'Elementary' Season 1, Episode 12: 'M.' Recap

The sound of a soccer game provides the background for a large man as he puts together a gun. On the floor behind him, zip tied, a man struggles. The large man arranges a tripod and hooks up the tied man’s feet, lifting him upside down.

Holmes stares at a box full of bees. He is considering using Watson’s room to keep them inside. She tells him she wants to carve out a time to talk about her exit, but he evades it. Gregson calls.

Holmes goes to the crime scene, where there is no body, just a large amount of blood on the floor. Holmes gets quiet, staring. He recognizes the device used, a tripod used to drain all the blood out of his victims, including this man, Vicars.

“I’ve stalked this particular madman before. In London,” he confesses.

The name of the man is “M.” He has a body count of 37, and no image ever captured of him. He has no pattern. He drains victims of blood and dumps their bodies in the ocean. He has a fascination with blood. M also kills in “bunches.” Holmes brings his personal files on M to the station and briefs everyone.

Watson notes he seems… chipper. Holmes confesses that this is a second chance, because he was muddled with addiction when he was trying to catch M the first time. Gregson comes back in and points out it’s a strange coincidence M has reappeared in New York after Holmes chased him in London.

Holmes encourages Watson to go—he has been using her as a crutch and needs to get used to working without her again.

Watson goes to see her therapist, to talk about leaving Holmes. The therapist reminds her she can get a new career helping Holmes, but Watson says she likes what she’s doing at the moment.

“Short of your client falling off the wagon, your ‘right now’ is coming to an end.”

A woman gets dressed in a hotel room as M comes up quietly behind her. He slaps money on the table and thanks her for the effort. The prostitute asks if he wants another go, but he brushes her off, and she leaves as he turns on the soccer match. His phone buzzes, and he texts in code.

He grabs a large briefcase, and begins pulling out magazine letters to construct a note.

Watson goes to see Holmes in the morgue, where Ian Vicars, the victim, now lies. Watson notes oil in his hair and they consider the dumping location of the body. She tells him she thinks what he does is amazing, and leaves.

They get back into their home, and as Watson debates where to get food from, Holmes hushes her—their home is now a crime scene. In the middle of the room is the note from M.

The note, about laughing at Holmes, insults him. Gregson reads it over as police investigate his house. Holmes notes M came in the back of the house, picking the lock. Gregson says it shows that M did come to New York to follow Holmes. He wants to take him to a safe house—but Holmes says he just wants to play the game. Watson stays as well.

“I go where he goes, remember.”

They see everyone out, and Watson comes in to see Holmes looking at real estate online. He is thinking about moving after she leaves. She goes up to bed, and he pulls a book from the shelf. The book is hollowed, and he takes out the camera. He plugs it into the computer and pulls up the footage of M sneaking into the room.

M watches a woman walking her dog in the rain as a man tries to sell him stuff on the street. The woman goes inside, and M stalks off, annoyed he was distracted by the man.

The man shows up, escorted by the police officer watching the house. He claims to be a friend of Holmes… kind of. Watson lets him in.

He asks if she’s a hooker. He explains he is a pickpocket that Holmes uses now and then. He tells Watson that Holmes asked his street connections to find M, using a picture from the computer, and there would be a reward. Watson goes on the shelf and finds the camera.

She confronts Holmes when he comes home, not happy about the cameras, or that he sent children to find M, rather than turn the picture into the police.

Holmes tells her M made things personal… by getting rid of Irene Addler. Holmes has no intention of turning M in… he plans to torture and murder him.

Understandably, Watson’s not thrilled with this response. He explains that he’s been waiting for this day for a long time—he was with Irene for 7 months, and very in love with her. When M killed her, he overdid it on the drugs, and got out of control.

He strongly advises that she not follow him—she tells him she won’t, but she will have to call Gregson.

Holmes scares the man from the street, Teddy, when he is taking out garbage. He pays for Teddy’s information.

The woman that M was watching earlier is watching television. Her dog begins to bark and runs into the other room. She follows him, and notes he is eating a hotdog, and the door is open. As she reaches for the phone, a leather hand grabs her from behind.

Watson tells Gregson what is happening, prompting Gregson’s fury.

M is rigging up his tripod, with soccer on the television while the woman writhes around. He yells in annoyance at a bad call on the television, and turns to see Holmes. Holmes hits him in the face with a baton.

M wakes, chained to a scaffold in a dark building.

“I hope you don’t mind being hung right-side up,” Holmes says. M sees the torture devices lined up, and asks if he knows which he’s going to use. He says he’s not sure yet.

M asks why Holmes isn’t taking him directly to the cops. Holmes tells him it’s because of Irene… it takes M a while to remember the name.

“Sorry to disappoint you, mate. It wasn’t me.”

M was in jail at the time. He remembers reading about Irene in the papers—a copycat murder.

“You made me a shambles of a man, and I’m simply returning the favor.”

The woman who was tied up is now in the hospital, with Gregson and Holmes. She tells them what happened. The second man cut her free, and told her not to turn around… to wait ten minutes and to call the police. The man who freed her had white powder on his shoes.

Watson tells Gregson she thinks she knows where Holmes is—the real estate he was looking at online was being renovated.

As Holmes beats up M, he finds out M didn’t know he was in New York. He didn’t know he was going into Holmes’ house, either. He isn’t a serial killer, he’s a paid assassin. He gets coded message on his cell phone, and does as his employer tells him.

“He always talked about you,” M tells him. He gives Holmes his real name, Sebastian, and has him look him up. Holmes sees on his phone that Sebastian was indeed in jail at the time Irene killed.

Sebastian tells him his employer, Moriarty, is the one who must have killed Irene. Moriarty sold him out. Holmes tries to deny the information. He threatens Sebastian, who reminds him that he’s the best clue to Moriarty—and Holmes loves puzzles. He says Moriarty has set them both up.

“You’re a rare thing in this world, Holmes. You’re an honorable man.”

Holmes stabs Sebastian in the stomach to prove him wrong.

Gregson and his team come in. They find the empty scaffold with blood underneath. Gregson’s phone rings and he finds out Holmes has turned Sebastian into Bell.

In interrogation, Sebastian lies about what happened, getting Holmes off the hook. His stab wound is minor. He claims he came at Holmes and it was self defense.

Watson finds Holmes, and notes the stab wound inflicted would have had to have the victim stabilized. She says he will confess to all the murders. Holmes tells her that Sebastian has been wronged and will seek revenge, and she asks if he’s planning to help.

Holmes is conflicted, and not sure how to handle it. He seems dazed. Watson sits quietly beside him, and puts her hand on his.

“I’m going to miss this,” he admits. “Working with you. I think what you do is amazing.”

He leaves.

Watson pulls out her phone and calls Mr. Holmes, Sherlock’s father. She leaves the message that she’s worried about his son and would like to stay on longer.

The next morning, Holmes is asleep on the couch. Watson gets a text from Mr. Holmes—he turns down her offer, and says her final check is in the mail. Holmes wakes and asks her what happened, and she tells him that she called his father and asked to stay on longer. She lies and says he agreed to it.

Holmes cleans his mantle of all clues, and pastes up a single index card that reads “Moriarty.”