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There's a serial killer named "The Balloon Man" who leaves festive mylar balloons at the sites of his abductions. That's... festive? I guess? Anyway, he's been at it for seven years, but there's been a new case and Sherlock Holmes is on it. On the case, I mean. Mariana Castillo has been kidnapped from her home. And there's a quick thing about how her father was lying about the place he bought some wine, which proved he had an affair. And he was out of the house talking to the woman in question when the kidnapping happened.
The woman he was meeting noticed something about a van that ran a stop sign. This leads to the revelation that it's a decommissioned NYPD van that was painted brown. And when they find it, the person driving it is the kid who was the Balloon Man's first victim!
The kid is Adam Kemper, and he won't talk to anyone but Sherlock Holmes on account of being so traumatized. Holmes gets through to him enough to learn that the Balloon Man brought him doughnuts every morning, which means he works nights. And by cross-referencing old cases, he locates Samuel Abbott. But Abbott has vanished from his apartment! He left a video saying that he'll give Mariana back if the police give Adam back. Mariana's parents are in favor of this, because Adam probably helped with the Balloon Man stuff. This eventually results in Adam getting immunity in exchange for leading the police to Abbott.
When the police find Abbott, he kills himself. So Mariana's safe! But Holmes realizes that Abbott is a weak man and the mastermind behind the serial killing was actually Adam! The kid! Who now has immunity from prosecution! Except that Holmes figures out a loophole where Adam only has immunity for crimes he committed with Samuel Abbott, and one of the murders happened while Abbott was in traction. So he's going to jail after all.
And in Holmes-Watson Relationship news, Holmes starts out being mean to Watson and not letting her speak. But by the end of the episode, she has been helpful in showing him how to use calisthenics to stave off sleep, so he admits that she is more useful than a model phrenology head named Angus.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Welcome to Elementary! A kid with a backpack leaves his home in Brooklyn, 2005. Thanks, helpful captions! A car pulls up and an unknown man says, "Hey, Adam. Remember me? Going to school, huh?" Adam does seem that suspicious, although he finds it odd that the car is full of mylar balloons that say "Thanks!" The man explains that they're for Adam's parents. And as the car drives away, the balloons are left behind, tied to a brick sitting on the sidewalk.
Now, to the present day. Watson comes downstairs in the Brownstone and says that Holmes promised to jogging with her. Her plan is that running will help him get over the drugs. Holmes, however, has stayed up all night studying the files of the Balloon Man. He only agreed to go running because he wasn't listening to her. Holmes, by the way, is shirtless and has a prominent tattoo on his back that says "26.2." I mention that because the implication is that he runs marathons often enough that he thinks it appropriate to have a tattoo about them. Watson remembers the Balloon Man's first victim, because she lived a few blocks away. Holmes references e.e. cummings and smugly predicts the exact time when he'll be called in to consult. But he's fifteen minutes off, because the call comes in right away. That's when he realizes he's not wearing a shirt.
To the crime scene! Detective Gregson and Officer Bell run down the timeline of the abduction. Holmes pokes at a freshly broken vine, which he figures was caused by Mariana Castillo fighting back. But he doesn't think being "a fighter" will help her, since she'll be fighting a grown adult.
Inside the Castillo home, there's a video crew about to go live. But Holmes will not have it! They won't listen to his peremptory demands to shut it down, so he sprays paint in the camera lens. And then, after he's ruined the expensive equipment, he tells the parents about the correlation he found in the files: the more interviews the parents did, the faster the children died. "The Balloon Man feeds off the public grief." That's great, but I think he could have just said that to begin with. He could even have told the police that when he got the first phone call!
Holmes strolls through the house and makes keen observations about everything. There's a phone, which he strokes in a weirdly friendly way. Watson muses about the first victim. She eventually remembers that his name was Adam Kemper. Holmes tells her to leave the room because she's distracting him with he incessant talking. In his opinion, it's okay if he talks to her, because then she's helping him clarify his thoughts. This offends her, but it's not like he asked her to hang around him all the time. And if this is what it takes to find the murderer, maybe Watson could just go along with it?
After poking around for a bit, Holmes accuses Mr. Castillo of lying to the police. He claimed he was out buying a bottle of wine at a bodega (which is a word that, as far as I can tell, only exists in New York), but the price tag is on the wrong end of the bottle. The presence of multiple lemon presses show that the Castillos were separated for a time and Caller ID shows that there was a call last night that took only fifteen seconds. So clearly Mr. Castillo snuck out last night to talk to his lady friend. Castillo admits that he met her at her car, a few houses away. This whole time, Watson has been being outraged and trying to shush Holmes, but Holes finally explains that the lady, having been outside at the right time, might have seen the Balloon Man carrying off the Castillos' daughter. Which seems pretty obvious to me, but maybe I'm just secretly a brilliant logician.
