Welcome to the review of the season 3 première episode of Elementary entitled ‘Enough Nemesis To Go Around’. After a second season which attempted changes , both successfully and not, Elementary was turned on its head by show runner Robert Doherty when he decided Joan Watson and Sherlock Holmes would discontinue their partnership. Having recently rewatched the shows pilot episode I am amazed at the growth both characters have made in two years. That growth is also at risk of becoming stale if changes were not made, though merely including new characters was evidently not enough. Instead we find that the season 3 première starts of 6 months after the previous episode, Joan now works as her own consulting detective while Sherlock disappeared to start working for MI6.

Joan has managed to become quite successful using the methods she learned from Sherlock, but her efforts to put drug kingpin Elana March behind bars come to naught when her witness is killed during an elevator ride in a hotel. For two months afterwards Watson and Detective Bell try to find how a shooter could have gained access without the elevator stopping. One by one they discard each theory, to make matters worse Elana has Joan shadowed to find cause for harassment. Meanwhile Joan’s private life doesn’t sit still, she is in a casual relationship with a young man named Andrew Mittal (played by Raza Jaffrey).

As her investigations continue Joan becomes aware of a young woman stalking her, she warns her that Elana should stop following her but the woman claims ignorance. Captain Gregson in trying to find a clue in the case gives her a letter with a tip to a possible hitman called Kevin Elspeth who may have killed the witness. The letter is signed Montcliffe Ekuban which Joan realizes are authors of books Sherlock had her read. Joan visits the brownstone and finds Sherlock wearing a ridiculous gas mask which he states helps more oxygen to reach his brain. Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) offers her his services in proving that Kevin Elspeth is the murderer but Joan declines. She has not forgiven him for his sudden departure and she doesn’t want to play second fiddle again in a partnership.

Sherlock’s attempt to apologize to Gregson are hardly more successful. Gregson states he will use Sherlock only as a means to an end and that the only way he can work for the NYPD again is if Joan approves. Meanwhile Watson and Bell interrogate Elspeth, they become convinced he did it but cannot figure out how he murdered the witness and a police officer in an elevator that never opened. Sherlock admires this locked room conundrum and interjects himself into Watson’s investigation. Meanwhile Sherlock has to deal with his new protégé Kitty Winter. Joan knows Kitty has been following her against Sherlock’s whishes. Kitty complains that whatever she does she never seems to be able to measure up to Watson.  Sherlock replies that she again needs to sort a set of case files in order of the level of sexual deviance of the perpetrator.

While Watson (Lucy Liu) is trying to find out how Elspeth could have carried out the murder she finds Sherlock investigating the elevator. Together they discover that Elspeth had booked a room next to the elevator shaft. Sherlock seems to have an idea about how the shooting might have happened. Back at the brownstone Sherlock gives a demonstration to both Joan and Kitty. Elspeth had placed the bullets used in the murder in the wall of the elevator before the murder. When the elevator moved down to his floor he switched on a powerful electromagnet that pulled the bullets through the victims making it look as though there had been a shooting.

Elspeth denies being involved, the theft of the electromagnet two weeks before left a guard injured, but finger prints left at the scene don’t match Elspeth. Elana March offers to name the man who stole magnet to Joan but denies any involvement. She does however state she was sorry that Joan wasn’t in the elevator when the murders happened which is a reference to the one bullet that missed. When Sherlock gives Joan a belated house-warming gift he ask her permission to work with the NYPD, but she is non-committal stating that she has learned to work without him.

Watson closes in on Elspeth when she learns that the magnet he used must have weighted more than a ton. When she visits Elana along with Detective Bell they reveal they found it in Elspeth hotel room next to the elevator hidden in a shower bench. The magnet also contained a set of gloves which had Elspeth fingerprints on it. Since Elspeth confessed and named Elana as the contractor they arrest her for the murders. In the last scene Joan visits the brownstone and states Sherlock is allowed to work for the NYPD. She does question why he returned to New York. Sherlock states because he know they belong together at the brownstone. Kitty walks up to Joan in the street after freeing herself from handcuffs and asks why she started working with Sherlock two years back. Watson replies she wasn’t running away from something but running towards something new.

Conclusion

The return of Sherlock into Joan’s life is an effort to show just how much she has changed since meeting him over 2 years back. Nobody, not Joan, Sherlock or the audience wants her to turn the clock back, the introduction of Kitty is an attempt to show that the changes made to the relationship aren’t a one episode fake-out. Elementary needs change, there were efforts made during season 2 but for the show to stay interesting Joan has to continue to grow in her efforts to become a detective. She has managed to become a good one, which leads the audience to associate with her better than they do with Sherlock as is traditional with their relationship. The episode has only superficially introduced Kitty Winter, but dialogue between her and Sherlock show they have a history and that she is not a one-dimensional character. However, I am not certain of the audience needs a third character in the Watson / Sherlock relationship. From this weeks season premiere it is difficult to see how Kitty will fit in. However what is more important is whether Watson can keep her practice when she is working together with Sherlock. If she can’t than all the changes that have been made are merely superficial and will seem as yet another failed attempt to change Elementary. Lets hope it won’t come to that for this show deserves to succeed.

For those interested to find out what Lucy Liu is wearing as Joan Watson you can click the following link Elementary fashion link http://wornontv.net/tag/elementary-season-3-episode-1/. I hope you enjoyed this episode review, be sure to be back for next weeks episode ‘The Five Orange Pipz’.

Score; 8.4 / 10.  A good episode of Elementary that gives an indication of a new direction.

This was elementary s3ep1 review