A Short(ish) Review of Elementary 3x12 "The One That Got Away"
As usual, many missed opportunities.
The good: The final moment between Kitty and Sherlock was, of course, very sweet and well-acted; the Carolina Herrera gown and Ms. Liu in it; the Gruner vs. Joan scene.
The bad:
The story was pretty much over in the first scene. I was expecting many more twists and turns and definitely more suspense and tension.
Plus, there was no surprise at all to the flashbacks -- they met, they started training together. We already knew this. We STILL don't know why the hell Kitty was investigating a missing child case on her own, or what their investigation in London of Gruner turned up. THAT'S what I wanted to see. Missed opportunity.
Wish Joan had more of a plan in terms of going to the party. That she had to somehow pickpocket some piece of evidence off him or whatever, instead of just showing up to rattle him.
And shouldn't/couldn't they have found some secret dungeon in Gruner's fancy apt.? I needed to see more visual evidence of these horrific crimes, and why he might've chosen to brand women with that particular symbol, which was never explained, besides it being Leda's logo and besides Sherlock just explaining, "he's a narcissist."
They should've set up Joan/Gruner's relationship in prior episodes so his betrayal would've had more of an emotional impact on her.
The ugly:
I'm sorry, but wouldn't pouring the body-dissolving solution onto Gruner's head have killed him? Kitty would have had no control over whether he lived or died at that point, so it didn't REALLY seem like she had so grandly spared his life to avoid a murder charge.
This is the second episode concerning a major adversary of Sherlock's in which they used the adopted child trope. That whole plotline was a missed opportunity. They should've gone back to the Croatian woman from Part 1 and showed her a picture of Del. To plant those items, he probably would've availed himself of a "date" with one of those sex slaves, so she might've seen him, been able to lay a trap.
I would've liked to have seen the abduction scene where Kitty and Del go mano a mano. He should've gotten the upper hand on her physically at one point, and she has to fight back and win. (And come to think of it, how did she transport him to that warehouse location? The grocery cart?) A LOT of the good stuff in Elementary happens off-screen.
There definitely should've been a good-bye scene between Joan and Kitty.
So many missed opportunities.
The solution:
There is so little emotion in these scripts. Hire some women writers.