Elementary Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Elementary Wiki


Cast[]

Main cast[]

Featured cast[]

Plot[]

"Well it's only stumped people for 54 years. How hard could it be?"
— Watson
At the 11th Precinct, Watson watches Detective Bell in a heated discussion with Captain Gregson and two other men in Gregson's office. Later, Bell tells her that a man he had a minor traffic altercation with filed a complaint that Bell pulled his gun on him. Internal Affairs (IA) is investigating which may result in Bell being pulled off active duty or being charged. Watson offers to see what she can find out about the complainant from Bell's girlfriend, ADA Chantal Milner. Arriving at the Brownstone, a shocked Watson sees a woman, Bethesda, fire a gun at Holmes whose head snaps back to reveal that he's "caught" the bullet in his teeth. Explaining that he's investigating the death of a magician, Claude Rysher, aka "Razr", he shows her a video of Razr performing the trick but indicates that he died from the bullet being poisoned.



S05E20-Holmes bullet catch
The trick you just saw is a bullet catch.
At the Morgue, while viewing Razr's autopsy report, Holmes confirms that the bullet used to kill Razr was poisoned, turning him blue. At Razr's apartment with Bell, Holmes sees the lock has been picked by a left-handed person and, Watson finds a toy gun with a message from "Anubus", threatening Razr if he doesn't stop stealing other people's tricks. Leaving to meet Chantal outside a courthouse, Watson sees an IA officer escorting the complainant, Titus Gorham, to a taxi. Chantal heard from a colleague that Gorham picked Bell out of a photo array and provided a lot of detail of the incident with him. Agreeing with Watson that Gorham is lying, Chantal gives Watson her file on Gorham. Angela Newsome, aka Anubus, is brought to the precinct where she confirms she left the threatening message. Razr used to be her boyfriend but after the breakup, she discovered he was performing her tricks.



S05E20-Bell Watson toy gun
That's got to be another magician, right?
Claiming innocence, after hearing of his death, she too believed he was murdered and spoke to a detective at another precinct about her suspicions. As most of Razr's own tricks were card-based and that he played poker, she guesses that someone caught him cheating and killed Razr over debts owed to him. Finding a suspect from Angela's lead, Bell drives Holmes to a furniture store where Holmes confronts the owner, Markham, of running poker games in the store's storage area. Markham confesses that Razr paid him to not reveal his cheating and that one man owed Razr a lot of money. At the precinct, Watson tell Bell that she questioned Gorham at his workplace about the incident and that he provided detailed information about Bell that he couldn't have observed. Believing that he was briefed what to say, Watson thinks that Chantal's ex, Roy Booker, is behind the false complaint.



S05E20-Holmes w Markham
He wasn't cheating everyone, just one guy.
The man who owed Razr money, Keating, is brought to the precinct where he denies killing Razr and says that he paid his debt in information. A banker, Keating provided Razr with boxes of financial records of a publishing house, Turnleaf Books, from 1963. Indicating he didn't know why Razr wanted the information, Holmes believes whoever killed Razr broke into his apartment and took the boxes. In private, Holmes tells Bell and Watson that he believes Keating's story as the records held a secret worth millions. Later while being taxied with Watson, Holmes shows her the book "The Art of Sleights and Deceptions", the magician's bible on card tricks. Published in 1963, the author is unknown and a famous magician, Quinn Malcolm, has offered a $2M prize to anyone who identifies the author. A magician friend from London having contacted Malcolm, he's texted Holmes with an address of an aggressive seeker of the prize.



S05E20-In taxi
The fine art of prestidigitation.
As they exit the taxi in front of a green grocer's fruit display, Holmes receives a text from Malcolm that he can't meet them and asks what Watson's favorite melon type is. Confused, she blurts out "honeydew" and told to take one off the display and smash it, Holmes finds a thumb drive inside. Surprising Booker at a diner, Bell accuses him of being behind Gorham's bogus complaint. Claiming to not know Gorham, Booker also tells Bell that he found a doctor to validate his disability claim with the NYPD. Dismissing Bell's notion that the claim is fake and that he paid the doctor off, Booker tells Bell that he has no blackmail leverage over him anymore. The thumb drive contains emails from a woman named Lela, apprising Malcolm of her progress in the finding the author. Seeing that her search was becoming a dangerous obsession, she's brought to the precinct where Gregson and Holmes show her evidence of numerous calls to Razr.



