Matt Smith reviews the season 2 finale of Elementary…
Season finales are exciting. By definition, they must be able to ramp up the drama and so, in many TV shows, there is a certain story arc or situation that’ll introduce itself towards the finale that brings things to ‘an end’.
It’s here that Elementary, without skipping a beat, sets things up. Completely separate cases for Sherlock Holmes are forgotten and everything starts tying together. A few weeks ago Mycroft Holmes is reintroduced into the series and is then found out to be a spy. Now, Mycroft is wanted for treason and murder, which as drama levels go can’t get much higher.
It’s up to Sherlock Holmes, now more than ever, to solve the case and help get his brother off the hook. Tensions rise at the same time as Watson has revealed she wants to leave the home they’ve built together and stay in a place she can call her own. It’s coming from all directions at the moment, with further revelations down the line.
As a season finale, this week’s episode works well. We continue on the road to learning more about Sherlock Holmes as he learns more about himself. Even with the jokes and barbs being traded within the first few lines, and even with those barbs becoming harsher over time, Sherlock and Mycroft’s relationship is shown to be as complex as a brotherly TV show relationship can be.
There’s also the intense, wondering feeling, a curiosity of what will come next that came with the first season. A finale that once again takes the moody road to make things more important, another case that is closer to home than the calls from the NYPD.
It’s a template that’s been used before, but it’s a template that works. The departure from the individual cases for an arc makes it a change of scenery, keeping the season fresh until the end.
It all ends with another revelation that leaves that curious feeling once more. What will the third season hold for Sherlock Holmes given his choices here? Again, it’s a twist on the character, this time on the leanings towards international intrigue, which makes Elementary different from other modern iterations of the character. What comes next, I can only guess at, and it’s in that way that Elementary keeps people coming back for more. Hopefully it continues keeping a character created over a hundred years ago fresh and that, like the drama being ramped up at the end of a season, the third offering in the works continues to improve on things.
Matt Smith – follow me on Twitter.
Originally published May 29, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
