This week on Elementary Mycroft seeks help from Sherlock about a case, and Sherlock discovers Joan and Mycroft slept together.
“The Marchioness” begins with Sherlock at his addict meeting. He talks about his drug use and wondering if he would have been different if he was born in a quieter time. He is interrupted by his brother Mycroft, who he didn’t know was present, and so he leaves the room. Joan is sitting outside and is surprised too by Mycroft’s appearance. Mycroft and Joan greet each other awkwardly, while Sherlock demands to know the reason for Mycroft’s arrival. He says he’s working on a restaurant and a friend needs some help. The old friend is his ex-fiancé, Nigella Mason, who Sherlock slept with before.
Nigella says she got married and even though she divorced him, she kept her title as Marchioness. She was also able to keep her favorite horse, Silver Blaze, who she uses for horse breeding. Her boyfriend Dalton was shot and killed at the stables the previous night. The killer had a contestation of potassium they dropped and it would have killed the horse. She mentions Mycroft forgave her after he became ill with Leukemia, prompting Sherlock to learn about his brother’s illness. Sherlock then leaves, disgusted with being near Nigella, who he had seduced before her and Mycroft’s wedding. He thinks of her as a toxic person and social climber.
At home, Sherlock notes Joan stiffens up when she’s around Mycroft. He questions if they slept together and she denies they did. Mycroft shows up, and apologizes. Nigella helped him find a bone marrow transplant. He asks Sherlock to help with the case, even though he hates Nigella.
Joan, Sherlock, and Mycroft arrive at the crime scene and investigate. Dalton came to give the horse some medicine and was shot by someone who then ran off in the woods when the owner came to investigate. Sherlock discovers fingerprints on a tree branch, believing the killer used it to hide from the owner. The killer is missing one finger on his left hand.
They go to the police station with the evidence to search for a suspect. They look through the evidence and find a various items including a map with some numbers which they think are part of an address. Bell says the prints match some from two unsolved massacres, which is believed to be the work of contract killer El Mecanico. Sherlock calls Nigella and tells her she’s being targeted. Her room number is the number they found on the map. He tells her to leave the room, and then someone shoots at her. They bring Nigella in and ask her questions.
At home, Mycroft cooks a big meal while Sherlock talks about the case. Joan and Mycroft eat dinner while Sherlock looks for a connection between Nigella and drug cartels. Sherlock investgiates Aguilar, a fan of the races and finds he had a horse that breeded with Nigella’s horse. Aguilar sold the foal after, which Joan notes is strange since he spent so much to get a champion horse. Sherlock sits down with the two and says there’s a lot of tension. He asks about what happened between them and Mycroft leaves. Joan is upset with Sherlock for not trying to connect with his brother. She does admit she had sex with Mycroft.
The three go to visit Aguilar’s stables and Sherlock asks Myrcoft and Joan personal questions about their sex life on the way there, which they do not answer. At the stable, they look at Nutmeg, while Sherlock looks at a picture of Silver Blaze. Sherlock says Nigella is a terrible person and asks Mycroft to call her.
They meet with Nigella at Mycroft’s restaurant and Sherlock tells her the whorl bit of hair on Nutmeg and Silver Blaze does not match, so they aren’t related. He asks where the real Silver Blaze is, as the horse she has is an imposter. She admits Silver Blaze died of heart failure, so she took his brother instead. She took hair and blood from Silver Blaze’s body. Aguilar discovered she conned him and that’s why he wants to kill her.
Sherlock and Joan talk about her relationship with Mycroft. Sherlock doesn’t understand and Joan thinks he’s over thinking the encounter. They watch video of the witness from one of the massacres involving El Mecanico and Sherlock notices he’s missing a finger. The witness isn’t a witness at all, he’s El Mecanico.
They take the evidence to Gregson and explain the detectives didn’t know he was the perpetrator as they only had partial fingerprints. Sherlock proposing using Nigella as bait, and doing so, they catch El Mecanico, a man named Keith. Gregson questions him and his lawyer. Mycroft notes they caught a mass murderer, and thanks them. Bell comes in and says his fingerprints don’t match the suspect in custody’s prints. Gregson says they’ll have to let him go.
Sherlock says the fingerprints at the crimes must be fake. El Mecanico is smart, so he wouldn’t leave his own prints. Sherlock finds a robbery from before the massacres that had the same fingerprints at the scene. He thinks they belonged to the original owner of the fingers and that El Mecanico took the man’s hands at a later date. They go to talk the sheriff who handled the case. She says the robbery was probably done by a man named Jed, who always drank the alcohol that was stolen. They find a tree near where Jed hung out is taller than the others. They discover Jed’s body underneath without any hands. Gregson and Bell talk to Keith and his lawyer and say they found some of Keith’s hairs on Jed’s body. Keith is then arrested for the massacres.
Mycroft comes over and he and Joan speak about his restaurant. He asks Joan to be his guest for the opening, but Joan questions if that will make things more difficult with Sherlock. Mycroft tells her he thinks she’s great for Sherlock, and he’d like to be her friend as well.
Mycroft and Sherlock meet with Nigella and tell her she’s safe now, but she needs to leave the horse breeding business. She leaves, and the brothers try to find something to talk about.
Comments:
I enjoyed the majority of this episode. I thought Joan and Mycroft having sex was surprising, but mostly because I don’t see any chemistry between them. I liked that both Mycroft and Sherlock are working on their relationship. I thought the case of the week was interesting, but it wasn’t one of my favorites from this season.
Tune in next Thursday at 10 p.m. on CBS for “Blood is Thicker.”
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