Elementary S2 Ep14 – Dead Clade Walking

It seems that Joan and Sherlock have switched roles, with Joan working point for the case-of-the-week and Sherlock receiving calls at all hours of the day and night from his sponsee, Randy.

Synopsis Time!

During one late night meeting, Randy confesses that a woman who he was involved with while he was still using drugs has come back into his life. Sherlock reluctantly listens as Randy unloads his emotional baggage, while back at the brownstone, Joan follows a new lead in one of Sherlock’s old cases.

She discovers an odd rock in a photo of a murder victim’s backyard. She steals the rock, only to discover the rock is actually a legitimate dinosaur fossil, worth millions of dollars. They focus their suspicion on the victim’s friend, who, despite the frigid winter, has ice cream trucks running around New York. Turns out this friend of the victim is actually a smuggler, who hid the fossil in the victim’s backyard when the police were searching his house. Of course, the victim was then killed and his house ransacked by some unknown baddies, and now Joan and Sherlock are on the hunt, and they’re doubly upset because the dinosaur skeleton has been stolen.

They hear from Sherlock’s erotic penpal (there’s a strange relationship), who is also a museum director, that if they want to find who’s stolen the fossil, they’ll want to talk to a mysterious man who goes by “The Magpie.” Unfortunately, the only thing they find of “The Magpie” is his dead body and the smashed dino bones. Question: who would destroy a priceless artifact? Answer: someone whose career depends on it never being found.

The fossil actually proves dinosaurs, some of them at least, survived the asteroid strike that was supposed to have wiped them out. Some archaeologists and academics have made entire careers from arguing against that notion, but with the appearance of this fossil, they’d lose their livelihoods. One of these academics, who was introduced earlier in the episode, is responsible for this whole mess, similar to an earlier episode.

Meanwhile, Sherlock is worrying over Randy, who suddenly left after Sherlock refused to hear him out about his struggles with his former flame. Randy returns after Joan and Sherlock close the dinosaur case and admits that he spent some time with his past lady love, and also did drugs while with her. Sherlock, who has been struggling with his first time as sponsor, suggests, after a long moment, they go to an AA meeting together.

Analysis Time! 

I’ll admit it: Elementary is slipping down my list of favorite shows. Every week, I’m hoping to get  a little bit more and instead I get a little less. I want to see Sherlock grow more compassionate, but instead I get to see him become more and more oblivious to other people (see previous episodes, where his callousness got Bell shot, and he refused to visit Bell in the hospital later). I want to see more of Joan’s inner conflict (ANY CONFLICT, PLEASE!), and more of her inner thought processes, but instead she gets to take the back seat as soon as something interesting starts happening. Yes, she is the one that finds the lead in Sherlock’s old case, but he basically takes over once she steals the rock.

Sherlock continues to regress back into his old, jerk-ish self and cause chaos in the lives of the people around him while facing no real consequences for it (Randy still comes to him for support, even though he’s failed him before), and Joan continues to walk around in the background, not really saying anything, revealing anything about her as a character, or growing in any way.

We’re supposed to get a Joan-centric episode next week, which is great, but if Joan and Sherlock are meant to be equals, why is it that we’re never told that next week will be a Sherlock-centric week? It’s because every week is a Sherlock-centric week.

We’ll have to wait and see, but I’m really hoping Joan’s episode is good, and that things start picking up.

Watch “Dead Clade Walking” on Amazon Instant Video