"I'm sorry. I just... I can't believe I'm the reason that lunatic got his hands on Roberto's daughter." The woman seems rattled. Which is fair. She says she never got out of her car. Watching from the corner, Holmes tells Watson not to talk to him because he's too focused. The witness says she saw a car run a stop sign and turn a corner. How is it just now occurring to her that the windowless van she saw speeding away from the kidnapping might be something she should tell someone about? Holmes concludes that the Balloon Man panicked when he heard sirens (Holmes was conveniently listening to his police scanner last night and heard a report in the area) and didn't have time to chloroform his victim. The witness can only remember that it was a van. But when Holmes glares at her, she remembers that it was dark brown. Man, this lady is the worst witness.
Out on the street, Holmes, Watson, and Bell wander around. Holmes explains that they're looking for a security camera or maybe a neighbor wit ha photographic memory. Watson is mopey about being told to listen, not talk. I would have thought that someone whose job is to babysit addicts in danger of relapse would have thicker skin. She says Holmes hasn't eaten or slept in two days, which makes him more likely to relapse. Holmes now claims her talking is like white noise, which he finds soothing. And he points out a car that's covered in parking tickets. That proves it hasn't moved in a week or so, but there are tire marks on the street suggesting that it skidded a foot or so. Watson helps out by pointing out the giant gouge in the side of the car that shows it was sideswiped. They probably could have started with that. The paint is mostly dark brown, but it includes blue and white in there. Holmes recognizes the shade (which is something the literary Sherlock Holmes was always doing) and tells Detective Bell that they're looking for a decommissioned NYPD van that's been painted dark brown.
Back to the police station. Holmes claims that he wasn't napping just because he was sitting on a bench with his head lolled back and his eyes closed. Watson continues to be mopey, even though Holmes tells her she's providing a valuable service by being a sounding board. Back in London, he used to talk to a phrenology bust called Angus.
Gregson says they have a hit on the van. And we have a chase! There's the van right there! And there's a helicopter that's using thermal imaging! Neat! I mean, we don't actually see either the helicopter or the thermal imaging, but the dialogue suggests that both are out there. The van eventually gets run down and a man in a hooded sweatshirt runs for it. He doesn't get too far before he's body-checked into a fence. The van is empty. Holmes noses in and notes that based on the distinctive birthmark, the kid is Adam Kemper, the first victim of the Balloon Man. Twist!
Interrogation Room. Adam isn't talking. He's not just not playing along; he's refusing to say even one word. Gregson says a psychologist and the kid's parents are on the way. Watson tells a story about a child missing for a long time who had grown to sympathize with his captor. Holmes points out that at least two of the victims were found dead. He asks, "What role did Adam play in their deaths?" Holmes tells Gregson he thinks he can get through to Adam. Gregson tells him, "You're a consultant, not a cop." "Maybe not-a-cop is exactly what he needs." Obviously, he gets in. Gregson says he's only got five minutes, but he gets in the elevator to go to a different floor, so how will he know? In fact, when Holmes gets back to the interrogation room, how will the cops know that Gregson gave him permission? The correct answer is: because this show doesn't think about things like that.
So Holmes sits across from Adam in the Interrogation Room. He tells Adam about how he knows that a mysterious man took care of him: "Taught you to drive. Loved you. My father packed me off to boarding school" and so on. Holmes got bullied at school by someone named Anders. But: "The more Anders hurt me, the more I felt gratitude that he was actually paying attention to me." As someone who endured some bullying, I feel that I would have been more grateful with less attention. Anyway, now that Holmes has made an emotional connection, Adam says he cut his hand on the window in his room. But he loves the man, who would bring him doughnuts every morning. "He took care of me. He put a bandage on me." Gregson comes in to report that Adam's parents are here, and that they have brought lawyers. So this interview is over.
The parents talk to Gregson in his office. Watson blathers at Holmes about the bully and how touching it all was. Then she comes to her senses and asks if any of it was true, and he did, in fact, go to boarding school. The lawyer suggests an immunity deal, where Adam will get off, then he'll tell them where the Balloon Man is. They'll hear by the morning, which will probably be too late for Mariana Castillo. Holmes leaves, because he wants to run with the fact that the man came home with doughnuts every morning. So he works nights. That's enough to identify someone, right?
Back at the Brownstone, Watson is willing to let Holmes work all night. He says he does not require a listener. He needs to read every word and study every image personally, so there is no real role for Watson tonight. So she can go get sleep. But first, she wants to teach him a trick she learned in medical school. It's calisthenics! Basically, do some squats and get your blood flowing. That'll give you the energy to keep going. I like that she's providing knowledge based on the hellish experience of becoming a doctor, rather than specific medical knowledge doctors have.
