Murder Ex Machina

"Murder Ex Machina"
Season 4
Season 4
Episode 9
Episode 9
Directed by	Guy Ferland
Written by	Robert Hewitt Wolfe
Aired	January 21, 2016
Viewers (millions)	6.33
Episode guide
Previous	"A Burden of Blood"
Next	"Alma Matters"

Cast

Main cast

Jonny Lee Milleras Sherlock Holmes

Lucy Liuas Joan Watson

Aidan Quinnas Tommy Gregson

Jon Michael Hillas Marcus Bell

Featured cast

John Nobleas Morland Holmes

Alexander Sokovikovas Maxim Zolotov

Val Richas Gunman

Kirill Nikiforovas Driver

John Ventimigliaas Harry Magarac

Robert Capronas Mason

Josh Cookeas Phil Balsam

Betty Gilpinas Fiona Helbron

Michelle Duffyas Carol Finelli

Tod Raineyas Strip Club John

Lili Mirojnickas Olga Berezhnaya

Cindy Cheungas Cindy Park

Tom Wopatas Soble

Plot

"Morland was the target. Someone tried to kill your father. And he's worried they're gonna try again." — Watson to Sherlock

In the kitchen at The Brownstone, Watson prepares for movie night and finds a box containing Clyde in the fridge. On his way out, Sherlock explains this allows Clyde to hibernate at a constant temperature. Wishing Sherlock a good time with Athena and Minerva, Watson is interrupted by a caller and finds Morland at the front door. She's surprised when he invites her to a restaurant opening and accepts. In front of a strip club, two Russian men are gunned down. The gunman jumps into a car and while speeding away, the driver loses control of the car which appears to be driven by remotely. The car crashes through the barrier of an overpass and hits the street below. Later at the strip club, Detective Bell and Watson question a witness, Harry Magarac, who left the club just after the Russians and saw a gray car speeding away.

Drive-by. Sort of.

Filling Captain Gregson in, the Russians are identified as Maxim Zolotov and his bodyguard. Watson calls Sherlock and finds him at the car crash scene. Bell and Watson join him where Sherlock's deduced that the car was hacked and taken over. He speculates that whoever hired the gunmen killed them to cover his tracks. At the Brownstone, Mason looks at the car's computer and finds foreign code was inserted. Watson mentions that Zolotov was a very rich oligarch who regularly used assassins. Having seen from the Brownstone's cameras that Morland visited, Sherlock is told by Watson of Morland's dinner invitation. Mason triumphantly reports who created the code, a cat-lover named Fiona, lead programmer at R&D firm Pentillion Edge. At Pentillion, Sherlock and Watson see the firm is involved in many fields including space exploration. Met by VP Phil Balsam, he insists that it isn't possible for Fiona to have hurt anyone.

I thought all your helpers worked for free.

Meeting Fiona, they discover that she's autistic and refuses to say anything untrue, no matter how innocuous. She's distressed to hear her code was used for violence and denies causing the crash. Balsam dismisses her and says that everyone at the office has access to her code. He also mentions that they were hacked by a competing firm, Tetra-Bit, in response to a hack by Pentillion. They found that Tetra-Bit's CEO, Carol Finelli, had many emails in Russian and he offers access to Pentillion's records to prove that they weren't doing business with Zolotov. Finelli comes to the 11th Precinct and reveals that Zolotov was buying New Haven's port and Tetra-Bit was to provide the automation. She never met Zolotov in person, didn't know he was in NYC and Zolotov's death scuttles a lucrative deal for her company. Responding to a question from Sherlock, she says that competing ports, such as NYC, would have motive to kill Zolotov.

I like it when the code works.

Leaving Finelli, Watson mentions to Bell, Gregson and Sherlock that the shooting witness, Harry Magarac, is president of the Port of New York's dockworkers' union. Magarac meets with Bell and Gregson at the precinct and denies arranging Zolotov's murder. He was negotiating a deal with Zolotov at the strip club which would have benefited his union. As proof, he shows them a "consulting free" he received from Zolotov which would have been quintupled once the deal was completed. However, Zolotov's bodyguard was concerned about a stripper and they left before finishing the negotiations. Arriving at the Brownstone, Bell relates what Magarac said while Sherlock and Watson tell him they reviewed video from Zolotov's hotel and found an Asian woman with body guard visiting him multiple times. While Mason uses his facial recognition software to try and identify the woman, Bell and Sherlock head to the strip club to find the stripper.

