Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes
- Lucy Liu as Joan Watson
- Aidan Quinn as Thomas Gregson
- Jon Michael Hill as Marcus Bell
Guest cast[]
- Marcus Callender as Young Cop
- Troy Garity as Lucas Bundsch
- Dee Pelletier as Polygraph Examiner
- Howard W. Overshown as Detective
- Chris Bauer as Detective Gerry Coventry
- Eric Sheffer Stevens as Tim Spalding
- Ryan McCarthy as Sheriff's Officer #1
- Lucas Dixon as Sheriff's Officer #2
- Charlotte Maier as Cynthia Tilden
- Kacie Sheik as Receptionist
- Dillan Arrick as Jenna Lombard
- Kate Cullen Roberts as Kathy Spalding
Plot[]
| "Did you come here tonight hoping to scare us? Or are you just being a good predator?" — Holmes to Lucas Bundsch
|
This was a suicide. A very tidy frame-up.
On a bridge, Samantha Wabash ties a pistol to a dumbbell with wire. Covering her hands with a cloth, she shoots herself in the forehead. The pistol falls into the river and sinks. At the scene, Holmes and Watson meet Captain Gregson who says their services aren't required as Samantha called the police and named her killer before she died. Examining the scene, Holmes disagrees with Gregson, points out physical signs Samantha shot herself and advises that the river be dragged for the pistol. At the 11th Precinct, the man Samantha named as her killer, Lucas Bundsch, is taking a polygraph test with Detective Bell as Holmes and Watson watch. Bundsch insists he was at his studio when Samantha died. The test is interrupted with news that the pistol has been found. Before Bundsch can leave, Holmes asks him if he killed Samantha's sister Allie six year before. Denying it, Holmes shakes his hand and leaves. As Bundsch leaves the precinct, Holmes comments that Bundsch is a serial killer.
All right, show's over.
In Gregson's office, Holmes indicates that Bundsch beat the polygraph by biting his tongue during control questions and using anti-perspirant on his hands. Gregson has Detective Coventry, the detective who handled Allie's murder case, meet them. He explains that Bundsch was a mover who Samantha saw leaving with a fridge from Allie's building. Samantha was convinced Bundsch took Allie's body out in the fridge even though a video of Allie making a public phone call the next day was discovered. Although Allie wasn't seen again until her body was found months later, Coventry believes Bundsch is innocent and Allie's suicide/frame-up proves she was obsessive. He brusquely dismisses the recent polygraph incident and his defensiveness causes an argument with Holmes to spill out into the bullpen. Gregson intervenes and gives the case to Holmes and Watson with orders to leave Coventry alone.
Yours was not a perfect crime.
At the Brownstone, while examining the case file and materials from a PI Samantha hired, Watson is miffed with how critical Holmes was of Coventry. She notices Allie is wearing boots in July and has a slight limp in the video. Holmes deduces that she's wearing a fake bomb on her ankle under one of the boots made from materials that he saw in the PI's file which contained a list of items found in Bundsch's trash. Believing the bomb to be real, Allie was forced by Bundsch to make the phone call to deflect suspicion that he kidnapped her. The doorbell rings to reveal Bundsch, who has been given their address by Coventry. While hiding a knife, Holmes invites him in. After accusing him of cheating on the polygraph, Bundsch insists he was working at his recording studio when Samantha killed herself. Holmes wants to discuss Allie's murder and provides the fake bomb details. Claiming his innocence, Bundsch warns them that Samantha's obsession with him led to her death and they shouldn't make the same mistake.
Is there anyone you can talk to?
The next day at the precinct, Holmes rudely confronts Coventry for providing their home address and ruining any possibility of surveilling Bundsch. Watson demonstrates that several other women disappeared who lived in buildings where Bundsch worked as a mover. Coventry dismisses their findings and leaves. Still miffed at Holmes, she proposes speaking to the husband of one of the women with Bell. Watson and Bell speak to Tim Spalding, whose wife Kathy disappeared but her body hasn't been found. He doesn't know Bundsch and mentions that he's a member of an on-line grief support group. At a bar, Gregson confronts Coventry about his insubordinate behaviour. (♫ Rolling Stones - Time Is On My Side ♫) Coventry thinks Gregson a fool for giving Holmes his support and threatens to go to the police union if Holmes isn't taken off his case.
