Elementary - Recap: Super Holmes Bros.

Of course, as with any episode that relies heavily on character dynamics to fashion a compelling story, "Paint It Black" is driven by the performances at its center, far more so than just about any other episode this season. And both Rhys Ifans and Jonny Lee Miller are more than up to the task of imbuing the fractured relationship of the brothers with a sense of history. Granted, it's not a history we've always seen, but it's a history that can always be felt in every moment of the episode. And this made for a far more effective, compelling Elementary than I would have expected, given that it's centered around a threat wherein the outcome is never in doubt. Joan is absolutely going to be rescued. But it's in getting there that the episode finds its drama -- and its poignancy.

Credit: CBS

Joan's kidnappers are members of Le Milieu, a French criminal syndicate that used Diogenes, Mycroft's restaurant, as a frequent meeting place. Mycroft (Rhys Ifans) has prior dealings with the organization, and it's because of him that Joan is abducted in the first place, as the organization plans on using her as leverage to get to him. In exchange for Joan, Mycroft offers to use Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) to track down a valuable list of secretive clients from a businessman named Pierce Norman. This list is valuable in that it contains the names and information on wealthy Swiss banking clients, men whose tax evasion makes them a high-priority to the U.S. government. Yet the NSA, which interferes in Sherlock's investigation, isn't all that interested in the list for tax purposes. Rather, the organization believe the list contains information about people who are funding terrorism with their resources. Long story short, Sherlock has to track down Pierce Norman and his list, and trade both in exchange for Joan. But this is easier said than done...

Credit: CBS

The episode's biggest strength is Miller's performance, as he plays Sherlock as a man just one step away from complete delirium. He smiles with a sort of madness in his eyes, antagonizing his brother for getting Joan into this mess in the first place. And this is only after he has a complete breakdown, trying his damndest to keep from pummeling Mycroft once he's learned what has happened to Joan. In one of the darker moments of the entire season, Sherlock declares that he wishes the leukemia had rotted Mycroft to mere bones. Counterbalancing that darkness with poignancy, Mycroft responds, "So do I." The deterioration of this relationship has made for some excellent TV, and there are few moments in this series as chilling as Sherlock coldly telling Mycroft that, once Joan has been rescued, he will turn himself into the authorities and then "extricate" himself from both his and Joan's lives. It's a devastating performance that shines a light on how Sherlock truly views Joan, as he tells Mycroft that he sees her as far more than a "counterbalance," as if in recognition of how poorly he treated her last week. But there remains the difficulty of having this fractured relationship drive a story where, yes, the stakes are high, but the end result is still a foregone conclusion. Even after Sherlock and Mycroft discover that Pierce Norman has already been murdered, it's not really a gamechanger so much as a minor setback. They learn that his right-hand man, Yoder, was actually framing Norman for starting the list in the first place. It was Yoder who was behind this the entire time, and it doesn't take long for the brothers to capture him, resulting in a grimly compelling sequence in which Sherlock slowly, methodically threatens the man with torture. It gets downright knuckle-biting when Holmes ties wire to the man's wrist with the intention of using it to slowly sever the limb from his body. It's only then that Yoder confesses, and it's only then that we can move forward with Joan's rescue. But not before Mycroft turns on Sherlock and escapes with the list in order to make the exchange on his own (because of course...).

Credit: CBS

For her part, Joan hasn't exactly been having a great time in captivity. When one of the Le Milieu footsoldiers is shot, Joan offers to operate on him, and while she's able to temporarily stabilize the man, she pleads with their leader to take the injured gangster, the leader's cousin, to the hospital. This is kind of a go-nowhere arc, as the Le Milieu frontman ends up murdering his cousin himself when it turns out that he can't be saved without being taken to a hospital, and it's the kind of blunt violence that I don't really think the show needs to traffic in. It doesn't serve a story function beyond illustrating that these are men to be reckoned with...which is a point that is immediately undermined by what comes next: Mycroft offers the list in exchange for Joan, only to have Le Milieu order his and Joan's deaths anyway. Then, instead of just getting the murder over with like they did with the cousin, the killers grant Mycroft is wish for a few final moments. And it's then that he takes the opportunity to say the words "Paint It Black," at which point, snipers eliminate the gangsters. A shooter then shows up, calling Mycroft "sir," and it seems like confirmation that the show is headed in the same direction as the books in making Mycroft a government official of some sort. This begs the question of how he could have hidden this from Sherlock all these years, but then, in order for Sherlock to spot it in the first place, Mycroft would have to be someone he'd actually spend time around, and pay enough attention towards to notice in the first place. It's somewhat ironic that Sherlock never figures this out, when his mantra to Mycroft throughout the episode is about how he should be paying attention. Oh, those wacky Holmes boys.

Credit: CBS

"Paint It Black" is an episode carried by the performances at its center, as Ifans and Miller take it to a whole new level, illustrating that this is a bond with a troubled history that can't be reduced to a mere bit of backstory. It's far more complicated than the relationship between any two brothers should be, and that's what makes it compelling; and, by extension, this episode of Elementary.