The Elementary premiere is tomorrow! We’ve got the refresher you need so you can be ready to tag in with Holmes and Watson in time for season 3!

While it is an impossible task to recount every detail from 22 episodes filled with murder and deductive genius, we were able to pull out all the essential Elementary knowledge one might need to refresh before season 3.

Let’s shed some light on the cases, character growth, and emotional highs and lows of the second season of Elementary!

London Calling

The season premiere took Holmes back to his old stomping grounds in London. An unsolvable case was not the primary reason for his return, but rather a call from Scotland Yard requested that he assist in locating his old partner Gareth Lestrade who recently went off the deep end.

Lestrade was not the only canonical reference awaiting Holmes fans in the bustling city. Inside 221b, Mycroft Holmes reintroduced himself into Sherlock’s life and by extension became acquainted with Joan. (More on that later!)

As magnificent as London was, New York is where Sherlock now lives and thrives post-addiction. The first few cases of the season featured 3D printers that created plastic guns, a mathematical equation that posed a threat to national security, and a letter that left a crack in the door for Moriarty’s return.

A walk on the personal side:

The next string of cases relied heavily on personal issues in the detectives lives. In the case of “The Poison Pen” a young man’s murder of his father reunites Sherlock with the first murderer he ever corresponded with from his youth. A jury found the young woman to be innocent years ago, but Holmes wrote to her following the case from England in an attempt to get inside of her mind. In a way, she opened up a world of possibility for his future.

Joan’s social life takes a blow when Sherlock’s training interferes with her plans to have a life outside of the job. It is an occupational hazard one may say, but Sherlock lends his assistance on personal matters that prove in many ways that he does make special allowances to let Joan into his life. Their relationship over the course of the season grows remarkably into a high functioning partnership, but it also tiptoes on the line of codependency.

Captain Gregson’s personal life becomes an open book when his home is invaded due to an internet map search mix up. For a show in its second season, this is an ideal place to open the audience up to the possibility of hearing the stories of a strong secondary cast, including larger story lines for Mycroft, Lestrade, and Detective Bell.

The prodigal brother returns

Mycroft Holmes is not just in New York for a quick visit, however. His arrival comes with a case to solve the murder of a friend of an old acquaintance. “The Marchioness” takes important steps to mend the relationship between the Holmes brothers as they work through their past grievances, i.e. Sherlock sleeping with Mycroft’s fiancé, Mycroft sleeping with Joan, and the pesky case of leukemia Mycroft kept hidden from his brother.

But most importantly, the case gave us Sherlock saying “whorls” 5 times.

At least for the time being, the Holmes brothers’ relationship is on the up and up, even if Mycroft’s intentions to remove Sherlock from New York do not go as well as planned…

Shot heard ’round the world

Sherlock finds himself in a spot of trouble with the NYPD after an investigation led an angry suspect to pull a gun on Detective Bell.

On trial, Holmes must defend his work, and the work of Watson, to a judge and the commissioner while Bell recovers in the hospital. Though the commissioner grants Holmes and Watson their consulting positions, Bell takes a bit longer to be as welcoming. On a case involving the mafia, Holmes, Watson, and Bell all work together again and reveal the commissioner is cutting deals with the feuding families.

‘You look a bit evil…’

In a maximum security holding warehouse Jaimie Moriarty finds herself to be the victim of the spring’s first crime. Bringing back Moriarty does more than stir up an interesting case, it brings out the side of Holmes typically buried under collages of murderers. Holmes and Moriarty’s bond goes deeper than simple physical attraction. Their feelings of isolation within their own singular minds leads them to look to one another for guidance and a safety. Luckily, Moriarty seems to take more from Sherlock’s recovery rather than the other way around.

A few good friends stop by to say ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’

Alfredo and Holmes continue to build their relationship with more give and take than ever seemed possible for the detective. Providing the cars to break into and the space to talk, Alfredo suggests Sherlock take a chance to reach out to another person on the path to sobriety. Sponsorship does not end well for Sherlock, but his ability to allow himself to be concerned with another person, if only out of annoyance, is one more step in the right direction.

Lestrade returns to Sherlock’s life once more and pushes his stay to extreme limits. While Sherlock attempts to have Lestrade hit rock bottom before he can learn his way out of his plunders, Joan steps in to get him back on his feet (and out of her living space).

Alistair, first appearing as Sherlock’s friend in season 1, makes another brief stop by the Elementary set to bid farewell to his friend. An overdose after thirty years of sobriety took the life of a man Sherlock loved and respected above all others in his life. Though not entirely present on screen, the final moments of the episode prove that Sherlock is capable of meaningful relationships, but they are to be cherished for they are extremely rare.

Moving on

Mycroft bookends the series with a reveal that changes the course of not only his own life, but the lives of Joan and Sherlock. In town for the opening of his restaurant, Sherlock discovers that the NY branch is a meeting point for members of a French criminal organization. Believing his brother is too daft to connect the dots, Holmes points out his musings to Watson who in turn gets herself kidnapped.

On the verge of killing his brother, Sherlock leaves no stone unturned in order to rescue his friend. However, it is Mycroft who winds up saving the detective by revealing that he is an operative in the British Intelligence organization MI6. They offer Sherlock a case as a way to make up for the safety of his brother and partner; find the mole in the organization.

Through a series of stolen arms and coded messages, Sherlock and Joan fight their way around Joan’s insistence to move out of the brownstone. Mycroft reveals that his involvement with MI6 is directly related to ensuring that Sherlock remain out of trouble for a slip up that occurred during a bout of drug use. No matter the effort to make amends with his brother, Sherlock’s primary concern is losing the only other person in the world that matters to him, Watson.

At the close of the season, Mycroft must excuse himself from New York and the lives of Sherlock and Watson forever after the NSA agrees to help him disappear. Joan paces her room looking for apartment listings. Sherlock takes a bit of heroine from a hidden book and places it in his pocket before heading to MI6 to accept a job offer.

Got all that? Now get ready for season 3 with our wrap up post: Elementary season 3: Everything we know so far

Watch Elementary season 3, episode 1, “Enough Nemesis To Go Around,” Thursday, October 30 at 10:00 p.m. ET on CBS.

Gif Credit:Brittany Lovely