Elementary: Ready or Not Recap

Synopsis for 4×18: Sherlock and Fiona hit a rough patch in their relationship while he investigates the disappearance of a doctor.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Sherlock voiced his displeasure with their neighbor, Trent, having loud intercourse. Joan couldn’t understand why it bothered Sherlock so much, or how he could even hear it through the sound proofing. She was puzzled by the offense he took to their neighbor’s activities. Before she could dive more into it, they were pulled into the case of a missing doctor.

A man from a previous case brought his son to the Brownstone and explained that his son’s doctor had disappeared. He was worried that, due to the fact his son and the doctor had an altercation, that his son would be a person of interest. He wanted to make sure his son stayed out of it, and put Sherlock on the trail of the doctor. Apparently, the doctor had gotten the man’s son hooked on opiates which is why the young man attacked him in the first place.

When Joan took the son into the kitchen for some tea, Sherlock confronted the man and ended up punching him in the face when he came to the conclusion that he physically abused his son. Though regardless of his obvious feelings toward the man, they took the case. The first stop was to check out the doctor, Vince’s, wife. She was angry, not worried, and insisted that he had probably run off with a red haired woman her friends had seen him with. If he didn’t turn up dead, he would be the moment he got home because she’d kill him.

She also showed them the garage, as proof that her husband wouldn’t have gone down without a fight. He was a prepper, preparing for society to crumble. He was obsessed with self defense and perfectly capable of defending himself against an attacker. That’s why she was so set on the idea that he’d run off with another woman.

They turned toward his practice and talked with his partner, who said the only woman who had hung around the place was a red headed drug rep. However, he didn’t think Vince had run off. He claimed Vince loved his wife and wasn’t cheating. They tracked down the drug rep and brought her in. She had a story to tell.

Apparently, Vince had been peddling opiates out of his practice. First, a few. Then, a lot, to a local gang. He had turned to her because his practice was going to be audited, and he needed extra stock in order to make his numbers add up. She offered to give him the pills and helped him pass the audit, and in return he was in her pocket as a forever customer.

She pointed them in the direction of the drug dealers, but that lead went cold quickly. The dealer in question had been contacting the practice looking for Vince, which gave the impression that they had no idea he was dead or missing. If they had done something, they probably wouldn’t have been trying to look for him, even as a cover up. Eventually, Vince’s body was found and it became a murder investigation.

Fiona stopped by the Brownstone and acted nervous, wanting to talk to Sherlock. He wasn’t there at the time, and she told Joan she had rehearsed what she needed to say and would just come back later. Joan asked Sherlock about it when he showed up later and he admitted that things were tense between him and Fiona, but didn’t go into details. They got swept back up into the case and began looking toward the possibility that he’d been killed by a fellow prepper.

His wife told them that she’d gone through their finances and found that her husband has spent 100k on something called ‘The Keep.’ They did some digging and found out it was a bunker for the wealthy, where they could hide away safely in the event of a disaster or economic collapse. Sherlock and Joan decided to use his father’s name and prestige to infiltrate the organization responsible for organizing the shelter and acted as interested parties.

On the way to ‘The Keep,’ Sherlock opened up to Joan about what was going on. He and Fiona had not had sex yet, and it was getting to him. He was treating her differently than other women because she was worth it. He wanted to be careful with her, since she was different, and he wanted to do right by her. Joan told him she was proud of him for being considerate and remaining exclusive. It was all new to him, after all.

They arrived at the shelter and were shown around. Sherlock immediately called the whole thing out as a con. It was all for show, with no substance. The man giving them the tour claimed that he had nothing to do with Vince’s death. He admitted he was never in the Marines, and actually had a bad shoulder that would have kept him from swinging the hatchet that killed Vince. He had to be in the clear for the murder, though they would definitely nail him on the fraud.

Fiona and Sherlock finally found time to talk, and Fiona broke up with him. She told him she didn’t like the way he was making her feel, like she was a burden, because he was acting weird around her. She said he’s not being himself, and she doesn’t want that. So after breaking it off, she fled.

Sherlock and Joan turned to fellow preppers who may have been upset about The Keep being fake, and found a guy who Vince had gotten to buy into it. He seemed like he might be good for the murder, until he revealed that he was actually an undercover journalist who had infiltrated prepper groups to try and get information on The Keep. He was doing an investigative piece on it, because he had a feeling it was all a con. It cleared him of motive.

They returned to Vince’s home and figured out that the hatchet that had been used was Vince’s. The assumption that it would have been a fellow prepper now held less water, and Sherlock quickly put together why he went to the bunker. Vince was in trouble and needed to get more opiates to give to the drug dealers. He thought that The Keep would have what he needed to stock his shelves, so he could break in and steal it all. The other doctor at the practice knew the trouble he was in and offered to help steal the drugs to protect their practice.

When they got there, Vince quickly realized it was all fake. There were no medications. His partner killed him, knowing that the immediate suspicion would be on a fellow prepper or drug dealers. He never expected it to get back to him. They arrested him and the case was solved.

Sherlock asked Fiona over again and tried to clarify a few things. He insisted that he was being different because that’s who he was. She had admitted to having a few relationships before theirs, and he told her about Irene and how she was the only one he could really call a ‘girlfriend,’ and even that was using the term loosely. He was trying to put forth extra effort because Fiona was worth it to him to do so. He wanted to make it work. She jumped his bones.