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Detective Bell is back at work, although even his paperwork-intensive duties are proving challenging with his palsy. Holmes is easing his guilt by practicing the fine art of car-thievery with Alfredo, although he takes every opportunity to deny feeling guilty. Alfredo sees through Holmes's ways better than anyone and has come up with a novel way to redirect his energy. What if Holmes became the sponsor of a kid named Randy? Holmes resists for a while, because he doesn't want to be put in a position where he has to interrupt his work to come to the aide of someone else, but he eventually relents.
Holmes and Watson are called in when Donald Howser is found dead after being caught running a big pyramid scheme. Holmes determines that Howser was seconds from committing suicide when he was killed, but that doesn't mean they don't have to track down his murderer. Watson recognizes Howser's personal chef, but she can't say anything because their connection was made when Watson was a sober companion. She has a secret meeting where she learns that the last person to see Donald Howser alive was a man named Jacob Weiss.
Holmes and Watson determine that Weiss is a friendly man who runs a nonprofit that reunites Holocaust survivors with stolen money. And although Howser handled the nonprofit's money, he never stole any. So Weiss couldn't possibly have anything to do with this! What a relief. Unfortunately, there's another murder victim: Rosalie Nunez, the reporter who first broke the story on Howser. By borrowing a million cellphone videos of skateboarders, Watson is able to spot Nelson Maddux, who's probably the murderer. But revealing this would mean breaking her sober-companion-confidentiality, so she has to jump through some hoops to demonstrate his connection to Howser.
These hoops involve an art gallery, where Maddux is found dead. Further investigation reveals that the art gallery is a money laundering front. And Jacob Weiss has been embezzling millions from his nonprofit. He got Maddux to kill Howser, then Maddux had to kill Nunez because Howser confessed that Weiss was involved in laundering his pyramid scheme money. And then Howser killed Maddux, because you don't want accomplices running around when they could be murder victims that link you to all the other crimes at the same time.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We're still following the Bell-got-shot storyline, which pleases me. I was a little afraid they were just writing Bell off the show for a while, which would be a shame. Bell is stuck at a desk doing paperwork, although he's trembling too much to do it properly. Watson brings him some food, and he's able to be a little polite to her, although he's really, really unhappy. He doesn't consider paperwork to be actual police work. Watson suggests that he talk to someone, but he'd prefer to talk less. He thanks her for the food in a way that makes it clear he'd like her to leave, so she does.
Elsewhere, Holmes carefully breaks into a car while his pal Alfredo (the car thief who's also his sponsor) gives him advice about the proximity sensor. I like Alfredo, but we haven't seen him in a long time and they could probably have done more to reintroduce him. Whatever happened to the fine art of clumsy exposition? The alarm goes off, and Holmes kicks the door in frustration. This annoys Alfredo, because it's an expensive car. Holmes claims the system is impregnable, but Alfredo has done it ten times today. Holmes denies that he's distracted by Bell's injury because he's decided he was in the right and anyway this is completely irrelevant to the Bell situation. He's very defensive, and it's pretty great. He asks why his concentration would be affected by this issue. Alfredo suggests that Holmes come to a meeting, but he's not into it. I feel like he doesn't want to admit he has a weakness. He throws the tools away in frustration.
In a fancy apartment we've never seen before, the television news announces that Donald Hauser has been running a pyramid scheme. The man watching the television is Hauser himself. The salient points are that the story was broken by Rosalie Nunez and that Hauser might be going to jail for the rest of his life. He reaches in a drawer, takes out a gun, and puts it in his mouth. Then he falls to the ground because he's been shot in the leg. And now the other leg. We don't see the man who did it. Hauser says he was just about to kill himself, and says that what's done is done. That's what the mysterious gunman wants to talk about.
A woman comes into the apartment. Hauser is tied to the chair and has a wound in his chest. The word "THIEF" is written on the wall in blood, in very neat handwriting. I suspect it's not that easy to use blood as paint without making a huge mess and also without leaving a bunch of your own DNA around the place as evidence, but maybe the killer has a lot of experience.
