Elementary - Recap: Brothers, A Tale of Two Sons

The conflict between Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) and Mycroft (Rhys Ifans) is still front-and-center, but it's complicated by a larger emphasis on Joan's (Lucy Liu) role in all of this. She's a point of union between the two brothers, but she's also the origin of their division. This is why Joan's choices throughout the episode have such weight. Nothing she ever says or does could really be construed as the wrong thing to do, yet she's a person who is in a constant state of defense. Whether it's defending Mycroft to Sherlock, or Sherlock to Mycroft, or defending her choices for her own life to either brother, Joan can never make either man understand her. Yes, they all share common ground, but she's never allowed by either brother to exist as an individual outside the contexts they share. Mycroft and Joan can never be alone without discussing Sherlock, and Sherlock and Joan can hardly get anything done without the sour subject of Mycroft returning to the fore. It's an episode in which the character dynamics matter more than they ever have, building to a stunning conclusion that shocks not for what the story seems to imply about Mycroft, but for how Sherlock chooses to react to it: a choice that illustrates his own personal growth. "Art In the Blood" isn't the best episode of the season from a pure plot perspective, but it's such a joy to watch these three actors do their thing, that it just might end up being one of my favorites.

Credit: CBS

The case of the week springs off of the reveal last week that Mycroft isn't exactly what he seems. We learn that Mycroft has been working with MI6 for over a decade, having been roped into the organization due to certain connections he'd made within Le Milieu. He wasn't allowing the French mobsters to meet in his restaurant for profit, he was allowing it as a means of reconnaissance for the British government. Both Sherlock and Joan are understandably stunned at the revelation, but the situation grows a bit more complicated when Mycroft's MI6 handler appears in New York to enlist Sherlock's aid with the murder of a special forces colleague. Arthur West was a specialist for MI6, but an erratic one due to paranoid schizophrenia. His life essentially fell to pieces after his ex-wife, Marion (Emily Bergl), divorced him and his investigations grew more dangerous and complex. Sherlock agrees to take on the case, but has no intention of working with Mycroft. It's a sentiment shared by Joan, who doesn't ever want to see Mycroft again. It's not because his actions nearly got her killed, but rather, because he apparently found it so easy to deceive people who cared about him for years on end. As she poignantly declares in what amounts to one of Lucy Liu's best scenes in the entire series, Sherlock deserves better than Mycroft. "And so do I," she says. And that would seem to be that for the older Holmes sibling.

Credit: CBS

But the case at the heart of the episode gets downright strange once it's discovered that West's arms have been removed from his body in the morgue by thieves, who need the sensitive information (a set of numbers) tattooed on his arms in invisible ink by Marion, who has no idea what the numbers even meant. However, she does know that her ex-husband knew plenty about Sherlock, as he was ordered by MI6 to gather intel on him. As we inevitably learn, MI6 has a vested interest in making Sherlock a permanent member of their forces, as Mycroft's handler suggests that he could do an immeasurable amount of good with the resources provided by British Intelligence. Far more so than he can do in New York City. Yet Sherlock has no interest in having his life upended. As Joan later notes, Sherlock is the kind of guy who likes things "just so." So he tells off Mycroft's handler, saying he has no intention of having his life ruined by MI6 anymore than it already has been by Mycroft. However, even in rejecting MI6, Sherlock can't exactly avoid change: Joan announces her decision to move out of the brownstone, and it sends Sherlock into a fit. If nothing else, Sherlock is a creature of habit, and the interruption of his carefully structured routine of living presents itself as a threat to his well-being. He argues with Joan and tells her she can't leave, since their cohabitation is essential to the work they do. Worse, he reduces her urge to find an independent living arrangement as a psychological response to having been abducted. For all the growing he's done, Sherlock still has a fundamental misunderstanding of Joan's existence as a person independent from him. It's more than Sherlock worrying that an interruption in his routine would send him back down a dark path, it's basic narcissism fueling his need to keep Joan yoked to his side.

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It's this difficulty in making Sherlock understand the extent to which he's loved that binds Joan and Mycroft back together. Joan learns from Marion that Mycroft's deal with MI6 ten years ago wasn't his first time working with the organization. In fact, he'd been a part of it long before, but had left to start a new life as a restaurateur. So what brought him back into the fold? Joan confronts Mycroft at his apartment and demands the truth, at which point Mycroft launches into a story that recontextualizes just about everything he's done as a character since we met him. Many years ago, at the depths of his substance abuse, Sherlock was roped into a scheme in which he was made to deliver a package as a courier while avoiding mysterious people who were after it. However, it turns out the package was plans for a terrorist attack, and the client was a terror cell. And the mysterious people he was trying to keep from obtaining the package? Totally British agents. In short, Sherlock was looking at years upon years upon YEARS of prison time.

Until MI6 offered Mycroft a deal.

Credit: CBS

Basically, Mycroft could wipe Sherlock's record clean if he came back to work for them. And it was this decision, made out of brotherly love, that has been the sole purpose for Mycroft's continued association with MI6. As he explains to Joan, he couldn't tell Sherlock because it would send him down a very dark road, and he couldn't tell Joan the other night because, frankly, she wouldn't have believed him. However, she clearly believes him now, as they commiserate over how their mutual affection for Sherlock, and his failure to understand just how deeply that affection runs, binds them closer than most. They sleep together, and all of a sudden, it seems as though their relationship is back on. Suddenly, Joan is once again talking about moving out of the brownstone, and referring to Sherlock as "not our problem." That is, until Sherlock bursts through the door -- he discovered some valuable intel: not only did Arthur West believe that there was a mole in MI6, the gun used to kill him bore Mycroft's fingerprints! So Sherlock orders his brother to start packing a suitcase, telling him he'll need to get out of town. Despite the story's apparent insinuation that Mycroft is West's killer, this isn't the real shocker. Rather, it's how Sherlock reacts to discovering Mycroft's fingerprints that is the real stunner: he doesn't accuse his brother of murder, he instead says that it's obvious Mycroft is being framed. In essence, either Sherlock is playing Mycroft, or he's realized the error of his ways and is looking to rectify things between them by exonerating him of murder and treason. Either way, the sudden show of faith from Sherlock to Mycroft is surprising, but wonderfully portrayed by Miller and Ifans. These are two brothers with an emotional chasm between them, and it's incredibly powerful to see Sherlock attempting to bridge that gap, to make things right again.

Credit: CBS

"Art In the Blood" is a tremendous episode of Elementary, and is worth it just for the wonderful dynamics between these characters, each of whom have grown in ways both big and small since last season. I'm possibly more stoked for this season's finale than I was for last year's, which is really saying something, since last year's multi-part finale was one of the best serialized bits of procedural storytelling I've seen on TV in ages. Next week's finale has a tall order to fill, but much like Sherlock appears to have faith in Mycroft's innocence, I have faith in Elementary's ability to deliver.