Elementary - Recap: Reconcilable Differences

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A woman named Cheryl (Talia Balsam) is the victim of a home invasion by a perpetrator who demands to know where her husband is. Cheryl thinks quickly and uses her car alarm to distract the would-be assailant long enough to allow her to get to her gun hidden in the drawer of her nightstand. She shoots the attacker, leaving him wounded and fleeing. This is a simple enough opening, until we learn that this woman is actually the wife of Captain Gregson. Thus begins an episode that explores the complicated home life Gregson has been navigating with Cheryl ever since their kids left for college. As we learn, Gregson and his wife are undergoing a trial separation, and it's clearly something that's been weighing on his mind (although we learn other things about Gregson too, such as the tidbit that he refused a promotion in his younger days that would have made him the youngest detective in the history of the department, yet he didn't want to be shackled by Internal Affairs. It reaffirms a lot about the character's determined attitude). Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) gets the chance to play sympathetic friend, as he pours his full energy into this investigation, since the person or group responsible for the home invasion is inevitably shown to be responsible for the killing of a war veteran, as well as a former colleague of Gregson's. Sherlock essentially sets out to solve the case and get his friend's wife out of harm's way, adopting that wonderfully noble attitude that characterizes Holmes at his best. Fortunately, getting Cheryl and Gregson out of harm's way is easy enough, since we ultimately learn that Gregson isn't the target. In fact, he never was. As it turns out, the killer merely mistook Gregson's house for someone else's due to a GPS mishap.

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This was one of the more unusual cases of the series so far, in the sense that we never actually meet the killer. Sure, we meet the mastermind behind the killings, but the person who pulled the trigger never appears onscreen, and I'm not sure if that was necessarily a wise choice or not. From a storytelling standpoint, it helps for a procedural to remain as opaque as possible for as long as possible, in order to keep the solution to the mystery in doubt. But this seemed almost like a bridge too far, in that regard. It isn't until fairly late in the story that we even see any real progress in the investigation. It just goes from a series of peculiar red herrings to a fairly abrupt conclusion, and I'm wondering if the episode might not have been helped by having had a wider array of suspects onscreen from the relative start. Granted, there's only so much the show could have done with this storyline. And really, provided they've watched enough procedurals like this, many viewers will be able to figure out where a mystery like this is going before the story gets there.

For instance, here the show makes an obvious point about a suspect's man-hating dog, such that it isn't all that big of a surprise when we learn that the woman's dog was the key to Sherlock solving the case. The woman in question is an archaeologist with an estranged husband whom we discover was the shooter in the aforementioned murders, having partnered back up with his ex-wife in a criminal business venture. Neighbors reported having not heard the dog barking, and this is because the dog already knew the mystery visitor. It's an easy enough solution to a fairly tepid case, but then, the mystery is never really the draw about this show, so much as the characters at the center. Seeing Sherlock lend not only investigatory support but also his friendship, was particularly heartening, as was Gregson's reunion with his wife, explaining that he wants to give her all the space she needs while he works on being a better husband to her. It's all very effective stuff, and indicative of just what a strong ensemble this often is.

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The interesting character work continues in the storyline with Joan (Lucy Liu), who takes on a case from a stumped night detective who is having difficulty solving a series of falafel cart robberies. She takes the case files home and, while she's asleep, Sherlock notices the files and decides to use them as a "palate cleanse," solving them as a way of giving his investigative powers a kickstart. Joan is furious with Sherlock for solving her case, arguing that she'll never get any better unless he allows her to have cases of her own, yet Sherlock states that what they have is a partnership, declaring that neither of them have cases that are strictly theirs alone. However, Sherlock slowly begins to see Joan's point as the episode rolls on.

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Yes, theirs is an effective partnership as it is now, but Joan still has a bit of a way to go before she can hope to be as effective as Holmes, and she's never going to get there unless Sherlock starts treating her as an equal member of the investigative partnership. This is yet another storyline that speaks to the evolution of Sherlock and Joan's relationship in encouraging ways, as Miller and Liu continue to have some of TV's best chemistry onscreen together. Though their difficulties aren't entirely smoothed over by episode's end, they're well on their way to making a more equal partnership, in addition to having Joan becoming more keen in her deductive reasoning. It's a fitting end to the episode, forming a bookend with the tremendous opening scene in which Sherlock tests Joan's deductive powers by having her read body language to ascertain why each suspect in the precinct's holding cell was there. Such great stuff, and really effective at deepening the rapport between Sherlock and Joan.

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"An Unnatural Arrangement" is a solid episode all the way around, even though the case isn't as compelling as past investigations. Once again, the character work here is front and center, and the ensemble does a remarkable job with the material. It's hard not to love Miller and Liu, but Aidan Quinn and Talia Balsam were also excellent here, imbuing Gregson and Cheryl's marriage with a weathered, lived-in quality that made their hardships easier to get invested in, which is a credit to both actors since this is their first episode onscreen together. At this rate, Elementary could end up having the best season of any procedural on CBS, if not on television altogether.