Elementary, one of our favorite detective drama/comedies returns to CBS tonight with an all new Thursday November 5, season 4 premiere called, “The Past Is Parent,” and we have your weekly recap below. On tonight’s episode, season 4 begins with Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) facing criminal charges in the aftermath of his recent violent behavior and relapse, and his father arriving in New York to fix his estranged son’s troubles by any means necessary.
On the last episode, when Holmes’ former recovery sponsor and friend, Alfredo (Ato Essandoh), disappeared, Holmes and Watson retraced his steps as Captain Gregson and Detective Bell lended NYPD’s resources to help find him. As the group raced to find him, Holmes wondered if his friend is a victim of foul play, or worse, if he had relapsed into addiction. 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, “season 4 begins with Holmes facing criminal charges in the aftermath of his recent violent behavior and relapse, and his father arriving in New York to fix his estranged son’s troubles by any means necessary. Meanwhile, Sherlock and Watson investigate a case in which a woman goes missing and may have been killed by her husband.”
Are you looking forward to the season 4 premiere 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.
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#Elementary starts with a woman lying on the floor bloody. There’s a butcher knife on the bed and another bloody body on the bed. Sherlock sits staring at the tableau. A phone ring and one of the dead girls apologizes and says she forgot to turn it off. One of the girls says this is not fun. He has them imitating a cold case from the 1920s. Sherlock says the killer is long dead but he wants to figure it out. He tweaks the scene and says justice is like an orgasm, it can never come too late.
They ask doesn’t he get enough at work. He says work is complicated since he used heroin and beat a man almost to death. He says the DA is deciding whether to charge him with felonious assault. He says he’d like to finish this while he still can. Watson calls and leaves him a voice mail saying his dad will be here any second. Then the doorbell sounds and it’s the Captain with a bag of food. She asks him to come in. She says Sherlock is out working on a project.
He asks why she’s not with him all the time. She says she’s not a sober companion anymore and he has to do the work. She says he’s disappointed at what he did and has been going to meetings daily. Gregson says when he called to tell him where Oscar Rankin and his sister were he’s never looked so rough. She asks if he’s heard from the DA. Gregson says he put in a good word but says the city may choose to make an example of him.
He says the DA can do what he wants. Sherlock comes home and says he just got all of her voice mails. He asks how his father was and if he arrived in a plume of black smoke. She asks why his father wouldn’t show. He says it’s best that his father stays away and he could kick them out since he used drugs. He asks if Gregson was here. She says he dropped off food. She asks how his day was and he says he heard from Alfredo and says he’ll be back next week and isn’t holding the Oscar thing against him.
Sherlock says he’s also been researching what prisons he might be sent to and says they all have excellent recovery programs. Watson says he won’t go to prison and Sherlock says he’s due at a meeting and heads out. Jonathan Bloom approaches him and says he knows approaching him on the way to a meeting is bad form. Sherlock asks how he found him and he says he has lawyers. Sherlock says if he had killed that many women, he’d have an army of lawyers too.
Bloom says Sherlock made things rough on him last week. He says he wants to hire Sherlock but he says he has a no sadist policy. Bloom says he was connected to all those women including his wife and the two girls he partied with. He says he killed the two girls but didn’t mean to – they just couldn’t take the rough stuff. He tells him where he buried the bodies. Then Bloom says he didn’t kill his wife and someone else did or his wife ran off.
He says he was good to Alicia and says he gave her the world when she came from nothing. He says he wants people to know the truth. He then shoots himself in the head while Sherlock watches. Sherlock goes to make a statement about the incident to Marcus who says he’s sorry he had to see that. He says they’ll send cops out to the property Bloom told him about. Sherlock asks to see Gregson. He asks him in and closes the office door. He tells him it was kind for him to stop by the house.
