- Holmes and Watson follow a blood trail into the world of wrongful death compensation when they investigate a series of murders in which the killer leaves envelopes of cash on the victims. Also, Holmes makes a generous gesture towards Watson as she suffers through the aftermath of a personal crisis.
- "Elementary" - "When Your Number's Up" - Feb. 19, 2015
In a new twist, we see who the killer is before Sherlock and Watson figure it out.
Watson arrives at her apartment to see that Sherlock has hired a man to move her things to the brownstone. She is annoyed because she already hired movers for one and she was planning to donate most of her stuff anyway since they represent a "normal" life that she knows she can't have. Sherlock notes she can keep it in the basement. She says she is done.
A woman sells a bunch of jewelry and asks for cash instead of a check. She takes the money to a homeless man she knows named Henry along with a roast beef sandwich. After he opens the sandwich she shoots him and places the envelope of money under his coat.
When Sherlock, Joan, Bell, and Gregson show up to investigate they find a note with the money. On it is a quote from a famous victims' compensation attorney as well as a complicated math equation. Sherlock sends the equation to his friend Harlan who tells him it is the type used by insurance companies to calculate the "worth" of a life--based on lost future earnings-- in order to offer cash settlements to families of wrongful death survivors. The money on the homeless man was calculated by this formula and implies his life was worth $3800.
The shooter also sent a note to the press smearing the lawyer.
Bell, Watson, and Holmes go to see the lawyer who seems fairly scummy and likely has a lot of enemies. They zero in on his former girlfriend with whom he recently broke things off. When they talk to her she learns that he broke up with her because of a conflict of interest: they were both competing for the same client, an airline that recently experienced a crash and is looking to settle with the 80-plus survivors.
Joan can't sleep at the brownstone and heads to the basement to find Sherlock practicing on his mannequin. He didn't want to wake her. She notes this is something he never worried about before. She says he doesn't have to tiptoe around her. They wonder if maybe a competing victims' compensation attorney is s smearing the lawyer in order to get the business of the airline.
We cut to a support group meeting that includes the shooter. Another man is sharing about his dead end life. The woman smiles at him. We cut to the two of them getting it on his shower. When they are done she counting out huge piles of money. He has a cigarette and she seems surprised he smokes. He wonders if that's a problem. And she says no it will just change the calculation. She shoots him and leaves the money on the body again, but first she takes a few of the stacks back. (His life is worth less now that she knows he smokes.)
At the morgue, Bell tells Sherlock and Captain there was another note. This one tells the head of the airline that they just saved him some more money. She left $80,000. It turns out that this guy and the homeless guy both had family on the crashed plane and stood to gain from the settlement. So now they are worried about the family members of the other victims.
Joan arrives at the walk through at her apartment in order to get her security deposit back and her landlord notes that oddly enough someone has already rented the place before they even put out a listing. Joan notices someone changing the locks and realizes it was Sherlock.
The head of the airline and their attorney come down to the precinct to meet with Gregson, Bell,and Sherlock. They explain there are two ways of settling with victims. One, they use that original equation to calculate the worth of each victim on a sliding scale: richer people get more money. Or, two, they can decide to do a fixed sum settlement where everybody gets the same amount which is better for the poorer people but worse for the airline because it would cost more money, at about $5 million per person. So now they have new suspects: beneficiaries of lower income people on the plane.
The shooter, who we learn is named Dana, is working out at home watching the news on the murders when her sister Penny arrives. It turns out that the shooter is underwater financially and in danger of losing her house in 90 days. Penny is an accountant and is trying to make Dana see she can no longer live her extravagant lifestyle and needs to sell her house. Dana says she's working on a new project and will be able to pay what she owes soon.
Watson and Holmes look at the evidence wall of the beneficiaries of the plane crash victims and identify a few potential shooters. Watson also got a ballistics report on the gun which was used in both shooting and the buyer will be giving them a sketch. Watson confronts him about renting her place. But then the phone rings. Gregson calls and says the shooter tried to strike again but the woman they were after was only shaken up and her husband was on the flight. We pull back and see Dana in her kitchen talking to the police.
The gang goes out to investigate. She tells her story about how the man came, shot from a distance in her backyard, and escaped over a fence through the woods. Sherlock notes boot prints that reveal traces of a limp. Sherlock asks why she lives on the ground floor in such a big house. She says after her husband's death she moved downstairs.
Back at the precinct, Sherlock and Joan gnaw over why a man with a limp would jump over a fence and it was the first shooting that wasn't up in Dana's space like the others. Gregson calls them out to show them Dana on TV complaining that when it comes to the settlement she deserves more money than the other people on the plane because her husband was richer and more important than people like waitresses or teachers. She is beyond awful. Joan realizes she gave "the killer" just what "he" wanted, forcing the airline to go the fixed sum route. But of course, that's what she wants so she can get the money quickly.
Later, at the brownstone Sherlock confirms that's what the airline is doing and he is obsessed with Dana. He found out about the grief support group and thinks she may be the killer, along with the mystery man with the limp. Joan is confused since Dana stood to make more than the others so would she want a fixed sum? Watson and Sherlock continue their conversation about her return. She's worried that he didn't want her to move back in and should have said so. He was worried she was making rash decisions in the wake of Andrew's death and in the aftermath of trauma and she might be regressing instead of progressing. He wanted to keep her options open. She says she doesn't know if it's a reaction but wonders if it's so wrong to feel like this is home. Sherlock gets a text.
It's the sketch of the man who bought the gun. It resembles Dana Powell's husband. They find out that he had an incurable disease and not long to live which is why she wanted the lump sum: The airline would've found out that he was ill and didn't have long to live and she would've been paid less money.
Back at Dana's house, Penny is there and she is in tears because she's made a similar deduction about her sister. The police arrive and Dana is busted, she used her dead husband's boots to make the impressions in the backyard. They found them in her closet. Busted.
Back at the brownstone Joan invites Sherlock into the basement. She moved some of her things down there and has decided this will be her workspace, so she will be back but have a space of her own to see clients and have her own separate life.
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