Elementary, one of our favorite detective drama/comedies returns to CBS tonight with an all new Thursday November 19, season 4 episode 3 called, “Tag, You’re Me,” and we have your weekly recap below. On tonight’s episode, Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) offers to help his father resolve a work issue in exchange for his prompt departure from New York City.
On the last episode, Morland offered to use his influence to have Sherlock and Joan reinstated as consultants to the NYPD, but Sherlock questions his father’s motive. Meanwhile, Watson helped the FBI investigate a triple homicide at a top secret research lab. Did you watch the last episode? If you missed the episode we have a full and detailed recap right here for you.
On tonight’s episode as per the CBS synopsis, “Sherlock offers to help his father resolve a work issue in exchange for his prompt departure from New York City. Meanwhile, Holmes and Watson investigate the murders of two men who looked alike. The probe leads them into the world of facial recognition technology.”
Are you looking forward to the season 4 episode 3 tonight? Be sure to come back here later tonight at 10 PM EST for our awesome recap of this episode. In the meantime, hit up the comments below and let us know how excited you are for season 4.
Recap Here!
#Elementary begins with Sherlock cooking for Clyde. Watson says she ran into Gregson and she says he’s pleased about them being back in good graces and didn’t know about his dad’s involvement. Watson says she needs to eat too and asks when he’ll be done. He leaves the mess and goes to read an article about bike sharing. He tells her to hose the stuff off outside. A man sits in a car looking at a photo on his phone. Then he follows a guy into his building. He says he’s been waiting a long time.
The guy speaks German and says he’s not the person but the masked man shoots him anyway. Then another guy comes out of his place and he looks like the other. He runs but the masked man shoots him too. Sherlock and Watson meet Marcus at the crime scene. Marcus is happy to see them and he says the shooter seems like a pro – no shell casings and he has one on his knees. He says the cleaning lady found them and says one it Timothy Wagner and the other is Otto Neuhaus.
Timothy owned the place and Otto is in town for just a few days. Watson says they are identical and says the shooter took out their IDs so they can’t tell who is who. Sherlock sniffs and says this one is the German. He says the man has dyed hair, glasses with no prescription and is wearing contouring makeup to look more like Wagner. He says Wagner’s father is meeting them at the morgue. The father asks them if either has had to identify a loved one. He says he can’t tell the difference.
He says Tim had a birthmark on his right side. The coroner checks and covers up one body then goes to the other. He shows the birthmark to the father. Watson asks if he knows the name Otto Neuhaus and asks how he and Tim might know each other. The dad says he hasn’t seen his son in a year. Marcus asks if they could be related and they might have found each other. The dad says Tim was adopted. Sherlock’s dad finds him waiting and asks if there is a problem.
Sherlock wants to know why he’s still in NYC. He shows his father a photo of the bike article with an empty patio during peak hours and says he knows he rented it. Sherlock says he took his father’s help and thought he would be going now. He asks if he’s waiting for the magic word before he disappears and says thank you. Sherlock says his father is an irritant who is distracting him from work. Morland says he’s still in town working on a project that may take some time to solve.
Sherlock offers to help him sort it out so he can move on and New York can be Father-free. Sherlock finds Watson at another crime scene and says he’s doing some work for his father. She says Tom and Otto were not related but someone took $100k out of Tim’s bank account. Dorian Moll is a paralegal they know was in contact with them and it looks like the guy took off. Marcus tells them to come to the bedroom. There’s a wall of photos and Marcus says maybe it’s a con.
There are photos in pairs of men who resemble one another. Marcus says Gregson calls and Dorian has no priors. Sherlock points out the apartment next door then sees a dripping air conditioner unit and mail was piling up. They question why the AC is on if the person is out of town. Marcus tells his guys to knock on2D. They wait and a guy comes down the fire escape. He turns him around and they see him with dyed hair and weird colors. He says he had to do it to evade facial recognition software.
Sherlock asks if someone is trying to kill him and he says it’s a company trying to off him. They take him to the police station and he washes his face of the strange markings. He says he’s sorry he tried to run but he’s not sure how deep this runs. He says it’s Countenance Technologies and they make facial recognition technology. He says churches use it to track your attendance. Marcus says he doesn’t seem like a killer but two guys are dead.
Darian says he created a site called DoppelHunt.com and people like to find their twin. Sherlock says it’s millennial narcissism. He says Tim contacted him then they found Otto. He says he hacked the Countenance software then showed how their software could be fooled. He says he got a cease and desist letter and says a masked man tried to mug him with a knife and he got away. He says he heard Tim and Otto were dead and says the guy who jumped him never asked for his wallet.
He says Countenance never tried to sue him and just want him gone. Joan tells Sherlock that Otto mailed the $100k check to himself back in Germany. Clyde is eating the new food Sherlock made him and she asks about his tux. He says he’s going out with his father to chat up Donya, a resort hotelier. He says his father wants to put a wind farm near the woman’s property and she got an injunction because it will block his view. Watson says this seems frivolous.
Sherlock says this energy company has brought light to where there is darkness and darkness to others. Watson says his father is evil but he says it’s neutral like a shark. She asks why he’s helping and he says to get his father out of town. He says she and Marcus have to go to Countenance without him. Sherlock says he now thinks Dorian’s accusations have merit. Marcus and Sherlock meet Curtis Stefano at Countenance. They ask him about DoppelHunt.com and Dorian.
She says the two murder victims met on that site and says they see he participated in a DoppelHunt using a fake name. They ask for an alibi and he takes them to his office and he says he was in Cooperstown at the Baseball Hall of Fame injunction. Curtis says his bosses asked him to check on Dorian since he found a flaw in the program so he checked it out to figure it out. He says he broke into Dorian’s apartment and stole his algorithm and says they are updating based on his work.
