Elementary 1x23 & 1x24 Season Finale

[killerweasel.livejournal.com]

Don't forget, the show starts an hour earlier than normal (9 pm eastern) and runs for 2 hours.

Discussion post for Elementary 1x23 'The Woman' & 1x24 'Heroine'

Spoilers in the comments.

What did you think?

Comments

[wolfinred.livejournal.com]

Did the credits, with the bust of a woman being smashed and the little man figurine being caught under a cage, just take on new meaning for anyone else? Because it did for me. Wow.

[infected-wound.livejournal.com]

almost missed the early start! Glad I checked ;_;

[frostbit-sky.livejournal.com]

"You named a bee after me? You named a bee after me."

Hahahaah Watson Wins!!!!
I love how she and Sherlock psyched out Irene/Moriarity!

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

Watson is the best! I loved this episode!

[killerweasel.livejournal.com]

random flailings in no order

At first I thought this version of Moriarty was going to be incredibly screwed up and psychotic because of what happened to Irene and then it took a twist I was sortof hoping for. Way back when they first announced the series, I said I was hoping that Moriarty would be a woman. I just didn't expect her to be The Woman.

Sherlock/Moriarty is canon. They did it frequently and in unique ways.

In the flashbacks, we got to see Sherlock in ways we really haven't seen him now. We see glimpses of the man he was before Irene's death, but he was actually happy and cheerful.

When Sherlock is uncertain or nervous about something, he clenches his hands, usually his left hand.

I really wanted to see that the secret work of art was some sort of portrait of Sherlock.

I liked the Irene is Moriarty and now she gets to use her real accent twist.

Joan solved things. Joan solved things mainly by herself.

Moriarty Mycroft'd Joan in a sleek car.

Joan wasn't afraid of Moriarty because she was too angry.

Lemurs!

The narwhal was the mummy! narwhals are the unicorns of the sea (http://youtu.be/ykwqXuMPsoc)

So glad that he didn't relapse for real.

Sherlock named the new species of bee after Watson. :D

[causeimashamed.livejournal.com]

YAY! Moriarty's a woman! I'd been hoping for that!

Only bad thing about it is that I can't ship her and Joan. I don't care much for fem!slash. XD

Who's looking forward to the next season already?

[venusinthenight]

Holy. Shit.

That is all.

[hufflepuffsneak.livejournal.com]

Everything was wonderful. I so hoped that would be the outcome when it came to Irene. And if anyone thinks she's staying in jail for very long, well then they have another thing coming. I can't wait until season 2!

[ibishtar.livejournal.com]

SAAHFAKHFKLNFSKNFS DFMS FMASOAR!!!!=?)??)?!

I went in with some optimism about how Irene Adler would be portrayed because this show has done such a great job with Watson. Through the beginning, when she was shown as a victim, my goodwill persisted and I figured there was more to the situation, but the reveal still floored me. I'm just elated about that. Natalie Dormer played a blinder, I hope we see her again in the new season, she totally needs to escape from prison spectacularly asap. Of course, the danger of turning Irene into a villain is that eventually she will have to be defeated, which rather spoils the whole 'woman who beat him' thing if done badly. See BBC Sherlock for how to do this WRONG. The fact that Elementary also depended on Irene's feelings for Sherlock for her downfall is clichéd at this point, but doesn't come off as sexist as it could have since a) it's explicit that feelings were the downfall of both of them, not just her, b) she exhibits a lot of autonomy, agency and brilliance in the script independent of any man and c) the win is thanks to Watson.

Anyway, really enjoyed that, yay.

[midori-yee.livejournal.com]

Excellent articulation of how the "demise" of BBC Sherlock's Irene differs from Elementary. Couldn't agree with you more!

[odakota-rose.livejournal.com]

I think my brain was broken with an overload of awesome and/or feels. Wow.

[justjuly4.livejournal.com]

The writers went down The Strong Evil Woman route. Good choice. I was sure that Irene was on Moriarty's side, but I didn't seriously think SHE was Moriarty. Too young to have that much experience in different crimes. I still think it would have been better if she was Moriarty's sister or daughter. She is too young to have so many crimes planned. I loved Natalie Dormer's looks and style. Very much so! I wonder if she appears in Season 2, she is smart enough to escape from the jail. I loved the flashbacks too. So it was all about money for Moriarty. The murders, the great scheme just to earn a lot of money on currency market. This is what I didn't like most - the motivation might have been stronger or more interesting... As I predicted, Watson was the reason why Holmes resisted taking drugs in the end. It was his fake relapse vs. her fake death. Not bad, but I expected something more after the promo. I don't know.

