Tonight on CBS their crime comedy-drama Elementary premieres with an all-new season 5 premiere and we have your Elementary recap for you below. On tonight’s Elementary premiere, Season 5 begins with Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and Watson (Lucy Liu) joining the NYPD manhunt for a serial bomber who is active again after being dormant for six years.
Did you watch last season’s Elementary finale where Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and Watson (Lucy Liu) faced reprisal from the perpetrator who wanted Morland (John Noble) dead? If you missed it and want to get caught up before tonight’s premiere we have a full and detailed Elementary recap, right here.
On tonight’s Elementary season 5 premiere as per the CBS synopsis, “When a serial bomber becomes active again after being dormant for six years, Watson seeks help from Shinwell Johnson (Nelsan Ellis)
, a former patient whose life she saved when she was a surgeon. Also, Holmes senses Watson is unhappy and questions whether she is still fulfilled by her detective career.”
So make sure to bookmark this spot and come back between 10PM – 11PM ET for our Elementary recap. While you wait for our recap make sure to check out all our Elementary recap, spoilers, news & more, right here.
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#Elementary starts in the park with a man walking home and talking to his pregnant wife on the phone. He stops to return a soccer ball to some nearby kids. They tell him it’s not their ball. The ball is a bomb and it goes off, obliterating him to tiny bits.
Sherlock finds Gardner on the roof on a ledge. Sherlock climbs up beside him and Gardner says he’ll jump. Sherlock says he’s a murderer and says he cracked the case days ago. Sherlock says he didn’t mean for him to jump. Gardner says Yanis was his friend.
Sherlock gets a text and says the Bensonhurst bomber struck again. He tells him the guy disappeared six years ago then came back a few weeks ago and just killed a man. Sherlock says they have to go. Watson taxes him from behind and Sherlock pushes him back onto the roof.
Bomb details revealed
They head to the bomb scene and Gregson tells them about the bomb details. Marcus adds some more details and says the bomber was nearby with a walkie talkie to detonate it. Gregson goes to talk to the Mayor’s people and Sherlock looks at the crowd.
He spots someone in a hoodie and gives chase. Sherlock is struck by a car as he almost catches up. The guy gets away. Watson and Marcus catch up and he fills them in. Sherlock says it’s suspicious. Sherlock says the suspect touched the car and may have left prints on the taxi.
Later, Sherlock is at home and sketches the man he chased. But the guy was in a hoodie, hat and sunglasses. Watson says they have his prints. Joan sits working when Sherlock comes to her and says she’s near an anniversary – five years since she became a detective.
Suspect brought in
Sherlock asks if it still satisfies her. He says it’s almost as long as she was a sober companion and says it’s her third career. He asks if she’ll wander off professionally again. Watson jokes she hasn’t been a construction worker yet.
Nathan Resor is the guy whose prints they found. They bring him in and Marcus tells him about the bomb and asks where he was at 815 am. Sherlock shows Resor a map of the other bombing sites and asks for alibis of other times. He says these were six years ago.
He asks Sherlock where he was at that date and time. Sherlock rattles off the facts of where he was. The guy says he’s a developer and is all over the city all the time so his calendar won’t help. Sherlock bring up a specific date when Resor had a DUI and was jailed for it.
Resor denies being the bomber
Watson says while he was in jail, there were no bombings then it started up after he got out. He says he didn’t do it and says charge me or let me go home. They let him go. Watson asks Sherlock if he’s sure this is the guy he chased and he plans to go with Marcus to Resor’s place.
Watson says she has a lead too and may know someone Resor knows. She goes to the gym to see Shinwell who is being bullied by a boxer who keeps calling him felon. Shinwell whispers to the other boxer who does an uppercut and knocks out the bully.
Shinwell greets Watson warmly and calls her doc but she says she’s not a doctor anymore and consults with the cops. She asks him about Resor who was at the prison he was at the same time. She asks what he knows about him and tells him about the bomb.
Watson saves his life back in the day
Watson asks how well she knew Resor. He says he never heard anything from the guy about bombings. She asks how he’s doing and he says he empties buckets of spit and lives at a halfway house but he could be dead.
She leaves her number with him in case he thinks of anything and takes off. Back inside, Shinwell makes a call and says the cops came by to talk about the Bensonhurst Bomber and says we need to talk. Sherlock goes through Resor’s trash and finds bleach containers in the garbage.
Resor comes to talk to him and says he used the bleach to clean the floors. Sherlock talks about what he learns from trash. Sherlock says he thinks he’s the bomber and Resor says he let him search the house and check his computers.
Resor’s ex gets grilled
Sherlock says he found an arson incident in his past and Resor says it was an accident. Resor says even if he burned down a building, that’s not a bomb, but he also didn’t burn it down. Resor says he’s wasting his time and Sherlock says we’ll see and leaves.
Watson is with Gregson and they’re talking to Resor’s ex-wife. She says he was different after prison and wasn’t himself. Watson tells the ex that Resor is the bomber suspect. She says no way. Watson says they have good reason to ask.
The ex says he’s working on a big development deal to do with a mall and says he’s got good land for it and is trying to win the project. She says he never answers phone, has missed divorce lawyer meetings, and says he doesn’t have time to be the bomber.
Watson gets a felonious visit
Shinwell comes looking for Watson and Sherlock invites him in to wait. Sherlock tells him he used to be a junkie then says he heard Watson pulled five bullets out of him. Sherlock says he was shot five times too, but on different occasions.
