'Elementary' Season 1, Episode 7: 'One Way to Get Off' Recap

An extremely creepily masked person in a hoodie is robbing a nice house. He does downstairs, where two people are tied up with pillows to their face. He shoots them both.

Watson is making her smoothie for breakfast. She and Holmes coolly greet each other. She tells him his anger at her needs to stop. She tells him it’s her job to overstep boundaries. Holmes gets a text from Gregson. He admits to Watson he has been “sulking” and has to respect her right to do what she did.

They go to see the victims. Gregson tells Holmes it was like a nightmare—it bears a similarity to an old murder case from 13 years ago, where a man named Cruise murdered and cleaned out wall safes in a similar manner. Gregson wonders why some could copycat him.

Holmes goes to look at the bedroom. Cruise had rifled through the closets after his murders, stealing one expensive female shoe as a trophy from each crime scene, though none were ever recovered. They check the closet, and notice a missing high heel. Cruise had confessed in 1999, saying he worked alone. Holmes proposes they are after his accomplice that no one knew existed.

Holmes suggests to Gregson that they go and speak to Cruise, but Gregson shoots it down. He says that it’s not a real lead yet. Watson calls (with a new “Pyscho” ring tone), and she shows up, annoyed that he has been ignoring her. He tells her their new arrangement is the same but without the good credit she had accrued. He will not let her into his personal life. Miffed, she agrees to check on him in two hours and administer a drug test.

Bell comes in with an e-mail that had been sent to the murder victims from a contractor named Julian. They had fired him, and Walsh sent a threatening e-mail. They go to see him. He has no real alibi. Holmes goes to use the bathroom, sneaking into the basement. He hears a woman crying. He shoves a large locker out of the way, finding a door behind it. He breaks open the lock, and find a scantily-clad woman tied to a pipe. Holmes comfort her in her language, and she cries in his arms. The woman from the room was sold to Julian as a sex slave. Unfortunately, she also supplied him an alibi, as he was with her the night of the murder. Holmes goes to the coroner and finds the bullet from the original Cruise murders. The bullets the killed the couple match the gun from the original murder.

Watson is confiding to Holmes’ old therapist what a difficult time she is having with him. The man knows nothing about Irene. He learned nothing significant during his stay at the rehab facility.

Gregson finds a woman named Terri, surprised to see her. Holmes called her—she was Gregson’s partner during the Cruise crimes. Everyone runs over the options. Holmes suggests it was a false confession on Cruise’ part.

Holmes asks Gregson if it ended well with Terri, as they hadn’t greeted each other, but Gregson gets mad at his prying.

Watson asks more people at the center, and hears more that Holmes was uncooperative. She sees a man steaming bees, and goes to speak to him. He’s planning to move the bee hive to the woods. She mentioned Holmes, who loves beekeeping too, and he remembers him. Watson asks if he knows about Irene, but the gardener says he never mentioned her… but the name does sound familiar. Holmes left personal stuff behind, and the man held onto it. He hands Watson some letters addressed to an Irene.

Gregson goes to see Cruise, who isn’t surprised to see him. He asks for the name of the man he was working with. Cruise tells him he gave up anger a long time ago, but Gregson is testing his progress. He insists he is an innocent man. He says his confession was a suggestion to avoid a life sentence. The woman he was with couldn’t testify she was with him, because she was married.

Gregson reminds him that they found his fingerprints on a coffee mug found at the third murder. Cruise says it was planted evidence, annoying Gregson.

They go to see the woman Cruise was supposed to be with during the murders. Holmes notes that Gregson had seemed uncomfortable when the planted evidence was brought up. A young man comes out, and they ask about the woman, but the man, her son, says she died. Holmes says that if she was lying, her secret died with her.

Gregson tells Holmes to watch the tapes if he wants to see that Cruise was guilty. Holmes gets the videos and checks them out. Watson comes in. Holmes tells her he left urine in her room.

“Tell me it’s in a cup.”

Watson goes to her room, pulling out the letters. Holmes continues to watch the videos interviewing Cruise. On the video, Gregson comes in, bringing a mug of black coffee. Holmes brings Watson in, showing her the video, and the photo of a shattered mug found at the crime scene. The evidence was planted.

Holmes confronts Gregson about the mug. Gregson brings him into his office. Gregson tells him he never took any free perks, and he never planted evidence. Holmes wants to know how the mug made it there. Gregson shows him out.

At home, Watson gives Holmes the letters. He asks if they were all she hoped, if she understands him now. She admits she didn’t read them. She wants to know, but she won’t ask him about Irene anymore. Holmes takes the letters and sticks them in the blender with the remnants of her smoothie and destroys them.

They go over an old file of a criminal who was in prison for 12 years and recently released, possibly explaining the cease and return of the murders. He is covered in football tattoos from his favorite team. They look up which bars show footage of which places would broadcast his team.  He calls the hotel where the team is playing on tv and gets a room number.

Gregson is waiting by his car when Terri comes up. He tells her he knows she planted the mug. They knew it was Cruise, but they couldn’t pin it on him. Now he knows what happened. They argue about revealing the truth. She thought he had known what she did.

Holmes picks the lock on the hotel door. Watson notes the floor is sticky. Holmes sees that the man has spilled orange juice. In the corner the carpet has been pried up. He pulls it back and finds a loose board.

Gregson calls him. It has happened again. A triple murder. Holmes pulls a gun from the floorboards and tells him he thinks he knows where the murder weapon is.

Holmes goes to the crime scene. The third body was probably an accident, the killer hadn’t known he was there. The other bodies have been bound and tied with the pillows. Some cigarettes were collected, the neighbor saw someone smoking them outside. Holmes goes back to where Gregson thinks the killer shot the house guest. Holmes does some strange bouncing with a hand over his eye.

Bell calls Gregson. He has the man in custody. Holmes goes to see them, and hits the man with an orange. The claims he is innocent. Everything is out of alignment in the hotel. Holmes says that the man is blind in his right eye. His depth perception is off; he couldn’t have shot the houseguest. The cigarettes were ground out in an ashtray, not thrown on the street. He has been framed.

Only Cruise working in tandem with someone on the outside would be looking to frame someone else to make it look like he was innocent. But Holmes has nothing. Gregson admits he wants him to be right, but they need more than circumstantial evidence.

Whoever is working with Cruise is willing to kill for him, but they have no connection. Holmes watches him on the television. Cruise quotes Oscar Wilde. When he went to prison, he was illiterate. Someone taught him to read at an advanced level, but there are no records of him having a teacher. He did have a job. A few years ago he worked at the prison library. Holmes goes online and does research. He sees that the son of the woman that Cruise had the affair with worked with Cruise.

Holmes goes to see the boy, Sean, where he works in a library. He notes he has blue eyes—odd for someone of Mexican heritage. Cruise is his father. He had found out, and volunteered at the library to get close to his father. Sean admits he had read his mother’s diary after she died and learned the truth. He taught Cruise to read. Holmes asks how loyal Cruise will be when the option to get a reduced sentence comes up if he gives up his son.

“Will he visit you in prison?”

Gregson goes to the prison, pulling the trophy shoes from an evidence box. Sean had told them where to find them, the missing evidence. Cruise screams he was framed, and gets pulled from the room.

At home, Holmes stares into the fire. Watson comes in and tells him goodnight.

“She died.”

She stops. “Irene?”

“We were quite close. I did not take her passing well. Goodnight.”