Sherlock says he nearly killed a man and used a few days ago and knows that’s a problem as an NYPD consultant. He apologizes. Gregson says something was done to him but Sherlock says it was his choice to use. He says he’s far from ruined and will recover himself as he’s done before. He tells Gregson if he has bad news, just tell him. He says he knows that if the DA charges him or not, he knows he’s done as a consultant. He says he hopes he didn’t drag Watson down with him.
Gregson says they’re both gone and says the chief is old school and was looking for an excuse to cut ties. Gregson says he was waiting for the right time to tell them both. Sherlock says he should keep Watson but the captain says it’s out of his hands. Watson wakes to a cacophony of sound and goes down where a number of TVs are broadcasting on different channels. Bloom’s victims have been found. Sherlock mutes them and says the bodies were just were Bloom told him.
Now he’s started a board on Alicia’s disappearance – Bloom’s wife. Watson asks why he’s trying to clear Bloom’s name when he’s a pathological liar. Sherlock says there was no evidence suggesting Bloom hurt her. Watson lists a litany of circumstantial evidence against him then says he also said he didn’t kill the other two women. Sherlock shows her an article about a missing woman name Maribel from New Jersey. Sherlock thinks Alicia was taken by a serial killer – he lists the similarities in the women.
Watson says they didn’t talk about last night and he says a bad man opened up his brains. He says this could be his last investigation and lies and says he missed talking to Gregson yesterday. They go to a hotel and the clerk says Maribel overstayed so he checked the room and her things were still there. He says a couple of more days went by and he called the cops. He takes them to a room and says he still has her bags because the cops told him to.
He hands them the luggage and says the cops never found out much. Watson gets a call from Mr Cook who works with Sherlock’s dad. He asks about the messages she left. He says she might see him as early as next week then he ends the call abruptly. Sherlock asks who that was and she says no one. They look through Maribel’s things at a restaurant. Watson says she thinks this is a distraction. He says he has a connection and shows her a photo of Maribel with Alicia when they were teens.
Watson chases down Mr Cook and she says she has a message for Mr Holmes. She says tell him come see Sherlock or don’t, but don’t threaten to come then don’t show. The man calls Sherlock a heroin addict and asks how a junkie can be busy. Joan asks him what’s the hardest he’s ever been hit. She says tell Mr Holmes what she said or she’ll come back for him. Sherlock is on a video call with a woman who speaks Spanish. He says it was Alicia’s aunt and says she still lives in Honduras where the girls met.
He says in 95 when they were 15 their families paid a coyote to bring them across the border but were stopped by a cartel member. The coyote didn’t pay off the cartel as they were supposed to. The cartel was preparing to kill them all when Alicia and Maribel made a break for it and lived. They took the Mexican authorities to the site of the massacre. They both eventually made it to America then lost touch. Sherlock says the cartel would have killed them long ago, not waited this long.
He says the cartel would have put their bodies on display. He gets a text and says he’s meeting someone to pick up Maribel’s credit card and telephone information. She asks why he didn’t have Marcus get it. Sherlock sends Watson to a Honduran restaurant where Maribel and Alicia ate before they both disappeared. Sherlock meets with McNally and compliments his beard. He says they’re even for London now. Sherlock tells the agent he’s sure he’s heard about his recent troubles.
Sherlock says if he doesn’t go to prison, he’ll be parting ways with the NYPD and says he and Watson will be available for consultations. McNally reminds him he hates the NSA but Sherlock says some of their work is valid and even important. McNally reminds him he almost killed a man and is an addict. He says no agency will touch him. Watson talks to the restaurant owner and he remembers Alicia’s face from the papers. She shows the photo of Maribel and he says Maribel was showing him photos of a man.
He says she was looking for a tall handsome man and he says he had seen him in a bar once. He says it was strange and that’s why he remembers it. Watson comes back and says the owner recognized Maribel and showed him photos of a tall Latino man who was very handsome. Sherlock says he thinks the two women were plotting a murder. Sherlock says if you look at Alicia’s and Maribel’s phone and credit card records, it draws a picture.
