'Elementary' Season 1, Episode 11: 'Dirty Laundry' Recap

Watson, trying to make tea, gets frustrated that there are no clean dishes. She reminds Holmes that she’s only there for ten more days, and his filthy kitchen isn’t healthy.

He claims he draws inspiration from chaos.

In a hotel basement, two maids argue in Spanish as a washer begins to rock. One of the maids opens it, and the head of a dead woman drops out.

The woman is Teri Purcell, general manager of the hotel, Gregson tells them.

She died of blunt force trauma to the head. The washer makes it hard to pinpoint any physical evidence. Holmes eyes a fountain pen, broken in half, found in the washer with the body—yet no ink was found.

The security camera are also not functioning. Hotel security fixed them often but they kept going out, they learn.

Holmes notes drag marks on the cement floor, and they go to look at her office. Gregson sees blood on the corner of her desk, but no other sign of struggle.

Hotel staff appreciated her, and awards line the walls. She was well liked.

Bell notes that a murdered woman with a wedding band is usually killed by her husband, and they go off to find him.

As they wait outside the home, Holmes suggests to Watson that she stay on and help him—especially with housework—for a small salary, as his apprentice.

The husband tells them that he loved his wife, but Holmes notes the couch has been lain on, and wet towel in the guest bedroom, suggesting the two had been fighting for a long time. Holmes also notes that he is unemployed.

The daughter comes in, but the husband sends her off before admitting that he and his wife were having problems, and that he had been laid off from his financial consulting firm.

Watson tries to speak with the daughter, Carly, in the kitchen, noting that she had been accepted to two great colleges, and had played soccer. Carly recites something Watson recognizes as a mantra from recovery.

Carly admits she had gotten addicted to pain killers after hurting her knee. Her mother assisted her in recovery. Watson gives her her number and tells her to call anytime she needs.

Back outside, Watson suggests Holmes go and speak to the nosy-looking neighbor. The woman hints that she thinks Teri was having an affair—a handsome man used to swing by when the husband, Oliver, wasn’t home.

She even has a picture, as proof, since no one believed her that the “saintly” Teri might be fooling around.

They go to see the man, Geoffrey Silver. He tells them Teri used to help volunteer at his organization, which detonates old land mines. Holmes bluntly asks if he was sleeping with Teri, but he denies it. He says he was also a friend to Oliver, as well as Teri. He tells her Teri was devoted to her family, and the foundation.

Holmes gets annoyed, because they’re out of suspects.

“I really liked that one too. Oily.”

Bell comes up to tell them that Teri had been dealing with cleaning out a prostitution problem at her hotel as of late, after guest complaints.

Holmes invites Watson to go “whore fishing,” to go “right to the source.”

The two sip drinks in the hotel lobby, searching for prostitutes. Holmes hones in on a blonde at the bar, and approaches her.

She denies that any manager of hers would kill Teri… she was the reason they were allowed to work there. She didn’t shoo anyone out, she simply told them to be more discreet.

Gregson says that Teri was a “volunteer madam,” sneaking girls through the laundry room, putting out the security cameras... and doing this all voluntarily and for free. Watson wonders why she would run a non-profit brothel out of her hotel.

Holmes goes back to Teri’s office to give it another look-over, telling Watson she should, as his future apprentice, be taking notes. She reminds him she is not staying.

As he empties out the desk, looking for secret compartments, he pulls out a make-up compact that is unusually heavy. He turns the bottom to find a computer piece that allows her to sign into a secret network on her computer—when he plugs it in, it opens up secret cameras for multiple rooms.

She has been blackmailing the prostitutes’ patrons.

Gregson moans it will take ages and teams to get through all the footage, but Holmes takes it on—he puts the videos onto his multiple television screens. Garbage is spread on the floor behind him—he claims to be testing Watson’s theory that chaos will lead to relapse, but so far, so good.

Watson gets a call from Carly, who needs to talk to someone.

