- Holmes discovers a man running an internet conspiracy site is dead. As he follows the chain of clues, he becomes aware of the "Red Team" and the trail leads him further down the rabbit hole than he ever imagined.
- While suspended from police consultancy, Holmes still keeps the force informed, despite their unwillingness to cooperate, about his discoveries in the case of crackpot conspiracy theories website administrator, who is found hanged at home. Holmes proves it's about a single credible theory, concerning the only never-published exercise of the War College's annual war game. Holmes fears that the six members of the Red team which devised the extreme war threat is being killed off and must work out, almost alone, why and by whom, which proves dangerous for him too.—KGF Vissers
- "Elementary" - "The Red Team" - Jan. 31, 2013
We are back and looking at Sherlock's corkboard dedicated to the mysterious "Moriarty," the true murderer of Irene, which Watson calls his "wall of crazy." He has slept for two days straight. So he's hungry and excited to go play with some conspiracy theorists. He loves them like one would love a "barmy uncle." He claims to have "started" the "CIA created crack cocaine."
Watson goes to see her therapist who points out that Watson's contract with Holmes expired a week ago and if he finds out, it could destroy their trust and cause him to relapse. Also, even if she doesn't "need" the money she is not obligated to spend her savings on saving him, points out her therapist. She says she's just going to stay long enough to re-establish Sherlock's relationship with Captain Gregson, who suspended him after the Moran business.
Unfortunately, one of the conspiracy theorists turns up dead, hanged, with his pants down in his very stylish home.
Det. Bell arrives and calls it auto-erotic asphyxiation. Sherlock thinks he was hanged by a larger person and lays out his case: larger belt than the man, broken finger, which would interfere with um the "auto" part. Bell tries to oust Sherlock but Sherlock won't let him, bullying his way back into a consultancy by grabbing evidence so the police will come to him.
In the turtle habitat he finds a bug, someone was bugging the conspiracy nut. It was government issue. There was also spyware on his laptop. Sherlock says most of his ideas were insane but in one case he might have been on to something: "The Red Team," relating to war games run by the government. The results are usually published but in 2009 they were classified. No one knows why. That year's game was designed to simulate a response to the activation of a sleeper cell in NYC. The goal of the Red Team (the "bad guys") was maximum destruction with minimum resources. The dead theorist believed the government found a flaw in our homeland security and that they killed a member of the Red Team. Sherlock figures if he can find other members of the Red Team he can test his theory that the theorist was on to something.
Watson goes to plead on Sherlock's behalf with Gregson, who is unsympathetic. Gregson calls him broken and that is unrelated to his old addiction.
Sherlock tracks down another Team member, a man now in long term care who can't remember anything but was once a brilliant man. His mind oddly deteriorated in a matter of weeks, with no family history of Alzheimer's. They talk to him. Sherlock thinks he's been poisoned to mimic Alzheimer's saying murder is just one way to stop someone from talking. They want to test him.
But when he calls Bell, he reports they arrested someone, another conspiracy theorist who turned himself in.
Sherlock goes to talk to the theorist, who is clearly nutty. Gregson is mad that Sherlock is there. He doesn't want to listen to his theory and blows him off and tells him if he talks his way again, he'll arrest him for trespassing. He, of course, wants to keep investigating.
They trace the bug back to the source by waiting for the source to show up and take his bugs back from the dead theorist's house. As they stakeout Watson tells him he should apologize to Gregson. He says Gregson would know he was faking. He points out, again, how he's smarter than everyone and it makes no sense to suspend him since his help is for the greater good.
They follow the bugger back to a highly secure building. Holmes gets them in by waving the bugs from the dead theorist's house in front of one of the cameras. The man who greets them claims they do market research. Sherlock explains, honestly, who they are to "Bill." He tries to be explicit about the Red Team and Bill feigns his ignorance. He also asks if someone wanted to take those people out from 2009 why wouldn't they kill them all at once? Sherlock was testing him by saying the names and he got clues about which ones were actually on the team.
Bell calls and tells him that the man in long-term care was in fact poisoned.
Sherlock brings in another member named Walter McClennan, who seems a little shaky. He brings him into a room with other members of the Red Team. He explains about the other members of the team who are dead and incapacitated and says he thinks they are in danger. They seem nervous. He asks if he knows might be after them. They argue that if any of them talk it will be treason. They all leave but the female member of the team throws a piece of paper in the trash. Sherlock retrieves it, she has written a code name "Yossarian."
Sherlock does some digging and thinks that maybe "Bill" is Yossarian, an Army Intelligence liaison during the war games.
His doorbell rings and some Feds are asking about "Bill," who was shot and killed earlier that evening. They take him away for interrogation. He lays out his theory about Yossarian. They want to take him away for more questioning but he points out he has an alibi provided by the surveillance cameras in his house, the footage of which Watson brings to them. He wanted them to interrogate him so he could counter-interrogate them. He figures now it's not Army Intelligence killing the Red Team members. Holmes calls the police to take the other members into protective custody.
The police arrive at one place where the door is rigged with a booby trap gun. (Only filled with rock salt.) Gregson and Bell investigate the home and it's full of weapons.
Sherlock goes to see one of the members, an older man, resistant to leave his home where he is caring for his wife who has ALS. They report that Walter is now a suspect in the Red Team murders. The man was friendly with Walter and isn't surprised that Walter might be a suspect. He says the plan they came up with in dealing with what happened in '09 was disturbing and it changed them all. Walter was convinced someone was going to sell their secret. He joked he might do it. If he killed the Red Team members the price for their secret would go up.
Then, McLenahan turns up dead. Shot in the head in an alley.
Sherlock is worried that another Red Team member might be the murderer and... it's revealed that it's the older man they were just talking to. He takes out their NYPD minder at a motel and goes to shoot yet another member of the team and the cops stop him. He runs back into his room and holds a cop hostage. Sherlock wants to talk to him and promises he'll get Gregson's man out safely.
Sherlock talks his way in. He goes to the minibar first to get a drink before he starts talking to the man. He figures the man is not interested in profit he just wants to off the other members to keep their secret safe so NYC is safe. He wonders why he waited until two years after the war games to start killing people. It was two years ago his wife was diagnosed with ALS. He realized when he was approached by someone who claimed to be able to help his wife and he actually considered it, that each team member must have a price or Achilles heel. The man congratulates Sherlock on figuring out his plan. Now he plans to shoot Sherlock to gain leverage. Sherlock says he worked out the plan and he told a colleague and wrote it down. The man says if Sherlock's telling the truth, that's "checkmate." He asks him what the plan is and levels the gun at him.
The next thing we see is Sherlock and the man walking out of the room. Gregson asks how he did it. He says he told him he knew the Red Team's plan. He guessed saying that with a gun to his head it was motivating.
He says he and Gregson need to talk. Gregson says to meet him at a bar. Sherlock meets him and says he regrets that circumstances endangered their relationship. Gregson asks who the hell he is and that he doesn't let anyone in his life that isn't always concerned about him. He says most of the time he's worth it because he is special but if he wants to work cases he's right, Gregson can't say no, but he shouldn't ever forget that he knows Sherlock was going to murder someone on his watch and he will never really trust him again. Sherlock says he doesn't need to trust him to benefit from his intellect. Gregson agrees but says he does have to get something out of his system and then he slugs him in the stomach.
At home, Holmes tells Watson he's been reinstated. He's morose about it. He doesn't tell her what happened.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content