Elementary - Recap: The Brothers Holmes
Recap video and review of Elementary - Season 2 Episode 7 - The Marchioness:
Another week, another episode of Elementary where the character dynamics are eminently more interesting than the case itself. "The Marchioness" is a great episode, and it has almost nothing to do with the mystery at its center. In fact, I'd argue this is the least interesting case of the season, focusing on a cartel and its investment in a prized race horse. Had that been the sole focus of the hour, I'm not sure "The Marchioness" would have been worth remembering in a week's time, but as with the best Elementary episodes, it's the focus on character that elevates the story. A significant portion of the credit goes to the writing, but I would argue a larger share goes to the cast, as I really can't imagine an episode like this working without Jonny Lee Miller, Lucy Liu, and Rhys Ifans making things so bitingly awkward, and so wonderfully poignant.
Credit: CBS
So Mycroft (Rhys Ifans) is back, arriving in New York City for the grand opening of his latest restaurant. Yet he has ulterior motives for arriving. He's gone into business with former fiance Nigella Mason, the very same fiance with whom Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) had an affair, in a twisted attempt to prove to his brother that she wasn't right for him. But as it turns out, Nigella and Mycroft are here for more than just business, as Nigella needs help investigating a murder. Sherlock is hesitant to help, but gradually begins to rethink things when he learns that Mycroft is recovering from leukemia, and this is only possible because Nigella stepped up as a donor for his bone marrow transplant. Mycroft feels a certain obligation to help her out, and so he's turning to the only person he knows who possibly could. Right off the bat, this is an excellent set up for the episode, as the interests of the victim are tied directly with the interests of someone close to Sherlock. Though the case itself is hardly the most compelling crime with which we've been presented, its foundation in the dynamic between Sherlock, Mycroft, and Joan (Lucy Liu) is a strong one.
Credit: CBS
As we learn, Nigella is a recent divorcee, having married the Marquis of Loudwater, a position of nobility "between an earl and a duke". In the settlement, Nigella gained some very valuable property, namely a champion race horse named Silver Blaze. Though the horse is retired from the circuit, he's still valuable as a stud from which to breed future champion race horses, making him a commodity to anyone looking to raise their own stable of champions. But everything goes to Hell in a hurry when a mysterious assailant murders Dalton, Nigella's lover and the manager of her ex-husband's stables. And so Sherlock begrudgingly takes the case, replete with the requisite twists and turns we've come to expect from Elementary, such as a hunt for a four-fingered serial killer known only as "El Mecanico", a man responsible for two mass shootings that resulted in the deaths of 13 people. Making matters more complicated is El Mecanico's possible connection to the local Robles narcotics cartel, whose head honcho had a vested interest in the horse racing circuit, as we come to learn that the horse Nigella sold to them wasn't the real Silver Blaze. What's interesting about this case is that, much like last week, we never see a victim or a crime scene, much less a murder itself. It's all told through expository dialogue, and while I'd normally have a problem with this, it works for Elementary in the sense that it allows the viewer to essentially puzzle things out the way Sherlock does -- by poking holes in the story and playing the long game of deduction. It's perhaps more than a show should ask of a viewer, but I appreciate that Elementary respects its audience enough to demand that sort of attention.
Credit: CBS
But the case takes a back seat to the real revelation of the episode: while in London in the season premiere, Joan apparently slept with Mycroft. It's something Sherlock puzzles out early into the episode, and it's something he's suspected since London anyway. But there's a clear sense of dread, confusion, even disgust to his hypothesis that Joan and his brother have been together. He doesn't want to believe it, but he reads it in Joan's body language around Mycroft, even if it's something she can't recognize herself. However, the show does take the adult road with this, as Joan refuses to apologize for an act between "two consenting adults," adding that her personal life isn't really any of Sherlock's business. And she's right, particularly since Sherlock's jealousy isn't a sexual (or even territorial) jealousy, it's mostly a case of transference. Ignoring the whole sexual aspect, Joan has essentially achieved a level of intimacy with Mycroft that Sherlock has been unable to achieve himself, and while that's mostly due to Sherlock's lack of trying, it's clear that he craves a deeper connection with Mycroft, as evidenced by his incredulity that Mycroft wouldn't have come to him when looking for a bone marrow donor. He is hurt and troubled in that moment, and it's a feeling of turmoil that's only exacerbated by his discovery of Mycroft and Joan's connection. Sherlock confesses to feeling a certain intimacy about his and Joan's partnership, and states that he can't understand what would have compelled Joan to go through with sleeping with Mycroft, particularly since she undoubtedly knew he would deduce that it happened. Yet what's hurting Sherlock is the same thing that's annoying Joan about the entire situation: Sherlock's inability to understand that what she did had nothing to do with him.
Credit: CBS
Yet Sherlock is nothing if not self-important, so he tends to think of everyone in relation to their connection with him. He respects and even admires Joan, but he doesn't really see her as an individual -- not fully. He contextualizes her in relation to their partnership, and while it's troubling at some level, it's been clear over the last several episodes that he's at least trying to get away from that kind of injurious mindset. In a poignant moment during an AA meeting at the start of the episode, Sherlock wonders if he wouldn't have been better off having been born in a different time, expounding on "the wonders of modernity, before everything got amplified." It's a beautiful monologue that marks one of Miller's best moments this season, and it says a lot about how Sherlock views the world in relation to himself. The inability of others to understand him isn't a failing of his own, but rather of the world surrounding him. In this sense, it's no surprise he has such trouble reconciling with Mycroft, who doesn't really hold people to as strict a standard as Sherlock.
Credit: CBS
But much like their last meeting in the premiere, the brothers eventually find common ground, mutually banishing Nigella from their lives once it's discovered that she'd essentially defrauded investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars by selling them a Silver Blaze impostor. Luckily, El Mecanico is brought to justice thanks to the discovery of an impossibly complex scheme in which the culprit borrowed another person's fingerprints to avoid detection, all while pretending to be an innocent witness when he was stopped by police near the scene of the crime, inventing an entire persona and story. It's not nearly as compelling as it sounds, but the case was merely a delivery mechanism for the ongoing story between Sherlock, Joan, and Mycroft, and I sincerely hope Rhys Ifans comes back soon, because his onscreen chemistry with the series leads is a rare and wonderful thing, and it elevates "The Marchioness" into a higher class of episode -- which is fitting, as Elementary is a higher class of procedural.