Later, the usual crew is investigating, minus Bell. Gregson is not that sympathetic about Hauser being dead, since he stole millions of dollars from people. Still, he's got a job to do. The woman who we saw found the body was Chloe Butler, his personal chef. A chef named "Butler"? Now I've heard everything! Holmes opens the drawer where Hauser's gun holster was…and still is. Watson and Chloe seem to recognize each other, but they talk like they don't. Chloe's job was to cook food at home and bring it to Hauser's place. Holmes sniffs Hauser's head and looks in his mouth before calling Gregson over. The gun that was found on the floor was a different caliber from the casings, so the police thing Hauser drew his gun before being shot by the intruder. Holmes has concluded that Hauser was going to commit suicide, which he knows because the drawer was closed, showing that he didn't pull the gun out in a hurry. The whiskey on his end table is about $10,000. It used to sit at the bar, but Hauser brought it out and filled his glass to the brim. And there's gun oil on the roof of his mouth. So, they wonder, if the killer got there and interrupted a suicide, what was the goal? Just torture?
Brownstone. Some late-breaking exposition establishes that there were over a thousand people affected by Hauser's pyramid scheme. Holmes wants to start the investigation with Chloe Butler, because she was so nervous while giving her information. He doesn't like her alibi of being home alone. He admits there could be other suspects out there, but he'd prefer to start with the easy one. Watson gets a text to meet someone in an hour and looks around shiftily. Holmes asks about Bell, and Watson says he's up and around. But that's all she has time for, because she has to go off to run unspecified errands. Holmes says he might be at the police station and will text her if he succeeds in breaking the case while she's off with her errands.
Watson has gone to Chloe Butler's place. She apologizes to Watson for not acknowledging her earlier and gives her a hug. She has a baby, which she describes has having a baby "now." (That's a clever way to demonstrate that the characters have a history but haven't seen each other recently.) And the father is..."out of the picture." She's an old client from when Watson was a sober companion. The father was a bad decision she blames on the drugs. Watson emphasizes that former clients decide whether to mention it, so when Chloe didn't greet her, she was obliged to play along. She's like to explain it to her partner, who could tell she was hiding something. Chloe is shocked and asks, "He thinks I'm a suspect?" Yes, dummy. That's not saying you're definitely guilty; it's saying that you're worth investigating. Chloe says that Watson must really trust her partner, which she does.
Holmes gets some coffee at the police station and briefly meets Bell's eyes across the hall. Watson arrives and wants to talk privately about Chloe Butler. She was a top chef in 2009 and was one of Watson's first clients in 2011. She started a new business as a personal chef to stay away from the restaurants, which were a bad environment. That's a good idea! Plus, she has an actual alibi: she was with her sponsor. Holmes thinks it's interesting that he didn't spot an addict, and also that he didn't notice that Watson was hiding something. I also think that's interesting, because it was very obvious. I guess he was sniffing a corpse's mouth at the time. Holmes left a voicemail with Rosalie Nunez, who broke the story, because maybe she knows something. Also because she's the only other name we've heard, so she's bound to be important eventually. Watson says that the last person to see Hauser alive was Jacob Weiss. Chloe had to know about all of Hauser's guests so she'd know what to make.
Jacob Weiss is a large, friendly, bearded man. He figures Hauser's death happened shortly after he left, and Holmes asks for an alibi between 10 and midnight. He was talking to a Swiss banker at a lobby bar, and lots of people can vouch for him. Weiss runs a charity that studies Swiss bank accounts and tries to get money back to the Holocaust survivors it was stolen from. Hauser ran the finances, and Weiss says every penny was accounted for. According to him, Hauser never stole money from the charity, so maybe he was doing some good to ease his conscience. During this speech, Holmes is eyeing a sculpture in the lobby. It's covered in names, so maybe he recognizes one.
Walking away, Holmes expresses the opinion that few people are completely good or evil. He gets a call from Rosalie Nunez's phone, but it's actually Detective Luntz of the NYPD asking why he left a message on the phone of a woman who's been found dead. Holmes explains that he's a consulting detective, and Luntz answers, "I may even have some consulting questions for ya!" He's sassy! Nunez is tied to a chair the same way Hauser was.
