In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
The unbreakable safe has been broken! And it happened once before, which means that the people who make the safe are starting to feel a little uneasy about their future. Also, they're called "Casterly Rock Security" which I hope means that the owners are siblings. So they've got all sorts of problems. And Holmes doesn't help at first, because he gets frustrated and attacks the safe with a fire axe.
Since he can't crack the safe himself, Holmes decides that it's basically impossible. So the first people who got in must have sold their secret to a new team of criminals, right? Well the only one who's willing to talk sets Holmes on the case of Le Chevalier, a legendary art thief who stole Van Gogh's Pieta. Holmes takes about an hour to solve this case and locate all the stolen artifacts, but Le Chevalier had a stroke a couple of years ago. So it was a blind alley, but it was kind of fun, right?
Meanwhile, Watson's mother and brother are in town, and this causes the usual amount of friction and uncomfortable discussions. Apparently Mrs. Watson doesn't understand how important a job it is to be a sober companion. But that all changes after Holmes says some really nice things about how important her work is. At the end of the episode, Watson's mother suggests that Watson might be happier being a detective. I bet she would!
Back on the case, Holmes studies a coffee order from the original trial for the people that cracked the Leviathan the first time. He's more interested in the back of the slip, which contains obfuscated code for a random number generator. He realizes that the jury contained exactly the people who would be needed to replicate the heist. Then there's a really long sequence where nobody seems to have noticed that the coffee order contained the names of the people on the jury, not the people who were on trial.
Anyway, two of the new teams get killed before Holmes narrows done the field of potential murderers to one person. His DNA doesn't quite match the evidence because he's received a bone marrow transplant, but that's just delaying the inevitable.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Will tonight be the first time anyone on this show actually says the word "elementary" for the first time? Let's find out!
In the cold open, someone breaks into a safe that's all fancy and electronic. At least two other black-clad people join in and they do the traditional move where you pull open a drawer and crudely throw the jewelry into a sack. That seems kind of sloppy to me, but I guess I don't know all the ins and outs of the jewel thief game.
In the brownstone, Watson comes down to a buzzing door. But before she can answer it, a pantsless lady named Gwen is there. And so is another pantsless lady named Olivia! They explain that they're here for Sherlock, and their "car service" will be here shortly. And there are crepes! Holmes comes down and tells Watson he was studying the differences between genetic duplicates, by which he means the Lynch twins. We never see them together, so there's a chance this is all an elaborate joke by Holmes.
Watson finally opens the door. A guy in a beard needs to talk to Sherlock. Holmes wants Watson to pretend he isn't home, but she's annoyed with him so they guy gets to come in.
He turns out to by Mr. Ehrlich, the president and chief engineer of "Casterly Rock Security," which is a Game of Thrones reference. Casterly Rock is the home of the Lannisters, who are most prominently known for always paying their debts and for having a brother and sister sleeping together. This security firm, however, makes bank vaults. In 2009, they introduced The Leviathan, which Holmes remembers as being advertised as "impregnable". The Lynch twins leave. It's a good thing that plot thread got resolved! Holmes says a Leviathan was broken into within a year of being launched, which you'd think would be a bad sign for an impregnable safe's long-term viability. Ehrlich says all four of the people involved were caught and convicted. But now the Swalbard Diamond Exchange was robbed last night. Holmes guesses that his job is to figure out how, since the police are concentrating on who. Ehrlich thinks there must have been a fifth conspirator in the original team who laid low until he could strike again, and Holmes says that's dumb. His working theory is that tf one group can break into it, so can a second.
At Swalbard, a feeb named David Batonvert says that Ehrlich's consultant can't see the vault until morning. Holmes says he's also an NYPD consultant, which he feels should get him into any crime scene he wants, and comments that David's name means "green stick". This baffles Batonvert for a moment, so Holmes strolls in, pointing out motion sensors and heat sensors and the like. The door on the safe is a foot thick, so it can't be picked. But maybe there could be a camera on a convenient fire extinguisher on the opposite wall? No, the police already checked that. So here's how the safe is opened: There's a ten-digit random code that changes every two minutes. One person has a fob that also shows whatever the number is, but the guy with the thing is in Gstaad. Really? There's only one person who can open the safe and you let him go to Switzerland? Holmes sits on the floor and stares at the door for awhile. Then he gets up and tries a couple of codes. They don't work.
Watson walks in to ask what he's doing. It turns out that he's been here all day! And apparently there's some give in the keypad that he thinks might mean something. Batonvert says they're closing, and Holmes refuses to leave: "Greenstick, do you want your diamonds back or not?"
