Elementary Recap: “Possibly Two”

Elementary Recap: “Possibly Two”
Original Air Date (CBS): Thursday, February 21, 2013
Season 1 Episode 17

by Solomon J. Inkwell:

Now that Watson is in full trainee mode with Holmes, he has decided to begin putting her deduction abilities to the test. The two are at crime scene involving two ZBZ Security employees have been shot. Naturally, Bell asks for Holmes opinion; however, instead of quickly rattling the details of his observations, Holmes defers to Watson. Watson is caught off-guard by the sudden request, but attempts to assess the scene. Noticing nearby scuff marks, she suggests the two guards had been shot, each in the chest once, while pursuing their assailant. She can’t judge to where the perpetrator ran.

After a moment of deliberation, Holmes weighs in, noting that one of the guards isn’t a guard at all. Since nothing was missing from the museum that ZBZ Security protecting, he assesses the real goal was to obtain access to the parking garage. He takes the wallet of the false guard and finds numerous registrations from expensive cars inside. Holmes adds that the fake guard was probably working with another with whom he shared information. Knowing that a rich victim was not at home, the thieves could relay the addresses and break into homes undetected. Finally, Holmes adds the real guard had noticed the suspicious activities, which resulted in the altercation and death of both men who had shot one another. Holmes tells Watson that though she “failed” she need not feel bad. Watson, of course, shrugs the comment away.

As Holmes and Watson leave the crime scene, they are approached by the driver of limousine named Crabtree who invite them to speak to a Mr. Lydon of Lydon Industries. Lydon has a proposal for Holmes. Lydon suffers from cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), a hereditary disease that leads to progressed dementia. However, Lydon has no history of the disease in his family. Rather, Lydon believes he has been “poisoned” with the genetic disorder. Though Holmes sympathizes with Lydon’s plight, paranoia is a direct symptom of CAA. Thinking it impossible to poison someone with such a thing, Holmes refuses to take the case.

At Brownstone, Watson is going through her never-ending list of reading material Holmes has assigned her. As she walks into the living area downstairs, she sees Holmes pouring acid over a doll—another odd experiment. The doorbell rings and they open the door to find Crabtree waiting with a gift—a rare bee for Holmes’ bee collection. Though Holmes is overwhelmed by the sight, he refuses the gift and asks that Crabtree tell Lydon to refrain from contacting him further. Later, Holmes receives a call from Gregson who asks if Holmes knows Lydon. Holmes states they are acquainted. Gregson then asks Holmes to come to the scene…Lydon has apparently shot Crabtree dead.

At the scene, Lydon’s sons are desperate to see him, but they are denied. Holmes speaks with Lydon alone, who is apparently horrified by what happened to Crabtree. Lydon has no idea why he felt Crabtree was a threat to him at all. Seeing how desperate the man is in his weakened state, Holmes takes the case…and the bee.

Together, Holmes and Watson visit the genetic lab that confirmed Lydon’s diagnosis, a place Holmes refers to as a “tower of ego.” They meet Natasha in Research, and the president of the lab named Raph. Holmes notes that Natasha had isolated the gene that causes sociopathic behavior. However, she admits that funding ran out before more research could be done. Homes and Watson tell them about Lydon’s beliefs and asks if such a thing is possible. Could one really give CAA to someone? Natasha admits it may be possible, but it would take a huge lab with tons of funding. Additionally, she states there may only be seven people in the world who had the know-how to do such a thing.

Back at Brownstone, Watson notices a dry cleaning ticket on her bedroom door. Of course, being Holmes’ errand girl doesn’t excite her at all. She goes to confront him about it and he states that they need to consolidate tasks, work together. In turn for her picking up the dry cleaning, he promises to clean the refrigerator…one a month. Turning focus to the case at hand, Holmes tells Watson that they need to speak with a Dr. Invald from Norway. Invald works for a public facility and just bought a rather expensive home, for which the loan notes were co-signed by a Carter Lydon, Mr. Lydon’s son. Holmes’ cell chimes with a notification from a blocked number that states that CAA can be induced and that they are “close to the thing itself.” Realizing the text is from Natasha, Holmes replies that he will protect her if she will assist them. Natasha agrees to meet them.

Once they arrive on the scene, they find Natasha dead. Bell initially believes that the murder was related to a robbery at the lab; however, Holmes doesn’t agree. He notes that a portrait left at the location is the most expensive object in the room, yet it was untouched. Of course, the painting is worth nothing in its present state since it has been splattered with blood. Holmes once again asks Watson to assess the situation. She can tell by the blood splatter that Natasha fought the intruder. With the blood’s direction and pattern, Watson states that the blood should have come from Natasha’s attacker.

Natasha’s fiancé, a fellow geneticist, arrives at the scene and is horrified to find her dead. He has no knowledge of Natasha’s belief that Lydon could have been poisoned into CAA. He is more surprised by the fact that the police were not going after a research subject named Benny, whose blood Natasha took without consent for her Warrior Gene project.