He says Dorian is forcing them to make a better product. He says he can take them upstairs and they can talk to his higher ups. Morland talks to Donya and Sherlock listens. She walks away and Sherlock says she’s hiding something. Morland wonders why she’s obfuscating. Sherlock asks why he’s not drinking and Morland says he thought he shouldn’t drink in his presence. Sherlock says as long as he doesn’t take the booze via IV he’s fine.
Sherlock points out Donya talking to a man and says she’s comfortable now. Moorland says they are leaving. He tells Sherlock that man is brother-in-law to the president of Panama. He says she’s stringing him along and won’t drop the injunction. Morland says he’ll be there a bit longer. Watson calls Sherlock and says the company doesn’t seem like killers. She says Gregson wants them to talk to Evan Farrow about the double murder.
Watson says he’ll want to hear this and says he looks just like the victims. Evan tells them he got an email from DoppelHunt about Tim Wagner. He says they skyped and thought it was funny then Tim wanted to get together. Then he says Tim wanted his help and offered $10k to take a DNA test. He says he figured it was a paternity thing but he wouldn’t tell him more until he agreed. Evan says he told him no and that was the last time they talked. Then he says he saw the news about the lookalike murders.
Sherlock asks about the lab but Evan doesn’t know. He says it had to happen soon and that was all he knew. Watson finds Sherlock holding up a boom box but he has no idea he’s emulating Say Anything. He says that rousing tune is a fraternity song and the answer to Tim and his lookalikes. He pours her coffee and says he looked for why Tim would want to dodge a DNA test. Sherlock says he thinks it’s about murder in another jurisdiction. Sherlock shows her some university guys and Tim is among them.
He says it’s in Oriskany Falls, NY and 11 years ago there was a fraternity pledge that went missing. Sherlock says it was likely hazing and the body was found six months ago. The body was found in the concrete that was dug up during remodeling. The body showed signs of a fall and strangulation. Gregson talks to the chief in Oriskany Falls and they did ask for DNA samples from all the frat brothers and all but Tim Wagner complied and were cleared.
Sherlock says someone wanted revenge for Cudlow’s murder. Sherlock thinks it’s someone who knew about the investigation. Gregson says Howard Cudlow’s brother is a cop up there. He says they’re on the way to talk to him now. Marcus tells Watson he thinks they got their guy and then asks if Sherlock is speaking Spanish. She tells him he speaks three dozen language. Sherlock then comes over to Watson and says he has wind farm business and his father can start packing.
Donya meets with Sherlock and Morland. She’s all smiles. She says she was worried when Morland left the dinner suddenly. He says he knows she’s wasting his time. He says he knows why she wanted the wind farm to go away. Sherlock says mono titi and shows her a photo of an endangered monkey and says the habitat is partially on her resort property. She says she had no idea. Morland says the environmental impact study was falsified.
Sherlock says they found him in Switzerland. Morland says the wind farm environmental study will discover the monkey habitat. She asks what he wants and he says nothing. He offers her a press release that he says will come out in an hour and says his wind farm will protect the monkey habitat. He says or she can add her name to the release and they can be heroes together. He says it’s up to her. Howard’s brother is with Gregson and says they all knew what happened to his brother.
He says the rich kids closed ranks and the killer went free. The guy says he became a cop to get justice for his brother. The cop says he killed Tim and the other guy surprised him and looked like him. He says he didn’t know about the DoppelHunt thing or Dorian. He says if the other guy he killed was going to help Tim get away with murder then he doesn’t feel bad about shooting him. He was on duty the night of the mugging. Sherlock tells Watson that Cudlow’s alibi checked out.
Sherlock shows her a text she missed from Marcus. The DNA from under Cudlow’s fingernails shows Tim wasn’t the killer, just an accessory. They still need to find the killer. Watson has an idea. She says she thinks they will recognize another name on the original list of suspects and calls Marcus. Marcus and Meadows go see Dorian’s mom. She asks what he’s done now. Dorian comes down and asks how they knew he was there.
Marcus asks about the night he was attacked then says they need his help to nail him. They bring Curtis in and ask to see his shins. He’s bruised and says he got them playing racquetball. Sherlock says they can connect him to the murder of Howard Cudlow. Marcus says he didn’t mention going to school with Tim when they told him his name and they know he pledged the same year that Cudlow did. He says Dorian was a thorn in his company’s side so he found a double to take the DNA test for him.
Gregson says Curtis also told Tim about the DoppelHunt site to find a double for his DNA test as well. Watson says the site became a problem since it got some press. Curtis says Dorian is a nut and a thief. Marcus says they talked to Mitchell Newsome, the DNA doppelganger. He says they heard the story that Curtis told his double. Marcus hands him a warrant and a DNA swab. Marcus calls Dorian it’s safe for him to go home. Dorian offers Marcus and the others free DoppelHunts.
Marcus asks if she could imagine two of Sherlock and she rolls her eyes. At home, Sherlock is freezer wrapping Clyde’s homemade treats. His father comes to the door and Sherlock asks if he came to say goodbye. Morland asks to come inside. Morland says he wired a commission to his account for his services and Sherlock says it’s unnecessary. Morland says give it to Joan or charity. Then Morland says he wishes he knew what Sherlock wanted.
He says his business with Donya could have been handled elsewhere. He says he brought up his situation with her off the cuff. Morland says he stayed because of him and Sherlock asks if he needs a kidney. Morland says enough then says he knows why he hates him and says the past is past and he wants to move forward. He says he’s staying in New York indefinitely. Morland says if his mother was there, what would she want them to do. He says the world is wretched and that’s good for business.
He says he’ll have no shortage of work while he’s here and says perhaps they can collaborate again. He leaves.