Nunez's place. Holmes notes the similarities to the way Hauser was found. Gregson says her time of death was a few hours after Hauser's. Watson thinks Nunez and Dowser were opposites; why would someone who wanted to kill Hauser for being a scammer also want to kill the person who broke the story? Holmes has a joke about literally shooting the messenger. Watson looks at a desk which has a missing laptop while Holmes studies the door, which has been kicked in. He claims that it was kicked by something that smelled of the sap of the Osage orange, which tells them the route the killer took while walking here.
He leads Watson to a park so he can ramble about this fruit called "monkey balls" or "the Osage orange." The assailant might have walked through here on the way back, too. Holmes gets a message from Alfredo, but he wants to keep talking about the current situation. He notes some skateboarders, who are all recording videos. They're always here, so maybe they caught the killer on their phones. Watson directs Holmes to go to Alfredo because she stitched up a lot of skating dummies at the ER and can speak their language. Tragically, we do not get to see Watson do that.
Holmes comes to Alfredo's garage, but Alfredo is not there. Instead, there's a young man who introduces himself as Randy. Holmes asks, "Name or adjective?", but Randy doesn't follow. Alfredo comes in and says he met Randy a bit ago and thinks he might benefit from a sponsor. Holmes acts calm (but it's clearly just an act, which means Jonny Lee Miller is a good actor) and says it's an excellent choice because Alfredo is so great. Alfredo explains that Holmes is the man for the job. Randy says, "Alfredo tells me I can learn a lot from you." In Alfredo's opinion, Holmes is distracted because he feels bad about what happened to Bell. Being in the right is no longer enough; he can still feel bad about the results of his correct actions, because he's "different now." Alfredo gives what I think is kind of the thesis of this show's conception of post-recovery Sherlock: "A little empathy crept in. That's supposed to happen." Holmes can't help Bell, so he should try helping someone else. Holmes is concerned about his availability, because a sponsor is supposed to drop everything and rush to the sponsor's aid. He gets a text from Watson and smugly says that duty will always call, so he can't even attend a meeting.
Watson is watching a bunch of videos on the TV screens in the Brownstone, but she's seen nothing suspicious. Holmes complains about Alfredo's ambush and insists that his life is special, so he doesn't have time. Watson says that everybody has trouble making time, and then she recognizes someone. It's someone who came to Chloe's home one night. Holmes is interested by this!
Watson goes back to Chloe, who confirms that the man on the video is Nelson Maddox. Watson was there "That night" when he came over and yelled at her. They were "together" when Chloe was using, and they were introduced by Donald Hauser. Nelson was an "entrepreneur," which means "criminal." All Chloe knows is that he did something with drugs. After rehab, Chloe told him to shove off and he came to see her that one time. She never saw him again. She's "pretty sure" that Nelson was a business partner of Hauser's, but she says Watson can't tell anyone how she knew about Donald. She's in a custody battle and the father doesn't know anything. If it comes out that she's an addict, they could take her baby away. She won't waver, even when Watson says two people are dead: "You gave your word that you would protect me." So Watson needs to find another way to connect Nelson to Hauser.
Brownstone. Holmes is incredulous that they can't use Chloe's information to get the police out there arresting Maddox. Watson reminds him that she takes her confidentiality seriously. Holmes is more invested in this now because Rosalie Nunez, unlike Donald Hauser, was a good person. He wants to at least tell Gregson in confidence, but Chloe vetoed that. Holmes insists, and Watson pulls out the big guns, asking "Did you not learn anything from what happened to Bell?" Her argument is that you don't know what could happen when you violate the rules. Holmes stomps out.
Alfredo wakes up on a couch and grabs a baseball bat when he hears a car revving in the garage. Holmes is sitting smugly in the car. He beat the car alarm, and Alfredo's home alarm. Alfredo sits in the passenger seat and looks at Holmes, who is staring straight ahead. Alfredo says, "Obviously you wanna talk, so talk." Holmes says he's good at putting himself in other people's shoes, because it lets him determine motive. But now that ability is getting in his way. Alfredo says he wasn't "assigning" him Randy. He just thinks Holmes is ready to be a sponsor: "There's one thing you gotta remember. It's not about you. You've gotten a lot out of the program. Don't you think it's time you gave something back?" I think Holmes doesn't like things that aren't about him.