“My mom, the way she was… she’s not what people thought,” Carly says, but stops when her father comes up behind her, and hangs up.

Holmes found little on the videos, but more promising items in her pictures in her computer. The innocent family photographs have a huge amount of memory. He works on encrypting what she has hidden in them.

He pulls out videos, one of a shirtless man speaking on the phone, one of two men speaking over coffee. They are speaking in French—Holmes calls Gregson immediately, and tells them they must go back to the Purcell house.

Holmes confronts Oliver Purcell, noting that he seems like an average American… but he and his wife were in fact Russian spies. Gregson notes he wasn’t fired from his financial consulting company, but resigned.

He demands a lawyer.

Holmes pitches a fit when Gregson won’t let him talk to the suspect yet. Watson is concerned she can’t find Carly, who she doesn’t believe knows her parents were sleeper agents.

Holmes goes back to see Geoffrey, declaring that he is a Russian spy. He notes that one of the photographs was on the background of his computer previously. Geoffrey tells him that he can look on his computer if it will get him to leave… but Holmes finds that the photo has been scrubbed clean.

The legal team comes in and they can interrogate Oliver Purcell. He admits Carly was forced on them, to make them seem a more legitimate family, but they both loved her. He says that Teri wanted to tell Carly, to bring her on board with them, but Oliver wanted to get Carly out of the business and keep her safe. He gives a positive ID on Geoffrey as his handler.

Watson gets a call from Carly, stepping out to take it. Carly says she saw the police taking her father away, and wants to know what’s going on.

Watson meets her on a bench. She asks if Carly knew she was a spy—and Carly admits she did. She says her mother told her a few days ago. She tells Watson she is responsible. She killed her mother.

She later tells Holmes and Watson that she called her mother when she got her acceptance letter for Michigan. Her mother acted odd, and she demanded she go to the hotel, and Teri told her daughter the truth, but that Carly couldn’t tell Oliver she knew.

She insisted that Carly go to Georgetown, for the government program. She was intent on getting Carly into spying, but Carly just wanted to go to Michigan and play soccer. She threatened to tell the police about her mother if she tried to stop her, but as she was leaving, Teri grabbed her. Carly shoved her, and she hit her head on the desk.

Then Geoffrey came in, and told her that she was going to be in huge trouble if anyone found out. He pressured Carly into joining with him in exchange for helping cover up the death.

Geoffrey will not confirm nor deny anything Carly has said, lest he be fingered as an accessory to murder. As Gregson threatens him with jail, Geoffrey laughs. He says that people in his line of business don’t get locked up—they get traded.

Back at home, Watson has notes pasted up on the hearth, looking at the evidence. She doesn’t think Carly deserves what has happened.

He gives her Teri Purcell’s autopsy report, which appeared on their porch. Watson tells him that she requested it. She looks at an X-Ray… noting a broken finger, a boxer’s injury. Teri had fought against someone.

 Holmes grabs up the picture of the empty fountain pen.

They bring Geoffrey Silver back in. He tells them, no, he did not see Teri the week before she died.

Holmes counters that he saw her the day she died.  In fact, he killed her. He came into the office, pressured Carly into joining the team, and made her leave. He went to dispose of Teri, but she wasn’t dead.

Yet, Carly was quite an asset. He wanted to keep the hold he had on Carly, so he put an end to Teri, who punched back, and stabbed at him with a pen.

But there was no ink… Holmes notes the pen, in typical spy fashion, was full of invisible ink. He had returned to the morgue, and put a UV lamp on Teri… as well as Geoffrey’s clothes. Teri’s inked hand appears on his shirt, which he presents.

Carly asks what will happen with her dad. Watson tells her he is cooperating. He and Carly will be placed in witness protection, and start new lives.

“Tough times don’t last,” she tells Watson as Bell takes her away.

“Tough people do,” Watson finishes.

As they sit on a bench outside, Watson tells Holmes she took on a new job. He is surprised.

“I’m usually quite good with deductions.”