Elementary Season 1 Disc 5

Episode 17: Possibility Two
I took a little break from watching episodes, almost completely not related to this show. Coming back to it after a little break was good, and also well timed. This episode fully breaks from the old way of doing things in that Watson is a now a full-time detective-in-training. It was fun to watch Holmes call her on something in front of the police and everyone, because she would just stumble along trying to hobble something together. She didn't get it right every time, and even when she did get it right, she only got most of it right. But, she didn't quit and she didn't complain. You can see why she would have been a kick-ass surgeon.
The story itself indirectly touched on this and all procedurals, especially forensics based ones. In this episode, a geneticist created a fake blood sample that was a perfect match for a particular and because he knew his business, it matched all 13 markers perfectly. Case closed, right? Wrong. Acting upon his suspicions, Holmes called in a favor to do further testing and they discovered that while the 13 markers used by law enforcement were a match, there were no other makers at all, of which there should have been hundreds or thousands. Very interesting.

Episode 18: Deja Vu All Over Again
Watson had her first case! And her first arrest! And was arrested for the first time! What? Ya, it was crazy like that.
Ms. Watson took on her first case, at Holmes bidding. He thought it was a pretty straight-forward missing person based upon the evidence that he had at the time, but it turned South quickly. Not only was homicide involved in the disappearance, but a seemingly random murder that no one would have thought was related turned out to be, but not in the way that it obvious. There were definitely some clever little twists in this one.

Episode 19: Snow Angels
The lesson of this episode is just how far you can get by saying that you are a consultant for the police and having some cash to back up your requests when telling the person about the police fails to get the job done. Holmes and Watson were able to get around a locked-down New York and out to East Rutherford New Jersey to investigate the crime, and they did it with minimal trouble. They even got into the Federal Reserve bank and into restricted areas. Of course it helps that they actually do consult for the police and were correct about what was going on, but the right type of con man or con woman would be able to do the same thing I would think. That might just be a very interesting show to watch - the episode where Holmes and Watson must find the people playing at being Holmes and Watson.

Episode 20: Dead Man's Switch
We got a look at Holmes very personal side as we approached his one year sobriety anniversary. He does not want to receive recognition for this act and gives all kinds of reasons but it it obvious to Watson that there is something else going on and eventually he confides in her before he tells his sponsor that it hadn't actually been a year, that the day after he quit drugs, he snuck out and did them one last time. Holmes is deeply ashamed of himself and incredibly embarrassed that he could not will himself to stop and stick with it - that he actually gave-in to his desires.
Holmes very personal trials were counterposed with a story of blackmail and a victim of blackmail becoming a blackmailer himself when he realized just how much money there was to be made. Holmes states early on that to him blackmailers may be more foul than murderers, to which no one responds. This made me think towards the end of the episode as the culprit is being revealed, that the only thing worse than a blackmailer would be someone who was being blackmailed and truly understood just how horrible it was to be the victim, that person switching to becoming the blackmailer himself.