Elementary - Recap: Ear and Loathing
Recap and review of Elementary - Season 2 Episode 17 - Ears to You:
This just might have been the strangest episode of Elementary yet. The mystery (well, there are two) at the center of "Ears to You" is fairly boilerplate for most of its runtime. But then both mysteries take a wild turn into the uncanny in the final act. The resolution to both puzzles this week border on the ridiculous, and yet it works primarily because this is something Elementary so rarely does. The show is largely rooted in a facsimile of reality, tackling cases that, while outside the ordinary, never really veer into the extraordinary. Yet "Ears to You" kicks it up a notch, and it makes for an incredibly entertaining hour.
Credit: CBS
The episode centers on Gordon Cushing (Jeremy Davidson), a wealthy man whose wife went missing four years ago. This isn't all that out of the ordinary a case for Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) and Joan (Lucy Liu) but for one key factor: only now, four years on, is the missing wife being ransomed. More disturbing still, Gordon receives her bloody ears in the mail. The DNA on the dismembered ears matches DNA from the hair brush of the missing wife, Sarah Cushing (Cara Buono), which implies this ransom is no hoax, Sarah is still alive. This means that Gordon, a man whom everyone assumed from the news had killed Sarah, yet couldn't be proven to have done it, just might be innocent after all. The plot is fairly fast-paced, and it's a refreshing change. No sooner do we meet Gordon than we're with him as he makes a ransom delivery to a mysterious third party, hoping to learn Sarah's location. As Gordon explains, he fell out of love with Sarah long before she disappeared, but still wants to find her for his own sake, to finally put to bed the rumors that he was responsible for her death. It's this desperate motivation to have his name cleared that prompts Gordon to follow the mystery man after the ransom drop, despite explicit orders by Gregson (Aidan Quinn) to stay put. To make a long story short, Gordon has a standoff with the man and ends up killing him, eliminating his best chance at discovering Sarah's whereabouts.
Yet the case isn't exactly over yet. Sherlock is able to deduce from tattoos on the body that the ransomer was an addict who frequented meetings in the area. It's at just such a meeting that Sherlock notices a woman who looks stunningly like Sarah Cushing, except she's had a little work done. And, of course, she possesses both of her ears. Yet the differences belie the basic fact that this is Sarah Cushing, now living under an assumed name. Apparently, she fled from Gordon after their marriage went south, yet she apparently never saw fit to inform the authorities that she was alive. She rationalizes this by saying that she feared Gordon would find her and hurt her, but it doesn't really excuse wasting potentially millions in taxpayers' dollars and man hours to search for her, and to harangue an innocent man. But Sarah puts out a persona of innocent terror, explaining that only once she got away from Gordon was she able to live a fulfilling life, overcoming her addiction and marrying a plastic surgeon. It's this detail that becomes critical as the the mystery reaches its shocking, borderline ridiculous, outlandishly entertaining resolution.
Credit: CBS
With Sarah Cushing alive, Sherlock and Joan are left to puzzle out how the dismembered ears could match her DNA if said ears were still attached to said body. There's a brief theory that the ears could belong to an escort named Kendra with whom Gordon had an affair, and that the hair brush from which the test DNA came was actually a brush used by Kendra, explaining the match. But Bell (Jon Michael Hill) does a little research and learns that Kendra has been dead for years. So what's the solution? Turns out, Sarah was in on the ransoming the whole time, even the first ransoming one year after she disappeared, in which Gordon was given the ultimatum of paying $1 million or losing Sarah forever. In essence, she's been subtly scheming her ex-husband out of money and allowing him to rot in the court of public opinion for four long years.
