Sherlock’s attention is called in a few directions when an NYPD officer and the privacy of his sobriety meetings are both ambushed on Elementary season 3, episode 8.
While on highway patrol after seven years on the force and brief absence, Officer Alec Flynn was ambushed by a masked man and killed. At the scene of the crime Sherlock uncovers that Officer Flynn’s gun was not the standard issue, but an air pellet gun outlawed by the State of New York back in 1998. Watson is able to collect some fibers from a full boot print left near the body. More troubling than a dead cop is the fact that the only people with access to Flynn’s firearm prior to the crime is another member of the force.
A full Inspector’s Funeral is set in motion for the department, and Flynn’s final call is transmitted over the radio. With everyone on high alert and the department stretched thin for the funeral proceedings, Watson goes off with Bell to chat with Flynn’s wife and Sherlock and Kitty take over the security footage.
Watson does not need to be in Mrs. Flynn’s home long to notice that their TV is gone, her wedding band is missing, and the locks on the door are new. Serving as a sober companion this is a familiar setting for her and she asks what was going on with Flynn. After being injured in an accident with his former partner, he became listless and addicted to Oxy. He began stealing to cover the costs of his addiction, but he got clean. The only thing she could remember from the time he was using was a message on prices from “6.” Unfortunately, no street dealers show up with that name.
Sobriety meetings, they are one piece of the recovery puzzle for addicts. They are a sacred place of privacy, honesty, and inclusion. But what happens when someone violates that privacy, even with the best intentions in mind? It took a great deal of convincing to get Sherlock to pay attention at meetings, let alone speak at them. After Joan stopped attending them with him, he began to open up. Talking about what draws him to drugs helps in some way. But when Sherlock Holmes speaks, you cannot help but listen and remember. Sherlock catches wind of a blog, “The Brain Attic,” based on some things he said in meetings, set against pictures of birds.
Seeing that this is bothering Sherlock a great deal and distracting him from the case, Kitty takes on working out who is behind it. She gets close, identifying where the bird photos came from, but Sherlock refuses to let her go any further. This man may not respect someone’s privacy, but Sherlock will do him that courtesy.
For Darren, Sherlock’s words did more than spark an interest, they helped him stay sober in a challenging time. The meetings have never been easy for Sherlock, they were boring, he didn’t see the benefit, but over time the sharing began to help him. He asks Darren for the anonymity the meetings provide him. Without that room serving as a vault, Sherlock feels he may not be able to attend them any longer.
Remember Sherlock’s reaction when Joan was kidnapped last season? Well, when Darren refused to take down the blog despite Sherlock’s respectful request, he found himself on the receiving end of that aggression. Inside the meeting Sherlock approaches him about the affair that Darren is having. Sherlock reminds Darren that he is very observant and points out everything that gives his indiscretion away. What if he were to show up at his home or work, would Sherlock find anything else worth noting? Sherlock’s threat comes off heavy handed, but his final line, “I don’t care about your affair, I care about your sobriety and I depend on everyone else in here to care about mine,” finally gets through to Darren.
But Sherlock’s mouth is shut for the time being, as Darren’s blog now simply reads, “I’m sorry.”
Back to the case at hand, Watson discovers through some security footage that Alec Flynn bought the air pellet gun that was in his holster. He sold his own, and approximately 30 others from an armory to his drug dealer to pay for pills. ATF members point the team in the direction of Niko Buros, an arms dealer they have been after for a while. It was not the slow intake of guns he was after, but when Flynn stopped providing him with the supply he saw a window of opportunity. The only way to get to Buros was to find “6.”
What is great about this episode, is that the crime is still happening while the investigation is occurring, but it is happening on screen. It adds a level of tension to the clues unraveling that off screen occurrences and heaps of exposition fail to entice.
Another cop, Casey Hatim, is shot on duty forcing another Inspector’s Funeral to be planned. The family wants the funeral over with quickly and the department prepares to be stretched thin yet again. But the timeline is not adding up. Why would there need to be another funeral so close to the one originally planned for Flynn then cancelled due to his dealings selling the department’s guns?
Watson comes through with the connection that the number refers to a football number, that of a former teammate in high school who is a dealer a cop can trust. The morning of the funeral for Casey, the dealer reveals that Nico gave up his anger at Flynn and said there was more than one way to use him. Sherlock connects the dots; Nico is using the cops for their funeral. Cut to the entire armory being robbed with Niko in the back of the truck.
Sherlock wallows in the media room watching the same news report. If he had not been so distracted what was stopping him from figuring this out sooner? In a reveling moment for Sherlock, he begins to explain to Kitty the reasoning behind his agitation with the sobriety meeting blog, that is was odd for him to feel unique in the only place the he felt that he was part of the crowd. Kitty responds much like Sherlock would whenever Joan began to express some kind of venture down the “feelings road” and diverts his attention back to the work.
Joan is downstairs going over the fibers that she concludes are from foam cushions. Niko Buros is smuggling the guns in furniture and working under a strict deadline that was put off track when Flynn’s funeral was cancelled.
Bell sends Niko a text that reads, “Knock, knock.” Before he can reply, “Who’s there?” Niko is arrested by several officers of the NYPD. Bell cuffs him in Casey’s handcuffs as a reminder that Casey will be with him through the entire ordeal. IF that is not enough to get under his skin, Niko is met by hundreds of NYPD officers outside his home and forced to walk through a line of them before getting into the squad car.
Elementary returns in two weeks with season 3, episode 9, “The Eternity Injection,” Thursday, January 8 at 10:00 p.m. ET on CBS.