Elementary, one of our favorite detective drama/comedies returns to CBS tonight with an all new Thursday January 21, season 4 episode 9 called, “Murder Ex Machina,” and we have your weekly recap below. On tonight’s episode, Holmes Jonny Lee Miller and Watson (Lucy Liu) hunt for a computer hacker responsible for three murders, including the death of a Russian billionaire who was visiting New York City.
On the last episode, Holmes and Watson investigated a homicide in which the victim was murdered in a manner reminiscent of crimes committed by an infamous and already incarcerated serial killer. Meanwhile, Bell got tutored by Sherlock and Joan for a police sergeant’s exam that could lead to a promotion and a post at another precinct. 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, “Holmes and Watson hunt for a computer hacker responsible for three murders, including the death of a Russian billionaire who was visiting New York City. Meanwhile, Joan receives a solo dinner invitation from Sherlock’s father.”
Are you looking forward to the season 4 episode 9 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 begins with Joan making popcorn – she sees a box in the fridge that says Clyde is in there. He says he’s hibernating in there. She says why not the backyard and he says the weather has been off so this is better for him.
She says she’s watching Godfather one and two and he suggests she get out and find a man to shag. She glares and says she’s fine. He’s got a date with two hookers. Joan tells Clyde to sleep tight. The doorbell rings as she goes to start her movie.
It’s Sherlock’s dad Morland who says he came to see her. She lets him in. He invites her to a restaurant opening at a new restaurant he thinks she’d like. He says Sherlock is welcome to join but doesn’t think he would attend – he says his son thinks of food as fuel.
He says 8 pm. A guy leaves a club and a drive by shooting takes shots at them. The masked gunmen get out and finish off one in particular. Sounds like they’re speaking Russian. The shooters pull off their masks then the car spins out of control.
The steering wheel is mobbing around out of his control and the car accelerate perilously. The air bag lights click off just before they crash at top speed. A witness tells the cops he saw a gray car drive away fast. Joan is there with Marcus. The witness gives them his contact info.
Gregson is there and Marcus says it was a drive by but this guy was the target. Joan says the other dead guy was his bodyguard. His name is Maxim Zolotov and he’s rich by the looks of it. Marcus says he sent a car to pick up Sherlock from his hooker friends.
Joan calls Sherlock and he says he’s at the second crime scene and the shooters are dead. Sherlock says he saw a car that he thought matched it but Marcus says the car isn’t gray. Sherlock explains the lights made it look gray.
Sherlock points out a gun in the wreckage. Joan says it looks like a car crash. Sherlock says the driver’s right foot was trying to press the brake but there are no skid marks. He says the guy was struggling with the wheel and Joan notes the air bags didn’t deploy.
Marcus asks if they think the car was hacked. Sherlock says the car’s computer will tell them. Sherlock says they were hired guns killed in a staged accident. The real killer is on the loose. Mason looks at the car’s computer code. He says it was overwritten.
Sherlock asks him to identify the author. Mason asks for the usual fee and Sherlock says he lets him sniff Joan’s hair while she’s sleeping. Then he says he’s kidding and he gives him collectible rare action figures.
Joan says Zolotov was one of the world’s richest men. Sherlock says he’s a Russian oligarch. He made money in shipping and not a nice guy. Sherlock says they are billionaire thugs. Joan says a recent article said he was ruthless and kept assassins on retainer.
Sherlock says he doesn’t think it was a Russian since they would have killed him on his home turf. Mason says he’s a bad dead guy and asks why they bothered. Joan says innocents were killed. Sherlock says all murder should be solved.
Sherlock asks Joan to speak in private then asks about what his father wanted. He says he was there just a few minutes and says he has exterior cameras on the place. She says he wanted nothing then tells him about the dinner invite.
Sherlock says please don’t sleep with his father since she already slept with his brother. Mason hands over the results and tells him which action figure he wants. The signature is an ASCII image of a cat. He says she’s known as Mittens.
He says she’s Fiona something and works at an R&D firm in Chelsea. Sherlock asks if she could be a killer and Mason says she does like cats, so… They go to Pentillion Edge where she works. Phil Balsam, Fiona’s boss comes out and introduces himself.
