While You Were Sleeping (Elementary)

Elementary
"While You Were Sleeping" (102)
Air date: Oct 4, 2012

Holmes is called in to consult on a burglary turned murder.





It's a week later and we begin with Holmes and Watson at one of his required support meetings. Only Holmes isn't paying any attention to what is going on. He's put himself into a kind of trace to basically be asleep with his eyes open to avoid listening to the useless 'nattering' of the other attendees. And the notion that he might one day stand up and speak, ridiculous ("You've lived with me for a week, you know I don't share."). Watson calls his notion of the brain as an attic that should only be filled with important things total nonsense (which it does sound like). Then she informs Holmes that she's going out to dinner with a friend. And will be giving him a drug test when she gets home

Gregson calls, asking for help with a burglary-murder. Watson excuses herself to another room despite Holmes dissing on her about acting squeamish around a dead body ("You were a surgeon, surely you worked on cadavers"). But she isn't waiting as she proclaims, she actually turns up just in time with a photo that validates part of Holmes comments which the lead detective, Bell, was dismissing as Holmes just being nuts. 

Bell and Holmes end up in a bit of a pissing match over the issue of whether the neighbor who was the robber is also the killer. Bell is certain that Holmes is wrong about the killer being a woman and insists it was the neighbor while Holmes advises Gregson to get a sketch artist. Gregson in the end sides with Holmes, wanting to be certain that the neighbor's mystery woman is made up or not. Gregson also reveals to Watson that even back in London, Holmes was a pain in the ass but he was so good at what he was doing that Gregson (and presumably others) put up with it. Gregson also reveals that Holmes called him, some 3 days before release, claiming to be at Heathrow on his way to board a flight to NYC. 

The next morning, Watson, having not taken Holmes advise to sleep with her ex after their dinner to lighten her moodiness, calls out Holmes on having not told Gregson the truth. Holmes declares that there's no way Gregson would let him near the cases if he knew (probably true). To wit, Watson counters that she was just wondering why Holmes was lying to the closest thing he has to a friend. Their discussion is interrupted by a call from Bell who found the mystery woman. However, the woman in question, Yvette, has been in a coma for the last 3 days. Bell uses this as proof that the neighbor was lying and basically dismisses Holmes from the case. 

Not so easy to get rid of, Holmes observes a book on the bedside table that indicates that the woman has a twin sister, Rebecca. Thinking that it was the twin that was the shooter, Holmes and Watson go to pay her a visit. Only to discover that they are fraternal twins and look nothing alike. The screeching halt to the case puts Holmes in a bit of a funk which isn't improved when Watson finds his old violin in a closet. A violin he refuses to play, calling it useless knowledge. When Watson leaves the room to answer a call from the ex, Ty, who is checking up on her, Holmes actually tries to burn the violin. 

Gregson calls from the scene of another murder that is connected to the current case. They discover that the two victims, who had no apparent knowledge of each other, were in fact siblings. And were being investigated by Rebecca. The two victims are revealed to be their half sisters. But Rebecca denies being involved in the murders and slaps Holmes when he suggests that she was behind Yvette's suicide.

It's at another meeting where Holmes, who is again not paying attention, has a breakthrough on the case. It leads him and Watson back to the hospital where Holmes again accuses Rebecca of being the murderer and tells her that he knows about the other sister. He then gets arrested for hitting Bell. Only it was all a ploy to trap Yvette who was faking her coma with the help of her lover, who was also her doctor. 

The case is intriguing but the best moments are again the personal ones. From Holmes guessing that Watson's friend is an ex, to his inviting the man over for dinner. The whole violin bit (which for the record he either didn't manage to damage much or had another one because he starts playing at the end of the episode). Watson threatening to poke him with a stick pin if he tries to go into another trace. Even watching Holmes squirm a bit when the unknowing Gregson invites him out for a celebratory drink. These are some of the best moments of the episode. I was worried a bit about the whole business of making Watson a woman but on further reflection I think that it might be the perfect choice. Woman are another part of Holmes whole shutting himself off from people issue and making a connection even just for six weeks, with a woman he has no sexual attraction to, would be a major breakthrough for a man who pays for sex, not because he finds it repulsive but 'needs it' (as he claimed at their first meeting) but because he wants to avoid an emotional attachment but still enjoys a bit of pleasure from time to time. 

I'm still intrigued so I suppose this game is still afoot. 

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Featured Music
Bloodline by James Mathe
The Path by Zoe Keating
Optimist by Zoe Keating
Partita No 2 in D Minor for Solo Violin BWV 1004 by Conrad von der Goltz