anyway).

A security guard is killed during a robbery in which 200 high-tech smartphones were stolen, though the guard was able to get off one shot before dying -- a shot which, presumably, wounded one of his assailants in the abdomen. As Holmes initially follows the lead on the missing smartphones, coming across a homeless man who claims to have found them in a dumpster, Sherlock realizes that the robbery was merely a front for a much bigger operation. The robbers have their sights set on EROC, the East Rutherford Operations Center, a cash processing branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Holmes decides that, in lieu of means to warn the NYPD of the impending heist, he and Watson have to go to EROC themselves and warn the people in charge. To this end, they commandeer a snow plow driven by Pam, who is a refreshing take on a New Yorker for a show like this. She's neither salty nor overly brusque, and shows a genuine curiosity about what Holmes and Watson do, and how they came to be doing it. She drives them to EROC when Sherlock promises to compensate her for it, and they're off on an adventure, of sorts.

Upon arriving at EROC, Holmes discovers that the heist isn't forthcoming -- it's already happened. The processing facility also handles the shredding of old, worn-out cash. However, Holmes realizes that the bills that were to be shredded have been replaced by counterfeits, meaning that someone broke into the facility during the storm, when security was at its weakness, and made off with $33 million dollars in old (though still perfectly usable) money. It's a fairly clever idea for the episode to explore, and even Holmes is so taken with the ingenuity of the ruse that he admits to almost feeling compelled to let them get away with it, had they not gone and murdered somebody.

Simultaneous efforts by Detective Bell (Jon Michael Hill) and Captain Gregson (Aidan Quinn) turn up a woman with the only wound that matches the potential wound the security guard could have inflicted with his dying gunshot. Though she plays innocent, the con falls apart during questioning, revealing that she's in league with a gang of thieves who have a direct line within the NYPD. This heightens the paranoia, as Holmes, Watson and Bell chase false leads, since they don't know, at the time, that one of their own is working with the thieves to keep them a step ahead. Since the robberies were conveniently coordinated in time with the blizzard, suspicion naturally falls on the one new employee who's entered their station in the last 24 hours: the FEMA organizer who helped the NYPD to prepare for the blizzard and its aftermath. It's all one big criminal conspiracy that's swiftly busted once Bell and Gregson stage a riot in the police station that gives the mole an opportunity to reveal herself by helping the current suspect escape. I certainly appreciated that the resolution to the case proved to be as clever as the case itself, but for whatever reason, I just had a hard time getting invested in the case beyond the intrigue of how it developed Holmes and Watson's relationship, while also providing them ample opportunity to do some old school detective work, sans technology.

There's also an ancillary arc to the episode in which Sherlock takes in a troubled transgender woman named Miss Hudson (Candis Cayne) who was trapped in an abusive relationship. I don't know that it was necessarily played for comedy, but the storyline isn't exactly played straight. That said, there's a poignancy in how Holmes wants to help her, and how Watson eventually comes around to her presence. In addition, Miss Hudson reflects some of Holmes' idiosyncrasies, such as when she cleans the apartment and recategorizes all of his books because she has "a touch of OCD." I'm not sure if the show plans on making her a recurring character, but I wouldn't mind one bit if she was added to the cast. While I don't care a bit about her nondescript relationship woes with the non-entity named Davis, she adds an interesting dynamic to the Holmes/Watson partnership, sort of like the Alfred to their Batman and Robin. I'd be interested in seeing her return, as Cayne does solid work in the role.

"Snow Angels" doesn't present the most engaging case of the show's run, but the episode is worth a look for its unique approach to crime-fighting -- well, unique in its low-tech approach to 21st Century crime-fighting. It's a fun episode all the way through, exemplifying the best of what Elementary does when it's firing on all cylinders.