Sunday, February 9, 2014

Elementary - Corpse de Ballet


As Watson (Lucy Liu) delves into a case of a missing homeless veteran that hits close to home, Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) is called in to investigate the murder of a promising young ballerina. Although all evidence points to the show's lead, an experienced diva (Aleksa Palladino), Holmes believes the woman is innocent (even if she does know the victim far better than she lets on). His suspicions are confirmed after he sleeps with the woman, but proving her innocence (especially after her affair with the victim becomes public) is a little harder to prove.

"Corpse de Ballet" isn't the best mystery of the show's two-year run but it has several interesting points. The reasoning behind the murder is quite Machiavellian and takes the detective longer than usual to both uncover and prove. Watson investigation leads to a sore spot with her own birth father as the simple case turns into much more of a mystery than Watson initially believed involving multiple abductions of former veterans and a scam to steal the men's government benefits.

Over the course of the early part of the episode we see Holmes has returned to the meaningless tryst part of his life, apparently putting Moriarty (Natalie Dormer) out of his mind (at least for now). In other ongoing stories, Marcus Bell (Jon Michael Hill) returns to the field for the first time since his shooting in limited capacity. And the episode ends reminding us once again that Holmes can show compassion, especially for a member of his small circle, in his small gesture which earns the gratitude of his partner and friend.

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