Wednesday, May 13, 2015

'Elementary' 3x22 'The Best Way Out Is Always Through' Gif-Tweet-Cap: Lockbell!

"The Best Way Out Is Always Through" is a great Elementary for Lockbell fans. This is the closest their friendship has ever been. If you're wondering why this is almost a week later than normal, it's because I had to save my new garden from a storm, and it's difficult to make extra time other than what I schedule for these recaps. The following gifs are also available on this Tumblr post. The podcast I co-host, Baker Street Podcast, is not yet available, but you can subscribe to it on iTunes.
The episode begins with an annoyed Joan: the Stanley Cup got first dibs for the tub again. Wait, what? Oh yeah, Sherlock is trying to prove his theory that a new Stanley Cup he acquired is the genuine article, and that involves a water displacement test. Silly Sherlock, he knows it can dry off somewhere else!
Then we have a couple of thieves stealing from a rich drunk dude... or not. He's actually dead by screwdriver, and one of the kids has to coax his idiot buddy into at least calling the cops before they take off.
Then we have a very cute moment between Bell and his girlfriend, Det. Scott. She asks if he'd like to come over, and he gives her an adorable smile in return when she tells his favorite kind of joke: about getting rid of all those bodies in her apartment.
Bell and Scott are both called to the screwdriver crime, along with Sherlock and Watson. The dead guy is Judge Vaughn, and Sherlock quickly concludes that he recently had sex in the hotel where he just attended a fundraiser because he smells like their soap.
The woman he left with has an alibi, but the prints come back to a different woman anyway: an escaped drug dealing convict named Nikki.

The prison from which Nikki escaped is privately owned by a company called Reform Enterprises. Everyone, including the people who work at the prison, dump on the whole concept of it being privately owned, since it's all about profits.

Bell seems a bit embarrassed when Joan asks about Det. Scott. He had hoped nobody noticed that they were together. While discussing it, they find a poetry book given to Nikki as a gift from Jeff, an attorney who sometimes visits the prison.

Later, Sherlock decides to use some soup to taste whether his Stanley Cup is the real deal.
Sherlock mentions that Det. Scott leads a double life, but Joan is surprised to learn that she is in IAB. Meanwhile, Sherlock had failed to notice that Scott is dating Bell, so they each learn something new. Joan insists on telling Bell that Scott is IAB, against Sherlock's warning not to get involved.
When Deputy Warden McCann is murdered on his way from grabbing a pizza, Nikki seems to take the credit. Sherlock is skeptical. He's been doubting the whole time whether a woman such as Nikki would do any of the things she has apparently been doing because it doesn't fit any of the statistics of female criminals. This earns him several eye rolls and a stank face from Joan.
He earns yet another eye roll when he steals Joan's toothbrush and the underwire from her bra to fashion a diorama of the prison and test out his theory to see whether there was a way for Nikki to escape. He finds 11 possibilities, none of which she employed.
Then Bell and Joan speak with Jeff, but they realize that he is most likely not their culprit. But they do learn something important: Nikki had been forced to work in a recycling area at the prison. That is important because Deputy McCann had drawn up a document stating that she requested the position, and then signed off on it. This causes Sherlock to realize that McCann probably murdered Nikki and put her in one of the toxic waste bins by the recycling center, which turns out to be exactly true.

That solves the murder of Nikki (which they hadn't even known about until they found her body), but who murdered McCann and the judge? One more key piece of information stands out: after the problems with Reform Enterprises, Loretta Nichols began arguing against their ownership of prisons in the state, and arguing for C.A.G., the only other private prison company.
Consequently, C.A.G. has the most to gain from the murders, and was also McCann's previous employer. One of the officers of C.A.G. just happened to be at the same fundraiser as the judge right before the judge was murdered, and the cops quickly find evidence that he was behind the murders.
After Joan tells Bell about Scott being a member of the IAB, he does not take it very well, breaking it off with Scott. Sherlock seems to think it's all his fault that Bell wants to be alone, but warns him that he should give Scott another chance for her mistake rather than risk being lonely for the rest of his days.
Bell decides to apologize to Scott for being so hard on her, but it's too late: she has decided to change her life and become a full-time IAB detective rather than hiding her true job. Unfortunately, it will take her some time to make the switch, but hopefully they can be together later. In the mean time, Bell decides to do the lonely thing and play a game of card-throwing with Sherlock.

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