Watson shows up and the awkward small talk ends. Shinwell says he came about Resor. He says he called another buddy who was on Resor’s cell block. Shinwell says he says talk to Cray Fielder because he and Resor were tight according to his buddy.
Shinwell says Cray might know more about Resor. Shinwell asks Watson if he can pick her brain some time about how she changed from being a doctor to this. She says it was hard but Shinwell says she seems happy and he wants to change, too. He leaves.
Cray comes in to talk
Marcus, Sherlock and Watson talk to Cray about Resor. Watson says they know Resor gave him a job when he got out. Sherlock asks about the bombings. Cray says he has nothing to say on Resor then says he would have flipped on him to get a deal if he had something like that.
Cray says Resor is a good guy and they are pieces of garbage for bullying him for being an ex-con. He says go find the real bomber and then walks out. Marcus follows. Later, Sherlock blows up a pic of Resor. Sherlock says why would the bomber move to Flushing from Bensonhurst.
Sherlock asks about Shinwell and says he noticed she cares about him. Watson says she’s proud of the work she did on Shinwell and says she dug two bullets out of his arm, two out of his leg and one in his chest. She says what she did was extraordinary to save him.
Bensonhurst bomber strikes again
Watson says 10 days later, he was back in jail and ready for trial. Sherlock says he misses being a surgeon. Watson says this is her job now and Sherlock says she seems distracted. Gregson calls with news of another bombing in Flushing that killed two.
Gregson says Resor was being watched and he wasn’t anywhere near the place where the bomb was planted and detonated. Watson tells Sherlock there is no footage of the book deposit box at the library. Sherlock says there are two bombers working.
He says Resor has a partner. They go break into Cray’s house and Sherlock tells her that Cray lived in Bensonhurts before prison and is a fit for the bomber. They poke around and Sherlock points out a complex train set.
Cray is a killer
Watson asks about Sherlock’s mention that she’s melancholy. Sherlock says he noticed her wearing chic outfits to crime scenes. He pokes around. Watson says she has no other career in mind but misses helping people. He says they do help people.
Watson says she wants to fix people and take pain away. She says then she killed someone and now they’re in the punishment business. Watson talks about going to meetings with Sherlock when she was his sober companion and he remarks he doesn’t need her anymore like that.
Sherlock finds bleach in containers under the train set. Sherlock has found more bomb components and says the train set is a cover for the bomb-making components. They bring in Cray. Marcus tells Cray that he’s going back to prison.
Who’s working with Cray?
Watson says tells us who helped you and you can see your family before you go. They tell him they think Resor is working with him now even though he worked alone in Bensonhurst. Watson says the bombings stopped when they went to jail and restarted when they got out.
Watson says one of them was the Bensonhurst bomber before prison. Cray says he was the teacher but they were wrong about the student. He says he has a partner but it’s not Resor. Cray says he found someone who can carry on my legacy long after I’m gone.
Cray says this is someone who shares my passion for making things go bang. Marcus offers him a deal if he gives up the partner. Cray says he’s looking at life in prison anyway and he can watch his partner make things go bang.
Cray stuns them with a flash bang revelation
Cray says they won’t catch his partner nor the motion activated bombs they hid in Flushing – he says they hid 20 and are nice and colorful – things a kid might like. Cray says Flushing will never be safe. Later, Sherlock sits eating and updates Watson on the search for bombs.
She tells him his food is disgusting. He’s chewing gum and spitting it out to improve his cognitive function. He’s got a whole plate of chewed gum. Sherlock says the Bensonhurst bomber had a script and what Cray told them doesn’t align with what they know.
He says the guy changed his MO or is lying – Sherlock says he’s lying. They look at headlines and Watson says maybe he wants more headlines. Watson says the threat would leave a shadow long after he was sent back to prison.
Bombing for dollars
Marcus says Resor has been driving all day about the big construction project. He says he beat out the competition and celebrated at a bar in Chelsea. He says the bidder against him was in Queens. Watson gets on the computer and looks up articles.
Watson says the other proposed site was in Flushing. The bombings had an economic incentive. They go back to see Cray. Sherlock mentions a vampire panic in New England and a scare in Jackson, Mississippi about a plague.
Sherlock says fear effects geography. Watson says that’s why he and Resor set off bombs in Flushing. Cray says he’s not working with Resor and Marcus says no, he’s working for Resor. Watson says they know he told Resor he was the Bensonhurst bomber.
The reveal of the motive
They tell Cray they know he was bombing to ruin the competitor’s bid and get Resor’s bid accepted. Watson says she hopes he made a deal for a big chunk of the profit. Cray says he blows things up because he’s sick.
Sherlock says no one will get the money because they went to the company that wrote the contract with Resor and they voided it. The project is on hold and there is no money. That means there’s no payday for Cray or his family. They show him the documents.
Sherlock says give us Resor. Sherlock tells Watson later it’s a good day to be in the punishment business as they see Resor in cuffs. Sherlock tells Watson that studies show that Cray and Resor never had a chance after they got out of jail. He says recidivism rates are awful.
Sherlock gives Watson a nudge
Watson asks why he’s telling her this. Sherlock says the return to prison is almost inevitable and says some of them might be okay if they just had a little help. Watson goes to see Shinwell. She says she wanted to talk to him about change.
Watson says you need to let people help you if you want to change. She asks if he wants to go for a walk. He goes to get his coat but we see he had a gun in his hand. He hides it behind his radiator and gets his coat instead of doing whatever he was planning to do with the gun.
THE END!