Elementary: Alma Matters Recap

Synopsis for 4×10: Joan and Sherlock realize that Morland has been keeping a dangerous secret regarding an assassination attempt that could put a target on all their backs. All the while, they try to solve a case where people associated with a suspicious for-profit school keep dropping dead.

Rating: ?????

After the realization that someone made an attempt on Sherlock’s father not long before Morland traveled to New York City, he was understandably upset. He confronted his father who attempted to shrug off the whole thing by claiming the man behind it all had been apprehended and dealt with. Naturally, Sherlock called him on his bluff and insisted that he would help with the investigation, not for his father, but because he and Joan’s safety was at risk.

Somewhere in New York, a few robbers pillaging an apartment witnessed a shooting in the next building over. The victim turned out to be Dennis Hicks, a recruited for a local for-profit college with a shaky history. Sherlock was brought onto the case through an old therapist at his detox facility and was connected with Lilly, a woman who ran a non-profit program that had been bought out by the college. She insisted that Dennis had been murdered, not just killed in a break-in, because he was planning to blow the whistle on the college’s scheme.

Apparently the college was preying on the poor, the recently released from prison, and the homeless. They would approach these prospective students, convince them that they could further their education at the college, then help them apply for mountains of loans to pay for it. In the end, most would drop out, and those who made it through ended up with a degree that wasn’t what they thought they’d get. The school still received the government loans, and the students were the ones who ended up bearing the brunt of the debt.

They bought out Lilly’s non-profit in order to have access to a rich pool of potential students to use for the college loans. Unfortunately, there was nothing really to substantiate those claims at the moment except what Dennis Hicks may have brought to the table in terms of testimony. So Joan turned to the thieves who may have witnessed the incident while Sherlock investigated the issue of his father.

Sherlock went after the Interpol agent who had helped them out earlier in the season, only to not be well received much to his surprise. The agent was extremely suspicious of his intentions and told Sherlock to stay away from him, and to keep Sherlock’s dad away from him, too. He had nothing to say on the matter of the attempted assassination and accused Sherlock of playing some sort of game.

Back with Joan, they interrogated the look-out person who gave them a description of the shooter. They went back to the non-profit to discuss it with Lilly and see if she recognized it, only to find her strangled to death. Apparently she, too, had fallen victim to the school’s scheme to keep their activities under wraps. That led Sherlock and Joan straight to the college’s president, who promptly brushed them off and left them with absolutely no answers.

Taking a short break, Sherlock went to see his father and confronted him about the investigation. He accused his father of not telling him because Sherlock himself at one point had been a suspect. Hurt, and disturbed by the thought his father questioned his basic character and thought him a killer, Sherlock said he wanted to cut ties with his father. He wanted him to leave, so that he and Joan would be safe.

More answers on the case eventually came after they went on the search for Victor Nieves, the killer as recognized by some of the people at the halfway house Lilly oversaw. The police found his family, but not him, simply because Victor had a different plan: he turned himself in. He copped to both murders (Dennis and Lilly), even though his family had provided an alibi for him that would have prevented him from killing Lilly.

Unhappy with his previous interaction with the college president, Sherlock decided to pay him a visit and outright accused him of orchestrating Lilly’s murder. He thought, initially, it was because of the evidence she planned to show the Department of Education, but Traeger, the president, claimed there was no basis for Sherlock’s suspicion because the DOE had already worked out a deal with him. He was in the clear. Sherlock didn’t buy it and was all the more certain that Traeger was behind the murders.

Sherlock’s dad stopped by the Brownstone to try and apologize for ever believing Sherlock capable of killing him. There has been a report that a man matching Sherlock’s description had been near the shooting when it happened, and Morland insisted he quickly dismissed his son’s possible involvement. He cleared up his earlier exchange with the Interpol agent that left audience members like me questioning his true intentions, as well, if we are to believe him.

Back to the case, Sherlock crashed a school meeting and brought his own slideshow around. He’d been able to tie the President to multiple crimes he’d paid to have committed in order to continue to profit from the school. Since they were able to figure out how he was choosing his arsonists, assailants, and murderers, the team quickly closed in and had a compelling case. In front of everyone, they presented the case and promptly arrested the President who was, of course, less than thrilled.

At the end of the episode, Sherlock approached his father who appeared to be on his way out of the country. He insisted he was not there to stop his father, but had been investigating into the death of another Interpol agent that used to work for his father. He found that the death had everything to do with his dad, as the man was killed after being paid to spy on Morland. Whoever tried to have Morland killed had disposed of a loose end.

As this person also brought Sherlock’s name into it, he decided he would help with the investigation to find whoever it was that had orchestrated the whole thing. To be continued, no doubt.