They ask for Mittens and Phil asks why they want to see him. Joan says it’s about murders and hacked software on a car that caused fatalities. Phil says she couldn’t hurt anyone. Sherlock says they want to see her.
Fiona is autistic and explains that she’s neurotypical and Sherlock says tell him the sky is green and then she goes into a musing about diffuse sky radiation. He asks again for her to say it’s green and she says she doesn’t want to.
Joan asks Fiona if she was involved in making that car crash. She says the people inside it had just committed murder. She says her self-driving code saves lives doesn’t take them. Phil says she’s the best coder they have and is not a killer.
Sherlock says her condition makes it hard for her to lie. Joan asks who might access her software and he says lots of people then rattles off a list. He says they got hacked a few weeks ago and her code was accessed at the time.
He says he thinks Tetra-Bit hit them and says he didn’t report the breach then admits some of their people hacked them a couple of months ago. He says his guys were curious what was going on over there.
Joan asks about Zolotov. Phil offers them full access then says his guys told him they found Russian emails in the CEO of Tetra-Bit, Carol Fenilli. She says she was negotiating a deal with Zolotov. She says she never met him and didn’t even know he was in town.
She says this deal would have been worth billions to her and would have brought her robotics division into the black. Sherlock asks who would profit from the loss. She says she has no idea and mentions it was about the Port of New Haven.
Sherlock then asks who had the most to lose from this deal. She says the State of New York. They catch Marcus and Gregson up and tell them they think it’s about the port and it could have been anyone.
Joan looks at the card from the witness who is part of the Dockworker’s Union. They bring the guy in and he asks what they’re accusing him of. Marcus says they know he has mob contacts and the guy says they’ve been watching too many movies.
They bring up his record and he says he didn’t have Zolotov killed – they were cutting a deal. He says he heard about the port project and cut a deal. He says he was told if any of his guys lost work, he would hire them and then he got a big donation to the union from him.
He shows them an email from his banker in the Caymans and shows them a $100k deposit for a “consulting” fee and says he stood to get lots more. He says the Russian was worth a lot to him. He says the bodyguard was spooked by a stripper, they left early and then he was shot.
Marcus tells Sherlock and Joan what happened. Sherlock has security cam footage from Zolotov’s hotel. They show that a woman visited with armed guards. Joan says they don’t know who she is. Mason is looking for a match on her face.
Marcus asks if this is legal and Sherlock shrugs it off. Marcus is still trying to find the stripper that Magarac mentioned. He’s headed to the club and Mason offers to go along. Joan tells Sherlock to go with him so she can get ready for dinner.
Sherlock tells Marcus he likes watching strippers work and says they’re experts at human psychology. He points out one woman checking out men who will offer the most money for the least work. Marcus laughs.
Sherlock says it’s like watching a magic show where you know how the tricks are done. Sherlock points out one to Marcus. He goes over to her and asks for a private dance. She has a Russian accent. She tells Sherlock to follow her and he tells Marcus he’ll be back.
They go to a side area and she asks how he likes it. She straddles him and starts to take off her bra and he stops her. He says he’s a detective and says he knows she’s a Russian spy named Olga. She asks if this is role play. He says drop it and says he’s seen her dossier.
He says he won’t tell American intelligence about here. She says Zolotov was not her assignment. She says it’s a foreign dignitary she’s targeting. She says he came in with Magarac who is a regular. She says she decides to listen in to let her bosses know.
She says Yuri recognized her from a training exercise a few years ago. She says Zolotov didn’t want his bosses at the Kremlin know he was working on another deal. She says she heard he was working on some sort of backdoor diplomacy deal.
Joan is at dinner with Morland and praises the food. She asks why he’s not eating and he says he ate a late lunch. He says it reminds him of a meal at one of Mycroft’s first restaurants. He says he knows his other son is alive and under the protection of the US.
He says he knows she was close to Mycroft. She says she hasn’t heard from him in a while. She says she thought he came to New York since Mycroft can’t be in touch. Morland says he’s been banking his blood for emergencies.
He asks her if she will evaluate his blood for him. They order another course. Joan comes in as Mason leaves. He says he got hacked and traced back to their WiFi. He says whoever can do that is someone he doesn’t want to mess with.