Much later that night, Watson still won't leave Holmes, even though she has to meet her mother for brunch. She thinks he's engaging in addictive behavior, which she describes as being on a "dry drunk." Holmes says he wants to try one more thing. He breaks the fire extinguisher window and gets the axe out. Then he smashes it into the lock. He warns Watson, "Before you say anything, I would like to remind you that I'm holding an axe."
Brownstone. Holmes has the usual stuff all over the walls. Watson reports that Casterly Rock has called her with the repair bill for the safe, and it's very large. Shouldn't the diamond exchange be the ones charging them? Holmes's new plan is to start with "who," since he was unable to figure out how the safe was cracked. And everyone in the company has an alibi, so it couldn't have been an inside job. He believes that the crew from 2009 wouldn't have needed a fifth person. So he concludes that the original team must have sold the formula to someone. Watson doubts this logic, so he declares, "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, is the truth." It's a classic! Watson thinks the flaw in this logic is when Holmes decided that no one could break into the safe just because he couldn't. I agree with her, because obviously someone did break into one of these safes three years ago. Holmes wants to talk to the four people in the 2009 crew, although one of them (Carter Averill) died in prison and the other three haven't gotten back to him yet. As a side note, he observes that Watson is dressed up to impress her mother at brunch.
Brunch! Mrs. Watson (I don't actually know if that's her name, but I've already got someone named "Watson" in the recap) tells the waiter to bring them whatever's freshest, even though her daughter is still reading the menu. Watson ignores a call, because she is trying to be a dutiful daughter. Mrs. Watson says that Watson's brother is coming to the city, and he's bringing Gabrielle so they can all have dinner together. Watson objects that she's got this job where she has to stay in constant contact with her client, but her mother she asks if Watson's client can't just get another babysitter the night. Being described as a babysitter annoys Watson, so she answers her phone the time it rings. The news is that she has to be at Sing Sing at 2:30, because Charles Briggs (one of the 2009 crew) is going to talk.
Briggs thinks it's weird that Holmes thinks he'd consider talking. Holmes calls him the greatest lock-picker in the world and offers him a consultancy, since he needs brilliant lock-pickers who are available. So: how did he get past the Leviathan door and who did he sell the secret to? Briggs says he just did the outer door and that Carter Averill was the one that knew a way past the ten-digit code. After establishing that Holmes will hire him for the nebulous consultancy whether or not his tip pans out, he says that he thinks Carter sold the secret to someone whose alias was Le Chevalier.
Outside the prison, Watson catches us up that Le Chevalier has stolen an original Shakespeare First Folio, Van Gogh's Pieta, and some Greek coins. But no one knows anything about him, so she thinks it's a fairy tale. This, in her opinion is a total snipe hunt. No one's ever caught Le Chevalier! But Sherlock Holmes has never gone after him.
Holmes and Watson go over the Pieta case. Watson says Le Chevalier's got style. Holmes agrees, because he's stealing things you can't just fence. As they study the records, he sees a picture of Peter Kent, leader of the fundraising drive that led to the Pieta acquisition. His cufflinks have silver tetragrams, which means they're made from Greek coins. The same ones Le Chevalier stole. Well, that was easy. And Peter Kent is in phone book! Well, the one on his phone.
Holmes and Watson have gone to The Kent Philanthropic Trust. The door-person is confused when they say they're here to see Peter Kent, so Holmes says to say it's about Greek Tetragrams. In the waiting room, Holmes gives a great sigh when Watson asks if something is an original Hopper. All of the paintings in this room original! And they're all very valuable. Except for one, which is a lithograph poster of the Pieta. Or... is it? Holmes goes over and breaks the glass on the lithograph's frame. He pulls out a knife and rips the poster apart to show the actual Pieta underneath. Nice work!
Peter Kent's son rushes in. Holmes says Peter stole the Pieta. And two nights ago, he stole the diamonds! Except that the son explains that his father had a stroke two years ago and hasn't moved since. Holmes tells Watson she was right: Briggs sent them on a snipe hunt. I like the idea that there was a legendary art thief with a fancy pseudonym baffling the police for decades, but it took Sherlock Holmes an hour to solve the case.
Holmes grouses to Watson about wild goose chases. Peter Kent's son didn't want all them to go public, so he let them take all of his father's loot, which they carried home on the subway. The word "court" makes Holmes realize that Carter Averill had a trial, so there ought to be some transcripts with at least some details of the crime. Maybe someone pieced it together! Watson thinks the only reason he's stuck on the copycat theory is because he couldn't do it himself and can't stand the idea that someone could be smarter than him. Well, wasn't Carter Averill able to crack the safe that baffles Holmes?
