Elementary: Bang Bang Shoot Chute

December 2, 2016 6:04 PM - Season 5, Episode 7

Holmes and Watson search for two murderers after a base jumper is shot out of the sky by one killer, and has his parachute sabotaged by another.

Garners a C+ from AV Club
Nerdophile has a quite different take, giving it 4 stars.


An episode with six different suspects. The biggest mystery: Did our former military/military contractor-thief-base-jumper-memoirist-people-smuggler-cheater-victim ever sleep?

Also: Shinwell and Joan share a screen again with some stressful results.

posted by CMcG (4 comments total)

Aren't basejumpers/parachutists/rock-climbers/etc generally pretty obsessive about doing safety checks on their gear? I found it hard to believe that the murder victim wouldn't have noticed all his chutes had been sabotaged, especially if his wife did it in a frenzy.
posted by oh yeah! at 6:58 PM on December 2, 2016

I share the av club's frustration that the plot, never a strong part of Elementary, is taking up time from the character work. More Watson family time, more moments and small cases. Less forgettable pointless murders.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:01 AM on December 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Worth it just to hear Bell describe the guy having his parachute sabotaged and being shot as "literally overkill".
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 8:24 AM on December 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Stealing money in the middle east
Smuggling people into the US
Base jumping
Private security firms
Cheating
Taliban
Forbidden romance
Family genetics
and I'm positive I'm missing a bunch

It's sort of impressive how they wrap all of these discrete things into such a short time and single plot, but again I feel like the goal is to just cram as much junk as possible into an ep and damn any elegance or actual character.

Shinwell remains intriguing, and I'm glad he's linked to Joan's sister because I feel like that could be tied together nicely. Also, Sherlock broke up with Fiona last ep and this ep Shinwell "broke up" with Joan. That's the sort of set-up that demands some nice, twisty, calling-back later in the season.
posted by carsonb at 7:10 PM on December 10, 2016