[jardindemavie.livejournal.com]

I was actually wondering if Irene would end up being Moriarty a few weeks ago, so I was happy to be proven right! Although the first part of the episode did have me doubting that, plus the fact that she's so good at painting -- I didn't see how a criminal mastermind (yet alone such a young one as someone else pointed out) would take the time out just to become a super art restorer! On the other hand, I had a strong feeling that Moriarty would turn out to be someone Sherlock already knew, instead of a faceless stranger. (Unless there's someone even higher up behind Irene??? I do want to know a lot more about her backstory and why she is the way she is.)

Altogether a great episode. I was genuinely concerned that Holmes had relapsed at the end (and was worried that Watson had lost faith in him when she told him to let Moriarty win) and was so relieved when he hadn't and she hadn't. :D And the bee thing made me cry. Watson for the win!

Someone on tumblr mentioned that although Watson and Moriarty/Irene face off together, it's not in a cat fight way, but in a more intellectual way. I did like that a lot, showing that they were both smarter than Holmes in a way. I was also thinking about the colonial/race aspects of the story -- Irene pretends to be American around Sherlock and he said he 'didn't hold it against her for long' but maybe that was one small thing that caused him to underestimate her? Just wondering. And then Irene underestimates Joan as an American too and also calls her Sherlock's 'mascot' (some people on tumblr commented that this could be an underhanded racist comment)... This show is great. <3 Sherlock and Irene act like they're in some special genius club that no one else can ever understand and then Watson comes along and figures them out anyway, maybe because she's not as egotistical and seems to rely more on hard work than any amazing 'genius' status.

I also noticed that when Ms. Hudson was staying in the apartment Watson was quite sympathetic to her and talked to her, but when Irene was there Watson kept her distance. Did she subconsciously sense something was off even then or was she just letting Sherlock do the nurturing thing because she knew he needed to? I loved that she managed to hold things together for him and find clues anyways.

[midori-yee.livejournal.com]

"Sherlock and Irene act like they're in some special genius club that no one else can ever understand and then Watson comes along and figures them out anyway, maybe because she's not as egotistical and seems to rely more on hard work than any amazing 'genius' status."

Hm, yes, I was very wary of Sherlock and Irene being the "brilliant white people club." Like I haven't seen that on screen my entire life! The thing that impresses and surprises me about Joan is that her kind of intelligence is not necessarily of the same "style" as Holmes, which makes her an equal with him. Her intuition and insight into human behavior and relationships (e.g. her sensing when the Moriarty case was getting too close to being a trigger) have been quite valuable throughout the season. She's also strong analytically and brings her medical expertise.

WHAT CAN I SAY, THE WOMAN IS JUST THE COMPLETE PACKAGE???

I'm excited to see what they'll do in season 2. They've established Watson as warm, strong and smart, but I would love to see her "undone" and vulnerable--because women can be complex like that (not always perfect all the time). I want some moments where Sherlock is there for HER, not just her always being there for him.

[ms-mmelissa.livejournal.com]

OMG!

I'm not super into the source material, but I remember doing some research on Irene Adler when the show first mentioned her and their was this great piece on Irene and how she had been really done an injustice in previous incarnations where she's portrayed as a hyper-sexualized femme-fatale that gets cast aside when Moriarty appears on the scene and they were saying that this sort of comes about because it's awkward having two people be foils to Sherlock. Well the show runners of this neatly dealt with that didn't they?

I'm probably the only person in the world who wasn't a fan of Natalie Dormer being cast as Irene and I found her scenes as that character kind of dull and unconvincing (even in the flashbacks) but OMG that reveal that she was Moriarty was glorious. I loved her dialogue with Homes ("Are you saying we're the same?" "I'm saying I'm better"), loved her scene with Watson, loved everything.

[horrorfangirl.livejournal.com]

I thought the episode was great! I screamed my head off when I found out who Irene reallywas. What an awesome twist. Now we know why they hired a Brit to playan American. Hehe..