- Tensions rise when Holmes and Watson are forced to partner with Gareth Lestrade, Sherlock's former Scotland Yard colleague, on a bombing investigation.
- "Elementary" - "The One Percent Solution" - Feb. 27,2014
A bomb goes off at a table, rigged to a cellphone.
Meanwhile, at the brownstone Sherlock has saved two roosters from a cockfighting ring. He's decided to see if he can rehabilitate them and he can't stop calling them cocks, like a 12-year-old.
So it turns out the bombing targeted a group of men from the treasury and labor department who were in town to sell big banks on the president's latest budget. One of the bankers killed in the bombing worked at a firm that had a "security czar" who turns out to be Holmes' old "friend" Gareth LeStrade, who shows up ready to "match wits" with Sherlock. Which, we know isn't an easy task.
Since taking credit for Sherlock's work on their last case, LeStrade has built up a business as a consulting detective and hired his own female assistant named Truepenny and has even done a DougChat (their version of TedTalks). He was asked by his boss at the bank to tag along to the investigation since his exec was killed.
They go to speak to the two victims of the bombing, the restaurant manager who informs them that a waiter-- an annoying one--- showed up and then left 20 minutes later before the bomb went off. And they speaks to the one person at the table who survived, an undersecretary who was sitting at one end, and complains that's where they sit. She said she saw nothing suspicious.
They're about to go after the waiter when Gregson calls him with text from someone who takes credit, an Occupier-type who calls himself Aurelius.
At home Sherlock watches LeStrade's Doug Chat and is revolted. Joan says he should say something so he can focus on the case and wonders if he's mad he stole Sherlock's act, or annoyed he pulled it off. Sherlock shrugs her off and says he thinks the Aurelius note may be fake, planted by someone to send them on a wild goose chase. Speaking of fowl he continues to tend to the roosters.
They examine the seating chart and notice that the bomb seemed targeted at one end of table. So they look into the people at that end who were killed including the banker who worked for LeStrade's boss and a mystery man named Jacques St. Teton. They go to see him, Richard Balsille. They chat with him and then Sherlock notices a book on his shelf written by Balsille called "Teton."
They pull LeStrade aside and ask what his boss was doing at hotel under assumed name. LeStrade throws them out. Sherlock and Joan go to look at the security footage to see "St. Teton" check in and the footage shows it's LeStrade not his boss. And then they see him actually turn off the camera.
LeStrade shows up at the brownstone and apologizes for being a pain the entire investigation basically and says they need to accommodate each other. They shake on it. He asks if they find out anything interesting. Sherlock lies and says they recorded over footage and didn't see anything. LeStrade says his boss is a great man but not a good one and that he was stepping out on his wife. He leaves and Joan nicks his phone. Sherlock pulls a bunch of files off of it.
Gregson pulls in the waiter, LeStrade found him, and he and Joan and Bell interrogate him. He was hiding out in his grandma's house. He admits he had an Occupy bent but he's not really a radical. He says he met a guy online who would always ask about when the bankers would come to the restaurant and he told him when they would be there and then after the bombing he freaked out and hid out at his grandma's house. They agree he doesn't seem like a killer/terrorist, just a scared kid.
Sherlock waits for LeStrade in his house. He lays out the evidence he's found that seems to indicate that LeStrade has been part of a conspiracy to kill the banker from Balsille's company that was at the table: picturs of the executive, files that make it seem like the exec was gunning for Balsille's job, the surveillance footage. LeStrade explains that he wasn't involved and that he was actually covering for his boss. It turn out he was really stepping out on his wife, in a very structured, high priced way and that LeStrade was basically his pimp and arranged the situations for him. He didn't tell Sherlock because he was embarrassed that he wasn't getting by on his talent alone. He is truly ashamed.
Sherlock calls Balsille a time consuming dead end and turns his attention back to Aurelius. Even though the FBI has had a file on the guy for years Sherlock manages to turn up his identity and location in one night thanks to a friend at NASA who gives him a heat signature overview of New York City which shows that before each bombing there was a spike at one house. They show up and it looks like Aurelius was done in by one of his own bombs and has been dead since before the bombing. So he's out as a suspect.
LeStrade shows up in a panic, someone is blackmailing Balsille saying they know everything about his extracurricular activities. But the blackmailer doesn't want money. Instead they want Balsille's company to make 100s of stock trades on a day that coincides with a federal jobs report. Sherlock realizes who the blackmailer and bomber are and that they are one and the same.
The survivor who was grumpy about being an undersecretary succeeded her boss who was killed. With her promotion she has access to the jobs report before it goes public and would benefit from the trades. They go to Balsille who looks at her picture and is confused. That's how many assignations he's had: she was one of his early conquests and he set her up financially in her first apartment after an internship at his company. He realizes if he tells that all of his business will become public and wonders if they just can't "take care of it." LeStrade may have no standards but says he draws the line at letting a murderer go. They arrest her. LeStrade loses his job and comes to stay with Sherlock and Watson.
Back at the brownstone Sherlock has successfully rehabilitated the roosters and they will now live together in peace.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content