He says smash your computers and take a vacation. Gregson calls Joan and asks about the Asian woman. He says get down to the station – she’s in his office. The woman says her name is Cindy Park and Sherlock recognizes her name.
He says she was the secret negotiating partner with Zolotov about the ethnic conflict between the Ukraine and Russia. Gregson says State was monitoring their investigation. Cindy says they were hoping they were right and the port deal was the cause of death.
Cindy says the men who killed him are ex-Ukranian military and have done dozens of hits all over Europe. She says the war has brought the Ukranians lots of foreign aid so they want to keep the war going.
Sherlock says why would the Ukranians hire Ukranians? She says federal agents will take the investigation over and thanks them for their hard work. Marcus packs up the files as Sherlock is on the phone speaking Russian.
Marcus says they’re off the case. Sherlock says he and Joan are private citizens and can do what they want even if the NYPD can’t. Marcus asks if he’s made any progress. Sherlock says he thinks a third party wants to keep the war going.
Marcus says arms dealers and Sherlock says ethnic communities in the US send weapons back home. Sherlock says he talked to someone who gave him a list of American arms dealer sin the conflict. He says that confirmed the list he had made.
Marcus says if the Russians hear the Ukranian theory, it could cause more deaths. Morland gets a visit from Joan who says she looked into the facility where he’s storing his blood and recommends a different facility. He thanks her.
She notices a stack of pills on a plate on his desk. Then she gives him the list of arms dealers and asks which is making the most money off the conflict. They go see the guy Morland tells them about. Soble says he sold drones and missiles and is former CIA.
Soble says he knew why Zolotov was there and says he hoped the guy succeeded. He says peace is better. He says he is paid in rubles that he has to keep in Moscow. He says the ruble took a big hit. The war ends, the ruble rises and his profit increases.
He says the Ukranians haven’t paid yet and says his pals in DC encouraged him to sell in credit. He says he’ll have to write off the loss on what he sold them. He says anyone who sold is in the boat. Joan asks who profits if the war goes on and he rattles off a list.
He says it’s people who makes products the Russians can’t get because of sanctions. Joan says the guy is still vile. Sherlock says he may have given them the key to the case. Sherlock says he has a suspect. He says no cars, they’re taking the subway.
Sherlock goes to see Fiona at a cat rescue place. She says he has good manners then asks how he found her. He says he tracked down her apartment but she wasn’t there. He says he noticed she likes cats and had cat on her from different cats.
He says he figured out she was at the nearby cat café. She says he used logic and binary decisions to get to her. He says he wants to talk about the murders. He says he wants her to help him catch the person responsible.
Phil gets into his car and drives away. The car is out of his control. It takes a turn he wasn’t expecting. He uses an app to try and connect to the car but it fails and the doors are locked. He curses. The car stops and Sherlock gets in.
He tells him that Fiona is controlling the car and is a safe driver. He says it’s much safer than when he crashed his hit men. He says he knows it’s about the rocket engines that will make him hundreds of millions.
Sherlock says the engines are behind schedule but the Russian sanctions are keeping the Russian competitor off the market. He says if the war ends, the Russian engines are back on the market and he’s screwed.
Sherlock says that’s why he had Zolotov killed. He says he can’t prove it but Sherlock says the phone he used with the app on it will show the data that controlled the shooters’ car. He can’t get the window down to throw the phone out.
Phil says Zolotov was scum and he killed only bad men. He says it’s for the greater good and says his rockets will help colonize the moon and Mars. Sherlock asks if Fiona got all that. She’s with the FBI and NYPD awaiting their arrival.
Sherlock comes home and finds Joan has a wall of evidence going. She has a French murder of Sabine Rauolt gunned down in Paris on the wall. Sherlock asks why and she says Mason left the facial recognition software and says she searched for his father.
She says there are almost none but one of him with Sabine. Joan says she doesn’t think he had Sabine killed. She says his father eats strangely and eats like he’s had gastric banding and takes vitamins in strange combinations.
Joan says she found Sabine’s assassination info and two missing bullets. She thinks his father was caught in the crossfire of the shooting. She mentions the blood bank and then says she thinks his father was the target and is worried they’ll try again. That’s why he’s banking blood.
THE END!
