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Cast[]

Main cast[]

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Plot[]

"I wanted you to know that you'll be missed."
— Holmes at Alistair's grave
In the morning at the Brownstone, Holmes practices a Derry accent from recordings that his friend Alistair has sent him in anticipation of having lunch with him that day. Watson heads to the 11th Precinct where she's asked by Captain Gregson to look at a prisoner, Apollo Mercer, who has collapsed in a holding cell. She discovers Mercer has died from anthrax poisoning. Holmes meets them at a hospital where he discovers they haven't been exposed and that Mercer was a pickpocket. Detective Bell reports that when police chased Mercer, he swallowed a bag of anthrax which he lifted from someone in Union Square, believing it to be cocaine. Gregson orders security footage of Union Square sent to Holmes and Watson to identify who Mercer stole the anthrax from.



S02E20-Body in cell
I need you to take a step back.
While reviewing the videos at the Brownstone, Holmes brusquely dismisses one of Watson's observations and says he found out that Alistair died the week before of a heart attack. Having missed the funeral, he'll visit Alistair's partner Ian to pay his respects and doesn't want to discuss it further. Watching the video, he notices Mercer lifting something out of a man's breast pocket. Watson shows him Mercer's possessions which includes an empty sunglasses case. Watson sees that the man who was pickpocketed used his phone to pay for coffee. Bell identifies him as Charlie Simon and they speak to his roommate Coogan Burl. Burl mentions Simon took many walks every evening and returned smelling of antiseptic. Watson finds an invoice for a nearby storage unit in Simon's mail. An ESU team in hazmat gear finds Simon shot dead in the storage unit and lab equipment that indicates thousands of bags of anthrax was made at the unit.



S02E20-Examining video
Are you okay? You want to talk?
At the precinct bullpen, Gregson and Bell brief a task force that fingerprints of their prime suspect, Eugene MacIntosh, were found in the storage unit. A felon, Eugene is part of an extremist anti-government group, the Sovereign Army, and believed to have killed Simon. Gregson asks Watson to accompany Bell to visit Eugene's brother Bart at his dairy farm upstate. Holmes visits Ian and discovers that Alistair was in good spirits and very healthy just before his death. He asks about Alistair's son Jeremy with whom Alistair had an acrimonious past. Suspicious as to the cause of Alistair's death, he presses Ian further. At the farm, Bart reveals that he hasn't seen Eugene in a month, that he's argumentative and won't help with the farm which is nearly bankrupt. Indicating the Eugene is very smart and that the last time he was sent to prison it nearly killed their mother, he's reluctant to give a location where Eugene might be found, but he does.



S02E20-At Bart MacIntosh farm
It could hurt a lot of innocent people.
Watson calls Holmes to report the location Bart indicated Eugene could be at which, Holmes is close to. Watson says a police team is on its way. As Holmes stakes out the location, he notices a large delivery truck and has a conversation with an imagined Alistair which irks him. After seeing a case loaded into the truck, he breaks in and discovers the case is filled with jars of white powder and, there are letters to congressmen. Two men surprise him and in the struggle, he subdues them, but they are all covered with the powder. Later at a hospital, Watson meets Holmes who is miffed he's being tested as the powder was baby powder. Watson is angry Holmes took such a big risk when a police team was minutes away from the truck. She blames his reckless behaviour on what happened to Alistair but Holmes single-mindedly tells Gregson to arrange his release as he knows how to find Eugene and the anthrax.



S02E20-Holmes powder
I think I've found the missing anthrax.
Questioning one of the men who attacked Holmes, Joe Bey, he denies any wrong-doing since the powder wasn't anthrax. Even after Gregson points out that Bey is facing serious jail time for tax evasion and illegal weapons, he remains defiant. Holmes knows that Bey paid for the anthrax to be made and that Eugene tricked him with the baby powder as, when Bey was covered in the powder, he panicked. Pointing out that Bey isn't in a position to punish Eugene but they are, Bey sends an email to Eugene for a meeting. Bey also reveals that Charlie Simon's bag of anthrax was intended to be tested on animals. At the Brownstone, Watson answers the door to find Alistair's son Jeremy who is angry that Holmes implied to Ian that Jeremy may have caused Alistair's death. He also tells her that Alistair didn't die of a heart attack.



S02E20-Questioning Bey
So are you sure you don't want to help us?
The next morning, Watson confronts Holmes that he lied to her about Alistair who died of a heroin overdose. After an outburst from Holmes, she presses why he lied. Initially, Holmes says it was to protect Alistair's privacy but he eventually admits that Alistair helped him when he was high, something most recovering addicts wouldn't do. Given Alistair's strength, Holmes wants to find the cause of his relapse, hoping that its discovery will help him maintain his own sobriety. Gregson calls that Eugene has been found dead at Bart's farm. In "the box" at the precinct, Bart relates that he got his shotgun after an alarm warned him of an intruder in the barn. He found Eugene pouring the anthrax into the cattle feed. They argued, Eugene wouldn't relent and after he reached for his pistol, Bart shot him. With only half the anthrax found, Bart mentions that Eugene had plans for an attack up north.



S02E20-Bart in box
I shot my brother because I had to.
After hours of examining files on radical groups planning an attack, Watson discovers Holmes hasn't looked through any files. He's discovered that Eugene recently married using government institutions which is inconsistent with his hatred for the government. Given Eugene's intelligence, poisoning dairy cattle is a poor plan to cause harm given the amount of inspections that would stop it. As Watson refutes him, Holmes smashes a dish on the floor and apologizes. Moving to the kitchen, Watson also smashes a dish, noting its futility. Telling Holmes what he already knows he needs to do to maintain his sobriety, Holmes says embarrassment over his behaviour of the last several days has caused his mood. Watson receives a text from her mother telling her to throw away her milk, having seen the anthrax scare on the news. Sympathizing that this will likely bankrupt Bart's farm, Holmes realizes that killing the cows and not harming people may have been the plan all along.



S02E20-Watson smashes dish
That didn't solve anything. Weird, right?
At Bart's farm, Holmes confirms that Bart's cows are insured for over $2M and since anthrax occurs naturally at farms, if it was to wipe out the cows, he'd be in for a windfall. Bart proclaims no motive as he could sell the cows but Holmes points out that the processing fees would cut deep into the profit. In on the plan with Eugene who met Charlie Simon in prison, Eugene used Bey to finance the anthrax's creation with Bey not knowing Eugene had shed his radical leanings. Reporting Bey's plan to poison congressmen would eliminate him as a threat but when Simon's anthrax was discovered, Bart decided to sacrifice Eugene and lie that he was still a radical. The missing anthrax was found at Bart's mother's house who indicated that Bart stored it there. At Alistair's grave, Holmes imagines Alistair there apologizing for how he died. (♫ Shawn Smith - Wrapped In My Memory ♫) Holmes has made peace that Alistair's choices don't have to be his and, that he will miss him.



S02E20-Holmes at grave
...he knows nothing let him sleep on.

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Quotes[]

Most recovering addicts would not have taken the risk. He wasn't most addicts.

— Holmes

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