The morning, Holmes reports that the FBI used to have a theory that Balloon Man was an exterminator because some neighbors had tented homes. The FBI investigated the company and gave up, but Holmes thinks the Balloon Man changed jobs between the third and fourth victims. The parents of some later victims had a subscription to "The Investor's Post". And the other ones had neighbors who subscribed! So Holmes is on the phone, pretending to be a subscriber who wants to send a tip. Watson tosses him a pen. That's helping, isn't it? Sometimes you really need someone to toss you a pen.
The man they are searching for is Samuel Abbott.
The apartment the police go to is empty. But there's a room with balloons in it. Balloons that say things like "Congrats!" and "You did it!" Also there's a thumbdrive with a video! A sweaty guy (who looks sort of like an unkempt, unshaven John Hodgman) says, "You have something that's mine. You have Adam." He calls Adam his son. And the police have until noon or his six victims will become seven. How does he know what day the police found the apartment?
The Castillos want to make the trade. But the police can't do that. The Castillos don't believe that Adam is just "a victim". They're jerks about this, in my opinion. Holmes points out that victims of horrific abuse are often protective of their abusers, but that doesn't mean they should be sent back there. Holmes wants to go back to the files. Gregson says no cop can talk to Adam. No... COP. Before acting on this semi-legal plan, Holmes takes a moment to tell Watson he might even listen to her again in the future. But "not your sobriety twaddle." She hasn't really done much sobriety twaddle.
Holmes goes in and talks to Adam, who considers Samuel Abbott his dad. Adam admits that he helped "take the others". He says he's confused. Adam asks if he signs the deal, will that make up for what he's done? Nope. Holmes says Adam will never get the blood of those six children off his hands. "That doesn't mean you shouldn't try." Adam concedes: "I'll sign the papers. I'll tell you where we live. That's where you'll find the girl."
Somewhere! A creepy, sweaty guy who's not wearing a shirt gives a young girl a gross-looking sandwich. And then the police bust in behind a riot shield! Samuel has a gun! But he shoots himself not the girl.
Holmes stares at Samuel's body. Mariana's okay, although she's still terrified. Holmes muses, "This isn't what I was expecting." He thought Samuel would be more virile, but he has a back brace from fused vertebrae. I'm not 100% sure that Holmes is correct in his belief that someone with a strong personality is necessarily going to be a big, strong man. But it's the sort of thing that Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes would have believed, so I don't mind it. It kind of ties in with that phrenology bust he mentioned, actually. It's that sort of mindset.
Anyway! Holmes looks around Samuel's grubby little apartment. There's a bare room with a single mattress on the floor. Watson says it's where Adam slept. No, Adam slept in the Master bedroom, because that's where the broken window is. Holmes makes the grand pronouncement: "That man out there, Abbott, is NOT the Balloon Man."
Adam comes home to a darkened bedroom. Holmes turns on the light. Hey, is this Adam's old room from seven years ago or whatever? He tells Adam that Samuel's room had a bare mattress, so: "Samuel Abbott was not the Balloon Man. You were." He even checked the hairs on the pillows in the two rooms.
Adam says he'd just turned 14 and was lonely after being kidnapped. Holmes says he wanted to hurt someone. Adam says he liked seeing the families on the television. He turned the tables on Samuel with psychological abuse followed by physical. Offering a swap was Adam's contingency plan in case he got caught. I wonder why he was out driving his Balloon Man van while he had a victim stashed back home. Adam asks, "Are you here to kill me, Mr. Holmes? Because I have to admit I find the possibility very... exciting." Adam goes to brush his teeth and says he thinks it's time to move to a new city.
Brownstone. Watson reports that Adam Kemper is immune to prosecution for any crimes done in concert with Samuel Abbot. Holmes knows that. She says he saved Mariana, which should be something. Holmes throws knives at the wall and complains that he injured himself doing the calisthenics. Watson says, "I said a hundred squats, not a thousand." Holmes: "Back pain! Thank you, dear, sweet... back pain!"
Adam hangs out in a park. Holmes shows up. Adam's watching some kids and parents. Holmes has a question about William Crawford, who was kidnapped on April 3, 2009. (Adam: "Blond boy. He cried a lot.") The police found him on April 7. (Adam: "Yeah, we buried them deeper after that." "Mr. Abbott made me bury them deeper after that.") Holmes says they tested the skin under William's fingernails, and it wasn't Samuel Abbott's. He reveals that Abbott's back was broken in March 2009. He was in traction the entire time William Crawford was being kidnapped and killed. The loophole is that the immunity deal was "for crimes committed in consort with Samuel Abbott."
Holmes says he doesn't want to know why Adam did it. And the police are here. Adam says he'll be out soon, since it's only one murder.
Brownstone. Watson closes windows so Holmes can get some sleep. Holmes claims to be flush with success and raring to go through old files: "You. Me. Angus. Some combination of the three." He wants to dig into his old files and solve three cases by nightfall. But before Watson can bring him the sleepy tea, he's asleep. I don't think she should use sleepy tea on an addict.
Follow Monty on Twitter at @monty_ashley and read his blog, Mysterious Exhortations.