Elementary - S2, Ep16

15/5/2014

Episode: “The One Percent Solution” (2x16)
Aired: 11/5/14
Channel/Time: Channel Ten, Sunday 8:50

The Episode

Gareth Lestrade, Sherlock’s colleague from London, travels to New York to partner up with Holmes and Watson and investigate a high profile bombing.

The So-So

The episode as a whole was pretty mediocre. I had to watch it a couple of times after it aired, because I was bored, so, there’s that.

The focus was on Lestrade and Holmes, clearly, and the tension that we saw when Lestrade was first introduced was back in full force. Sean Pertwee is an excellent Lestrade and he is a joy to watch, so I’m not disappointed that he was back. The relationship between Lestrade and Holmes is interesting to dissect, especially once we learned of their history together. One of the reasons that I enjoy it so much is because Sherlock is forced to confront his assumptions about people. He’s done it before, particularly with Moriarty and with Joan a lot of the time, and to have him be wrong, or surprised or just to underestimate certain people in his life tells a lot about Elementary’s Sherlock, but mostly this: he is not above the world.

I will also mention that as far as Lestrade goes, I really liked the direction his character went in this episode: that he had to decide between morality and glory. I am definitely glad that we got some semblance to a decent human being by the end of the episode.

An issue that I had with this episode, actually this season in general, is that Joan is grossly underused. Lucy Liu is a wonderful actress and it saddens me that she’s not being used to her full potential. Season one was better in regards to her character development, because we were given the baseline of Joan Watson and we moved from sober companion to her struggling with her identity in regards to career and finally we rested on her decision to stay on with Sherlock; unfortunately, I don’t think that we’ve progressed in that respect in season 2. Last week’s episode gave us a glimpse into her family life, and that was great, but the story didn’t directly affect any future events. That is to say, what little background/solo exploration that Joan’s character is given is more often than not a one-episode thing. I am of the understanding that Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu are equal stars in the show, thus, Sherlock is not more important than Watson. So, by that logic, shouldn’t Watson be getting the same amount of storyline as Sherlock? I really hope that the writers step this up.

Speculation

Sherlock and Lestrade’s relationship will continue to be tested and we will have clarity about the kind of man Lestrade really is.

Highlight

Joan closing the door on Lestrade’s assistant. Sass master Watson, right here.

Written by Chelsea Groth