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You make an effort to appear conventional, but I know, Watson, you share my love of all that is bizarre and outside the humdrum routine of ordinary life.

— Holmes

The Leviathan is the tenth episode of Elementary's first season and the 10th episode overall.

Synopsis[]

Holmes is called in to investigate when a supposedly uncrackable bank vault called "The Leviathan" is breached. Meanwhile, Watson is pleasantly surprised when Holmes meets her family and defends her choice to become a sober companion.

Plot[]

A group of masked thieves are seen breaking into a vault and robbing it of jewelery. As Watson prepares for her morning jog, the doorbell rings. Going to answer it, she meets a half-dressed woman and then turning the corner, she runs into another woman who looks just like the first. Holmes emerges from his bedroom and starts to explain the relationship he has with twins Gwen and Olivia Lynch which Watson is not interested in hearing. The caller is Micah Erlich, head of Casterly Rock Security whose supposedly impregnable bank vault, "The Leviathan" was breached a year before. The four brilliant criminals were all caught and jailed but Erlich tells Holmes the vault at the Svalbard Diamond Exchange was robbed the night before. He'd like Holmes to quietly find out how the vault was breached and if the four jailed criminals had another member who wasn't caught.

Holmes is confident he can complete the job in a few hours. He meets the floor manager, David Batonvert, but after examining the scene and testing for flaws, he admits he'll need more time. Watson arrives and after working through the night, Holmes wakes Watson at 2:00am. She accuses him of obsessive behaviour and points out she needs to leave to prepare for brunch with her mother. Holmes agrees but smashes the vault's panel with an axe on his way out. At the Brownstone, Holmes studies details of the first heist and concludes that one of the members sold the secret. Watson meets her mother for brunch who informs her that her brother Oren and his girlfriend are in town and they'll be having dinner that evening. Joan reminds her mother that she can't come while working as a companion. Mary decries Joan's job but she's interrupted by a call from Holmes asking her to meet him at Sing Sing.

S01E10-Pieta found

"I give you Van Gogh's Pieta."

They meet Charles Briggs, who was the locksmith on the heist. He indicates that each team member was segregated and only the heist's mastermind, Carter Averill, knew the secret but he died in prison. Before Averill died, he was offered money for the secret by a man only known as "Le Chevalier" who is rumored to have stolen many priceless items. Outside, Watson believes Briggs is lying but Holmes examines Le Chevalier's career and believes he is Peter Kent. Kent is art patron who was present when Van Gogh's "Pieta" was stolen after its unveiling at a museum. Holmes and Watson visit Kent's upscale home and while waiting for him, they admire the expensive paintings. A cheap print of Pieta seems out of place and following a hunch, Holmes cuts into the print and finds the real Pieta underneath. Kent's son arrives and Holmes accuses his father of being Le Chevalier and of robbing the Svalbard's. He denies knowing anything and shows him Peter Kent, who is paralyzed from a stroke he suffered years before.

They leave with Kent's stolen items which Holmes convinces Watson they should give to the police without revealing who stole them. Watson foresees them having to explain this in court which gives Holmes an idea, Averill was tried in court and the proceedings may hold a clue. At the 11th Precinct, they give the items to Captain Gregson who knows they were looking into Le Chevalier but doesn't ask further. Holmes leaves with Pieta in a tube which he lies to Gregson is just something he picked up for his place. At the Brownstone, Watson is appalled to see Holmes hanging Pieta but he insists he's only borrowing it to inspire himself. Watson receives a call from Oren who is excited to see her and her client at dinner. Watson didn't send the text but says they'll be there and then turns on Holmes. He confesses how easy it was to break into her phone and says he feels a relapse coming on which forces Watson to be with him.

The next morning, Holmes wakes Watson and gives her a timetable to get ready so they can examine a piece of evidence from Averill's trial. The evidence is a coffee order with the heist member's names on it. What attracted Holmes' attention though is that the jury asked to see it three times and there is a sequence of random characters on the back. Holmes recognizes the characters as Malboge, an obscure programming language. He also discovers one of the jurors, Justin Guthrie, was a software engineer. On their way to Guthrie's, Holmes receives a text from a contact in London who translated the Malboge as the formula for pi. Holmes deduces the Leviathan uses sequences of pi for its access code. Once known, the vault can be cracked. Arriving at Guthrie's, a police officer informs them Guthrie is dead, having jumped out his window.