Holmes and Watson drop the incredibly valuable treasures off at the police station, where Gregson is uncomfortable about this whole thing. They just coincidentally found Le Chevalier's stuff? Right after searching for Le Chevalier? That is their store. And Holmes is not leaving the art tube (which obviously contains the Pieta) with the police; he's taking it home instead.
At the Brownstone, Watson is not okay with Holmes hanging a stolen fifty million dollar painting in their living room. Holmes figures he might as well have a masterpiece around while he studying court transcripts. He promises to bring it back tomorrow. Watson's phone, which is on the mantel for some reason, rings. It's her brother Oren! If this were the IMDB Trivia section, Ids have something about how Lucy Liu player O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill. Apparently she texted him to say she was coming to dinner with her client. Which means, of course, that Holmes did it. They've been pretty consistent with Holmes's trait of putting things away in weird places. Remember that time he left a bag of chips on the top shelf of a bookcase? Watson complains that she had a code on her phone to keep Holmes out, but Holmes points out that obviously a four-digit code wouldn't present him any problems. She wants to leave him alone, Holmes says "relapse" to force her to keep him around.
The morning, Holmes has coffee, yogurt and fruit for Watson, who is still in bed. They're going to the Property Clerk's Office, because that's where they keep Exhibit C. It's just a handwritten note with the names of the criminals to their coffee orders, but the jury looked at it three times. At the trial, it was just proof that the criminals knew each other.
Holmes shows Watson the paper. Here are their orders: Justin, Grand 2 Sugars; Alex, Cai soy latte; Jeremy, Coffee soy; Amelie, Van. soy latte. I'm going to come back to this order in a few paragraphs, so I want you to notice the names. Justin, Alex, Jeremy, and Amelie. Watson notices that there are three soy drinks, which is kind of a high ratio. But Holmes is more interested in some gibberish on the back of the paper. It's Malboge, which is a computer language that's supposed to be impenetrable. But Holmes has a contact who knows it. His theory is that someone from the jury recognized it as computer code and figured out how to use it to break the safe's encryption. And on looking through the jury records, he settles on Justin Guthrie, who was a former software engineer.
Holmes's phone beeps as they're on their way to see Jason Guthrie. The Malbolge code was, in fact, a random number algorithm. It took ten-digit strings from pi, which look random but are predictable. Holmes is now confident that Guthrie recognized the code. But there's a policeman at the door to Guthrie's building, because it's an active crime scene. It seems Mr. Guthrie jumped out the window of his apartment!
Holmes is playing Guthrie's piano when Gregson and Bell arrive. Holmes says it wasn't a suicide. He points them to some blood on the wainscoting, which he and Watson found. I really like that he gives Watson some of the credit for that. The blood spatter suggests that someone was hit in the nose. Holmes leads them to some vases filled with decorative stones. But one of them is missing a layer, and many of the stolen diamonds were uncut. So the co-conspirator stole them. And he was in a hurry, so here's one he missed. Gregson is sold: get some more detectives down here! Holmes is dazzled by his own cleverness and wants to duck out of Watson's dinner now that it's a murder investigation.
But when Watson gets to the restaurant, Holmes has beaten her there. He introduces her to Gabrielle, her brother's girlfriend. He's been describing her job to the Watsons. In a whisper, he explains that he has some downtime because he's waiting for the DNA results on the blood. Holmes insists to the family that Watson has been instrumental in his cases. Her mother asks, fascinated, if she really helped prove that a secretary killed five people. Watson admits that she did. Holmes is very generous in his descriptions of her as helping rebuild lives as a sober companion. Watson's mother says she never thought of it like that, and Holmes points out that Watson is naturally humble and wouldn't describe herself like that.
In the cab, Watson thanks Holmes for his nice words, knowing he'll blow it off. He does! He claims to have told them what they wanted to hear. But as he says this, he's sneaking sidelong glances at her, which I believe is so he can make sure she doesn't get too down on herself. He believes her family is conventional, but that she is not. Also, the phone that's been in his hands the whole night is Jason Guthrie's. He's got three names stored in the notes: Jeremy, Amelie, and Alex. Those, Holmes says, are names from the jury. Who keeps in touch with people from their jury?
Okay, remember that coffee order? The one that was supposed to have the names of the 2009 crew? The names were actually Justin, Alex, Jeremy, and Amelie. I think it's a production mistake, because it doesn't make sense otherwise.
