Elementary: The Cost of doing Business Recap

Synopsis for 04×06: A public shooting shakes up downtown Manhattan, and Sherlock’s father is strangely insistent on helping them find the culprit. Are his intentions truly innocent, or is there something more nefarious brewing?

Rating: ★★★☆☆

In the middle of Manhattan, chaos broke out as a sniper took out multiple targets in an open park. One of the ones killed, Ethan Paris, didn’t even realize he was going to walk straight into a shooting thanks to his use of earbuds. He was taken out, along with three others, in broad daylight. The sniper sauntered off without a second thought.

Sherlock was oblivious to it all as he was stuck at the Brownstone fulfilling a deal he’d made with “Everyone” over something they’d helped him find. Of course, he got interrupted in the middle of it by none other than his father, who found him in a strange wizard robe. He explained it away then wanted to know why his father was there. Moreland showed Sherlock the news about the mass shooting, and then presented him with the identity of the sniper. He made a proposition: let him help Sherlock bring the sniper to justice, and figure out who was behind it. Sherlock didn’t seem thrilled, but eventually agreed to the terms.

He didn’t inform Joan, however, who tried in vain to reach Sherlock to bring him in on the case she was working with the NYPD. She ran down dead end leads with Detective Bell while Sherlock and his father began to investigate the shooting themselves.

Their investigation led them to an energy company where Ethan Paris, the most obvious victim (to them, anyway) had worked. They talked with the head of the company as well as the company’s lawyer, curious to know if there had been anyone in particular who could have wanted Ethan dead. Sherlock’s dad threw his weight around a bit to get them to release internal conversations Paris had been having with a man from another firm about a deal they were trying to strike. With those in hand, the suspicion was cast off of the initial company and taken straight to the other firm.

The worker at the other firm quickly dismissed the idea that he had been the one to hire the sniper. Sure, it had been their building the sniper fired from, but the sniper took up on the wrong side of the building. If he’d really been the one to want Ethan dead, he would have let the sniper into the side of the building facing the satellite campus where Ethan was working. It would have been easy to take him out without the other casualties. No one would have known.

Sherlock and his father decided that their lead had run cold, and decided to reevaluate the initial scene of the crime. Sherlock got in touch with Bell to discuss the other victims to try and shake up leads. It turned out the only person who had been killed that was guaranteed to be at the park that day was a plumber named Frank. Why would an internationally renown sniper come to New York City just to take out a plumber from Staten Island? A great question. That would be their next investigation.

Joan expressed mild interest and concern regarding Sherlock’s time spent with his father. After Sherlock and his father had visited Frank’s widow, he’d seen a side to his father he hadn’t known before. It seemed that Moreland had somehow grown a conscience and perhaps he really did have honest motives regarding his constant need to be involved in Sherlock’s life. Sherlock told Joan she needed to come to her own conclusions about Moreland Holmes now, since she had the chance to interact with him. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as Sherlock had always believed.

Not likely, but maybe.

They followed Frank’s whereabouts through tracking software on his phone that the sniper had used to figure out where to kill him. It led them to a men’s spa where they bribed the spa owner to tell them about the last time Frank had walked into the spa. They were able to get a lead on the sniper’s location and informed the NYPD who set up a raid of the apartment.

After busting into the sniper’s place, which was wired to warn him that they were approaching, they pursued him as he escaped out the window. Unfortunately, he got spooked by the chase and fell to a rather swift death. They wouldn’t be able to ask him any questions or get any information about who hired him at that point. Sherlock especially seemed disappointed by this turn of events. He’d hoped to at least have gotten something. Now they were going to be back at square one.

With the sniper dead, Sherlock decided to follow the money. With some help from his father, an agent at Interpol granted them access to records about the deal. The money led back to the original energy company they’d spoken with at the beginning of the case. They brought in the lawyer, who now had motive, because once again the police used the tracking software and found out that Frank had been sleeping with the lawyer’s wife. However, there was a bit of a kink in their plan: the lawyer hadn’t actually known about his wife. It was news to him, therefore, it couldn’t have been his motive.

That really only left one person at the company with the power to use company money to hire a sniper: the boss. Moreland knew this and went to try and give the company’s owner a chance to come clean. He refused. Sherlock pursued the case and figured out just how the sniper had been smuggled into the building. Then, they put all the pieces together and presented the motive: the boss had been sleeping with the lawyer’s wife, and when she left him for Frank, he wanted revenge. So he hired a sniper to take out Frank to protect himself.

The case was solved, and everyone went their separate ways.

The Interpol agent from earlier in the episode came out to the States to talk face to face with Moreland. He hinted that Moreland had less than admirable reasons for getting back into Sherlock’s life, and he wanted the older Holmes to give him five million euros lest he go and have a chat with Sherlock. Of course, Moreland had a deal of his own: keep his mouth shut, or end up dead. Apparently he’d made sure the Interpol agent’s predecessor had ended up dead and found by his children. He’d give the current agent the same courtesy if he decided to cross him.

So Moreland Holmes’ motives were finally shown to be less than stellar, and Sherlock is no doubt in for a rude awakening. Just when things were nice between them, too.