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Mycroft is in town! And Sherlock hates that! He's also bothered by what he perceives as tension between his brother and Watson, but he eventually gets Watson to admit that she had sex with Mycroft when they were in London. This gives him a chance to be a jerk to them some more. So that's fun.
Mycroft has brought his ex-fiancée Nigella, who Sherlock slept with to break them up. She married and then divorced a Marquess, so now she's in possession of an expensive stud horse and the title "Marchioness." But all is not sunshine and happiness in Nigella's life, because someone killed her lover and might also be trying to kill her horse. Sherlock quickly finds some fingerprints on a tree branch, which lead to the discovery that the Robles Cartel is involved somehow. Investigating the evidence left behind tells them that they're trying to kill Nigella, but they manage to save her precisely one second before a sniper kills her.
After a break in which Mycroft tries and fails to get Sherlock to eat a delicious dinner, Sherlock finds that Nigella's horse mated with a horse belonging to the head of the Robles Cartel, and the offspring got sold to a stable in Long Island. But the colt has markings that prove it's not the son of Nigella's expensive horse, because her horse is dead and she's been passing off fake horse sex. Then Holmes discovers that somebody who was a witness to a murder scene in Tampa is actually the notorious murderer El Mecanico. But his fingerprints don't match the ones at the scene, so there are still some things to work out.
After some cogitation, Sherlock decides that El Mecanico uses fake fingerprints when he's on a job. And the fingerprints he uses were once used at a liquor store robbery, which eventually means they belong to Strawdog Jed, a homeless guy who got his hands chopped off. So El Mecanico gets arrested and the cartel gets warned not to kill Nigella. Mycroft tells her she has to reimburse all the victims of her horse forgery, and she seems to agree. Then Sherlock has a coffee with his brother and it's not quite as awkward as it could have been.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!An "open discussion" at a rehab meeting starts with crazy thoughts about disease. Holmes suggests that he's often thought that he should have been born in a different time. Then he introduces himself as Sherlock, an addict. But back to him: his senses are very keen, and this is an era of distraction. Don't I know it. He used to use drugs to dull his nerve endings, and now he sometimes wonders what he'd be like if he'd been born "when it was a little quieter out there." He might have been more focused and a more fully realized person. Not like Ancient Greece, because the dental care was awful. Someone suggests about two hundred years ago. It's Mycroft! He claims he's here to support his brother, and Sherlock melts down and walks out.
Sherlock stomps out, surprising Watson, and shouts that he wouldn't have said anything if he'd known the meeting was compromised. There's some awkwardness about Mycroft's presence, which is for a restaurant opening. It's the Diogenes, which is a reference to the club Mycroft is always in from the Arthur Conan Doyle stories. He's here early because of "circumstances." Someone both he and Sherlock knows is in trouble.
He takes Sherlock and Watson to the Diogenes, which will combine reservations and some walk-ups to keep things fresh and fun. Their mutual friend is a blonde who Sherlock is not happy to see, although she kisses him a few times. "Joan Watson, this is Nigella Mason. She's my brother's former fiance." The one who Sherlock slept with to prove...something. I forget what. Point is, he now finds it awkward to be around her and Mycroft, although they seem fine with it.
The chef explains that the plates are meant to be shared, but there's plenty of food. He knows that alcohol is off, but he asks if there are any other things he needs to be aware of. Sherlock informs him, "I lose my appetite in the company of social-climbing trollops." Watson gives him a Look. Sherlock is very angry that she's here, but she says she married Robert Suffolk, the Marquess of Loudwater. Sherlock clarifies that it's between an Earl and a Duke. The Marquess was gay, so she turned to Dalton, the man in charge of his stable of racehorses, and there was a divorce. But she's still a Marchioness. She got to keep Silver Blaze, a horse she loved. And there's a demand for his services. Sherlock, still very stiff, says, "So you've become a horse pimp. How fitting. Must be lucrative!"