S05E20-Bell and Booker
You think you could push me around?
Lela admits to being obsessed but after an incident where she tracked a senior down in Arizona, believing him to be the book's illustrator, she quit the hunt. Selling all her research to Razr, he wished her "happy retirement" on the cheque. Later at the Brownstone, with playing cards all over the floor, Holmes tells Watson that Lela had a alibi for when Razr was killed. Deciding he'll find the author of the book, Holmes bought many decks of cards made before 1963 and finding the type drawn in the book, shows Watson that the illustrations are backwards. Believing this is due to the pictures being drawn while viewed in a mirror, Holmes deduces that the author and illustrator were the same person. Studying the hands in the pictures, Watson finds the author had surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome. Since the surgery wasn't available until the late 1950's, the author may be identified by the medical study he was a part of.



S05E20-Cards on floor
Pick a card, any card.
The next morning, Holmes wakes Watson by announcing that she was right about the author being in a carpal tunnel study in the late 1950's. One was held in NYC, however, all materials on the study were destroyed by arson shortly after Malcolm offered the $2M prize. Discovering that the arsonist who picked the lock on the room holding the study materials was left-handed, just like the person who picked Razr's lock, Holmes says someone is trying to prevent the author's identity from being revealed. Bell, Holmes and Watson meet with Farraday Books division head, Ballard Clifton, and accuse him of wanting to keep the book's author secret. With Farraday having acquired the publishing rights years before, Holmes believes the company doesn't have to pay royalties to the author if his identity isn't known. Clifton assures them no one at the company killed Razr and that he's the author's grandson.



S05E20-Holmes wakes Watson
Oh, good morning to you too.
Showing them the original contract signed by his grandfather, Arthur Lange, Clifton indicates that Arthur, and later his estate, were sent payments for a book that didn't exist to keep Lang's identity secret. Surprised that they found Lange had carpal tunnel and saying he has a job with Farraday because of the book, only his mother and a few executives at the company know Lange was the author. He dissuades their notion that keeping the secret was more profitable than revealing it, as it would cause a sales spike. At the precinct, having gone through a box of Lange's items that Clifton had, Holmes and Watson rue that his story checks out but they could claim the $2M prize. Telling Bell that Lange was an ad artist and that magic was a hobby, Bell reports that from Razr's laptop, police have found that he was trying to buy on the dark web, a rare Nazi anatomy book written by a doctor stationed at a concentration camp.



S05E20-With Clifton
His estate could sue for past and future payments.
Razr won the auction but Bell thinks that someone who lost it may have killed him and broken into his apartment to steal the book. A man with a history of violence who lost the auction to Razr, Mr. Frye, is brought to the precinct and shown that he sent threatening emails to Razr. Showing he had no motive to kill Razr, he says that he won an auction for another copy of the book and will bring it in for them. Later, having dinner at Chantal's apartment, Bell wonders how she became involved with someone as violent and deceitful as Booker. While reminiscing about their early days together, she mentions that Booker stayed at his sister's place in Stuy Town. Noting that this wasn't in Booker's files, Chantal says it was an illegal sublet and Bell asks if she knows the address. At the Brownstone, having looked at the anatomy book provided by Frye, Holmes tells Watson he knows who killed Razr.



S05E20-Chantal
He wasn't always this way.
Bell and Holmes visit Clifton at his office again, and show him the anatomy book. Having found similarities in its drawings and those in "The Art of Sleights and Deceptions", they identify Lange as the author of both. Accusing him of killing Razr as he was close to revealing that the book he'd profited off for so many years was written by a war criminal, he denies murdering Razr. However, Bell shows him the copy of the anatomy book stolen from Razr's apartment. Recently sold on the dark web, both Razr and Clifton's prints were found on the book which Clifton can't explain. At the precinct, Gregson and Watson show Gorham that he lived beside Booker in Stuy Town years before. Booker helped Gorham evade being arrested for patronizing a prostitute which an officer confirmed. In order to avoid being charged for filing a false report, Gorham recants his statement. Watson calls Bell with the good news just as he arrives at Chantal's. (♫ Amy Shark - Adore ♫) Calling out for her, he receives no reply. Calling her cell phone, he hears the blood-splattered phone ring in the apartment.



S05E20-Clifton finale
You were foolish enough to resell it.

Music[]

Trivia[]

  • The book written by Albert Lange while a concentration camp doctor is titled "Detaillierte Anatomie des Menschen" (Detailed Human Anatomy).

Quotes[]

Stay weird sweetie.

— Bethesda to Holmes

Gallery[]

Advertisement