'Elementary' Season 1, Episode 6: 'Flight Risk' Recap

Joan wakes to the police radio, loud and confusing, coming from downstairs. Holmes is listening to the police scanners, as it’s been a slow week and he’s hoping for something interesting.

Watson tells him she needs to talk to him about his father coming to town and wanting to get dinner with them. Holmes just laughs. He says that his father has no intention of meeting for dinner.

Holmes tunes in to Gregson’s voice on the scanner, listening to the code for “unusual incidents.” Plane crash, he says.

He meets Gregson at the beach, surprising him. He insists they have what they need, as it’s not a murder. Despite urging to leave, Holmes wanders into the scene and observes the bodies. He asks how many of the passengers were attorneys—all of them.

He points out a man whose leg is almost amputated yet there is no blood loss on the beach. Someone caved his skull in on the plane—he was murdered in the air.

He notes the wounds on his head, pointing toward a wrench as the murder weapon.

They discuss how the witness said the plane was going straight up when it did a sudden nose-dive. Holmes notes that there is commercial sand on the beach—the park service must have brought in new sand for erosion. Watson points out that he seems a bit off. The killer would have died on the plane. If there’s no killer left alive, why does he care? Holmes gets twitchy about the strangeness of a violent homicide and the story behind it. Watson accuses him of just staying busy to avoid dinner with his father.

Holmes suggests to Gregson they speak to the people who last saw the victims alive.

Gregson interviews the owner of the plane company, Cooper. He helpfully tells them about the security camera they put in that may help—but he sticks up for the pilot, the current main suspect. Joe wouldn’t have attacked anyone.

Watson gets an email wondering if they can meet Mr. Holmes for dinner at six. She thinks it’s important they go. Holmes insists his father doesn’t care about him, or Watson, and will never show up. He is a “serial absentee” and has been since Holmes was a child.

Bell comes with information that the attorneys were on their way to a conference dealing with a company whose sugar substitute is being sued for causing cancer. Hank Girard was also butting heads with his boss over plans to move forward with the lawsuit, giving his boss motive.

Gregson’s phone begins to buzz—they found the plane’s black box. They go to listen, trying to make out the yelling, which seems directed at Hank.

The police admit Holmes was right, but he says no, it was not an argument. You only hear one side of it. And the pilot told air traffic there were “three souls” aboard. Holmes says that Hank Gerard wasn’t in the cabin. He wasn’t killed on the plane, he was killed elsewhere, and hidden in the cargo hold. His boss, angry at him for missing the flight, was leaving an angry voicemail, hence the yelling they heard.

The unexpected weight imbalance with the body in the cargo hold throws the plane off and it crashes. They find the recovered phone of Hank, and hear the argument voicemail, confirming his suspicions.

Why put his body in the hold? It would have been discovered when the plane landed. Watson asks if Holmes is afraid of flying. His interest and strange distractedness seem to point to this. He demands she stop analyzing him.

Bell comes in to tell them they have the security camera footage. They go to observe at the airline, in an office that stinks of model glue so badly Holmes uses his scarf to keep from getting high. On the footage, Hank is arguing with a stranger, and leaves alone ten minutes later. They don’t have another angle, the other airline employee Owen tells them that camera broke the previous week.

Holmes takes the footage and tries to figure out the mystery man. By the letters on his shirt, he believes he worked at the company that Hank was going to sue. He has an old pager on his belt, only clue.

Watson, miffed at him for continually blowing off her urge to get dinner with his father, points out that it's an insulin pump.

They go to see the man they identify by that. He claims not to know Hank, and then he shows surprise when they say he is dead. He shuts the door and explains—he is a whistle blower. Hank was angry because he wouldn’t testify. Hank’s boss was fine with the settlement but Hank wanted more. The company knew the sugar killed.

After leaving Holmes is certain he didn’t kill him—he is too weak from the diabetes.

Watson goes to see Mr. Holmes, who is waiting at the restaurant. Watson tells him she thinks Holmes is doing very well. Mr. Holmes tells a story of young Sherlock walking the fence posts, breaking his wrist, and setting it himself, rather than admit that he was wrong for not listening to his father’s warnings not to. He got a tattoo to hide the scar.