Credit: CBS
This then begs the question of whose ears were in the box delivered to Gordon? The answer: they're Sarah's, but not from her head. Her plastic surgeon husband used scaffolding and cartilage-building techniques similar to that used on lab rats in order to grow a spare pair of ear look-a-likes on Sarah's back. And it's those spares that were sent to Gordon. It's an absolutely ludicrous solution that's so absurd as to be genius. I don't think I've gotten this big a kick out of the solution to a procedural mystery in ages, whether or not it strains the limits of plausibility. And what helps is that the show plays it straight, hardly even commenting on how silly it all sounds. It treats the reveal with the gravity of a weightier story, and it works like a charm due to the sincerity of everyone involved. And hey, it's not as if such ridiculous crimes don't happen in the real world. Sure, this strains credulity a bit -- but not really, if you think about it. The world is just an exceedingly strange place, where something like this isn't immediately dismissed out-of-hand.
Credit: CBS
As for the other big story this week, Lestrade (Sean Pertwee) has been staying with Sherlock and Joan for nineteen days. His anxiety over the job offers he's received has left him in a debilitating state of transition. He wants to leave, but his own self-doubt is getting in his way. This is because, as he admits to Joan, he's nothing without Sherlock. He's the one that made him "special" by deigning to work with him at Scotland Yard. Yet Joan notes that Sherlock had his pick of detectives after Bell's injury, and none suited him. This illustrates Sherlock's high standards, as well as the fact that he picked Lestrade specifically because he believed in him. Lestrade, however, still has his doubts, so Joan arranges to have Lestrade investigate his own mugging, as he had been attacked the night before while on his way home from the pub. Sherlock thinks it's wrong of Joan to try and give him a push to reclaim his confidence and detective skills, since Holmes feels Lestrade needs to bottom out before the rebuilding process can truly begin.
Yet Lestrade proves remarkably adept at solving the case, questioning other mugging victims over the phone, canvassing the neighborhood, and tracking down the man that mugged him, Shawn Menck (Sean Nelson), who kept his victims' wallets in a neat stack by his recliner. It's almost too easy. In fact, it's so easy that Lestrade comes to the conclusion that Sherlock was actually behind it all, a twist nearly as silly and circuitous as that of the first case. Yet it's a twist that is far more grounded in verisimilitude, as it's not at all beyond the realm of possibility for this particular Sherlock to doctor files to arrange a case for Lestrade to solve so he would regain his confidence and leave the brownstone. And hey, Lestrade's theory has evidence: a rooster feather, clearly a remnant from Romulus and Remus. Sherlock congratulates Lestrade on solving the puzzle, and sends him on his way to his new job in Ireland, his confidence restored. However, in another twist on the twist, Sherlock reveals to Joan that he didn't doctor the files or fake any voices at all. Lestrade solved the case on his own, with no help whatsoever. Sherlock simply admitted to the trick in order to let Lestrade hear what he needed to hear, which will hopefully have the effect of placing him back on the right track. It's an amusing storyline, and substantive in its own right, as we once again return to the idea of Sherlock as this mythic figure that is revered by his contemporaries. Lestrade had earlier warned Joan to enjoy her time with Sherlock while it lasts, since he'll inevitably distance himself from her. And yet, so much of that declaration felt rooted in Lestrade's own existential angst. Once he's rehabilitated, he seems none the worse for wear where Sherlock is concerned, even parting with him as friends and equals. Whether or not Sherlock actually faked the case is immaterial to the fact that Lestrade always possessed the skills necessary to be a good detective, perhaps even a great one. That Sherlock potentially gave him the push he needed to realize that doesn't change a thing.
Credit: CBS
"Ears to You" is an episode that wavers between absurdity and authenticity, and yet it remains entertaining throughout. Elementary walks a tightrope when it comes to tackling procedural stories of a certain depth, particularly two in one episode. But it works splendidly here. And it's also a significant episode in that it's among the only episodes not to feature Sherlock and Joan solving a homicide -- at least not in the traditional sense. Sure, the ransomer is killed, but that's not the crime they're trying to solve. Instead, it's a disappearance and extortion plot. Meanwhile, the Lestrade story centers on a mugging. Basically, it's refreshing to have a procedural arc that doesn't have to deal with some gruesome murder (although severed ears are admittedly gruesome enough). It's not the best episode of the season by any stretch, but "Ears to You" has certainly become one of my favorites.