Alicia called Maribel and she flew up here. She says they bought shovels, tarps, lye and rubber gloves. Sherlock says Alicia was also the person who probably Googled how to dispose of a body. Sherlock says the women found the guy they were looking for but he turned it around on them. Sherlock says if the media hadn’t targeted Bloom, this connection may have come to light then. Sherlock says the restaurant owner said they were looking for a Latino man. He says he thinks they were looking for a cartel member.
Sherlock and Watson are at a prison and he says he doesn’t want her to visit if he goes to jail. They are called back to see the inmate. They guy tells them he did it – whatever they think he did. Sherlock says cartel members always confess to other crimes. Watson shows the guy the story about Maribel and Alicia. Sherlock says they hope he can help them identify the Escarra guy they were looking for. He says Benicio. Then he says del Toro and Watson says that’s an actor.
Sherlock says they did their homework on him and know his wife and son reside in Juarez. Sherlock says he will wire her $100k. He says it’s a threat. He says his family is safe thanks to the cartel and says a large deposit with a thanks from an NYPD associate would put them at risk. He tells Watson they need to go to the bank. He says four men did this and they are just names now. He says the policia came after them after the massacre. He says none of the men were in NJ in 2010 – they were dead.
Sherlock says he sold him short and threatens the money again. The man tells them the coyote also survived. He says a good coyote is hard to find so they let him go. He says immigrants are endless. He says he knew his nickname only – El Gato (the cat). Sherlock says they need to find the name of El Gato. Watson says it makes sense. Watson asks if he knows anyone in law enforcement down there and he says no but he can make friends.
Sherlock gets a call and says the DA called and she won’t have to visit him in prison after all. She hugs him in relief. Then Sherlock follows her and says he lied about talking to Gregson. He says they can’t consult with the NYPD anymore because of what he’s done. He says sorry. She says it’s okay and says she kind of knew it was coming. She says they’re not cops and don’t have the same protections. He says he has a plan. He says Alicia’s disappearance is of large media interest.
She says solving this won’t get them back into the NYPD. He says not him, but her. He says they will solve the case and she will take all the credit and the NYPD will want to share credit and will let her back on the team. He says his fate is sealed. Watson says he doesn’t get it and says all that matters to her is their partnership and says if he goes, she goes. She says she took the job to work with him, not the police. He says his professional prospects are bleak and she says they will figure it out.
Watson goes to collect their things from the NYPD including a stuffed squirrel. Marcus asks about it and she says it’s a long story. She thanks him and he says he thinks the brass is making a mistake and he doesn’t like it. Watson says it’s not goodbye and says they can still see each other. She says she and Sherlock may throw a party and he says that sounds like him. He asks what’s next and she says something will turn up. Marcus says things won’t be the same.
Sherlock is on a call in Spanish and says he found an unpleasant fellow back then. He says the man has a different opinion on El Gato than they have. He’s happy to have the squirrels back. He says he knows El Gato the coyote and says he was described in 95 as jowly, thick and with a receding hairline. Sherlock says the man would be in his 50s now. Watson pauses and says Novena Vide translates to the ninth life – that’s the name of the guy’s restaurant.
Sherlock and Watson go back to see the guy and show him some security footage of him attacking a guy who tried to rob them. An employee put it online and they tell him that’s why Alicia came to see him. He says he came from the place 15 years ago but never heard of Alicia until she was in the news. Sherlock says Maribel didn’t show him any photos and she just came to size him up. Watson says they knew about the security cameras and likely came at him at home and he killed them.
Watson says he likely buried them in his yard. Murillo says it would be self-defense. Sherlock says that won’t help him in an American court. Watson then says Honduras has extradition. He’s arrested for the murder of another coyote in Honduras and hauled away. Joan says the New Jersey cops may like to work with them. He gets a text and says he has an errand to run. He comes home and looks around. He goes to the roof and there’s his father.
He says he had forgotten how good the view is here. His father tells him he doesn’t look well and Sherlock says he looks well and he compliments the virgins whose blood he bathes in. His father
THE END!