Later, Holmes falls asleep while trying to build molecule models that match those in Natasha’s research. Watson wakes him to advise that she has consulted with her previous genetics instructor who has concluded that the molecule is a man-made chemical that can actually be used to mutate the CAA gene. Claiming he is too cold to thank her, Watson attends to her assigned dry cleaning errand. She visits the seedy looking dry cleaners to pick up Holmes’ sweaters. The attendants are both rude and dismissive…but also quite suspicious. But, why?

At the station, Gregson consults with Benny who confesses he was quite angry with Natasha for her betrayal. He has elected to do her tests to get points taken off his parole. However, Natasha has concluded Benny was an incurable sociopath and that her discover actually added time to his sentence. He admits to an altercation, but denies that the matter became physical in any way. Holmes is watching the interview from the observation room when Watson enters. She complains about the dry cleaners when Holmes interrupts Benny’s interview with text message to both Bell and Gregson proclaiming Benny’s innocence.

Believing that Lydon’s sons could have had motive, Holmes and Watson goes to visit them. They ask the first son if they may have access to the computers, but they are denied. The second son also dismisses them both. To obtain DNA evidence, Watson manages to swipe a pen on which the son had been chewing. Naturally, Holmes has outdone her once again as he has pick-pocketed a comb from one of the sons with hair on it. They believe they are possibly onto something until Bell notifies them that the DNA has come back from Natasha’s crime scene and matches Benny’s DNA precisely. Benny ends up having a rather odd alibi: he had been taking blackmail shots of his neighbor’s infidelity when the murder had taken place.

After finding a stain his sweater, Holmes insists that Watson visit the dry cleaners again, but not just any dry cleaner…the same to which she had originally gone. Watson arrives to be greeted with the same rudeness as before. The older woman at the counter will not speak to her in anything but Polish. Then, Watson notices something odd—the dry cleaning racks had not moved…in days. The same coats and clothes that were hanging there when she had originally visited had not moved at all. She also notices a rather excessive amount of security cameras around the premises. The owners tell her that the cameras came with the building. Watson come back to Brownstone to tell Holmes that though she doesn’t know exactly what’s up, she is convinced something odd is going on at the dry cleaners. Holmes introduces her to the group of geneticists that Natasha had spoken about during their initial meeting. He is conferencing with them via video chat. One of the scientists tells them about the ways in which DNA can be manufactured in some instances, especially the 13 standard genetic “loci” that most police test with blood. Holmes then recalls that Benny’s blood work had been stripped down to only the 13 loci that matched leading Holmes to believe the DNA testing had been tampered with.

Natasha’s fiancé is called into the station and questioned. Holmes is quickly able to deduce that her fiancé was the murder and after backing the man into a corner, he admits his crime. When they were engaged to be married, he states that Natasha had them both tested for the Warrior Gene…and he was positive. Though Natasha had stated it didn’t matter, slowly she had begun to pull away and cheating on him with a man by the name of Lincoln. He goes on to admit he manufactured Benny’s DNA sample, but denies he knows anything about CAA.

Back at Brownstone, Holmes stares aimlessly at index cards all with the name LINCOLN DUNWOODY written on them. He tells Watson that the name itself has no history. However, when you split the two names apart, you can find they are both tied to wealthy families with a long history of philanthropy. A man from the Lincoln family had mysteriously been diagnosed with CAA…with no previous history of the disease in his family at all. On the Dunwoody side, a woman had mysteriously retired from for unspecified health reasons. Regardless, both families had recently donated large sums of money to a hospital. To confirm his suspicions, Holmes takes Watson along so he can bring flowers to the recently retired Mrs. Dunwoody who has progressive dementia…CAA. .

Watson is trying to piece the clues together as Holmes completes his monthly duty of cleaning out the refrigerator as promised. She concludes that poisoning the wealthy with CAA may be just the push needed to drive funding to cure the disease. Could Natasha have known? To prove the theory, Holmes requests that Mr. Watt, the owner of WATT HELIX, be brought in for questioning. He is accompanied by an assistant who does the talking for him, which drives home the fact that Watt has hereditary CAA. Funding for research wasn’t moving quickly enough to give him a cure, so he had infected the victims with the CAA gene, all of whom had been previous patients at his hospital. The mystery is solved.

Oh, and the dry cleaners? Well, Watson got to the bottom of that. Bringing Bell along with her, Watson busts them as money launderers. Go Watson!

You can view the episode, via CBS, here.

DarkMedia contributor Solomon J. Inkwell (James Grea) is a screenwriter and author of juvenile horror. He is the author of Vickie Van Helsing and Haunting Thelma Thimblewhistle from the Dead Anna series.  His forthcoming works include The Frighteneers and the screenplay The Winter Files. You can find out more about Solomon and his not-so-dead friends here.