The Red Team

"The Red Team"
Season 1
Season 1
Episode 13
Episode 13
Directed by	Christine Moore
Written by	Jeffrey Paul King & Craig Sweeny
Aired	January 31, 2013
Viewers (millions)	10.90
Episode guide
Previous	"M."
Next	"The Deductionist"

Cast

Main cast

Jonny Lee Milleras Sherlock Holmes

Lucy Liuas Joan Watson

Aidan Quinnas Tommy Gregson

Jon Michael Hillas Marcus Bell

Featured cast

Linda Emondas Dr. Candace Reed

Russian Tortoisesas Clyde

Kathryn Meisleas Therapist

Philip Hernandezas Carlo Anillo

Tom Riis Farrellas Gary Sullivan

Chris Sullivanas Colonel Todd Clarke (Bill)

Michael Laurenceas Walter McClenahan

Richard Bekinsas Harold Dresden

Ann Sandersas Veena Mehta

Reese Madiganas Sheldon Frost

Tawny Cypressas Black Suit

Kelly AuCoinas Grey Suit

Clifton Duncanas Uniform #1

Nancy Ringhamas Sheila Dresden

Robert C. Kirkas Detective Harris

Plot

"Don't think for a minute that I'm ever gonna forget that you were planning to murder someone on my watch. And don't think that I'm ever gonna really trust you again." — Captain Gregson to Holmes

Days have passed since Holmes caught Sebastian Moran and his evidence board has grown considerably. Watson enters and comments that he slept for two days. As Watson has an appointment, Holmes indicates he'll be fine while he pursues a hobby, conspiracy theorists. Holmes indicates that he's been the source of several crackpot theories, all to watch the theorists take them seriously. Watson attends a therapy session with Dr. Reed and confesses the lie she made to Holmes. Reed wonders why Watson is staying with him while not being paid so she explains her concerns and that she'd like to heal the rift between Holmes and Captain Gregson. She gets a text from Holmes, asking her to meet him at a Brooklyn address. Arriving there, Holmes explains to her that "Zapruder", the moderator of the online theorist chat room was absent. Holmes long ago identified him as Len Pontecorvo and is checking in on him. After Holmes picks the lock, they find Pontecorvo has been hung.

He's got much larger problems than us.

Detective Bell examines the scene and reminds Holmes that he's supposed to be taking a break from working with the police. Bell believes it's a suicide, but Holmes points out several clues that indicate Pontecorvo was murdered and that he texted the M.E. Bell tells him to not work the case which Holmes agrees to, right after examining the rest of the home. Over Watson's protests, Holmes finds Len's binders on conspiracy theories and decides to take them. He also decides to take Len's pet tortoise Clyde, to prevent him from starving. Watson is touched until Holmes says he'll make a delicious soup. Holmes picks up a rock from Clyde's tank and finds a listening device inside it. At The Brownstone, Holmes smashes the bug after examining it. He's confirmed that the bug is government grade and he's found spyware on Len's laptop. Someone in the government was monitoring Pontecorvo.

Hello Clyde.

Holmes shows Watson the only one of Len's binders that contains a plausible conspiracy theory, "The Red Team". It refers to an annual exercise by the U.S. Army's War College. Two teams, the blue (US and allies) and red (their enemies) are given an exercise and create a plan for it. In 2009, the exercise was to plan a response to a sleeper terrorist cell in the US. The results and participants were classified and never published. Holmes believes the Red Team made a plan that exposed a hole in national security that if ever released, could result in the deaths of thousands. Further, after Red Team member Martin Nagowski was killed in a mugging, Len believed the government was eliminating the members. To test this theory, Holmes says he'll find the other team members since it is his day off from NYPD work. At the 11th Precinct, Watson pleads with Gregson to give Holmes a second chance but he can't forgive that Holmes nearly murdered a man while working for him and believes Holmes isn't repentant.

Holmes summons Watson to a sanatorium in Queens where he's identified another member of the Red Team, Carlo Anillo. Anillo has early-onset Alzheimer's yet his family has no history of the disease. Holmes believes Anillo was poisoned and his memory destroyed to mimic Alzheimer's. Holmes calls Bell to report his findings but Bell tells him that they have the man who killed Len in custody. At the precinct, Holmes interviews the man, Gary Sullivan, but doesn't believe he's the killer. Gregson pulls Holmes out, and threatens to have him arrested for trespassing if he gets into the interrogation room again. Holmes fumes while staking out Len's house in a parked car with Watson. He understands Gregson's anger but doesn't see the point in an apology and believes that punishing him is detracting from the greater good. The police having left Len's house, Holmes believes whoever planted the bug will arrive to remove any others. He's correct and they follow a phone company van to an office building.

