‘Elementary’ episode recap – 'You Do It to Yourself'

We open on a man staring into a masked man's face. The masked man is holding a gun. The masked man shoots the first man.

Shoot to Holmes having a nasty cold, which is making Watson miserable. Then, Bell sends a text to Holmes that they've got a dead body in an abandoned house and invites Holmes to come check out the scene. But, Watson got a call and asked Holmes to go without her. Holmes heads down and the dead body is the man we saw getting shot. Turns out he was shot in both eyes. As Holmes surveys the body, he deduces that this wasn’t where the victim was killed and that the victim is a professor Asian studies, Trent Annunzio.

Shoot to Watson going to Riker’s to see an ex of hers named Liam, who called her because she needs her help him to get him out of a jam. He tells her that he’s been arrested for a hit-and-run but says he’s innocent. Unfortunately, he’s a former addict, who started using again and blacked out the night of the accident and believes he left the keys in the ignition and someone went for a joyride. He still swears to Watson that he didn't do it but Watson is skeptical.

Shoot back to Holmes’ brownstone. He saw Liam’s call on Watson’s caller id, thinking Liam is a former client, prods her gently to look at Liam's arrest report. In it she sees how badly the car was smashed and notes that he didn't have a scratch on him. She also notes that a silver keychain pendant that she gave him was missing and thinks perhaps, even though it wasn't worth anything, thieves might've thought it valuable. Holmes then deduces Watson was sleeping with Liam and wonders how long into their relationship she waited to do this.

Shoot to Bell and Holmes heading off to the college the next day to check out Annunzio‘s office with the help of his teaching assistant Brendan. Holmes determined that Annunzio had a thing for the number 13, which means he was fond of gambling in Asian underground parlors.

Shoot to Holmes and Bell visiting underground Asian gambling parlors to find their perp. Their final destination is the crime scene, which Holmes deduces by recently spackled walls and a man pretending to be the janitor bleaching part of the floor. He determines that the man is not the janitor but the owner, thanks to his fancy shoes belying his janitor apron. Holmes then deduces that the parlor has video surveillance. The owner reluctantly shows Bell and Holmes the footage, which leads them one Raul Ramirez, who says he was hired to off Annunzio by an unseen third party, who contacted him only by a burner cellphone.

Shoot to Bell and Holmes discovering that Brendan had recently gotten a scathing refusal of recommendation for a job from Annunzio and they figure he hired Ramirez to kill him. They also deduce that Brendan was having an affair with Annunzio’s wife since he made her mix CDs of sappy love songs like "My Heart Will Go On.” They then suspect Annunzio’s wife of framing Brendan by leaving the burner cellphone in his house.

Shoot to Bell and Holmes going to Annunzio’s wife with their theory. She admits to the affair with Brendan, who has now confessed to hiring Ramirez, but says that she didn't kill her husband even though she had motive. She tells Holmes and Bell that Annunzio was an abusive sex maniac, who brought her back from Asia promising to marry her but never did and instead made her his sex slave. She goes to prove this with videos he made of the evil things he made her do but his computer has been wiped clean.

Shoot to Holmes not believing Brendan's confession but also believing Annunzio’s non-wife didn't do it. He is perplexed and now worried since the wife is about to be deported until Watson clues him in to an anomaly in the Annunzio’s eyes. It turns out that Annunzio had a painful, terminal eye condition and only had months to live. They deduce that he discovered his wife's affair with Brendan, wrote the damaging letter to make it appear that Brendan had motive to kill him, and then paid Raul, who lived in Brendan's neighborhood to kill him. He then asked Raul him to shoot him in the eyes as a symbolic gesture of relieving him of his pain and then planted the phone at Brendan's house. Then, Watson notices something else. Raul lived in Brendan's neighborhood but a few blocks away. Why didn't the Annunzio find someone even closer to do the deed, like the registered sex offender who lived in Brendan's building.

Shoot to Holmes and Watson going to see the sex offender and they hit the pay dirt. It turns out that Annunzio did approach him but the sex offender was suspicious and installed surveillance equipment and lured him back to his apartment. Armed with video showing that Annunzio showed up with hit money, they are able to solve the case. Then, Brendan and Annunzio’s non-wife get married that day to avoid her deportation.

Shoot to Watson finding the pendant in a pawn shop and going to the police. It turns out that there had been a rash of joyriders in the area and Liam is cleared. Liam then promises Watson that he will try rehab again and asks for her help. She is wary but offers to get him into a clinic but says this is all she will do, that they won’t get back together and she won’t be waiting when he is done. Later, she waits at the clinic for him to show and Holmes joins her. She admits that Liam was simply an ex, not an ex client. She guesses that Liam isn't going to show. Holmes says he will wait with her.

image: CBS