Rip Off

"Rip Off"
Season 3
Season 3
Episode 5
Episode 5
Directed by	John Polson
Written by	Jason Tracey
Aired	November 27, 2014
Viewers (millions)	6.11
Episode guide
Previous	"Bella"
Next	"Terra Pericolosa"

Cast

Main cast

Jonny Lee Milleras Sherlock Holmes

Lucy Liuas Joan Watson (credit only)

Aidan Quinnas Tommy Gregson

Jon Michael Hillas Marcus Bell

Featured cast

Paige Pattersonas Business Woman

Russian Tortoisesas Clyde

Ophelia Lovibondas Kitty Winter

Matt Loneyas Impound Cop

Joe Grifasias Captain Moretti

Nadia Dajanias Dr. Grannis

Stuart Zagnitas Josef Shapiro

Rafi Silveras Amit Hattengatti

Liza J. Bennettas Hannah Gregson

Emmanuel Brownas Uni Cop (Witherson)

Michael DeMelloas Dana Kazmir

Leslie Hendrixas Cynthia Kerr

Daniel Abelesas Leonard Oosthuizen

Corey Patrickas Sergeant

Derek Grabneras Chris Stotz

Plot

"We're not a couple of prison colonists. We're gonna arm-wrestle like gentlemen." — Holmes to Dana Kazmir

In the early morning, a businesswoman steps into a puddle and screams when she sees a severed hand in it. At The Brownstone, as Kitty conducts an experiment with Clyde, Holmes presents her with a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that he compels her to sign. Called to the scene of the hand, Holmes quickly deduces that the owner is dead and leads Kitty and Detective Bell to a car impound lot. From the times on no parking signs for street cleaning and garbage patterns, Holmes explains that a car was towed from the scene and he finds a handless body caught underneath it. At the 15th precinct, Captain Gregson is released after admitting that he punched an officer there. At the Morgue, Dr. Grannis reports that the male victim was killed by a blow to the head, was recovering from cancer and has his attacker's DNA under his fingernails, which hasn't been identified. From his clothes, Holmes deduces the man was Jewish Orthodox.

I don't think, detective. I know.

At a synagogue, the man is identified as Moshe Shapiro, who owned a Postal Unlimited store near where he was killed. Holmes and Kitty question the only employee of the store, Amit Hattengatti, who wasn't at the store at 2am when Moshe was killed nearby. Holmes finds a hidden safe and inside, a coded ledger. He asks Amit to provide them all the store's records. At the 11th Precinct, Tommy's daughter Hannah rebukes him for hitting her partner, Officer Stotz. Acknowledging that Stotz hit her, she indicates that Tommy's actions have made her appear weak in front of her peers and that she doesn't need his help. At the Brownstone, while looking through the store's records, Kitty gets Holmes to reveal that the NDA is due to him finding that Watson wrote an unpublished book on the cases they worked on together. From shipping manifests and cloth that the safe was lined with, Holmes deduces that Moshe was a diamond smuggler.

Whatever it was, he put up a fight.

Moshe would sell the diamonds to a wholesaler late at night and Holmes believes someone figured out his schedule and, robbed and killed him. Looking through files at the precinct, Holmes sees an officer with a briefcase with a handcuff on it that was found in a dumpster. Kitty opens the case and finding it full of diamonds, they realize it's Moshe's case and that his death wasn't a robbery. At the Brownstone, with the use of a realistic dummy, Holmes shows Bell that ripping the hand off someone with a broken wrist is possible. He identifies a weightlifting gym near the site of Moshe's death as a possible venue for suspects. Outside the 15th precinct, Tommy tells Hannah that in order to make things right, he's been asked to shake Stotz's hand at morning roll call. Tommy tells Hannah that revealing Stotz's abuse would prevent a re-occurence but she wants the matter settled so that she can continue pursuing her career aspirations.

How many humans we talking about with that kind of potential?

At the gym, Holmes spots Dana Kazmir, a weightlifter who posted that he could lift 532 lbs. Noticing a scrap on his hand, Kazmir refuses to talk to Holmes so he challenges Kazmir to arm wrestle. However, he explains that the contest will be to pull the opponent's hand towards their chest. As Kazmir starts to pull, Holmes lets go and Kazmir's hand hits his nose, causing it to bleed. Bell intervenes and after Kazmir wipes his nose with a towel that he throws away, Kitty retrieves it and notes they now have a DNA sample to compare to that found under Moshe's fingernails. Kazmir's DNA is a match and at the precinct with his lawyer, he confesses and they propose a leniency deal to Bell and Gregson in exchange for information. Kazmir says he never met the man who hired him to kill Moshe and that he sounded Dutch on the phone. He provides the names of three other people that the man wanted him to kill.