Silver Blaze is in Ulster County, and when Dalton was going to administer "the usual medication," a man surprised him and shot him. The murderer left behind a bag of supplies, including a syringe of potassium, possibly to kill Silver Blaze. She wants justice for Dalton, although Sherlock thinks it's to protect her meal ticket. She hopes Sherlock can do this, because Mycroft forgave her when he fell sick. This draws a look from Sherlock, who is just now learning about the leukemia. "I'm sincerely sorry for your trouble. But. This. Is an awful toxic creature." He leaves.
I will now take a moment to remind you that there's a Sherlock Holmes story named "Silver Blaze." It's the one with the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, which was referenced last week. The writers could spread their references out a little bit.
Brownstone. Sherlock's on the scanner. Watson comes in and Sherlock observes that Watson is uncomfortable around his brother. He asks if he's had sex with her yet, but she's more concerned with the human element about Mycroft dying. Holmes is just vexed with his brother: "Of course. Mycroft's spiritual awakening is tied to some sort of illness. The man's never met a cliché he didn't have a head-on collision with." The door buzzes and it's Mycroft. He looks around the living room and concedes that it's pleasant. He apologizes for not telling Sherlock, who points out that a sibling is the best chance for bone marrow. Nigella organized a drive to get him bone marrow. "I found my match because of her." Holmes is standing sideways, and I choose to believe it's purposely reminiscent of a fencing match. Mycroft gives Sherlock two excuses to help: he can either prove the thing with Nigella is behind him or he can just solve a murder.
Crime scene! Silver Blaze will be moved to the NYPD stables. The local cop gives Holmes (and Watson and the other Holmes) the rundown: Dalton parked there. His friend Asa stayed behind in the car. Dalton found someone picking the lock, who shot twice. Watson examines the lock, which was covered in fingerprints. The owner of the stable heard the shots and chased the guy to the tree line but lost him in a clearing. Watson has the cop show them the clearing where the perpetrator vanished. The owner was chasing from about a hundred yards behind. Holmes points out a young oak with low branches, and it has smooth bark on the top. He has fingerprint powder and an iPhone with a camera. "I'll wager these are the fingerprints of our murderer." And there are only nine prints, so the murderer must be missing the ring finger from his left hand!
Police station. Mycroft looks on as Holmes pokes through the bag that was left at the scene. Watson catalogs it: two sets of lock picks, one very large knife, three syringes bundled in duct tape, and one map of Ulster County. Holmes sees pen impressions and does that thing where you shade a piece of paper with a pencil to see what was written on the paper that was placed upon it. It says "2501" and nothing else. Bell comes in to report that the finger prints match partials found at thirteen murders at two different scenes involving a mob war and the Robles Cartel. They believe the prints belong to an assassin named "El Mecanico." There was a witness at the murder scene in Tampa, but he wasn't very useful. Sherlock tells Mycroft to round up The Marchioness so they can find out why drug dealers want to murder her horse. The guess from this household is that the horse was recently shipped from somewhere and there were drugs hidden inside it. A horse inside of a horse, if you will. Bell says not much is known about El Mecanico. Mycroft gets a text back from Nigella; she's at a hotel, suite...2501. Well, another mystery solved!
We see a sniper-scope POV shot of Nigella sitting in her suite. She answers her phone and Sherlock warns her someone's trying to kill her. She says she's been enjoying the view, which means her curtains are open. Sherlock has her go to a different room, and the sniper narrowly misses her.
Nigella is in the interrogation room, denying any connection to the Robles Cartel. After all, she's in the Peerage! And Dalton was in the steeplechase! Sherlock says she's lying because she's a woman of low character. She offers to give access to all of her books and files.
Sherlock is shocked and outraged to see Mycroft cooking an elaborate meal in his kitchen. In his opinion, meals just slow you down. But he changes his tune when he sees what's in the refrigerator. Back to the case: the police believe Joaquin Aguilar is in charge of the Robles Cartel on the East Coast. He's only been spotted six times in the last two years, although he has a private box at the Aqueduct. They have a brief argument about whether Nigella has changed, and Mycroft notices that Sherlock is snacking on a handful of string cheese.
