ELEMENTARY Recap: Details

Sherlock is on a self-defense kick this week, not for himself but more for Watson. He seems genuinely concerned for her after her run in with the crooked DEA agent last episode. His method is totally Sherlock though. That’s right I’m using his name to describe a way of doing something that’s a little messed up. He disguises his voice, puts on a ski mask and attacks Watson when she gets home. She is not amused.

Somewhere else in the city Detective Bell is driving home when he is attacked in a targeted drive by shooting. Detective Bell is okay despite a pretty nasty crash. Sherlock plans to look into it but Bell has a suspect in mind, Curtis Bradshaw an aspiring Drug King Pin. He did an 18 month stint while Bell dismantled most of his operation. Bell recognized Bradshaw’s car from the shooting last night.
Sherlock, Watson and Gregson track Bradshaw down to question him. Bradshaw says his car was stolen a few nights ago so it couldn’t have been him. He clearly isn’t taking this very seriously.
Bell, who is supposed to be laying low, goes to visit a CI who says he can do some digging into the shooting. Turns out the guy isn’t a CI, he is Bell’s older brother and he has been out on parole for only a few weeks.

Holmes goes over Bradshaw’s case files with Watson but that isn’t all Sherlock is doing. When Watson gets up he throws a tennis ball at her back. She is understandably upset but he says it could have been a knife. He was just testing her reflexes. He isn’t going to let this self-defense thing slide.

The next morning Curtis Bradshaw is found shot dead on a stoop. Sherlock and Gregson head to Bell’s to talk to him as there was a boot print that matches Bell’s boots at the scene.
This next comment isn’t at all relevant but for the first time I can recall Detective Bell is wearing a T-Shirt, not a dress shirt and suit jacket and he has an impressive body under there.
Anyway…Bell says he didn’t do it, he’s not a killer.

Watson gets home later to find Holmes doing a ballistic exam in the living room. At least he had the music up loud enough that the neighbors wouldn’t hear the shots.
Bell gets a text from Sherlock to meet him at his house. When he arrives he is told they think someone is trying to frame Bell for the murder of Bradshaw. The gun Holmes was using in his exam was from Bell’s home. He found it in the air conditioning vent of his bathroom when he was there with Gregson. It is the gun used to kill Bradshaw. Bell says he has never seen that gun before and Sherlock believes him, but that might not be enough.

Sherlock turns the gun into Gregson saying he found it in a dumpster in the neighborhood where Bradshaw was shot.
Pulling Bell aside Sherlock asks for his keys, he is going to check out Bell’s apartment for clues. Holmes can’t find a single thing out of place at Bell’s and he is frustrated.
In fact he is so frustrated he tells Watson he knows she isn’t being paid to be his sober companion anymore. Which is good, I was wondering how long that would go on. He really appreciated her staying when he was having a rough time after sort of catching M but now she isn’t staying for him, she is staying for herself. He offers her a proposal, stay on permanently not as his sober companion but as his companion. He will pay her a stipend equal to what she was making from his Father and she can stay at the house or live elsewhere if she chooses. They can be partners. She should think about it. He even says he is better with her, sharper and more focused. It’s the most open Sherlock has ever been with Watson.
I really love how they are friends/partners and nothing more. I like that there is no sexual component to their relationship.

After an earlier fight with his brother at the station Bell goes by his brother’s apartment to find him on the floor shot and unconscious. In his brother’s blood on the floor is written, “was not Marcus”. It looks like the same person trying to frame Bell for murder tried again with his brother but they left him alive long enough to leave a message.
Sherlock and Watson visit the hospital to sit with Bell while he waits for his brother to get out of surgery.
Watson and Sherlock have an idea; they think Bell is being set up by a cop. The next morning they go to the precinct and start interviewing cops who worked the Bradshaw case with Bell.
Turns out it was Officer Reyes. She worked with Detective Hudson the Detective that Bell turned into IA for planting evidence against Bradshaw. She blamed Bell for the IA investigation into her mentor because it tarnished her reputation as well.

Bell goes to visit his brother in the hospital after everything is cleared up, looks like Bell’s brother is going to pull through which is good. Especially since Bell’s brother is played by Malcolm Goodwin. I loved him in A&E’s short lived Breakout Kings.

The episode ends with Sherlock in his living room rearranging his padlocks when Watson comes in. She announces that she likes to be paid on Thursdays; she will stay there since she has nowhere else to live right now and Sherlock will continue to go to AA meetings as long as they work together. He congratulates her on her new career.

Elementary airs Thursday 10/9c on CBS