Elementary - A Giant Gun, Filled with Drugs

Watson's (Lucy Liu) job of keeping Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) sober gets infinitely harder when the detective is hired by his old drug dealer (John Hannah) whose daughter (Allie Gallerani) has been kidnapped. In two days time the kidnappers demand $2.2 million, which is the exact amount Holmes' old friend stole from his Dominican suppliers in 2011 before disappearing and starting a new life in Thailand. The situation isn't helped by the the fact that the man spent almost all the money of the past 18 months or the dealer's assertion that Holmes was a much better detective when he was using narcotics.

Despite Watson's concerns, Holmes agrees to take the case, although he begins to have second thoughts after getting a very public beatdown courtesy of an undercover agent of the DEA (Michael Irby) in the city's biggest Dominican bar who is convinced the Cartel is not responsible for the abduction. Holmes then takes a trip to talk with Emily's once wealthy, now broke, stepfather (Armand Schultz) but all that accomplishes is finding another dead end and a package with one of the girl's severed fingers left on Holmes' patio.


When his desperate old friend tries to push drugs on him to help him with the breakthrough to solve the case Holmes refuses and contacts his father for the money necessary to purchase the young woman's freedom. However, the exchange doesn't go as planned and he finds himself on the run from Dominicans and Watson stares down the gun of the man responsible for the kidnapping. With some late heroics the dealer and Waston are able to overcome the kidnapper leaving Lt. Gregson (Aidan Quinn) to pressure the man into giving up the girl.

The case creates a unique set of circumstances to test the detective. It's interesting to note that all of the pressure coming from Holmes to use drugs in this episode is external, though the father willing to do whatever it takes to save his daughter. At no point is Holmes himself tempted nor does he even consider that using again would in any way help him solve the case. We also don't see Holmes' discussion with his father and so don't know if the detective has been told that Watson has continued to stay on of her own accord. Whether or not that's the case, you'd expect Holmes to deduce the truth by now regardless.