Previously on Elementary: Corpse de Ballet.

In this episode, you get to watch the writers and cast have a lot of fun as they get as many ‘cocks’ past the censors as humanly possible.

Aside from Sherlock’s struggle to get Joan to say ‘cock’ instead of ‘rooster’ and his endeavour to get two brutalised male chicken to coexist in harmony again, this new episode of Elementary was an exercise in When Is It Finally Over.

When is Lestrade going to stop acting like a pompous arse?
When is this case finally going to break wide open?
When is Lestrade’s assistant, acquired in a misguided attempt at copying Sherlock in almost every aspect, going to wake up and realise she deserves better?

I didn’t really like Joan and Miss Truepenny (no, really) being pitted against each other like this. Truepenny’s character was underwritten in that all we know of her is that she desperately wanted to work with newly-risen star Lestrade, and most of her perceived lack in qualification stems from Lestrade’s own treatment of her, regardless of what talents she might actually possess. And now that Lestrade’s come to his senses, it appears she’s been ditched and left to fend for herself. Of course not every character can be awesome, but using Truepenny in comparison to Joan to really hammer the point of Lestrade being a poor imitation makes her into little more than a caricature, even as Lestrade gets to redeem himself in the end by indicting his boss and exposing morally dubious behaviour he himself enabled. Miss Truepenny, however, is in the wind, and that’s a little sad. Even though she deserved the shade Joan threw her way after the “assistants wait outside” moment, Joan is usually very empowering towards other women, so it strikes me as odd that Joan wouldn’t at least be shown to reach out a hand to help her or offer some advice, despite the catty behaviour; given that it’s Lestrade’s fault for getting her dragged into the mess that is his life, and the now once again tattered remains of his career.

Seeing Lestrade being an arrogant bag of dicks at the beginning, who then at least shows some backbone and comes to apologise to Sherlock and makes sure that justice is served, is more than a little grating on the nerves. Yes, him taking credit for solving the case in the season premiere is one thing, but his ego bloating quite like this came as a bit of a surprise. Since this resolution of that particular storyline was fairly predictable, I’m glad this case is over and done with.

Next: Ears to You.