Are you not aware of British rules?

Later, Bell shows Holmes untraceable emails sent to Kazmir from "Mencius BlackBag", the man who hired him. Blackbag uses slang and demands the death of the three people, one of whom is Amit Hattengatti. At the postal store, Holmes and Kitty let Amit know about Kazmir and accuse him of knowing that Moshe was a diamond smuggler. He eventually admits knowledge but didn't relate it earlier as he feared for his life. He says a Dutch man, Leonard, came to the store and threatened Moshe over pricing being too low. He names two customers who were also in the store who are the other two people on the hit list Kazmir provided. Knowing about the situation with Hannah, Kitty has coffee with Tommy and speaking as a victim of abuse, advises him to shake Stotz's hand. South African native Leonard Oosthuizen is brought to the precinct and in "the box", is accused by Bell of Moshe's murder and conspiring to kill three others.

If she doesn't wanna look weak, then she shouldn't have to.

Admitting to the confrontation with Moshe but denying the rest, Leonard indicates that Moshe was quitting smuggling so he had no reason to kill him. Holmes interrupts and using the slang in the emails sent by "Blackbag", confuses Leonard. Outside the box, Holmes says Leonard is innocent as his basic English language skills wouldn't allow him to use the slang in the emails. Given Kazmir and Amit's testimony, Bell disagrees and intends to make Leonard confess. At the Brownstone, Holmes and Kitty muse over the lack of suspects having heard Leonard didn't confess. Believing that Holmes is still distracted by Watson's book on him, Kitty pours a soda onto the laptop that contains the only copy. Bell sends an email that he found the payoff given to Kazmir but there were no prints on the money nor the envelope. Kitty looks at a picture of the cash and remembering the office supplies at the store Amit worked at, notices they match.

He told me he was quitting the business.

Discovering that Amit went to the same gym as Kazmir, she proposes Amit as a suspect. If Moshe was quitting diamond smuggling as Leonard said, this would have given Amit motive if he was in fact a partner in the smuggling and didn't want it to end. If true, Holmes questions why Amit would make himself a murder target. Bell calls Amit to the precinct where he sees Kazmir's lawyer in a conference room. Accusing him of co-conspiring with her, Holmes and Kitty recount that he bribed the attorney to have Kazmir provide a confession that contained lies such as the man who paid Kazmir to kill Moshe was Dutch and wanted Amit and two others killed. Going to jail anyway, Kazmir agreed for a payout for his family. This would deflect suspicion from Amit being involved. Denying their accusations and saying that he's too poor to have paid Kazmir, Holmes points to an expensive belt Amit is wearing and that the money trail from diamond smuggling will be easy to find.

You can finish your doctorate in prison.

Told if he confesses before Kazmir's lawyer does he will get a deal, Amit offers up his diamond supplier. At the 15th precinct's roll call, Tommy grudgingly shakes Stotz's hand in front of Hannah and her fellow officers. Stotz tells Tommy that he's quitting the force and somewhat uncomfortably, asks that he pass this news onto to Kitty. That evening at the precinct, Tommy sees Kitty leaving and asks what she said to Stotz to make him quit. Kitty is evasive and says it doesn't matter since everything worked out for him and Hannah. At the Brownstone, Holmes has changed his mind about the NDA and confesses that he may have felt judged by Watson's story. (♫ Ben Howard - Time Is Dancing ♫) He rips up the NDA and tells Kitty it's OK if she wants to write about their work together.

Tell her I told you, okay?

Trivia

• This is the first episode in which Joan Watson does not appear due to her being in Denmark with Andrew Mittal.
• Holmes shows Watson's writings to Kitty titled The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes which Watson began writing after the first encounter with Everyone. ("We Are Everyone") Watson eventually publishes the book. ("Their Last Bow") It refers to the title of the final set of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.

Music

• Ben Howard - Time Is Dancing plays as Holmes tells Kitty that he's ripping up the NDA he made her sign and encourages her to keep a memoir of their work.

Quotes

I hereby forego my right to tell my nonexistent friends that I am pet-sitting a sociopathic tortoise.

— Kitty

Gallery