'Elementary' Season 1, Episode 15: 'A Giant Gun, Filled With Drugs' Recap

A woman gets water in her home, and hears knocking. A man at the door says he’s supposed to drop off chairs and tables at a party, but his phone is dead. He asks to come in, but the woman won’t let the stranger into her home, and asks him to leave.

As she walks away, a man already in her home holds a rag over her mouth and knocks her out.

Meanwhile the man who needed his phone charged has been helped by a cab driver. He calls his boss as the other man drags the woman away in a large suitcase.

In group, Holmes goes over the details of a case rather than sharing.

Watson scolds him for the performance at home. When she goes upstairs, a naked man comes out of the shower and greets her. She calls for Holmes, and he rushes up.

The man explains he still had an old key. He tells Holmes that his daughter Emily has been kidnapped. He got a ransom video via e-mail. Watson asks to discuss this after he has put clothes on. He goes into Watson’s room to change.

Holmes tells Watson, for clarity’s sake, that Rhys (John Hannah) isn’t just an old friend. He’s his former drug dealer.

Holmes makes tea for Rhys and tells Watson that Rhys is his ex dealer. Watson thinks he is a trigger… a giant gun filled with drugs pointed at him. However Holmes insists he help his friend find his daughter.

Rhys shows Holmes the video, which demands over $2 million for the release of Emily. He gives Holmes Emily’s cell phone. Watson asks if he has that level of money and Holmes tells Watson that he stole it from his Dominican suppliers and has been hiding in Thailand since then.

Watson suggest he just pay it, but he has lost almost all of it.

They go to Emily’s home. Watson asks why Rhys sees so “zen.” He tells her because he believes in Sherlock.

Holmes comes over and says that the Dominicans took Emily. He sees a mark from a stamp from a club that got wiped off when Emily spilled her water. They go to the club to see if Rhys will recognize anyone.

“You seem even more dour than usual, Watson,” which he would normally chalk up to her period but he knows she has ten days yet.

Rhys sees a man he recognizes. Holmes goes to pee. He asks the man at the urinal if he can ask him some questions—he recognizes him as an undercover agent in the drug cartel. He refuses to admit it, and Holmes threatens to blow his cover. As Holmes leaves, the man punches him. He whispers that he is in too deep to get his cover blown. As he beats up Holmes he tells him that no one in the cartel kidnapped anyone.

Holmes sits at the table, struggling through Emily’s Twitter feed. He has given up on the cartel, though he still believes the man who took her was in the nightclub.

Watson waits for Rhys to get out of the bathroom. Finally he leaves, and she sees evidence of his marijuana on the windowsill. She threatens him if he continues to do drugs in the home and serve a threat to Holmes. He hands it over and she flushes it.

She goes down. Holmes notes that he did find a strange tweet on Emily’s feed, that references giving her stepdad money for a loan. Rhys says that makes no sense, the stepdad is loaded.

Bell calls Holmes to tell them that the man, Derek Hughes is broke and working as a parking attendant. Holmes now considers him a suspect. They sit outside and wait for him to get off work. Watson goes in, and Rhys points out to Holmes it must be hard, without the drugs, to combine the knowledge and the making connections in his brain without drugs.

Derek Hughes gets off work and they follow him. He takes groceries to an abandoned building he owns. They follow him in, but he is squatting there, not hiding Emily.

Back home Rhys gets a call from an unknown number. It is one of the kidnappers. He says because Rhys involved someone, they are knocking twelve hours off the deadline. To show their serious, there is something outside the kitchen door.

It is a finger in a box.

Holmes checks the print. It’s Emily’s finger. Holmes brings Watson to look at it—the finger has a burn on it, from a pre-war radiator. Under the fingernail is take-out Ethiopian food. He thinks he can find the building where Emily is. He asks her to go check on Rhys.

Watson brings Rhys some tea. He is upset about Emily, and losing some faith in Sherlock. He goes to get air.

Holmes is watching the video again as Rhys comes back. His hope of pinpointing the building didn’t work. Rhys reminds Holmes how quickly he solved a case when had some cocaine in his system. He tosses a small baggie at Holmes.

“It’s time. For Emily.”

Holmes attacks Rhys. Rhys begs him to “take his meds” and “get himself right.” Watson comes down to break it up and Holmes hides the baggie, and leaves.

Holmes sits on a bench as the sun comes up. He calls his father.

He comes home and tells Rhys he will get Emily back. He is paying the ransom. He borrowed the money from his father. He tells Rhys that he would have been able to find Emily, but that he realized he can’t be around Rhys anymore. It is worth paying the money to get him out of his life.

Holmes watches as the van drives up.

At home, the agent from the club knocks on the door and tells Watson he has information on the girl, that Holmes will need right away.

On the street, Holmes ducks from men with guns. He calls Watson and tells her he was ambushed by a hit squad. He says only one person know all about what is going on.

Watson knows who he means. He’s pointing a gun at her.

Holmes hotwires a van as he talks to the agent. Watson and Rhys are tied to the stairs. He struggles to pull a pocket knife from his pocket and works on their zip ties. He tells Watson he has to right his wrongs, and that she needs to run.

The man tells Holmes to transfer the money to his account, but Rhys gets free and runs. The man shoots him as Rhys knocks him down. Watson hits him with a statue and knocks him out.

The agent gets interrogated by Bell and Gregson, lying about what occurred. He says Rhys attacked him when he realized he was an undercover agent. Gregson tells him he can tell them where the girl is and he’ll get protective custody in prison. He tells him that he has cops searching buildings near his apartment.

Holmes leaves an envelope on Rhys’ nightstand, but Rhys wakes. Holmes tells him Emily is safe, she was recovered. Watson is getting rest. Rhys tells him she saved him.

The envelope is money. Not his father, which he returned. He suggests he use it on the road to sobriety.

Rhys tells him he believes in him and always will. Emily comes in, crying, and hugs her father.

Holmes pieces back together the bust that Watson used to knock out the agent. He admits that Rhys offered him cocaine. She is pleased he resisted. He wants to go to a meeting, and asks her to go with him. He holds her coat for her.