Elementary: To Catch a Predator Predator

November 28, 2016 3:52 PM - Season 5, Episode 5

Holmes and Watson have plenty of suspects when they investigate the murder of a man who led a secret life as a vigilante, "catfishing" sexual predators on dating sites and publicly shaming them.

Myles McNutt's AV Club Review (tagged lined #JusticeforClyde) gives this a B+

Nerdophiles weighs in at 3.5 stars

posted by CMcG (6 comments total)

Sorry for not making the Elementary posts lately - I've been getting frustrated with the way the show keeps squandering its potential by spending so much time on the procedural aspects over the character moments. I feel like it's worse this season than last, since this season's arc is ostensibly about Joan but the writers don't seem to know what they're doing when it comes to her character.

Also this episode was particularly annoying because I found the final interrogation/confession depressing, and I really disliked the epilogue reveal that Sherlock got the dude framed for drug charges in Indonesia - seemed kind of hypocritical of him, and the whole 'Locked Up Abroad' thing feels kind of obnoxious. Like, pot calling the kettle black or something.
posted by oh yeah! at 5:19 PM on November 28, 2016

The lax internal security at the "super confidential" dating site really jumped out at me. Sherlock didn't even have to look around to find the person who was willing and able to leak huge amounts of customer data.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 3:29 PM on November 29, 2016

"Deerstalker" invocation in the character-building opening scene. Also like it that an 'outsider' observational character gets some digs in at Sherlock's wardrobe, an inversion of everyone's obsession with what Watson's wearing. Joan's relaxed, on the couch, in a super casual jumper. She's really comfortable around Shinwell, and I get a Sherlock-esque inkling that she likes him likes him.

This episode was really convoluted and incredibly coincidental. I mean, real life is incredibly coincidental of course, but the contrivances in these twists *is* a bit tiring. I feel like the writers are being asked to cram as much esoteric Things-For-Sherlock-(Or-Joan-) To-Explain-In-Two-Sentences as possible. It's like reading all the posts on the front page of MeFi in one go instead of sticking with one, reading the link, then reading the discussion inside, which is what I'd like the esoteria in these episodes to be like.

Thanks for picking these back up CMcG, I've been leaning heavy on my regular media to be a reminder of what's normal in life and these threads (whether or not I'm posting a comment) are a part of that. Thanks again!
posted by carsonb at 2:48 PM on December 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

The things that go unexplained, on the other hand, are sublime as usual. My library paraprofessional self just loves Sherlock's resigned admission that he never returned the library's copy of the Codex Seraphinanus. Inscrutabilities piled on inscrutabilities.

Also didn't the perpetrator wind up being a Predator Predator Predator?
posted by carsonb at 3:14 PM on December 1, 2016

Ugh, literal victim-blaming.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:57 PM on August 2, 2018

I really like this episode as being one of the only ones in the series that really hits this particular note of resigned tragedy. There's no victory in Sherlock figuring out it was Nadia, almost certainly the most sympathetic killer in the life of the series, just as there was no victory in Nadia finding Damien, who was ostensibly doing what he did for people like her but wouldn't respect her experience or point of view once they were face to face. And our murder victim's vigilante actions, however righteous, are ultimately shown to be destroying the lives of several unintended targets. And Sherlock, in the end, also has to turn to perverting justice to feel like actual justice has been done in the case of the actual villain at the center of it all, whom we never meet.

I don't really care how convoluted the details are when the theme and tone is that coherent.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:49 PM on February 2, 2022