TV REVIEW: Elementary “When Your Number’s Up”

By Cindy Jackson

Well, this is a bit different. This week’s Elementary episode shows us right off the bat who the killer is. We see a woman selling quite a bit of jewelry and insisting that she be paid in cash. We then watch her give a sandwich to a homeless man and shoot him in the chest, killing him. She didn’t even let him finish the sandwich (Rude!) She leaves an envelope full of money in his coat and walks away.

The man she killed is named Henry Wilcek. They also find a note accompanying the money, stating that poor people are not worth as much as rich people. Also on the paper, is a math algorithm, created by a lawyer named Arlen Shrader. Arlen works in wrongful death compensation. Sherlock and his team think maybe someone is trying to set Arlen up. According to the man himself, several people dislike him intensely, but he draws Sherlock’s attention to a colleague, Erin Chatworth, with whom he had a recent affair.

Sherlock, along with Joan and Detective Bell, question Erin. He asks if her recent separation from her husband was due to her affair, and if so, how upset she was when Arlen “recused himself from your pants.” She mentions they broke up because Arlen was trying to get Aceway Airlines as an account. One of their planes crashed, killing 81 people.

We go back to our killer and find her having some mid-day bathroom nookie, after which she kills her shower buddy, leaving another envelope containing money and a note on his body.

This victim’s name is Frederick Duncan. The letter found on his body is addressed to Michael Kardenis, CEO of Aceway Airlines. The note basically says, “I saved you a bunch of money. You’re welcome.” Turns out both Duncan and Wilcek had relatives aboard the Aceway Airlines flight that crashed.

Kardenis and his lawyer come in for questioning. They explain they were debating whether to pay the victims based on their estimated “worth” determined by their income and life expectancy, or pay one evenly distributed amount to all parties involved. Obviously, this points to another pool of suspects; the beneficiaries of the not-as-wealthy people who died in that plane crash.

Our mystery murderer gets a visit from her sister, who is also her accountant. She lets the woman, named Dana, know that her house is about to be foreclosed upon. Dana says that she will be getting some money, and she knows what she can do to speed up the process.

That apparently means staging her own attempted murder.

While they await a sketch artist’s rendition of the person who purchased the murder weapon, Sherlock realizes all the differences between this latest incident and the first two. There are many. Dana then goes on TV and acts super-cocky about her husband being deserving of a larger sum of money than lowly teachers and garbage men. (Again, rude.)

Turns out Dana’s husband had an inoperable brain tumor. If that were to be disclosed, she would get next to nothing from the graded settlement, which is why she was pushing so hard for the evenly distributed amount (and, you know, killing people and stuff).

Joan movs back into the brownstone this week. Sherlock is concerned she’s been acting rashly following Andrew’s death, so unbeknownst to her, he rented her apartment in case she wanted to change her mind. Joan Meanwhile, is afraid that perhaps Sherlock didn’t really want her to move back in, to which he replies, “I do. I have never waivered on that.” (Wedding vows much?)

He tries to not make it too shippy by stating their work has already improved. Okay. Sure. Hashtag JoanLock, anyone? Anyhoo, by the end of the ep Joan admits Sherlock was partially right and decides to move into the basement to give herself some space while still residing under the same roof.

Writer request of the week; based on the ten seconds I saw tonight, I need an entire episode based on a stickfighting Sherlock. Thanks in advance.

It seems there is no new epi next week, kids. See you in two!