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Please forgive my colleagues, Ms. Lanzer. They don't follow the ballet. They don't know that meeting Iris Lanzer means they are in the presence of a master.

— Holmes, "Corpse de Ballet"

Iris Lanzer is a prima ballerina. She's arrogant and will go to extreme lengths to protect her position as prima.

Biography[]

Season 2[]

At a ballet rehearsal, a stage manager informs the prima ballerina, Iris Lanzer, that the company is ready for her. Rehearsal beginning, a backdrop is lowered and a loud thud is heard behind the ballerinas. Screaming breaks out as Lanzer pushes her way through them and sees a woman's body, Nell Solange, cut in two. Questioning Lanzer, Holmes is uncharacteristically polite and deferential and, he offers explanations for many of his colleagues questions. Lanzer claims Nell wasn't a threat to her prima role, provides an alibi and suggests one of Nell's exs, Nicholas Orman, may be a suspect. Outside, Watson teases Holmes for his behaviour towards Lanzer and indicates that the press doesn't like her due to a shoving incident with a photographer. After Lanzer's alibi doesn't check out, she arrives at the 11th Precinct with her lawyer, Nolan Sharp.



S02E15-Iris Lanzer
He flirted with the notion of Nell, but he chose me.
Sharp explains the mistake with the alibi and Lanzer doesn't know the man who Nell cheated on Orman is. Becoming increasingly belligerent, Lanzer demands her release to teach a workshop in Montreal. Captain Gregson denies her permission to leave the country so when she threatens him, Gregson arrests her. The next morning in the kitchen at the Brownstone, Watson is shocked to see Lanzer emerge from Holmes' bedroom. Confronting Holmes, he explains that Lanzer initiated the encounter and he accepted to learn more about her. He discovered from their "exercise" that Lanzer has a tear in her rotator cuff that would preclude her from pulling Nell's body up the backdrop. Still not believing his motives, Lanzer emerges and indicates that Sharp will give him full access to her legal files.

S02E15-Lanzer at precinct
I'm gonna give you one last chance to leave me alone.

S02E15-Lanzer in hat
Sherlock, Nolan is expecting you.

Detective Bell has Holmes and Watson listen to a recording that a reporter received anonymously. Lanzer is heard leaving an angry message for Nell and it's apparent they were having an affair. At Sharp's office, they question Lanzer who admits the affair was a ploy to distract Nell from accepting the prima role. Nell ran into another dancer who Lanzer had employed the same tactics on but, Lanzer had begun to care for Nell. They made up and Nell deleted the message leading Sharp to ask how it was leaked. Holmes finds spyware on Lanzer's phone and later, the photographer who Lanzer pushed is found to have installed it, however he has an alibi for when Nell was killed. By analyzing the voicemail, Holmes deduces that Sharp leaked the recording. He's both framing and acting as Lanzer's defense attorney, but Holmes doesn't have enough evidence to prove it.



S02E15-At Sharp's office2
When did your romance with Nell begin?
Later in a courthouse bathroom, Holmes tells Sharp that since he mentioned that he was giving Lanzer some free legal services, they were able to procure a search warrant to check if he was charging other clients for Lanzer's legal work. Searching his office, they found the stolen hard drive from the theatre. Lanzer wasn't seen on the video but a man who matched his physical dimensions was. Holmes muses whether Sharp intended to show the video if the trial went against Lanzer or did he always have plans to introduce it. Gregson indicates the charges against Lanzer have been dropped and Sharp is arrested, to be paraded to the media outside. Later at the Brownstone, Watson watches as Lanzer expresses relief the charges against her have been dropped and regret for Nell's death.[1]



S02E15-Lanzer on TV
My heart breaks for Nell Solange.

References[]

  1. Season 2, episode 15: "Corpse de Ballet"
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