- Moriarty asks Holmes to find out who murdered a mechanic in Brooklyn. Despite Watson's protests, Holmes thinks this case will help him uncover Moriarty's true identity, but it will, in fact, lead Holmes to something much worse.
- "Elementary" - "Risk Management" - May 9, 2013
Holmes gets a call from Moriarty. He taunts him about how he is like a spider with a large web of people working for him. He tells Holmes if he can solve the cold case murder of a man named Wallace Rourke he will tell him all about Irene Adler.
Holmes gets to work, Rourke appears to have been robbed and killed. Watson wants to talk about the fact that he's doing it all. Holmes says that doing this will get him closer to Moriarty, who if he wanted Holmes dead could've made that happen already.
They go to the precinct to do research. There Gregson asks Watson, as a favor to him, to be a sober companion to the daughter of a friend after she gets out of rehab. Watson demurs saying she no longer does it but says she'll give him names.
They go to see Rourke's widow who knows nothing of Moriarty. But she says Wallace did think he was being followed but since he was just a mechanic she doesn't think he could've been involved in anything really nefarious. They collect his things and discover an old cell phone.
Holmes and Watson deduce that Rourke's murder was very specifically carried out - stunned, immobilized, and then stabbed in each lung.
Watson asks Holmes about what Irene was like. He says she was American, difficult to explain, a great painter who worked as a restoration artist, highly intelligent, well-traveled and optimistic about the human condition. She was to him "the" woman.
They discover something hinky about his new cell phone, which was stolen when he died. They think he was being followed via GPS on it. They visit a private security firm run by Darren Sutter and his wife Peg. They notice in passing that Sutter is a martial artist. Sutter claims he doesn't know Rourke but his company was tracking his phone. They ask who hired them to send the phone and track him. They admit they only watched him for a few days. They say their client said he made threats but they found the claims were unfounded. They won't tell. Holmes thinks Sutter made it up.
Sutter's sister was murdered as a young woman 22 years ago-- he wrote about it in his book-- and Holmes believes that Rourke committed the murder, Sutter found him and killed him, employing his martial arts skills. Holmes thinks Moriarty wants them to bring Sutter down, which will make his private security clients more vulnerable.
Holmes meets privately with Sutter in a park and lays out his theory and asks him about Moriarty, who he says he thinks would profit from Sutter's incarceration. Sutter isn't quick to trust him and that he won't go to the police. Holmes tells him to check for bugs in his office.
Gregson asks Watson about helping his friend again. She worries he's unhappy with her work. He says she's doing a great job but worries that she's letting her life be subsumed by Holmes and her safety around him. While she's in the precinct, Sutter comes in to confess to Rourke's murder. Holmes watches the interrogation and thinks Sutter found the bugs and that Moriarty was listening. Holmes wishes Sutter had come to him and now all they can do is wait for Moriarty's call since they found Rourke's murderer as he asked themhim to.
As they wait for the call at the apartment he asks about why she was seeing Gregson but then the phone rings and it's Moriarty. Holmes wants his answers. Moriarty says he only did half the job. It turns out that Sutter killed the wrong man --Rourke didn't kill Sutter's sister and had an alibi-- and Holmes has to finish the job.
Holmes stays up all night and discovers that Moriarty was at least possibly correct about Rourke not being the man who killed Leah and then indeed Sutter killed the wrong man so they have to find Leah Sutter's killer.
Watson wonders aloud why Moriarty is making Holmes jump through these hoops. He says he's not afraid she points out that there are ways of hurting him that don't involve hurting him physically. Holmes promises no harm will come to her.
They split up to investigate. Holmes goes to see Sutter in prison and lays out the evidence that Sutter was misled in killing the wrong man. Sutter thinks Holmes is being played.
Watson goes to see Sutter's wife and plays tape of Moriarty but she doesn't recognize the voice and won't let Watson look at her client list. She also refuses to believe that her husband was tricked into killing the wrong man. She met him at a candlelight vigil for his sister all those years ago. She's grateful that he's found some peace even if it means jail time.
They try to piece together information about Sutter's clients through people he's helped put away. Holmes freaks out in frustration at being so close to answers and says he refuses to come up empty-handed and he knocks over his corkboard with all the info pinned to it. Watson cleans up and notices a photo of Sutter and his wife.
Watson theorizes his wife tricked into killing Rourke to make himself feel better: to give him peace.
They go to see her with Gregson and Bell. They say her prints match those found at Leah Sutter's house the night she died. She admits she and Darren were having an affair. That night she saw the killer's face, not her husband so it was her that told him that Wallace Rourke was the killer. To cover their affair Darren claimed he saw the man. She insists that he was the man. They relay to her that Rourke was out of the country and she was wrong. She confesses after she found him in a suicide attempt on the 20th anniversary of his sister's death that she pinned it on Rourke and she doesn't regret it. So now Holmes and Watson have found the person who really killed Rourke.
Holmes goes to tell Sutter in jail. He promises to try and find Leah's killer. Sutter says there won't be justice until he can strangle the man who did it.
Moriarty calls Holmes again and texts him an address. He lies to Watson that he hasn't heard from him and goes to the address, a palatial mansion behind gates. Watson tracks Holmes to the house, busting him in a lie. He says he lied to protect her. She says she doesn't want it. She says she deserves answers as well since she's worked with him every step of the way. They enter the house. It is mostly empty. They wander around. Out on a patio they hear music and see dozens of paintings of cityscapes on easels. And a painter. Holmes collapses in tears and points at a blond woman, the painter, on a stool and calls "Irene." The woman turns around.
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