When Gregson and Detective Bell arrive, Holmes points out a spot of blood on the floor and three glass vases partly filled with multicolored decorative rocks. He empties one, and picks out an uncut diamond. Guthrie was part of the team that robbed Svelbard's and it appears he was killed and his cut of diamonds were taken. Watson reminds Holmes of their dinner but he begs off to work on the case which Watson agrees to, relieved. Watson arrives at the restaurant and is surprised to find Holmes already there. He's been regaling her family with stories of how Joan helped him on various cases and that she's a promising detective. He also lauds her work as a sober companion which impresses Mary. In a taxi on their way home, Watson thanks Holmes for making her family understand what she does. Holmes browses through Guthrie's phone (which he lifted from the crime scene) and finds the names of three other jurors.

S01E10-Holmes w heist pics

"One of them is killing the others to keep the proceeds."

At 3:00 am, that morning, Holmes wakes Watson by blasting music. He explains he's solved the case and has identified the heist members who were all on Averill's jury including the sister of Svalbard's floor manager, David Batonvert. Each had the skills required but it wasn't until Guthrie decoded the Malboge that they decided to form a new heist team. All that remains is finding which of the remaining three killed Guthrie. The entire jury is called to the precinct but one, Alex Wilson, doesn't show. Holmes sees Jermey Lopez has a bruised face and is large enough to have thrown Guthrie out the window but is surprised when Lopez agrees to provide a DNA sample as do the other jurors. Bell reports they've found Wilson's address but when they arrive at the scene, Holmes finds Wilson's body under his stairs. Wilson's been dead for days so he couldn't have killed Guthrie.

Returning to the precinct, a DNA match for the blood from Guthrie's apartment has been found, an Army Chaplain named Audrey Higuera. Holmes is baffled as she doesn't appear to have any connection with the case. A search of Higuera's home reveals she's serving in Afghanistan, and volunteers for numerous charities. Watson finds she was a bone marrow donor which intrigues Holmes who asks Gregson to bring Lopez back to the precinct. In "the box", Gregson asks Lopez to provide a blood sample which he refuses. Holmes asks Lopez if he had leukemia and tells him that those that receive bone marrow transplants will produce DNA of their donors, in Lopez's case, the DNA of Higuera. Lopez knew his saliva sample wouldn't match the blood DNA found at Guthrie's murder scene. Lopez starts to leave but Gregson shows him a court order for his blood and suggests that if he gives information leading to the arrest of the remaining heist member, he may get parole before he dies.

S01E10-Mary at Brownstone

"Yes okay, I enjoy it. But I'm not a detective, Mom."

That evening, Watson pours champagne down the drain, a gift from Casterly Rock. The doorbell rings and Holmes lets Mary Watson in. Speaking in private with Joan, Mary says that she has never made a secret of her disapproval of Joan's new career but she noticed a spark in Joan that she hasn't seen since her days as a surgeon. She suggests that Joan likes what Holmes does but she Joan demurs. Mary asks if continuing as a sober companion will make her happy and points out that people find their path in all sorts of ways. Before she can reply, Holmes walks in and turns on the TV, saying he knows they will want to see what's on. The news reports the "anonymous" return of Van Gogh's masterpiece Pieta to the Aster Museum. Joan smiles knowingly at Holmes.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Guest cast[]

Music[]

Main article: List of songs

Quotes[]

She practices quite a unique specialty, your daughter. She rebuilds lives from the ground up. You can measure her success in careers restored. In my case, criminals caught and in lives saved.

— Holmes about Watson to her family

Trivia[]

  • Gwen is wearing Holmes' t-shirt that he was wearing when he first met Watson.[1]
  • The company that made The Leviathan is called Casterly Rock Security. This is a reference to the TV show and book series Game of Thrones.
  • Holmes' quote, "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth," first appeared in Conan Doyle's The Sign of the Four. Part of it is used as the title of the sixth season's twenty-first episode, "Whatever Remains, However Improbable."
  • The scene with Joan and Mary Watson was shot at Red Chopstick in Flushing, Queens, New York.[2]
  • The Malbolge language in the episode is almost the real thing. The message on the coffee order is nearly the same code written in the Hello World! program on the Wikipedia article on Malbolge.
  • Joan's brother is named Oren as a homage to Lucy Lui's character in Kill Bill, named O-Ren Ishii.[3]
  • Over dinner, Oren makes reference to the CIO of Canon Ebersole who had a secretary who killed five people.[4]
  • As Holmes plays the piano, his hands are naked but when he stops, he's wearing gloves.

Gallery[]

In other languages[]

References[]

  1. Season 1, episode 1: "Pilot"
  2. Elementary Writers (@ELEMENTARStaff). "This scene with Joan's mother was shot at Red Chopstick in Flushing, NY." December 14, 2012.
  3. Elementary Writers (@ELEMENTARStaff). "Inadvertent homage to Lucy's character in Kill Bill, O-Ren Ishii?!" December 14, 2012.
  4. Season 1, episode 4: "Rat Race"
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