Watson loves Mycroft's risotto, and he explains that it's more fun being the owner than the chef. Holmes stomps to the table, grudgingly takes a bite, and gets a text. Joaquin Aguilar comes to the track when these two specific horses are racing, and these horses are owned by Mariotti Farms in New Jersey, and they got their money from a place that's a front for the Robles Cartel. So maybe Aguilar is the shadow owner of those horses! Comparing a list of all the horses owned by Mariotti Farms with a list of Silver Blaze's "partners" shows one match: a horse named "Twice for No." The result was a male horse sold to a stable in Long Island. Mycroft points out that any outing should wait until morning, so Sherlock reluctantly sits down to have dinner. Then he stands up and insists that there's too much tension. He demands to know what happened between Watson and Mycroft, and Mycroft leaves.
Holmes again insists that Watson is uncomfortable around Mycroft, but she says she's uncomfortable around the pairing of Sherlock and Mycroft because she doesn't want him to wreck his relationship with his brother. She says Mycroft was nice, and Sherlock realizes they had sex. She says it was two consenting adults and it's his call whether he wants to let that ruin his relationship with Mycroft.
Mycroft is driving Sherlock and Watson out to Long Island. Sherlock makes a point of not holding Watson's "dalliance" against her, and Mycroft says it wasn't revenge. Sherlock asks if it's an ongoing relationship, but they haven't decided. He asks Watson if Mycroft's good at sex. No answer. Mycroft also does not opine on Watson's sexual skills.
The baby horse is named Nutmeg. He's cute! Holmes has a picture of another horse and says he's comparing whorls. If Watson is bored, he suggests having sex with his brother. Then he announces that Nigella is a horrid witch: "Summon the Marchioness."
Everyone reconvenes at the Diogenes. Holmes tells Nigella that whorls are inherited. There's a whorl between Silver Blaze's eyes and between the eyes of Twice for No. But not between Nutmeg's! So he asks what happened to the real Silver Blaze. She's been selling counterfeit stud services! In the background, Mycroft does a great mustache-curling move. He usually doesn't do anything while Sherlock is grandstanding, so every little action is interesting to me.
Nigella says that it was very hard to get ownership of Silver Blaze in the prenuptial agreement. She was married for 22 months and feels that she earned "a pack of horses." Mycroft is eating while she says that she had to buy Silver Blaze's brother after the good horse died of heart failure. Apparently the mare gets most of the scrutiny, and she got past genetic testing by saving hair and blood from the dead horse. Sherlock says Joaquin Aguilar figured it out, and he was going to kill the horse, then come after her and Dalton. She asks if he's telling the police, and she's at the mercy of "the Holmes brothers."
Brownstone. Sherlock and Watson watch the testimony of the guy in Tampa who saw El Mecanico kill a bunch of people. His eyes were cold, like the Arctic. Watson finds this unhelpful. Sherlock claims he's not sulking about her sleeping with Mycroft, although Watson points out that he'd totally sleep with her sister if he had a chance. Sherlock says the problem is that she must have known he'd figure that out, and it's unlike her to mess with their relationship. His guess is that she wanted to demonstrate that he doesn't have a monopoly on boorish behavior. Then he asks if the witness's metaphors seem fake. Indeed, "I guess he seemed like...vengeance" is not something useful to the police. Then we see the man's left hand, which is missing its ring finger. Just like their murderer? What a coincidence!
Gregson is skeptical. Watson explains that the police probably got there before he could get away, and Holmes elaborates that he just looked more like a witness than a cartel hitman. And the missing ring finger wasn't relevant until recently. The name he gave was Kent Jenkins, which isn't helpful. But they have his face, and Holmes is confident that he'll try to kill Nigella Mason. He's probably listening in on her cell, so they can use that to set him up.
