'Elementary' Season 1, Episode 18: 'Deja Vu All Over Again' Recap

Six months ago: a violinist plays in the subway as a woman waits for her train. Someone taps her on the shoulder and gives her flowers, but the train blocks out any dialogue.

Later she tells a friend on the phone what happened—the man was heading to his girlfriend’s house and she cancelled. As she’s saying how it cheered her up during her lousy week, the man reappears, and pushes her in front of the train.

Watson is at dinner with her friends, who ask her how the companion career is going. Watson gets a phone call from a rehab clinic and goes to take it. She looks through the email as the doctor asks her if she’s willing to take the case…

“I just have one question: what kind of name is ‘Sherlock?’”

Modern day: Watson breaks into a car and tries to cut wires to disable the alarm. She can’t do it, and asks Sherlock’s sober companion Alfredo to shut it off. He tells her that Holmes seems happier now that she is helping him.

At home, Holmes is aflutter because his father has contacted him—in asking for legal assistance for an attorney of his.

They go to an office, meeting Phillip Armistead, the said attorney. Holmes is reluctant to help someone he considers vile, but Armistead explains he needs help for Rebecca, his assistant.

Rebecca’s sister Callie went missing six months ago. They hit a video, and watch Callie apologizing to her husband, Drew, telling him she doesn’t love him anymore. She says she couldn’t stop thinking about the woman with the flowers who was pushed in front of the subway, and knows she can’t waste more time.

Rebecca explains she wasn’t concerned until a few weeks without hearing from her. She thinks maybe Drew forced her to make the video and killed her. She also shows them a picture of a trunk from their family, that was missing from the house. She thinks Drew hid Callie in the trunk to get rid of her. As they talk Holmes looks up the subway woman on his phone.

In the hall he tells Watson the video is truth. He thinks it will be a good first case for Watson. He tells her he has one of his own he wants to take up—the subway woman, whose killer was never found. Watson accuses him of backing out because it’s his father’s case.

Holmes, at home, is annoyed this case escaped his notice, since he was locked away at the time. He watches a video of the murder. He sees that it was premeditated—unusual for subway “pushers.” Holmes asks Watson how her case is going, and she says if Callie is hiding from her husband she is doing it well.

She gets a call from one of her friends. She forgot to meet her… again. Emily agrees to try to meet again the next day.

Watson goes to see Drew to ask him questions. She asks him about the first time Callie left, only for a few days before coming back, but it was a shock. The second time he noted that she seemed depressed about the subway woman. He says Callie took the trunk with her.

Watson calls Holmes and tells him that she does not believe Callie ran away… she thinks her husband killed her.

Holmes listens to Watson’s recording of the conversation… from the police, five months ago. Drew recited exactly the same thing to them as he said to Watson. Holmes reminds her that he will have had to repeat it often over the past six months, but Watson insists something about him bothers her. He asks if he wants her to step in, but she’s not ready yet… though she asks what he would do next. He asks if she has his cell phone.

He digs through boxes, finding a box of cell phones, and tells her about gaslighting. He texts Drew that he knows he killed her.

Holmes speaks to someone in custody about the subway girl. He says that the person who killed her had studied the subway platform—and found footage of the man following her. The man pretends he doesn’t know her at first, but then admits he worked custodial in her office building. Gregson notes that Mr. Samuels was arrested on a stalking charge previously. Mr. Samuels admits he stalked her, and can prove he didn’t kill her—he has the murder recorded.

They watch the video, but it doesn’t help identify the man, only potentially free Samuels. Watson calls; she is doing surveillance on Drew, who hasn’t left the art gallery all day. Holmes reminds her she is meeting her friend and he is having Alfredo relieve her.

Holmes watches the video with Gregson again. Holmes sees the violinist stop playing his song in the middle and leave the platform. Holmes suggests he knew the pusher.

Watson meets her friends. They confess they’re worried about her, and her new job.

“Is this an intervention?”

Watson won’t listen to them and leaves. She gets a text from Alfredo that Drew is on the move. She meets him at a self storage unit. They watch as Drew wheels Callie's trunk out of storage. She tells Alfredo about the text Holmes sent him. He wants to call the cops but she tells him to wait, she wants to do it alone. Drew puts the trunk in his truck and goes back inside, and Watson breaks into his vehicle. She starts to open the trunk, but a guard stops her. Drew runs up.

She tells them she believes there is a body in the trunk. The guard asks him to open it, but he won’t. The police arrive. Drew opens the trunk… it is empty.

Holmes comes to see Watson… in jail. He has paid her bail, she will be free soon. He tells her she was right—the trunk was the same one he said Callie took. He sold it after his wife left out of spite. After Watson spoke to him, he went and bought it back to return it to Rebecca.

Watson is upset she was wrong. Holmes says that in the morning, they will work both their cases, together.

Holmes goes and sees the violinist from the video, who now performs above ground. They show him a picture of the woman, Vivian. He admits he was there, but not there when it went down. He denies knowing the murderer. Holmes threatens him (knowing he’s a pickpocket artist). The man says that he tried to pick the man’s pocket before, unsuccessfully, and was afraid the man would turn him in. Holmes notes that he studies coats—he asks about the patch on the murderer’s coat.

“If you feel like you have to, don’t,” it read.

Gregson says Drew will drop the charges if Watson apologizes. Holmes defends her but she admits she’s not Holmes. Her instincts could be off. She goes to apologize to Drew.

Watson goes to see Rebecca, to apologize. She tells her she will not be able to remain on the case. She is distracted by a picture of Callie on a picnic—wearing a jacket with the patch. Rebecca says it was Drew’s jacket; it was cold that day and he let her wear it. Watson asks if he ever had a beard and she says yes, but he shaved it around when Callie disappeared.

Holmes and Watson go over the case. They can now believe that Drew pushed Vivian in front of the train. Why? And why would it affect Callie so much that she would leave him?

Watson suggests that maybe the order of the crimes is the issue.

They bring Drew in again. Watson notes that the video was made the first time that Callie left Drew. She talks about a woman with flowers killed in the subway… but 18 months ago, a woman named Anna, holding flowers for a sick friend, was accidentally killed by being shoved onto the subway.

Watson tells him they used the video from the first time Callie left, and killed Vivian, to cover his tracks.

Gregson notes they checked Callie’s e-mails. They can prove that they found the original e-mail, which was deleted, and re-sent six months ago to appear fresh. Drew killed his wife.

At home, Watson gets a call from Emily. She won’t apologize for worrying about her, but apologizes for doubting her. Emily’s editor just gave her the story of Drew’s murder.

Holmes requests her assistance downstairs, and she hangs up with Emily. Online, she changes a profile to being a “consulting detective” as her career.