She's officially late.
At the Brownstone, Holmes and Watson both report their lack of success with the relatives of the missing women. Watson rebukes Holmes for his continued criticism of Coventry and shows him a crude drawing of them that was posted at the precinct. Knowing that he can be polite, Holmes counters that doing so takes effort that he'd rather use on solving the case. Spalding calls Watson to say that a woman from his on-line support group, who also lost a daughter, knows Bundsch. They call the woman, Cynthia Tilden, who provides details about her daughter's disappearance and that Bundsch's parents owned a lake house near Syracuse. Thinking this is where he takes his victims, they arrange to visit Cynthia, who says she'll bring the local sheriff. Cynthia is late for their meeting so calling her house, Bundsch answers the phone. Bundsch challenges them to come to Tilden's so, they call the sheriff and drive over.
I endangered the investigation.
Meeting the sheriffs at Tilden's, they discover she has no daughter, her voice is different and Bundsch hasn't been there. Bundsch has duped them by assuming the identities of his victim's relatives on support forums. Bundsch arrives at his studio to find Holmes waiting for him. Holmes confronts Bundsch on his activities with several of his victims including driving Samantha Wabash to commit suicide. Bundsch posits that Samantha may have understood the horrible ordeal her sister went through which provokes Holmes to punch him. At the precinct, Gregson informs Holmes that Bundsch has placed a restraining order on him and Watson. Knowing that the D.A. won't use their work on Bundsch, he takes Holmes off the case. At the Brownstone, Watson cares for Holmes' broken finger while he wallows in self-recrimination. He receives a text from the same phone Bundsch used to trick them, calling them to an address.
I'm accusing you of serial murder.
Arriving at the address, they discover from Bell that a woman has been abducted. Once they tell him that Bundsch texted them the address, he insists they leave. Holmes agrees which surprises Watson and outside, she challenges him. Holmes has taken the abducted woman's hairbrush and plans to frame Bundsch by planting her hair in his car. Watson talks Holmes out of his plan by pointing out that if Bundsch doesn't confess, the woman won't have anyone to care for her and will die. This sparks a realization in Holmes. At Bundsch's studio, Gregson gives him a search warrant which also allows Holmes access. Holmes produces a blueprint of the studio, which based on plans of previous tenants, shows that a storage closet is short ten feet. He realized Bundsch was being truthful, when during the polygraph, he said he was at the studio when Samantha died. This meant he had to be keeping his victims there.
She's been in here longer than me.
A hidden, locked door is found and Bundsch is led out of the room. Holmes picks the lock and rescues the recently abducted woman. They also find Kathy Spalding, having been kept alive for two years. Outside the studio, Tim Spalding is reunited with Kathy while Gregson watches. Later at the precinct, Gregson calls his command together. Largely to put Coventry in his place, he addresses complaints about Holmes and Watson and challenges anyone who doesn't agree with how he utilizes all the resources under his command to quit. At the Brownstone, Holmes discusses Watson's rebuking of his lack of politeness with others. Although he understands the social benefits, he indicates he is not a nice man, never will be and that being acerbic helps his work. Watson points out that he is often nice to her and that he has changed since they first met, but Holmes demands that she accept that there will always be fallout from his behaviour.
Music[]
- Rolling Stones - Time Is On My Side plays as Gregson talks to Detective Coventry at a bar.
Trivia[]
- The episode is an homage to Arthur Conan Doyle's The Problem of Thor Bridge in the The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes.
- Bundsch appears to be inspired by Gary Heidnik, a murderous serial kidnapper and rapist of women and girls of color who were all held captive simultaneously. Two women were killed from the extent of Heidnik's brutality.
- The case also appears to be inspired by the unsolved "Freeway Phantom" murders in D.C. Six black girls were kidnapped, raped, and strangled across the region; the case is notable for the killer misdirecting and taunting authorities, including making the thurd girl call her family and leaving a note on the person of the fifth girl.
- Holmes keeps a knife hidden near the front door.
Quotes[]
You're such a strange man.
— Bundsch to Holmes
I am acerbic. I can be cruel. It's who I am. Right to the bottom. I'm neither proud of this, nor ashamed of it. It simply is.
— Holmes
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