Gregson stakes out a cafe and checks out a nearby rooftop. When El Mecanico walks out, Bell and a lot of officers arrest him. In the interrogation room, his lawyer objects to him being called "El Mecanico" all the time. He works at one of Joaquin Aguilar's companies and his name is Keith Newell. He was carrying registered $10,000 handgun when he was arrested. The lawyer is not willing to concede that her client was the guy who looks just like him lying to the Florida DA. His prints are all over three different murder scenes, but he doesn't look scared. In the room, Mycroft compliments Sherlock on his good work. But Bell comes in to talk to Gregson. The prints don't match the ones at the murder scenes, so they can only hold him for trespassing on that roof. Sherlock insists that he's obviously the murderer (because...he's obviously the murderer), but the case has hit a hiccup.
Mycroft parks outside the Brownstone and tries to sympathize with Holmes's inevitable frustration with being wrong. Holmes won't admit that he was wrong; he just needs to account for the fingerprints. "There's only one explanation I can come up with, which means there's only one explanation we need to investigate: fake fingerprints." This would require fancy equipment and some severed hands.
The morning, Holmes pokes Watson's bed with his single-stick to see if Mycroft is in there. He wants to get Mycroft and go to a city called Denning, where Keith Newell used to live. Holmes has noticed that the DEA found the same fingerprints at three crime scenes: two big murders and a cheap liquor store robbery from six months before. Holmes's theory is that Newell got the prints from whoever committed the robbery, because it seems beneath his notice. I think it's weird that he'd keep using the same fake fingerprints for his entire career. Wouldn't it be easier to just wear gloves? I mean, instead of pasting them onto your fingertips every time you're going out on a job?
At Denning (I guess) an old lady sheriff says someone stole a bunch of terrible booze called "Strawdog" and it wasn't much of a mystery. A month or two before the robbery, a new guy named Jed Something came in, and everyone called him Strawdog Jed. After the robbery, his place has lots of Strawdog but no Jed. His drinking buddy was sure something had happened to him. So Sheriff Lady just figured Jed stole all the Strawdog and then skipped town. Sherlock points out that it's weird he'd leave his precious Strawdog behind. They walk to the place where Jed used to sleep, which has been converted from a crummy vacant dirt lot to a lovely park. Holmes is happy about everything being the same age in the new park, because this one tree is taller and lusher. It must be getting extra nutrients from something, which is obviously the body of Strawdog Jed, which was conveniently buried just before this park was built.
Back to the interrogation room. Gregson thanks Mr. Newell for providing DNA and fingerprints, which they can't link to the Robles Cartel. However, they have a new lead on the disappearance of Jed Eichen, and Newell sits back in his chair, defeated. They found the body of Jed, and he was buried with no hands. And they found some hairs that weren't his, and they match up with Keith Newell, so they have at least one murder they can tie him to.
Brownstone. Keith Newell has confessed to being a Cartel gunman, because I guess the prospect of being convicted of killing a hobo was too much for him. The door buzzes. It's Mycroft, here to see Sherlock. He and Watson wait awkwardly for him and talk awkwardly about the restaurant. Did you see how I used the word "awkwardly" twice there? That's to convey the awkwardness in the scene. Mycroft asks her to be his guest for the opening of his restaurant, and she almost accepts. She asks if it will complicate things, and Mycroft says he wants to become friends with her. She looks down at the floor.
Sherlock and Mycroft are at the Diogenes. Sherlock is very stiff, and Mycroft is impatient. Nigella arrives, and Sherlock calls her "Marchioness." He's going to keep Aguilar off her case by threatening to reveal that he knowingly sold a fake foal. I guess that's enough to scare off the head of the feared Robles Cartel. He leaves her fate in Mycroft's hands. Mycroft says she's out of the stud business and is expected to reimburse the victims of her scam. He and Sherlock will oversee the repayments. Now get out. Mycroft adds, "I'd like to have a coffee with my brother." Holmes looks more relaxed as she leaves. He warns Mycroft that he won't talk about the holidays or the past. Mycroft asks, "What would you like to talk about?" And the episode ends.
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