Holmes is listening to opera at 3:00 AM. Watson wants it turned down, but Holmes is basking. He explains that in the original heist, Vance Poulson was the inside man, Charles Briggs was the lock-picker, Carter Averill was the organizer/genius, and David Retz was the PhD in electrical engineering. So the in new team, Guthrie did Carter Averill's job. Alex Wilson was an electrical engineer. Jeremy Lopez, was the son of a locksmith. And the last person, Amelie Windompsky was a homemaker. But her maiden name was Batonvert, which makes her Greenstick's sister. Holmes concludes that these are the four people that hit the diamond exchange, which they should have gotten at least two scenes ago. Even without the coffee list, as soon as they had Jason's phone, they had the rest of the team.
At the police station, they've collected the original jury, minus Jason Guthrie (who we already know is dead) and Alex Wilson (who is missing). Holmes thinks the culprit is Jeremy Lopez, who has a facial injury.
Holmes gives a speech to the jury to tell them that four of them are criminals and one is a murderer. To determine who, it's a simple case of comparing their DNA with the blood spatter. They don't have to, but he appreciates their civic pride. But, he warns them, if you recently killed Guthrie, don't do it: "That would be folly." Jeremy hesitates, but does it. Gregson thanks them for their time. Gregson will have people watching Jeremy and Amelie.
Bell says he has a contact who saw Alex Wilson in New Jersey recently. Holmes thinks if Lopez isn't the murderer (because why would he give up his DNA so easily), Amelie doesn't look like she could throw a man out the window. So it's off to Alex Wilson's place! Where they should have gone anyway, because even if he's not the murderer, there's the diamond heist to worry about.
Outside Alex's place, there are flies and a smell. Holmes identifies the bugs as coffin flies. And they're on some cardboard. So beneath the cardboard there is of course a dead person. Bell says he's been dead at least two days. So he didn't kill Guthrie yesterday.
Back to the police station. The DNA from Guthrie's apartment matches Audrey Higuera, an army chaplain. And there's no connection to the jury as far as they know.
Outside Audrey Higuera's house, Holmes doesn't like the idea of this lady. She doesn't fit the story at all. She's also got a Habitat for Humanity sticker on her car. But her blood was in Guthrie's apartment, so they have to investigate. Watson smirks about eliminating the impossible, and Holmes says that sounds like something a windbag would say. Inside Higuera's house, Watson says the pictures on the mantel show her nursing her sister through cancer. Gregson gets a phone call and reports that she was deployed to Kabul a couple weeks ago. Suddenly Watson says Audrey is doing everything she can to help people with Leukemia. And a ribbon says that she's a bone marrow donor! Oh man, this sounds like the dumbest twist ever.
Guthrie's back at the police station, and this time he's in the interrogation room. Gregson would like a blood sample for a better DNA test. Holmes spots some evasions and asks if Guthrie had leukemia. Yes, five years ago. Holmes alleges that the blood at the crime scene came from his body, but it had someone else's DNA because of the bone marrow transfer. Oh, really. To be fair, this is the kind of goofy twist that traditional Holmes stories are sometimes built on. Holmes alleges, "You stole forty million dollars and then you murdered two people." Guthrie would like to leave. But Gregson has a court order for the blood. Gregson says that maybe if he gives up Amelie, that would help.
Holmes is annoyed that Casterly Rock Security gave him four $500 bottles of champagne when he can't even drink. He offers them to Watson, since she spotted the bone marrow. She thinks it would be rude to drink in front of him. It would! What kind of sober companion gets drunk in front of their client? Watson pours out the champagne as she and Holmes banter about whether he's really the smartest man in the world. He's willing to admit that it hasn't been conclusively proven. I was hoping he'd mention his smarter brother.
The doorbell rings. Holmes gets it, and it's Watson's mother. Holmes cheerfully says, "I'll leave you two to chat." Mrs. Watson says the place seems to suit her client. She thinks that Watson just doesn't seem happy sober-companioning. It seems like she picked this job out of a sense of duty because of her job (killed a patient) and love life (ex-boyfriend became an addict). But when the two of them talked about Sherlock's work, there was a sense of excitement. Watson admits that she likes what Sherlock, but she's not a detective. Her mother asks, "Will the client make you happy? People find their paths in the strangest of ways." Holmes comes in. There's something on the news! The Pieta has been returned by courier. The police think the thief must have been suffering from a guilty conscience. Holmes pauses a little longer than necessary, then leaves.
Follow Monty on Twitter at @monty_ashley and read his blog, Mysterious Exhortations.