Elementary - Recap: The Brothers Grim

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The case this week centers on the death of Haley Tyler, a Texas woman pushed out of a third-floor balcony to her death. Of course, if the fall hadn't killed her, the gaping stab wound to her abdomen would have. And so Sherlock and Joan team with Detective Bell (Jon Michael Hill) to try and solve the case. During the course of the investigation, tech mogul Ian Gale (William Sadler) comes under suspicion, but he's quickly ruled out once it becomes apparent that he's terminally ill as the result of a transplanted heart that his body is rejecting. It turns out that Haley was Ian's daughter as the result of a one-night stand decades earlier, and he wished to connect with her before it was too late, going so far as to include her in his will. Of course, this makes Ian's wife, Natalie (Margaret Colin), the next likely suspect, as Holmes works from the theory that Natalie had Haley killed to prevent her from cutting into her share of Ian's inheritance. Yet Natalie quickly puts a hole in the theory by explaining that not only was including Haley in the will her idea, but the will stipulates that the inheritance would go to Haley's mother in the event that she somehow died, meaning that Natalie would essentially gain nothing from killing her.

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So Sherlock and Joan circle through their theories, including Haley's gambling, shifty, on-again/off-again boyfriend, who claims that he wasn't in the apartment when Haley was killed. As the boyfriend claims, he was out buying her flu medicine, which checks out according to surveillance cameras at a local pharmacy. Joan is perturbed by the boyfriend's flu claims, since Haley wouldn't have been allowed to give blood or tissue samples for Ian's treatment if she'd been fighting off a virus. And so Joan begins piecing together a theory of the crime that becomes all the more concrete once Ian Gale ultimately passes away from his ailment -- an ailment which, as Joan and Sherlock discover, has an 80% recovery rate. Joan theorizes that this crime isn't about the murder of Haley Tyler, but rather the murder of Ian Gale.

In a fantastic parlor scene, in which Sherlock and Joan lay out the details of the crime and reveal how the killer did it, we learn that Natalie utilized her experience as a doctor to get Haley to willingly allow her to give her injections. When Natalie injected tissue samples from Ian into Haley, the girl became violently ill. Natalie then employed an accomplice to extract blood from Haley which could then be distilled into a poison to inject into Ian, killing him by mimicking the effects of an organ rejection. Yet Haley complicated things by getting too ill, which could have given the scheme away. So Natalie had Haley killed...but what was supposed to look like a robbery ended up being a complete disaster when Haley accidentally stumbled over the edge of the balcony, making a private murder very public. This is the kind of maddeningly complicated plot that would be too big of a mess on any other procedural, yet Elementary finds a balance between rationality and compelling narrative structuring to make this case interesting all the way through.

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It's the rare case that lives up to the underlying character dynamics of the series, which are often -- without question -- the most compelling parts of the series. Here, Mycroft is having trouble getting Sherlock to actually meet him for dinner, an issue which becomes pressing as Mycroft comes closer and closer to his date of departure back to London. And so Joan tries to act as mediator to get Sherlock to meet with his brother before it's too late, and Sherlock begrudgingly agrees. At the dinner, Mycroft reveals to Sherlock that their father is thinking of cutting him off, stating that Mr. Holmes wants Sherlock back in London, working with Scotland Yard again. Sherlock has no intention of returning to London, and tells Mycroft he'd live in a cardboard box if he had to. But Mycroft astutely points out that Sherlock has another person to consider, revealing to the viewers that Sherlock has been paying Joan with money from a trust established by Mr. Holmes. And so Sherlock floats the possibility to Joan of moving with him to London to continue their work. She asks if that's what Sherlock wants, to which he states that it doesn't really matter what he wants. But that isn't really true, as Joan states. And so Sherlock gives his thoughts on the matter.

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Sherlock finds the support structure he's found in New York -- a structure which includes Joan, Captain Gregson (Aidan Quinn), and "even Detective Bell" -- is something he isn't ready to give up. Recovery, as Sherlock explains, is often about finding what works and sticking with it. And this works, for him. Of course, matters are complicated by the fact that Sherlock can't actually afford to stay in the brownstone nor pay Joan unless his father helps, since he hasn't actually taken on a paying client in months due to a lack of interest in the paid offers he's received. But Joan doesn't care about the money, or Sherlock's father. In a poignant moment, Joan says, "Screw him, we don't need to live in the brownstone," siding completely with Sherlock, and whatever he feels is best for his own well-being. It's a wonderful moment of affirmation for the pair, and a stunningly effective scene for both Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, who really are one of TV's best platonic pairings.

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Also remarkable is Rhys Ifans, who manages to bridge the gap between Mycroft and Sherlock in a way that feels both spontaneous and inevitable. Sherlock reveals to Mycroft that he's written a letter for him to give to their father, explaining why he must remain in New York, and Mycroft expresses his surprise at how much Sherlock has changed. For his part, Sherlock shakes his brother's hand and observes that Mycroft hasn't changed much at all, implying that he's as solid a man as he's ever been. It's a touching sentiment, if not exactly true, as we close on Mycroft tearing Sherlock's letter to pieces and tossing it in the trash, before making a phone call to a mysterious third party, saying that the lie about father Holmes didn't work. For some reason, Mycroft and this other mysterious party is determined to get Sherlock back to London by any means necessary. But why? Is this a betrayal, or does Mycroft have an honorable reason for wanting to get Sherlock back to London? And what will it mean for the brothers' reconciliation for Sherlock to discover this lie? The question of whether Mycroft is really all that good a guy has been at or near the forefront of his story arc this season, and it's great to see that ambiguity brought back into the story in a more vivid fashion.

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"Blood Is Thicker" is vintage Elementary, representing the series at the very top of its form. I worry about turning these reviews into a weekly tongue bath for the series, but it really is a rare gem of a procedural on a network over-stuffed with procedural excesses.