Contributor: Bronzethumb
Written by Christopher Silber
Directed by Seith Mann
The usual pattern of “Elementary” episodes is a ho-hum mystery of the week and some nice character beats surrounding it, but “One Way to Get Off” almost completely reverses that dynamic and the episode isn’t really better off for the decision. A better-than-average mystery is still just the latest mystery of the week, hardly much better, while the lack of the show’s usual enjoyable elements seriously detracts from the quality; if it weren’t for an unexpected source of character development, this episode would’ve been a near-complete failure.
A couple is murdered during a home invasion and all signs point to the perpetrator being a copycat, mimicking the MO of a serial killer that Gregson arrested more than a decade previously. But as Holmes discovers more evidence, he begins to suspect the original killer is still at large and the man Gregson arrested is innocent — or worse, the victim of a frame-up. Meanwhile, Watson’s quest to learn more about the mysterious Irene leads her to the rehab facility where Holmes was a patient.
This particular serial killer mystery is definitely in the running for the most interesting A-plot “Elementary” has pulled out, topped only by the titular killer from “Child Predator”. It helps that there’s more to the case than a simple whodunit, as Holmes and Gregson are instead forced to evaluate the innocence of a man already in prison and uncover connections between disparate people. And as in the best mysteries, there are enough clues scattered through the first two acts for eagle-eyed viewers to put the solution together. All in all, this was almost the best element of the episode.
Where things fell down was in the area where “Elementary” usually scores at least a few points, which is in the Holmes/Watson dynamic and the slow unveiling of their respective pasts. For starters, the two are kept apart for the majority of the episode, thanks to the schism that formed in the previous episode. Their few interactions are suitably explosive, but so few and far between that it’s all a wash. And Watson’s visit to the rehab facility turns up nothing except a surname that most of the audience already knew. The only true, interesting reveal comes in the final minutes and doesn’t make up for the lack of anything meaningful in the run-up.
What was really surprising was the (relatively) strong focus on Captain Gregson in this week’s episode. Since the beginning of the show, he’s felt like an incredibly bland stereotype, and not even his heart-to-heart with Holmes in the fourth episode made the character seem like anything but a well-acted stooge for the real protagonists. In “One Way to Get Off”, Gregson finally seems to grow some backbone and take a different line to Holmes, and even though the reason winds up being very personal rather than professional, it’s nice to see the character be a genuine character rather than a generic police contact.
All the potential of last week’s reveals was seemingly squandered by “One Way to Get Off”, and even though the A-plot was actually a compelling mystery and Captain Gregson found his spine, it wasn’t enough to make up for how badly the writer dropped the ball on the character front. It seems like “Elementary” has even further to go than it did last episode towards evolving into something more than a formulaic procedural with the Sherlock Holmes literary canon’s names slapped on.
Score: 6/10
