‘Elementary’ episode 3 review: Sherlock Holmes meets his match

It’s been two weeks since we have seen a new episode of “Elementary,” and for a new series, this actually is a rather long wait. The good news? This was the strongest episode of the series to date, and it showed that the writers have a knack for giving us some mysteries that we do not see completely coming … even if the fact that a mystery is “solved” fifteen minutes early still tells us that there still is more to come.

The basic premise of this case was pretty simple, as Holmes and Watson were investigating a series of abductions from a character known as the “Balloon Man,” who has become a sort of serial kidnapper over the course of several years. For much of the investigation, it seemed pretty cut-and-dry for a Holmes case; there were some keen observations, some humor, and a classic case of the TV police looking like bumbling idiots.

However, what happened next is what made this episode fantastic: the real culprit here was a young man named Adam, who just so happened to also be the original one of the kidnapper’s victims. In him, we had Holmes’ first real adversary of the series: a character who was equally intelligent to Holmes, and was able to use his powers for evil rather than good. The scenes with the two characters near the episode’s end were great, as Holmes had to figure out a way to have a man arrested who had previously been handed immunity. We do like that justice was ultimately served, but at the same time we wish that there was a longer arc here for the character, mostly because this show is clearly at its best when Holmes has a serious adversary rather than just a killer-of-the-week.

What did you think about this episode as a whole?