Elementary - Recap: The Bell Curve

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"Tremors" has Sherlock testifying in court about the sequence of events that led to Detective Bell's shooting. This involves going into detail about a mentally ill young man who threatened the entire precinct with a shotgun due to his psychotic belief that he is a medieval knight. The "knight" in question, whom Sherlock is able to non-violently subdue, confesses to a crime, claiming he had to "kill the queen to save her soul," leading Sherlock and the team down a proverbial rabbit hole to figure out what happened and why. Sherlock, Bell, and Joan (Lucy Liu) eventually begin piecing things together, discovering a mural at the suspect's home in which he's shown beheading a former girlfriend -- the very same woman who is later found shot dead in her home. Yet Sherlock quickly deduces that the "knight" is not to blame, instead proving that the woman was poisoned as the result of a longer scheme. And herein lies the key to unlocking Sherlock's entire character: this extended tale serves no discernible purpose. Sure, Holmes testifies that the point is to illustrate the good that he and Watson do for the city of New York, a service they provide free of charge. But it's really just a way for Sherlock to luxuriate in his own sense of righteousness, in the belief that he is justice manifest, and that the NYPD should consider themselves lucky to have people like Watson and himself, even though they have a fair number of detectives whom Sherlock holds in high esteem: such as Det. Bell.

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In brief, Sherlock doesn't exactly endear himself to anyone: not the judge, and certainly not the prosecutor in the case, who is trying to prove that Holmes is reckless, taking unnecessary risks and endangering his colleagues with his methods. To this end, Joan is brought in to testify, and once again, Sherlock uses her towards the purpose of corroborating the many lies he's told on the stand, since an injunction against him could lead to his many closed cases (and the convictions that resulted from those closed cases) being vacated. Joan's testimony serves as a means of explaining how she and Sherlock were able to make their way into closed crime scenes across New York, despite not being official NYPD police detectives.

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But Joan's testimony also serves a larger narrative function in explaining how the knight story actually relates to Det. Bell's shooting: we learn that Sherlock's reckless investigation tactics ruined the life of James Dillon, the the victim's life insurance agent and the man who would inevitably shoot Det. Bell. Sherlock had essentially coaxed information out of Dillon by illegally going through his phone, at which point Sherlock discovered Dillon's criminal history and loudly detailed that sordid past at his place of employment, within earshot of other colleagues. This led to Dillon being fired after a co-worker overheard Sherlock and ratted him out. To make matters worse, Dillon has been reported to his parole officer for a violation, and is now being sent back to prison. Thus, Dillon snaps and draws a gun on Sherlock, and Bell takes the bullet.

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Although the hearing itself is the most compelling aspect of the episode, there is a lot to like in the margins, such as Joan confronting Sherlock about how he internalizes his guilt, which Holmes stridently denies ("You can lie in court, but don't lie to me!" she shouts back at him). Gregson (Aidan Quinn) tells Sherlock that he needs to stop antagonizing the judge and the entire court process, since it could lead to him being sanctioned or worse, and it becomes clear that while Holmes is a man who respects people within institutions more than the institutions themselves. He doesn't see any use in an institutional process that inhibits his kind of rigorous detective work, nor a court system that would seek to punish it, even if he does begrudgingly respect his prosecutor, as well as detectives like Bell and leaders like Captain Gregson.

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But Sherlock isn't one to relent in his hubris, so he continues pushing back until the judge inevitably makes his ruling, recommending that Holmes and Watson be terminated from their role as consultants for the NYPD. However, at Bell's recommendation, the police commissioner opts to ignore the recommendation and keep Holmes and Watson on the force. Yet while Bell was willing to go to bat for Sherlock to prevent him from being fired, he's not exactly willing to be friends again. Having awoken in the hospital with nerve damage to his hand and arm that threatens to end his career -- since he would no longer be able to carry a firearm as required -- Bell wants nothing to do with Sherlock's attempts to smoothing things over: attempts which include offering an appointment with top therapists in the field of Bell's injury. "I don't want to owe you a favor," Bell tells Sherlock, before saying that he doesn't want to see him around the hospital again. Jon Michael Hill does a tremendous job selling Bell as a man who doesn't want to be bitter, but simply can't find his way towards full forgiveness just yet. And Jonny Lee Miller is great as always, showing the weight of Sherlock's guilt, if not his shame at having let his hubris carry him to this terrible end.

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"Tremors" is a tremendous episode for Elementary. The case itself, as usual, was ancillary to the developments of its lead characters, and how they relate to one another, and to themselves. The world isn't a place of clear-cut morality, and a world like this has need of men like Holmes. But there will inevitably, if not always, be crossfire and collateral damage. The question remains whether the ends justify the means, and it's a question that's always existed on the periphery of the narrative. Only now is Elementary really delving into that theme, but it's doing it in fully engrossing fashion.