He comes home in the morning .Watson is on the couch, still working. Chloe said Maddox was a client of Hauser's, but he doesn't appear in any of the files listing his thousands of victims. She sent Gregson the video of Maddox, but she didn't mention Chloe. Rosalie's laptop never showed up again, and Maddox had a laptop with him, so Watson was able to justify this much, but she couldn't tell Gregson Maddox's name. Holmes says, "Well done." Then Watson gets a text from Gregson, saying someone's called in a tip.
They're back with Weiss again. A member of his outreach staff recognized the face of Nelson Maddox and said he was on his guest list for a holiday party. Weiss says, "I remember him. I met him through Donald. I think Donald was the one who invited him to the fundraiser." Hauser introduced him as "another client," who had something to do with the art world. Weiss donated a few paintings, which sold.
On the way out, Watson says that there's an art gallery on the list of Hauser's clients, but Maddox wasn't on the list of owners.
At the art gallery, a stylish woman named Fabiana doesn't recognize the name Nelson Maddox. Holmes asks if she knows the owner or owners. She does, but not Maddox. Holmes and Watson browse the neo-deconceptualists, which is a word Holmes made up to see if Fabiana knew anything about art or the contents of the gallery at which she works. They agree that she was lying. Holmes spots something on the floor, then calls Fabiana. Was there anything out of the ordinary this morning? No. "But, there are scuffs, showing that someone was dragged through this door," says Holmes. Fabiana follows them into a very clean alleyway. Holmes studies the dumpsters and picks one. He moves the top trash bag and reveals a dead man. It's Nelson Maddox! He asks, "Would you care to revise your answers, because it appears that Nelson Maddox has some connection to this gallery after all."
Gregson catches us up. Maddox's car had the right gun and rope to make him the killer of Hauser and Nunez. Fabiana has admitted he was a silent partner, but he mostly just delivered drugs to rich people. They've got a motive for Maddox to kill Hauser, but who killed Maddox? And why would Maddox kill Nunez? Watson suggests that Nunez, being an investigative reporter, turned up something on Maddox. But the gallery isn't all that incriminating a connection. Holmes notes some red dots on the wall, which normally indicate that something has been sold. But in this gallery, they're on every third piece, suggesting someone walked steadily through the place and placed them. He concludes, "What we have here is a shoddily executed lie." The gallery is a money laundering front. He has Fabiana tell them (and the police) who these pieces were sold to.
Back to the World Reparations Council. Gregson is here to talk to Jacob Weiss. Holmes congratulates him on his good work, but he says money has been claimed without survivors being told. Well, that seems inappropriate! Holmes has a list of people who bought artwork at the art gallery. It's all names from the sculpture, but none of them knew about it. He alleges, "You laundered the embezzled money through his gallery." According to Holmes, Hauser shared what he knew about Weiss with Nunez to clear his conscience, but he gave Weiss a heads-up, and then Weiss sent Maddox to torture it out of him. Weiss killed Maddox when he saw him on the news. Weiss denies everything, but Gregson has called a few of the survivors on the charity's list, and none of them knew they'd been awarded six-figure settlements.
Bell comes into Gregson's office, but Gregson isn't there. Instead, he meets Frank Da Silva, the deputy commissioner. He's in charge of intelligence and surveillance. It's officially the "Demographics Unit," but he doesn't like the euphemism. They're just keeping an eye out on "certain groups." He's heard about Bell's situation, and says that he's an excellent detective with a good head on his shoulders. Bell might be staring at a desk job. "Or...you could come work for me. Does that interest you, detective? Would you care to help protect your city form the attack?" Bell is asked, and seems to think about it.
Holmes paces in the Brownstone. The bell rings and he shouts, "ENTER!" Don't do that, Holmes. Randy comes in and gets called "Randall." Holmes is standing very stiffly, as he does when uncomfortable. Randy sits, and Holmes bobs up and down. Randy thinks this is weird, so he gets up to leave. But Holmes says he wants to be Randy's sponsor, so Randy sits back down. He explains that he had low expectations of Alfredo and of sponsorship in general, but he was wrong. He won't coddle Randy or be his friend. He'll be his sponsor, and nothing else. If his commitment to sobriety matches his own, it will be fine. Is this acceptable to him? Randy, who seems to have a refreshingly direct approach to life, answers, "You're sober. You have been for a long time now. Of course I find the terms acceptable." Holmes nods, still standing straight.