What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 2, Episode 15 “Corpse de Ballet” (B+)

He’s always eccentric, but he’s not always so promiscuous. In this installment, a sarcastic Watson got quite the hilarious shock when she offered coffee to Sherlock’s latest overnight guest without realizing that it was none other than Iris, the haughty dancer who was the prime suspect in the murder of another dancer. I didn’t recognize the actress who portrayed Iris as Aleksa Palladino, who portrayed Angela Darmody in the early seasons of “Boardwalk Empire.” Her lawyer was played by Scott Cohen, who was a big part of USA’s recently-axed “Necessary Roughness.” The case of the dancer cut in half was a rather violent thing to be featured on this show about death and killing, and learning that it was just a publicity stunt made its brutal nature all the more lamentable. Watson’s simultaneous search for a missing homeless person revealed something very surprising about her own past, which seemed to move Sherlock to enough emotion to rustle up a few blankets that weren’t being used, an enormous symbolic gesture on his part. The revelation that the woman Watson had interviewed was not the man’s sister but instead a stranger who, with her husband, was holding three homeless men prisoner in her basement and cashing their checks was extremely disturbing, and yet another piece of commendable and strong policework on Watson’s part. Sherlock may have his methods, which include spending the night with a suspect on occasion, but Watson is doing a pretty good job for herself at becoming a worthwhile detective.