Entering the building, they come upon a locked door. Holmes shows the pieces of the bug he took from Len's house to a camera and they are let in. Except for a long table, the office is empty and they are met by a friendly man in a suit, who introduces himself as Bill and asks what they want. Holmes shares his theory about the Red Team and their members but Bill says he has no knowledge of this and has never seen the bug before. He theorizes if the Army wanted to eliminate people, they'd have done it in one shot back in 2009. Leaving the office, Watson believes it was a waste of time but by Bill's reaction to some of the names Holmes said, he's able to deduce which were part of the Red Team. Bell calls with confirmation that Anillo was poisoned and Gregson summons him to the precinct. Later, the police have rounded up the members of the Red Team.

Your bug?

In a meeting room, Harold Dresden, Sheldon Frost, and Veena Mehta wait while Holmes shows in Lt Col (ret'd) Walter McClanahan who appears very nervous. McClanahan pretends he doesn't know those in the room, but after Holmes introduces everyone, he identifies them as the 2009 Red Team. McClanahan wants to leave but Dresden convinces him to stay. Holmes reveals they are in danger and asks them to provide insights as to who the killer might be. Frost and Mehta want to talk but Dresden reminds them of their secrecy oath. They all leave, but Mehta drops a piece of paper into the wastebasket and looks back. The note says to find their U.S. Army liaison, code-named "Yossarian."

If we all talk, nobody can report anyone else.

That evening, Watson comes home and is upset to see Clyde lying upside down on a pile of Sherlock's papers. As she rights him, Sherlock chides her not to refer to "it" by name, as it will just make it harder for Watson to enjoy the soup. He also says he thinks he has identified "Yossarian," purely by accident. Browsing through the journal of the Army War College, Holmes happened upon a photograph of a Lieutenant Colonel Todd Clarke, who happens to be the "Bill" they met at the government office. Then the doorbell rings, and Holmes answers it to a man and a woman in nondescript suits, who inform him that Col. Clarke was just shot and killed outside his home, and they are taking Holmes in for questioning.

The man and the woman question Holmes, finding it suspicious that he accused Col. Clarke of masterminding a conspiracy to assassinate the Red Team, shortly before he himself was killed. Holmes says he can supply an alibi quite easily, since his home is rigged with surveillance cameras. He then surprises them by asking for their whereabouts, since, if he is not targeting the Red Team, clearly someone is. Watson arrives with videos from the surveillance cameras, confirming that Holmes was home when Clarke died. After Holmes is released, She grouses that he could have avoided the whole ordeal by showing them the videos at the house, but he says that would have defeated the whole purpose: he wanted to interrogate them as much as they wanted to interrogate him, and he has now established that the government knows nothing about who is targeting the Red Team, therefore, they are not behind the recent deaths. Holmes then telephones Gregson, saying it is time for the rest of the Red Team to be taken into protective custody.

Two uniformed police officers knock on Walter McClenahan's apartment door. When there is no answer, the superintendent opens the door - which has been booby-trapped with a shotgun.

A short time later, Gregson arrives, reporting to Bell that, mercifully, the shotgun was loaded with rock salt instead of buckshot, meaning the two uniforms and the super escaped serious injury. McClenahan is nowhere to be found, but Gregson and Bell find a small arsenal in his home. As they talk, Holmes texts urgently, asking Bell if the rest of the Team is safe. Bell doesn't answer, until Holmes texts to say he's found McClenahan. Bell picks up, only for Holmes to say that was a bluff, he just wanted Bell to answer the phone. Holmes informs Bell that he and Watson are on their way to meet Harold Dresden, and not to wait for them. Then he rings off. Bell remarks, "probably be a lot easier to fire the guy if we paid him in the first place."

At his home, Dresden welcomes Holmes and Watson as he is tending to his wife, Sheila, who is in a wheelchair and unable to speak due to a progressive motor neuron disease. Holmes says that McClenahan is looking likely as a suspect in the recent killings, and asks Dresden if he has any idea where the man could be. Dresden says that McClenahan was paranoid and had few friends, except for Dresden himself. Dresden also confesses that when Martin Nagowski was killed, McClenahan joked - at least, Dresden thought it was a joke - that that made one less person to worry about revealing the plan. Now, Dresden is afraid that McClenahan is planning to sell the Red Team's plan to a hostile power, and has been eliminating anyone else with knowledge of the plan in order to drive the price up. As to his current whereabouts, Dresden mentions that McClenahan bought some land in New Jersey, saying he was planning to build a bunker.

Holmes calls Bell with the tip, only for Bell to say that McClenahan's body has been found, and the man has been dead for at least twenty-four hours. While Watson stays behind to help Dresden prepare his wife to moving to a safe location, Holmes meets Bell at the crime scene. McClenahan is lying behind a dumpster in an alley, shot once in the head. Holmes notices something odd: the killer covered McClenahan with a blanket after shooting him, suggesting it was someone who knew him, even liked him. Alarmed, Holmes says that they need to get to the hotel where the rest of the Red Team is being protected, as Holmes believes the killer is already there.

