What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 20 “A Stitch in Time” (B)

This wasn’t the most enthralling episode, but what a trajectory! Initially it seemed like real estate scare tactics, then ghosts, and then terrorists whose voices some poor woman reported to have heard. What it actually was turned out to be far less incendiary, but it was still devious, giving a certain trader a distinct advantage over his competitors in terms of gaining crucial knowledge. It was hardly a surprise that Colin Eisley was the perpetrator, given that he was played by Eric Bogosian, an actor I recognize from a show I never watched, “Law and Order: Criminal Intent.” He seemed overconfident and shady from the start, and therefore it wasn’t a stretch to believe that he was so driven to succeed and to overcome his law-troubled past that he would commit numerous crimes to do so. The subplot featuring Captain Gregson’s daughter Hannah felt like it came from out of left field, an unusual focus for this show, which so rarely highlights the family lives of any of its characters. Her previous appearance was equally random and oddly timed, and this one felt far less poignant since it was more about Hannah not being cut off for hard, arduous work and less about her fighting arduous and legitimate battles against sexual harassment and inequality in the workplace. Sherlock being so sure that she wasn’t cut out for the job of detective the entire time Watson was helping her felt unsupportive in an unproductive way, since she was really just trying to be a good friend to both Hannah and her father. Unfortunately, he was right, and now no one is really rooting for Hannah’s success.