'Elementary' Season 1, Episode 8: 'The Long Fuse' Recap

Holmes is watching multiple televisions, working his memory, when Watson walks in. She makes him turn them off so they can continue their conversation from the previous night. She wants to get serious about finding a sponsor—he will only have her for a few more weeks.

She has someone who might be a good fit, and she suggests they meet him for coffee. Holmes resists the idea, but she makes him agree to go.

At a web design company, young people are skateboarding or playing basketball, etc. They hear a strange ringing from inside the air vent, and assume it is a phone someone managed to lose in there. It is not—the bomb explodes.

Holmes and Gregson investigate. Two people were killed. Watson looks around at the destruction, and Holmes tells her she probably won’t miss it. She agrees.

He bends and finds packing paper from the pipe bomb. He finds a motherboard from a pager, not a computer and ponders why it is there. Was it part of the bomb? He gives it to Gregson to trace the account.

Watson, while they wait for information, takes Holmes to meet his potential sponsor, Adrian. Holmes refuses to shake his hand, and Watson excuses herself so they can chat. Holmes throws some hypothetical questions at him. Apparently his answers are not satisfying, because Holmes walks out.

Watson follows, annoyed. She tells him they can look for other candidates, but he needs a sponsor before she leaves. They get a call from Gregson, confirming that the motherboard was part of the bomb. There was no account for the pager, but a number called it three times before the bomb went off.

They traced it to a man named Jacobs who just spent six years in jail. Holmes goes to the station to see him. The man insists he was calling to get a deli, but dialed the wrong number, off by one digit. Holmes notes that his watch is slow and fly down, and building a bomb requires a serious attention to detail. Watson reminds him of the Unibomber.

Holmes goes to speak with the bomb squad man, noting that the battery was over four years old. Strange that an old battery would be used. He puts together the remaining pieces of newspaper that was used as packing paper, and notices it was four years old as well. The bomb was supposed to go off in 2008.

Holmes does some background research on the company, which designs websites for corporations and sees that they moved into the space four years ago.

He and Watson speak to the firm that vacated in 2008, who are confused about why this would have been aimed at them. Holmes suggests that the bomb didn’t detonate four years ago because there was no cell service at the time—but a tower was built in 2010. The CFO and founder, Mrs. Van Owen, suggest an eco-terrorist group might have been targeting them for the clients they protected.

Watson drags Holmes to a meeting, but he is more interested in reading over the threats from the eco-terrorist group. He suggests it was only one man posing as a group.

They listen to a man, Alfredo, talking about being the best car thief around. Holmes says he wants him as his sponsor.

At home, Holmes struggles over re-used words in the letters. Watson asks him why he is interested in Alfredo but he doesn’t answer other than to suggest he sees more than average people.

He remembers where he heard the phrase, and goes to stare at the empty televisions, trying to place it. He recalls it was on a show about Whaling in the Pacific Ocean. He looks it up and hears the same phrase used in the letters by a man arguing on the television.

They bring him in. Holmes comes in as the man denies any involvement, with the button the man pressed on the elevator that matches one from an old bomb in connection with the group. He admits he bombed a lumber mill and wrote the letters, but never followed up on them.

On the roof, Holmes experiments to identify the bomb’s composition. He attempts to replicate the burn pattern and scent they found, by arming tennis balls as tiny bombs. Holmes believes if the man had set the bomb he would have used environmental-friendly nitrates, which would smell. They didn’t smell anything like that. He is sure he didn’t set the bomb, but not sure who did.

Holmes tries piecing together the remnants of the newspaper left behind by the bomb. He finds strange indentations on the top of the paper—someone write over it, the word “Novocain.” He asks Gregson to get the personal files from the employees of the firm, suggesting a disgruntled employee. Gregson says no.

Watson and Alfredo are awaiting Holmes, who hasn’t shown for coffee on time. She gets a text that he needs to reschedule. Alfredo tells her to be patient with him. He has never been a sponsor before, but he had a good one and has wanted to be one for a long time. He believes he can help Holmes.

Holmes goes to the old firm, where they let him look over the old files. Van Owen notices he is a fellow addict—crosswords. She sits and talks to him, and he asks if she wants sex because she is flirting—he would need to schedule an appointment for that. Watson interrupts and she hurries out.

He goes in with a file of the Associative Creative Director, Pardeep, who was written up for engaging in a shouting match with the CFO. Van Owen says he disappeared. The CFO says the man wasn’t happy; he became arrogant and wanted more power. When he wanted his fourth raise in eighteen months and was turned down, he told the CFO he would be sorry. He worked another week and disappeared.

They go to see Pardeep's wife, and she insists he is dead. She says he never would have run away from her. She suggests he was murdered, since he was never found. Holmes looks around as she speaks, and asks if she had any work done in the room since her husband left. He asks to see the backyard, but lingers behind. When they go outside he moves a shelf and removes pictures from the wall, running his hand over it.

Outside, Watson and the woman chat, when Holmes comes out. He excuses himself and Watson. He tells her that the husband is dead and has been for a time. He noticed from a picture that the wall frames had been moved. Someone had opened the wall, and fixed the wall, hanging the pictures very near their original location, but somewhat off. There is a bubble in the wall as well… from the man’s decomposing body. Watson asks if he is sure, and he says he is pretty confident… probably because he tore the wall apart, and found the body while the ladies lingered in the garden.

The wife was out of town the week Pardeep was murdered. Holmes finds an old photo of Padeep online, and notes his desk happened to be right next to the air vent. Was he the target? It seems clear.

Bell comes in and confirms Pardeep was shot before hidden in the wall. A safety deposit box key was found on his mummified body. They go to the bank and open the box, which contains a “Cheech and Chong” movie. Holmes sees that the VHS tape has been taped over.

They go to Holmes’ house, where has a VCR. As Bell steps out, Watson tries to talk about Alfredo with him. Holmes says the spark is gone with him, they need to find someone else. Watson thinks he is suffering from separation anxiety about her leaving and trying to postpone it. Bell comes back in, stopping the argument, and they start the tape.

It is an old video. Pardeep has a camera hidden in a hotel, as a high-end prostitute comes in—only when she turns, it is the woman from the company, Mrs. Van Owen.

They bring her in, and show her the old video. Holmes says he looked into her past. She built a new, successful life for herself—until Pardeep got a job there, and finally figured out she was one of the prostitutes he had consorted with long ago.

Holmes suggests the promotions were to keep him quiet, but she insists he earned them. Holmes suggests his demands got too heavy, and she killed him. Her father was a drywaller, and she probably knew how to wall him up. Then they moved locations, to avoid the bomb in the wall.

Holmes reminds her of her love of crosswords, and the word “Novocain” imprinted on the paper—the clue to a crossword from that newspaper that day four years ago.

The bell at Holmes’ house rings. It is Alfredo, who now works for car companies testing how easy they are to steal. He has a fancy new car with him, not on the market yet, and asks Holmes if he wants to try to pick the lock to help them test it. Watson pushes it, and he hesitates, tempted to break the security system.

She assures him she will make sure he is ready when the time comes for her to leave. He says if he helps Alfredo, it doesn’t mean he’s accepting him as a sponsor.

Insisting he is self-sufficient, he goes to try and figure out how to break into the car.