At a small motel on the outskirts of the city, an NYPD detective shows the Dresdens into their room, mentioning that the department has reserved the whole floor, and they should be safe. Harold asks if the rest of the team members have arrived. When the detective answers yes, Dresden knocks him out and takes his gun.

Dresden emerges from his hotel room, sees Veena Mehta at the ice machine on the balcony, and takes aim at her with the detective's gun. Before he can fire, a uniformed cop raises his own gun and tells him to freeze. Mehta screams and runs inside her room, while Dresden ducks back into his. When Holmes arrives, the police have the hotel under siege. Gregson tells Holmes that his warning came just in time to save Mehta, but now Dresden is holding the detective hostage. Instead of demanding safe passage out of the hotel, Dresden has demanded that the surviving Team members - Mehta and Frost - be delivered to him. Holmes realizes that Dresden is not planning to sell the Red Team's plan, since he could hardly kill the other two team members at a hotel surrounded by police and expect to get away. Holmes asks that he be allowed to talk to Dresden. Gregson refuses to put his man's life into a suspended consultant's hands, but Holmes insists that he knows what to say to make Dresden surrender.

Holmes enters the motel room, unarmed, and sits at the small table. Holmes has figured out that Dresden is killing the rest of the Red Team to prevent their plan from leaking out, and once Mehta and Frost are dead, he plans to kill himself. What Holmes doesn't understand is why Dresden became so sure the plan would leak. Martin Nagowski, the first victim, wasn't killed until two years after the war game.

Ruefully, Dresden remembers that Sheila was first diagnosed with her disease two years ago, and since then, Dresden has been unable to do anything except watch her get worse. All the members of the Red Team had been approached before, anonymously, about selling their plan, but Dresden hadn't given it much thought. Then one of these anonymous agents claimed he could help cure Sheila's disease. Dresden knew he was lying, but realized that, if the man had been able to do anything, Dresden would have told everything he knew. He came to realize that everyone has a breaking point, and believed it was only a matter of time before someone found his, or one of the other team member's. So he decided that the only way to safeguard the plan was to kill the Red Team, including himself, plus Clarke - "seven lives versus thousands - the math works."

Sardonically, Dresden congratulates Holmes for figuring out his plan, and thanks Holmes for helping him enact it. Having only one hostage, the detective, Dresden had no leverage, but after he shoots Holmes, the police will realize that Dresden is serious, and give in to his demands. Holmes doesn't blink, expressing amazement that Dresden hasn't yet figured out that "there really is no such thing as a secret." The Red Team's plan is written down in a memo, and it's been emailed back and forth. Any moderately intelligent person could gain access to it, and Holmes himself did so only a few hours after taking the case. Holmes has already sent another memo to an acquaintance - the secret is out, and Dresden will accomplish nothing by killing anyone else. Dresden says that if Holmes is telling the truth, "that's checkmate", then cocks the gun and demands that Holmes tell him the plan.

A few minutes later, Holmes emerges from the hotel room with Dresden, who surrenders. Entering the room, the police report to Gregson that the detective is alive and unharmed. Holmes admits that he didn't know the plan before entering the motel room, he just thought carefully and worked it out from the likely possibilities - "Gun to one's head... very powerful stimulus." Holmes says that he and Gregson owe each other a conversation. Gregson says he needs to clear up the mess at the hotel, but tells Holmes to meet him later.

At a bar, Holmes tells Gregson that he is sorry for lying to Gregson, even if he doesn't regret his actions with respect to Moran. But Holmes says they both know that the NYPD needs him. Gregson angrily says Holmes is missing the point: Gregson has cut Holmes a lot of slack in the past, because of his worth to the department, but Holmes crossed a line and abused Gregson's trust, and Gregson can never trust him completely again. Holmes rejoins that Gregson doesn't need to trust him in order to take advantage of his abilities. Gregson agrees, and also agrees that he needs Holmes on his cases - "but I do need to get something out of my system first." With that, Gregson slugs Holmes in the gut, leaving him gasping over the bar. "Welcome back," Gregson says on his way out the door. At the Brownstone, Holmes is sipping from a bowl of soup when Watson enters the kitchen. She is almost afraid to ask, but Holmes places Clyde, alive and well, on the table, chiding her for thinking he would ever kill such a remarkable creature, and assuring her that Clyde will probably outlive both of them. "With you, I can never tell," she admits. She asks him if he is ready to talk about what happened with Gregson, and he shakes his head no.

Music

• Jake Bugg - Broken plays at episode end.

Trivia

• Len Pontecorvo's pen name, "Zapruder" is taken from the Zapruder Film, the home video which inadvertently captured U.S. President John F. Kennedy's assassination.
• Todd Clarke's code name "Yossarian" is a reference to the main character in Catch-22.
• First appearance of Clyde the tortoise.

Gallery