TV RECAP: A Crucial Relationship is Threatened in Elementary’s “Under My Skin”

By Cindy Jackson

This week on Elementary Alfredo accepts his five year chip at an AA meeting and thanks Sherlock for helping him get to this point in his sobriety. After the meeting, Sherlock confronts someone named Lloyd who was drinking before (and maybe during) the meeting. He suggests Lloyd was not there to get help, but perhaps to spy on someone in the meeting. He proves his point by having Lloyd agree that Step Five is “Start each day on the right foot,” which was actually not one of the steps at all, but a coffee slogan. (Oopsy.) Lloyd slinks away.

On to the case of the week. A woman is being transported in an ambulance and the vehicle is stopped. The paramedics are shot and the ambulance takes off with the patient still inside. When Joan, Sherlock, Detective Bell arrive at the scene, Holmes discovers a shell casing which appears to have been reused. They begin looking for recent crimes in which similar casings were used. They find a person of interest in an older case, whose photo looks like the person in a surveillance video of the ambulance heist.

They interrogate the man, named Wallace Turk. He admits to killing her but said he doesn’t remember what he did with the body. Sherlock crawls under the table and inspects the suspect’s shoes. He asks if Wallace had recently been to a salt marsh, and translates Wallace’s silence as “Idiot for yes.”

Sherlock tracks down the mysterious man from the AA meeting (who is in fact a private detective) at his son’s band rehearsal. Holmes makes his presence known by comparing John Philip Sousa to a leaf blower. Lloyd asks what he’s doing there, to which Sherlock responds, “A hole opened up in my schedule (pronounced “shed”-ule of course because England) so I thought I’d go somewhere I don’t belong.” Touché.

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Holmes explains he tracked him down via the golf course logo on his shirt. He asks Lloyd to explain why he was following him, “or your son and his friends will witness the very loud end of our tragic love affair.”  Lloyd, whose real name is Anthony Sellers, tells him what’s going on. (Unfortunate, this. I would have paid to see Sherlock scream a horrendous break-up to another man in the middle of a school auditorium. Mark it down, writers. There’s always next season.) He says he was following not Sherlock but Alfredo. He explains Alfredo is in a lot of trouble.

Bell and Captain Gregson track down the ambulance and the body. Even though Wallace Turk confessed, it appears someone else killed her. She has only been dead a few hours which means she was killed when Turk was in police custody.

The victim’s name is Maggie Halpern. She, unbeknownst even to herself, was a drug mule. She thought she was going to Brazil to have gastric bypass surgery, but instead had organs removed and replaced by large bags of drugs.

Doctor Bruno Alsconzo, the man who operated on Maggie Halpern, has been missing since her surgery. They also find out forty pounds of medical grade heroin were stolen in the area – too much for one woman to bring back by herself. Doctor Alsconzo is married to Wallace Turk’s sister, which explains his willingness to assist in the plan.

Meanwhile, we learn that Alfonso has been fired from his job and is now being blamed for moving cars around – that show the very glitches he was pointing out to his employer before he got canned. When Holmes tries to offer his assistance, Alfonso tells Sherlock to stay out of his personal business – that he is his sponsor and nothing more.

It would be hard for a few individuals to process forty pounds of narcotics, so Gregson and the gang track down drug lord Janko Stepovic who had set up base in a dental office. He agrees to set up a sting operation, if for no other reason than to keep the product out of his competitors’ hands. Doesn’t work out so well. He is found murdered, likely by a rival cartel.

Dr. Ward, the owner of the dental practice, comes to the precinct to report he was being forced to let Janko use his office. He wants protective custody and immunity in exchange for telling them everything he knows, including the location of two dead bodies.

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The two bodies are recovered where Ward said they were. These are the two other mules. The drugs were removed and replaced with rocks, before dumping the bodies in a pond. Joan said that a surgeon must have stitched up the bodies. A surgeon who uses a special type of suture, like those used in oral surgery. Too bad Dr. Ward struck that deal with the DA’s office.

They call him in for questioning. Turns out he went to school with Bruno Alsconzo and he arranged everything. He also killed Turk when he messed up the original plans by bringing the police to Jenko. Bell tells him that if he testifies against both syndicates they will keep him safe in prison. He confesses, against the advice of his lawyer.

Line of the night:

Dr. Ward (as he writes his confession): “I didn’t like hurting those people.

Detective Bell: “You should put that in there.”

Alfonso is questioned in another incident involving stolen vehicles. He gives them an aibi. The following day, he shows up at Sherlock’s door holding up a headline.

Alfonso: “Explain this.”

Holmes: “It’s a newspaper. There’s news in it.”

(I believe that’s what we call a ‘No s#!t, Sherlock’ moment.)

Seems that Sherlock did some Sherlocky things (the specifics of which were not explained) and humiliated Alfonso’s former employer. They will not be bothering him again.

Holmes then told Alfonso that he is “firing” him because he would rather have him as a friend than as a sponsor. (Aw!)

I really enjoyed tonight’s story. But then again, I always love the episodes when all four stars have a chance to shine, which happened this week. Oh, wait, all five. Sorry Clyde.