I'll go. Uh, I mean, if it'll help solve a murder.

At the strip club, Sherlock expresses his appreciation for the ladies' craft to Bell and asks a stripper, Olga, for a private dance. (♫ Zero 7 - Take Me Away ♫) He tells Olga that he's seen her dossier when working for MI6 and that she's a Russian spy. Olga says that Zolotov wasn't her assignment but that she heard him discussing business with Magarac. His body guard recognized her as they served in the military together. Zolotov was supposed to be on a mission for the Russian government, didn't want the New Haven business revealed and she speculates that's the reason he left. While enjoying dinner with Morland, he asks Watson to recommend a blood bank as he'd like to store blood in NYC for emergencies. Returning to the Brownstone, Watson finds Mason in a panic, his efforts to identify the Asian women having been back-traced. He leaves and Watson gets a call from Gregson that the woman is in his office.

Not a fan of this sort of establishment?

In Gregson's office, Sherlock recognizes the woman as Cindy Park, Undersecretary for European Affairs. The NSA has been monitoring their investigation into Zolotov as Park and he were negotiating an end to the Russian-Ukrainian war. Hoping that Zolotov was killed due to the port deal, she's found that the gunmen were ex-Ukrainian military. She believes Ukraine doesn't want an end to the war as foreign aid would dry up. Sherlock is skeptical the Ukraine is responsible given how easy it was to identify the men and, that they were killed so close to the Zolotov shooting. Park informs them that federal agents will be taking over the case. At the Brownstone, Bell collects the case files and hears Sherlock speaking Ukrainian on the phone. He's obtained a list of US arms dealers who are active with the Ukraine. Watson visits Morland and after giving him a blood bank recommendation, Morland tells her that an arms dealer, Mr. Soble, is the largest supplier to the Ukraine.

You're right, they might have been framed.

Sherlock and Watson question Soble who confirms he sold weapons to the Ukraine and electronics to Russia. However, he hasn't been paid by the Ukraine and was paid in rubles by Russia, whose value is depressed by sanctions. An end to the war would benefit him the most and those that are supplying substitutes for Russian exports would want the conflict to continue. Leaving Soble, Sherlock has arrived at a suspect and tells Watson they won't be driving in any hackable cars. Sherlock finds Fiona in a cat cafe and asks for her help catching the person responsible for the murders. Driving in his car, Ron Balsam finds it's been hijacked and he's it's driven to a curbside where Sherlock gets in. As the car drives away, Sherlock explains that Fiona has taken over the car and accuses him of being behind the murders.

Peace is where you cash in.

Pentillion is developing rocket engines that rival the Russian's RD180, which are unavailable due to sanctions. Having transferred much of his salary to stock in the engines, which are behind schedule, Balsam wants the war to continue to buy time for the engine's completion. Claiming Sherlock has no proof, Balsam is told that since he used an app on his phone to try to take back control of his car, Fiona is retrieving data from the app which will show he hijacked the Ukrainian's car and sent them to their deaths. Balsam confesses to the murders for "the greater good" which is recorded by Fiona, who is with the NYPD and the FBI, and is listening through Balsam's phone. At the Brownstone, Watson tells Sherlock that Morland was involved with a woman named Sabine Raoult, who was gunned down. By observing how Morland eats, she believes he was hit in the stomach and was the intended target. The killer was never found and Watson says that Morland may still be in danger.

So what if I killed three bad men?

Music

• Zero 7 - Take Me Away plays as Sherlock and Bell arrive at the strip club "Obsess NYC."

Trivia

• Morland mentions one of Mycroft's first restaurants, "Le Val Gielgud."
• Holmes speaks Ukrainian in this episode.

Quotes

I've got a certain appreciation for strippers. I like watching them work. Well, in their own way, they're experts in both deduction and human psychology.

— Sherlock

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