Elementary: The Last Bow

August 15, 2019 8:06 PM - Season 7, Episode 13

Series finale: Holmes and Watson battle with tech billionaire Odin Reichenbach; and receive word of their old enemy and Sherlock's former love, Jamie Moriarty.
posted by oh yeah! (17 comments total)

Way to go CBS for one last scheduling fuck you to Elementary -- football ran long and they just went ahead and pulled the old 'joining this show already in progress' to air the last 15 minutes of the episode. I thought maybe it was just a little way into the episode when I started watching, only to realize too late what they'd done. So now I'll have to wait until it shows up in my On Demand choices, and have to sit through advertising? Unbelievable.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:15 PM on August 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

This just randomly popped up while I was on the treadmill. Big hugs! I don't even follow this show, but aw.
posted by praemunire at 9:12 PM on August 15, 2019

Whoa - that's not cool, oh yeah! They really should have moved the finale to another time, I guess, when they were first programming it.
posted by amtho at 9:54 PM on August 15, 2019

And now I see from the comments in this TV Line post-mortem (Elementary Boss Talks Series Finale's Moriarty Threat, Reveals the Ending He Nixed for Sherlock and Joan) that apparently CBS NYC had it running at the regular timeslot on one of the local affiliate channels, but I never saw any notice of that and my Tivo didn't capture it. And having spoiled myself by watching that last 15 minutes, I'm feeling so unenthused about tracking down the missing beginning, it's been robbed of drama.

Sorry to be such a grump. While it seems that none of us were particularly motivated to post threads for this season, I wanted to make sure the finale thread went up so that those of us who stuck with the show these 7 seasons could give it our Fanfare farewell.

It feels like there's been some kind of network power struggle bullshit going on with this show for some time now, where one faction got it renewed for those additional S6 episodes and this final seventh season, and the other faction chose to burn that 7th season off in the summer with no promotion. Considering the harassment that we know about on the "Bull" set from Eliza Dushku going public and Les Moonves' decades of horrendous behavior, I can only assume that Lucy Liu will have some stories to tell now that the show is over and she doesn't have to play nice with anyone.
posted by oh yeah! at 5:05 AM on August 16, 2019 [5 favorites]

The Moriarity plot line was a nothingburger and served solely so we would think it was Joan in the coffin for 20 seconds. I will miss this show.
posted by the webmistress at 2:19 PM on August 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

For those who wanted to see it but didn't here's a copy you can watch.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 4:48 AM on August 17, 2019

It looks like CBS is going to rebroadcast it tonight at 11:35pm (at least, according to the Comcast xfinity app, my Tivo still thinks there's going to be an S3 rerun at that timeslot), I'll wait and see what ends up getting recorded.
posted by oh yeah! at 5:46 AM on August 17, 2019

I keep checking Jon Michael Hill's IMDb page to see what he's doing next but so far there's been nothing added. Kind of hoping for a Captain Bell spin off. He was my favorite character.
posted by the webmistress at 7:45 AM on August 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

JMH is in True West at Steppenwolf in Chicago through the 25th of August. I know that Jonny was in Ink earlier this year. I wouldn't be surprised if Lucy does more directing in the coming year.
posted by fiercekitten at 6:12 PM on August 17, 2019

A satisfying finale to a great show.

At least CBS treated it better than Person of Interest -- no surprise, since CBS owns Elementary.
posted by pmurray63 at 5:50 PM on August 18, 2019

For me, this was possibly the worst episode of the whole series. Am I glad that Joan got to have a child like she wanted? Hell yeah. But that would have been a better season-long story arc rather than something slotted into the last episode. Did I cry when Sherlock hugged Joan and said, "I'm staying"? Yes I did. But Joan having cancer for five minutes of the episode didn't do justice to that story either.

As an episode of a mystery show, this was also so weak. There was no mystery. In a finale, I want these characters to do a series of impossibly clever things against an impossibly dangerous foe.

The last two minutes were great, I want these characters to be together forever.
posted by mai at 6:01 AM on August 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm just guessing they went through the trouble of exporting Clyde to London and never brought him back to New York...
posted by xtine at 8:28 PM on August 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

Oh, goodbye, Elementary. I will miss having something to watch when we have nothing else to watch. I'll miss the "ripped from the headlines" (actually, ripped directly from Reddit) internet/dark web/Everyone plots. I'll miss yelling at the TV, "GET A GODDAMN LAWYER!" to literally every villain who immediately begins telling their entire criminal involvement. I'll miss being able to call the mystery around minute 14. I'll miss rolling my eyes at the shitty music that always starts in the last two minutes of the episode. I'll reeeeeally miss Natalie Dormer as Moriarty. I'll miss being able to pause any episode at any moment and catch Jonny Lee Miller grimacing hilariously, shirt buttoned all the way up. I'll miss turning the volume up to 11 to be able to understand any of the muttery dialogue, even with subtitles, then wincing when the commercials come on. Most of all I'll miss Joan's IT'S CALLED FASHION, LOOK IT UP wardrobe.

I gave Elementary a lot of shit -- but I also watched every episode. I'm sad there won't be any more.
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:12 AM on August 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

Joan having cancer for five minutes of the episode didn't do justice to that story either.

It explains a lot of her decisions and colors the entire episode, if you think about it or rewatch. Remember people being mystified that she'd summon Sherlock when the gift from Moriarty was an obvious ploy? Remember that the signal was to be used only if her life was in danger?

Remember her saying "no, no" while at the same time hugging Sherlock? That was powerful stuff - one part of her trying so hard to stay her eternally-reserved self, while the part of her that did want him to be there would not be denied. It was the payoff to an entire series worth of unflappableness.
posted by amtho at 12:45 PM on August 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

Thank you to this thread for answering a question for me: why did my usual Plex host (who automatically grabs/offers Elementary) not have it? I had to grab it from the internets and was confused why. I also, spaceshot that I am, went in not knowing that it was the finale, so I spent a little bit of time wondering "Wow, how are they going to keep THIS plot point going forward?" Happy for Joan that she has her kid and is cancer-free. Unclear of Sherlock is going to move in with them or... ? Happy that Watson gets to keep her keen fashion sense, even as a mom. Happy Bell got to be married and have a kid. Sad for Gregson that his wife died. Overall, while I had my beefs with this show I liked it more than most of what was out there and will be sorry to miss it.
posted by jessamyn at 8:25 AM on August 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

Remember people being mystified that she'd summon Sherlock when the gift from Moriarty was an obvious ploy? Remember that the signal was to be used only if her life was in danger?

Thank you for this comment!
posted by purpleclover at 2:25 PM on September 6, 2019

This was an awful episode and fuck their bullshit use of cancer to fuck with people for five minutes.
posted by snofoam at 4:41 PM on October 3, 2019 [1 favorite]