Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: B+ | 1 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT The Eyes Have It
By Monty Ashley | Season 1 | Episode 9 | Aired on 12.06.2012
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Holmes has a flu as the episode opens, but that's not enough to keep him from helping to investigate an unknown body found in an abandoned building. He does some show-offy detecting to identify the body as belonging to Trent Annunzio, a professor at Garrison University. Having established that, it is easy to demonstrate that Annunzio had been spending a lot of time in illicit Chinese gambling dens. And those all have really good security cameras, so they learn that he was killed by Raoul Ramirez. It's all going pretty smoothly!
But that's not the whole story! Because Raoul was hired by a mysterious figure that could have been one of Trent's assistants who was having an affair with Trent's wife. He even confesses! But even that is not the whole story, because Trent's wife tearfully admits that they were not legally married. And Trent was physically and psychologically sadistic to her, making her perform weird acts on video. But the videos have vanished.
Finally, Holmes puts together the plot. Trent had himself killed because he was dying of inoperable eye cancer and wanted to frame his assistant and have his wife deported. Pretty complicated! He's able to prove all this, because before he went to Raoul Ramirez, Trent went to another guy who was more suspicious and had hidden cameras. This show has a lot of hidden cameras, doesn't it? The assistant and the wife get married to keep her in the country and, I guess, live happily ever after.
While this is going on, Watson is going out to Rikers to see an ex-boyfriend who's been getting hopped up on heroin. He's accused of crashing his car, but he can't remember if he did it. Holmes helps Watson determine that he didn't, so she gets him off. Then the episode ends with Watson and Holmes waiting for him at the 59th Street Clinic, even though they know he probably won't show up.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!With no warning, a guy in a black ski mask levels a gun at a man. Well, I guess there could have been some warning before the episode started. I mean that we, the audience, get no warning. Because it's the way the episode starts. As he pulls the trigger, we cut to the Brownstone, where Holmes has a fever of 101 degrees. He gets a text from Gregson about a man left in an abandoned building. And boredom is worse than a fever, so it's time to go. We're jumping around a lot so far, aren't we?
It's raining at the abandoned building, so everyone's concerned about Holmes's sickness. They're less concerned about the dead guy, because he's already dead. His eyes were shot out. Bell says it's the gun was very close to the skin when it was fired. Holmes notes there are no shell casings or skull fragments, so the body was moved here. But Bell knows that, so it doesn't count as an astonishing deduction. Watson is worried about Holmes dying of exposure because this abandoned building is missing big chunks of wall and ceiling. Holmes eyeballs the situation and examines the victim's wrists. He reports that the victim was on his feet all day (because of his comfortable shoes) but had a job where he couldn't just wear athletic shoes. And the marks on his fingers from dry erase marker mean that he was a professor. And he's been to China. His tie reveals that he's from Garrison University. And the time he spent explaining all this has allowed him to muck with his iPhone to provide a specific identity: Professor Trent Annunzio.
Now they've gone to talk to Trent's widow June. She met him five years ago in Beijing and moved here two years ago. Watson gets a call from someone named "Liam" at Riker's Island, so she steps out for a second. As June talks, Holmes noses through her CDs. Then he points out that Trent was murdered in a personal way, like someone had a grudge. She says she saw Trent the previous morning, and he had to stay late for a meeting.
Outside, Holmes plans on going to Garrison to talk to the coworkers. Watson, however, is going to Rikers to talk to Liam, who she says is an old client.
Holmes and Bell are getting a brief tour from Trent's Teaching Assistant, a Mr. O'Brien. Contrary to what June said, O'Brien says Trent did not have to work late for a meeting. They're let into his office, but Holmes is more interested in the office across the hallway. Bell thinks the office is pretty cramped for a department head, who could have picked any office. Holmes decides he was going to an underground Chinese gambling parlor. Bell can't help but ask why, and the answer is that there are a lot of thirteens in his life. He didn't want the office across the room because its number was 14, which is unlucky. And his underwear was red boxers, which is considered lucky. And his clothes reeked of cigarette smoke, but his teeth were white, suggesting that he was not a smoker. Bell is reluctantly impressed, and I like how he's filling the traditional "Watson" role of someone who Holmes can show off to. Bell finds Mahjong tiles in Trent's desk, and they're different shapes. He says they're calling cards to different club and dares Holmes to ask how he knew that. Holmes won't do it, but Bell tells him anyway: poker clubs use custom chips, so Mahjong clubs presumably use the tiles. Holmes won't admit it, but he appears to be slightly impressed.