Mr. Holmes asks how the sex is, since he assumed that was included in her fee. Watson, at first offended, realizes--“You’re not Mr. Holmes, are you?”

The man laughs. Nope. He is certainly not.

Holmes himself is still fixated on the new sand. The park department said they didn’t put down new sand. So, he thinks the sand he found was in the fuel tank. As the plane took off it would gradually cause the plane to crash. Holmes checks the fuel tank and confirms that there is commercial sand.

Did Hank walk in on the saboteur? Had the plane crashed over the water like it was intended, the evidence would have been hidden, but the extra weight of the body made the plane crash prematurely.

Watson comes home, not thrilled with Holmes’ prank. The real Mr. Holmes did cancel, and Holmes played a cruel trick.

He tells her about the plane sabatoge, thinking she’ll be grateful he is sharing information. He says she should have trusted him when he told her his dad wouldn’t show. She is mad, and tells him she can’t trust him because they’re basically strangers.

They go to see one of the employees of the airline, the man who pointed out that the security camera had been broken beforehand, Owen. Turns out Joe's widow heard an argument between him and Joe not long before the crash. Holmes noted in his pilot’s log that every time he came back on a flight from Miami, he added 66 pounds over his cargo weight. 30 kilos. He is a cocaine mule. Hank caught him, and he killed him to keep him quiet.

The only problem was he has an alibi. He was giving his boss a car jump.

Watson wakes, finding Holmes sitting in the chair beside her. He tells her she was right, he has a fixation with plane crashes. Planes overwhelm him with all he can see, and make him panic. Watson is still annoyed—he is just telling her something she already figured out.

Bell calls. The owner of the airplane company, Mr. Cooper, confesses that Owen had told him about the smuggling. He looks pale, and the smell of glue is even stronger to Holmes. Cooper says he Owen wanted him to cover for him, but he wasn’t with him at the time.

They go to Owen’s home, but he’s gone. He did leave behind the murder weapon. It’s not even clean, it’s just sitting in the garage. Holmes says it is utterly ridiculous. He notes that the wrench must have been in brackish water recently. He thinks it was disposed of, retrieved, and planted. Someone killed Owen.

He opens an oil can, and it is full of money. Three total, 5-100 thousand dollars. No way he took off without that. Someone was in on the smuggling and killed Hank, and then Owen, to keep them quiet.

The bring Cooper back in. Holmes is sure that he’s the murderer and saboteur, but Watson thinks he has a medical issue. She notices the scar on Holmes' wrist, hidden by a tattoo, and asks about it. He tells her the fence story. She remembers an errand she suddenly has to run.

Gregson tells Holmes that Cooper won’t admit to it. They have no proof. Holmes smells the model glue on Bell now too after being in the room. Bell is bringing Cooper a third glass of water, which Holmes finds of note. He says to bring him a pitcher.

Watson goes to see the man Holmes set her up with at his bookstore, where he works, tracking him by a receipt he dropped. He is an actor. Holmes admired him as a child, and they became friends. He warns her not to expect Holmes to relate to her like a normal human… and if she forces it, he’ll leave.

He tells her about Holmes showing up at his door, incredibly high, nine months ago, and how he kept repeating the same name over and over again but said it was nothing when he sobered up. Watson wants his help getting to know Holmes, to get a better sense of what to do.

Holmes goes in to see Cooper, asking if he has to urinate after all that water, but Cooper is fine. He thinks Owen must have nicked him with a knife during their fight. He is suffering blood loss, that's why he is so thirsty, and the model glue was used to seal up his injury. Holmes tells him to take off his clothes. Cooper says he cut himself at his hanger…

Gregson says they will find his blood on Owen’s body very easily. Holmes says they’ll find the body at the only two spots of brackish water in New York, and be able to pin it on him. Holmes says he knows he killed Owen, Joe, and the passengers. He also knows he likes to hide things in brackish water. If he confesses now he might get a lesser sentence.

Watson comes home to find Holmes tidying up in the living room. He tells her she looks peculiar. She says there’s a question she wants to ask about his past, but he tries to leave. She says she knows about Irene, and she wants him to tell her about her.

Holmes stops, turning slowly.